Covid - news and views
Comments
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+1 fully.
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As far as day to day life is concerned I suspect many of us can do more or less what we would have done pre COVID. The greatest impact is probably still having to wear a face mask. As much as I dislike wearing them self preservation is a big driver in making them acceptable. Same applies to having the vaccination. Having seen the impact of Polio on others when I was younger makes taking the vaccine a no brainer in my view. It is possible that even when the majority of restrictions are removed, masks may still be a requirement on public transport, at least until the Spring of next year.
We now know a lot more about how COVID spreads which is almost exclusively by person to person contact in close proximity. Most scientists now say you can forget the odd Amazon box or washing your shopping as there has been no known cases of spread by this method. That is no excuse, of course, not to continue with good hand hygiene procedures.
My theory on why the Government has extended the last stage of lockdown by up to another 4 weeks is that the want to assess the impact of the Indian/Delta variant. At this stage in previous lockdowns the increase in cases has lead, several weeks later, to a big increase in deaths. As, I am sure, everyone is hoping that the vaccination programme has been a success in stopping that happening. If in a few weeks time there has not been a big uptick in deaths or hospitalisations the Government can proceed with some confidence that, subject to even worst variants appearing, that they can allow life to get back to some semblance of normal, if we remember what that is!!!
David
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Agree with what you've said David. I'd also add one upside to masks and hygiene which has been the lessening transmission of colds and flu.
The major thing to recognise is that children have been relatively unaffected, thank goodness we have not had to see children suffering the effects that adults have done.
I think we are a long way off normailty but at least we are a lot more free in the uk. The big test will be travel, with visitors arriving here and ourselves as visitors abroad. Just my thoughts.
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David you are so right on your connection to polio.
My mums brother, now passed but would have been late 90's now swam in the river with a friend as a teenager. Friend contracted polio, my uncle didn't there by the grace of God??? What different lives they went on to lead 😪.
A very good example of doing it for yourself and others in our current situation.
Our daughter and family in NZ have been generally living pre covid ways, with a couple iof blips, since this time last year. But that comes at a cost no foreign travel without strict isolation on return. The country may be on our green list but you won't get in without meeting strict criteria and paying for your quarantine which starts when you are placed on a bus to the hotel as you leave the airport....... They've had less than 30 deaths but still get outbreaks on the manaditory isolation quarantine so keeping it out of the country this way appears to be working BUT they are a long way behind on vaccinations, so normal it ain't there either.......
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Se you get to my age and with an OH who is not safe on her own ,we have probably done far more voluntary work than I would from the way you have spoken in the past you have ever done but most do not go on about it
And holidays? as the cardiac consultant ,advised me you are to old to be worried what others think when on extended holidays. Do it while you can and OH and i are doing as much as we can while we can
so those who cannot your time will come if you can or want
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Here we go again slating anyone who does not agree with you. Boris promised by Monday we would be free of all restrictions so why the hold up. I can see no reason to hold up freedom so bring it on
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This is what was announced on Monday. There’s no promise of being free of all restrictions but there is an explanation of why we need to extend the current situation until 19 July.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-52530518
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Actually, given that you expected to have two jabs and your World would be back to normal, I guess the same comments could be asked of you?
It isn’t about slating someone who doesn’t agree with me, it’s about trying to understand what comes across as a simplistic, almost I don’t care point of view. I don’t like being under restrictions, I want to be able to do exactly as I want to do. But I also have the capacity to understand that what we are experiencing isn’t that simple, that it’s a lot more complex than two jabs in the arm, and a few random dates our oh so eager to please PM throws out months ahead. (Thankfully, the scientists are being listened to more since Xmas)It’s about prioritising resources, making sure all the effort that has been put in works best for the greater majority, for as long as possible. So sorry if it sounds harsh, but that’s the bigger picture v simplistic view.👍
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The longer we wait the more people are out of work, time to end the madness
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This isn’t the madness but ending restrictions and returning to 'normal' would certainly be mad.
The link I posted will give you an idea of what it's all about.
Jobs versus lives? Hmm, let me think about it🤔
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Actually, Boris promised no such thing!
There's not a lot in the way he and Hancock have handled the whole situation which is anything like worthy of praise. But it was always clear that the lockdown would be "driven by the data not dates" and the final stage would be "no earlier" than next Monday.
The extra 4 weeks will enable many, many more younger folk to be vaccinated (and, don't forget there are many over 50's still waiting for their second jab) and the restrictions are anyway so limited that it is surely a price worth paying.
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or... the longer we wait the more people will not get seriously ill, more will be alive.
as said, what is more important jobs or lives?
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I feel deeply sorry for all those individuals who work in service industries and hospitality, the arts and crafts, etc....It’s one of the unforeseen tragedies of this pandemic, far too many households relying on niche jobs that are not so much life’s necessities, but there because we are an affluent society and have got used to dining out, going to theatres, cinemas, nightclubs, pubs, pampering ourselves in beauty parlours, nail bars etc...... Their existence depends upon people, and people with money. Every job lost, every business closed is a tragedy for someone, but it’s a balance between keeping the services we need to survive going, and hoping that some aspects of service and hospitality will still be there once things do get safer.
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The Israelis got their adult population 100% jabbed sometime ago and went back to more or less normal once the vaccines had had a chance to take effect and the hospitalisation had dropped to low numbers.
It seem to me that HMG is just doing the same but it is taking longer because of our much larger population and the current mutations.
I'm sure we will get there but of course there is a hard core that won't have the vaccine and those that just ignore the rules, etc. just making things worse and then moan about their curtailed freedoms. How stupid is that?
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What about the lives that have been ruined. As for the tooth I tried a private dentist and they won’t entertain taking it out. I take a drug called methotrexate which can stop the blood from clotting. So it has to be an nhs hospital dentist.
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Just have to join the queue for "non urgent"? cases caused by the nearly overwhelmed NHS, which needed staff from other departments to keep the lid on (just)
My OH waited for First urgent appointment to see a consultant from Sep last year to end of April this and now waiting for an urgent (Consultant. Speak)follow up
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I did and passed sentence accordingly.
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I'm glad I can't feel your pain, but you do have my sympathy.
A private dentist may not extract it, but some might, have you tried more than one? A simple phone call asking about your drug could resolve the question without examination.Does the nearest private hospital have someone who could do it? Most doctors who work in the NHS do some hours in a private hospital. I'm sure those who have money are not sent to the NHS 😱.
I was at the dentist this morning I go Denplan, great guy been with him more than 30 years since he qualified and he said he's heard of waiting lists to join a practice, even private ones, of 2 years. Apparently lots of dentists are retiring and there's no coming through. Similar with doctors we don't train enough...... I understand we have a lack of a certain specialist in our NHS Trust 'because they've all gone home to their own country' from one of their secretary 's.
A result of outsourcing that's coming home to roost?? Covid just highlighting the issues in a similar way to lack of preparedness for a pandemic and shortage of PPE did in the early days. We need to learn lots of lessons from this situation - look back at dig for victory in ww2
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It sounds to me, Dave, as if you're exactly one of those who had Boris/Matt delaying the first lockdown because, we now discover, they thought the great British public just "wouldn't stand for it". Whereas, it turned out, the great British public responded magnificently.
And what was the result of that original delay? Thousands of avoidable deaths.
Your "freedom" I think, can just be put on hold a little longer, surely?
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Freedom is a very big word. Very evocative, can be a deeply meaningful concept to the truly oppressed. William Wallace......
I wouldn’t put having to occasionally wear a face mask, or having to drink a beer at home in comfort, or not getting blathered in a nightclub into that category though, at the moment😂
I am sympathetic about your toothache though, not nice. Makes one very irascible......
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They are trained as nurses what they go on to afterwards, is up to them , the same with doctors, after training then they can specialise in the subject that is of interest to them same as your GP I think you will find most have a special subject they also have a specialist subject
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