Coronavirus

[Brew 4,138]

Our PP is clever ... not many one eyed Trout about never mind catching 'em...

 

[radfordred 5,348]

A virus that deadly you need to have a test to see if you’ve had it or not  

 

 

[nonnaB 4,136]

As our children are about to start back to school the situation is extremely worrying. The news last night revealed that 13,000 teachers have been found positive. My grandchildren have started to recuperate their lost lessons and will start the proper schooling in a couple of weeks. Apparently their schools are missing a lot of teachers ( covid?)  I hope the news a moment or two ago is that temperatures although not compulsory at school are now being taken outside schools before children go in for lessons. 

[PeverilPeril 2,765]

Our Great granddaughter started back last week. She arrives here most mornings to be taken to school and then she is collected and stays here til mum and dad get back from work (essential jobs). Should we be worried? Well yes, but it is more important that we take the risk and support the family. If everyone of our age (~80) declined to do their bit and expected to be protected, maybe services would grind to a halt. While taking appropriate precautions, life still has to go on, even if the population gets thinned out a bit

 

Just a thought - if the older population takes a big hit and is reduced, then the private pension providers should profit when all of these annuity payments cease prematurely. Less state pension to pay out too. Just hoping that the Chancellor is not banking on this!

[MelissaJKelly 2,049]

My 2 nephews started back 2 weeks ago. Different start and finish times for every class to reduce amount of people waiting at the gates. Last Monday it was closed again as 2 teachers have COVID. Don't think they should have reopened. Both nephews are in 'bubbles' of over 30!!

[denshaw 2,634]

A Lenton man has just been fined £10K for having a house party with 50 guests, covidiot.

[Cliff Ton 8,939]

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

[carni 9,766]

We took our one and only Grandchild to Birmingham on Friday to begin her adventure at Aston University. She was the first to arrive at her shared accommodation on the campus, today three more will arrive, there will be seven all together. They have a communal Kitchen with all amenities, and their own on suite  bedrooms.

 

No Freshers week activities as all  have been cancelled due to the virus.

 

She Is going out to explore Birmingham later today with one of her new flat mates. The flat mates are from all over England. I pray that apart from the usual dangers of life in a big city, that everyone is Covid free. 

 

 

[trogg 1,422]

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 9,766]

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 4,138]

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 4,271]

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

[LizzieM 8,665]

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 109]

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 8,463]

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 4,136]

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 8,155]

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 5,454]

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 2,275]

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 1,423]

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 250]

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 247]

8 hours ago, Oztalgian said:

SNAFU

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

[Alpha 62]

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 4,138]

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 4,271]

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.