Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Steven W]

15 minutes ago, pandarilla said:

I thought similar late last night. I'd avoided the news for a while and was shocked by a story that had appeared - completely unrelated to the virus.

Another entirely predictable and tragic story, though. It had me genuinely swearing at the telly (something i always swore I'd never do after growing up watching my dad's reaction to the reporting of the miners strike).

I've actually, ignorantly, missed most of the George Floyd story, such has my focus been on the pandemic.

Weirdly (and I don't mean this to sound bad) but Covid-19 beginning to feature less in the news might help get the public back to some semblance of normality, and lessen the fear that people are so clearly feeling

[D.A.F.C]

I'm coming off furlough imminently. Pretty much everyone I work with will be off for a while longer. I reckon my employer will keep them off as long as possible; I can see how it wouldn't be economically viable to have us all back immediately, as I'm pretty sure we'd be losing money for a few months.
I'd no idea I should be angry that they get more time off (which I must admit to having enjoyed for the past two months) while I'm back getting the full whack of wages (£8.72 per hour, bitches!), but having read this thread I now intend to write to my MP about the possibility of having this pandemic extended  

I've been back for a few weeks now. I'd rather be back but it's annoying that the reward for being more essential or harder working is going back while others are off getting full wages.
I've never worked so hard and keep getting harassed about targets and stuff I cant control because the others that control it are 'working from home'.
Glad to be into a routine again though and the weekends actually feel like weekends.

[Shandon Par]

 

[Granny Danger]

SAGE advisors claiming that the lockdown is being lifted too soon in England.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-news-live-uk-update-lockdown-latest-cases-deaths-boris-johnson-scotland-wales-a9539891.html

The decision by key members of Sage to go public with their concerns shows that ministers are no longer following the science," said the Liberal Democrat health spokesperson.

That quote is very valid; there is no more pretence as to the political voices overruling the scientific one.  No doubt Johnson’s pets like Whitty and Vallance will follow the party line.

 

[Billy Jean King]

It's worse than that. There's a weird strain of spiteful hoors who see somebody with privileges or rights that they don't enjoy at their own work, and will spit venom about how they should have them removed. It tends to come up when public sector workers are discussed, or employees in unionised industry. They would actually prefer to see somebody brought down to their level of misery, rather than entertain the idea that their own employer is ripping the pish out of them.
Having such a low opinion of your own worth has to count as a form of mental illness, surely.

This. I've lost count if the number of weapons grade roasters on Facebook ranting about "furloughed Council workers" living the life of Reilly in the good weather. They are too ignorant realise the Furlough scheme doesn't cover LA employees who will simply be working from home on hours that suit their circumstances.

[Gaz]

3 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

15 hours ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

It's worse than that. There's a weird strain of spiteful hoors who see somebody with privileges or rights that they don't enjoy at their own work, and will spit venom about how they should have them removed. It tends to come up when public sector workers are discussed, or employees in unionised industry. They would actually prefer to see somebody brought down to their level of misery, rather than entertain the idea that their own employer is ripping the pish out of them.
Having such a low opinion of your own worth has to count as a form of mental illness, surely.

This. I've lost count if the number of weapons grade roasters on Facebook ranting about "furloughed Council workers" living the life of Reilly in the good weather. They are too ignorant realise the Furlough scheme doesn't cover LA employees who will simply be working from home on hours that suit their circumstances.

Yep, I get pretty cheesed off with folk asking when I'm going 'back to work'. I'm working more hours than I normally would in vastly more difficult circumstances than I could ever have imagined.

[Bairnardo]

Yep, I get pretty cheesed off with folk asking when I'm going 'back to work'. I'm working more hours than I normally would in vastly more difficult circumstances than I could ever have imagined.

VT incoming....

[ICTChris]

Not sure if this has been shared but Devi Sridhar has been tweeting about the failures of the governments and SAGE in February and March, after reading the minutes of SAGE meetings.

[btb]

26 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

SAGE advisors claiming that the lockdown is being lifted too soon in England.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-news-live-uk-update-lockdown-latest-cases-deaths-boris-johnson-scotland-wales-a9539891.html

The decision by key members of Sage to go public with their concerns shows that ministers are no longer following the science," said the Liberal Democrat health spokesperson.

That quote is very valid; there is no more pretence as to the political voices overruling the scientific one.  No doubt Johnson’s pets like Whitty and Vallance will follow the party line.

 

Following the science has always been a misnomer, it's always been about balancing the science and political needs - and that won't change.

Edited May 30, 2020 by btb

[Granny Danger]

8 minutes ago, btb said:

Following the science has always been a misnomer, it's always been about juggling the science and political needs - and that won't change.

If there’s hypocrisy it has to be called out.  More importantly, if the policy is being revised prematurely it has to be challenged.

[ICTChris]

This thread now screams, look at them having fun, how dare they while I am squeaky clean. I guess it will be the same on Facebook etc.
Spot the hypocrite time.

There’s something to be written about how this crisis has made people behave and respond. I know people who have been ranting on social media about the Cummings case and other people breaking rules, while breaching the regulations regularly themselves.

It’s a maelstrom of politics, societal attitudes, ways we speak to each other, beliefs, ways of looking at the world. Someone will write a very good book about it.

[swiftyswifty swifty]

44 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

SAGE advisors claiming that the lockdown is being lifted too soon in England.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-news-live-uk-update-lockdown-latest-cases-deaths-boris-johnson-scotland-wales-a9539891.html

The decision by key members of Sage to go public with their concerns shows that ministers are no longer following the science," said the Liberal Democrat health spokesperson.

That quote is very valid; there is no more pretence as to the political voices overruling the scientific one.  No doubt Johnson’s pets like Whitty and Vallance will follow the party line.

 

It’s just another example of spin and deflection of this Government. 
 

Johnson’s big reveal about lifting the lockdown came on Thursday. The measures don’t actually come into play until Monday. Previously he has chosen to make such announcements the evening before the come into effect. 
 

Clearly and cynically the timing of this announcement was political and aimed to divert the media attention away from the behaviour of Dominic Cummings. 
 

To now learn that there are concerns from members of SAGE about the lifting of lockdown comes as no surprise to me. 
 

It staggers me that as a nation we are accepting anything coming out from this shower of liars. 

[mizfit]

I’ve been saying for weeks Johnson’s incompetence may create a situation where Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland are over the worst and England are heading back into it. After reading the last few pages I truly believe that might be what happens

[O'Kelly Isley III]

I’ve been saying for weeks Johnson’s incompetence may create a situation where Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland are over the worst and England are heading back into it. After reading the last few pages I truly believe that might be what happens

I think it's only fair to recognise that England's population is huge compared to the other three nations and the demographic and ethnic disparities are more pronounced.
The care home disgrace apart, the Scottish Government has given the impression from the off that they had a coherent plan and until now that has held and the majority have bought into it.
It has been the misfortune of England however that they have the political equivalent of Benny Hill calling the shots surrounded by a cadre of free-market zealots, added to which post-Brexit the population is restive and divided.
We should applaud the scientists for their integrity in speaking out, we could have done with more of that much earlier.

[Michael W]

I'm not surprised some of SAGE are being more cautious having read those Devi Sridhar tweets. 

They have not covered themselves in glory. This does not in any way excuse the Government’s bungling. 

 

[Guest JTS98]

Obviously, all eyes now on the UK to see how the next few weeks unfold in terms of infection rate etc.

Here in Malaysia our two-day spike of last week seems to have been just that - a two-day spike. We're now almost three weeks on from majorly relaxing restrictions (I can go for a pint if I want to) and today only 30 new cases in Malaysia were reported. The odd stand-out day aside, double figures has been the daily norm here for a while.

As I mentioned before, we had a meaningful lock-down, not like the kiddy-on one the UK sort of had. And Malaysia got quite tough on border control quite quickly. Testing and tracing seems to have gone pretty well, but the government here moved early enough to make it worthwhile.

The interesting question is what happens next. Malaysia's Health Director is in the paper today making noises about it not being much longer till he can see restrictions being 100% lifted. His condition for doing so is a straight wee of single-digit cases. We're not at that stage yet, but we're moving towards it.

Already speculation here (and I've seen from other countries) that we might not be far away from an Asia-Pacific travel region opening up between countries with relatively low numbers of cases. Would be economically huge for the region to pull that off, and I'd love to go on holiday.

Or we might just end up back at the start.

Who knows.

Edited May 30, 2020 by JTS98

[welshbairn]

If there's a spike here over the next few weeks I hope the vaccine testers are geared up to make full use of it.

[madwullie]

Article in the guardian purporting to be from someone who is working on the TTI scheme south of the border (by anonymous, so caveats). Seems to be completely unprepared, having been paid a tenner an hour for a good 4 or 5 days to sit in chat rooms and wonder Wtf they are supposed to do. No better now it's gone live.

 

Seemingly it was pulled forward. I wonder why. A shambles to distract from the last shambles, with no doubt a new shambles just round the corner to distract from this shambles. 

 

I thought the whole point of tti was to have it in place BEFORE loosening up, in order to have some way to combat a likely increase in infections. Utterly pointless (and dangerous) opening up before having a way to stop new pockets forming. 

 

Edited May 30, 2020 by madwullie

[doulikefish]

Only pencil in football returning on August 1st "very lightly" Proff Leitch on sportsound just now 

[Todd_is_God]

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/opinion/articles/2020-05-28/superspreader-events-might-actually-help-control-covid-19

I have no idea what this means or how it could be a good or bad thing, but some here may find this interesting and understand it better.