Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Raithie]

43 minutes ago, PWL said:

Their target market is families with kids who want a sit down meal. The food is pretty basic and souless but the kids liked it and it was a good way of introducing them to stuff beyond pizzas and nuggets as well as eating out in somewhere fairly relaxed.

 

Aye my son was partial to a Frankie and Benny's every couple of months as a 'treat' rather than your typical McDonalds or KFC. Didn't find the food overly bad and service was usually pretty quick. Used to take advantage of their voucher codes which were available in abundance. The F&B's at KDY retail park was always half empty every time we went as well so wouldn't be surprised if that restaurant was on their radar for closure prior to all this. 

[Todd_is_God]

2 hours ago, doulikefish said:

Right this time...honest its a 14 day quarantine if you arrive into the country 

I know I said a few weeks ago it wouldn't last long, but I didn't expect them to be talking about exceptions before it even started

[WhiteRoseKillie]

17 hours ago, Jacksgranda said:

Got a reply from Colum Eastwood.

Good Afternoon

 

Thank you for contacting me about the actions of Dominic Cummings which have come to light last week.

 

I am of the opinion that virtually every member of the British Government has debased themselves and their offices by showing blind allegiance to an unelected adviser rather than defending their own pandemic health guidance.

 

By making the political choice to defend the job security of one individual rather than his government’s public health guidance, Boris Johnson has sent a very clear message to the public - saving Dominic Cummings' skin is more important than saving lives.

 

It is an appalling abdication of responsibility and his government’s authority now lies in tatters.

 

I believe there must be an independent investigation into this matter. It should include what information was communicated to Boris Johnson and when.

 

This crisis is continuing to claim lives. People need to know that the sacrifices we’re all making - being separated from family and friends in traumatic circumstances - is not in vain. They need to know that the privileged Tory elite are not immune from accountability or the rule of law.

 

Yesterday I, along with other opposition party leaders, wrote a joint letter to the Boris Johnson outlining our concerns around the conduct of Dominic Cummings. We have also called on Boris Johnson to remove Dominic Cummings from his post. I have included the letter for your perusal.

 

Yesterday on BBC Newsline I shared my views on the matter. Please find the video attached. 

 

Thank you again for your email. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact my office by phone on 02871 350045 or email.

 

Sincerely

 

Colum Eastwood MP

UK Parliament Disclaimer: this e-mail is confidential to the intended recipient. If you have received it in error, please notify the sender and delete it from your system. Any unauthorised use, disclosure, or copying is not permitted. This e-mail has been checked for viruses, but no liability is accepted for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this e-mail. This e-mail address is not secure, is not encrypted and should not be used for sensitive data.

I cleared it with him it was o.k. to share this.

Disappointed to have had no word back from Bro. Campbelll...

Compare and contrast with the reply I received from Silent Knight:

 

Dear WhiteRoseKillie,
 
Thank you for taking the time to comment about the actions of Dominic Cummings.
 
Being informed of your views is important to me as your Member of Parliament as it allows me to relay your observations directly to Government and raise them at the highest level. I have now conveyed your sentiments on to the Prime Minister who is aware of what my constituents think of Mr Cummings and his trip to Durham.
 
Ultimately, it is the Prime Minister’s responsibility to decide whether Mr Cummings’ behaviour, in any respect, warrants the decision being made that his own adviser’s employment should be terminated.
 
The Government guidance under which Mr Cummings acted says: ‘If you have children, keep following this advice to the best of your ability. However, we are aware that not all these measures will be possible.’
 
However, I am aware that some people still wish to see Mr Cummings resign from his position and as mentioned, I have already passed on local concerns expressed to me in this regard.
 
My own view is that he should not receive preferential treatment but like everyone else, he should still be afforded the prospect of being dealt with fairly. If he fails to abide by the law of the land, I would expect to see an investigation to be carried out by the police. 
 
The issue of whether or not the lockdown law was broken is not one for the Prime Minister to determine, nor for me, or the press but is a matter for the police. Indeed, I understand that Durham Police have now concluded their investigation into the allegations made against Mr Cummings.
 
The police have determined that his initial trip was not a breach of the lockdown but have also suggested that Mr Cummings might have committed what they call “a minor breach of the guidelines” when he drove to Barnard Castle on 12^th April.
 
In respect of this “minor” possible breach, the police have also now announced that they will not be taking any further action.
 
Living through the lockdown has not been easy for anyone and there are many lessons to be learned so we can respond effectively in the future. Our globally unprecedented package of financial support means millions can return to jobs that would otherwise have been lost and the new test-and-trace strategy should mean that, looking ahead, coronavirus can be better contained,
 
I do believe that we all owe a debt of gratitude to those who have stayed at home and to our exceptional NHS staff and the countless volunteers and key workers who have helped during this new and still unpredictable threat.
 
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me. I hope, as a nation, that we can remain on course in our shared goals to protect lives, defeat this virus and to return the UK to normality as soon as is safely possible.
 
Kind regards

Greg Knight 
 

I'm sure he was up all night composing that heart-felt reply, but all I take from it is a shit-load of explaining why we've always been at war with Eastasia, followed by three paragraphs of White Cliffs, Dunkirk, and Blitz Spirit. Rest assured he will be hearing from me again.

[WhiteRoseKillie]

1 hour ago, dirty dingus said:

I read that too. I didn't find it as good as fast food nation, the main thing I remember  was it highlighting the crazy jail time folk were getting for weed.

Yeah, they're both kinda required reading for anyone wanting to look behind the curtain of Oz and see how the world actually turns.

On the subject of the jail terms, I recommend watching The House I live In, which starts with the already scandalous discrepancies in sentencing in the US before taking an even darker turn. Makes the current situation over there look absolutely inevitable.

[WhiteRoseKillie]

1 hour ago, bennett said:

 

Should be bame people be removed from frontline NHS posts until the outbreak is over? 

Read that a lack of vitamin d maybe playing a part in some peoples ability to fight this.

There's a real reluctance here - nobody wants to streotype, and rightly so. However, there are a lot of high-risk occupations where BAME workers are over-represented, and not just in the NHS. We should also be able to concede that certain BAME cultures have a higher prevalence of multi-generational households, and even - whisper it - that a lot of these households do not live in massive detached houses with a lot of space available. Of course, the last point also applies to a majority of ALL citizens of this country.

[MuckleMoo]

Good to hear that Boris is now taking direct control of the Covid response. Can someone tell me what the f**k he's been doing for the last 3 months.

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

7 minutes ago, MuckleMoo said:

Good to hear that Boris is now taking direct control of the Covid response. Can someone tell me what the f**k he's been doing for the last 3 months.

Reminds me of when Theresa May decided to take direct control of the Brexit negotiations. That went well.

[Michael W]

2 hours ago, MixuFruit said:

Swedish chief epidemiologist says he fucked up. That's OK I guess.

https://www.ft.com/content/dae6d006-9adc-46d5-9b4e-79a7841022e8

Well it's a start. It would be good if our scientists could follow this given that we are only a baw hair away from having double the recorded 20,000 deaths that we were told would represent a "good result". This naturally is the figure for recorded covid deaths and not the full "excess deaths" figure,which is higher. 

Devi Sridhar's tweets based on the publish SAGE reports made for some pretty grim reading. An acknowledgement that we locked down too late and handled it badly will do - I think we are due that truth. 

This isn't an excuse to absolve the government of blame - the scientists might have been wrong, but the bungling after lockdown started is solely on the government. No danger "good news" Johnson will come out and front up for the mistakes made, though. Maybe he'll send out out Matt Hancock to do so and kill his career instead. 

[Paco]

Excluding mailed-out tests which may or may not come back with a suitable sample, the UK has hit the 100k testing target, set for the end of April, once. There is no data available on how many home-test kits have produced results.

To make it worse, and this is something I genuinely didn’t know, the testing figure announced daily also includes antibody tests which obviously don’t tell you who currently has the virus. So in reality, there have never been 100,000 people tested in the UK for Covid-19 in a day. It’s unlikely to have ever been remotely close. And even including posting out hundreds of thousands of kits, and disingenuously including antibody tests in the figures, we’ve not really come close to Boris Johnson’s 200k figure by the end of May either.

Yesterday, there were 135k tests ‘announced’ at the briefing. 36k of these were antibody tests, usually for use by the ONS for research, so we can effectively discount those. 20,669 people were actually tested in hospitals or coronavirus test centres in England. The claim is there were 69k ‘wider population’ tests carried out, with no numbers as to how many people this involved, or what these tests actually are.

The reality is very, very different to the 135k tests announced as a headline, isn’t it? I know there’s been rebuke from the UK Statistics Authority and I probably shouldn’t be surprised. But I am gobsmacked they can get away with this.

[Michael W]

1 minute ago, Sherrif John Bunnell said:

Reminds me of when Theresa May decided to take direct control of the Brexit negotiations. That went well.

In May's defence, things actually got done - just not the things that Tory backbenchers wanted to see. 

David Davis was given the portfolio for negotiating and did absolutely nothing. May ended up having to take over as Davis was just wasting time and achieving nothing. May also achieved nothing but at least she tried I guess. 

[Jacksgranda]

43 minutes ago, WhiteRoseKillie said:

Compare and contrast with the reply I received from Silent Knight:

 

Dear WhiteRoseKillie,
 
Thank you for taking the time to comment about the actions of Dominic Cummings.
 
Being informed of your views is important to me as your Member of Parliament as it allows me to relay your observations directly to Government and raise them at the highest level. I have now conveyed your sentiments on to the Prime Minister who is aware of what my constituents think of Mr Cummings and his trip to Durham.
 
Ultimately, it is the Prime Minister’s responsibility to decide whether Mr Cummings’ behaviour, in any respect, warrants the decision being made that his own adviser’s employment should be terminated.
 
The Government guidance under which Mr Cummings acted says: ‘If you have children, keep following this advice to the best of your ability. However, we are aware that not all these measures will be possible.’
 
However, I am aware that some people still wish to see Mr Cummings resign from his position and as mentioned, I have already passed on local concerns expressed to me in this regard.
 
My own view is that he should not receive preferential treatment but like everyone else, he should still be afforded the prospect of being dealt with fairly. If he fails to abide by the law of the land, I would expect to see an investigation to be carried out by the police. 
 
The issue of whether or not the lockdown law was broken is not one for the Prime Minister to determine, nor for me, or the press but is a matter for the police. Indeed, I understand that Durham Police have now concluded their investigation into the allegations made against Mr Cummings.
 
The police have determined that his initial trip was not a breach of the lockdown but have also suggested that Mr Cummings might have committed what they call “a minor breach of the guidelines” when he drove to Barnard Castle on 12^th April.
 
In respect of this “minor” possible breach, the police have also now announced that they will not be taking any further action.
 
Living through the lockdown has not been easy for anyone and there are many lessons to be learned so we can respond effectively in the future. Our globally unprecedented package of financial support means millions can return to jobs that would otherwise have been lost and the new test-and-trace strategy should mean that, looking ahead, coronavirus can be better contained,
 
I do believe that we all owe a debt of gratitude to those who have stayed at home and to our exceptional NHS staff and the countless volunteers and key workers who have helped during this new and still unpredictable threat.
 
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me. I hope, as a nation, that we can remain on course in our shared goals to protect lives, defeat this virus and to return the UK to normality as soon as is safely possible.
 
Kind regards

Greg Knight 
 

I'm sure he was up all night composing that heart-felt reply, but all I take from it is a shit-load of explaining why we've always been at war with Eastasia, followed by three paragraphs of White Cliffs, Dunkirk, and Blitz Spirit. Rest assured he will be hearing from me again.

It's a pile of shite of a reply, isn't it?

Having said that it's still better than Gregory Campbell's which is as follows - 

[TheScarf]

There's 2 McDonalds in Inverness but only one of them is a drive through so naturally it was crazy yesterday at the drive through one.  

I didn't go myself, I'll give it a week or so before I venture along to it, but I don't get the outrage tbh; some people like it, most kids love it, it's been shut for nearly 3 months.  People will be craving one and be happy to queue for 30 mins/an hour.  

 

[Jacksgranda]

5 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

There's 2 McDonalds in Inverness but only one of them is a drive through so naturally it was crazy yesterday at the drive through one.  

I didn't go myself, I'll give it a week or so before I venture along to it, but I don't get the outrage tbh; some people like it, most kids love it, it's been shut for nearly 3 months.  People will be craving one and be happy to queue for 30 mins/an hour.  

 

It's not as if they'd be doing much else, either.

[renton]

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(20)30133-X/fulltext

Peer reviewed paper on Covid lockdown from the Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene.

independent model from the Ferguson one used by Imperial College. It gets broadly the same conclusions: a massive spike  without lockdown, although the numbers are different: This model assumes a 50,000 best case scenario and 350,000 worst case scenario.

[renton]

5 minutes ago, Snafu said:

Jane Goodall: humanity is finished if it fails to adapt after Covid-19

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jun/03/jane-goodall-humanity-is-finished-if-it-fails-to-adapt-after-covid-19

Primatologist calls for overhaul of food habits to prevent a future pandemic

Humanity will be “finished” if we fail to drastically change our food systems in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the climate crisis, the prominent naturalist Jane Goodall has warned.

She blamed the emergence of Covid-19 on the over-exploitation of the natural world, which has seen forests cut down, species made extinct and natural habitats destroyed. The coronavirus is thought to have made the jump from animals to humans late last year, possibly originating in a meat market in Wuhan, China.

Intensive farming was also creating a reservoir of animal diseases that would spill over and hurt human society, said Goodall, one of the world’s foremost experts on chimpanzees and a longtime conservation campaigner, speaking alongside two European commissioners at an online event held by the campaigning group Compassion in World Farming, on Tuesday.

“We have brought this on ourselves because of our absolute disrespect for animals and the environment,” she said. “Our disrespect for wild animals and our disrespect for farmed animals has created this situation where disease can spill over to infect human beings.”

 

Well, yeah. Rising population, combined with climate change is going to force more people into closer contact with with animal habitats in unhygienic ways. Seems unlikely that this is the last time we get such an outbreak. Hard to see the world getting any safer over the medium term....

[AMMjag]

1 hour ago, DigOutYourSoul said:

 

I’ve seen on twitter this morning that it proves there is racial injustice in the UK. If there was racial equality there wouldn’t be more BAME deaths.

 

The increased mortality rate in BAME individuals from COVID19 is a worldwide trend - I don't doubt that twitter and the British Press (barely a fag paper between them) will fall over themselves to throw out speculative, sociological puff as a result to explain it. 

Others have arrived at the evidence-based and biological conclusion that there is a clear link between COVID mortality and Vitamin D deficiency, which is likely to affect darker-skinned individuals more as they absorb less Vit D through sunlight. 

https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1548/rr-6

Our clown car government panic bought hydroxychloroquine as a miracle cure and would buy up all stocks of Father Jack's Dreamy Sleepy Nighty Snoozy Snooze if they saw Donald Trump taking a glug, as opposed to publicising simple mitigating measures like diet, necessary supplements or indeed mandated mask wearing which have all worked elsewhere. That is what's killing people just now. 

 

[O'Kelly Isley III]

Reminds me of when Theresa May decided to take direct control of the Brexit negotiations. That went well.

Talking of which, Nissan turning the Brexit screw this morning.

Sent from my MotoG3 using Pie and Bovril mobile app

[vikingTON]

16 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

Given it hasn't really rained in 2 months in much of England I think covid is the least of their worries if people enjoying drinking water and eating food

[Todd_is_God]

Very interesting figures here.

Most health boards now within min and max recorded weekly deaths over the last 5 years.

For those still above, they are just above.

131 deaths in Scotland last week where Covid-19 is mentioned on the death certificate. A reduction of 43% on the previous week.

Total care home deaths now more than those in hospitals.

 

[Todd_is_God]

Looking at the population at large, 63 people had Covid-19 mentioned on their death certificate last week, a 40% reduction on the previous week