Coronavirus

[Poisson]

Dunno about you lot, but I test my eyesight using objects a fixed distance away instead of climbing into 2 tonnes of fast moving metal without knowledge of my eyes being okay.

 

[RoyJess]

The law states that all drivers of motor cars must be able to read a standard number plate, in good daylight, from a distance of twenty metres – with spectacles or corrective lenses if required. This can be done simply walking twenty metres away from a car instead of driving 30 miles away. So there were no need to drive to a castle to test your eyesight

Either way he broke the law by driving to a beauty spot during lock down as well as driving in a car with potentially defective vision not only putting his wife and kid in danger, but also other road users as well as pedestrians.

 

[delta79]

If you want to test yourself add an extra 6.5 metre, to get to the driving instructor test length.

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[Alsty]

Moving the topic on from Dominic Cummings (which is likely to rumble on and, to be honest, could almost deserve its own topic)...

From 1st June outdoor markets and car showrooms will be reopening, and then non-essential shops from 15th June subject to social distancing precautions being implemented. Pubs, bars and cafes, and places with close interaction such as hairdressers will need to wait a bit longer.

However I'm sure on Boris Johnson's timeline it said small shops would reopen from 1st June. Some retailers have complained as they were all geared up to open in six days but now have to wait a further two weeks. It makes me wonder if this was originally part of the plan or if perhaps the R is not as low as they hoped and want to push it back a bit further.

 

[Islander]

However I'm sure on Boris Johnson's timeline it said small shops would reopen from 1st June. Some retailers have complained as they were all geared up to open in six days but now have to wait a further two weeks. It makes me wonder if this was originally part of the plan or if perhaps the R is not as low as they hoped and want to push it back a bit further.

The timeline was always that non-essential shops will open at the earliest 1st June, which is exactly what's happening, just that it's being staggered from that point a little.

 

[Alsty]

It's a bit disingenuous though if that's what he meant all along.

He might as well say everything can open at the earliest on 1st June and then not open anything until September, which would be correct technically but still misleading.

 

[Mr Pearse]

Here in Wales we still haven’t eased yet. So obviously the shop things don’t apply to us yet. My problem is now being locked down for so long is that I can’t see the point of constantly travelling to go to the high street. I can get everything I need online the only thing I miss is going food shopping. I do wonder how many peoples shopping habits will change due to lockdown.

 

[Rob]

It was made very clear in the roadmap that everything set out was conditional on the progress made in containing the spread of the virus. Much of what has been said has not been clear, but I feel that was clear. However I do understand that it might be frustrating for some shops, especially smaller independent shops, that were all set up and ready to go on June 1st.

I've noticed that a lot of hairdressers have already started taking appointments from 4th July. I understand why this is but I would not want to book an appointment in the first week or two as there's a decent chance it may have to be cancelled if the re-openings are pushed back slightly.

 

[speedy]

Meanwhile I learnt this morning that the UK now has the highest number of deaths per million people of any country. Followed by Sweden. In Scotland they haven't announced when shops will reopen yet, an announcement will be made on Thursday. Either way a lot can happen in the space of a month and I won't be surprised if rates increase before then and the date is subsequently pushed back

 

[Islander]

Meanwhile I learnt this morning that the UK now has the highest number of deaths per million people of any country. Followed by Sweden. In Scotland they haven't announced when shops will reopen yet, an announcement will be made on Thursday. Either way a lot can happen in the space of a month and I won't be surprised if rates increase before then and the date is subsequently pushed back

Just to juxtapose this nicely, deaths due to Coronavirus in the UK in the week to the 15th May were at a 6-week low, which is awesome.

 

[Alsty]

It was made very clear in the roadmap that everything set out was conditional on the progress made in containing the spread of the virus.

Indeed, hence my thought:

It makes me wonder if this was originally part of the plan or if perhaps the R is not as low as they hoped and want to push it back a bit further.

If it was originally intended for shops to open from the 15th June originally, wouldn't Boris have said that?

 

[delta79]

The interesting thing i spotted on yesterday's slides was the R rate was 0.7 to 1. And they did not mention it had reached 1 again.

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[Rob]

I think there R has been estimated to be between 0.7 and 1 for a couple of weeks at least now. Plus the data presented on the R is 2-3 weeks out of date anyway as there is a time lag associated with it.

 

[Islander]

Important to remember that the R-rate will go up with any relaxation in lockdown. People will see an increase in R and freak out, but lockdown measures should be reduced in a way that this increase is kept manageable, and of course below one - not necessarily no increase at all, as that'd be next to impossible.

 

[delta79]

Mid last week R was 0.4 to 0.7. I was expecting a rise in R, however i was surprised that more relaxing of protection measures before R had settled back down to at least 0.8.


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[Matt N]

This is good news on the economic front; a chief economist for the Bank of England now thinks that the recession will not be as bad as initially feared due to moderate recovery of business activity, although he still says to exorcise caution: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/26/uk-recession-bank-of-england-economist-andy-haldane

 

[delta79]

Just looked at the daily update and R value is completely missing on any slide.

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[Islander]

Just looked at the daily update and R value is completely missing on any slide.

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I question its usefulness as a metric to be fair. Firstly because it's always a couple of weeks out of date, but more importantly, no one in government is giving any proper answer as to how it's being calculated. I think its accuracy is questionable at best.

 

[MattyH]

Had a discussion that a lot of people experienced covid-19 symptoms in Late January - Mid February and thought nothing of it. I wonder if there are a lot of people that have had the virus, would be interesting if the anti body tests show a much higher percentage of people have had the virus than previously thought.

 

[Spookle15]

I read the other day that a UK study puts it at 2 million people who had Covid-19 at the time of the peak, or in late March, can't quite remember. It was on the BBC website, I'll have to try and find the link. This changes everything in my mind if that many people had it, and yet the deaths did not increase dramatically.