Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[chilango]

Is that a bad number? What would have been a good number? Also how many of those were acquired in school? I know the first bunch found in Scotland were not acquired in school. Same in England/Wales?

Any number above zero is "bad".

... appreciate your concern on the source, but I've yet to see any more "official" source tallying this aspect.

Schools, and soon Universities, are going to be a significant site for the increase in transmission we are seeing over the coming weeks. I think it's useful to be aware of how this unfolds.

 

[elbows]

Times journo on twitter says that thousands of swabs are getting thrown away due to errors in transportation and testing?

See this post on another thread: #23

 

[BlanketAddict]

And I think I quoted Hancock recently saying there was 'a problem with a couple of contracts'.

Might be one of those lab companies that also offer ferry services?!

 

[elbows]

This is worrying, infections in care homes are raising, although mainly amongst staff ATM, but as is inedible some more recent cases show residents also becoming infected.

Fears as coronavirus cases in care homes 'quadruple in a month'

The Government urged care bosses to 'take the necessary action to prevent and limit outbreaks', pointing out that in the last three days there had been an increase in coronavirus cases in care homes

www.mirror.co.uk

Yes unfortunately the percentage of positive tests has risen notably in the 85+ age group too.

This is from the weekly surveillance report:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/916993/Weekly_COVID19_Surveillance_Report_week_37_FINAL.pdf

Positivity rates have increased in all age groups and regions with a particularly steep increase in positivity seen in 85+ year olds tested through Pillar 2.

 

[elbows]

On that note I've gone on numerous times about how a large chunk of the pandemic deaths could be avoided with adequate hospital and care home infection control.

But I'm not convinced that I made a big enough deal about one aspect of that. People might be thinking that when we talk about this stuff there are a set of measures that can be taken which will fix the situation. Unfortunately thats only part of it, and even if we had done really well on that front by some point, it is really difficult to maintain those gains over time. Yes its another point which is really just stating the obvious, in this case that it becomes much harder to control infections in these settings when the level of infection rises notably in the general population.

I've not got a clear sense of how much things were actually improved with sustainable procedures etc, as opposed to being down to the options that opened up once the volume of cases fell below a certain level. So I dont know if we will do any better than we did in the first wave. If the scale of things reaches or exceeds previous level, I suppose I would expect us to do just as badly or worse.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Might be one of those lab companies that also offer ferry services?!

Eventually they will come together in a consortium with Pontin's and the people who do those shitty Winter Wonderlands, win all the biggest government contracts and we will all blow our minds

 

[existentialist]

Eventually they will come together in a consortium with Pontin's and the people who do those shitty Winter Wonderlands, win all the biggest government contracts and we will all blow our minds

Or our brains out.

 

[Celyn]

Eventually they will come together in a consortium with Pontin's and the people who do those shitty Winter Wonderlands, win all the biggest government contracts and we will all blow our minds

"Now it's all designed to blow our minds
But our minds won't really be blown
Like the blow that'll gitcha when you get your picture
On the cover of the Rollin' Stone".

 

[Celyn]

Or our brains out.

Small problem here. I don't know what guns cost and unless they are sold very cheaply in LIDL or Tesco I probably cannot afford one or know how to find one. I wonder whether we could all sort of crowdfund a communal Urban75 gun, brains for the blowing out of. We could take turns in using it. Draw straws to determine in which order people can have it, sort of thing. Oops, tricky to blow brains out THEN post to next user. Hmm.

Ah, easily sorted, arrange proper packaging and postage stamps and stuff, and leave a note telling next of kin to be sure to post gun on to next person in the queue. "Please feed the cat, cancel the Council Tax direct debit, but post this first".

 

[existentialist]

Small problem here. I don't know what guns cost and unless they are sold very cheaply in LIDL or Tesco I probably cannot afford one or know how to find one. I wonder whether we could all sort of crowdfund a communal Urban75 gun, brains for the blowing out of. We could take turns in using it. Draw straws to determine in which order people can have it, sort of thing. Oops, tricky to blow brains out THEN post to next user. Hmm.

Ah, easily sorted, arrange proper packaging and postage stamps and stuff, and leave a note telling next of kin to be sure to post gun on to next person in the queue. "Please feed the cat, cancel the Council Tax direct debit, but post this first".

That was dark!

 

[Celyn]

I'm sorry. I know this is a serious thread. But stet anyway.

 

[Celyn]

That was dark!

Oh no, was not! Not very dark. Just practical planning.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Was not expecting to see a (kids) fun fair this year so that was a surprise encounter on my walk this afternoon.

 

[Cloo]

My current, baseless prediction for UK. There will be something of a peak in October, shortly after widespread if not necessarily national lockdowns. Things will be getting back under control by December and The Sun etc will start lots of sickly sentimental campaigns about 'Please Boris, give us back our Christmas' so they will open lots of stuff up and ease restrictions then to 'raise morale'. Another peak then follows in early Feb after everyone goes and sees each other over Christmas.

 

[Artaxerxes]

My current, baseless prediction for UK. There will be something of a peak in October, shortly after widespread if not necessarily national lockdowns. Things will be getting back under control by December and The Sun etc will start lots of sickly sentimental campaigns about 'Please Boris, give us back our Christmas' so they will open lots of stuff up and ease restrictions then to 'raise moral'. Another peak then follows in early Feb after everyone goes and sees each other over Christmas.

I'm not risking my cash on that lot.

Oh god the Christmas adverts are going to be so fucking dire.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Small problem here. I don't know what guns cost and unless they are sold very cheaply in LIDL or Tesco I probably cannot afford one or know how to find one. I wonder whether we could all sort of crowdfund a communal Urban75 gun, brains for the blowing out of. We could take turns in using it. Draw straws to determine in which order people can have it, sort of thing. Oops, tricky to blow brains out THEN post to next user. Hmm.

Ah, easily sorted, arrange proper packaging and postage stamps and stuff, and leave a note telling next of kin to be sure to post gun on to next person in the queue. "Please feed the cat, cancel the Council Tax direct debit, but post this first".

Also: ICE BULLETS

 

[teuchter]

I'm quite hopeful that Christmas will simply be cancelled this year, and then there will finally be an upside to this pandemic.

 

[bimble]

Went to see my parents, thinking that now was the time if I wanted to be sure to get to do it this year. The short BA flight back last night was full of brits who felt they were too special to put their ducking masks over their noses. Most of them, maybe 70%, sat there noses hanging out. Then they bundled together at passport control as if you’ll get out quicker if you queue with no space between you. Absolutely nothing upon entering the country (Heathrow) just the electronic passport gates. Completely depressing the state of it.

 

[maomao]

I'm quite hopeful that Christmas will simply be cancelled this year, and then there will finally be an upside to this pandemic.

I'm actually looking forward to a relative free Christmas. No grandparents in the spare room; no schlepping across London to trade lego sets with their cousins. Could be the best Christmas in ages.

 

[existentialist]

Since it looks as if the ex-formerly-known-as-Mrs-E is not now going to have got herself ensconced in France by Christmas, I'm rather banking on an oven-baked excuse not to participate in the traditional Grand Family Christmas this year. I mean, I plan not to do it anyway, but it's going to be a lot easier all round if it's not actually permissible...

 

[two sheds]

oven-baked excuse

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

...oven-baked excuse ...

Does it go in the microwave at gas mark IV?

 

[Orang Utan]

Covid restrictions at work are impossible to follow by the letter, I know, but am getting fed up with people consistently invading my personal space. People are very cavalier about sharing cutlery and crockery, and are still in the habit of making each other cups of tea and sharing biscuits and stuff like that.
But what can’t be avoided is touching equipment that others may have touched, unless you wash your hands each time you do, which is nigh impossible to keep up with.

 

[2hats]

 

[sojourner]

Covid restrictions at work are impossible to follow by the letter, I know, but am getting fed up with people consistently invading my personal space. People are very cavalier about sharing cutlery and crockery, and are still in the habit of making each other cups of tea and sharing biscuits and stuff like that.
But what can’t be avoided is touching equipment that others may have touched, unless you wash your hands each time you do, which is nigh impossible to keep up with.

Same here. People keep walking into the tiny kitchen when I'm in there, and not even thinking twice about it.

I had to shout at a courier storming towards me on Friday. Told him to back off, that SD was still in fashion, the dick.

 

[elbows]

I'm not that surprised to see that email from Vallance, defensive manoeuvres by people at this level of officialdom have been on occasional display for months now. The collective failure is clear, individual failure regarding lockdown is still a very limited picture.

SAGE minutes arent anything like full minute so its impossible to work out individual stances from any of that. And I've never been a Vallance fan and find it hard to take his herd immunity explanation in that email at face value given that there is enough stuff in SAGE minutes and papers to demonstrate that some SAGE members favoured giving herd immunity explanations as a justification for their original 'dont do very much' plan.

I suppose the main thing I've learnt so far is that a number of these officials are more than prepared to throw colleagues under the bus when defending themselves from accusations of pandemic failure. Only time will tell which people in particular were on the wrong side of the argument, and none of those who might have been on the right side of the argument spoke out publicly or diverged from the script when it mattered most. And beyond the individual failings, the orthodox approach failed in general.

 

[elbows]

I'm going to have to watch todays Scottish press conference because I need to try to understand the point below that I put in bold, as reported by the Guardian ( 1h ago 12:43 )

“We now have very serious concerns that the backlog with test results affecting the UK lab network is starting to impact on the timeous reporting of those results,” she said, during her regular coronavirus briefing.

She said Jeane Freeman, the Scottish health secretary, had resisted requests from the UK government to cut back on its testing by the Lighthouse laboratory in Scotland, and was seeking urgent talks today to press for quicker test results. Sturgeon went on:

We need the UK government to share the full scale and nature of the issues that they’re facing so we can collectively and very quickly find solutions.

And the video that I will get round to watching:

 

[elbows]

Well if those comments relate to the first few minutes of what was said, the bit I put in bold was misreporting by the Guardian.

What was actually said points to UK government trying to impose test rationing at a different point in the system, not the Lighthouse lab:

"Indeed over the weekend the health secretary managed to resist a move to limit access to testing slots, mobile testing units and regional testing centres".

Probably we could already guess this was on the cards given the news of recent days, but its very useful to have it confirmed.

 

[elbows]

Priorities clear.

 

[two sheds]

where's that facepalm smiley?