CV19 - Cure worse than the disease? (Vol 10)

[Red Devil]

Elysium said:

Turns out you can travel anywhere in the country provided you have a reasonable excuse:

We have finally found a policeman who is willing to be honest about what the law actually says:

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/yor...

Oh dear, definitely not 'on message'. BJ and Mancock will be fuming. I wonder whether Keith Hunter is in his corner? Could be awkward if not.

Elysium said:

Its taken us almost a year of nonsense to get here though:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-5...

JuanCarlosFandango said:

The BBC is incredible.

Nope. See below

JuanCarlosFandango said:

I wonder if he has any idea just how incensed some people are that a walk on the beach is now a police matter at all, or that the state broadcaster has become a cheerleader for authoritarianism.

There's your answer. No different from its propaganda role during WW2. Jibes nicely with BJ's wannabe Churchill rhetoric.
He reminds me of Jim Hacker who would often mimic WC. Johnson is not in the least amusing though.
Never forget this is the man who attempted the unlawful prorogation of Parliament to suit his purposes.
Thereby putting the Queen in an impossible and invidious position. Utterly unforgiveable. A reptile who has no shame.
He rightly got spanked by the Supreme Court. When was the last time there has been a unanimous 11-0 decision?

danllama said:

JagLover said:

It is a public service broadcaster whipping up the mob rather than reporting the news calmly and without bias (which is its remit).

Hence the BBC losing fee payers in their droves, including our household over a year ago.

Pah! Johnny come lately.

I haven't contributed to its income for over 40 years. The licence fee is a tax. And a voluntary one at that (I'm LLF).
No way will I line the pockets of an organisation which allowed Savile a free pass (quite likely Harris and Hall too) and spunks money up the wall on the pay of it's 'star' employees.

bern said:

bodhi said:

Just whilst we are on graphs, thought I'd lower the tone on a Friday afternoon with the latest from Johnson and Johnson. They've plotted the efficacy of their vaccine, and, erm....



Seems to be rising to the occasion.

Haha! If anything that should have been the results from the Pfizer one!

A prankster substituted the wrong graph or someone mislabelled it? After all, they both begin with V...

Willhire89 said:

This is years old now but for those of you unfamiliar with 'can I have my spider back' it is worth the read

As soon as I saw the seven legged fiend it raised a smile

Reminds me of the Parking Prankster's radioactive arachnid.

[johnboy1975]

scenario8 said:

Is it the pre-return-to-more-widespread-school-athon testing that is inflating the numbers?

I suppose a likely increase of daily reported “cases” when the schools go back is the optic the government (and other stakeholders) wish to see to dampen any pressure to release restrictions ahead of schedule.

Could it have the opposite effect, namely dropping %age infected figures, and pour more petrol on the 'open up' flames? We've struggled to get under 1%, suddenly testing ramps up and we are at 0.6%. This despite cases pretty much flatlining at 5-6k

[Uggers]

I don't really recall the positive numbers been reported as a percentage? Although noticed testing has been going through the roof. Maybe part of this surge testing?

It's seems whichever figures prove the more convenient/sensationalist depending on your views, gets reported by the MSM.

Does anyone know what the unit cost of each of these tests are to the government? I never see anything ever mentioned on this, but the costs of this must be big figures?

[superlightr]

Alucidnation said:

Thin White Duke said:

My younger sister and her boyfriend have said they're having the vaccine "so that they can go on holiday" without any fuss.

Good for them.

And I am sure they will enjoy their holiday and not give the vaccine a second thought.

As per most people who want to do the same.

yep dont give it a second thought ....... dont worry your little head about it....... don't question it.....do as you are told......papers please. Now.

no jab no job.

Edited by superlightr on Saturday 6th March 07:46

[Alucidnation]

superlightr said:

Alucidnation said:

Thin White Duke said:

My younger sister and her boyfriend have said they're having the vaccine "so that they can go on holiday" without any fuss.

Good for them.

And I am sure they will enjoy their holiday and not give the vaccine a second thought.

As per most people who want to do the same.

yep dont give it a second thought ....... dont worry your little head about it....... don't question it.....do as you are told......papers please. Now.

no jab no job.

Edited by superlightr on Saturday 6th March 07:46

Are you bored behind that sofa yet?

[paulw123]

Uggers said:

Does anyone know what the unit cost of each of these tests are to the government? I never see anything ever mentioned on this, but the costs of this must be big figures?

The total amount spent of tests so far must be eye watering. Would love to know the figure. Fortunately it’s all good though as the contracts will have been awarded to one of Boris or Hancock’s mates.

[Scolmore]

As Test and Trace is now consuming 37bn, I assume the lion’s share of this will be testing (because they haven’t traced anything of note).

How many hospitals could be built with 37bn?

[Square Leg]

paulw123 said:

Uggers said:

Does anyone know what the unit cost of each of these tests are to the government? I never see anything ever mentioned on this, but the costs of this must be big figures?

The total amount spent of tests so far must be eye watering. Would love to know the figure. Fortunately it’s all good though as the contracts will have been awarded to one of Boris or Hancock’s mates.

A customer of mine has a son living in Estonia - he had a test yesterday - have to pay €50 and wait 6 days for the result.
I’d like to assume our gov get them supplied far far cheaper than anything like that!

[55north1west]

Leicester Loyal said:

The thing is we've just had a huge new scheme aimed at improving the service for the passengers and making it all about them, we even restructured the company in order to do this and improve our service. Yet COVID hit and we've just had 12 months of the media and the Government telling us how deadly this virus is and we need to stay at home, it'll take years for public transport to recover, if ever. More and more people will be working from home now than ever before, but companies may also realise they can do without certain staff members and let them go.

From what I'm hearing the aim is to reduce the maintenance we do, carrying it out less frequently. All it'll take is one major disaster or accident, where the maintenance was missed out, and subsequently wasn't done again for another 12 months and they'll soon change it back. This stuff happens all the time, another example is they tell us it's only safe to do certain work with 3 men, but 12 months later they're on about making redundancies, when we haven't even got enough staff to fill a roster, and some of the lads did more than 70 overtime shifts last year just to ensure we could carry on as normal.

I can honestly see new projects and renewals being scrapped, maybe even something major like HS2.

Sorry for going off topic but I just can’t see any logic in HS2, it’s a solution to nobody’s problem, a freight only connection from the SE of England to the Central belt of Scotland with spurs to Wales would be far better for the environment.

[johnboy1975]

Square Leg said:

paulw123 said:

Uggers said:

Does anyone know what the unit cost of each of these tests are to the government? I never see anything ever mentioned on this, but the costs of this must be big figures?

The total amount spent of tests so far must be eye watering. Would love to know the figure. Fortunately it’s all good though as the contracts will have been awarded to one of Boris or Hancock’s mates.

A customer of mine has a son living in Estonia - he had a test yesterday - have to pay €50 and wait 6 days for the result.
I’d like to assume our gov get them supplied far far cheaper than anything like that!

I think the LFT are around a tenner, but maybe the government got a cheap bulk deal?

Private PCR is £100-£150 but again, economies of scale. I assume the kit isn't expensive, but its the lab processing that costs?

[johnboy1975]

55north1west said:

Leicester Loyal said:

The thing is we've just had a huge new scheme aimed at improving the service for the passengers and making it all about them, we even restructured the company in order to do this and improve our service. Yet COVID hit and we've just had 12 months of the media and the Government telling us how deadly this virus is and we need to stay at home, it'll take years for public transport to recover, if ever. More and more people will be working from home now than ever before, but companies may also realise they can do without certain staff members and let them go.

From what I'm hearing the aim is to reduce the maintenance we do, carrying it out less frequently. All it'll take is one major disaster or accident, where the maintenance was missed out, and subsequently wasn't done again for another 12 months and they'll soon change it back. This stuff happens all the time, another example is they tell us it's only safe to do certain work with 3 men, but 12 months later they're on about making redundancies, when we haven't even got enough staff to fill a roster, and some of the lads did more than 70 overtime shifts last year just to ensure we could carry on as normal.

I can honestly see new projects and renewals being scrapped, maybe even something major like HS2.

Sorry for going off topic but I just can’t see any logic in HS2, it’s a solution to nobody’s problem, a freight only connection from the SE of England to the Central belt of Scotland with spurs to Wales would be far better for the environment.

It made far more sense when the trains were overcrowded. (Well, as you say it was questionable even then, with lots of vocal opposition). I'm not so sure you could even make a case for it now, unless you were "modelling" a return to normal occupancy in the nearish future?

Maybe it will be needed after all - to "assist with social distancing"

[Andy888]

This is the Northern Ireland Health Minister. Pig farmer and Pipe Band Sergeant.

Education:

Robin was educated at Kells & Connor Primary School and Ballymena Academy (class of 1990), before completing a BSc degree with the Open University, plus a Certificate of Professional Management and Certificate of Mathematics.

[Eyersey1234]

55north1west said:

Leicester Loyal said:

The thing is we've just had a huge new scheme aimed at improving the service for the passengers and making it all about them, we even restructured the company in order to do this and improve our service. Yet COVID hit and we've just had 12 months of the media and the Government telling us how deadly this virus is and we need to stay at home, it'll take years for public transport to recover, if ever. More and more people will be working from home now than ever before, but companies may also realise they can do without certain staff members and let them go.

From what I'm hearing the aim is to reduce the maintenance we do, carrying it out less frequently. All it'll take is one major disaster or accident, where the maintenance was missed out, and subsequently wasn't done again for another 12 months and they'll soon change it back. This stuff happens all the time, another example is they tell us it's only safe to do certain work with 3 men, but 12 months later they're on about making redundancies, when we haven't even got enough staff to fill a roster, and some of the lads did more than 70 overtime shifts last year just to ensure we could carry on as normal.

I can honestly see new projects and renewals being scrapped, maybe even something major like HS2.

Sorry for going off topic but I just can’t see any logic in HS2, it’s a solution to nobody’s problem, a freight only connection from the SE of England to the Central belt of Scotland with spurs to Wales would be far better for the environment.

As mentioned before I work in the bus industry and we are in the same boat. I can see it taking a long time for passenger numbers to recover, I think the best we will see is 80-85% of pre Covid levels for some time.

[Boringvolvodriver]

From the how many have been vaccinated thread

ghost83 said:
wiggy001 said:

I bet the number of people getting seriously ill with a seasonal respiratory disease will really drop by the end of April...

A top doctor was quoted as saying that this operates like influenza and will rise between November and April as flu does so yeah it should die down I hope the vaccinations do work as well

My reply

Which does kind of beg the question why the younger people (who are far less vulnerable) will be vaccinated over summer. Especially if they are not sure how long the immunity from the vaccine lasts.

Surely it would make sense to start with the younger people, if they want it, in late summer/early autumn to get ready for winter.

In any event, from what I see from the data, the younger people are pretty low risk for serious illness in any event. Read an article today, that based on the current information, a mid 40s unvaccinated person probably has the same risk of serious illness as a vaccinated 70 year.

And in other news, there was an ad in the paper wanting volunteers to monitor the safety of the vaccines. “ the DRSU are conducting a study to study the safety of the Covid 19 vaccines in the UK public” and “must be monitored once they are in “real life” use.”

[FlabbyMidgets]

Thin White Duke said:

My younger sister and her boyfriend have said they're having the vaccine "so that they can go on holiday" without any fuss.

The fact it's come to this, people taking a jab that they don't need (they're both late 20's, fit and healthy with no issues), just so they can go on holiday is ridiculous. It's blatant coercion.

Now I know you could say they don't have to go abroad or that other countries can set whatever entry requirements they like, and I accept that. However I do not think a virus with a 99%+ survival rate and one in which the most vulnerable will be vaccinated against if they choose should warrant such a coercive push.

I'm in the same boat. No desire for the vaccine, under 25, no conditions, relatively healthy bar a lockdown enduced beer belly coming on.
Seeing in the news I'll likely need a vaccine to go on holiday with my mates in the summer means I'll get it begrudgingly.

[kiethton]

Looks like despite having their arse handed to them on TV the other day the BBC are still banging the local/essential travel drum...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-5...

[superlightr]

FlabbyMidgets said:

Thin White Duke said:

My younger sister and her boyfriend have said they're having the vaccine "so that they can go on holiday" without any fuss.

The fact it's come to this, people taking a jab that they don't need (they're both late 20's, fit and healthy with no issues), just so they can go on holiday is ridiculous. It's blatant coercion.

Now I know you could say they don't have to go abroad or that other countries can set whatever entry requirements they like, and I accept that. However I do not think a virus with a 99%+ survival rate and one in which the most vulnerable will be vaccinated against if they choose should warrant such a coercive push.

I'm in the same boat. No desire for the vaccine, under 25, no conditions, relatively healthy bar a lockdown enduced beer belly coming on.
Seeing in the news I'll likely need a vaccine to go on holiday with my mates in the summer means I'll get it begrudgingly.

and you dont mind?

[isaldiri]

Nick Triggle, decent article as usual and actually wondering if the whole masks thing isn't a nailed on certainty to work...... He must feel a little weird at work over the last year tbh not losing his mind like most of the other supposed health/medical correspondents (deb cohen on newsniggt excepted).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56285179

[Iownacar]

Andy888 said:

This is the Northern Ireland Health Minister. Pig farmer and Pipe Band Sergeant.

Education:

Robin was educated at Kells & Connor Primary School and Ballymena Academy (class of 1990), before completing a BSc degree with the Open University, plus a Certificate of Professional Management and Certificate of Mathematics.

Unreal, the four of them are a total joke, Foster, O'Neil, Swan and Mcbride. It seems theyre pushing zero covid through the back door.

They're not getting much love after that roadmap shambles.

I don't understand how disconnected they can be from the public, the parks are full, no one cares any more.

Foster needs to speak up and stop being so weak, O'Neil is just jerking Swan off and enjoying the little control she has.

[anonymous-user]

Just received my letter asking me to get vaccinated.

I’m 58 next month, fit and healthy apart from a fight with cancer 2 years ago.

Decisions, decisions