International News Covid-19 .....

[RyanioBirdio]

A former colleague of mine who is 28 and usually fit as a fiddle - marathon runner, very lean, looks great in a pair of shorts - has had long covid issues for more than six months. Even now he has some days when he is so badly fatigued that he can’t climb the stairs in his house without feeling out of breath. At present he can’t go outside without the cold air hurting every time he breathes in. His girlfriend is a hospital nurse so she (and by extension he) never stood a chance of avoiding it last year. Says he can’t believe how long it has stuck around or how it continues to impact him. The guy used to run a 10k on his lunch break some days. Now he can’t even walk around his local park without being knackered. Which is why football is playing with fire if this is what it can do to super-fit people in their twenties, but I’ll keep that for another thread!

One can’t help but wonder if London being kicked into Tier 2, despite lots of people saying it made absolutely no sense at the time as it had far higher infection rates than a lot of places in Tier 3, might well be to blame for the situation there being as apocalyptic as it currently appears. Health v wealth gone wrong?

 

[werthersoriginal]

Haven’t seen those two anti vax twats on here for a while

 

[Eaststanding]

We need a sense of perspective here; we are likely at or near the worst point in this shitty pandemic but ladies and gents please, whatever you may feel, the situation is not irreversible.
My local GP’s surgery has vaccinated all its over 80’s and it’s now calling for health and social care workers to be vaccinated.
Put the lunatics and anti vaxxers to one side and the vast, growing majority want to end this ASAP.
I am seeing a growing groundswell of willingness to do the right thing which I haven’t seen before; the ambivalence about clap for heroes and preferred inclination to help the NHS by just staying at home. The increasing pressure on the Face-bookers who ask ‘is it ok to drive 5 miles to exercise etc etc. to just walk round the block instead.
Be positive people, it might not feel like it at the moment but it’s going to end with our help, sooner than later.

 

[38yearsofpain]

Haven’t seen those two anti vax twats on here for a while

They either have Covid or have had an ephifany.

 

[Concretebob]

Haven’t seen those two anti vax twats on here for a while

I think it's only fair that you call them out now we've had the first day for deaths since April.

 

[werthersoriginal]

We need a sense of perspective here; we are likely at or near the worst point in this shitty pandemic but ladies and gents please, whatever you may feel, the situation is not irreversible.
My local GP’s surgery has vaccinated all its over 80’s and it’s now calling for health and social care workers to be vaccinated.
Put the lunatics and anti vaxxers to one side and the vast, growing majority want to end this ASAP.
I am seeing a growing groundswell of willingness to do the right thing which I haven’t seen before; the ambivalence about clap for heroes and preferred inclination to help the NHS by just staying at home. The increasing pressure on the Face-bookers who ask ‘is it ok to drive 5 miles to exercise etc etc. to just walk round the block instead.
Be positive people, it might not feel like it at the moment but it’s going to end with our help, sooner than later.

Amen, it’s really important to be positive where possible. I hope they’ll feature the stats on numbers vaccinated every day.

 

[38yearsofpain]

We need a sense of perspective here; we are likely at or near the worst point in this shitty pandemic but ladies and gents please, whatever you may feel, the situation is not irreversible.
My local GP’s surgery has vaccinated all its over 80’s and it’s now calling for health and social care workers to be vaccinated.
Put the lunatics and anti vaxxers to one side and the vast, growing majority want to end this ASAP.
I am seeing a growing groundswell of willingness to do the right thing which I haven’t seen before; the ambivalence about clap for heroes and preferred inclination to help the NHS by just staying at home. The increasing pressure on the Face-bookers who ask ‘is it ok to drive 5 miles to exercise etc etc. to just walk round the block instead.
Be positive people, it might not feel like it at the moment but it’s going to end with our help, sooner than later.

Originally many people were scared, that obeyed the rules then the rules got messed up and cases declined. We are back in that fear arena because this time everybody knows somebody who has the virus in some form.
The message should be clear you only catch this virus from human contact cannot be overestimated.

 

[Eaststanding]

Amen, it’s really important to be positive where possible. I hope they’ll feature the stats on numbers vaccinated every day.

Starting to publicise them daily from Monday I believe

 

[MC Yellow]

We need a sense of perspective here; we are likely at or near the worst point in this shitty pandemic but ladies and gents please, whatever you may feel, the situation is not irreversible.
My local GP’s surgery has vaccinated all its over 80’s and it’s now calling for health and social care workers to be vaccinated.
Put the lunatics and anti vaxxers to one side and the vast, growing majority want to end this ASAP.
I am seeing a growing groundswell of willingness to do the right thing which I haven’t seen before; the ambivalence about clap for heroes and preferred inclination to help the NHS by just staying at home. The increasing pressure on the Face-bookers who ask ‘is it ok to drive 5 miles to exercise etc etc. to just walk round the block instead.
Be positive people, it might not feel like it at the moment but it’s going to end with our help, sooner than later.

Fair comment.

The vaccine roll out is certainly something to be very positive about and by Easter hopefully the numbers who have been vaccinated is significant.

Just sad that having gone through so much already we are experiencing these sorts of numbers, which are likely to increase in the very short term because of Christmas.

The next few weeks are going to feel grim, but hopefully we then see a decline once and for all .

 

[Eaststanding]

Fair comment.

The vaccine roll out is certainly something to be very positive about and by Easter hopefully the numbers who have been vaccinated is significant.

Just sad that having gone through so much already we are experiencing these sorts of numbers, which are likely to increase in the very short term because of Christmas.

The next few weeks are going to feel grim, but hopefully we then see a decline once and for all .

I agree, and I think the vast majority of the population, having seen how their behaviour increases infection rates, now clearly get how they can reduce it to help get that decline under control .

 

[OUFC OX3]

Like many of you, I am a product of the JR. Now residing in Singapore.
It cuts me up regarding the situation in the UK. When I speak & hear comments with family & friends in Oxford & London.
I get the usual mix bag; Brooks & OX uni students are the carriers, it's just another flu type, yeah I wear my mask in the supermarket, just lower your mask when talking, the first lock down we could handle, but this, yeah we went away after lockdown as we deserved our summer holiday, pity about Christmas, not to worry am adamant about the vaccine.......

From one island to another, please step it up

 

[QR]

Christina Pagel is worth following re analysis of most recent stats.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1347597981843943425

 

[Essexyellows]

The similarities with the Spanish Flu nigh on 100 years ago are amazing, but we learn from history don`t we?
For returning soldiers see people being more mobile than back then.
An older and less healthy population.
More people living closer together.
Look at the graph from then..... this one will be almost a mirror image although possibly without the third wave thanks to vaccination/immunity/death.

 

[YellowTaxi]

•In the last 3 days 3,528 souls have been lost to Covid in the UK. •In the last 3 months 2 souls have been lost to Covid in Thailand. •The UK has a population of 67.5ml. •Thailand has a population of 66.5ml. The terrible loss of life was so avoidable.

 

[greatunclekip]

The similarities with the Spanish Flu nigh on 100 years ago are amazing, but we learn from history don`t we?
For returning soldiers see people being more mobile than back then.
An older and less healthy population.
More people living closer together.
Look at the graph from then..... this one will be almost a mirror image although possibly without the third wave thanks to vaccination/immunity/death.
View attachment 5268

We are basically on exactly the same path as Spanish Flu. Just nobody wants to admit it. Mutation making much more contagious and likely lethal, affecting young people more.

 

[mooro]

* - note that the Germany number on worldometer can sometimes be added in chunks so that the rate showing for today at 4pm (305) may be a lot lower than the final figure, which has broken a thousand a number of times in the last couple of weeks (including the last three days).

Final figure for yesterday ended up at 1143, not as bad as us, but not good

 

[Essexyellows]

Having had a browse around the web it seems countries that are doing well, such as Thailand, already had large scale track & trace in place.
Whilst we had small teams run by local councils & PHE that were more geared up to a food poisoning outbreak from the local takeaway.

It`ll be interesting to see how/if the current track & trace system remains in place at scale and works as effectively as the Thai`s et al. or if we will be reliant on technology to do it rather than people.

 

[RyanioBirdio]

Having had a browse around the web it seems countries that are doing well, such as Thailand, already had large scale track & trace in place.

Do you think we even looked at or spoke to these countries at length, given they’ve got masses of experience, or do you think we were more concerned with not having to take advice from anybody else because we’re British and brilliant?

Cos I know what I think.

 

[carefreeoufc]

Unfortunately I can’t see our track and trace system really working (has it ever?) until we’ve got cases down to four digits. With 60k thousand cases a day they might as well get out the phone book!!

I think the key steps (easier said than done) need to be:

- Vaccinate
- Close borders/implement Australian style arrivals system to U.K.
- Increase stringency of lockdown
- Drive the infection numbers down to the hundreds/low thousands per day
- Track and trace

Personally I think the govt may as well use the time when the virus is running rampant to really dedicate time and (competent) resource into our tracking and tracing so that if and when we have got cases under control we can operate a far more fluid lockdown/quarantine system as is being used in other countries.

 

[Sarge]

Unfortunately I can’t see our track and trace system really working (has it ever?) until we’ve got cases down to four digits. With 60k thousand cases a day they might as well get out the phone book!!

I think the key steps (easier said than done) need to be:

- Vaccinate
- Close borders/implement Australian style arrivals system to U.K.
- Increase stringency of lockdown
- Drive the infection numbers down to the hundreds/low thousands per day
- Track and trace

Personally I think the govt may as well use the time when the virus is running rampant to really dedicate time and (competent) resource into our tracking and tracing so that if and when we have got cases under control we can operate a far more fluid lockdown/quarantine system as is being used in other countries.

I agree , Royal Mail's Track and Trace 'service' really isn't what its supposed to be

while the government's covid (NHS)* Test and Trace is really not in any way fit for purpose - not helped by it being rolled out last summer to only work via a selected amount ( make n type) of hand held devices, only covering at a generous best of 25-30% of the UK population

*Despite being prefixed NHS the National Health Service didn't and haven't been involved in running the covid (NHS) test and trace

good points there..... bar confuddling royal mails track n trace with Governments test n trace @carefreeoufc- ( and its an easy one to confuse TBH)