Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Salt n Vinegar]

50 minutes ago, Thereisalight.. said:

Mine? Aye because 22 months in and still living like this and being frustrated by it really is "heads gone" stuff  

This isnt living a normal life and anyone who says otherwise is at it 

Unfortunately, the definition of a normal life has to accommodate the situation as it is, not how folk want it to be.  Wishful thinking helps no one. 

I want energy prices go back to where they were when I got my previous cheap deal, but unfortunately what I want doesn't really come into it.  The virus has dealt the world a pretty s#itty hand. We can't just stick our fingers in our ears and go "la, la, la, I'm not listening". 

[Left Back]

8 minutes ago, Salt n Vinegar said:

Unfortunately, the definition of a normal life has to accommodate the situation as it is, not how folk want it to be.  Wishful thinking helps no one. 

I want energy prices go back to where they were when I got my previous cheap deal, but unfortunately what I want doesn't really come into it.  The virus has dealt the world a pretty s#itty hand. We can't just stick our fingers in our ears and go "la, la, la, I'm not listening". 

You can if you’re a politician.  Plenty of them from all parties have.

[Elixir]

If these VL scientists are responsible for the biggest overreaction in history, then their heads need to roll for it. They cannot be exempt from accountability.

 

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

12 minutes ago, Elixir said:

If these VL scientists are responsible for the biggest overreaction in history, then their heads need to roll for it. They cannot be exempt from accountability.

 

I mean collectively what you have here (and il qualify this by saying i get that not all the data is in yet) is evidence that Omicron is akin to a mild flu?

[pozbaird]

11 minutes ago, oaksoft said:

Are people really going to follow further restrictions when not a single hospital case of Omicron has occurred?

Yes, many thousands upon thousands of people will follow whatever restrictions the arseholes in Holyrood / Westminster throw at us. Earlier today I was at the gym, was sitting with a coffee in the cafe. The aqua aerobics class ladies were there ahead of their Christmas outing trip to see Les Miserables. Maybe twenty or so of them, ladies of ‘a certain age’. Twenty of them sitting around four tables they had pushed together, loudly yakking away, pretty much in each other’s faces. One of them gets up from the table, walks past me to the bar area to get a coffee, a biscuit or something. A distance of maybe fifteen feet. Two of her pals suddenly scream, and I mean literally scream ‘Sadie! Your mask!’. Sadie, suddenly realising she’s at the bar without a mask on, throws her hands up in the air, and sprints, actually starts running, the fifteen feet back to the table full of loudly chatting ladies, to grab her mask, slap it on, and head the fifteen feet back to the bar again. With a coffee in hand, she goes back to the table, as her pals say something like ‘You have to wear your mask once you leave the table Sadie!’ Sadie mumbles apologies and says she’ll remember the next time.

This is how the government have people behaving now. The actual fcuk sake. No-one, not the gym staff or anyone like me sitting around, would have given a flying fcuk that Sadie had the temerity, the sheer bloody cheek, to get up maskless, and walk fifteen feet for a cuppa’. Her pals though… it’s mental, absolutely bloody mental.

So, aye, the Sadies and pals of the world will do whatever they’re told, it’s the rules.

[Thereisalight..]

57 minutes ago, Salt n Vinegar said:

Unfortunately, the definition of a normal life has to accommodate the situation as it is, not how folk want it to be.  Wishful thinking helps no one. 

I want energy prices go back to where they were when I got my previous cheap deal, but unfortunately what I want doesn't really come into it.  The virus has dealt the world a pretty s#itty hand. We can't just stick our fingers in our ears and go "la, la, la, I'm not listening". 

Wishful thinking? We have vaccines. What more can we do? Time to either live your life or hide away from something that's mutating like every other respiratory illness. People have been brainwashed to treat everyone like a leper or "feel safe" because they're wearing a wee patterned face mask from poundland. If people want to hide away so be it, but that's not living imo

[Theroadlesstravelled]

I wonder if she pulled?

 

 

[Steven W]

8 hours ago, Todd_is_God said:

Starmer today, and Lammy this morning, completely distanced themselves from calls for anything beyond owning up and apologising.

Is it cynical to suggest they know they've broken similar rules and don't want to torch their own careers?

Immediately what I thought

[Scott Steiner]

8 hours ago, Salt n Vinegar said:

Unfortunately, the definition of a normal life has to accommodate the situation as it is, not how folk want it to be.  Wishful thinking helps no one. 

I want energy prices go back to where they were when I got my previous cheap deal, but unfortunately what I want doesn't really come into it.  The virus has dealt the world a pretty s#itty hand. We can't just stick our fingers in our ears and go "la, la, la, I'm not listening". 

I don't think anyone is saying we should stick fingers in our ears and not listen, but we need to think about the effect not just from catching the virus and these new variants that conveniently come out every so often, but also of the preventative measures.

The cure has largely been worse than the problem itself IMO.

[budmiester1]

9 hours ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

I mean collectively what you have here (and il qualify this by saying i get that not all the data is in yet) is evidence that Omicron is akin to a mild flu?

I'm going out on a limb here and I think the government know this, there is no way that they can't see that this "soft" data is hardening up all the time. So why are they introducing these restrictions ? I think this is for two reasons, 1) good old deflection away from the Downing street party and 2) the opportunity to play the "good guy" in about two weeks once the data really becomes solid that Omicron is very mild( which it appears to be so far hopefully) in that they'll drop the restrictions in time for Christmas. Am I being exceedingly cynical here or are Politicians going to Politic?

Edited December 9, 2021 by budmiester1
to make more sense hopefully

[Sergeant Wilson]

10 hours ago, oaksoft said:

You're trying way too hard Sarge.

In what way?

I hardly ever come on the thread now. There are a few on either side that make valid, reasonable arguments or can be entertaining. He's done fūck all but moan since day one. As he's also entitled to do, but it's an informal forum and, as you're aware, we can all expect a bit of stick now and again.

Edited December 9, 2021 by Sergeant Wilson

[pozbaird]

8 hours ago, oaksoft said:

I'm going to be honest with you. My general, unashamed and well-publicised disdain for other humans (give me a dog any day) means I stay away from where others tend to congregate so I don't get to see this type of behaviour.

Every time you post something like this you re-affirm my belief that people in general simply have nothing of value to offer and that I've made the right choice staying out of their way.

If I'd been there I would have spontaneously laughed out loud.

^^^ Didn’t read. You have nothing of value to offer and I’m making the choice to stay out of your way.

Must admit, I laughed out loud too, but certainly not at them, in their direction, or in their face. I am not like that. I have mentioned this group at my gym in a couple of previous posts, and they’re a good crowd. Getting out, doing their aqua classes, a few of them coping with losing their partners. However, I absolutely admit that as I witnessed the scene unfold, I did actually laugh out loud to myself, with a ‘FFS’ ringing in my head. I laughed in a sad ‘WTF’ manner, because these governments (and the shameful scare mongering media) have got many normal, sane, law abiding people at the stage now where not only are facemasks pretty much the only thing that really matters, but ladies like them absolutely freak out if, even for one second, someone doesn’t have a facemask on.

If these ladies were worried about getting Covid, they surely wouldn’t be crowded around four tables, maskless, drinking prosecco, laughing and talking loudly, before piling onto their battle bus to see Les Mis’ and neck more fizz - good on em’ by the way. Nope, no thought about that - but Sadie gets up for a minute without a mask? Full on panic as the rules are being broken. Fcuking rule is an utter arse - I did a forty five minute work out, sweating, moving around a gym, using different equipment, maskless. However, to walk to and from the actual gym or anything else, I’m supposed to wear one? Aye, did ye’.

I knew, the moment the Scottish Government made these pieces of cloth mandatory, they would be all that mattered.

[101]

Missed this in his press conference, it literally is like the episode of The Thick of It when they may a statement with nothing in it and then say the press missed the statement.

[scottsdad]

On 07/11/2021 at 10:01, pozbaird said:

It’s a complete load of shite. At my gym, there’s an aqua aerobics class three times a week, attended by approximately fifteen or so ladies ‘of a certain age’. They’re a good crowd, a laugh when you get talking to them. For them, their classes are more than the exercise. A lot of them have lost their partners, and the social aspect of it all, getting out the house, staying active…. Anyway…. at the end of their pool sessions the fifteen or so of them shove three tables together in the cafe, get the teas in, and maskless, sitting very close together, the nattering and laughing, the volume… increases. A gaggle of older women can make one helluva’ noise. They’re pretty much in each other’s faces.

However, if one of them needs to leave the table, and walk the ten yards to and from the toilet, they slap on a patterned ‘fashion’ facemask. They return, sit down amongst their pals again, take it off, and off they go again. After about forty minutes of talking, laughing, shouting from one end of the table to the other, where Sadie is a bit deaf, all maskless, they all get up from the table, reach into their handbags, put on their patterned fashion facemasks… to walk the twenty feet out the front door.

It’s a farce. An absolute fcuking disgraceful farce, and the mandatory wearing of facemasks should be booted into the sun.

 

10 hours ago, pozbaird said:

Yes, many thousands upon thousands of people will follow whatever restrictions the arseholes in Holyrood / Westminster throw at us. Earlier today I was at the gym, was sitting with a coffee in the cafe. The aqua aerobics class ladies were there ahead of their Christmas outing trip to see Les Miserables. Maybe twenty or so of them, ladies of ‘a certain age’. Twenty of them sitting around four tables they had pushed together, loudly yakking away, pretty much in each other’s faces. One of them gets up from the table, walks past me to the bar area to get a coffee, a biscuit or something. A distance of maybe fifteen feet. Two of her pals suddenly scream, and I mean literally scream ‘Sadie! Your mask!’. Sadie, suddenly realising she’s at the bar without a mask on, throws her hands up in the air, and sprints, actually starts running, the fifteen feet back to the table full of loudly chatting ladies, to grab her mask, slap it on, and head the fifteen feet back to the bar again. With a coffee in hand, she goes back to the table, as her pals say something like ‘You have to wear your mask once you leave the table Sadie!’ Sadie mumbles apologies and says she’ll remember the next time.

This is how the government have people behaving now. The actual fcuk sake. No-one, not the gym staff or anyone like me sitting around, would have given a flying fcuk that Sadie had the temerity, the sheer bloody cheek, to get up maskless, and walk fifteen feet for a cuppa’. Her pals though… it’s mental, absolutely bloody mental.

So, aye, the Sadies and pals of the world will do whatever they’re told, it’s the rules.

Pozbaird - what is going on between you and auld Sadie?  You've been following her to her class for over a month now!

[Salt n Vinegar]

9 hours ago, Thereisalight.. said:

Wishful thinking? We have vaccines. What more can we do? Time to either live your life or hide away from something that's mutating like every other respiratory illness. People have been brainwashed to treat everyone like a leper or "feel safe" because they're wearing a wee patterned face mask from poundland. If people want to hide away so be it, but that's not living imo

Get a grip. As far as I can recall, nobody has ever said that vaccines were the 'be all and end all' of fighting the virus. Anyone who did make that claim should never never be taken seriously on the subject ever again.  What more can we do? Well, stopping acting like spoiled 5 year olds throwing tantrums because they don't get what they want might be a reasonable way forward. 

The real enemies of those who want a normal life are, in no particular order, anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, mask refuseniks, social distance rebels, vaccine passport opponents, non-hand washers, result fakers, (and nose pickers!) and those who seem to forget that the virus spreads not by magic, or by telepathy, but by contacts between individuals, singly or in groups. 

Attitudes matter. In the good ole USA, people living in counties that voted for Trump in the last election are nearly three times more likely to die from Covid than those who live in counties that voted for Biden. I have my suspicions about why that might be. I'm sure others can work it out too - it's not hard. 

(source - https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/584468-people-in-pro-trump-areas-have-ben-nearly-three-times-more-likely-to-die) 

I have a friend who lives in a Trump obsessed area of New Mexico and she backs that up from personal experience.  One neighbour of hers whose wife died of covid even arranged a remembrance party in his home and refused entry to those who wanted to wear masks.  She says she is one of the few folk in her social circle who has even been vaccinated. So yes, following guidance is important as it's only too obvious what happens when the guidance is widely ignored. That's why the shambles in Downing Street is so damaging to public confidence and why those who appear to have flouted the rules should be utterly condemned. 

For the hard of thinking, and it is ridiculous that I even have to mention this, the easier it is for the virus to spread, like the latest variant, the more individuals will catch it and the more opportunities there will be for those who have caught it to develop and spread further variants. Further variants might continue down the "less harmful" route; they might not, it could get worse.

All these "get the restrictions in the bin" eejits are part of the reason the damn restrictions are still needed. 

Now away and mask up, wash your hands, don't visit folk in hospitals if you have rampant diarrhoea, and stop licking door handles.  I realise that last two might look a bit odd to sane people, but some folk seem immune to common sense health measures. . 

[pozbaird]

9 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

 

Pozbaird - what is going on between you and auld Sadie?  You've been following her to her class for over a month now!

I’m keeping an eye on all of them, just in case another one of them gets up and maybe nips to the lavvy without a mask on. Get them reported.

[Detournement]

The caffeine centric adventures of Pozbaird have been one of the highlights of the thread. 

A man who appears to be permanently prowling the coffee shops, cafes and tearooms of Scotland. 

[vikingTON]

4 minutes ago, Salt n Vinegar said:

All these "get the restrictions in the bin" eejits are part of the reason the damn restrictions are still needed. 

And there, hidden within an absolute turd of a post, we have the explanation. You view a barely living virus as being responsive to your stupid wee morality play. It must be someone's fault that I have to put up with this! 

It's a shame that this is not how the epidemiology of an infectious respiratory disease actually plays out. 

[Elixir]

15 minutes ago, Snafu said:

I find it strange that given the data so far that the UK Gov are reacting now to bring in restrictions because of Omicron but with the much more severe Delta they did practically nothing. Makes no sense.

This is politics, not public health. They got burned politically for 'doing nothing' last time, so had to be seen to 'do something' this time.

How we can live our lives is now determined by whether or not hospital capacity might get a bit stretched.

[Todd_is_God]

36 minutes ago, 101 said:

Missed this in his press conference, it literally is like the episode of The Thick of It when they may a statement with nothing in it and then say the press missed the statement.

He also said that there would soon come a time where it would no longer be right to subject everyone to various NPIs in order to protect those who have chosen not to take the vaccine from the potential for serious illness.

In other words, once the data on this becomes stronger and it blows over (which will hopefully be very soon), any future interventions will be placed on the unvaccinated only.