Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[Humberto]

Variant, shvariant.
The only variable about which we can be reasonably certain is vaccination.
With most of the world's 8 billion inhabitants unvaccinated and this disease able to mutate, (re)infect and spread asymptomatically this is a long way from over ...

In terms of cost, it could be done for a relative pittance.

 

[xenon]

dunno about that - there's a fair amount of catatrophising on the thread (and elsewhere) - while it's understandable how people have got that way it's also something that needs challenging from time to time.

^This.

As been said already, this place, thread in particular is way at odds with the conversations IRL i hear.

I don't think jumping on a poster who proffers something other than dire prognistications in good faith should be jumped on. But Spandex post hits the nail on the head as to why that may be.

 

[_Russ_]

On other fora, a fair proportion deny the existence of the virus - or even that viruses per se are a thing.

We only have your word for that ...

 

[gentlegreen]

We only have your word for that ...

Crazily a New Zealand Paltalk chatter reappeared a month or two ago after a long break and claimed she'd found that her ANTI-vax views were unwelcome on Paltalk - I reckon she's either on drugs or psychotic - neither of which are uncommon on Paltalk.

 

[Wilf]

there's also been a fair amount of anger at the government that more restrictions haven't been brought in and a wide expectation that hospitals are about to be overwhelmed - which might still happen, but you can be sure it'll all be memory-holed if it doesn't.

I don't think it's either/or. If it turns out schools, hospitals, trains and the like are not overwhelmed it doesn't meant the government got it right. Particularly after their experience of the last 2 waves, they should have applied more precautionary measures and acted earlier. Just to take one example, we should all have been wearing masks in shops for weeks. That links to another area of failure, the culture the government have generated around Covid compliance. All their fucking about, Barnard Castleing and the rest has worked against the idea of sensible, virtually cost free universal/permanent measures like mask wearing (social distancing too, though I recognise that has consequences for places like restaurants).

 

[killer b]

I don't think it's either/or.

it is either/or in the context we're talking about it now though, ie whether there are people on the thread making dire predictions of what's coming up. they are/have been doing that.

 

[Wilf]

^This.

As been said already, this place, thread in particular is way at odds with the conversations IRL i hear.

I don't think jumping on a poster who proffers something other than dire prognistications in good faith should be jumped on. But Spandex post hits the nail on the head as to why that may be.

True.

 

[wtfftw]

 

[Wilf]

it is either/or in the context we're talking about it now though, ie whether there are people on the thread making dire predictions of what's coming up. they are/have been doing that.

My either/or was aimed at what you said about anger against government.

 

[pbsmooth]

I'm acting in good faith and as lefty liberal ponce as you can get (just about) so apologies if I've inadvertently used language which suggests otherwise. I guess it might be the flu comparison, which I get and wouldn't have made back in 2020, but like it or not death levels are currently similar. Not sure why that can't be pointed out.

 

[gentlegreen]

I'm acting in good faith and as lefty liberal ponce as you can get (just about) so apologies if I've inadvertently used language which suggests otherwise. I guess it might be the flu comparison, which I get and wouldn't have made back in 2020, but like it or not death levels are currently similar. Not sure why that can't be pointed out.

VACCINATION

 

[bimble]

VACCINATION

what? How is that a reply to the thing you quoted?

i suspect the reason you can't mention flu without howls of disapproval is because every single thing about this virus has become so politicised and entrenched that very few conversations are actually possible anymore. Which is pretty terrible imo.

 

[gentlegreen]

OK - depending on what they mean - vaccination against covid and if flu deaths are up, people dropping their guard on the mask issue.

 

[existentialist]

I guess it makes sense: the only people who really bother with this thread are the doom mongers. And so people like me who are triple vaxxed, wear a mask, have been minimising social interaction to almost nothing, testing when visiting people, but then express the idea - as put out by scientists in the media - that there is some end in sight, which yes, includes living with the virus killing people, are then seen as heartless crazy Tory Gov spokesmen. Bit silly really.

You lost me at the tabloid stereotype of "doom mongers".

 

[teuchter]

This thread is not predominantly doom-mongering but there's certainly a bit of it going around.

 

[chilango]

I don't think there's anywhere near enough doom mongering to be quite honest.

 

[Doctor Carrot]

You lost me at the tabloid stereotype of "doom mongers".

This. Everything is so fucking binary and it's incredibly tedious. If you actually read the scientists who have been more or less correct about everything so far and actually read SAGE's scenarios and therefore have cause to question the government's stance, you're a doom monger who loves lockdowns. If you don't do that, like most people I guess, you're seen as sticking your fingers in your ears and pretending the pandemic isn't happening. There's a massive fuck off scale between those two positions.

I don't think I'll ever understand it though. Presumably, people think that those advocating for seatbelts in cars are just scaremongering about car crashes.

 

[LDC]

This thread is not predominantly doom-mongering but there's certainly a bit of it going around.

Given the mess we've been in for 2 years, the fact we've had 170,000 or so dead (and counting, and not to mention 5 million + across the world) and that every time you look back the miserablist 'doom mongers' have been much nearer being right than the optimists, I'd tend towards to being softer on the 'doom mongers' tbh.


Also given that the 170,000 dead have been overwhelmingly from already poor and vulnerable and fucked over demographics it's also pretty annoying when people not from those demographics moan about how we never needed any restrictions.

 

[two sheds]

We've only really just started finding out that Omicron isn't as damaging as the other variants haven't we?

The speed of infection means that we should have been adopting precautionary principle which, as far as I can see, is what has been recommended on urban.

And again, the effect on the NHS is critical. We can't just forget the overwork of nurses and doctors, and the effect that's had on other waiting lists.

 

[l'Otters]

what? How is that a reply to the thing you quoted?

i suspect the reason you can't mention flu without howls of disapproval is because every single thing about this virus has become so politicised and entrenched that very few conversations are actually possible anymore. Which is pretty terrible imo.

It’s all anyone talks about on every online platform. There’s an entire subforum here, loads of threads, loads of them active.

 

[chilango]

Yeah LynnDoyleCooper what about the other side of the argument? Huh? The positives of 170,000 dead huh?

 

[chilango]

You'd think Covid was some racist old white dude we were trying 'cancel' or 'no platform' rather than a deadly fucking virus the way some carry on...

 

[bimble]

It’s all anyone talks about on every online platform. There’s an entire subforum here, loads of threads, loads of them active.

i should have been more specific. Of course people talk about it, endlessly, here and irl and everywhere, but i meant something like actual conversations, like where there's a possibility of people changing their views not just retreating further into entrenched over-simple positions.

 

[Red Cat]

It’s all anyone talks about on every online platform. There’s an entire subforum here, loads of threads, loads of them active.

There's a lot of talking at, that's for sure.

 

[gentlegreen]

i should have been more specific. Of course people talk about it, endlessly, here and irl and everywhere, but i meant something like actual conversations, like where there's a possibility of people changing their views not just retreating further into entrenched over-simple positions.

creation vs evolution ?
etc...

 

[two sheds]

Must say all my conversations with people in the hamlet I live in (we're all fairly well wrinklies) haven't been at odds at all with the received wisdom on urban.

 

[Steel Icarus]

i should have been more specific. Of course people talk about it, endlessly, here and irl and everywhere, but i meant something like actual conversations, like where there's a possibility of people changing their views not just retreating further into entrenched over-simple positions.

 

[LDC]

Yeah LynnDoyleCooper what about the other side of the argument? Huh? The positives of 170,000 dead huh?

Can you imagine if it had killed mostly white rich middle aged men like some kind of killer gout? We'd all be fucking locked up in cells being fed food through some hole so nobody else died, and the Tory party would be complaining the soft-hearted lefties prevented more restrictions.

 

[planetgeli]

Can you imagine if it had killed mostly white rich middle aged men like some kind of killer gout? We'd all be fucking locked up in cells being fed food through some hole so nobody else died.

Bang on

 

[magneze]

i should have been more specific. Of course people talk about it, endlessly, here and irl and everywhere, but i meant something like actual conversations, like where there's a possibility of people changing their views not just retreating further into entrenched over-simple positions.

I see that happening here tbf.