Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[doulikefish]

Just now, Hedgecutter said:

Was that not largely because Freeman revealed the storage site? 

Numbers and types 

[10menwent2mow]

Absolutely - I'm surprised it was extended into April so far in advance to be honest.  
I sincerely hope you are right about crowds, of course.  Like I say, I'm a bit scunnered with all the constant goalpost shifting chat.  

I don't see what choice the government has though. It is illegal for a huge swathe of businesses to operate. They either extend furlough or you suddenly have millions of people unemployed. What business can afford to pay its employees with literally zero income coming in? Or do we just expect businesses to make people unemployed and then have them reapply for their jobs in the future and f**k the employees in the meantime?

[effeffsee_the2nd]

12 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

Here's the thing for me. I raised concern that the covid plan the SG released last year made no mention of, plan for, or give any indication what the criteria for "normal" would be.

I was told it was nothing as we would need a vaccine for that.

Now we have a vaccine, there is still, seemingly, no plan for allowing "normal" and NS is very deliberate in her use of "greater normality" at all times.

It's one thing to say "awch we will get there eventually, don't worry" but literally no one seems to be suggesting it is something they are even trying to achieve.

Am i jumping the gun and reading too much into it? Maybe, but politicians etc must surely understand the impact their specific choice of words will have on people who are being asked to make such drastic changes to their way of life, for what is looking increasingly like closer to at least 21 months than the original "3 weeks" 

People aren't necessarily looking for a guarantee that life will be back to normal (i.e. no restrictions) by a specific date, just that getting to that point is actually possible, and something that our leaders are actively working towards.

I'm assuming that type of questioning is probably not going to be on the table until at least well into the summer, but that length of wait is far too long for those who will already be suffering mentally as a result of that uncertainty.

Maybe they're just being careful with their words incase they then get it used against them " you said we widny need masks by now and could have big pairtys you lied!"  But it does seem as tho they are being a bit too careful not to say          " well obviously at some point in time we will have completely reverted back to the  2019 way of life, from then on  things like WFH is between you and your employer blady blah, but we just can't really put even a rough time on it with so many unknowns right now- does that answer your question todd? " 

Thing is the SNP are a bit of a nanny state party, part of me wonders if they think that if they drag out the covid restrictions harder and longer than necessary , then the public will accept freedoms of less than what they used to take for granted simply because they're so fed of living under enhanced covid measures?   that's the tactic of professional negotiators - to ware people down by dragging things out forever.  the snp could be looking at the side effects of lockdown and think ; we could use this to meet our climate change and CO2 targets, to reduce alcohol comsumption, to reduce road congestion, etc  

I don't know, lets just hope its the top part

 

[Michael W]

Have said it before, but surely that will be time to target the furlough at certain industries? Hospitality clearly isn't going to be fully open until at least the vulnerable list is done and second vaccinations given, so even if allowed to open the takings will still be taking a hit and they'll be needing less staff. 

[djchapsticks]

55 minutes ago, Elixir said:

She adds: "We do now have hope, more so than at any time since the start of this pandemic, of a path to much greater domestic normality - something that all of us crave.

'Greater domestic normality' does not fill me with much hope whatsoever.

This all needs to end once deaths and hospitalisations remain at normal historic levels. Why can they not just fucking say so?

That fucking fence sitting patter needs to get in the bin from them immediately. It should be made totally and indisputably clear that the path leads to no restrictions whatsoever, not fucking 'greater normality'... a term which is being deliberately communicated as it leaves them open to all sorts of manoeuvring.

Greater normality is what will be achieved on the road to no restrictions. Greater normality is something that people should feel returning gradually as the weeks and months pass.

The end goal is no restrictions, not fucking watered down restrictions at which point we settle on it for an undetermined amount of time.

 

 

[Todd_is_God]

3 minutes ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

Maybe they're just being careful with their words incase they then get it used against them " you said we widny need masks by now and could have big pairtys you lied!"  But it does seem as tho they are being a bit too careful not to say          " well obviously at some point in time we will have completely reverted back to the  2019 way of life, from then on  things like WFH is between you and your employer blady blah, but we just can't really put even a rough time on it with so many unknowns right now- does that answer your question todd? " 

"Vaccines are key to getting back to normal" is all i'm looking for tbh. They don't yet need to say when that is likely to be.

[djchapsticks]

6 minutes ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

Maybe they're just being careful with their words incase they then get it used against them " you said we widny need masks by now and could have big pairtys you lied!"  But it does seem as tho they are being a bit too careful not to say          " well obviously at some point in time we will have completely reverted back to the  2019 way of life, from then on  things like WFH is between you and your employer blady blah, but we just can't really put even a rough time on it with so many unknowns right now- does that answer your question todd? " 

Thing is the SNP are a bit of a nanny state party, part of me wonders if they think that if they drag out the covid restrictions harder and longer than necessary , then the public will accept freedoms of less than what they used to take for granted simply because they're so fed of living under enhanced covid measures?   that's the tactic of professional negotiators - to ware people down by dragging things out forever.  the snp could be looking at the side effects of lockdown and think ; we could use this to meet our climate change and CO2 targets, to reduce alcohol comsumption, to reduce road congestion, etc  

I don't know, lets just hope its the top part

 

Nah, they won't put timescales on it and I don't think set timescales can be realistically requested. At least not just now.

Reassuring language though, would be that the absolute goal is getting back to no restrictions, not 'the path that leads to greater normality' given that any reduction from this point can be feasibly called 'greater normality'.

[djchapsticks]

9 minutes ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

  the snp could be looking at the side effects of lockdown and think ; we could use this to meet our climate change and CO2 targets, to reduce alcohol comsumption, to reduce road congestion, etc  

I don't know, lets just hope its the top part

 

 

I'd be very, very confident that the opposite effect would be the outcome here.

[MP_MFC]

204,076 vaccines done in the UK yesterday. Scotland doing more than it's population share yesterday... Can we spin this as England going too slow now or does that just work the other way?

[Billy Jean King]

Maybe they're just being careful with their words incase they then get it used against them " you said we widny need masks by now and could have big pairtys you lied!"  But it does seem as tho they are being a bit too careful not to say          " well obviously at some point in time we will have completely reverted back to the  2019 way of life, from then on  things like WFH is between you and your employer blady blah, but we just can't really put even a rough time on it with so many unknowns right now- does that answer your question todd? " 
Thing is the SNP are a bit of a nanny state party, part of me wonders if they think that if they drag out the covid restrictions harder and longer than necessary , then the public will accept freedoms of less than what they used to take for granted simply because they're so fed of living under enhanced covid measures?   that's the tactic of professional negotiators - to ware people down by dragging things out forever.  the snp could be looking at the side effects of lockdown and think ; we could use this to meet our climate change and CO2 targets, to reduce alcohol comsumption, to reduce road congestion, etc  
I don't know, lets just hope its the top part
 

As it stands the mood music from the normally cavalier Bozo and Co is no more encouraging. Just today he said he couldn't see any start to reducing measures until Easter. They (governments plural) are clearly getting told by the scientific advisors to be very cautious and for now that seems to be the party line.

Until we start to see sustained reductions in admissions, ICU and deaths we are not going to be getting any real positivity. Given today's horrendous figure for deaths that seems sensible for now. Will be interesting to see if there is a shift in say 6-8 weeks if, as hoped, they key indicators are going in the right direction.

[doulikefish]

3 minutes ago, MP_MFC said:

204,076 vaccines done in the UK yesterday. Scotland doing more than it's population share yesterday... Can we spin this as England going too slow now or does that just work the other way?

Scottish soldiers rolled out to help englands vaccination programme failing imo 

[Billy Jean King]

"Vaccines are key to getting back to normal" is all i'm looking for tbh. They don't yet need to say when that is likely to be.

That just isn't the direction of travel though. The line I keep hearing is "vaccines are not the magic bullet". If this is based on some scientific fact we need to be told what that is as it definitely wasn't the line when they were roaring their approval from the roof tops.

[10menwent2mow]

Have said it before, but surely that will be time to target the furlough at certain industries? Hospitality clearly isn't going to be fully open until at least the vulnerable list is done and second vaccinations given, so even if allowed to open the takings will still be taking a hit and they'll be needing less staff. 

Yeah and that is where the flexible furlough will be required for hospitality. Even when they are allowed to open, it's likely going to be with distancing still in place, which reduces capacity and likely with 10pm closing still in place or even worse with the ridiculous idea of having to have a substantial meal. That's without getting on to places that do weddings and the like. I genuinely can't see pubs operating without any restrictions whatsoever until autumn at the very earliest.

[Todd_is_God]

3 minutes ago, Snafu said:

Yeah they won't say because they don't know. 

Fair. Add "We hope" to the start of that sentence then.

1 minute ago, Billy Jean King said:

18 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

"Vaccines are key to getting back to normal" is all i'm looking for tbh. They don't yet need to say when that is likely to be.

That just isn't the direction of travel though. The line I keep hearing is "vaccines are not the magic bullet". If this is based on some scientific fact we need to be told what that is as it definitely wasn't the line when they were roaring their approval from the roof tops.

Correct. And we need to know if it isn't the key to getting restrictions punted then what is.

Never ending restrictions are not acceptable.

[vikingTON]

15 minutes ago, Snafu said:

They won't want people who have been vaccinated to think of themselves as invincible to the virus, so  could be stuck in the tiers system for most of the year, with the best luck that we never have another lockdown.

More gold from the behavioural psychologists who opposed mandating face masks because they too would 'make people think they are invincible'. 

Scotland's path out of lockdown should be clearly spelled out before the May election, so that this utterly unnecessary drivel can be launched into the sun.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

17 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

34 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

"Vaccines are key to getting back to normal" is all i'm looking for tbh. They don't yet need to say when that is likely to be.

That just isn't the direction of travel though. The line I keep hearing is "vaccines are not the magic bullet". If this is based on some scientific fact we need to be told what that is as it definitely wasn't the line when they were roaring their approval from the roof tops.

Apart from Smallpox...

[RH33]

2 hours ago, PWL said:

To be fair, you could be describing me and my ability to WFH right there. 

I posted it then thought that’s probably just blokes.

[RH33]

2 hours ago, craigkillie said:

Fortnightly reviews are shit for absolutely everyone in planning every aspect of our lives, but I don't see what the easy alternative is. I'd certainly prefer fortnightly to monthly if it means we get some restrictions lifted two weeks earlier.

Agree, when I was posting I was collecting kids from school hub so at that point education was on my mind. 

[Gordon EF]

38 minutes ago, MP_MFC said:

204,076 vaccines done in the UK yesterday. Scotland doing more than it's population share yesterday... Can we spin this as England going too slow now or does that just work the other way?

This is a real everyone wins scenario. If you are...

A) a unionist and also a slavering idiot:

Spoiler

Just wait until the SG do fewer vaccinations than WM do in an arbitrary timeframe of your choosing and proceed to burst a blood vessel about "Wee Nippy" caring too much about independence to vaccinate people.

B) a nationalist and also a slavering idiot:

Spoiler

Just wait until the SG do more vaccinations than WM do in an arbitrary timeframe of your choosing and proceed to burst a blood vessel about Tories wanting to kill people by not vaccinating them quickly enough.

[effeffsee_the2nd]

Correct. And we need to know if it isn't the key to getting restrictions punted then what is.
Never ending restrictions are not acceptable.

It’s the year 2072, a group of lads head out on the town to celebrate the youngest one turning 18. As they sit at the table in the pub they all turn to the birthday boy “ looks like it’s your turn to buy the scotch egg for the table” get tae f**k , whits the point! He replies “ well we canny start the sesh till someone orders the food, it’s your 18th! It’s tradition! Just dae it ffs!