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Coronavirus

Coronavirus - The Poll

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Dave said:
You wouldn’t do that with a live virus, you can’t control it. Plus covid hasn’t impacted western military but did destabilised Russia’s preferred government in the whitehouse, and covid has massively hurt Russia and China’s economy.

If they wanted to destabilise the west in that way they will attack our technology infrastructure.

They might attack Taiwan and Ukraine at the same time but they didn’t need a pandemic to instigate that.
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I doubt it’s hurt Chinas economy. They are selling the PPE and testing kits to the world!
 
Has anyone seen a figure as to how many people are likely to be exempt from wearing a facemask?

Without that number, it's really hard to determine how well the population is complying.

GaryH said:
I doubt it’s hurt Chinas economy. They are selling the PPE and testing kits to the world!
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You don't have to 'doubt' things - research them, you might even find that you were wrong to doubt because it's entirely true.

China's economic growth is sinking under pressure from a construction slowdown and power shortages, prompting warnings about a possible shock to its trading partners and global financial markets.

The world's second-largest economy grew by a weaker-than-expected 4.9% over a year ago in the three months ending in September, down from the previous quarter's 7.9%, government data showed Monday. Factory output, retail sales and investment in construction and other fixed assets all weakened.

Manufacturing has been hampered by official curbs on energy use and shortages of processor chips and other components due to the coronavirus pandemic. Construction, an industry that supports millions of jobs, is slowing as regulators force developers to cut reliance on debt that Chinese leaders worry is dangerously high.

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/18/1046945534/chinas-economic-growth-weakens-amid-construction-slowdown
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Islander said:
But… yeh. The news. Omicron is rife, London now declaring a major incident, and the infection levels through the roof. But is this actually reflected in a major increase in hospital admissions? Or worse, deaths? It doesn’t seem to be, with the exception of incredibly misleading ‘incidental admissions’ (eg admitted with a broken leg, but happens to test positive for covid, therefore bam you’re an incidental covid admission).

At what point are we going to accept that huge numbers are going to catch and transmit each subsequent varient, but it’s not necessarily going to be reflected in higher mortality, or hospital admissions?

I’d very much like to continue living without constant pressures on my mental health now…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Omicron has by far been the most surreal part of the pandemic for me. Viruses mutate, it’s what they do. But this is always met with a weird level of surprise and each mutation is considered the biggest threat we’ve faced yet.

But from everything we know, omicron is mild. South Africa hasn’t seen spikes in deaths. From what I’ve seen, the virus peaked there just a few weeks ago. Even here, it appears by all accounts to be milder than even the initial Covid strain.

But despite the abundance of vaccines (vast majority have double-jabs, majority of vulnerable have boosters) and Covid treatments, the introduction of a milder variant - which is realistically what Covid needs to become - is being met with a return to more restrictions, ‘just to be safe’. Only this time, there can’t be any promise of “jabs to freedom”, that card has already been played. I always disagreed with lockdowns but I could at least understand the rationale of waiting for more people to be vaccinated before restrictions would be lifted. This time we’re given more restrictions whilst even more people are being *triple jabbed*. It feels downright cruel to not offer even a ray of hope that our future won’t just be a cycle of lockdowns and occasional moments of ‘freedom’.

Vaccines have severed the connection between cases and deaths. It is beyond doubt that they work. We need to start acting like they do, because lockdowns come at a heavy cost - which it’s advocates often ignore. My mental health has taken a beating throughout this pandemic, and I don’t know how much more of this I can take before something snaps.
 
But there has been a huge increase of hospital admissions today to 85 people in total out of 25000 confirmed cases, that also includes those turning up at hospital with something else and subsequently testing positive for it.
There are also 7 people that could of been run down by a bus that have died WITH it.
Yep get that circuit break warmed up Boris as it’s definitely needed, the real virus in most of this pandemic has been the media,
 
Rose Of Dawn said:
Omicron has by far been the most surreal part of the pandemic for me. Viruses mutate, it’s what they do. But this is always met with a weird level of surprise and each mutation is considered the biggest threat we’ve faced yet.

But from everything we know, omicron is mild. South Africa hasn’t seen spikes in deaths. From what I’ve seen, the virus peaked there just a few weeks ago. Even here, it appears by all accounts to be milder than even the initial Covid strain.

But despite the abundance of vaccines (vast majority have double-jabs, majority of vulnerable have boosters) and Covid treatments, the introduction of a milder variant - which is realistically what Covid needs to become - is being met with a return to more restrictions, ‘just to be safe’. Only this time, there can’t be any promise of “jabs to freedom”, that card has already been played. I always disagreed with lockdowns but I could at least understand the rationale of waiting for more people to be vaccinated before restrictions would be lifted. This time we’re given more restrictions whilst even more people are being *triple jabbed*. It feels downright cruel to not offer even a ray of hope that our future won’t just be a cycle of lockdowns and occasional moments of ‘freedom’.

Vaccines have severed the connection between cases and deaths. It is beyond doubt that they work. We need to start acting like they do, because lockdowns come at a heavy cost - which it’s advocates often ignore. My mental health has taken a beating throughout this pandemic, and I don’t know how much more of this I can take before something snaps.
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BigT said:
But there has been a huge increase of hospital admissions today to 85 people in total out of 25000 confirmed cases, that also includes those turning up at hospital with something else and subsequently testing positive for it.
There are also 7 people that could of been run down by a bus that have died WITH it.
Yep get that circuit break warmed up Boris as it’s definitely needed, the real virus in most of this pandemic has been the media,
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I will start with - I don’t agree with another lockdown, however you both have missed one major factor in this new variant that is spooking scientists… it’s speed.

We don’t know if the variant is milder or to what extent, the trouble we have is it has spread so fast we don’t yet know the severity as covid doesn’t turn nasty until 10-12 days after symptoms start. The last variants have had a lag between identification and spread so we had a bit more data.

The issue we currently have is the hospitals are already full with everything else. We have about a quarter of the number of covid patients in my trust than the peak, but we are completely full as a hospital. We can’t take more patients whatever the cause and covid knocks out more wards than the patients bedded as you can’t put covid patients on a normal ward.

Now maybe if the Tory’s hadn’t spent a decade underfunding the NHS we might not be so panicked about it all!
 
Yet again we've had over 24 hours of the press talking about Plan C, reporting COBR meetings taking place and SAGE minutes. We had a government press conference Wednesday which said basically nothing aside from an opportunity to shout about the latest 3 word slogan with some "Churchillian" bluster chucked in for good measure. But today, when the vast majority of the public including myself are completely overly stressed about the whole situation, when some crumb of actual official information would help - absolutely zilch. The lack of communication, allowing the press to stir up anxiety amongst the population all for their precious clicks is shockingly disgusting.

I can only echo people's concerns about their mental health. I've had a trip away planned for months now, and that now (yet again) hangs in the balance as the 6th trip across this whole thing that may be potentially cancelled. And yes, it's a "first world problems" rant, but when you've spent almost 2 years now working and sleeping in the same room without any workplace interaction in person, the trips away and holidays are ever more important.

I really don't want to have a two class society, but this goes back to what I was saying a few weeks ago. If people have gone out and got their jabs as asked, they are statistically far less likely to end up in hospital. Therefore why should they be locked up along with those who are unwilling to be vaccinated and statistically far more likely to end up in hospital? It's not something I'd normally support, but at this point I'm forced into being selfish. If it's between that and my mental health taking a nosedive due to being able to do naff all myself - then I know which I'd prefer.
 
Craig said:
Yet again we've had over 24 hours of the press talking about Plan C, reporting COBR meetings taking place and SAGE minutes. We had a government press conference Wednesday which said basically nothing aside from an opportunity to shout about the latest 3 word slogan with some "Churchillian" bluster chucked in for good measure. But today, when the vast majority of the public including myself are completely overly stressed about the whole situation, when some crumb of actual official information would help - absolutely zilch. The lack of communication, allowing the press to stir up anxiety amongst the population all for their precious clicks is shockingly disgusting.

I can only echo people's concerns about their mental health. I've had a trip away planned for months now, and that now (yet again) hangs in the balance as the 6th trip across this whole thing that may be potentially cancelled. And yes, it's a "first world problems" rant, but when you've spent almost 2 years now working and sleeping in the same room without any workplace interaction in person, the trips away and holidays are ever more important.

I really don't want to have a two class society, but this goes back to what I was saying a few weeks ago. If people have gone out and got their jabs as asked, they are statistically far less likely to end up in hospital. Therefore why should they be locked up along with those who are unwilling to be vaccinated and statistically far more likely to end up in hospital? It's not something I'd normally support, but at this point I'm forced into being selfish. If it's between that and my mental health taking a nosedive due to being able to do naff all myself - then I know which I'd prefer.
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Yeah I agree here, lock down the unvaccinated and Un boosted. I’m done holding my life up for people who are selfish.
 
I honestly don’t think it will be long before the government announce something along these lines.
Even Boris himself said that the time is coming when the unvaccinated should not receive the same freedoms as the rest of society.

This government is thick but surely they can’t be that thick?
 
BigT said:
I honestly don’t think it will be long before the government announce something along these lines.
Even Boris himself said that the time is coming when the unvaccinated should not receive the same freedoms as the rest of society.

This government is thick but surely they can’t be that thick?
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It'll always come down to the political impact rather than the health impact when it comes to something like this. It's easier for them to decide to limit everyone, rather than fight against those who are against vaccine passports (no matter how time limited) within the Tory party.

I've just been having a look at vaccination stats for regions around England. For regions outside of London, there's an average of 45% of over 12's who've had their booster. For London, it's not even hit 30% yet, with 1st and 2nd doses significantly lower too. So it's no surprise the capital has been hit so hard.
 
I have to agree with @Craig here. even though the idea of taking people freedoms away doesn't really feel right it might well be something we have to do. Vaccination rates need to be high for us to defeat this virus. We need to make sure the NHS has got plenty of capacity not just to deal with COVID but also to prevent stoppage of other NHS procedures which we saw during parts of the peak of the pandemic.

It is almost time to get life back to normal but we are not quite over the last few hurdles, we need to find a way to stop the virus mutating often by definition that means keeping infection rates down. The only way to do that is vaccines and people who've had them should be allowed to go about there daily life as they will have minimal if no impact on the health service while those who haven't had the jab are having the impact.
 
Craig said:
It'll always come down to the political impact rather than the health impact when it comes to something like this. It's easier for them to decide to limit everyone, rather than fight against those who are against vaccine passports (no matter how time limited) within the Tory party.

I've just been having a look at vaccination stats for regions around England. For regions outside of London, there's an average of 45% of over 12's who've had their booster. For London, it's not even hit 30% yet, with 1st and 2nd doses significantly lower too. So it's no surprise the capital has been hit so hard.
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Sadly you are probably correct regarding the government but I think public opinion has started to change towards vaccine passports.

London’s vaccine statistics are frankly shocking and something Sadij Khan must start to be brought to account for.
 
BigT said:
Sadly you are probably correct regarding the government but I think public opinion has started to change towards vaccine passports.

London’s vaccine statistics are frankly shocking and something Sadij Khan must start to be brought to account for.
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How does the Mayor of London account for vaccine rates? The office of Mayor doesn’t have much control over public health and has no control of local health other than coordinating a MAJAX.

We have a very centrally controlled governing structure in the UK, the Mayor of London has more powers than most other Mayors but it isn’t that extensive.
 
I think he has a huge roll to play in encouraging people but has strangely for him been rather quiet on vaccines by his usual standards.
He is usually on every media outlet rattling on about what the government is doing wrong but on this has hardly mentioned it, maybe he doesn’t want to upset his core vote.
 
I've just been looking through the vaccination data and I am shocked by how low the vaccination rates are in London, only 61.6% of 12+ have had two doses compared to 72.2% in the West Midlands (second worst) and 79.3% in the South West (best). Looking at upper tier LAs, the 11 worst vaccination rates are all London Boroughs with only 53.6% double jabbed in Westminster. I would genuinely be interested why vaccination rates are so low in London, could age and ethnicity be factors?
 
Thameslink Rail said:
I've just been looking through the vaccination data and I am shocked by how low the vaccination rates are in London, only 61.6% of 12+ have had two doses compared to 72.2% in the West Midlands (second worst) and 79.3% in the South West (best). Looking at upper tier LAs, the 11 worst vaccination rates are all London Boroughs with only 53.6% double jabbed in Westminster. I would genuinely be interested why vaccination rates are so low in London, could age and ethnicity be factors?
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Yeah it's really not good. The most densely populated part of the country was always going to be a nightmare through the pandemic never mind the fact that the population don't seem to be getting there jabs. Very worrying considering how much the UK economy works within London.
 
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