SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)

That is so disgusting. Did you manage to report them or something? Zombie and other apocalypse movies were right, all along. Humans truly are that stupid.

Sure i was only told yesterday. This was last month.
Both the adults have quite public facing jobs too and Deffo met loads of public. They are probably Indirectly responsible for death
 
This is insane



Makes my blood boil that. I want to know the outcome of that. Because you can tell from the way the patient was looking, he would have 100% died if the family had their way.
Big admiration for that doctor there in the video - I would have struggled to remain composed for as long as he had. I've gone to town on some relative over the phone thinking that we were holding a patient against her will.

I will always try and rationalise with stupidity, as sometimes people aren't very bright. But that family there - bringing up "it hasn't been proven to exist" - that's beyond taking the piss. It horrifies me how there are some people out there who still act this way. I've previous said that it has to take a relative to get sick to realise the severity of it - clearly didn't work for this bollockhead.
 
What should we be reading into the cases counts coming down fairly sharply in the UK? For all the discussions about how much the variant adds to R and higher infectiousness, it seems like the issue was we were simply too lax in terms of social restrictions. The big difference in what's closed now vs tier 4 is really the schools - are these worse for spread than we thought?
 
Jesus Christ. I have no words. Let them all go home and die
Ill people in denial and wanting out of the hospital back to their house is a common thing, I've always seen it with all sorts of diseases. It's fear that drives it.

It's the family that shocks me. I've convinced myself for some reason that negationists are only that way because they're isolated of the real impact of the virus, and would act differently when their relatives, friends, etc, became seriously sick. It's shocking how deep -and contagious - their idiocy is. Tragic right now in this context, a threat for the future of things like democracy is how I see it.
 
This is insane



Hate to say it but if he wants to leave and his family are stupid enough to want him out of hospital, it should be his decision. Sign a waiver form and use the bed for someone who will appreciate the care. That poor doctor.
 
Come on now. You can’t seriously think they want to prolong this? They might have made a mess of containing the virus but they’re doing better than almost anyone else at vaccinating you lot against it. Which isn’t a tactic you’d expect from a government that wants the pandemic to persist.

Which brings up some more cognitive dissonance. Seeing as the Tory’s get the blame for the high death toll, do they deserve credit for the impressive vaccination numbers?

Of course they won’t because people love to blame someone, and especially when they can have a dig at a political party who they didn’t vote for. It amazes me how people act as if Labour would have done so much better in this pandemic, if they were in power. The situation is unprecedented, of course there is going to errors made along the way. Even the art thou EU have a supply issue for the vaccine, which is conveniently being missed by many now it doesn’t suit their pro-EU agenda.
 
Ill people in denial and wanting out of the hospital back to their house is a common thing, I've always seen it with all sorts of diseases. It's fear that drives it.

It's the family that shocks me. I've convinced myself for some reason that negationists are only that way because they're isolated of the real impact of the virus, and would act differently when their relatives, friends, etc, became seriously sick. It's shocking how deep -and contagious - their idiocy is. Tragic right now in this context, a threat for the future of things like democracy is how I see it.
The most shocking thing is when he was talking about the vitamins and he said something about “the lawyer told me”. It seems stupidity is spreading almost as fast as Covid
 
Of course they won’t because people love to blame someone, and especially when they can have a dig at a political party who they didn’t vote for. It amazes me how people act as if Labour would have done so much better in this pandemic, if they were in power. The situation is unprecedented, of course there is going to errors made along the way. Even the art thou EU have a supply issue for the vaccine, which is conveniently being missed by many now it doesn’t suit their pro-EU agenda.
It’s debatable what another party would have done. You can only criticize what’s in front of you. So let’s look at the Government so far;
- slow to react to initial outbreak despite Spain & Italy clocking up horrendous numbers
- the pm shaking hands with Covid patients ignoring the dangers
- transferring old people from hospitals back into care homes without testing, triggering outbreaks
- eat out to help out putting the economy before health
- shady supply and work contracts for family or friends, financial gains from the pandemic
- constant mixed, confusing messaging often not understood by their own members
- stay in your own area, unless you’re Dominic Cummings. Laughing it off when it’s brought up
- constant uncertainty around schools
- having to be shamed into helping feed kids, many of them ganging up and attacking Marcus Rashford for raising the issue
- gambling with the vaccine against the advice of the manufacturer. Only time will tell if that gamble pays off
- not doing a national lockdown when they knew for weeks about the new strain and how contagious it is

i am sure that there are many more that I’ve forgotten. Of course the government should be held to account, whether it’s the right time now or not is the question

by the way, the EU ordered in good faith, I fail to see how supply issue is their fault
 
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It’s debatable what another party would have done. You can only criticize what’s in front of you. So let’s look at the Government so far;
- slow to react to initial outbreak despite Spain & Italy clocking up horrendous numbers
- the pm shaking hands with Covid patients ignoring the dangers
- eat out to help out putting the economy before health
- shady supply and work contracts for family or friends, financial gains from the pandemic
- constant mixed, confusing messaging often not understood by their own members
- stay in your own area, unless you’re Dominic Cummings. Laughing it off when it’s brought up
- constant uncertainty around schools
- having to be shamed into helping feed kids, many of them ganging up and attacking Marcus Rashford for raising the issue
- gambling with the vaccine against the advice of the manufacturer. Only time will tell if that gamble pays off
- not doing a national lockdown when they knew for weeks about the new strain and how contagious it is

i am sure that there are many more that I’ve forgotten. Of course the government should be held to account, whether it’s the right time now or not is the question

by the way, the EU ordered in good faith, I fail to see how supply issue is their fault

Indeed. I would personally argue that now is the right time considering people are still dying in record numbers. If they feck up this vaccine roll out they need to step aside and hand leadership over to people who know what they're doing (whomever that may be).

Saw this the other day and it's very true...

Criticise now - "Now is not the time"
Citicise immediately after - "We can't comment when an inquiry is taking place"
Criticise later on - "We need to move on from this"
 
For me the largest elephant in the room that no one is prepared to acknowledge is that freedom of movement on a global scale which we have enjoyed for several decades now and are loathe to give up is also the major reason why the world has suffered hundreds of thousands of deaths. Given that the experts are already saying that this will not be the last pandemic we ever experience perhaps border controls throughout the world will be here to stay.
 
My sister in law had COVID back in March. She’s in USA. She had an antibodies test about 6 months later and they were still present.
Anyway, she just had another test a few days ago and they are still present

If you had it, got the antibodies, and 3 months later were exposed to it again, and your immune system fought it off. Would it then reset the antibody clock? As in your body has built the defences back up again? I haven't got a clue
 
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Take the school situation for instance. They were destroyed for not closing the schools in December and are now being destroyed for not committing to a date to reopen schools. How can they win in a situation like that?
It is much more complicated than the government only being criticised for closing them opening schools. They may simplify it into those terms so people perceive "oh they can't win". But to be brutally honest, it is absolute bull.
 
As i said , mistakes have been made by the government , which have directly cost lives . Thats the black and white of it . Early on in particular we were slow to react and that lead to death .Putting people into care homes without testing , led to death. For comparison , other countries in europe acted more strongly and suppressed the 1st wave , i,m thinking of germany and france in particular as they have similar populace and demographics , and also similar experience of pandemic. They also , at the time ( germany in particular ) were heralded for their test and trace systems. Im not blind to the fact the government have made mistakes here , and rightly they are getting called out for that . ( Though i will say , the opposition have been abject in almost every way . Nicola Sturgeon though has been consistent and clear throughout , to her credit )

Regarding from the middle of the pandemic to date , i do believe the government have acted better ( not perfect by any stretch , and the xmas idea was a complete clusterfeck ) , but the testing system , from my own experience worked really well and was ramped up to beyond that of our neighbours in germany and france . Germanys heralded system fell apart and was overwhelmed when hit with the numbers we had in the first wave . Given the progression of time and the lower deaths and cases initially , i could also argue Germany have performed worse during this second wave than we have . I know you will argue that your point was not about how other countries are performing but about our gevernment , but i think mental comparison does play a part in our thinking that " We " are doing well or not .

For example " We seem to have been ahead of the game regarding vaccinations and that is something that should be lauded , some bright in the dark .

Ive commented before that the media have acted very irresponsably throughout , though i have not seen much positive/ negative Tory or labour spin on it to be honest , just bad , lazy , dangerous knee jerk clickbait style stuff that in worse than fake news in many ways. i ,m going to use the highest death rate in the world quote as an example of that . looks good on a headline , but according to world of meters , other countries do have higher death rates per million , belgium being one .

People are an issue though i,m afraid , and we will just have to agree to disagree on that . Part of it is demographic , we are old and fat as a nation , so the fat part at least we have to take ownership of . Large numbers of people have chosen to ignore the advice not to mix unless essential , Black lives matter protests and gatherings , shisha bar groups , weddings in jewish schools spring to mind . Thats the people mate , choosing to say feck it , and dominic cummings going for a drive as an excuse does not cut it with me .

Ive no doubt after this there will be heads to roll , a fall guy here or there , a dodgy deal being uncovered . ive also no doubt that some of the people saying ' well they deserve it " will be the same people who went to a new years party then went home and killed an aunt or uncle or mum or dad
The government were advised by SAGE on 21st September to take drastic action to prevent a "very large epidemic with catastrophic consequences". Their advice was ignored. I don't see an improvement in the UK response to the second wave. We have the highest death rate in the World over the last week and also the highest total number of deaths in Europe. 60% of deaths happened after the SAGE advice was ignored.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/uk-covid-death-rate-coronavirus-b1788817.html


As for vaccinations, yes we approved early, without the same thorough regulation as the EU or even the USA (see Dr Fauci's comments). That gamble of early approval and ordering seems to have paid off in the short term. But now our government stands alone in spacing out the first and second jabs way beyond the manufacturers recommendation. This is an experimental and new vaccine, do you trust our govenrment over the vaccine manufacturer? The only reason they are spacing out the gaps is so they can make the claim similar to yours;

"have been ahead of the game regarding vaccinations and that is something that should be lauded , some bright in the dark ."

I know we are all desperate for some positive news, but let's not blinker ourselves. Many people are waiting for their second jab and there is a chance that increasing the gap between the jabs could reduce the effectiveness. The government are counting people who have had their first jab but not their second jab in their figures. Playing politics yet again. But yes, let's blame people driving 5 miles to walk for the pandemic.

One thing we can agree on is, political opposition has been weak. Waste of time.
 
If you had it, got the antibodies, and 3 months later were exposed to it again, and your immune system fought it off. Would it then reset the antibody clock? As in your body has built the defences back up again? I haven't got a clue

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More will be produced next time you encounter
 
The government were advised by SAGE on 21st September to take drastic action to prevent a "very large epidemic with catastrophic consequences". Their advice was ignored. I don't see an improvement in the UK response to the second wave. We have the highest death rate in the World over the last week and also the highest total number of deaths in Europe. 60% of deaths happened after the SAGE advice was ignored.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/uk-covid-death-rate-coronavirus-b1788817.html


As for vaccinations, yes we approved early, without the same thorough regulation as the EU or even the USA (see Dr Fauci's comments). That gamble of early approval and ordering seems to have paid off in the short term. But now our government stands alone in spacing out the first and second jabs way beyond the manufacturers recommendation. This is an experimental and new vaccine, do you trust our govenrment over the vaccine manufacturer? The only reason they are spacing out the gaps is so they can make the claim similar to yours;

"have been ahead of the game regarding vaccinations and that is something that should be lauded , some bright in the dark ."

I know we are all desperate for some positive news, but let's not blinker ourselves. Many people are waiting for their second jab and there is a chance that increasing the gap between the jabs could reduce the effectiveness. The government are counting people who have had their first jab but not their second jab in their figures. Playing politics yet again. But yes, let's blame people driving 5 miles to walk for the pandemic.

One thing we can agree on is, political opposition has been weak. Waste of time.

I take on board the advice from sage being ignored , but we have to bear in mind that sages focus is solely the immediate impact on health from the epidemic point of view , at least from what i understand . The government have to balance that advice against all other effects on the country , including the economy . I know its an emotive balancing act and it could be argued that each life comes above anything , that we should shut everything down for as long as it takes and for as hard as possible , to keep deaths to a minimum ( actually not only death , but long term serious health impacts of the virus , which has been barely touched upon here in this thread , but which i do suspect will be severe )
This balancing act is something that all developed nations are wrestling with , and there has been political turmoil in most of our neighbours trying to find that right balance .
if we had acted as sage had reccomended , without a doubt deaths would be lower and without a doubt more businessess would fail and any recovery would take longer .

Regarding the vaccinations and ' the gamble ' would it not be fair to say that ALL countries are gambling with these vaccines . All of them have been approved in record time and without the normal process . Fauci backtracked on his comments shortly after making them , as the usa were also about to approve the same vaccine . The vaccine manufactuers are still gathering data on efficy of one or multiple doses , so i think its fair to say that all of them are being carefull with advice . None of the manufactuers can say how long the vaccine is usefull for for example , but does that mean that all countries should hold back until they get that data in , say in another year or so ? Personally i think not , i would take the view that some protection for all the vulnerable is better than none at all until normal time scales in development have been met .

Your use of the phrase "gamble " is pretty apt , except that i think All use of the vaccines is a gamble at the moment . Its also intersting that you mention playing politics regarding the vaccines , this is something that is happening throughout europe in particular , countries vying for a limited supply and kicking off when they dont get it . Its intersting to me when i read the numbers of each vaccines ordered by country for example , i think we in the uk have pre ordered over 200 million doses , way above our populace , as have the eu . It reminds me of the ppe fiasco last march where the world was all chasing ventilators and masks at the same time . Maybe our government learnt , and thats why they got in early and ordered vaccines before anyone else

Out of interest where did anyone blame people driving 5 miles to walk for the pandemic ?

EDIT , forgot about starmer

Why have the opposition been absent by the way ? Starmer seems like a decent bloke , but he seems terrified , not sure what of , but he has no voice . As for the lib dems ive not heard a sniff from them throughout , which is a discrace
 
It grates my ball cheese people giving government a free pass. They’ve fcuked up at every turn

Agreed, you can expect some mistakes as the situation is unprecedented and every government will have made them.

That's very different from having literally the worst mortality rate per capita in the world and failing to react quickly enough at every turn. What really gets to me is the constant "we've listened to the science" when the people he says he's listening to have and are telling us we should have moved quicker and were repeatedly saying that at the time in press conferences that were broadcast to us all.
 
I take on board the advice from sage being ignored , but we have to bear in mind that sages focus is solely the immediate impact on health from the epidemic point of view , at least from what i understand . The government have to balance that advice against all other effects on the country , including the economy . I know its an emotive balancing act and it could be argued that each life comes above anything , that we should shut everything down for as long as it takes and for as hard as possible , to keep deaths to a minimum ( actually not only death , but long term serious health impacts of the virus , which has been barely touched upon here in this thread , but which i do suspect will be severe )
This balancing act is something that all developed nations are wrestling with , and there has been political turmoil in most of our neighbours trying to find that right balance .
if we had acted as sage had reccomended , without a doubt deaths would be lower and without a doubt more businessess would fail and any recovery would take longer .

Regarding the vaccinations and ' the gamble ' would it not be fair to say that ALL countries are gambling with these vaccines . All of them have been approved in record time and without the normal process . Fauci backtracked on his comments shortly after making them , as the usa were also about to approve the same vaccine . The vaccine manufactuers are still gathering data on efficy of one or multiple doses , so i think its fair to say that all of them are being carefull with advice . None of the manufactuers can say how long the vaccine is usefull for for example , but does that mean that all countries should hold back until they get that data in , say in another year or so ? Personally i think not , i would take the view that some protection for all the vulnerable is better than none at all until normal time scales in development have been met .

Your use of the phrase "gamble " is pretty apt , except that i think All use of the vaccines is a gamble at the moment . Its also intersting that you mention playing politics regarding the vaccines , this is something that is happening throughout europe in particular , countries vying for a limited supply and kicking off when they dont get it . Its intersting to me when i read the numbers of each vaccines ordered by country for example , i think we in the uk have pre ordered over 200 million doses , way above our populace , as have the eu . It reminds me of the ppe fiasco last march where the world was all chasing ventilators and masks at the same time . Maybe our government learnt , and thats why they got in early and ordered vaccines before anyone else

Out of interest where did anyone blame people driving 5 miles to walk for the pandemic ?

EDIT , forgot about starmer

Why have the opposition been absent by the way ? Starmer seems like a decent bloke , but he seems terrified , not sure what of , but he has no voice . As for the lib dems ive not heard a sniff from them throughout , which is a discrace
Re: economy: it is counter productive to stay open against scientific advice and allow the virus to get to current levels. It then has to be shut down harder and longer than it would have if advice had been listened to. Look at New Zealand as a prime example. Their businesses are open and they have been pretty much covid free. Everyone benefits, less people dying and the economy reopens sooner. Again, you are repeating the government line hook, line and sinker.

Re: vaccine. How many other countries are delaying the gap between jabs as much as we are? Going against the vaccine manufacturer guidelines?
We approved quicker than other countries. Fauci backtracked as a diplomatic move, but hey, we can all believe what we want on that.

It is far too early to claim the UK vaccine roll out is a success. Let's wait and see. Premature claims of "World beating" are banded about far too much in the UK at the moment. At best we are 10% of population vaccinated, but I believe that includes those only receiving one jab. It may be closer to 5%. We won't know the outcome of this gamble for some time.

Re: people blaming.
I was referring to this story. Initially it was a witch hunt but was later shown to be out of order. But it is indicative of the wider "blame the public" approach being promoted by this government and their friends in the media.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-derbyshire-55625062

Re: Starmer. The schools debacle has been fuelled by him. He makes some small criticisms but barely enough. I think his PR team have told him to lay low until the next election! Not good enough after 4 more years of this absolute clusterfeck from the current Government. There seems to be little hope in UK politics at the moment. The Tories are devoid of talent and competence. Dangerous combination when mixed in with COVID and BREXIT.
 
what can happen to the individuals in the Government heavily involved? feck all, Boris, Hancock, Raab, Gove, Sunak will all get off.

Tony Blair took us to war based on lies and nothing happened to him!
 
what can happen to the individuals in the Government heavily involved? feck all, Boris, Hancock, Raab, Gove, Sunak will all get off.

Tony Blair took us to war based on lies and nothing happened to him!
nothing will happen. There will be some inquiry, lessons will be learned, they all apologise, their pals in the media cover for them, and life goes on.
IMO Gove and Sunak will be the next Tory leader.....or Jeremy Hunt
 
nothing will happen. There will be some inquiry, lessons will be learned, they all apologise, their pals in the media cover for them, and life goes on.
IMO Gove and Sunak will be the next Tory leader.....or Jeremy Hunt

Hunt has done a lot of interviews throughout this positioning himself often against government measures. I think Patel would be in the running too, she has a Thatcher-esque cold determination.
 
Is it too early to say the jabs are having an influence on the sharply falling case numbers?
Too early to see it in case numbers. Though the first jab rollout is running well, the actual number of the population who are now three weeks post (first) jab is only a small proportion of the population. In any case the studies from IC and the ONS both suggest that case rates are highest amongst teens/younger adults whereas the vaccine is mostly going out to the 70+

The impact on hospitalisations could start to be visible soon. Sometime in March we should see an impact on deaths.
 
This is interesting. India might have reached herd immunity already, without needing vaccines. In the biggest cities anyway.

Dr Nirmalya Mohapatra, a senior resident doctor at Ram Manohar Lohia hospital in Delhi, said they did not have a single Covid-19 patient. “Cases have fallen very rapidly,” he said. “There was a surge two months ago but now we are not seeing any patients admitted to the Covid ward. There is not a single Covid patient in our hospital right now. It has not been this low since April.”

They have a very young population so the death rate has been low throughout. Just goes to show there really might be more than one way to get through this.
 
Surely this can’t be a surprise. In an ideal world, kids could probably do with repeating the year.

Extending compulsory education for all kids to 19 rather than 18? Make kids sit GCSEs when they’re 17 rather than 16.

The knock on consequences are huge but kids are going to miss out!
I suggested this previously but reasoning against was that it has knock on effect to universities income and no graduates going into workforce

Unless you are literally just talking about primary and secondary? I still think it’s a good idea
 
I suggested this previously but reasoning against was that it has knock on effect to universities income and no graduates going into workforce

Unless you are literally just talking about primary and secondary? I still think it’s a good idea

I agree in principle. I mean I’ve not thought through the entirety of the consequences, but surely if they scrap the current academic year, those already enrolled at uni go back in September on the course they should have been in this year. I guess unis would miss out on fees this academic year if it was voided, but I expect they’re under pressure to relax fees as is.

Those kids that are doing a levels this year have to defer until sept 2022 - these are the ones that are left in limbo but it could be far worse.

Offer them volunteering experience / work experience as part of covid response, probably give them solid life experience whilst their academic careers are on hold.

Knock on impact is huge as any kid born now would probably have to delay ther start of education until 5 years old rather than 4, but is that such a bad thing? I guess it’s be a permanent change, but seems sensible in terms of not disadvantage for kids that will have effectively lost a year of education if not more.
 
This is interesting. India might have reached herd immunity already, without needing vaccines. In the biggest cities anyway.



They have a very young population so the death rate has been low throughout. Just goes to show there really might be more than one way to get through this.

I wonder if their official death toll of 150k is accurate? Especially if the big cities have had such high levels of infection?
 
Too early to see it in case numbers. Though the first jab rollout is running well, the actual number of the population who are now three weeks post (first) jab is only a small proportion of the population. In any case the studies from IC and the ONS both suggest that case rates are highest amongst teens/younger adults whereas the vaccine is mostly going out to the 70+

The impact on hospitalisations could start to be visible soon. Sometime in March we should see an impact on deaths.
It's just that the drop in cases is far steeper than the 1st drop which was gradual. And lots more kids are attending now.
 
Surely this can’t be a surprise. In an ideal world, kids could probably do with repeating the year.

Extending compulsory education for all kids to 19 rather than 18? Make kids sit GCSEs when they’re 17 rather than 16.

The knock on consequences are huge but kids are going to miss out!
Movies will finally reflect real life. 26 years olds as year 10s/whatever the equivalent American grade is.
 
Johnson & Johnson, 66% effective, good but not the steriliser we were hoping for.