Coronavirus

[trogg 1,448]

My Grand daughter started her 2nd year at Coventry today and a Grandson starts his first year at Sheffield next week. What with corona virus and away from their families I am sure they will be OK , but I am still concerned.

[carni 9,821]

Our Granddaughter got a place last year at Warwick, it was closer to Coventry than Warwick, it would have been her second year as well, but she decided to have a year off and also go to Aston as it is easier to get home, as her mum is partially disabled and limited in mobility. I understand your being concerned Trogg, I'm the same. We never stop fretting after them, it's called Love.

[Brew 4,206]

3 hours ago, Cliff Ton said:

Den, I'm not sure he fits the description of a 'man'. According to this report he was 19yrs old, so probably a student who lived in the house and invited all his mates.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-54131030

 

And not a hope in hell of paying a 10k fine so there was absolutly no point doing it. Unless it's an object lesson and makes a good headline  to keep the riff-raff in check.

[philmayfield 4,340]

Failure to pay the fine could result in a sentence or more leniently community service. His copybook is already blotted.

[LizzieM 8,710]

I read an article by Luke Johnson in today’s Sunday Times, it puts this ‘pandemic’ into perspective.  
How many of us actually remember the Hong Kong Flu Epidemic of 1968-69?  I don’t ....... maybe it was because I was a teenager enjoying life to the full or maybe it wasn’t being reported on TV and radio, which was all we had in those days, apart from newspapers.   No internet, social media etc. to stir up fear 50 years ago.

Luke Johnson says that according to Encyclopaedia Britannica between one million and four million people died of Hong Kong flu worldwide.  At that time the global population was only half of what it is today, 7.8 billion. Covid-19 is unlikely to kill one million people.  Half a century ago the world took a pandemic in its stride, we all carried on going to work and socialising.  This time almost a third of the country’s working population has been paid to be idle, sitting at home, enjoying a lovely summer of sunshine and warmth.  Children have missed out on vital schooling and important exams.  Businesses have gone bust, cancer and heart operations have been put on hold, the damage this pandemic has done is immeasurable.  

[Paradiddle 114]

49 minutes ago, philmayfield said:

Failure to pay the fine could result in a sentence or more leniently community service. His copybook is already blotted.

 

Everybody that attended should be fined and their copy books blotted!!

[Jill Sparrow 8,517]

I know several people who caught Hong Kong A2 or whatever it was called, including my father. They were all very ill but just stayed in bed at home. No one else in our house caught it, thankfully.  It killed millions, globally.

[nonnaB 4,166]

My grandchildren start back to school tomorrow. They've already recuperated something but don't suppose it's much. Talking to my DIL there are so many things they can do and can't do besides the usual there's the worry of them not being able to have a snack at lunch times. They don't have school dinners, the two boys who are now at the same school have a bar nearby where they can get a sandwich, a slice of pizza or whatever but social distancing can be impossible at lunch times . Their sister is at a different school for her first year . There is no restaurant or bar nearby. Which means that she has to take something from home, but there's a restriction, they aren't allowed to take food from home because of any allergy problems. if they happen to,share their food. She's not a baby and is very sensible so it's unlikely that she will share her food. So not sure how she's going to go on or what she's likely to take.  They all leave the house at 7 am to get to school for 8. Catching the bus here to Alba and then having a long walk to school. By the time lunch time comes at 1 pm they will be hungry. At the moment they don't know what their hours will be but it's always a long day for them. Then there's always extra homework they have to do.

[loppylugs 8,167]

I caught that flu.  Sick as a dog.  Didn't care if I did die, I felt so lousy.  Took a couple of weeks to feel half decent again.

[DJ360 5,522]

The point that people keep missing is that Covid is new.

 

Few people have immunity.. and it is very contagious....more so than seasonal Flu.

 

Therefore. whilst it may kill fewer of its victims... its number of available victims is much higher than those of Flu.

 

This is not Rocket Science

[Oztalgian 2,299]

I have been reading various UK on-line news outlets over the SNAFU that is Covid 19 testing in the UK.

Do any contributors on here understand why its implementation is so inept. Media sources from both right and left of the political spectrum seem to be in agreement so there must be something fundamentally wrong.

According to a local newspaper the only testing centre in the county is in Nottingham itself although at times there have been mobile testing stations used in the county.

[Stavertongirl 1,450]

To be honest the UK has lurched from crisis to another during the pandemic starting with PPE for health workers, too late lockdown, not testing enough at first as we didn’t have tests, letting people from abroad come back and not make them isolate (they were just politely asked to do it) and seed the virus all over the country, track and trace which is woefully inadequate and seems to be getting worse. The list goes on and on. The testing situation is the latest in a long list of abysmal failures of seemingly inept politicians who seem to be completely out of their depth or are totally incompetent. (I would point out I am not at all politically minded so have no axe to grind with any political party.)

It would seem now all the gains we made having a lockdown have now been thrown away, (personally I think an extra 2 weeks lockdown might have helped, the number of infections still seemed rather high when it was lifted but what do I know) starting with the Dominic thingy debacle (spelling?). 
Having badgered people to stop home working and go back to the office etc. It now looks like they might be encouraging home working again, curfews are being bandied about by the newspapers/tv along with some things being shut down again or even a 2 week lockdown being bandied about today. I can see panic buying rearing it’s head again.

The schools going back has been a complete shambles with cases starting to take off in them. I understand they needed to be reopened but surely rotas would have been better than having all kids there all the time? I am really concerned about my relative that works in this environment having to deal with the shambolic guidelines. 
I just despair at times when I see politicians on tv, waffling, fudging, defending the indefensible, manipulating figures etc.

What the answer is I don’t know but I think the next few months are going to be really tough. Someone needs to get a grip, take control and sort this mess out.

[Stuart.C 266]

Part of the issue, from T.V recently, is that some of the test samples sent to labs were being processed by seconded University staff and students, suitably experienced in the work.

All of these have now gone back into Uni's.

 

Presumably this was predictable and staff have / are being recruited, but either there aren't sufficient numbers and or they aren't getting to the required standard.

It doesn't seem to be a shortage of on the ground sample takers or test sights.

[HSR 248]

8 hours ago, Oztalgian said:

SNAFU

That's interesting.havent heard that for over thirty years. maybe some Nottingham musical connection..

[Alpha 72]

1 hour ago, Stavertongirl said:

To be honest the UK has lurched from crisis to another during the pandemic starting with PPE for health workers, too late lockdown, not testing enough at first as we didn’t have tests, letting people from abroad come back and not make them isolate (they were just politely asked to do it) and seed the virus all over the country, track and trace which is woefully inadequate and seems to be getting worse. The list goes on and on. The testing situation is the latest in a long list of abysmal failures of seemingly inept politicians who seem to be completely out of their depth or are totally incompetent. (I would point out I am not at all politically minded so have no axe to grind with any political party.)

It would seem now all the gains we made having a lockdown have now been thrown away, (personally I think an extra 2 weeks lockdown might have helped, the number of infections still seemed rather high when it was lifted but what do I know) starting with the Dominic thingy debacle (spelling?). 
Having badgered people to stop home working and go back to the office etc. It now looks like they might be encouraging home working again, curfews are being bandied about by the newspapers/tv along with some things being shut down again or even a 2 week lockdown being bandied about today. I can see panic buying rearing it’s head again.

The schools going back has been a complete shambles with cases starting to take off in them. I understand they needed to be reopened but surely rotas would have been better than having all kids there all the time? I am really concerned about my relative that works in this environment having to deal with the shambolic guidelines. 
I just despair at times when I see politicians on tv, waffling, fudging, defending the indefensible, manipulating figures etc.

What the answer is I don’t know but I think the next few months are going to be really tough. Someone needs to get a grip, take control and sort this mess out.

 

Parliamentary, governmental, ministerial and individual incompetence is rife throughout society; wrong people in the wrong jobs who, unfortunately, always seem to get into positions of influence and power.

 

Try, as you may, to get rid of these politicians, they are replaced by other incompetents. We can't seem to reverse the situation by using our power of selection by voting as they all seem to have the same inherent attributes of incompetence.

 

The start in attempting to rid society of these cretins is not to vote at all or, to respond to any referenda offered by the politicians to find another way in to make their case. The political class, as a whole, has to be brought down. As a replacement a governing group of experts in their field free of political influence or interference could be a way forward, but that would be years ahead of our time. Could C19 , running rife through the Houses of Parliament and at local government level be our saviour? Nice to think so! 

 

 

 

[Brew 4,206]

2 hours ago, Stavertongirl said:

What the answer is I don’t know but I think the next few months are going to be really tough.

 

And there's the clue SG, you don't know, I don't know and nor does anyone else. As Col says it's new, unprecedented and without clear guidlines that actually work we appear to be floundering, unfortunately it's not only us.  Sure we can blame mistakes, call the authorities incompetent but are they really?  France with a similar sized population has three times our daily infections so are they three times more incompetent? Things could have been done differently true enough  but as we have said before on this forum, hindsight is a wonderful thing that gives us 20:20 vision.

 

The testing program is not running as smootly as one would hope yet we test more than any other EU country. But we're Brits and never happier than when we have something to moan about - nothing is ever quite good enough. The fact we may be the ones causing the problem by booking tests without good reason and purely out of blind panic seems to escape our notice.

 

I wonder if we, or anyone else, would have had lock down at all if China had not closed down Wuhan and given us a lead. Who would have even thought of closing down an entire country?

[philmayfield 4,340]

There are many people complaining about the situation but the fact is that it’s a largely unprecedented situation and decisions have had to be made ‘on the hoof’. The complainers never seem to come up with a solution. 

[Cliff Ton 8,977]

One of the growth industries since the whole CV thing started has been the increase in the number of armchair experts.

 

They know everything - and criticise it - after it's happened. If they were in a position of power they wouldn't know where to start.

[Stavertongirl 1,450]

I realise this is an unprecented situation but it seems to me, although I might be wrong, that we have not learnt by mistakes made by us and others. It seems that precious time was lost after the lockdown to get testing and track and trace up to the world beating or even adequate systems that they are required to be. 
I appreciate that there has been a surge in people wanting a test, not sure it is all caused by people who want a test before they go on holiday, but surely with the schools going back this was always going to happen especially as our figures were “running hot” and not as low as other countries at that time and with pubs etc, opening up.
Whilst not blaming anyone the younger generation have had it drummed into them they either don’t get the virus or only very mildly so of course they are going to socialise, you feel invulnerable when you are young. I do wonder if it had been worse in children/young adults if things might have been different. 
Would some decentralisation of the track and trace have helped utilising local services and knowledge perhaps? The same with schools going back, which became politicised when the first attempt didn’t materialise, it seemed the determination was there to get them back no matter what. Surely you go to the people who deal with it day to day to find the best solution? 
It is a conundrum of vast proportions trying to balance the economy with the spread of the virus and I certainly don’t envy those making the decisions. At least now they seem to be grasping things need to be done quickly as things start to go pear shaped so there might be a glimmer of hope. 

 

[Brew 4,206]

53 minutes ago, Stavertongirl said:

I realise this is an unprecented situation but it seems to me, although I might be wrong, that we have not learnt by mistakes made by us and others.

 

It's a view SG but not one we can say for certain is right or wrong. We can't for instance know how much worse things would have been had we not applied the lessons learned, or if they made the wrong decisions.

[MargieH 6,655]

 

’ ....the younger generation have had it drummed into them they either don’t get the virus or only very mildly so of course they are going to socialise, you feel invulnerable when you are young. I do wonder if it had been worse in children/young adults if things might have been different. 

57 minutes ago, Stavertongirl said:

 

I agree ... if it were my  children and grandchildren at the most risk, I would do EVERYTHING I could to protect them by following guidelines and probably being even stricter than recommended.

[Oztalgian 2,299]

On 9/13/2020 at 11:06 PM, LizzieM said:

How many of us actually remember the Hong Kong Flu Epidemic of 1968-69?

I remember the great Hong Kong Flu Epidemic of 1968-69 .....

All of a sudden .... nothing happened and we all got on with life largely oblivious of the 30,000 + that lost their lives

I was too young to remember the Flu epidemic of 1957 which killed upwards of 20,000 people in the UK.

14 hours ago, HSR said:

That's interesting havent heard that for over thirty years. maybe some Nottingham musical connection..

SNAFU is an Army saying "Situation Normal All F***ed Up"

[nonnaB 4,166]

I was sorry to hear that England I or should I say parts of it are going once more into lockdown. I hope Nottingham doesn't become too infected . So friends take care .

[Beekay 2,877]

I hope they don't  either Nonna. I'm due to go up there, the second week of December. I've got to pay a holiday balance next week, for over a £1000.  Why can't  people be sensible.

[nonnaB 4,166]

Last night on Italian news, 13,000 new cases in 24 hrs in GB. Showing scenes of hundreds of people all muffled up together and very few masks. Aren't they bothered or are they stupid? Also showed some scenes in England protesting and police shoving the protesters back. None were wearing masks. It can't be easy having another lockdown but the problem is we all have to obey the rules if we want to beat this thing. Our numbers are always increasing but go down only to rise again. Seems like there are stupid people everywhere.

Covid apart from causing so many deaths has ruined life for everyone. Businesses failing , long awaited holidays ruined or cancelled, causing fears of going out and any excuse to go out for fear of forgetting your mask or moving away from anyone who has coughed or sneezed. The problem now is you get used to lockdown and staying in, you lose the inclination to go out and that's not good.