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@Happy Blue

Sorry for the delay people. I was going to let you know how my 'injection' went, but I gave been put on a lower list - mainly due to a blood test that shows a high level of antibodies and that somewhere between March and now I have had the virus, lived with and beaten it - not sure how, never had any indication that it was there and my 'bubble' of 3 of us are all tested positive with antibodies so we are somewhat safe for the moment. The nurse told me that there are more old people like me and that if it is easy for you to get a blood test then do it as there are quite a few of us feeling happier today! Don't ask why or how or anything - I just feel that my years in the RAF when they pumped all sorts into me in the Far East - including a visit to Christmas Island in 1957 seems to have strengthened my immune system somewhat. Watch this space (if you want)

I think there’s a massive difference in what are for instance supported accommodation homes, resedential homes and care homes. My mum died in a nursing care bed in March riddled with cancer on a syringe driver. Couldn’t really expect family to look after someone who was that heavily dependent on nursing care. Same with end stage dementia. You can’t expect a family to look after someone 24/7 when they’ve got kids/jobs etc and don’t have the specialist facilities. My Mrs’ grandmother was in supported accommodation and said it was the best thing she ever did at 88. Got to play bingo everyday, sit with ladies her age and discuss interest and went on days out. Now of course, there is also the shite side where families simply stick relatives in when they can’t be arsed, but again there’s usually some form of capacity assessment before this is allowed.

As much as I hate the blitz spirit thing and the shit attitude to personal health in the UK, there are huge cultural differences that you can't ignore. The measures taken by some of the Eastern countries to contain the virus simply aren't viable in Western countries. Some of them would laugh at what we call a "lockdown" compared to, say, the original Wuhan lockdown and there's no way you can get a South Korean style test and trace system running in a country like the UK where people think that their personal liberty and privacy come above a public health crisis - and to be fair, we don't have massive trust in governance in the West, often with good reason, so can you blame people for having this attitude? What I will say is that the UK has become a country that feeds off of conflict and "otherism". Whether it be Muslims, immigrants, the EU, the public sector, the media in the UK has made it an art form turning the public against each other. Readers of the Mail and the Sun always have something to be angry at, someone to blame their lives on, and its never rich white men who inherited their wealth, have never genuinely worked for their position in life, pay their taxes overseas and get elected to run the country because of their posh accents and because they more or less look and sound like the ones that came before them and because of their upbringing, genuinely don't see why they should use their massive advantages to make other peoples' lives better at little or no cost to themselves. But I'm going to stop there before I go off on one properly.

Let's just say that as someone coming from a small country that has been screwed by many "great powers" throughout the history, I'm not particularly fond of any of them.

I genuinely fear for the future, we've unleased a tide of people who are happy to grass on their neighbours for seeing a family member, agree to any restriction however arbitrary because of 'the virus!'. We need to accept that diseases will spread because human beings are emotional and social beings, I think attempting to curb those innate things will do more long term damage than the virus will. Now that's not to say restrictions aren't necessary, of course they are. But this resentment against fellow citizens is really worrying.

Well it was the public who gave these dickheads an 80 seat majority so yeah fair enough.

I agree with this. I actually think a lot of politicians have been struggling with doing what is going to be more politically popular vs. doing what will save lives. And what we've received in return is tons of countries around the world with these sort of half arsed approaches that sort of do something but don't really do anything. Then there's an inevitable spike and we're all told that we have to lockdown again and that normal life is further away than we'd previously thought. And we all want normal life back, so we wind up getting incredibly frustrated. Honestly, I blame governments and the public pretty equally. A lot of bad decisions were made, worldwide, because so many governments wanted to protect their reputations and "protect the economy." So now almost a year into this bullshit and... we've them completely fail to protect the economy, we've lost a lot of life that we probably wouldn't have otherwise, and we've pretty much fucked up ordinary life for everybody. Blows my mind that so many governments worldwide don't have their reputation in complete tatters by the voters, tbh.

Christian belief is similar, at its heart. We've become so rooted in money and our own life that we just want the easiest solution. There are conditions which need care which the family can't provide I'm not trying to judge people here. It's what we encourage as a society. But I do think, as best we can, we should look after our family cradle to the grave. Having your loved ones around you when you are coming to the end can make such a difference.

Might be controversial but I'll put this out there: the multi million business of care homes is a moral stain on this country. Only the most exceptional circumstances should an elderly person go to a car home, the family should take care of them. They looked after us as kids and we should look after them when they are old. It is the absolute epitome of Thatcherism that they are seen as annoying, dispensable people who we can lump off. I sincerely hope that if I have any children they love me enough not not to put me in a home, the most cruel fate for anyone.

Sad thing is people see Russia as the enemy behind everything, when in fact the biggest enemy to the world is and peace is the USA. Has been for 30 years.

There's an old Russian saying which basically claims that "Russia cannot be understood by the mind alone", but I think you can apply it to the US pretty well, too

And that's again the issue of media fueling the mass hysteria by bringing unnecesary confusion to people who are already getting conflicting information every week. Does my head in.

I mean the data is likely accurate, it's just that the interpretation of it is not very clear

Cheers, a few things I noticed after quickly going through it: - they label a place as an "outbreak" if at least three people that tested positive have been in that place over the same 14-day period. That doesn't indicate that any of them caught the virus there - just that they have been there at some point within the last 2 weeks. - the "outbreaks" at grocery stores are likely affecting the employees working in close proximity to each other for prolonged periods of time; that isn't likely to convey any measurable risk to the customers though. - they don't assess the risk, just present the quantitave number of outbreaks that occured.

Remember when we had the tug of war over Pearson, was genuine arguments about which club had the better future

It’s a weird one. It’s simply how the immune system decides to react. I know someone that got it in April and still isn’t right. 32, ex army, fit as a fiddle. Can’t even walk his dog without breathing difficulties.

Why aren't we doing everything to get vaccinations done asap? Get the army in, anyone who can help etc. It will be very expensive but lockdown till Easter will be far more damaging.

Strangely, the fact that we’ve hit the worst case scenario in just about every way makes it easier enjoying Christmas. It really is hard to envisage things being worse, which is quite calming in a way. An amoral, corrupt government with a crushing majority, beyond any accountability, a mutant strain of the virus possibly born within the UK, the entire country being quarantined by much of the outside world, cases and deaths potentially peaking in the midst of Winter, and then No Deal Brexit and a mass disruption of food and medical supplies taking effect at the exact worst moment. And if we do ever somehow emerge out the other side of this nightmare, we are immediately going to go into an economically devastating, ideologically driven round of austerity that’s going to make the first one look like child’s play. Whatever fragile remains of our economy that are left will be stamped harder into the dirt. Any chance of a semblance of economic recovery will be immediately snuffed-out. The country is fucked, and even if this government was booted out at the next election - which it will never be - that would still be too late to set things right.