Coronavirus Death Thread

[Baz]

Exactly. What's not to love!

[Yevrah]

Seriously though, cases are coming down, approaching 10% of people being vaccinated, all positive news but they're tightening restrictions and warning that we may be stuck with this shit until July?

Something smells funny here.

I've been increasingly thinking this. It just does not add up.

No government 'cares' this much about the health of its citizens. Ever.

[Mazuuurk]

If you look around Europe, there seems to be a tendency in the "graphs" of the second wave starting to come down and then it just massively explodes all of a sudden (see Spain and Portugal).

My personal theory is that's because last wave trailed off in spring, and this one is trailing off in winter, and people are well fed up at being home as well so as soon as a glimmer of positive news come and restrictions are lifted, people just go fuck it lets party or something, and then shit hits the fan.

I think governments are basically at a point where they are realising this can sort of be dealt with now properly, but if these mutated varieties get loose properly and people just go about their business, it's all going to have been for nothing.

It must be something like that anyway. As much as any government might enjoy control over their citizens, it's not in anyones interest to continously stiffle the economy so they really dont have much to gain from it have they.

[Yevrah]

I'll just leave this here...

https://i.postimg.cc/Hnwg03T3/Untitled.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

[Queenslander]

She looks good.

[Yevrah]

Yeah, I'm sure the holocaust was a piece of piss and Covid really took it out of her, but she's done well.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Still, every cloud: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55791389

[Yevrah]

Everyone's always on the cusp of an emergency moment with COVID, it's the rules.

[Queenslander]

Everyone's always on the cusp of an emergency moment with COVID, it's the rules.

3 day lockdown you say?

[Don]

Rumours of some potential easing next month. Could my sauna open up and all my troubles dissolve or are we talking about kids being allowed into schools if their second cousin is a key worker?

[Magic]

Scots pets should be vaccinated to curb spread of coronavirus, scientists claim


A range of animal species have contracted the virus during the pandemic - and experts warn animal to human transmission could become more widespread as Covid evolves.

:D

[Lewis]

That will be where Welsh vaccines are going.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

The new skill in holidays will be to find somewhere in the UK that is not full of twats of one sort of another.

Impossible.

[Jimmy Floyd]

You've clearly never been to Caithness.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Latest day of hospital admissions data the lowest since 2 January
Today's reported cases a huge drop at c.22k (think there might be a snow issue with this, I would have expected 27k lowest)
Deaths now stable week on week (though I think another couple of headline-grabbing banzai totals await us tomorrow/Weds)
Total patients in hospital now fallen for 3 straight days, the first such 3-day period since 30 Nov-3 Dec.

Close the garden centres.

[Lewis]

Remain: The South West; Lake District; Yorkshire Dales; Norfolk Broads; Wales
Leave: The Great British seaside; Yorkshire Moors; Peak District

[Jimmy Floyd]

The Great British seaside is the dog's bollocks. The smell of seaweed and bird shit baked in the sun, you can't beat it.

[Lewis]

It is as well. Fish and chips, ice cream, donuts, every single one of your prejudices confirmed. The complete day out.

[Spikey M]

Sadly all the B&B's are full of single mums and asylum seekers these days.

[Disco]

We don't want you virus ridden grockles down here, fuck off to centreparcs or something.

[Shindig]

It's interesting that in Israel, who are the only country a bit ahead of us with vaccination, hospitalisations have dived off the moon in the last few days having risen until that point. It'll be interesting to see if a similar thing happens here. Our hospitalisations are falling but not yet crashing like that.

It's encouraging but their testing's also died down. In the last couple of weeks they've went from 120,000 a day to 24,000 yesterday. Not that those numbers have looked that stable.

[Spikey M]

It's encouraging but their testing's also died down. In the last couple of weeks they've went from 120,000 a day to 24,000 yesterday. Not that those numbers have looked that stable.

Is the lack of testing linked to the lack of people with symptoms though? Or are they doing random testing?

[Shindig]

Not a clue. I just find it odd that yesterday's numbers were so low.

[Don]

They were all at a wedding yesterday.

[Waffdon]

See the Dutch have burnt down covid testing centres over the curfew

[Giggles]

That’s when a mammoth campaign of skull cracking needs to begin. Do they have much of a military?

[Don]

See the Dutch have burnt down covid testing centres over the curfew

I was wondering where the bricks should be aimed at come the rebellion and I completely forgot about them. Fucking burn them down.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Deadly Dom's (latest) gift to the nation looks like being the fact that we didn't join the EU vaccine agreement, it's all kicking off over there.

[Yevrah]

Better together.

[Shindig]

We still would've wrangled something. Oxford is inside us.

[Yevrah]

I think we'd have seen the shambles coming, done our own thing and for the first time in 5 years leavers and remainers would have agreed on something being the right thing to do.

[Lewis]

More likely we would have shared them all out equally like chumps and claimed to be 'leading in Europe'.

[John Arne]

Because Vietnam dealt with the virus like some sort of communist Superhero, we seem to be bottom of the fucking vaccine handouts.

I 'aint getting back to see my family until next summer (2022) by looks of things.

[Shindig]

I had a quick look to see how I would get to California if I decided to chance it in March. Firstly, I'd need a negative test within 72 hours of arrival and would probably still have to quarantine for 14 days. On top of that, no flights appear to be going direct to SFO from Heathrow so getting there would take 19 hours with a stop in Dallas. A stop that I don't think requires a quarantine of its own.

So, yeah. Next year. Maybe September if I'm lucky. £875 for 7 nights, though.

[Jimmy Floyd]

This ich nichten lichten stuff in the German press is amazing.

[Raoul Duke]

A few more cheeky riots in Dutchland over the last few nights. Seems to mostly just be chavs looking for an excuse to break windows and steal things.

Rumours of people buying up fake Deliveroo driver jackets so they can get about post-curfew. Assume this is mostly just drug dealers though.

Also one of our neighbours the other side of the block came out this morning into their back garden which we overlook with a brutal hacking cough :sherlock:

[Spikey M]

The EU seething about the lack of our world beating vaccine they're getting. :happycry:

[Lewis]

Sending leftover vaccines to Ireland as international aid. :harold:

[Jimmy Floyd]

I was going to suggest we should try and sell some of ours back to the EU at a profit, like when Omar Little rolls into Prop Joe's and tries to sell his stolen product back to him at 25 cents on the dollar.

[Spikey M]

Wrap each one in ham and send them over.

[niko_cee]

I'm not sure what's funnier with the bleating Europeans, that they're moaning about not getting a vaccine they haven't even given regulatory approval for yet (god bless the red tape and all who sail in her) or the fact that the delays in them getting said vaccine are due to an issue in a production plant within the fucking EU itself (Belgium somehow being the vaccine capital of Europe if not the world).


But one German member of the European Parliament, Peter Liese, told Reuters news agency that the statement that there were difficulties in the EU supply chain but not elsewhere was "flimsy" and there should be "no problem to get the vaccine from the UK to the continent"

:happycry:

Let's hope there's not too much hold up at the ports eh?

[Giggles]

You're an odd sort of people.

Yay, another French dead. Because war!

[Jimmy Floyd]

From Peston


The important difference between AstraZeneca's relationship with the UK and its relationship with the EU – and the reason it has fallen behind schedule on around 50m vaccine doses promised to the bloc – is that the UK agreed its deal with AstraZeneca a full three months before the EU did. This gave AstraZeneca an extra three months to sort out manufacturing and supply problems relating to the UK contract (there were plenty of problems).

Here is the important timeline. In May AstraZeneca reached an agreement with Oxford and the UK government to make and supply the vaccine. In fact, Oxford had already started work on the supply chain.

The following month AstraZeneca reached a preliminary agreement with Germany, the Netherlands, France and Italy, a group known as the Inclusive Vaccine Alliance, based on its agreement with the UK. That announcement was on 13 June.

But the EU then insisted that the Inclusive Vaccine Alliance could not formalise the deal, and the European Commission took over the contract negotiations on behalf of the whole EU. So there were another two months of talks and the contract was not signed until the end of August.


What is frustrating for AstraZeneca is that the extra talks with the European Commission led to no material changes to the contract, but this wasted time that could have been spent making arrangements to manufacture the vaccine with partner sites. The yield at these EU partner sites has been lower than expected.

That problem is in the course of being sorted. AstraZeneca say it is working 24/7 to make up the time and deliver the quantities the EU wanted. It says its contract with the EU – as with the UK – was always on a ‘best effort’ basis, because it was starting from scratch to deliver unprecedented amounts of a vaccine for no profit.

AstraZeneca is not blaming the EU. But it does not understand why it is being painted as the ‘bad guy’ given that if the deal had happened in June, when Germany, the Netherlands, France and Italy wanted it done, most of these supply issues would already have been sorted. A pro-EU source at the company says, ‘I understand Brexit better now.’

PS According to AstraZeneca, the EU claim that it pays less than the UK for each vaccine dose, and that is why the company is ‘working harder for the UK than for the EU’, is ‘completely incorrect’. The company reportedly offers the same price to all buyers, wherever they are in the world, subject to small adjustments due to local costs.

:harold:

Let's hear it for the Inclusive Vaccine Alliance.

[Don]

Get that Pro-EU source his own twitter please.

[Lewis]

That celebrity ethnics endorsing the vaccine video being mostly Asians isn't going to help. Idi Amin lolling in his grave (which he probably was anyway), with the Fijian military waiting in the wings.

'Vaccines? Indian!'

[Spoonsky]

You're an odd sort of people.

Yay, another French dead. Because war!

Always thought you were a bit paranoid on this point but it's really come out of the woodwork the past few days.

[niko_cee]

It's just funny and serves as an interesting juxtaposition to all the "oh noes it'll be the end of the world!" shit that has been bandied about for the last 4 years or whatever it is about the importance of being part of a big group and the impossibility of logistical links outside of zee free market.

Turns out there should be no problems with anything if it is of sufficient importance. Maybe everyone should have had that as an aim from the outset.

[Giggles]

Always thought you were a bit paranoid on this point but it's really come out of the woodwork the past few days.

Maybe there is someone sitting in Poland or Belgium raising a glass and high fiving whenever news comes in of elsewhere getting it tough but I really think they’re alone in it for the most part. They talk about it like they do sport and it’s really weird, more to be pitied than anything.

[Spikey M]

You're an odd sort of people.

Yay, another French dead. Because war!

That's not why it's funny. It's funny because for the last few years the EU have been laughing their smug little arses off, saying we need them more than they need us and we're going to end up facing supply chain problems. Then 26 days in, they're at the door with their stampy-tanty shoes on, begging cap in hand.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Today's numbers:

New cases incredibly low (about 5k lower than what I had thought the best case scenario). Could be a snow effect, not sure, let's hope not.
We are now roughly at the infection levels we were at about 10 days before Christmas, and the fall is steady.
However, there are definite signs of an increase/outbreak of new infections in west Yorkshire (especially Bradford) and parts of south Yorkshire. Most other areas are declining steadily, some rapidly.
Daily hospitalisations also down again by about the amount you would expect.

Deaths are plateauing, albeit at a very high level. I would expect maybe 2 or 3 days before we can say they are starting to fall.

Chris Whitty seems to think infections are 'steady' thanks to the new variant, not sure what numbers he is looking at.

[Lewis]

Sheffield being twinned with Islamabad seems like the more obvious answer, with all the Indians in Leeds pissing themselves.

Absolutely evergreen post this.

[Shindig]

A few more cheeky riots in Dutchland over the last few nights. Seems to mostly just be chavs looking for an excuse to break windows and steal things.

Rumours of people buying up fake Deliveroo driver jackets so they can get about post-curfew. Assume this is mostly just drug dealers though.

Also one of our neighbours the other side of the block came out this morning into their back garden which we overlook with a brutal hacking cough :sherlock:

I was going to mention imposing a curfew in a narco state would be asking for trouble.

[niko_cee]

Maybe there is someone sitting in Poland or Belgium raising a glass and high fiving whenever news comes in of elsewhere getting it tough but I really think they’re alone in it for the most part. They talk about it like they do sport and it’s really weird, more to be pitied than anything.

Mate, it's literally called schadenfreude.

Think on that for a moment you turnip.

[Don]

Laura Cuntsberg in an ominously lit room taking tragedy stories by Zoom to celebrate the 100K mark. It's what the dead would have wished for.

[Don]

Some disgusting fat bitch in her death bed on the news (she died yesterday) sayin "just wash your hands and wear your mask, thats all they have to do" in a despairing tone. Bitch I've lost 1 year of my life because you couldn't resist the call of the local takeaway, get the fuck outta here.

[niko_cee]

And she did, although I'll admit that was a fairly banging doom and gloom effort from the News at 10 mob, 'Huw' saying 100,000 deaths today, erm, well, and then a segment on the 100,000 Deaths Economy which I can only assume was some sort of sub-headline 'error'. Unless Amal Rajan was actually doing a bit on the finances and logistics (who are the winners here?) of that many people dying, which I missed.

[thommo]

Today was particularly egregious on the doom and gloom in the news. Flicking through the radio when driving home this evening, and Radio 1 was treating the listeners to 15 minutes of interviews with grieving families, almost as a celebration of reaching the 100k mark.

What fucking good is this doing? I know shedloads of people have died, I know there's a fucking deadly virus going around, I know all this because I'm stuck doing fuck all and have been for a year.

[Jimmy Floyd]

They have to fill the news with something, or else it would just be half an hour of David Mitchell saying "Remain Indoors".

[mo]

Up since 3 with a high temp so off to get a test later on. I'm sure I can count on TTH's thoughts and prayers.

[Giggles]

Up since 3 with a high temp so off to get a test later on. I'm sure I can count on TTH's thoughts and prayers.

I'm going to at least acknowledge, which is more than Sincere got that time.

[Spikey M]

Up since 3 with a high temp so off to get a test later on. I'm sure I can count on TTH's thoughts and prayers.

You do but only because you're not French.

[niko_cee]

He is a teacher though.

Our lockdown inducing cluster seems to be largely attributable to 'education settings' so maybe all their 'front line' bleating was legit.

Good Luck mo. :thbup:

What is the hierarchy of 'good' on that front though?

1 - minor/trivial viral ailment
2 - covid
3 - ????
4 - a short illness

[Baz]

He’s high school though. Those kids are old enough to social distance.

Now I’m not accusing him of anything, but

[Spikey M]

He’s high school though. Those kids are old enough to social distance.

Now I’m not accusing him of anything, but

The Primary School kids are the safe one's as it struggles to infect them (or the initial variant did, anyway) the older kids can catch it alot easier and being teenagers alot of them won't give a fuck about doing so.

[Baz]

The Primary School kids are the safe one's as it struggles to infect them (or the initial variant did, anyway) the older kids can catch it alot easier and being teenagers alot of them won't give a fuck about doing so. Children are likely to become infected with coronavirus at roughly the same rate as adults. They’re not called super spreaders for nothing.

[Shindig]

They have to fill the news with something, or else it would just be half an hour of David Mitchell saying "Remain Indoors".

Yep. 24 hour news coverage when there's only one story. And it broke 13 months ago. Remember that time Tripoli exploded? That was a nice diversion.

[mo]

Thanks all. Weirdly don’t feel as bad now, but this happened yesterday; felt rough, tired, achey etc, then perked up after dinner, only to end up sweating profusely and unable to stop my teeth chattering in the night.

And while I do work in secondary (which by the way, you’re kidding yourselves if you think those kids socially distance) my wife is a primary TA and some little cunt was giving her grief, pulling on her lanyard and chucking chairs at her the other day, so if I’ve got it I’m blaming said cunt.

[Don]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/27/china-starts-using-anal-swabs-test-covid-high-infection-areas

Playing into the hands of the sorts who get tested.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Sister is having her first shot of the vaccine on Friday.

I should be having one not long after too as I'm one of her registered carers.

[Spikey M]

Wifes nan still in hospital. Not ventilated yet but extremely fast heart rate and low blood pressure. Also refusing water. She will be on one soon I reckon.

Her Grandad still has no symptoms but is refusing all treatment for his other conditions out of pure confusion.

This shit doesn't have a happy ending.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Starmer wanting to get 'key professions' vaccinated first is interesting, as is the (logical) response that by doing so you would effectively be choosing to kill around 100 vulnerable people per day.

Think he might be onto a loser on this one.

[Manc]

Never trust a man that uses Fish hair wax.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Chunky fall in hospitalisations today. Touch wood, we should now have seen our deadliest day too (suspect it will end up being around 18 January).

Cases have been lower than I expected this week too, wonder if we are at the very very start (not hugely confident about this but it's possible) of a vaccine effect.

[Yevrah]

I reckon we might be.

There are what, circa 20m people vulnerable to this and we've given a third of them their first shot. Must be having some sort of impact.

[Lewis]

lol at the continuing European vaccine seethe.

https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-politics-whitehall-2020-6-mystery-over-who-approved-126m-vaccine-investment/

:hail:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Speaking of the vaccine problems in Europe.

My 81 year old Grandma has a vaccine booked in Poland for the 18th March.

A pretty long wait for someone in a vulnerable age group.

[Jimmy Floyd]

lol at the continuing European vaccine seethe.

https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-politics-whitehall-2020-6-mystery-over-who-approved-126m-vaccine-investment/

:hail:

I was thinking this yesterday - anything that somehow bypassed the delays, dithering and bullshit that characterises everything the British state currently does can only have come from one source.

[Andy]

Starmer wanting to get 'key professions' vaccinated first is interesting, as is the (logical) response that by doing so you would effectively be choosing to kill around 100 vulnerable people per day.

Think he might be onto a loser on this one.

I think care workers, NHS staff and teachers is as far as that should go.

Everyone else who is still out and about working should either be shielding or easily able to socially distance at work and keep safe.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I could accept putting the 60 year old teachers over other 60 year olds, but young teachers above people who might die of it?

[Spoonsky]

Starmer wanting to get 'key professions' vaccinated first is interesting, as is the (logical) response that by doing so you would effectively be choosing to kill around 100 vulnerable people per day.

Think he might be onto a loser on this one.

What are the 'key professions'? I'd assume that they'd be vaccinating professions with a higher potential to spread it, thereby reducing the infection rate and overall case numbers by more than they would by only vaccinating the grandmas of the world. In which case it wouldn't exactly be choosing to off 100 people a day because less people are getting sick.

[Lewis]

I was thinking this yesterday - anything that somehow bypassed the delays, dithering and bullshit that characterises everything the British state currently does can only have come from one source.

His trip back to London being part of it as well. I think a statue is in order.

[Shindig]

After the vulnerable lot I would go after anyone who works with fuckloads of people.

- Teachers
- Factory workers
- Warehouse staff

It becomes a numbers game once you have the at-risks dealt with. I'm looking at the regional breakdowns for death data just to see where most of them are coming from.

North East: 5001
===========
South West: 5062
East Midlands: 7834
Yorkshire: 9063
East: 10295
West Midlands: 10626
-------------------------
London: 12905
South East: 13545
North West: 14535

I had to format it in a little best-to-worst tinpot league. That new variant turned it on its head, although the BBC love to pair us up with Yorkshire. Its obscene how prolonged the deaths have been coming for the south in this wave.

[Don]

I live for Shinners' data analysis.

[mo]

Negative. Result in 11 hrs is pretty good going too.

[Baz]

The fact that NHS admin staff, who are working from home, are all being vaccinated while school staff aren't is just dumbfuckery. The "but they might be required as hospital porters" is complete bullshit that nobody should be buying.

[Shindig]

Our Nightingale has been turned into a vaccination hub. Nice to see it finally get some use, I guess.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Probably appropriate that the Nightingales should be empty vessels taking credit for quite ordinary hard work by others.

[Lewis]

They should rename them the NHS Binghams.

[Spikey M]

The fact that NHS admin staff, who are working from home, are all being vaccinated while school staff aren't is just dumbfuckery. The "but they might be required as hospital porters" is complete bullshit that nobody should be buying.

Our local council employees were getting vaccinated the other day. The public haven't been allowed in the building since last March ffs.

[Jimmy Floyd]

27 days into Brexit and we've got them reaching for dogshit metaphors about butcher's shops, can you believe these scenes.

https://i.ibb.co/k9f1fg0/graun.jpg (https://ibb.co/Jy4Q4R2)

[Don]

It truly is a blistering victory. And I've only just heard of the 8 March deadline being talked of as a possible date for easing the lockdown. 5 more weeks of this shit before we're done, I'm getting emotional and it's not even near.

[Yevrah]

That's check mate for me in confirming that leaving was absolutely the right thing to have done.

[Don]

The European commission is rifling through customs records over fears vaccines made on EU territory have been shipped to the UK. “The customs data do not lie,” a senior EU official said. “You can be assured that we will find the information, that’s for sure.”

Kyriakides said: “No company should be under any illusion that we don’t have the means to understand what is happening.”

...

The EU wants to ensure that doses made in AstraZeneca’s plants in Belgium and the Netherlands are not in future sent to the UK. There is also the risk that exports of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine from European plants could be blocked from reaching the UK, although the commission has sought to assuage those fears.

“People in the United Kingdom are vaccinated with a very good vaccine produced in Europe, supported by European money,” said Peter Liese, a German MEP in Angela Merkel’s CDU party, referring to the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine.

“If there is anyone thinking that European citizens would accept that we give this high quality vaccine to the United Kingdom and would accept to be treated as second class by a UK-based company, I think the only consequence can be to immediately stop the export of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine. And then we are in the middle of a trade war. So the company and the UK better think twice.”

What is going on? :D

[Queenslander]

That is some of the most petty shit Ive read in quite some time.

[Lewis]

How will a trade war help them when we've got the easy to make/use one, and they're already moaning that we're making it all for ourselves?

[Spikey M]

The European commission is rifling through customs records over fears vaccines made on EU territory have been shipped to the UK. “The customs data do not lie,” a senior EU official said. “You can be assured that we will find the information, that’s for sure.”

Kyriakides said: “No company should be under any illusion that we don’t have the means to understand what is happening.”

...

The EU wants to ensure that doses made in AstraZeneca’s plants in Belgium and the Netherlands are not in future sent to the UK. There is also the risk that exports of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine from European plants could be blocked from reaching the UK, although the commission has sought to assuage those fears.

“People in the United Kingdom are vaccinated with a very good vaccine produced in Europe, supported by European money,” said Peter Liese, a German MEP in Angela Merkel’s CDU party, referring to the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine.

“If there is anyone thinking that European citizens would accept that we give this high quality vaccine to the United Kingdom and would accept to be treated as second class by a UK-based company, I think the only consequence can be to immediately stop the export of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine. And then we are in the middle of a trade war. So the company and the UK better think twice.”

What is going on? :D

Still think we're the problem Giggles?

[Shindig]

They should've drafted something up that allowed member states to chase their own deal, regulatory stuff and even gear up for manufacturing. If there's any time to play fast and loose with the EU beaurocracy, it's in the middle of a global pandemic.

[Giggles]

That is some of the most petty shit Ive read in quite some time.

Haven’t been keeping up with the little englander brigade here?

[Giggles]

Still think we're the problem Giggles?

Yes, you’re basically saying it should all work in your favour but man the boats when it’s going the other way.
But anyway, your population being vaccinated will have a drastically desired effect on our case numbers, so sorry about that.

[Queenslander]

Haven’t been keeping up with the little englander brigade here?

I dip in and out. Im sure the Tories are guilty of the same pettiness as well if not worse.

[Lewis]

We could have rolled it into Australia Day and the first Brexit anniversary as 'Merking Foreigners Week'.

[Spikey M]

Yes, you’re basically saying it should all work in your favour but man the boats when it’s going the other way.
But anyway, your population being vaccinated will have a drastically desired effect on our case numbers, so sorry about that.
The EU is right to be pissed about the UK using a UK developed vaccine that the EU hasn't even approved for use? And is right to cut us off from one of the labs?

[Queenslander]

:lol:

Damn I didnt see it.
Lewis

[Giggles]

You should put this approval thing on the side of a bus.

I think the main thing I can’t get my head around is that I don’t want to see Britain without a vaccine or with deaths just for a bit of political chest beating, I don’t want to see them anywhere. But yeah, more ‘EU’ deaths, awesome :drool: Brexit oi oi oi. You’re absolutely ridiculous people.
Enjoy your win now but long term brexit is going to destroy you as a country. Not because of the eu or trade or anything else, but because of what it’s turning you all into

[Lewis]

Is being an island of wallies permanently seething about the oblivious neighbours really that bad?

[niko_cee]

That's not really what's happening though, is it? People are lolling at some idiotic Greek, and to a lesser extent other prominent EU bureaucrats, going off the deep end at a situation [clearly] entirely of their own making. I bet the EU Heath woman is the one who lobbied for things to be taken out of Operation Barbavaccine or whatever it was called's hands so she could sit on it for however long it was.

If the EU doesn't recognise the principle of first come first served what does it recognise? Last come first served? Classic elbows in at the bar behaviour, hardly surprising but no less deplorable.

[Giggles]

Is being an island of wallies permanently seething about the oblivious neighbours really that bad?

:lol: fucking hell, what a zinger.

[Lewis]

It's the way I tell 'em.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Enjoy your win now but long term brexit is going to destroy you as a country. Not because of the eu or trade or anything else, but because of what it’s turning you all into

You should have seen us in the 1840s, that was the real golden age.

[Lewis]

Remain: The South West; Lake District; Yorkshire Dales; Norfolk Broads; Wales
Leave: The Great British seaside; Yorkshire Moors; Peak District

1354580755117182979

Oh shit.

[John Arne]

Shitty shit fuck.

1.5 weeks before Tet, and 2 days before I head up north to watch footy and spend a week in Hanoi, 82 cases have been identified in the north.

Fucking shitecunts.

[Queenslander]

Which strain?

[Spikey M]

You should put this approval thing on the side of a bus.

I think the main thing I can’t get my head around is that I don’t want to see Britain without a vaccine or with deaths just for a bit of political chest beating, I don’t want to see them anywhere. But yeah, more ‘EU’ deaths, awesome :drool: Brexit oi oi oi. You’re absolutely ridiculous people.
Enjoy your win now but long term brexit is going to destroy you as a country. Not because of the eu or trade or anything else, but because of what it’s turning you all into

The EU has no reason to be without a vaccine. They have atleast 2 others being made by them, they're just taking forever and a day to approve them for use. I'm sure that's our fault too, somehow.

[John Arne]

Which strain?

TBC, though rumoured to be the UK variant.

[niko_cee]

Look what you've become!

:D

I've no real idea why the UK's decision to leave the EU, albeit probably ahead of ideal schedule, isn't really seen as win-win from the Ode to Joy mob. It allows the process of ever closer integration to continue without a major and insurmountable thorn in its side and condemns the UK to terminal and unavoidable decline and irrelevance.

In actual thread news, we're in with Ho Chi Minh here, up to 82 cases from what is rapidly becoming 'The Ship and Crown Cluster'. Desperately hoping the exit strategy is going to be on a more expedited schedule than last time (I think 8+ weeks from zero covid to internal normality). Almost certainly the new, more contagious strain.

[Queenslander]

The woman who had the UK strain here in Bridbane travelled in a packed train in peak hour and it didnt kick on a community transmission. :cab:

[Jimmy Floyd]

I've no real idea why the UK's decision to leave the EU, albeit probably ahead of ideal schedule, isn't really seen as win-win from the Ode to Joy mob. It allows the process of ever closer integration to continue without a major and insurmountable thorn in its side and condemns the UK to terminal and unavoidable decline and irrelevance.

The EU (and arguably the UN too) is fundamentally about a mixture of German postwar guilt, the northern French experience of the 20th century, and the benefits that Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg gain from being united at the table with the big boys, rather than having their armies drive through them every few years. When it comes down to it - and it probably will at some point - half the peripheral nations will end up leaving rather than surrendering themselves entirely to that mentality.

The economic benefits of being in it are about convenience, which can be got around, rather than anything fundamental.

[Shindig]

Whilst all this is going on, Britain's got their hands on a 4th vaccine. French company Valneva are making it but it's manufactured in Scotland. 60m doses.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Scientists behind a study tracking coronavirus in England say there are signs of a "shallow decline" in infection levels but they remain high. An estimated 1.57% of people had the virus between 6 and 22 January - slightly down from 1.58% in early January, according to Imperial College London research based on the swab tests of 168,000 participants.

At a conservative estimate this would be about double the number of people who have tested positive in that time frame. Are they all asymptomatic, or are they all just hiding from the testing system?

[Shindig]

Depends where the ONS is doing their surveillance and what sample size they're using. I've never completely got on with their numbers.

[Spikey M]

1.58 to 1.57 must fall within a margin of error, surely.

[Magic]

Whilst all this is going on, Britain's got their hands on a 4th vaccine. French company Valneva are making it but it's manufactured in Scotland. 60m doses.

It's not been approved yet. :drool:

[Spikey M]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/55825480

Hopefully this cunt finds out Covid exists in the firmest possible way.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Deaths now down week-on-week for the first time since early December. Cases at their lowest since 15 Dec.

Of interest to me are hospitalisations, which for the last two days have been much lower than you would have expected. If that continues then it'll be a sign of the vaccine working I think (if they decline, but in a more orderly fashion, then it'll just be general decline following the case decline).

[Spikey M]

Got the call from the hospital this morning. My wife's nan has Covid induced Sepsis and we should expect the worst at some point today.

[Ian]

Well that's shit. :(

[Shindig]

Bugger. :(

More vaccines. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55850352)


In the South African part of the trial, where most of the cases were the South African variant of the virus, the vaccine was 60% effective among those without HIV.

That's a little iffy.

[Queenslander]

The QLD Uni vax that was scrapped had false positives with HIV...

[Jimmy Floyd]

Given that they will be able to re-engineer vaccines to suit new variants, 60% isn't a bad start to be honest (90% in other strains should get it approved, too. God bless our regulator.)

[Shindig]

And if your over-65 data is a little lacking, the Germans will approve it but then tell everyone else not to use it.

[John Arne]

Vietnam has locked-down Chi Linh city (only 220,000 people) following the most recent outbreak. Pretty much all live events and sports have been postponed until further notice, and everybody has been reminded to mask up and sanitize hands. Government reckon they need 10 days to sort this shit out. Fortunately, of the something like 2,500 tests at a suspected hotspot factory, all have come back negative.

Currently 110 positive from the recent outbreak.

[Boydy]

Vietnam has locked-down Chi Linh city (only 220,000 people) following the most recent outbreak. Pretty much all live events and sports have been postponed until further notice, and everybody has been reminded to mask up and sanitize hands. Government reckon they need 10 days to sort this shit out. Fortunately, of the something like 2,500 tests at a suspected hotspot factory, all have come back negative.

Currently 110 positive from the recent outbreak.

Do you speak Vietnamese?

[Queenslander]

Vietnam has locked-down Chi Linh city (only 220,000 people) following the most recent outbreak. Pretty much all live events and sports have been postponed until further notice, and everybody has been reminded to mask up and sanitize hands. Government reckon they need 10 days to sort this shit out. Fortunately, of the something like 2,500 tests at a suspected hotspot factory, all have come back negative.

Currently 110 positive from the recent outbreak.

Im sorry mate that is shit.

[John Arne]

Do you speak Vietnamese?

A fair amount, but not fluent. I recently restarted one-on-one lessons to try to get better.

[Spikey M]

You'll wish you hadn't when all you keep hearing is "white devil" being shouted from passing mopeds.

[John Arne]

You'll wish you hadn't when all you keep hearing is "white devil" being shouted from passing mopeds.

You're not too far off :D It's usually "Nước ngoài đụ mẹ", which is basically 'mother fucker foreigner'.

[Don]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-55842241

Absolutely dons the police and not one claim of racial prejudice. Someone give that lad a fucking knighthood in place of that disgusting F1 hypocrite cunt.

[Spikey M]

Wales are (slightly) relaxing their lockdown.

[Jimmy Floyd]

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/it-s-hard-to-see-how-the-eu-can-win-a-case-against-astrazeneca

They sound like a proper shower of shit.

[Spikey M]

By the time it goes to court we'll be half way through vaccinating the next pandemic.

[Don]

Perhaps the problem is using Belgian law and not English law... highlighted for Giggles' benefit :rasta:

[Jimmy Floyd]

Today's hospitalisations the biggest 7-day rolling drop since the first wave. It's happening, people.

[Lewis]

1355200427437027330

:harold:

[Spikey M]

Carbombs in 5...4...

[Lewis]

12 July 2021, the first British vaccine aid convoy crosses the Irish border with a full Orange Order escort.

[Spikey M]

That must be breaking some law though right? Years of negotiating to keep it open and they shut it on whim, without conversation, being well aware of the potential consequences?

[Lewis]

Article 16 allows one side to act unilaterally to relieve 'economic, societal or environmental difficulties', but it is such a shittily-worded clause that it was basically seen as a safety valve for any major kick-offs down the line, if not something never to actually be used. Now that they have used it to try to freeze us out of something why can't we do likewise to suspend checks on food going over there?

[Lewis]

Somebody should say it breaches the Good Friday Agreement just so they have to say it doesn't because there is nothing in it about an open border.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Macron appears to have completely lost the plot (if he ever had it).

[Lewis]

He wants his beard out the way.

[Jimmy Floyd]

There will come a point, probably quite soon, when if all our vulnerable folks have been vaccinated we really should be sending some to the Irish, if the EU system has failed them.

The continent with all their fancy plants can sort themselves out.

[Shindig]

Aye, we've got 22 million, I think so we're a third done at this point. Maybe Israel can ship some of their excess Pfizers. Assuming they're really quick about it.

[7om]

Aye, we've got 22 million, I think so we're a third done at this point. Maybe Israel can ship some of their excess Pfizers. Assuming they're really quick about it.

Is that our current stockpile? I was wondering what we might have in storage already in the country. Where did you get the figures from?

[niko_cee]

I think he meant 22m vulnerable/at risk folk.

[Shindig]

Yep. I have no idea of the stockpile but, if we're bothered about supplies, we won't have millions stuck in a warehouse.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I thought this EU shit was just funny, but now Sinn Fein have issued a statement condemning their actions I think it actually might be a gravely bad piece of long-term politics (for the EU).

[Lewis]

They didn't even tell the Irish they were doing it. :lol:

[Lewis]

:lol:

[Spikey M]

Mental shit.

[Shindig]

I understand it's a pandemic and the stakes are high ... but there's no way you can do this.

[Lewis]

The video (https://twitter.com/DUPleader/status/1355222414746148865) Wor Arlene released from her loft, in her STAUNCH/Eastern Suburbs colours, has Nick Griffin cooking show vibes.

[Lewis]

They've BOTTLED it. They don't like it up 'em.

[niko_cee]

If AstraZeneca are supplying all these things at cost (as I believe they have said previously) what is it to them to tell the EU to go sit on it as regards this contract of theirs? Sorry, we can't deliver as per the agred schedule, please feel free to treat this as a material breach entitling you to rescind the contract. I'm sure it's more nuanced than that, but it just seems an extraordinarily strange move by the more dependent party in a relationship to go full nuclear in the way they seem to have.

They seem to be backtracking now. lol.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The fact that they went over Ireland's heads to do it without considering the quite obvious ramifications shows they have completely lost their minds.

Not heard much from Our Nicola tonight.

[Spikey M]

1355280269113253890?s=19

[Lewis]

Pfizer, Moderna, Oxford-AstraZeneca
If they give us something we will follow on

[7om]

Can't remember where I read it now but apparently the agreement between AstraZeneca and the EU contains some pretty flimsy language. Something to the effect of "we will endeavour to fulfil the amount purchased by the EU".

I'm not a lawyer (I'm Yevrah), but it sounds like they don't have a leg to stand on here.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I'm sure we have the same contract so that clause, whilst unhelpful to them, isn't really the issue - the issue is that they fucked up procurement, ending up months behind us due to being a bloc of 27 states where about 5 (2, really) call the shots. To paraphrase Kate Bingham, they weren't 'nimble' enough. Sometimes it helps to have numbers, but not this time, so they've been stung.

Even then, having got to this position, a rational body would just have sat calmly on whatever slow vaccine rate they can manage currently (whilst not great, it's also not too disastrous), probably given national governments more leeway on emergency procurement and deployment, and learned from what the UK has managed to do in terms of clearing regulation out the way and approving new vaccines. Their problem is that if the EU does not have pages and pages of tongue-twisting regulation it has nothing, and we are of course in a context where Brexit has just happened. While the national governments can be as pragmatic as they like about Brexit, the Commission is run by a load of zealots who desperately need the UK to look bad at this particular moment. Because we are suddenly looking quite good - at least on the major issue of the day, which is vaccines - everything in their zealot-brains is spiralling out of control and the Franco-Germans appear to have completely lost control of their emotions, which is one of the more remarkable things I've seen in politics.

It's easy to say 4.5 years on 'This is why I voted Leave', but it really, really is. I did think it would be 20 years to vindication rather than three weeks.

[Spikey M]

They have a fuck tonne of home made vaccines. 17 or something they said on the news earlier. They're not all going to be ready to go, but some must be. Get testing. Get rolled out.

[Yevrah]

Is this EU bollocks going to fuck our supplies now?

[John Arne]

110 cases on day 2, 58 on day 3 and 34 yesterday. Over 4,000 tests completed and some like 10,000 F1-F4 traced . Oh, and 2 makeshift hospitals built in the affected city - in 48hrs. We fucking got this.

https://gyazo.com/9fc27ffa7c476deb31be1bfc94326365.jpeg

[John Arne]

Oh, and I was due to fly to the epicentre (Quang Ninh) tomorrow for my first ever visit - the province has now been partially locked down. Lost 700,000đ in the hotel booking. Managed to change the flight to Hanoi.

[Queenslander]

What is that mist?

[John Arne]

What is that mist?

Disinfectant, I guess.

[niko_cee]

We've followed a similar trajectory from 4 unknowns last Saturday to 142 cases as of yesterday. Lockdown impact should filter in over the next week. Rumours abound as to the cause. Hopefully they can reverse engineer it to find a common source for everything (ie a breach in traveller quarantine) or we're going to be stuck with this shit for weeks if not months. As yet we haven't resorted to gassing the populace.

[Spikey M]

Presumably you still have things being shipped over, right? Food, post, etc. There's your source, surely?

[Queenslander]

Disinfectant, I guess.

It looks a bit how's ya father.

[Spikey M]

I've just seen Macrons comments. He's already the leader of one of the most Anti-Vaccine countries in the world. Why the fuck would you say that? :face:

Obviously the answer is because he was stamping his tiny little feet at the time, but Jesus wept.

[Shindig]

Quasi-ineffective. What an odd thing to say. One thing I'm not really seeing yet is a discrepancy between over-65 case numbers and the rest. If the jab effect was working, I would've expected the gap in cases to widen in favour of less oldies catching it. Maybe it's like the Israelis and the effects are seen in hospital admissions, though.

[niko_cee]

Presumably you still have things being shipped over, right? Food, post, etc. There's your source, surely?

Doubt it, for all the talk I'm not sure there's really much evidence of it transmitting on parcels and the like. It'll be some form of human-to-human transmission.

[Queenslander]

Airbourne in the air con for sure.

[Spikey M]

Doubt it, for all the talk I'm not sure there's really much evidence of it transmitting on parcels and the like. It'll be some form of human-to-human transmission.

Yeah, the people that bring the stuff over probably.

[niko_cee]

Yeah, the people that bring the stuff over probably.

Most freight is container-based, so not much human contact in the chain, and anyone that actually works on the boats/planes is tested and PPE'd to within an inch of their lives.

Last time I think it leaked in through a critical worker (potentially with the added virulence of the new variant meaning their quarantine protocols weren't sufficient) but as that was an 'important person' it was sort of hushed up (all rumour of course). This time the finger seems to be pointing at a more proletarian source so if that's true I imagine they'll be going under the bus should there be any actual evidence.

[Lewis]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/30/who-urges-britain-to-pause-covid-jabs-after-treating-vulnerable

:happycry:

[Jimmy Floyd]

In the long term (say, six months' time) they are right, in that global 'normality' won't be back until everyone's been vaccinated, but the UK (and any similar country) will be far more concerned about being able to open up internally in the short run. The NGO nationless worldview has been shown to be a complete bust in this pandemic if it wasn't anyway. It's only the top tier of society that really benefits in a tangible way from mass travel and open borders.

[Spikey M]

Yeah, as long as we're allowed to resume some form of normality I would be cool with pausing our vaccines once everyone but the teachers has been vaccinated.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Meanwhile, why have the left (by which I mean on this occasion the Labour party and that mad woman Sridhar who shills on science for Sturgeon) suddenly pivoted to 'Get the schools open now' ?

[Lewis]

Borders CLOSED. Clubs OPEN.

[Lewis]

Meanwhile, why have the left (by which I mean on this occasion the Labour party and that mad woman Sridhar who shills on science for Sturgeon) suddenly pivoted to 'Get the schools open now' ?

The unions want their members vaccinated, and schools are the best entry point.

[niko_cee]

44 new cases (up to 186) and now I have to isolate until Friday due to a fucking dance festival.

[Don]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/30/who-urges-britain-to-pause-covid-jabs-after-treating-vulnerable

:happycry:

This could potentially open up the possibility of me not having to reject an invite :cool:

[Spikey M]

This could potentially open up the possibility of me not having to reject an invite :cool:

You have the "Nah, I've had it anyway" card to play, which should be accepted widely by society. Plus, if you play it well you can laud it over people as ensuring the vaccines go to those most in need. #FreePalestine

[Don]

We still don't know how long these vaccines last, right? What's the play, keep pumping money into the vaccines at least once every year or actually start expanding our hospitals and graveyards?

[Jimmy Floyd]

Looking at today's data, I'm starting to become quite confident that the vaccines are having a measurable effect in the UK. The rate of case decline has accelerated in the last week rather than bell curving. Hospitalisations are off the diving board as well rather than edging down.

I would expect some bullish news at some point this week from the Whitty / Vallance / Van Tam brains trust.

[Queenslander]

Western Australia has recorded its first community transmisson in 10 months forcing Perth into a 5 day hard lockdown.

[Spikey M]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55876176

"The UK and European Union will "reset" relations after Brussels triggered a provision in the Brexit deal to control vaccine exports, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove has said.

The government is confident that the EU will not block vaccines entering the UK.

It comes after Brussels reversed its widely-condemned decision which could have seen checks at the Irish border.

Mr Gove added the European Commission recognised its "mistake"."

So patronising :drool:

[Mike]

I've got the 'Rona

[Spikey M]

Well done Baz you dickhead.

[ItalAussie]

I had a bunch of international research visits lined up in 2020, where I'd be giving presentations at a bunch of universities - western USA and the UK. Needless to say they didn't happen, so we arranged to push the talks back. But things haven't improved enough that I can travel yet, which means over the next few months I'm giving a bunch of the talks online.

Most of the talks are between midnight and 3am, and I'll be giving from them my living room. The price we pay. :D

[ItalAussie]

Western Australia has recorded its first community transmisson in 10 months forcing Perth into a 5 day hard lockdown.

I have a friend from Perth who thought it was excessive, but honestly, we've come this far. Lock everything down for a few days in that situation, I say. Gives the contact tracers time to get things under control.

The Queensland one worked. I suspect that'll be the model in Australia for this year - occasional short tough lockdowns.

[Baz]

I've got the 'Rona
Well done Baz you dickhead.Winner. :flex:

[niko_cee]

I have a friend from Perth who thought it was excessive, but honestly, we've come this far. Lock everything down for a few days in that situation, I say. Gives the contact tracers time to get things under control.

The Queensland one worked. I suspect that'll be the model in Australia for this year - occasional short tough lockdowns.

Unless you are incredibly lucky on the detection [we got away with it once], or the person who has it is a hermit, then 5 days ain't going to be enough to have it under control (assuming society is functioning in a normal way that is).

We're up to 231 now. Although I think this is with the added issue of THE VARIANT.

[Magic]

Get well soon Mike.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Are these places going to carry on doing short lockdowns for the rest of time? Or just until the population is vaccinated?

[niko_cee]

The bigger question is are these places going to continue to pursue a zero covid policy even when the at risk have been vaccinated. I think the unfortunate answer to that is probably yes.

This whole business has broken a fairly large part of society so fuck knows how anything ever goes back to how it was.

[ItalAussie]

Unless you are incredibly lucky on the detection [we got away with it once], or the person who has it is a hermit, then 5 days ain't going to be enough to have it under control (assuming society is functioning in a normal way that is).

We're up to 231 now. Although I think this is with the added issue of THE VARIANT.
The idea of the short lockdowns is that it gives the contact tracers time to figure out who needs to be tested immediately - not to wait it out. It essentially freezes everything in place while they assess the damage. It only works if the contact tracing is good though, because it depends on identifying everyone who needs to quarantine within that window. Fortunately, when you have zero other cases, you can basically identify all of potential close contacts through tracing and media campaign.

There's the potential to extend it for longer if the virus actually gets out.

[Jimmy Floyd]

After a successful vaccine, zero covid makes no sense whatsoever. If you're going to do that you also need to do zero flu, zero everything else.

[ItalAussie]

Are these places going to carry on doing short lockdowns for the rest of time? Or just until the population is vaccinated?

I would guess it's at least until the vaccination program has been fully implemented. But honestly, I could live with occasional short lockdowns for an extended duration if that's what it came to (it won't). We've basically proven we can work that way.

EDIT: I do agree with you though. Successful vaccines (and getting numbers at least under control) really have to be the end of it. Anything we can't vaccinate our way out of, we need to learn to live with eventually.

[niko_cee]

The idea of the short lockdowns is that it gives the contact tracers time to figure out who needs to be tested immediately - not to wait it out. It essentially freezes everything in place while they assess the damage. It only works if the contact tracing is good though, because it depends on identifying everyone who needs to quarantine within that window. Fortunately, when you have zero other cases, you can basically identify all of potential close contacts through tracing and media campaign.

There's the potential to extend it for longer if the virus actually gets out.

We have this exact thing here on a tiny island, with essentially closed borders. 9 days ago there were no cases, mega contact tracing, expanded testing capacity, the works. Then 4 unexplained cases suddenly appeared out of nowhere, lockdown was immediate, and now we have 231 and counting. Lockdown can't save you from the spread before those first cases are detected, which is why I say you need to be lucky and pick them up very early and hope to god they aren't mild/asymptotic as otherwise it's out. The added virulence of the new uk variant may compound this.

[Kikó]

After a successful vaccine, zero covid makes no sense whatsoever. If you're going to do that you also need to do zero flu, zero everything else.

It would be great if we manage to keep the cold and flu down after this due to how we appreciate personal hygiene and importance of staying the fuck home if you're ill.

[Spikey M]

I could live with occasional short lockdowns for an extended duration


Fuck (forcibly, aggressively and without lube) that.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It would be great if we manage to keep the cold and flu down after this due to how we appreciate personal hygiene and importance of staying the fuck home if you're ill.

Yeah, I don't mind if the hand sanitiser industry keeps going from strength to strength. Solitary confinement however can do one.

[ItalAussie]

We have this exact thing here on a tiny island, with essentially closed borders. 9 days ago there were no cases, mega contact tracing, expanded testing capacity, the works. Then 4 unexplained cases suddenly appeared out of nowhere, lockdown was immediate, and now we have 231 and counting. Lockdown can't save you from the spread before those first cases are detected, which is why I say you need to be lucky and pick them up very early and hope to god they aren't mild/asymptotic as otherwise it's out. The added virulence of the new uk variant may compound this.
If it is identified as getting out, the lockdown gets real. Nobody is saying that can't happen. But it gives everyone time to assess the situation before the panic starts. Queensland locked down for four days, everyone who had been in a train, bus, or shop with the case was identified, they quarantined and were eventually cleared. It helps that this information is fairly carefully recorded, at least.

But we have a very different setup on the ground to the UK. We know exactly where it came from (cleaner in hotel quarantine) and anyone in that job is tested daily. I'm not saying it can't spiral, but it means we have a much better idea of how it spirals. We had 90 or so cases from the northern beaches cluster in Sydney, and managed to pull that back under control, although that lockdown lasted about a month. Basically, the length of the lockdown changes with the risk.

[ItalAussie]

Yeah, I don't mind if the hand sanitiser industry keeps going from strength to strength. Solitary confinement however can do one.

If I have to work from home for a week or two a couple of times in 2021, I reckon I'll manage to pull through ok.

[Spikey M]

But where does that end? Presumably, Covid is now here forever. In 2030 are we still locking down for 5 days every time there's a positive? As Jimmy said, we don't do that for anything else. We vaccinate the vulnerable and crack on. Fuck going full Madagascar for eternity.

[ItalAussie]

But where does that end? Presumably, Covid is now here forever. In 2030 are we still locking down for 5 days every time there's a positive? As Jimmy said, we don't do that for anything else. We vaccinate the vulnerable and crack on. Fuck going full Madagascar for eternity.

As I said to Jimmy, I agree. We do everything in our power to keep it out, vaccinate (as well as require everyone entering the country to be vaccinated), then anything after that we have to learn to live with. When I said occasional short lockdowns, I meant until the vaccination process is considered complete.

I'd add that when we do reopen the borders (in stages, I'd expect), anyone coming from areas with vastly higher rates of infection should probably still have to hotel quarantine until the numbers equalise. But seeing out the full vaccination rollout without any resurgence should be Australia's goal.

You're in a different situation to us, so I don't know and can't possibly weigh in on what the UK should be trying to do, to be honest.

[Jimmy Floyd]

If I have to work from home for a week or two a couple of times in 2021, I reckon I'll manage to pull through ok.

I'm saying this sat here having not seen anyone other than my parents and 5 workmates since October, so yeah.

[Spikey M]

I seem to remember the expectation being that CoronaViruses typically grant immunity for 2 years. I've no idea if it's the same for the vaccine, but covering everyone in 2 years would be a huge task.

[ItalAussie]

I'm saying this sat here having not seen anyone other than my parents and 5 workmates since October, so yeah.

I really should clarify that I'm only talking about Australia's path forwards. We're in totally different situations, and I have no idea what is viable or sensible in the UK at this stage. It sucks and I'm sorry.

This is my fault for not being clear. Apologies.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Yeah, I wasn't being a moany twat, just highlighting the difference.

We should all be in the same boat soon in any case, but the difference might be that in Aus/NZ etc people might be able to tolerate little lockdowns, but here there is exhaustion.

[Lewis]

Stop the Boats.

[Foe]

Who’s got the corona app tracing thing then?

Because I don’t.

What Symptoms you got Mike? Hope it’s mild.

[ItalAussie]

Stop the Boats.

It's rare that Tony Abbot and I have ever agreed on anything. :D

[Shindig]

I'm reading up on smallpox at the minute to see how long it took for that to be wiped out. The Chinese were snorting up scabs as a way to inoculate as far back as the 10th century. The mad lads. It does seem to highlight just how difficult it is to organise a mass vaccination on a global scale. The efforts to wipe smallpox out on that scale didn't really get going until the 50s.

[Magic]

I'm reading up on smallpox at the minute to see how long it took for that to be wiped out. The Chinese were snorting up scabs as a way to inoculate as far back as the 10th century. The mad lads. It does seem to highlight just how difficult it is to organise a mass vaccination on a global scale. The efforts to wipe smallpox out on that scale didn't really get going until the 50s.

Any other insightful comparisons Shinners.

[Spikey M]

Divorcee's are aften unnecessarily hostile. Which begs the question; are they divorced because they're cunts, or are they cunts because they're divorced.

Please report back Shinners.

[Shindig]

Hostility? From Magic? I won't hear of it. 9/10 of ten kebab shop windows agree.

[Magic]

Hardly hostility you wet weekends.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Divorcee's are aften unnecessarily hostile. Which begs the question; are they divorced because they're cunts, or are they cunts because they're divorced.

Please report back Shinners.

Pretty sure we know which category Magic falls under.

[Magic]

Pretty sure we know which category Magic falls under.

What one is that then.

[Magic]

Also seeing more people wearing masks outside walking. :harold:

[Jimmy Floyd]

Reading twitter today it's still astonishing to me how many people are absolutely desperate for the first jabs to be ineffective without the second (even though there's lots of evidence that the first jabs are extremely effective). It seems they need to country to fail and this must be all they have left to cling onto.

We vaccinated 1.2% of the population yesterday alone.

[Spikey M]

Got the phone call earlier this afternoon. Wifes nan died. Her 70 year old uncle is also still in a bad way.

[John Arne]

Reading twitter today it's still astonishing to me how many people are absolutely desperate for the first jabs to be ineffective without the second (even though there's lots of evidence that the first jabs are extremely effective). It seems they need to country to fail and this must be all they have left to cling onto.

We vaccinated 1.2% of the population yesterday alone.

We are nailing this. However, I think it's more like 0.9% (600,000 / 66,000,000) - or are you excluding a particular age group?

[Yevrah]

Got the phone call earlier this afternoon. Wifes nan died. Her 70 year old uncle is also still in a bad way.

Sorry to hear that dude.

[Yevrah]

Reading twitter today it's still astonishing to me how many people are absolutely desperate for the first jabs to be ineffective without the second (even though there's lots of evidence that the first jabs are extremely effective). It seems they need to country to fail and this must be all they have left to cling onto.

We vaccinated 1.2% of the population yesterday alone.

What sort of stuff are you reading?

[Jimmy Floyd]

We are nailing this. However, I think it's more like 0.9% (600,000 / 66,000,000) - or are you excluding a particular age group?

Sorry, I misread the original, it was 1.2% of adults.

[Jimmy Floyd]

What sort of stuff are you reading?

Just tweets by prominent journalists/agencies and the replies under them. I know that twitter replies are not reflective of the population's opinions (far from it), but they probably are reflective of politically active people's opinions.

[Lewis]

The same people currently tweeting 'We never said the EU was perfect, but...'

[Jimmy Floyd]

Most sensible remainers have a good stance on that, but the professional remainers like Anna Soubry still stick out like a sorre thumb.

[Lewis]

You don't know who the sensible remainers are because they got over it the day after.

[Shindig]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-55881508

Walk your way out of this.

[Lewis]

He appears to have missed his vaccination because he got ill on that freebie holiday.

https://i.imgur.com/R6MoEdH.jpg

[Don]

Assuming he isn't on the night shifts down his local Co-op so how these cunts are continuing to catch it is some feat. Are we sure the COVID label isn't including the natural process of death?

[Lewis]

If he's been ill he would have caught it from the hospital/health visitors. Talk about a slap in the face.

[Queenslander]

This bloke is setting himself up to be booed off the court.



Tennys Sandgren mocks Tennis Australia from Australian Open quarantine over extra day in lockdown

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-29/tennys-sandgren-mocks-tennis-australia-over-hotel-quarantine/13102068?section=sport&sf242425458=1

[Spikey M]

MY NAME'S TENNIS AUSTRALIA AND I'M SOOOO COOL.

He sounds like an absolute fucking loon.

[Lewis]

1356274937347059717

:harold:

[Lewis]

1356348818653118464

:harold: pt. II.

Let's say we get all the over-sixties vaccinated by [the end of] April, and the Europeans are a good couple of months behind, could they conceivably overtake our death total even without a wacky New Variant of their own?

[phonics]

My mums 80 year old friend said he’s not being vaccinated ‘because I’ve been doing reading online’

Cull him.