Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[ICTChris]

independent SAGE are a creature of the media. Just about every time I see Channel 4 News they have someone on from it. 

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

2 minutes ago, Michael W said:

The US didn't lift the ban on the Schengen Zone either, which was quite revealing. Clearly, they are not bothered, even for fully vaccinated passengers. 

I get that they want to keep the Delta variant out, but that ship looks to have sailed for them. The only way to stop it is vaccination and they seem to have hit a massive brick wall there. 

It's the testing that puts me off more than anything, tbf. It's just too much hassle and additional cost - perhaps tolerable for a fortnight away somewhere, but short breaks can forget it. The tests will cost more than the flights. 

Exactly. 

The papers can f**k off with this 'UK opens to the world' pish. All we're doing is allowing foreign citizens into and out of the UK. 

The UK itself is still being treated as a pariah state and there's no sign at all that .....outside a few countries desperate for bucks....we'll be allowed to travel anywhere soon. 

So much for summer 2021 being 'back to normal'. 

[welshbairn]

22 minutes ago, Michael W said:

It's the testing that puts me off more than anything, tbf. It's just too much hassle and additional cost - perhaps tolerable for a fortnight away somewhere, but short breaks can forget it. The tests will cost more than the flights. 

Hopefully it will ease up soon as our numbers come down, I got away with a single test on a short trip from Portugal to Spain because I was still within 72 hours of taking the test when I got back to Portugal. Annoyingly they changed the rules the same day I took the test so I could have got away with a 30 euro antigen one instead of the 100 euro PCR one I paid for.

Edited July 28, 2021 by welshbairn

[Honest_Man#1]

3 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Hopefully it will ease up soon as our numbers come down, I got away with a single test on a short trip from Portugal to Spain because I was still within 72 hours of taking the test when I got back to Portugal. Annoyingly they changed the rules the same day I took the test so I could have got away with a 30 euro antigen one instead of the 100 euro PCR one I paid for.

I think that’s the main concern for me, the constant changes made. Until there’s a set policy that stays in place for longer than a week, I’d have no confidence that even if when I left the rules were acceptable, that they wouldn’t change it and I’d have to quarantine upon return or spend an extra wad of cash on testing that I hadn’t planned for.

[Abdul_Latif]

21 minutes ago, Michael W said:

but short breaks can forget it. The tests will cost more than the flights. 

Only till Cop26 whereafter the price of flights will increase due to taxes intended to combat unsustainable levels of emissions…

Leisure travel soon may not be the ridiculously cheap city break to Barcelona / Rome etc we’ve all gotten so used to in the last 20 or so years.

[djchapsticks]

18 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

independent SAGE are a creature of the media. Just about every time I see Channel 4 News they have someone on from it. 

And folk need to understand that this, rather than public health, is their MO.

Weren't one of their main folk not proclaiming just about 8 weeks ago how good it was that they had created around 5 or 6 media personalities off the back of the publicity during the pandemic and that they'll continue trying to strive towards this?

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

3 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Hopefully it will ease up soon as our numbers come down, I got away with a single test on a short trip from Portugal to Spain because I was still within 72 hours of taking the test when I got back to Portugal. Annoyingly they changed the rules the same day I took the test so I could have got away with a 30 euro antigen one instead of the 100 euro PCR one I paid for.

The window for this is very small. I've no doubt that the case numbers will fall over the next month, but countries worldwide react very slowly to this...especially as the UK is one of the few countries where the Delta variant is almost 100% prevalent. 

By the time countries react, schools and colleges will be back and we'll be heading towards  autumn and winter. We have enough of the population unvaccinated for cases to begin rising again. 

Yes, hospitalisations and deaths may be a small percentage of what they were, but that's not what the world is judging the UK on. 

It may be that the EU and the USA decide that Real Politik takes precedence over case numbers and allow us back after we've jumped through enough hoops, but there's no sign at all that travel abroad is anywhere close to 'getting back to normal'. 

[Donathan]

8 minutes ago, Abdul_Latif said:

Only till Cop26 whereafter the price of flights will increase due to taxes intended to combat unsustainable levels of emissions…

Leisure travel soon may not be the ridiculously cheap city break to Barcelona / Rome etc we’ve all gotten so used to in the last 20 or so years.

Is Cop26 expected to lead to increased taxes on these things?

 

 

I’m no climate change expert but I’m disappointed by the lack of investment in sustainable alternatives. It seems like there’s a culture war where half of the population want to stick their fingers in the ears and ignore climate change while the other half want a return to a much simpler life where only a very small percentage of people ever travel outside the country of their birth.

 

I want to see them come up with sustainable ways to keep our cheap city break, for example, why not build planes that run on renewable energy? Or what about a high speed bullet train that can get you anywhere in Europe in just a few hours?

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

3 minutes ago, Donathan said:

 

 

I want to see them come up with sustainable ways to keep our cheap city break, for example, why not build planes that run on renewable energy? Or what about a high speed bullet train that can get you anywhere in Europe in just a few hours?

European rail infrastructure means that that is pretty much possible. Almost every large European country has a superb, fast train network. 

Apart from the UK, that is hopelessly stuck in 1960's when it comes to train travel. 

 

[effeffsee_the2nd]

25 minutes ago, Bob Mahelp said:

The window for this is very small. I've no doubt that the case numbers will fall over the next month, but countries worldwide react very slowly to this...especially as the UK is one of the few countries where the Delta variant is almost 100% prevalent. 

By the time countries react, schools and colleges will be back and we'll be heading towards  autumn and winter. We have enough of the population unvaccinated for cases to begin rising again. 

Yes, hospitalisations and deaths may be a small percentage of what they were, but that's not what the world is judging the UK on. 

It may be that the EU and the USA decide that Real Politik takes precedence over case numbers and allow us back after we've jumped through enough hoops, but there's no sign at all that travel abroad is anywhere close to 'getting back to normal'. 

i'm not sure schools will be the big thing they were before,  The argument of calling schools infection factories was that they were exempt from most of the distancing measures and number caps that the rest of society had been lumbered with , but now England has gotten rid of all restrictions including distancing so education is not the outlier in terms of mitigation's  it was during most of the pandemic

[TheScarf]

11 minutes ago, Bob Mahelp said:

European rail infrastructure means that that is pretty much possible. Almost every large European country has a superb, fast train network. 

Apart from the UK, that is hopelessly stuck in 1960's when it comes to train travel. 

 

Probably because any new piece of infrastructure in the UK is met with a barrow load of resistance, law suits, petitions etc.  Whereas on the continent, they say 'fuck you, we're the government, it's getting built.

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

3 minutes ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

i'm not sure schools will be the big thing they were before,  The argument of calling schools infection factories was that they were exempt from most of the distancing measures and number caps that the rest of society had been lumbered with , but now England has gotten rid of all restrictions including distancing so education is not the outlier in terms of mitigation's  it was during most of the pandemic

All true. 

I think I meant it in the sense that 100% of school pupils are unvaccinated, and a high proportion haven't actually caught Covid and haven't yet built up an immunity.

It's pretty much inevitable that case numbers will remain high in under 18's for the forseeable future. And it's case numbers that other countries look at when deciding to allow entry to UK citizens or not. 

 

[Suspect Device]

I currently enjoying a mask-less break at Center parcs but there are still plenty of people wearing them when indoors and the occasional oddball wearing them outdoors. Some staff are wearing them but it can't be mandated because not all of them are.

 

[welshbairn]

39 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

Probably because any new piece of infrastructure in the UK is met with a barrow load of resistance, law suits, petitions etc.  Whereas on the continent, they say 'f**k you, we're the government, it's getting built.

And because even when they start building they're incredibly slow, to spread out the cost. The channel tunnel rail link was an embarrassment, the French had built theirs by the time the tunnel was complete, the UK took another 13 years. China have offered to build HS2 in 5 years for far less money, they have loads of spare plant and machinery and could build at multiple places simultaneously. That would be an affront to England's engineering prowess though, so we might see it finished by 2035, realistically 2040 if Crossrail is anything to go by.

Railway's coming home.

Edited July 28, 2021 by welshbairn

[vikingTON]

22 minutes ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

i'm not sure schools will be the big thing they were before,  The argument of calling schools infection factories was that they were exempt from most of the distancing measures and number caps that the rest of society had been lumbered with , but now England has gotten rid of all restrictions including distancing so education is not the outlier in terms of mitigation's  it was during most of the pandemic

Under 18s are the only mass reservoir of unvaccinated people left in the country, and grotty children still pass on diseases at a much higher rate/frequency in schools than any group of adults in a normal workplace, or pub, or any other indoor space. 

Not only will schools remain infection factories, but they will play an even larger role until either vaccination of children is well underway or they achieve natural herd immunity. 

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

5 minutes ago, virginton said:

 

Not only will schools remain infection factories, but they will play an even larger role until either vaccination of children is well underway or they achieve natural herd immunity. 

The fact that each under 18 positive test carries the same weight as an adult positive test in the eyes of the international community certainly means that cases in schoolchildren will be very important for all of us wanting international travel to get back to some kind of normal. 

 

[vikingTON]

In the meantime, I see that Sridhar's beloved South Korea are going into psycho mode again:

 

Quote

 

South Korea reports 1,896 new cases
South Korea on Wednesday reported 1,896 new cases for Tuesday, its highest daily increase, as the country struggles to subdue a fourth wave of outbreaks fanned by the more contagious Delta variant.

The daily tally broke a previous record set on 22 July as infections are spreading beyond the capital, Seoul, and its neighbouring regions where the toughest social distancing rules are in place, Reuters reports.

There were 1,823 domestically transmitted cases on Tuesday and 33.5%, or 611, of the were from areas outside the capital regions, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

There were 1,823 domestically transmitted cases on Tuesday and 33.5%, or 611, of the were from areas outside the capital regions, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

This is the first time the number of cases outside the Seoul metropolitan region has exceeded the 600 mark since the first Covid wave emerged from a church in the southeastern city of Daegu.

Tighter social distancing curbs took effect across most of the country on Tuesday and will last for two weeks. Those areas will be under Level 3 curbs on a four-level scale, which will mean a 10pm (1300 GMT) dining curfew and ban on gatherings of more than four people.

The tighter curbs were enacted to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus during South Korea’s peak summer holiday season.

The great Seoul area region remains under Level 4 curbs that include a ban on gatherings of more than two people after 6pm.

 

 

[Aufc]

I have seen a few twitter posts showing people who have refused the vaccine and have now caught covid and are very unwell and saying “they wish they had got the vaccine”. I am very much in the “everyone should get the vaccine” but clearly it is up to people to make their own minds up. However, these posts also ignore the elephant in the room which is all the people shown are clearly severely overweight. As I have said in the past, I really hope this acts as a catalyst to get the obesity issue under control

[Granny Danger]

20 minutes ago, Suspect Device said:

I currently enjoying a mask-less break at Center parcs but there are still plenty of people wearing them when indoors and the occasional oddball wearing them outdoors. Some staff are wearing them but it can't be mandated because not all of them are.

 

Any time I see someone wearing a mask outdoors I assume they have serious health issues or are, as you say, oddballs.

[Granny Danger]

1 minute ago, Aufc said:

I have seen a few twitter posts showing people who have refused the vaccine and have now caught covid and are very unwell and saying “they wish they had got the vaccine”. I am very much in the “everyone should get the vaccine” but clearly it is up to people to make their own minds up. However, these posts also ignore the elephant in the room which is all the people shown are clearly severely overweight. As I have said in the past, I really hope this acts as a catalyst to get the obesity issue under control

Fat chance.