Covid - coming out of Lockdown 3 - no politics, less opinion and more facts and information.

[Dunsignalling]

In that case I'll not make any comment about any real person reminding me of any fictitious person.

[boxbrownie]

2 hours ago, hayfield said:

 

35+ years ago when my daughter was in the infant and junior schools we took her out of school in the last week of term and went abroad for 2 weeks. Firstly it was the only way we could afford a foreign break, secondly very little learning occurred in the last week of term, thirdly its not what you do in that week that matters but what you do all year.

 

My daughter went to Grammar School then university and has excelled in her chosen career. the reason it did her no harm was the time and effort we invested in her all year. Too many parents expect the schools to do everything

We did exactly the same thing for the very same reasons, and it was an extremely valuable time for the family to be “together” and enjoy other things.

 

Daughter has been running 4500 acres of farm very profitably for years having been to Ag colleges to learn what she loved, and the Son is now a qualified Doctor…….those few weeks every year certainly didn’t hold them back! 

 

And this coming from parents who didn’t even think of going to Uni when we were their age, just worked…..till we dropped 

[boxbrownie]

1 hour ago, Hobby said:

Got my booster booked for Tuesday...

Had ours this morning, booster (Pfizer) and flu jabs…….said I might feel rotten for a few days, but so far not even a sore arm, either one.

Mrs BB thought she would get away without getting it done as she has been feeling ill with sniffles and cough from the kiddles but the Doc in the centre looked at her and told her it looked like she didn’t look ill enough to miss the jabs……now if I had said that to her 

[Oldddudders]

My French news website tells me that the USA has approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine on 5-11 year olds. 

[Colin_McLeod]

10 hours ago, alastairq said:

 In the end, it's their kids' loss!

That depends on the quality of the teaching,

[APOLLO]

 Content removed

 

Brit15

Edited October 30, 2021 by APOLLO

[boxbrownie]

15 hours ago, Colin_McLeod said:

That depends on the quality of the teaching,

And the parenting…….probably more so.

[hayfield]

42 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

And the parenting…….probably more so.

 

 

In quite a lot of things now people expect things to be done by others. It happens in all areas of life far more than ever before. lifestyle and DIY skills are seemingly reducing in younger generations.

 

We recently bought some bedroom wardrobes, the much younger sales person enquired who was going to build and fit them, and seemed very surprised I said I was going to do it. Even more so when I said I would have the adapt the rear of the units to fit under a beam. Lets face it they are only a box held together with a few screws

 

 

[Nearholmer]

Came back from the supermarket in a thoroughly grumpy mood.

 

Even pre-covid I avoided the place at weekends if at all possible, but today I got sent on an urgent errand for vital ingredients. Pretty busy, and a greater proportion of customers and staff "going maskless" than I've seen since masking was first advocated, blithely rubbing shoulders, all over the shop.

 

Despite the Government Profs' oft-repeated warnings that masking in busy indoor spaces is strongly advisable, its the Government's broader mood-music which most people are dancing to, and they either don't know (which I don't believe for one second), or don't care a monkeys (which I think is more like it) about the massively high prevalence of the bug.

 

Does it actually matter? Depends how you look at it I suppose. We have a young demographic, low % vaccinated locally, and above national average case rate; c5 people each day need to be admitted to hospital for Covid, the average stay looking like about a week, given that the number in hospital has bibbled 30-35 for weeks/months on end, and two people each week die with it. To me, it would seem that at least some of the pain, heartache, and drain on the public purse behind those numbers could be avoided by taking really simple, and entirely cost-free precautions around masking and some distancing. But, I'm clearly in a minority in thinking that.

 

I am increasingly annoyed with adults who decline vaccination, and CBA to take simple precautions, and increasingly annoyed with the wifty-wafty mood music from the top on these points. The wilfully deaf need to hear it a bit louder and clearer.

 

(I'll almost certainly be less grumpy later)

[monkeysarefun]

Masks here are  now  only required inside shops, cinemas, public transport and so on. No longer required outside, on worksites or in offices. It is surprising though the number still wearing masks when out on the street, eg between shops.  When walking from shop back to car  I'd say at least 90% of people would still be masked, maybe we are just too lazy to pull them down !  

 

The surprising thing is what we call tradies - plumbers, carpenters, your "white van men". Many even wear them when driving - I see it all the time.  Most of them still wear masks when they turn up to do work, even outside. I had tree loppers arrive last week to chop out a tree out on the street and the 5 guys wore masks the whole time.

  Australians have a reputation for anti-authoritarianism , not saluting officers in WW1 etc, maybe thats coming through -

 

Govt - "No need to wear masks outside now"

Population - "Yeah? Take your new rule and stick it, we are going to wear masks cos we want to and you cant make us NOT wear them!"

Edited October 31, 2021 by monkeysarefun

[Colin_McLeod]

16 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Govt - "No need to wear masks outside now"

Population - "Yeah? Take your new rule and stick it, we are going to wear masks cos we want to and you cant make us NOT wear them!"

 

Same here in rural Ireland. Government simultaneously tell us that Covid is still a real danger, yet they relax most of the restrictions.

 

Children don't have to wear masks, but in recent weeks I've seen more and more do so.

[John M Upton]

And yet here in the UK, you are now hard pressed to find a mask wearer at all except in Waitrose....

[Nearholmer]

4 minutes ago, John M Upton said:

And yet here in the UK, you are now hard pressed to find a mask wearer at all except in Waitrose....

 

Even in Waitrose, John. It was that store which I was moaning about yesterday.

 

To be fair, it was back to its normal high % masking, and high % pensioners, this morning when I went there.

 

But the younger, weekend crowd? Sheesh!!

[Hibelroad]

14 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

Even in Waitrose, John. It was that store which I was moaning about yesterday.

 

To be fair, it was back to its normal high % masking, and high % pensioners, this morning when I went there.

 

But the younger, weekend crowd? Sheesh!!

Waitrose is the only place I go regularly and then only for a few bits (main shopping done online). I have noticed a steady decline in mask wearing  but this morning I was surprised to see a fair few masks being worn, even including some staff ! I also called in at Screwfix and Wickes but there was not a mask wearer in sight. I use FFP3 masks now, less misting up of specs and they should be good level of protection. 

[Torper]

1 hour ago, John M Upton said:

And yet here in the UK, you are now hard pressed to find a mask wearer at all....

 

You mean in England, I think - the UK comprises four countries and certainly in Scotland most people are still wearing masks while shopping.  Maybe that's because it's the law to do so.

 

DT

[Neil]

17 hours ago, Torper said:

 

You mean in England, I think - the UK comprises four countries and certainly in Scotland most people are still wearing masks while shopping.  Maybe that's because it's the law to do so.

 

DT

 

Likewise here in small town Wales.

[Hobby]

Shame that everyone who's had the Covid vaccine doesn't have that yellow halo in the latest NHS adverts, we'd soon know who the anti-vaxxers were!

[hayfield]

Looking at the latest data, whilst hospitalizations are still slowly climbing, infection rates have dipped over the past week.

 

As well as nationally, our local authority is 28% down on infection rates over the past 7 days, plus the heat maps are reducing all around

 

Is this just because of the half term holidays, or is it the start of the expected decline in infections the experts were expecting

 

On a personal note our local health centre is far less active with the top up vaccination roll out, I spoke with someone who is in volunteering group at the health centre and their advice was to not wait for them, but to go elsewhere. So we booked up for a local Pharmacy on Friday for the covid top up, as an aside we had out flu jabs yesterday

[boxbrownie]

27 minutes ago, Hobby said:

Shame that everyone who's had the Covid vaccine doesn't have that yellow halo in the latest NHS adverts, we'd soon know who the anti-vaxxers were!

You mean you cannot see my halo?  

[boxbrownie]

21 minutes ago, hayfield said:

 

 

On a personal note our local health centre is far less active with the top up vaccination roll out, I spoke with someone who is in volunteering group at the health centre and their advice was to not wait for them, but to go elsewhere. So we booked up for a local Pharmacy on Friday for the covid top up, as an aside we had out flu jabs yesterday

Once again our local Lions group was organising the sessions during the half term break at the local school, two big halls used, one for the jabbing and t’other for the recovery time wait, must have been about twenty jab stations in the first hall and I saw four of our Doctors in there doing the jabbing along with district nurses and health assistants, really well organised yet again.

[hayfield]

One of the latest vaccination days was a bit chaotic, patients were arriving far too early, causing issues in the small car park. Many were sent home to come back nearer to their allotted time, some though parked up in the local roads and joined the queue for vaccinations, this meant there were more patients than the vaccinators could deal with causing long delays in treating people.

 

Still it was much faster for those arriving later in the day

[4630]

I listened to 'The Life Scientific' on Radio 4 this morning which covered genome sequencing of the virus.

 

It was interesting to listen to Sharon Peacock, who is Professor of Public Health and Microbiology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge, to understand how proactive and instrumental the academic community was in setting up the capability in the UK. 

 

There's also some commentary on what the future holds, both for the evolution of the virus, but also the increased risk posed by flu in coming months. 

 

Link here for anyone wanting to listen;

 

BBC R4 - The Life Scientific, 2nd November 2021

 

 

 

[Dunsignalling]

48 minutes ago, 4630 said:

I listened to 'The Life Scientific' on Radio 4 this morning which covered genome sequencing of the virus.

 

It was interesting to listen to Sharon Peacock, who is Professor of Public Health and Microbiology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge, to understand how proactive and instrumental the academic community was in setting up the capability in the UK. 

 

There's also some commentary on what the future holds, both for the evolution of the virus, but also the increased risk posed by flu in coming months. 

 

Link here for anyone wanting to listen;

 

BBC R4 - The Life Scientific, 2nd November 2021

 

 

 

Highly recommended, a very worthwhile use of a half hour.

 

John

['CHARD]

3 hours ago, Hobby said:

Shame that everyone who's had the Covid vaccine doesn't have that yellow halo in the latest NHS adverts, we'd soon know who the anti-vaxxers were!

 

Out of interest, what would you say to someone without this saintly halo? 

[Nearholmer]

3 hours ago, hayfield said:

infection rates have dipped over the past week.

Half term, possibly.