Coronavirus

[Kenny]

So a week and a bit until the big reveal of how we leave lockdown and the expected leaks hitting the press.

Once schools open on the 8th, then not long after Non essential retail opens then it will be the turn of pubs/restaurants/hotels. Probably looking at Easter or just after for the pubs.

After a week of seriously mixed messages, Hancock has swung back to being confident and thinks we will, in this country, be treating Covid like the flu by the end of the year.

 

[Trips]

We are planning for it to be after Easter

 

[Kenny]

After Easter would be sensible. Take out the 4 day weekend as a starting point.

 

[Kenny]

I can live without a pint and a Scotch Egg until the end of April as long as barbers can reopen in March

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I did see in some places the initial plan is for outdoors only to start with for hospitality (I don't mind too much if that's April and a short-term measure, the weather should be reasonable enough to support that).

Would rather have 2/3/4 weeks of outdoors service and then re-open indoors than miss out on that first potential window. Speaking here from a perspective of protecting an industry which has been absolutely battered rather than me being desperate to go down the pub (would be nice though).

And yes I need a bloody haircut! Mrs DW has seen my old photos from around 2001/2, apparently I have the same style as that now... (minus highlights, which I am not allowed to have any more on the basis that I'm nearly 40)

 

[Kenny]

I did see in some places the initial plan is for outdoors only to start with for hospitality (I don't mind too much if that's April and a short-term measure, the weather should be reasonable enough to support that).

Treat a lot of the stuff as the Government using the public as a focus group. Release an idea from a Cabinet meeting then wait for the reaction on Social Media then deny it or say no comment if the idea is getting a thumbs up

 

[AndyWolves]

Things are feeling more positive now

 

[Kenny]

Just greatful that our plan of putting everything into the vaccines is paying off. Probably shouldn't have started that plan in July last year and hoped things would be OK until then.

Interesting to see we have started discussions with some Countries, such as USA & Singapore, regarding reopening travel. Can see some rules such as fully vaccinated, country of origin having a decent % of vaccines administered, no trips to countries with low vaccines or strains of concern allowing the return of some foreign travel before Autumn.
The US have just updated their quarantine rules for their own people and that is if they are fully vaccinated no need to self isolate at all.

 

[sycophantia]

Too early for me, depends how they manage it, will need to act fast if the rate starts to climb again, do not want to go back into lockdown in May

 

[Kenny]

Too early for me, depends how they manage it, will need to act fast if the rate starts to climb again, do not want to go back into lockdown in May

The issue they have is lockdown fatigue. I'm amazed the majority of people accepted what we are doing but with vaccines now here, stretching this out for another 2-3 months will push people to the max they can cope with/accept

 

[Sniffer]

Been vaccinated earlier today. Took my good lady as she’s in the extremely vulnerable category and the vaccinator persuaded me that as her carer I qualified too. Feel a bit guilty about it if I’m honest as Ive been reading in the Gruniad today about those who can’t yet access it.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

It almost seems sensible.

We're not quite at the mark where we can send schools back right this second (plus they do need some advance notice) so we're setting a date there which is relatively close BUT if things change for the worse we can push it back.

Then see if that creates any kind of spike rather than doing a million things all at once and we don't know what is causing what.

Then without being silly about it, gradually open stuff up, retain social distancing measures, reiterate that WFH should be the default for everyone that can (this needs to stay in place for most if not all of 2021) and we should at least in some small numbers be able to have some fun some time soon. It's been a while.

Look forward to seeing how they fuck it up over the next month.

 

[Kenny]

If you are her carer then you deserve the jab. Dont feel guilty about it, your vaccination helps protect her as much as her own.

 

[sycophantia]

It almost seems sensible.

We're not quite at the mark where we can send schools back right this second (plus they do need some advance notice) so we're setting a date there which is relatively close BUT if things change for the worse we can push it back.

Then see if that creates any kind of spike rather than doing a million things all at once and we don't know what is causing what.

Then without being silly about it, gradually open stuff up, retain social distancing measures, reiterate that WFH should be the default for everyone that can (this needs to stay in place for most if not all of 2021) and we should at least in some small numbers be able to have some fun some time soon. It's been a while.

Look forward to seeing how they fuck it up over the next month.

yep I hope this is how it works out.....maybe I'm too sceptical but I worry that the govt won't react fast enough if the rate starts to go up again and I have doubts that the Great British public can follow simple rules

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

That is the mental thing looking back.

We had Eat Out To Help Out running through the whole of August. Towards the end of the month some idiot within Government decides to start leaking messages that people need to start going back to the office ASAP or you'll get sacked. Then in September we send every single school and university back, all at once.

How on earth were we meant to be assessing what was causing what? Utter, utter stupidity. We should not be in lockdown now, we are here because we totally wasted all the time we bought in the first half of 2020 (and what summer weather naturally gives you in terms of virus prevalence) - a time as well when up until June, they made zero provision at all for people who live alone so you had millions of people with absolutely zero contact with anyone for months. Great job guys and girls.

If the Government get off the hook for this because it sort of turned out ok in the end (other than the 100k+ dead people) then I give up.

 

[Sniffer]

Cases were low in the summer but all that they did in the autumn sowed the seeds for what we have now. I still think the 2nd lockdown ending with London in tier 2 was as bad. Case were still rising, spreading in schools and what did the clown the education secretary do? Take schools to court who wanted to close. Add on the Christmas mixing and there’s 10s of thousands of deaths that could have been avoided.

 

[Paul]

I thought the reopening of school was universally accepted by all parties ?

 

[Derby Wolf]

DNR'S issued to patients with learning disabilities according to Mencap.

Fury at ‘do not resuscitate’ notices given to Covid patients with learning disabilities | Coronavirus | The Guardian

Vulnerable people have encountered ‘shocking discrimination’ during pandemic, says Mencap charity

amp.theguardian.com

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I thought the reopening of school was universally accepted by all parties ?

It's very important indeed (and the risk of spread in primaries appears to be lower, so at points they've been a non-issue) and there's no doubt they will come first here, but you have to do this gradually and it should also have been the case in September.

Tortured analogy: Think of it like a big pot of stew that you've never cooked before and you're not familiar with any of the ingredients at all. So really you'd add small bits of everything in at a time, cook it really slow, test and test and test with every step, and if something's not working, leave that out or think again.

If you fuck everything in all at once without even bothering to taste it even once, you don't even bother stirring it for hours on end and it ends up being a truly awful meal that makes you sick for a week, how do you know what's causing it? And are you now going to avoid every single ingredient that was in that meal forever?

There are nearly 9,000,000 pupils in England alone, over 500,000 teachers and almost 2,500,000 university students (plus over 400,000 staff). Just hammering all those people back out all the same time with no precautions at all as if it were all business as usual, carry on, it's 2019 again, was absolutely ludicrous, not even hindsight that either.

 

[AndyWolves]

It's worth mentioning that hospitals are still posting numbers above first wave levels.

We need those levels down for at least a few weeks (ideally a month or so) to let the NHS recover.

I'm all for a slowly, slowly approach. Starting with schools in a gradual fashion.