Covid-19 Virus

According to NHS data c50% of people admitted to hospital in the 7 days to 5th October were aged 65+ (7% were under 18)-given there is only 640,000 people not double jabbed in that age bracket (94% take up) I would guess a lot have underlying health issues preventing them being jabbed and so if there are c 7,000 people hospitalised at present then as winter approaches there could be an increase in hospitalisations in that age bracket not necessarily down to attending large indoor events etc

 

Going to be vulnerable if they have family becoming exposed or carers.

 

We have or had lots of vaccine, so this must be logistics. Maybe the support to operations was scaled down too quickly?

 

The Vaccine Task Force all resigned to go chase the big bucks as lorry drivers?

 

Quite possibly logistics. The local chemist has been doing Vax since I had mine and sering youngster go thtougn it now. Mum went there last week so likely a temporary blip rather than having to ramp up operations again I would think.

 

Due to the shortage of electronic components there aren't enough microchips to insert into the vaccine!

 

Lol.

 

Interestingly, my flu vaccination this Saturday is taking place at the centre where all the local covid jabs have been given, instead of at the doctor's surgery as it usually is (including last year). This suggests that, in our area at least, there is some co-ordination between the two operations.

 

Had an Italian client over this week. They cannot believe how few people are wearing masks or social distancing on the tubes, in offices or, quite frankly, anywhere else. Many of the British public have gone back to normal.

 

Yes and I fear that people won't go back now even if there is an attempt to go to "plan B".

 

Being told to work from home would surely make more of a difference anyway?

 

That’s because for most of the British public things are completely normal.

Hmmm… the public’s reaction to the pandemic and various restrictions to date makes that seem pretty unlikely to me. I think when Boris eventually folds - and he will fold, no matter how many ministers go out and say the government has no intention of imposing restrictions any time soon - I’m sure people will broadly do as they’re told. Although I think people will be much grumpier than previously.

Plan B is a pile of nonsense anyway and I’ll be surprised if it has any meaningful effect on the trajectory of the virus.

 

I think it would depend on whether there is a perception that the NHS is under risk and, as you say, whether it's believed that doing what they are told makes any difference.

 

I'm thinking more about the wearing of masks and social distancing.

Certainly it's noticeable in the area I live in that a tipping point was reached a few weeks ago and masks in supermarkets, pubs etc are a rare breed now.

 

I think the problem is the NHS is ‘under risk’ every single winter and has been for the best part of 15 years now. Covid’s an unwelcome cherry on the cake for sure but it’s a slippery slope if we end up in anything resembling a position that means measures such as working from home or social distancing in indoor venues must be routinely adopted to protect it. Plus I’m not sure there’d be much consensus on what counts as enough risk to trigger measures anyway!

 

Yes and that is my point.

If the government concede to demands now to go to "plan B", I suspect many will feel like you do and compliance will be no where near as good as it was previously.

Of course measures such as using sanitisers, masks and social distancing is likely to help minimise the impact of the flu too.

I appreciate what you are saying about an excuse could be found every year to apply such measure if you look hard enough. But I think there is definitely a case this year, what with with labour shortages, Covid and the Flu, to look at implementing some measure to ease pressure on the NHS, if we can.

 

Yes, but you were also talking about Plan B. I would have thought that the most effective element of that Plan for the reduction of infections would be a return to WFH wherever possible, although it would be politically problematic.

 

Yes, totally agree. But, as you say, a difficult sell especially to the government's back benches.

 

I'd happily go for a full lockdown again. Every ****ing night now there's a crash on the M25!

 

You rely on the M25 to get to and from work? I feel for you.

 

Only because HS2 has wrecked my good routes ☹️

 

Covid continues to bring out Britain’s most idiotic side.

A group of self-styled heroes serve ‘writs’ on the NHS in Colchester for promoting the ‘Pandemic Hoax’.

Warning: Contains scenes of absolute plankery.

https://twitter.com/sfinn80/status/1450815550637101066?s=21

 

I'm sure there are thick, selfish and anti-social people in every country. Uk seemed to be ahead of all countries in the race to vaccinate the majority of their population, therefore the "I'm done with all of this" mind set has been reached earlier and now we understand that the protection from the vaccs have reached their shelf life so all need a booster surely means that we have reached the upturn in cases quicker than everybody else. Or is that just far too simplistic?

 

We abandoned all mitigations quicker than many other countries after a long, deep second wave that we were too late to react to.

We haven’t got more cases than the entirety of Europe and the highest in the World because we were so great. But spin it like that if you must.

 

Is that what HL said? I didn’t read it like that at all.

It is an assumption, rooted in the swiftness of the rollout and rhetoric about “freedom day”, plus a seemingly apathetic approach on the part of Government currently, that the worst is over.

The idea that Brits are thick is one I find quite insulting in its over-generalisation.

 

Sure, every country has its anti-vaxx/anti-lockdown nuts and vaccine waning is also important. We are not unique in daftness, though the way in which we are encouraged to ignore experts for political leverage is shocking. Has consequences.

But you cannot understand where we are without noting where we came from and the Government reluctance to maintain even moderate measures. It looks like this will bite us.

 

Have your vax and get in with it, it might kill you but it probably won’t, something will at some point though.

 

We’re into diminishing returns chasing after people who refuse outright to be vaccinated. Our vaccination rates really aren’t the problem. I’m sure I read that taking account of those the government rolled the vaccine out to, we had one of the best rates of take up in the world. Knocking on 90%. We’ve taken a far more cautious approach to vaccinating 12-18 year olds though.

 

Yeah I agree, it wasn’t a comment on vaccination rates, I just worded it badly. I just meant once double vaxed we just have to get on with it. People talk like the NHS is a static object, but it isn’t. We shouldn’t constantly be adapting society to protect the NHS, we should be adapting the NHS so that society can function normally. It’s either going to fizzle out and weaken or remain with us on broadly the same terms, so constantly bringing restrictions in is pointless, our health service needs to be adjusted to cope with what is now normality.

 

You're right. It's not just Brits.

 

Ah I see. Well I agree with that wholeheartedly.

 

Well, yes but it takes time to 'adjust the health service'. Not something which will happen overnight.

 

The UK situation explained.

 

Think you misread my point...is the trend the same in every country. Lockdown, open up with conditions, race to vaccine majority of country, country starts rejecting any sensible measures to avoid disease, vaccine protections starts waning, numbers increase, race to booster...

The question is if UK is further along that path then most other countries who vaccinated their population later than us so are still protected and, if so, would see declining numbers until they reach the same point in UK