Coronavirus - general, non tennis related

indiana · Tennis legend

Coronavirus - general, non tennis related

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
52,009 reported new UK cases today.

Just going up and up with this laissez-faire failing UK government.

Yes, with the vaccine roll-out there is nothing like the previous consequences. But deaths are rising a bit again. And the ongoing big absence consequences do no help to the ecomomy or education in this country or help out our hospitals. MASKS where some real danger of spread, such as on public transport and in shops, please folk!!! If our leaders won't lead let us all try and do our own bit to help against covid and prevent our international reputation for competence falling yet further.
Sorry for sermonising a bit but I get so angry and frustrated, particularly with Boris and co, Jacob Rees-Moggs latest being that Tory MPs have no need to wear masks in the Commons chamber because they know each other so well given the convivial fraternal spirit that exists in their party and are following government guidelines.

On a week to week basis Scotland's new case numbers are nothing to write home about but from being over twice as high as the UK as a whole 6 weeks ago are now about a quarter lower than the UK as a whole.

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 21st of October 2021 06:20:46 PM

When we took our daughter up to uni the other week and spent a weekend in Edinburgh, we noticed a completely different attitude. In Shops, hotel, restaurants everyone kept their masks on , very disciplined. we went and did a big shop with her in m and s food store and Id say 99 per cent had masks on. Ive literally just been to our local m and s here. Id say 5 percent, maybe 10 percent max had masks on.

paulisi · Tennis legend

That's because it's still the law in Scotland to wear masks Indoors in public places

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

paulisi wrote:
That's because it's still the law in Scotland to wear masks Indoors in public places

yeah, I realised that watching question time last night, still I think it is effective and being followed whereas here, there is effectively a free for all.

The downside is all lectures are all online in Scotland still which is not the real teaching and learning experience students need and hopefully that can change soon

Elegant Point · Satellite level

The government needs to act now as Corona cases rise and fears grow that vaccine immunity levels are starting to wane among the most vulnerable. There seems to be a lot of confusion over the roll out of booster vaccines.

Sage has met just three times since July because there is lessened demand from ministers for scientific advice hmm

Cant help worrying that there will be a 4th wave this winter.If the government wont do anything, people need to act for themselves and protect each other. Wearing masks (seems to be few people actually doing this in shops and on public transport), working from home where possible, regular testing (many people are asymptotic) and getting vaccinated/booster shots

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/covid-uk-plan-b-restrictions-b1943466.html

Strongbow · All-time great

I think that a major part of the problem is that there is no effective opposition at present so Boris and his chums can do whatever they want.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Strongbow wrote:
I think that a major part of the problem is that there is no effective opposition at present so Boris and his chums can do whatever they want.

I couldn't agree more.

I had SUCH high hopes for Keir - irrelevant as to whether I would have voted Labour or not (not sure) but simply to provide a proper opposition, as you say, after the Corbyn nightmare.

And yet he is AWOL, invisible, utterly not at the races, or so it seems to me.

And so, yes, Boris looks at the polls (as he always does) and says no worries, let's just carry on...

Re the Scotland comment, well done to them, and shows the law works, no? The crying shame about masks etc is that no one likes them BUT you had just about got the country accepting them and wearing them. That was hard work and should have been banked. But they let it all go because a couple of people said some guff about 'liberties'....

Minister Keegan said yesterday she wasn't wearing one because it's not 'comfortable' wearing a mask - and this is supposed to be the British bulldog backbone that got us through the war and all that ! She's not comfortable, oh dear .....

And 'we're not a country that tells people what to wear'. Pardon? Motorbike helmets?

When I look at countries that I currently know well (about 4 different ones, from being there and from family members there), mask wearing seems to be the clearest difference.

Some, like France, are identical in every way as a profile, except for masks and vaccine passes.

Some, like Japan, had less vaccinated people, only have the Delta variant, are very densely populated, are back at work, and bars etc are open (pretty much).

And according to the Reuters covid tracker

Japan: 2 infections per 100k people.

France: 50 infections per 100k people

UK: 479 infections per 100k people

And nothing to do with amount of tests, the positivity rates are just scary......

Elegant Point · Satellite level

Coup Droit wrote:
Strongbow wrote:
I think that a major part of the problem is that there is no effective opposition at present so Boris and his chums can do whatever they want.
I couldn't agree more.
I had SUCH high hopes for Keir - irrelevant as to whether I would have voted Labour or not (not sure) but simply to provide a proper opposition, as you say, after the Corbyn nightmare.
And yet he is AWOL, invisible, utterly not at the races, or so it seems to me.

Also thought Kier could be a good replacement for Jeremy Marmite Corbin. A grammar school boy from a normal background, he probably has a far greater understanding of every day peeps than the Tory posh boys. However he was thought to be ineffective in his shadow cabinet role and is very ineffective as a leader. Just pops up occasionally to rubbish what the government are doing without having any suggestions of his own. Constructive criticism and alternatives are whats required!

paulisi · Tennis legend

There are a couple of leading think tanks saying the positive tests have peaked and will drop down quite quickly to around 5k.
Increased vaccines for 12-15 Yr olds, booster jabs and a lot of people have built immunity recently having contracted the virus.

indiana · Tennis legend

paulisi wrote:
There are a couple of leading think tanks saying the positive tests have peaked and will drop down quite quickly to around 5k.
Increased vaccines for 12-15 Yr olds, booster jabs and a lot of people have built immunity recently having contracted the virus.

Hmm, I must admit that I'd be rather surprised if there was much real downturn at all this side of the new year in the current generally over 40,000 a day UK reported new cases.

Seems remarkably optimistic coming into winter and on into the festive season.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Half term weekend - positive lateral tests down by 1/3 on last week

Elegant Point · Satellite level

Triple vaccinated holiday makers test positive for Corona

Friends of a friend who have just returned from holiday in Europe tested positive for Corona on return, despite having 2 doses of vaccine plus booster shots a couple of weeks before travel hmm They have limited symptoms and arent sure whether picked it up in the resort or at the airports.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Elegant Point wrote:
Triple vaccinated holiday makers test positive for Corona
Friends of a friend who have just returned from holiday in Europe tested positive for Corona on return, despite having 2 doses of vaccine plus booster shots a couple of weeks before travel They have limited symptoms and arent sure whether picked it up in the resort or at the airports.

The vaccine just triggers a immune response. The success rate is not 100%, so you can still get infected, but the chances of severe illness are significantly reduced.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Yep, far less hospitalisations, AND it significantly reduces the risk of infection too.

The data from Israel, now published in the New England Medical Journal, showed that after having given about 1 million booster shots to people age 60+, that cohort were now about 11x less likely to become infected.

But it's never going to be zero.

Other vaccines aren't either. The HIB vaccine produces antibodies in over 95% of people. But not all. Diptheria is about 97%.

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Thursday 28th of October 2021 03:04:55 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

With the UK average daily reported new cases numbers having risen to over 40,000 a day and maintaining above that point for now, the number of reported deaths in the week to Friday 29/10 was 1066, the first time over 1000 in a week to Friday since March.

Now the vaccines have clearly hugely changed the chances of a case becoming very serious and particularly causing death but for now the sheer amount of new cases has caused the number of deaths to move upwards again over the last few weeks. While we had over 8000 deaths in a week at the peak for deaths this is not quite what we want to see nor our hospitals having to deal with a greater number of serious covid cases again.

Wear ruddy masks!