Coronavirus Death Thread

[Kikó]

Whitty says he does expect a further surge in the autumn and winter.

That is because the winter is a good time for respiratory illnesses, he says. It would be “very surprising” if winter did not favour the virus.

How big the problems will be is uncertain, he says.

He says the winter could be “quite a difficult one” of the NHS, although not as bad as last winter.



US is opening up, Israelis are free to kick Arab children to death without a mask but we've got these dried out vaginas still beating their drums.

That's not that surprising. It seems to spread easier in the winter. "Surge" doesn't necessarily mean we will be the same as last Christmas.

[Don]

Get in the freezer and set a bit, you soft shite.

[Shindig]

I do wonder if it could flip. The news from the studies about the vaccinated seems to think they do wind up with less viral load. Could the virus become low in enough in the population that it just kind of slinks away? We were almost there with the Kent.

And saying winter will be difficult for the NHS is kinda daft. It always is.

[Spikey M]

That's not that surprising. It seems to spread easier in the winter. "Surge" doesn't necessarily mean we will be the same as last Christmas.

The vaccines must be shit then? We should be well past the herd immunity tipping point by winter.

[Kikó]

The vaccines must be shit then? We should be well past the herd immunity tipping point by winter.

A surge of cases doesn't equal a surge of hospitalisations. Depends what his actual words were.

[Spikey M]

But if there's herd immunity there shouldn't be a serge of cases. Maybe the odd freak occurrence and isolated outbreaks amongst groups of unvaccinated people (like with Measles), but outbreaks capable of putting pressure on the NHS should be long gone by the winter. If they aren't, then something isn't right.

[Kikó]

The vaccines doesn't stop transmission so it can still spread. It does reduce it but doesn't remove it.

https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/mo...t%20vaccinated.

t found immunisation with either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine reduced the chance of onward virus transmission by 40-60%. This means that if someone became infected after being vaccinated, they were only around half as likely to pass their infection on to others compared to infected people who weren’t vaccinated.

[Yevrah]

But the point still stands, if we’re still talking about transmission in a context significantly more serious than the common cold come winter, something will have gone very wrong.

[-james-]

A mate has tested positive. I saw him indoors on Sunday and Monday and he started getting symptoms on Tuesday/Wednesday. He did a test every day thereafter but only returned a positive yesterday.

I've done a couple lateral flows and I'm all clear, I think 2 of 10 or so who have done tests since being in contact with him have come back positive.

What's the deal, am I still expected to do ten days isolation from when I saw him? The government website is fairly unclear.

[Spikey M]

10 days isolation from when you had contact. I'm pretty sure that's unchanged.

[Shindig]

200 cases at Durham Uni in the last week. What a time to be alive.

[Baz]

A mate has tested positive. I saw him indoors on Sunday and Monday and he started getting symptoms on Tuesday/Wednesday. He did a test every day thereafter but only returned a positive yesterday.

I've done a couple lateral flows and I'm all clear, I think 2 of 10 or so who have done tests since being in contact with him have come back positive.

What's the deal, am I still expected to do ten days isolation from when I saw him? The government website is fairly unclear.

Lateral flow tests are the biggest waste of time and money in our lifetime. You may as well ask a stranger in passing to guess your name and if they get it right, you've got Covid.

[Lofty]

Agreed. Wife said some lad at her spot has tested positive for covid but out of interest took a lateral flow test whilst isolating and tested negative

[Spikey M]

Stop taking tests you cunts. It's here. It's staying. The vulnerable are covered. Crack on.

[Baz]

I was in a meeting the other day and the resident 'here are the latest figures' boffin shared a Power BI thingy showing the [massive] increase in rates in the local region. Someone asked 'how many of these are asymptomatic under 18s though? Since hospital rates aren't increasing in-line with the positive tests' to which he nervously fumbled over words resembling not having that particular data and then switched his camera off.

[-james-]

Stop taking tests you cunts. It's here. It's staying. The vulnerable are covered. Crack on.

It takes two minutes. My life is basically back to normal and I'd rather not be in lockdown again.

[-james-]

Lateral flow tests are the biggest waste of time and money in our lifetime. You may as well ask a stranger in passing to guess your name and if they get it right, you've got Covid.

They do seem a bit crap. You're seemingly only meant to go for a PCR if you have symptoms, which is a bit odd considering LFDs are apparently least accurate against low viral loads.

[Spikey M]

Brazil have just hit 500,000 deaths and still only have 15% of adults vaccinated. It's almost certainly the rich ones too, rather than the people in the Favellas where I imagine it's doing it's damage. Daily deaths have been over 1500 since March.

Are they still using the shitty Chinese jab too?

[Foe]

They’re still going to be better at football than us for the foreseeable.

[Spikey M]

Well, that's the main thing.

[Magic]

People don't get old or fat enough in the Favellas to be vulnerable, you racist cunt.

It's going to be the fat, rich ones.

[Spikey M]

People don't get old or fat enough in the Favellas to be vulnerable, you racist cunt.

It's going to be the fat, rich ones.

This virus loves cramped living conditions. And malnutrition.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile..../idUSKBN2BZ132

[Don]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/...uk-this-winter

Worrying stuff, I'm all for Freedom Day but I think close it back down after a week to help protect everything and everyone. Also, guys, make sure you get your flu jab and post some selfies on IG whilst you do.

[Yevrah]

Another thing that is seriously beginning to annoy me about the SCIENCE is the utter impunity with which these people can forecast doom seemingly without ever having to suggest a solution.

Flu's going to be a problem you say?

"Yes, without a doubt"

Oh, ok. Any solution?

"Decisions need to be made soon".

Brilliant.

[Jimmy Floyd]

That's exactly why you need politicians who actually make their own decisions, rather than 'following the science/data', which by its very nature is indecisive.

[Yevrah]

Completely and we've rarely ever done that, yet seemingly refuse to learn it's what we should be doing.

Instead, every rent-a-gob two bit arse hole is allowed to spread their proclamations of doom throughout any media outlet that will have them, which is every single one.

I'm all for an informed public, but this is not helpful and I suggest we're reaching a stage where it's breaking the country. I had a full week out of the house for work last week, in our great capital, and it was so eye opening in terms of what a shit-fest this all is and how the route back to 'normal' life is miles away.

[Boydy]

Eye-opening in what way?

Not having a dig, genuinely curious. I'm still wfh.

[Kikó]

You have to book a table if you want a pint.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The thing I hate is the lack of spontaneity. Any activity involving a business/third party has to be pre-planned to the nth degree, they want you to do a 'symptom self-assessment' before you leave the house (lol if people actually do this), an abundance of caution for caution's sake is now the default in all things. I can't stand it. I'm not exactly Jeffrey Bernard but it makes me ill to think about people not being able to go places and do stuff.

[Spikey M]

We were saying the exact same thing when we were on holiday. All spontaneity is gone. Everything has to be booked and planned well ahead of time, and it doesn't half lead to alot of aimless hanging around. You can't just get up and go.

I think it might be what bothers me most about all this shit. It was almost better when everything was shut.

[Kikó]

I have actually walked into quite a number of pubs and restaurants without a booking tbf.

[Spikey M]

On our last day we saw the restaurant was empty, so we chanced our arm to see if we could have some breakfast in there. We had to go on their website and book a table. The closest slot being 15 minutes away. Then stand and wait. Outside an empty - and open - restaurant for our slot.

I appreciate that's not directly because of the Covid rules, but this shit didn't happen 2 years ago.

[Lewis]

I have actually walked into quite a number of pubs and restaurants without a booking tbf.

Yeah but these lot are nobodies.

[Kikó]

You should get the premium non-plebby covid package like me and Lewis.

[Manc]

I have actually walked into quite a number of pubs and restaurants without a booking tbf.

This.

Yev is just being as dramatic as ever.

[Don]

The people who think we're already pretty much back to normal truly hurt my soul.

[Waffdon]

I haven’t booked in anywhere other than if I’m going out for tea in a restaurant which I would always book anyway. Some places I’ve tried to book online don’t even let you as they’re sick of folk not turning up and having empty restaurants so fully scrapped it

[Yevrah]

Right, where do I start.

I guess the first thing to say is that I've only been working from home because I've been forced to. I hate it, I'd much rather be in an office. On the occasion I've been working away from home since last March I've always been happy to do it, but we're probably looking at about 10 days total out of however many I've actually worked over the last 15 months. In my personal life as well I've been happy to go out and do things and have not once thought I don't want to do that because of Covid (it probably helps that I don't move in Taz's circles so haven't really had the chance to do anything that would have put me hugely at risk, let alone anything properly against the rules).

I say this because I feel it's important to recognise where everyone is with this. You have the Jim's of the world who've never been working from home and I'd say they're the most well adjusted to the situation, but for the rest of us it's varying degrees of shock when you see what life's like (when you're exposed to it for a sustained period of time and not just out for a drink or dinner). I'd say I'm at the good end of that - I don't think the world is a plague pit outside of my front door, for example, but I'd imagine there are millions upon millions of people (possibly into the tens of) who do and nothing you see when you're exposed to outside life does anything to assuage that fear. Quite the opposite in fact.

For a start (and this is a bit of an aside to the above but..), almost EVERYWHERE seems to be struggling with staff numbers. From shops to restaurants, if it isn't a family run business it literally felt like we'd actually been to war and x% of the population didn't make it back. Now I don't know if this is because there are the same number of staff and a lot of them are faffing elsewhere rather than doing what they would have pre-pandemic (being useful to customers), but whatever they are doing and whatever the reason, that situation didn't exist two years ago. Pandemic 1 Life 0.

Then there's the clusterfuck of where you can and can't go in a building, even when you're on your own. I don't blame businesses for this as they're for the most part doing their best to follow the rules, but the consistency is all over the shop. One-way systems in some places, as you were in others, markings that have long since perished on the floor, markings that haven't perished but make no sense. I appreciate those who have had limited exposure to this/have been out enough since it started would think what the fuck is he moaning about? But trust me, having spent six days straight away from the comfort of my "go anywhere, do anything I like" house, it was an utter fucking headache. Pandemic 2 Life 0

Hotels. Utterly broken. Particularly those that rely on trade from people who aren't guests. In the one I was staying in (no flex intended, but it cost enough to be about as good as you could expect), the mix of low to non-existent natural light, windows that don't open, wearing a mask everywhere other than in your room or while eating and drinking and the COVID police on the entrance constantly asking you to check in with the app turned what should have been "you stayed where? Lucky bastard" into "Fuck, that sounds shit". Pandemic 3 Life 0

Booking EVERYTHING. Two issues with this. Firstly it completely ruins spontaneity (a hugely undervalued part of being human) and secondly it makes it a ball ache to get into a lot of places if you either haven't booked (in a largely futile effort to be spontaneous) or haven't booked before someone else has beaten you to it because they thought they might like to go there. Seriously, this must be happening on an industrial scale as the number of places that wouldn't let any of us in despite having ample space was ludicrous. Pandemic 4 Life 0

Table Service. When done correctly this is just better, but so few places can manage to get it right. Dodgy apps that don't remember card details, drinks that take an age to arrive or arrive incorrectly. I've had more crap experiences than good ones and that goes for since pubs started doing this last July. But... I think the principal is a good one, so let's be fair and give that to life. Pandemic 4 Life 1

Masks. Dreadful things. Again, I've clearly been spoilt in one sense from working from home for so long, but having to constantly put these things on and remember where I'd put the fucker in the first place was a constant low level annoyance. I thought I understood the "they're fine" argument, but when you're wearing it a lot, as I was for six days straight it becomes quite different. Pandemic 5 Life 1

The nonsense rules. I can't really complain too much about this one as they were never going to get them right, it's an impossible task. But again, live entirely within them for six days straight and it really hammers home what a joke they are. Highlights include:

-Spending six days with every member of an 18 strong team (never seeing more than six at once, but being exposed to all of them) and being shouted at in the hotel bar for joining a table that already had six of them on it.
-Being told that I absolutely had to stay sat down at a table I was at in a garden while wanting to smoke. I chose not to smoke, but had I been an arse I'd have done so and given the others on the table more cancer instead of giving a perfectly empty space in the outside area no cancer.
-Leaving a bar in Chinatown to be approached by a bloke trying to get us into his strip club for private dances. I said to him surely that can't be legal, but was told it is as long as the women keep their underwear on. I mean, I don't even...

I was generous with table service so Pandemic 6 Life 1

Now in isolation each of these things are fine, but put them all together and it's just a monumental headache, which let's be realistic we're not close to losing. Even then you could say don't be a spoilt twat, loads of people have it far worse than you and they do. But we didn't two years ago and that's the point. Even once we have binned all of this off we've then got millions upon millions of people who'll be released into the environment who actively want things to be kept like this.

We need to keep listening to the SCIENCE but stop being led by it, set a clear roadmap with conditions that if achieved means we stick to it and bin this shit off when they are. The disease is a serious one, but nowhere serious enough to still be behaving like this with a vaccine driven through a huge proportion of the population and nearly all of the vulnerable part of it. We then need a government led effort to educate people that it really isn't that bad (for the vast majority of us) and a concerted effort to get everyone out while behaving as such. It was a hard task to get people indoors, but it's going to be a monumental one to get the ones who've been scared to death back out again and behaving normally.

If we don't life is going to take far longer than it should to return to normal and in the back of my mind I can't shake the thought of what life will be like if a pandemic that could genuinely be described as 'deadly' rocked up. I hope I'm dead by the time that happens.

[Yevrah]

The people who think we're already pretty much back to normal truly hurt my soul.

Honestly, having lived this 'normal' for six days, they're either brainwashed or haven't left the house much beyond their local.

[Yevrah]

This.

Yev is just being as dramatic as ever.

I'd take that accusation if I didn't have a history for consistently being far more right than wrong on the subject. But feel free to go back to the 'nothing to see' comments of page 1 if it makes you feel better.

[Shindig]

I went into four pubs last night without booking anything.

[Lofty]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...yside-57322352

Not sure if this was posted already.

[phonics]

He looks like Samadini

[Manc]

Proper Gammon stuff from Yev.

[Yevrah]

Proper Gammon stuff from Yev.

Great feedback. Next time I need some input I'll know where to go.

[Kikó]

I would say the lack of casual staff is probably down to BREXIT.

[Yevrah]

I went into four pubs last night without booking anything.

Depends what you're doing. Proper locals tend to be fine without booking in my experience, but they generally have more space (particularly outside) and they're also the ones that are far less slavish to the rules.

[Yevrah]

I would say the lack of casual staff is probably down to BREXIT.

It would fit, but I also wonder what impact giving people 'free' money with no fear of being evicted/they live with their parents anyway has. Not saying we shouldn't have done that if that is the case, we absolutely should have, but it wouldn't have happened without this pandemic we've supposedly beaten away with normality.

[Kikó]

It's an employer's choice to have people on furlough. Hospitality is still not normal so I'm not sure blaming furlough is fair.

[Shindig]

The bigger problem would be trying to operate a covid secure kitchen. A fully staffed kitchen is busy and in tight quarters. The staff might not be coming forward but it's more likely they have to operate a skeleton crew to avoid the wrath of an EHO.