Generic Virus Thread

[bickster]

1 hour ago, snowychap said:

'I don't really care what a website says, we've been instructed to lot let people travel' (I assume that was meant to be not rather than lot) - would suggest a problem more than one individual's poor enforcement.

Same applies to the Merseyside Police action in Merseyside over the weekend. It was actually a planned joint operation with Liverpool Licensing Department (and seemingly Wolverhampton Licensing were "co-operating" too - whatever that means)

[choffer]

1 hour ago, snowychap said:

@choffer

 

Oh balls. That’s my plan for a quiet day alone ruined. 

 

Appreciate you posting the update, snowy. I’d read the whole govt doc this morning and was fairly sure it was allowed but it’s good to know I get to see the OH and the wean this week. I’m taking the back roads though, in case I run into an overzealous plod. 
 

 

[snowychap]

2 minutes ago, choffer said:

Oh balls. That’s my plan for a quiet day alone ruined. 

Appreciate you posting the update, snowy. I’d read the whole govt doc this morning and was fairly sure it was allowed but it’s good to know I get to see the OH and the wean this week. I’m taking the back roads though, in case I run into an overzealous plod.

No probs, happy to help.

Hope you have a good day and have your 4g working in case you have to reference Wagner's twitter or the relevant regs!

[mjmooney]

I feel very ambivalent about criticising those who 'bend' the rules, as - I've already admitted it earlier in this thread - we've been doing so in this family for several months, with the grandchild care. Yes, it's allowed, but in theory only for one other family - and we're doing it for two (with one of our daughters doing her WFH in our house). Put simply, they don't have the finances to do otherwise. 

[snowychap]

Not a fan of the Chinese State/CCP/their media bods but:

 

[bickster]

Just dwell on this one for a second

Quote

The French government has said that "all flows of people from the United Kingdom to France are suspended from midnight tonight, for 48 hours, and for all means of transport."

Manc Evening News but I guess you'll find that in a lot of outlets.

[TB]

2 hours ago, Genie said:

Re the new strain, is there any details about how it’s more transmissible? Is it a smaller particle and penetrating masks for example? Lives longer on surfaces?

Absolutely no scientist, but if I've understood what I've heard and read correctly, most of the mutations are in the spike proteins (those red bits in the common illustrations), enabling the virus to attach to and enter a human cell. The new strain seems to have a better glue.

Edited December 20, 2020 by TB
typo

[NurembergVillan]

 

[darrenm]

However, the Belgians aren't totally onboard about if the new strain is much different

 

 

[DCJonah]

I'm starting to think the worry over the new strain is a convenient way to cancel the Christmas relaxation of the rules without it being a massive embarrassing u turn. 

Read an interesting article in New Scientist that suggested none of the new evidence was terribly worrying or concerning and questioned if a health official should have announced it in the way they did. 

Edited December 21, 2020 by DCJonah

[darrenm]

Apparently the Germans have confirmed that the vaccines currently developed are effective against the new strain.

 

[snowychap]

26 minutes ago, darrenm said:

Apparently the Germans have confirmed that the vaccines currently developed are effective against the new strain.

 

Which vaccines?

[snowychap]

14 hours ago, sidcow said:

but now there is news of a new strain which is 70% more efficient at jumping from person to person

Quote

The chief medical officer for England, Chris Whitty, said the new variant discovered in the south-east could be up to 70% more transmissible and could increase the R value by 0.4 or more.

Could not is.

Grauniad.

[Morley_crosses_to_Withe]

13 hours ago, sidcow said:

As ever MJM has hit the nail on the head. 

It has become a very sterile reporting format.  Lots of facts, figures and graphs. 

They definitely need to get more under the skin.  Behind the scenes of what is going on inside hospitals. 

And probably even more damaging than people not knowing someone who has got very ill with it is knowing a coupe of people who HAVE had it but not been very ill - that will be a much bigger demographic people will have had direct communication with. 

Many many people still seem to think of it as not a big problem anymore. 

They need some very savvy social media marketing types on this as well. Unfortunately people with those kind of talents seem to work for the dark side than for the good. 

What!?!?!?

[LondonLax]

7 hours ago, darrenm said:

However, the Belgians aren't totally onboard about if the new strain is much different

 

 

It's a similar story from epidemiologists in Australia, there is a suggestion that it is just that Londoners have been socialising in the build up to Christmas rather than the virus actually being any different. 

Quote

Victoria’s deputy chief health officer, Prof Allen Cheng, said it was not clear whether the UK variant was truly more infectious. It could appear to be spreading faster for multiple reasons, he said.

“For example, it could be simply the strain that was involved in a super-spreading event, or spreading in a part of the country where restrictions are less strict or less adhered to,” Cheng said. “Higher viral loads could reflect detection earlier in the illness.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/21/australian-health-officials-cast-doubt-on-claim-new-uk-covid-strain-more-infectious

[V01]

Security department at the hospital offered the vaccine today, seems 50/50 on take up. Haven't decided myself, expected to be waiting for the Oxford vaccine. 

[sidcow]

1 hour ago, Morley_crosses_to_Withe said:

What!?!?!?

Lots more people who get it don't get particularly ill than those who do get seriously ill/die. 

Most peoples experience will be a mate or two who got it and weren't particularly ill. 

My point was in response to not enough people will have encountered somebody being seriously ill means they don't understand the danger of the disease. 

If a lot of people know someone who wasn't particularly bad it may actually reinforce an opinion that it's no big deal. 

[Genie]

15 minutes ago, V01 said:

Security department at the hospital offered the vaccine today, seems 50/50 on take up. Haven't decided myself, expected to be waiting for the Oxford vaccine. 

Why not?

Hundreds of people have developed, tested, checked and verified it to be safe.

 

[trekka]

14 hours ago, choffer said:

Oh balls. That’s my plan for a quiet day alone ruined. 

 

Appreciate you posting the update, snowy. I’d read the whole govt doc this morning and was fairly sure it was allowed but it’s good to know I get to see the OH and the wean this week. I’m taking the back roads though, in case I run into an overzealous plod. 
 

 

Same.  Living in Portsmouth it might be difficult (there is realistically only a motorway in / out) but I'll have the Gov guidelines website saved as one of my favourites on my phone just in case.  

[Stevo985]

On 19/12/2020 at 16:56, Mandy Lifeboats said:

Would London be in Tier 4 if it hadn't been put into Tier 2 for political reasons?  

 

How the hell is Boris still in power?  

 

This x a million.

As with pretty much everything they've done with this pandemic, the cost of delaying action is far worse than taking action sooner.

Everything is for a short term gain. Keep the economy going, try to save christmas blah blah blah. With absolutely no concern for the long term damage that does.

If the first lockdown had happened sooner it would have been shorter. Less damage done to the economy.
Same with the second lockdown.
Obsessed with keeping London open for as long as possible has now meant things are worse than ever there.

They're a complete and utter shambles.