Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak

[Michael]

Just now, Dr. Gonzo said:

Ah shit, I'll probably wait for the US to stop being Amber then - I'm a cheap arsehole and don't really want to pay for the tests 

I thought you were Iranian and not Scottish. 

But honestly, you might have a long wait. God knows when they will stop making the tests mandatory. Even if the US becomes a Green list country, you will still be required to take COVID-19 tests from my understanding. So I don't think there's any chance of avoiding paying for the tests any time soon. However, the prices for the tests have significantly decreased, so you won't have to shell out a silly amount of money like I had to. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

1 minute ago, Michael said:

I thought you were Iranian and not Scottish. 

But honestly, you might have a long wait. God knows when they will stop making the tests mandatory. Even if the US becomes a Green list country, you will still be required to take COVID-19 tests from my understanding. So I don't think there's any chance of avoiding paying for the tests any time soon. However, the prices for the tests have significantly decreased, so you won't have to shell out a silly amount of money like I had to. 

I'm half English half Iranian  - but I think I got the being a cheap arsehole from my very English dad.

That's all good to know, thanks - at least the price has gone down significantly. I'd be fine with quarantining... but US companies don't give very much time off a year (which is VERY annoying, tbh) and I don't want to spend most of my time off stuck in a hotel unable to see my family/friends... 

Probably fucked myself over by not going back home when people were everyone in my office was working from home - I bet I could have pulled that off without too many people noticing I'm in a different country. Although I'd probably be constantly exhausted 

[Guest]

I was debating some anti vaxers on facebook. They really are stupid its incredible 

[Stan]

 

 

 

[Danny]

This is all too soon isn’t it?

[RandoEFC+]

Looking at the numbers, the July 19 date is viable if the tone is correct. It isn't though. Javid the new Health minister is out there suggesting we treat Covid like influenza from now on. Two other ministers have said on the morning rounds the last couple of days that they won't be wearing masks beyond 19 July. Johnson gives lip service to it but Whitty and Vallance are striking a very different tone to him in this press conference.

Whenever they lift all restrictions, there's going to be some risk, they've obviously decided that this is the point at which the risk level is acceptable. It's still a gamble though. And while I think it's less of a gamble than some of the particularly stupid ones they've taken in the past, it's still a gamble, and with the track record this lot have, you just worry that the case numbers are going to go through the roof, the UK will host the birth of the latest Covid supervariant and another step back is coming a few months down the line. Hopefully not, but it seems a bit dumb not to keep stuff like mandatory face coverings on public transport for a bit longer just for the sake of being able to say "all restrictions lifted".

[JoshBRFC+]

Has anyone used the lateral flow tests and what’s your experience with them, if so?

Tested positive last night then did another over night and it was negative. I’ve done the right thing and booked a follow up and not gone into work. 
 

Decided to take one as I had flu symptoms yesterday and had the tests left over in the house from when I had to isolate a few weeks back because of test and trace.

 

[Azeem]

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/07/05/india/india-fake-covid-vaccine-scam-intl-hnk/index.html?__twitter_impression=true

Real scums

[Dr. Gonzo]

On 04/07/2021 at 14:27, Gunnersauraus said:

I was debating some anti vaxers on facebook. They really are stupid its incredible 

It's usually never worth the time and effort to argue with the diehard anti-vaxers nowadays. If you know someone that's starting to get into those kind of theories and bullshit, then it's probably worth the effort... but a lot of people have come to the conclusion that vaccines are bad and they'll distort truths and good faith arguments in favour of vaccines so that they'll ultimately be able to reach that conclusion of "and that's why vaccines are bad for you and you shouldn't get vaccinated."

[Dr. Gonzo]

50 minutes ago, McAzeem said:

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/07/05/india/india-fake-covid-vaccine-scam-intl-hnk/index.html?__twitter_impression=true

Real scums

It's absolutely insane the number of health professionals that took advantage of people in this scam.

Really is absolutely horrible.

[Stan]

That is some serious betrayal. They haven't done anything to help gaining trust in vaccines with a shit stunt like this.

[Dr. Gonzo]

UK to stop requiring people from amber list countries from quarantining if they've been fully vaccinated!

Not sure if that's a good idea tbh, but that's good for me - so I think it's a good idea.

[Danny]

A good video from the BBC highlighting the arguments for and against the easing of restrictions, and what arguments are based in science and what ones based in politics.

I feel sorry for people who have been shielding since the very beginning and still are, to essentially be told that whether you live or die is no longer a concern must be extremely shit.

 

Edited July 9, 2021 by Danny

[RandoEFC+]

My biggest concern now is the lack of acknowledgement that, even if the vaccines squash hospitalisations and deaths, which they do seem to barring the emergence of a new variant, that it still isn't as simple as flicking a switch. Covid-19 is still a complicated problem, and complicated problems require complicated solutions. The vaccines can form the nucleus of that but the rest of the UK's approach just seems to be hold tight and hope for the best. Valid concerns have been raised about pupils missing from school (they've scrapped the automatic mass isolation from the bubble system but that is going to increase infections and there's currently no sign of them offering vaccines to under 18s as far as I'm aware). Then you've got the potential for mass isolation and possibly illness if infections do spike to 50k+ a day which is going to impact heavily on employers, and there's always that risk of mutation as much as nobody wants to be a doom-monger.

It's the schools that are a real concern for me. There's only a couple more weeks until the summer holidays so we should see infections dip in that age group for six weeks. Hopefully by then they'll have come up with some sort of solution but I don't see what they can really do beside offering them the vaccine. The myth that was flying around early on that kids don't spread is looking pretty silly now. I don't know if it's the mutations or just flawed science and logic from the start.

[Dr. Gonzo]

I think the reality is, the biggest "new normal" in our "post-COVID" world is that there isn't going to be a "post-COVID" world. You look at Singapore, a country that's been an absolute leader in it's COVID response and managing the virus... and they're talking about COVID as something that we'll just have to live with forever. It'll go from being a pandemic to an endemic, like chickenpox, there will probably just always be a baseline level of COVID going around in any given country (and what that baseline is will probably depend on country to country).

So I don't really think we'll ever return to a true "pre-COVID normal" tbh. Too many governments of massive countries around the world really botched the intial response to the virus for that to really ever be a possibility.

At the same time, I do think countries that have high vaccination rates do need to start dropping restrictions and start letting people have as close to a reasonable return to normalcy as possible. My dad's a small business owner that did his best to adapt to COVID, but dealing with the economic impact of the pandemic + issues with importing and costs of ingredients going up have been a nightmare for him. That's probably the case for many businesses, big and small, all across the UK. And that's the livelihood of millions of people across the country - and internationally as well. The economic cost has been very high and I don't think it's sustainable for much longer unless we want to run all small businesses out of operation and leave everything to by the country/world's richest people.

Aside from the economic cost, the emotional and societal cost has been huge. Suicides and arrests for domestic violence have gone way up in a lot of countries as people and families have lived in isolation - in some places for well over a year. Alcoholism is probably skyhigh worldwide too (I haven't looked at the numbers for that though, I'm just making a guess).

5 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

The myth that was flying around early on that kids don't spread is looking pretty silly now.

I'd never heard that myth taken seriously by anyone, tbh. I'm surprised it ever got legs. Kids had COVID pretty early on in Wuhan, so it was easily disprovable. They may have had milder cases than their parents/grandparents, but they could get it and spread it just like anyone else.

There's no doubt COVID is serious and that people are right to be worried about new variants. We'll likely be having to need boosters to our current vaccines and be dealing with various COVID outbreaks for the rest of our lives tbh.

But I do think countries where a lot of people are vaccinated are right in easing restrictions. Does that mean I don't think goverments should be inflexible and never put restrictions higher ever again? Absolutely not - I think it depends on a case by case basis. But I don't think people and businesses can wait much longer to know there's a light at the end of the tunnel or that we can anticipate things ever being the same as they were before the pandemic.

COVID's permanently changed the world and it's highly likely we need to learn how to function as a society with the very high likelihood that there will be baseline levels of COVID even in societies that had an excellent vaccine rollout and/or good early controls for COVID.

But I still think places like Peru, Brazil, India, Iran, etc... where we're seeing more and more waves of the virus, they probably need to be kept on extreme lockdowns until the spread is contained better and vaccines are more easily available. And for places like Australia, where they've been very cautious but the vaccine rollout has been slow... they've got to expedite getting jabs into arms. Otherwise @Harry's never going to experience life outside of lockdown again.

[MUFC]

 

[Mel81x+]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57798520

"Gyms in South Korea's capital Seoul and its surrounding region have been told not to play music with a tempo higher than 120 beats per minute (bpm), in order to limit the spread of Covid-19."

[nudge]

3 hours ago, Mel81x said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57798520

"Gyms in South Korea's capital Seoul and its surrounding region have been told not to play music with a tempo higher than 120 beats per minute (bpm), in order to limit the spread of Covid-19."

The world is truly going crazy

[Azeem]

They should also check which music genre they dislike. I think viruses aren't much into classical opera singing

[Harry]

On 10/07/2021 at 03:41, Dr. Gonzo said:

I think the reality is, the biggest "new normal" in our "post-COVID" world is that there isn't going to be a "post-COVID" world. You look at Singapore, a country that's been an absolute leader in it's COVID response and managing the virus... and they're talking about COVID as something that we'll just have to live with forever. It'll go from being a pandemic to an endemic, like chickenpox, there will probably just always be a baseline level of COVID going around in any given country (and what that baseline is will probably depend on country to country).

So I don't really think we'll ever return to a true "pre-COVID normal" tbh. Too many governments of massive countries around the world really botched the intial response to the virus for that to really ever be a possibility.

At the same time, I do think countries that have high vaccination rates do need to start dropping restrictions and start letting people have as close to a reasonable return to normalcy as possible. My dad's a small business owner that did his best to adapt to COVID, but dealing with the economic impact of the pandemic + issues with importing and costs of ingredients going up have been a nightmare for him. That's probably the case for many businesses, big and small, all across the UK. And that's the livelihood of millions of people across the country - and internationally as well. The economic cost has been very high and I don't think it's sustainable for much longer unless we want to run all small businesses out of operation and leave everything to by the country/world's richest people.

Aside from the economic cost, the emotional and societal cost has been huge. Suicides and arrests for domestic violence have gone way up in a lot of countries as people and families have lived in isolation - in some places for well over a year. Alcoholism is probably skyhigh worldwide too (I haven't looked at the numbers for that though, I'm just making a guess).

I'd never heard that myth taken seriously by anyone, tbh. I'm surprised it ever got legs. Kids had COVID pretty early on in Wuhan, so it was easily disprovable. They may have had milder cases than their parents/grandparents, but they could get it and spread it just like anyone else.

There's no doubt COVID is serious and that people are right to be worried about new variants. We'll likely be having to need boosters to our current vaccines and be dealing with various COVID outbreaks for the rest of our lives tbh.

But I do think countries where a lot of people are vaccinated are right in easing restrictions. Does that mean I don't think goverments should be inflexible and never put restrictions higher ever again? Absolutely not - I think it depends on a case by case basis. But I don't think people and businesses can wait much longer to know there's a light at the end of the tunnel or that we can anticipate things ever being the same as they were before the pandemic.

COVID's permanently changed the world and it's highly likely we need to learn how to function as a society with the very high likelihood that there will be baseline levels of COVID even in societies that had an excellent vaccine rollout and/or good early controls for COVID.

But I still think places like Peru, Brazil, India, Iran, etc... where we're seeing more and more waves of the virus, they probably need to be kept on extreme lockdowns until the spread is contained better and vaccines are more easily available. And for places like Australia, where they've been very cautious but the vaccine rollout has been slow... they've got to expedite getting jabs into arms. Otherwise @Harry's never going to experience life outside of lockdown again.

Yep Australia is pandemonium at the moment (winter) although I'm out of lockdown and my son has only done 2 weeks of homeschool this year. Sydney are in lockdown now and have taken a less risk averse approach, being reluctant to lock down, so now rather than a 10 day lockdown it looks to be 6+ weeks... The threat of imminent COVID spread might finally get us back around to letting people have the AZ vaccine which our medical association had turned their noses up at...

But for now, we continue on our logic circuit...

[Harry]

On 13/07/2021 at 23:56, Harry said:

Yep Australia is pandemonium at the moment (winter) although I'm out of lockdown and my son has only done 2 weeks of homeschool this year. Sydney are in lockdown now and have taken a less risk averse approach, being reluctant to lock down, so now rather than a 10 day lockdown it looks to be 6+ weeks... The threat of imminent COVID spread might finally get us back around to letting people have the AZ vaccine which our medical association had turned their noses up at...

I'm back in lockdown.

[Azeem]

Positivity rated jumped 5% here again. Seems like a cycle now

[Bluewolf]

 

[RandoEFC+]

Double jabbed .

We're on record breaking case numbers over here like the UK. I was worried that I would catch and have to rearrange my second dose but I've made it just about.

My brother got his second dose a few days ago though and tested positive for the virus yesterday.

[Danny]

Feels like we're a petri dish that we're allowing to grow and grow and grow....let's hope this doesn't create a strain that is adaptable to the vaccines. It also feels like people's "we just need to learn to live with this now" attitude of just dropping any sort of restriction is for a lot of people who are clinically vulnerable going to be a death sentence....and/or no end of isolating insight.

You take the breaks off slowly, not completely as cases are rising as high as they were in January.