Top Covid stories today

I probably need "common sense" to understand it to be fair, and I missed the queue when that was dished out to everyone in July 2020.

 

No, just decency.

 

Aye OK. You can carry on thinking that my views are different to yours because you're morally or ethically superior to me if it helps you justify to yourself the inconsistent and self-harming actions the country has taken.

 

Are you telling me wearing a mask makes zero difference in terms of reducing the spread of airborne droplets? That something attached to your face isn't going to stop a lot of it travelling further? Do you honestly believe that?

You are very keen for us to return back to normal as soon as possible and I am too, the difference between us though is that I think masks will help to reduce airborne spread and you don't and it is one big government conspiracy to control us even though the vast majority of affected nations are doing the same. Fair enough.

 

I don't think anything of the sort, you can sweepingly assume all you like. So you're completely wide of the mark.

As i said before, if you can't see your lack of decency, nobody else will be able to help you spot it.

 

People here knew what was coming weeks in advance. Many places a few weeks before lockdown had moved to work from home and centres were far quieter as grown ups didn't need the government to tell them what to do. People should give this a watch.......

https://www.my5.tv/the-railway-24-7/season-1/episode-6-b9733a0b-253b-4405-998c-8b51040b5858

It's a six part series about the railways on the pennine route and was very good to watch. That was the last episode that aired the other week which was filmed in the build up to lockdown and during the early days of it. You get a big insight as to how dead trains were early March.

 

People worked from home yes. Yet they all flocked to the pubs and would have continued doing so if the government kept them open. We're a nation full of selfish pricks, that's why lockdown was necessary. Swedish people clearly have more common sense, as they observed proper social distancing, didn't flock to restaurants and bars, because they didn't have to be told not to. They just did it.

 

They didn't. I've just spent an hour reading article after article, watching videos, reading the views of Swedes and checking out photos. Masks were used over there like they were over here, prior to this new government rule - very rarely did you see them. Feel free to show me otherwise, I doubt I've been privy to every bit of info. And I'm not taking an anti-mask stance here. I've been tested twice a week for the last six weeks and wore a mask whenever we've been asked to. Sweden wasn't Japan, who wore them from the outset. In fact, lots of Japanese folk wear them anyway, have done for a long time.

As for reckless people, as I've said countless times on this very forum, we share the planet with a lot of thick/stupid/uneducated and selfish people. The articles and other media I've seen on Sweden highlighted their own imbeciles too.

I was just interested in the differences in approach from country to country.

 

But if you don't support a business that's open it won't be around for long. Pubs are one of the safest places and it's been good to be back at them. One way system, wait at the entrance to be taken to a table preferably outside and table service so you don't have to go back inside unless you are leaving or going to the toilet. Kids are starving to death because of lockdown and at a time when our figures are getting better all the time.....

 

Maybe I was wrong about the masks. I saw videos with lot of people wearing them, but perhaps that was an exception not the norm. I do have one Swedish colleague but I haven’t spoken to him in a few weeks as he’s on annual leave currently for an extended period. We’re also in different teams so I don’t talk to him loads. He was staying at home though last I spoke to him except for shopping, just as everyone here was. He told me there were a few people wearing masks in shops etc, but not everyone - this was a few weeks ago though, back when it was uncommon here. I was under the impression it had improved there since then, from what I’ve seen, but I could be wrong.

The restaurants and bars all had very limited capacity and it was observed impeccably - most restaurants were running at about 20% capacity to allow enough spacing between tables.

 

It’s not comparable Matt. At all. Not even close.

 

There's one heck of of a dose of irony here. The denier's and conspiracy theorists rather than hasten the move to normality are keeping us further and further away from it.
It was interesting to see the reaction of the Trumpite's last week when he came out wearing a mask again and advocated the wearing of one: from hero to zero

 

I've been super busy the last five weeks so I've been out of the loop regards COVID, and back in some kind of new normal. So now I've a bit of time to myself again, I thought I'd see what the current situation is, here and elsewhere. And because I was - for the first time in my life - in agreement with the Tories, when they suggested at the start of the pandemic that we'd not be locking down, I thought I'd check out Sweden and how they got on. Because they were supposedly following that approach.

It's then that I find out they didn't go full herd immunity as many suggested months ago. And it appears they've implemented a way of life very similar to what we have here right now, but from the get-go. And whilst they've seen nearly 6,000 deaths, and lots of cases, it's not much of a dissimilar ratio to what we've seen over here, despite our lockdown. So I'm not any wiser about what was the best course of action, but economically, and in terms of civilian finance etc, they're of course in front of us.

I know one thing from all of this though - humans are massively unprepared for the worst.

 

Yes, there’s a massive irony in that those supporting policies to prevent any chance of themselves becoming ill at the expense of wider society and the cost of thousands of human lives and livelihoods are setting themselves up as the ethical and moral guardians.

I agree, it’s wildly ironic.

 

How does me wearing a mask to reduce the likelihood of others becoming ill in the event of me having covid fit with your above statement? How does the wearing of a mask in this current climate cause the deaths of thousands of people and affect anyone's livelihood? Surely it is helping them by allowing us to return to some normality?

And why have you dodged my question about masks, while we're at it?

 

Brazil might be a better example of a country that refused to lock down though?

 

No there's no morals or ethics here. I've had it and was really ill: my mate spent 3 weeks in intensive care then died. I saw it spread like wild-fire at work on the wards so know full well how virile this virus is. So for me it's about this virus having a massive impact on me and therefore having a greater and real understanding of it.

 

Honestly? Because you've misrepresented my position, you've done a Red Rain and argued against a position that no-one has actually taken, so it's a bit hard work having to constantly spell something out repeatedly, both for me and the people listening to me going on.

Seeing as you asked again - I'll try my best though. Do I think masks have any impact on airborne spread? Honestly, I dunno. I think if they do it's negligible, and if you look at the medical data around that it's overwhelmingly different to what it was three months ago, which I think makes coming to any conclusion pretty difficult - the WHO were unequivocal that they shouldn't be used 3 months ago and now they've done an about turn. I also think there's very varying evidence for whether they are actually damaging to health, be it from wearing masks for people with asthma or breathing difficulties, or from poor usage practices that render the user actually more susceptible to infection rather than less.

Anecdotally, they are in very widespread use in both Hong Kong and Spain, two of the places where the spread seems to be the most aggressive at the moment, so it's clear they're certainly not a panacea.

So weighing all this up, my preference would be to allow masks where people want to voluntarily use them, but I think the lack of compelling evidence means that enforced wearing is not justified or warranted. Legislation should not be passed on the basis that something "might" help; taking that to it's extreme then why don't we all get forced to practice homeopathy for an hour each day - well, it can't do any harm and it might help....

 

Fair enough and apologies, really wasn't my intention if I misrepresented your views on it. I've got the wrong end of the stick.

 

So is it not possible to have the flu virus and be asymptomatic? Geniuley curious. I always thought you could but I'll hold my hands up and admit I don't know.