General Coronavirus (COVID-19) chat
- Thread starter phillm
- Start date
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
Nah, it'll be airbrushed out. By the time the history books are written, Johnson will have caught Covid to save us. And it will have worked.
elbows
Well-Known Member
I havnt seen a good UK plan for pandemics in any of the historical documentation I've looked at over the years. But its entirely possible I missed a good one, or knew how to read between the lines of one that was superficially good but was actually designed to pay mere lip service to certain principals, and so was full of nice sounding principals that were not backed up by the actual implementation detail.
For example its a long-standing UK tradition in pandemic planning that there are phases labelled 'contain' that are not actually sincere attempts at containment at all, but would more appropriately be described as 'survey and delay'.
If I wanted to fish out one example of this, the report into the UKs handling of the 2009 swine flu pandemic made exactly that criticism, that the 'contain' phase was inappropriately titled because it was nothing of the sort. I might try to find this document later.
For example its a long-standing UK tradition in pandemic planning that there are phases labelled 'contain' that are not actually sincere attempts at containment at all, but would more appropriately be described as 'survey and delay'.
If I wanted to fish out one example of this, the report into the UKs handling of the 2009 swine flu pandemic made exactly that criticism, that the 'contain' phase was inappropriately titled because it was nothing of the sort. I might try to find this document later.
Scream if you want to go faster folks...
Covid: Eight Indian variant areas should avoid indoor gatherings
People are also asked not to go into or out of places hardest hit by the so-called Indian variant.
www.bbc.co.uk
crossthebreeze
Well-Known Member
Absolutely ridiculous. Tyneside (and the wider North East England) is completly interlinked - lots of people will be visiting family across council borders, there'll be loads of Newcastle people planning a day on North Tyneside beaches and bars, and North Tyneside people planning shopping or drinking/eating in Newcastle. Also if they don't want people to meet indoors they need to close (and support) indoor venues.Scream if you want to go faster folks...
Covid: Eight Indian variant areas should avoid indoor gatherings
People are also asked not to go into or out of places hardest hit by the so-called Indian variant.www.bbc.co.uk
From my personal point of view I live in Newcastle and work in North Tyneside 50% of my week, my girlfriend lives there and works in Newcastle. I spent last Sunday walking (and stopping for coffee) with friends from Newcastle, Northumberland, North Tyneside, and Sunderland on a couple of the beaches of North Tyneside.
Unenforceable shit and public blaming again.
I am going to a (small garden) party on Saturday in Hertfordshire, close to the Bedfordshire border. Hertfordshire has no new restrictions but a third of the guests are in Bedfordshire so can't attend under the new (sneaked out) rules.
Understand things are going south due to the #JohnsonVariant and we do have to be careful, but this is a long/carefully planned 50th wedding anniversary. Gazebo and outdoor heaters have been hired, hotel rooms booked, food, booze and cakes ordered.
We can test everyone first and break the rules
but there are a few elderly people attending and the hosts are amid a nasty planning permission row with their neighbours 
FFS
I am going to a (small garden) party on Saturday in Hertfordshire, close to the Bedfordshire border. Hertfordshire has no new restrictions but a third of the guests are in Bedfordshire so can't attend under the new (sneaked out) rules.
Understand things are going south due to the #JohnsonVariant and we do have to be careful, but this is a long/carefully planned 50th wedding anniversary. Gazebo and outdoor heaters have been hired, hotel rooms booked, food, booze and cakes ordered.
We can test everyone first and break the rules
but there are a few elderly people attending and the hosts are amid a nasty planning permission row with their neighbours FFS
Monkeygrinder's Organ
Dodgy geezer swilling vapid lager
Unenforceable shit and public blaming again.
I am going to a (small garden) party on Saturday in Hertfordshire, close to the Bedfordshire border. Hertfordshire has no new restrictions but a third of the guests are in Bedfordshire so can't attend under the new (sneaked out) rules.
Understand things are going south due to the #JohnsonVariant and we do have to be careful, but this is a long/carefully planned 50th wedding anniversary. Gazebo and outdoor heaters have been hired, hotel rooms booked, food, booze and cakes ordered.
We can test everyone first and break the rules
FFS
No worries, it's only guidance anyway.
Advisory/Guidance means that those who already don't give a fuck will carry on not giving a fuck.No worries, it's only guidance anyway.
Pointless. Utterly pointless.
elbows
Well-Known Member
William Shakespeare is dead 
Covid-19: First man to get jab William Shakespeare dies of unrelated illness
Bill Shakespeare's death was unrelated to the jab and his friend urges others to get vaccinated.
www.bbc.co.uk
Just to put some balance on that. It is really not a good sign because the general theme is that the vaccination dodgers are also not likely to be testing either.
That said those results are across three testing centres with one delivering 60% of the positives, so there is a localisation factor on this. We now have surge testing teams in the impacted areas which we hope will have an effect.
In less positive (future) news, the lateral flow test centre's are being phased out. To be fair to that decision the numbers coming in are really low compared to last year / early this year so they are becoming pointless and expensive.
The next phase is home testing.
This makes sense in terms of numbers. We have some mobile testing centre's (shopping centre, train stations, supermarkets, etc) which are distributing 500-1000 test boxes (7 tests per box) per day. Compared to the test centres barely seeing 100 people test per day and are manned by 5-10 staff.
The downside to home testing is there is no proof needed for home test kits. You can test tap water, submit the result and get an 'NHS' email and text stating you are negative we have seen people in the test centre's trying to blag their tests for work or holiday so if those people test at home then they can blag it easily. When we do a test we have to submit a photo of the negative result, all of which have a unique QR code.
In order to travel outside the UK they need to pay around £60-200 for a PCR test (most countries offer this for free btw) but people will (kinda understandably) blag this to avoid cost and get their own way.
That said those results are across three testing centres with one delivering 60% of the positives, so there is a localisation factor on this. We now have surge testing teams in the impacted areas which we hope will have an effect.
In less positive (future) news, the lateral flow test centre's are being phased out. To be fair to that decision the numbers coming in are really low compared to last year / early this year so they are becoming pointless and expensive.
The next phase is home testing.
This makes sense in terms of numbers. We have some mobile testing centre's (shopping centre, train stations, supermarkets, etc) which are distributing 500-1000 test boxes (7 tests per box) per day. Compared to the test centres barely seeing 100 people test per day and are manned by 5-10 staff.
The downside to home testing is there is no proof needed for home test kits. You can test tap water, submit the result and get an 'NHS' email and text stating you are negative
we have seen people in the test centre's trying to blag their tests for work or holiday so if those people test at home then they can blag it easily. When we do a test we have to submit a photo of the negative result, all of which have a unique QR code. In order to travel outside the UK they need to pay around £60-200 for a PCR test (most countries offer this for free btw) but people will (kinda understandably) blag this to avoid cost and get their own way.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
What & why?
krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
And now... yoga?
Prince Charles advises people recovering from Covid to practise yoga
His wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, has said “it makes you less stiff” and “more supple”
Prince Charles advises people recovering from Covid to practise yoga
His wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, has said “it makes you less stiff” and “more supple”
LDC
On est tous des pangolins
Yeah explain? Prices too high, or you think they should be free, or something else?
Yossarian
⏭️
The government apparently requires all test results for travel to be provided by private companies, not the NHS, even for NHS workers who are regularly tested at work - I don't know how many Conservative MPs are shareholders in the companies approved to carry out private tests but the number is probably a lot higher than zero.
Passengers refused boarding amid testing confusion
Travellers with Ryanair and EasyJet were told they could not fly because they had taken the wrong PCR test.
www.bbc.com
Supine
Newt Member
I’m not going on foreign holidays at the moment due to the pandemic. Why should I contribute towards someone else going? Seems fair to me that if you want to go then you pay for your own test.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
That article makes it clear that it's the Irish government, like mainly others, that insist on a PCR test, NHS only provides PCR tests free to the public if you have symptoms or got a positive result from a lateral flow test, it would totally overload the system if they were provided free for those privilege/stupid enough to be travelling aboard this year.The government apparently requires all test results for travel to be provided by private companies, not the NHS, even for NHS workers who are regularly tested at work - I don't know how many Conservative MPs are shareholders in the companies approved to carry out private tests but the number is probably a lot higher than zero.
Passengers refused boarding amid testing confusion
Travellers with Ryanair and EasyJet were told they could not fly because they had taken the wrong PCR test.www.bbc.com
The NHS worker in that article claims she has regular PCR testing at work, but IIRC NHS workers are only getting twice weekly lateral flow tests, that's certainly what's happening at my local hospital, the fact the test didn't have the letters 'PCR' on it suggests it was a lateral flow test.
I am not convinced that those travelling should have their tests subsidised by the rest of us.
Yossarian
⏭️
What's more important right now - keeping infections at a minimum by making sure there are no fudged/skipped/dodged/forged/avoided COVID tests, or being absolutely fair to taxpayers who aren't going on holiday?
Private companies exist to create profit for shareholders, that's their whole reason for being, would anybody be remotely surprised if there was a headline a few months from now about workers at one of these companies skipping a few steps in quality control because they were under pressure from above to get as many tests done as possible in a short period of time because there was a sudden increase in demand and not enough skilled employees to deal with it?
As long as it goes some way toward bringing the pandemic to an end as soon as possible, I have no objection to subsidising free COVID tests for every traveler, even if I think they shouldn't be flying.
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cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
Offering free tests for leaving the UK would not prevent or change the chance of 'fudged/skipped/dodged/forged/avoided COVID tests' for those returning, which is the biggest risk to the UK.
The NHS only has a PCR testing capacity of around 650k a day at present, and almost half of that is already being used, with cases on the increase, we may need the rest of that capacity, there isn't spare capacity for travellers.
Yossarian
⏭️
Given the speed with which the British strain of COVID became the dominant one in many other countries, I'd argue that the NHS should devote at least some of its resources to making sure the country doesn't export any more cases.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
So you are suggesting some of the NHS capacity should be used for travellers, but what do you suggest the NHS does when it's overloaded and can't provide tests for those remaining at home, that actually need them?
Yossarian
⏭️
Why would testing not be a problem if people were only allowed abroad to visit family? I can't think of anybody I know who doesn't have family abroad, if you include cousins in Australia etc.
Ryanair passengers flying to Dublin barred from boarding plane over Covid rules
Passengers on the Ryanair flight from Stansted to Dublin were not allowed to enter the plane after a mix-up over the rules about travelling to Ireland
Yossarian
⏭️
I would suggest the NHS uses the full power of the government to requisition testing capacity from private companies. And once the public health emergency is over, I would suggest they employ the fussiest accountants in the land to make sure the private companies involved were fairly reimbursed for their expenses but didn't make a profit from the pandemic.
And then I would suggest that the government nationalise those companies to make sure that the next time there is a pandemic, public health policy won't be influenced by whatever corrupt capitalist motherfuckers happen to be close to the government of the time.
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
Not got a problem with that, but I still can not support the idea the NHS should subsidise people's holidays, when they have far bigger priorities, not least catching up on the backlog of people needing hospital treatment.
Getting treatment is a right, overseas travel is a privilege.
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