Wee Bully Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 Drivel. What is actually happening is that the risk of this magical super-variant emerging is being used to justify pre-emptive restrictions being added/remaining in place indefinitely. That's what the international travel quarantine is all about, given that vaccination is absolutely crushing the outbreak among the UK's most vulnerable groups. And as if by magic, up pops virginton with his “hot take”. Back in your box, son. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bairnardo Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 Drivel. What is actually happening is that the risk of this magical super-variant emerging is being used to justify pre-emptive restrictions being added/remaining in place indefinitely. That's what the international travel quarantine is all about, given that vaccination is absolutely crushing the outbreak among the UK's most vulnerable groups. With some people touting readiness to deal with a new strain as one of the tests for lockdown removal. What a woolly and open ended "test" that is. The possibility of new variants emerging is clearly on of the key sticks being used to beat us further and further down, and I have a hard time understanding anyone who thinks otherwise. As far as readiness goes.... Do we have a team monitoring the genetic make up of the virus? Yeah.... do the pharma companies think they will be able to easily tweak the vaccine... Yeah. Do we have a list of the top... say... 9 groups of people who would need immunised first. Yes we do. Other than that, surely it's all contingent on the actual characteristics of any new problem variant? In which case, it's actually not a reason to retain restrictions at all. What more can we do to be "ready"? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdinburghPar1975 Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 My Dad had a live event he was going to last year moved to this April, he's just heard that it's now in September. It's in Amsterdam (i've checked - it's definitely a concert ). He'll be vaccinated by then but he's now getting worried that he won't be able to travel to it as it's not in the UK. KLM are ok with the flights and would allow it to move but the promoter is saying (probably fairly) that if the event goes ahead and he can't get to it then it's not their problem and he won't get a refund for the tickets. The whole lockdown thing is getting very weird in terms of when (or if!) they're going to lift it. If enough folks are vaccinated to allow the most critical to be protected, the NHS isn't under pressure and the transmission rates are down then i can't see why things cannot be lifted (albeit in a planned easing). In terms of travel then I have personally no issue with vaccine passports to allow international travel/ quarantine monitoring and masks while on the plane etc. but scaremongering folks into even thinking that lockdown will remain pretty severe till late in the year isn't going to help with compliance. The messaging could and should be better...maybe the 'plan' next week will help but i have my doubts... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honest_Man#1 Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 19 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said: My thoughts exactly. I don't know what they are trying to achieve here, or what they think anyone who watches that is going to think. They are surely in danger of undermining their vaccine roll out to this demographic later in the year? Unless, of course (tinfoil hat time), that's the plan. I agree I think they’re at risk of actually turning younger people against getting vaccines if they continue with this sort of stuff, but I do think your last sentence is proper tinfoil hat stuff. Whilst I think they’re going far too far down the ultra cautious line, I don’t see what possible reason they’d have for actively wanting the younger population not to get vaccinated and thereby extending restrictions and economic harm? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshmallo Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2021-02-18/single-pfizer-shot-reduced-illness-in-israeli-health-workers?__twitter_impression=true Single shot of the Pfizer vaccine reduces case numbers in Israeli health workers by 85% 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Aldo Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2021-02-18/single-pfizer-shot-reduced-illness-in-israeli-health-workers?__twitter_impression=true Single shot of the Pfizer vaccine reduces case numbers in Israeli health workers by 85%Its still relatively early days but the indication seems to be that the vaccines are performing brilliantly.I wonder if politicians or the media in this country will acknowledge this if/when we start to show similar results. All of the focus on the vaccines here seems to be on what they MIGHT not do rather than what real world data shows they are doing. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paco Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2021-02-18/single-pfizer-shot-reduced-illness-in-israeli-health-workers?__twitter_impression=true Single shot of the Pfizer vaccine reduces case numbers in Israeli health workers by 85%More great news. Politicians in this country at this stage should now be confidently saying the vaccines work in the vast majority of cases. They break transmission, and they stop you even getting Covid let alone a serious version. The small caveat is AstraZenica and the South African variant. And even at that, the working assumption is serious illness is still prevented. That needs proven but every single other indicator suggest the vaccines work as advertised. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Moonster Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 The fact is once the Israeli's are all vaccinated and are shouting about how brilliant it is whilst sipping pints and shagging each other, everyone over here will start to demand the same and politicians won't have anywhere to go. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Jean King Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 Young man became tired. It can happen to anyone [emoji24] Maybe i'm in the minority, but I feel the SG have missed the boat by an absolute mile with these adverts.At least he's not a Ric Waller lookalike this time. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Jean King Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 Classic example of the chronic mixed messaging coming from Westminster. Bojo saying his roadmap will be irreversible and another cabinet minister says days before the routemap that there can be no guarantee there won't be further lockdowns. https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-no-guarantee-current-lockdown-will-be-the-last-minister-admits-12222415 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotThePars Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 https://unherd.com/2021/02/the-fantasy-of-english-freedom/ The British are, in fact, quite conformist and placid. The French riot about literally anything, while after epic levels of political incompetence and 120,000 deaths, the worst that’s happened here is someone projecting “Boris is a wet wipe” on Parliament. I don’t disagree with that at least how it relates to a significant chunk of this country’s middle class but we had significant riots and protests in the last decade of Tory government that either had their politics vacuumed out (London riots) or were deliberately bogged down over meaningless minutiae to neuter their wider impact (student protests and BLM last summer). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICTChris Posted February 19, 2021 Author Share Posted February 19, 2021 Interview with Israeli scientist about the Israeli response and vaccination programme. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/945680#vp_1 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshmallo Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 18 minutes ago, The Moonster said: The fact is once the Israeli's are all vaccinated and are shouting about how brilliant it is whilst sipping pints and shagging each other, everyone over here will start to demand the same and politicians won't have anywhere to go. That won't happen. The majority of the public over here don't seem arsed as long as Celebrity Factor in the Jungle is still getting pumped into their eyeballs and they can get a curry delivered. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djchapsticks Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 1 minute ago, Paco said: More great news. Politicians in this country at this stage should now be confidently saying the vaccines work in the vast majority of cases. They break transmission, and they stop you even getting Covid let alone a serious version. The small caveat is AstraZenica and the South African variant. And even at that, the working assumption is serious illness is still prevented. That needs proven but every single other indicator suggest the vaccines work as advertised. This is all it will take. A full and public acceptance that a completed vaccination programme will lead to full lifting of restrictions. A glimmer of hope that as we go further into these risk groups in the next 6-12 weeks, parts of society will open up tentatively as a larger and larger percentage of the population are protected with the ultimate goal of full opening. This is what Monday's roadmap should look like. It's totally bizarre to massively laud the success of the vaccine rollout but not the actual performance that we are undoubtedly starting to see benefits of now. To render these numbers so inconsequential that they don't even merit a mention but still talking about possible future lockdowns is mind-blowing. Theirs is an ultra-cautious approach, I don't agree with it but understand it. However, the fact of the matter is that the vaccines exist, they are here and they not only work but work tremendously well by almost all accounts. And yet rather than put this achievement on the pedestal it deserves and optimistically project that this in fact is likely our way out of the pandemic, variants that don't exist (and who knows? Possibly never will) are given precedence in the briefings ahead of the performance of the vaccine. Amazingly, going so far as to warn we could possibly lockdown again in the winter to avoid something that doesn't actually exist. It can be argued that they are not placing the vaccine performance high on a pedestal just yet because there is little to no concrete data to confirm performance in the UK but if this is the case and the reason they ignore it, why do they mention variants? There is more data available that points to the vaccine working long term than there is pointing to a vaccine escaping variant on the horizon. I don't think there is some sort of sinister larger plan going on here that tinfoil hatters do but I am concerned that those at the top have collectively lost sight of this situation and are spiralling out of control. I'd love to hear the rationale behind the statements they make. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Left Back Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 27 minutes ago, The Moonster said: The fact is once the Israeli's are all vaccinated and are shouting about how brilliant it is whilst sipping pints and shagging each other, everyone over here will start to demand the same and politicians won't have anywhere to go. They'll all be going to Israel on "fact finding" missions while we're all sat at home. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Moonster Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 (edited) 3 minutes ago, Left Back said: They'll all be going to Israel on "fact finding" missions Edited February 19, 2021 by The Moonster 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaz Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 (edited) Absolutely shameful, although the headline should read "full-time". And I wish they hadn't got a quote from that batshit mental Us For Them group. Young children with autism not able to return to school next week, Scottish council tells parents Edited February 19, 2021 by Gaz 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10menwent2mow Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 I'd be interested in whether any survey of opinions about lockdown ever differentiated between groups who had been furloughed for the duration of the pandemic and those who have worked throughout.Working in hospitality, in Aberdeen, I think I've been at work maybe 10-12 weeks since March, rest on furlough. Its pretty soul destroying and while I was happy enough during the first lockdown and to an extent during this one for the first wee while. Starting to lose my shit with the prospect of this lockdown lasting even longer than lockdown 1.0. Complaints however, have to be tempered by the fact that there are many in a worse position than myself. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burnieman Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 Greece anyone? https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/britain-and-greece-begin-summer-holidays-vaccine-passports-b920245.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaz Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 1 minute ago, Burnieman said: Greece anyone? https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/britain-and-greece-begin-summer-holidays-vaccine-passports-b920245.html Can anyone think of a prominent politician who has a family member with a sizeable villa in Greece? 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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