Coronavirus

[Craig]

I thought the government wasn’t offering the vaccine to under-18s full stop due to the trials not including children?

At present yes, however don't forget that they announced the first trials for children and young adults, so a lot can change in the coming months!

 

[Poisson]

I could see the vaccine passports coming in September. 2 month buffer to get everyone vaccinated and then you just keep on top with vaccine supplies

 

[delta79]

So we are now having steps to relaxation.
Are we going to have H pop up on each date reminding us what has been relaxed on that day.

As long as it does not end in tragedy.



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[BigT]

I’m quite glad Boris is finally going for let it rip, slightly slower than I would of liked but it’s let it rip whichever way you look at it.

 

[Matt N]

I’m quite glad Boris is finally going for let it rip, slightly slower than I would of liked but it’s let it rip whichever way you look at it.

I’m not necessarily sure he is, but once everyone’s vaccinated, that should in theory give enough population protection to really drive down hospitalisations without the need for such overbearing restrictions.

 

[GaryH]

Does anyone use the Zoe Covid app on their phone to log symptoms? Anyone else noticed that on their charts showing infection rates that the U.K. is actually going back up with rises in many of the U.K. regions?

 

[MattyH]

A few key bits, International travel will be reported on by the 12th April and the goverment will have a plan for regional restrictions and measures in reaction to outbreaks or mutations. These include mass testing, enhanced contact tracing and possibly measures similar to lockdown.

 

[Craig]

Does anyone use the Zoe Covid app on their phone to log symptoms? Anyone else noticed that on their charts showing infection rates that the U.K. is actually going back up with rises in many of the U.K. regions?

My area has shown some very weird numbers in the past 3 months or so. One week went from 1200+ before suddenly dropping to around 270 infections, and that's with actual confirmed cases failing to rise and fall at a similar rate.

My guess would be there's a few tweaks of the algorithm going on over the past few weeks, as it needs to get a hold of what are genuine covid symptoms vs vaccine side effects. Coupled with fluctuations in the number of people using the app, it's probably throwing the numbers out a little.

 

[Jonathan]

Does anyone use the Zoe Covid app on their phone to log symptoms? Anyone else noticed that on their charts showing infection rates that the U.K. is actually going back up with rises in many of the U.K. regions?

I've been using it for a while, and my area (Cheshire East) has seen a rise in cases over the past few days, but also a big drop in the preceding couple of weeks. I think it's understandable to be concerned about it. Also, what @Craig said.

 

[Matt N]

The government clearly aren’t concerned about it, so I wouldn’t worry too much, personally. I’d imagine that quite a bit of it is vaccination side effects; the vaccines can sometimes cause side effects not too dissimilar to virus symptoms.

 

[Jonathan]

This is true, though the ZOE app does ask you to input information related to the vaccine if you've had one, and asks about a few vaccine-related things, especially around the injection site.

 

[Rob]

In terms of vaccine passports, or whatever you want to call them, I think we'll first see them for international travel. I can see countries not allowing people in unless they can prove their vaccination status. And I guess we could see more of a domestic roll out once everyone has been offered a vaccine and there is a way to ensure no discrimination against those who cannot have it (I couldn't care less about discriminating against those who voluntarily don't want it).

I’m quite glad Boris is finally going for let it rip, slightly slower than I would of liked but it’s let it rip whichever way you look at it.

Well not really. It is all dependant on the four factors outlined so if we saw a sudden surge in hospital admissions again we could see a slow down and/or reversal of measures. And the PM did not rule out local/regional measures to contain outbreaks of new variants. Hopefully it does all go to plan but the plan is certainly not let it rip no matter what.

Does anyone use the Zoe Covid app on their phone to log symptoms? Anyone else noticed that on their charts showing infection rates that the U.K. is actually going back up with rises in many of the U.K. regions?

I think it is clear from the official figures that the rate of decline in infections has fallen significantly; it does seem to be levelling off. In my local authority area, which did not see a huge post Christmas peak relative to most other areas, rates did slowly fall but then have levelled off over the past 2 weeks and have now very slowly started to rise again. No idea why, lockdown fatigue would be my best bet.

 

[Tibble]

I think we have reason to be quietly hopeful. The vaccine rollout is going well and if that continues and the current trend of lower hospital admissions / deaths carrys on then I don't see any reason why these timings can't be met.

 

[Mr Pearse]

I had a long debate on social media’s with the anti vaccine passport brigade, it’s so hard to actually have a normal debate without them bring up their rights and it’s just like nazi Germany. End of the day if a business can get a guarantee that they won’t have to close again if they enforce it then that’s a good thing in the long term. A small majority will always be against everything that involves going forward and progressing but that’s life unfortunately.

 

[Benzin]

"It's MY human right to have this belief/opinion!"

Whereas it's my human right to call you out on it.

Freedom of speech does not equal freedom of consequences.

I will not understand how anti-vaxxers have become so prevalent over here when "Big Pharma" have nothing to gain when we get NHS healthcare (for now).

 

[Matt N]

With regard to allegedly rising rates; cases are still falling in the vast majority of areas, and deaths and hospitalisations (arguably a more important metric than cases) are actually still falling quite sharply, more sharply than they were during the first wave last April.

As long as more cases doesn’t lead to more hospitalisations and deaths, I don’t think the government really cares anymore, as the correlation between cases/R number and hospitalisations/deaths should now be lower due to the vaccine.

 

[Mr Pearse]

"It's MY human right to have this belief/opinion!"

Whereas it's my human right to call you out on it.

Freedom of speech does not equal freedom of consequences.

I will not understand how anti-vaxxers have become so prevalent over here when "Big Pharma" have nothing to gain when we get NHS healthcare (for now).

Anti vax propaganda was always here but low key and wasn’t wildly popular fast forward to the pandemic and the mainstream conspiracy theorists used it as another way to convince the gullible to go along with they are saying in affect keeping the profits flowing for the conspiracy theorists.

 

[jon81uk]

"It's MY human right to have this belief/opinion!"

Whereas it's my human right to call you out on it.

Freedom of speech does not equal freedom of consequences.

I will not understand how anti-vaxxers have become so prevalent over here when "Big Pharma" have nothing to gain when we get NHS healthcare (for now).

and as long as it is not for a protected characteristic (race/religion/sexuality/gender/disability) businesses are free to refuse service as well. So if an airline wanted vaccinated passengers only I don't think it is an impossibility.

 

[Alsty]

and as long as it is not for a protected characteristic (race/religion/sexuality/gender/disability) businesses are free to refuse service as well. So if an airline wanted vaccinated passengers only I don't think it is an impossibility.

I think technically you're right but legally it becomes a minefield and companies need to tread carefully. For example, if an airline would only allow vaccinated passengers but those under 50 have not yet been able to get a vaccine then it could amount to an indirect form of age discrimination.

However it's interesting to note the government are mooting this idea in their COVID-19 Response (PDF, 1.6MB). They don't call it a vaccine passport. They call it a "COVID status certification", which could also include testing as well as vaccination status. It's mentioned in the context of opening up the wider society (paragraph 130) and international travel (paragraph 136).

 

[jon81uk]

I think technically you're right but legally it becomes a minefield and companies need to tread carefully. For example, if an airline would only allow vaccinated passengers but those under 50 have not yet been able to get a vaccine then it could amount to an indirect form of age discrimination.

However it's interesting to note the government are mooting this idea in their COVID-19 Response (PDF, 1.6MB). They don't call it a vaccine passport. They call it a "COVID status certification", which could also include testing as well as vaccination status. It's mentioned in the context of opening up the wider society (paragraph 130) and international travel (paragraph 136).

Yes I don't see it actually happening to certify vaccination until at least next September when it is likely that most people will have been offered it.