Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[ToffeeTim]

You're presenting a false dilemma, either we do as we are doing now with practically zero restrictions on anything, or we eliminate the virus. That's not real.

It's not false at all. There will always be issues with covid as long as the virus is out there. I don't see any evidence it is going anywhere any time soon.

Do we have some form of restrictions forever? That's probably what is needed for your approach. I just don't think that is sustainable or responsible really.

Masks on public transport and supermarkets is about all I can see working long term. Everyone has to use these services so that seems reasonable.

 

[tsubaki]

Surely that would just lead to mega inflation, as you're essentially printing money to the tune of trillions ?

not if it’s done globally, and TBF most of it was governments / central banks printing money anyway

 

[mill]

Surely that would just lead to mega inflation, as you're essentially printing money to the tune of trillions ?

Printing money in itself won’t lead to inflation (aside from in asset prices).

 

[Brennan]

It's not false at all. There will always be issues with covid as long as the virus is out there. I don't see any evidence it is going anywhere any time soon.

Do we have some form of restrictions forever? That's probably what is needed for your approach. I just don't think that is sustainable or responsible really.

Masks on public transport and supermarkets is about all I can see working long term. Everyone has to use these services so that seems reasonable.

It is false lol

There are more options than 'eliminate covid' and crack on as we are now.

I am not advocating restrictions forever, I'm more focused on the next 6 months which are going to be a disaster for healthcare in this country.

 

[mill]

It's not false at all. There will always be issues with covid as long as the virus is out there. I don't see any evidence it is going anywhere any time soon.

Do we have some form of restrictions forever? That's probably what is needed for your approach. I just don't think that is sustainable or responsible really.

Masks on public transport and supermarkets is about all I can see working long term. Everyone has to use these services so that seems reasonable.

You’re forgetting that it’s a novel virus and so we haven’t built up sufficient immunity to the different variants. On the basis that viruses tend to mutate in similar ways, at some point we’ll have sufficient immunity to the different *types* of variants and it’ll be like the flu. You might get a nasty strain every now and then etc.

but that will just take time I think. At some point it’ll be booster shots every year for those that want it or those most vulnerable (as with the flu). But I don’t think we are there yet. The virus is just too dangerous atm and there isn’t sufficient immunity across society (for loads of reasons).

 

[tsubaki]

It is false lol

There are more options than 'eliminate covid' and crack on as we are now.

I am not advocating restrictions forever, I'm more focused on the next 6 months which are going to be a disaster for healthcare in this country.

if only the average human was as resilient as the “we will have to learn to live with this” theory

 

[grandjoeblue]

It is false lol

There are more options than 'eliminate covid' and crack on as we are now.

I am not advocating restrictions forever, I'm more focused on the next 6 months which are going to be a disaster for healthcare in this country.

Every winter moving forward will be horrendous. The government needs to start building additional hospital capacity and train more staff. How many of the 40 'new' hospitals have they started building?

Its also a good time to start letting nurse students and medicine students go to university for free. Give them grants etc. Any healthcare professionals who want to move here from abroad should be allowed immediate entry.

The NHS is at breaking point every winter and thats not acceptable.

I do think there will be heavier restrictions in the winter as the NHS cannot cope with an increase of even 10% of patients in the winter.

 

[grandjoeblue]

if only the average human was as resilient as the “we will have to learn to live with this” theory

Effective track and trace is surely the answer?

 

[mill]

Every winter moving forward will be horrendous. The government needs to start building additional hospital capacity and train more staff. How many of the 40 'new' hospitals have they started building?

Its also a good time to start letting nurse students and medicine students go to university for free. Give them grants etc. Any healthcare professionals who want to move here from abroad should be allowed immediate entry.

The NHS is at breaking point every winter and thats not acceptable.

I do think there will be heavier restrictions in the winter as the NHS cannot cope with an increase of even 10% of patients in the winter.

If only they hadn’t left the EU and exacerbated existing labour supply problems.

 

[tsubaki]

Every winter moving forward will be horrendous. The government needs to start building additional hospital capacity and train more staff. How many of the 40 'new' hospitals have they started building?

Its also a good time to start letting nurse students and medicine students go to university for free. Give them grants etc. Any healthcare professionals who want to move here from abroad should be allowed immediate entry.

The NHS is at breaking point every winter and thats not acceptable.

I do think there will be heavier restrictions in the winter as the NHS cannot cope with an increase of even 10% of patients in the winter.

This is all at the wrong side of things though - this, obesity, heart disease, alcoholism, pollution related respiratory complaints, some cancers and poverty related illnesses generally should all be telling us we have as a country get our public health response far better than it is.

The NHS might not need bundles of extra cash every year if the way many of us live was not causing hundreds of thousands/ millions of extra patients. Prevention is better than cure, as the saying goes.

 

[tsubaki]

Effective track and trace is surely the answer?

absolutely, and we know it works

 

[coollino]

Every winter moving forward will be horrendous. The government needs to start building additional hospital capacity and train more staff. How many of the 40 'new' hospitals have they started building?

Its also a good time to start letting nurse students and medicine students go to university for free. Give them grants etc. Any healthcare professionals who want to move here from abroad should be allowed immediate entry.

The NHS is at breaking point every winter and thats not acceptable.

I do think there will be heavier restrictions in the winter as the NHS cannot cope with an increase of even 10% of patients in the winter.

Yeah, I reckon it will be table service in pubs, advise WFH etc. May a few more local things if needed. I'd be surprised if it's much more than that.

Has COVID been mentioned by the government at all recently? i can't recall anything

 

[Brennan]

Every winter moving forward will be horrendous. The government needs to start building additional hospital capacity and train more staff. How many of the 40 'new' hospitals have they started building?

Its also a good time to start letting nurse students and medicine students go to university for free. Give them grants etc. Any healthcare professionals who want to move here from abroad should be allowed immediate entry.

The NHS is at breaking point every winter and thats not acceptable.

I do think there will be heavier restrictions in the winter as the NHS cannot cope with an increase of even 10% of patients in the winter.

Agreed...

 

[Brennan]

This is all at the wrong side of things though - this, obesity, heart disease, alcoholism l, pollution related respiratory complaints, some cancers and poverty related illnesses generally should all be telling us we have as a country get our public health response far better than it is.

The NHS might not need bundles of extra cash every year if the way many of us live was not causing hundreds of thousands/ millions of extra patients. Prevention is better than cure, as the saying goes.

There is a certain irony that we were all rushing out to pubs to drink poison after restrictions were lifted.

 

[grandjoeblue]

This is all at the wrong side of things though - this, obesity, heart disease, alcoholism, pollution related respiratory complaints, some cancers and poverty related illnesses generally should all be telling us we have as a country get our public health response far better than it is.

The NHS might not need bundles of extra cash every year if the way many of us live was not causing hundreds of thousands/ millions of extra patients. Prevention is better than cure, as the saying goes.

I agree with this as well obviously it would be great if everyone lived a bit healthier and exercised 30 minutes a day but thats hard to promote.

In the year 2000 we had 240,000 hospital beds, in 2018 it was down to 164,000. That reduction of nearly a third is a huge problem which is barely ever mentioned. If we had 30% more beds now that would help massively.