Anyone else think our reprieve might be short lived?

[Lemons1571]

The briefing just seemed so, abrupt today. Suddenly it’s ‘the last ever briefing’, most things are allowed to open up next week, keep your distance, and then a “right we’re off good luck” sort of exit. While there’s still hundreds of deaths a week.

Seems a bit premature - I would’ve thought they would at least do a weekly briefing. I can’t decide if they think taking the briefings off the air will be “out of sight out of mind”, and people will chill out and start spending and going out again. Or whether they’ve run out of steam and need a break before the autumn colds season descends. Whitty seemed sure this wasn’t going anywhere and we’re in for a year plus of this. What do you think?

I had visions of Boris legging it Billy Whizz style out of the briefing room, slamming the door & saying "Thank fuck for that" He thinks he has got away with everything, the lies, cock ups, Cummingsgate, PPE, the lot. I'm hoping that in the future there is some kind of enquiry & he gets hauled over the coals for everything.

I can easily see the care figures and the request for social services help. DS2 needs 24 hour care as does the majority of his profound and complex special school, it is at full capacity at 30%. Not all social care is down to problems in the home or because of parenting. I am surviving on 4 hours sleep and physical attacks daily. The myth of vulnerable children or children with ECHP have school places is leading to the ignoring of the children who are shielding or have been refused a place. I last had contact with social worker in April and have had no contact with school for about three weeks. No one has seen my son since March except neighbours. I am not angry at the easing of lockdown because all I see is people socialising anyway.

@THEDEACON

Yep Boris reckons he's got Covid done bish bosh off you all pop If there's a second spike you were all warned stay alert and remember it's a metre PLUS

This made me laugh thanks

Shielding is being "paused" is the part that jumped out at me.

Did anyone see the documentary on Universal Credit that was on BBC2 early this year? Cos this programme has really aged well post Covid 19.

A guy got a job cleaning train carriages. He was given no more than a few minutes to clean an entire train carriage. And we wonder why the virus spread so easily in this country?

And we are supposed to believe that companies like the one he worked for will be "reasonable" at BJs behest and not cut corners????????!!!!!!!

@Nat6999 i hope so too.

[quote strugglingwithdeciding]@lemons do you know of any other country doing regular updates daily , i am not sure many did
There is nothing to talk about daily, all figures can be found
We will be updated as and when things change thats all we need now
I know hardly anyone who watches the daily briefings now unless announced that boris is on advising something new
Nothing to announce about schools yet and im sure we will have to see how these relaxations pan out first and how it is affected in other countries[/quote]
I'm in Western Australia. We get daily briefings, even though we have had only 9 deaths and 607 cases in total (population approx. 2.6 million for context). I'm absolutely horrified that the UK is opening up so quickly with the number of cases being reported daily, and very worried for my friends and family there. We only began re-opening a few weeks ago and we haven't had any community transmission since April! If I was in the UK I would be very cautious indeed, indeed my mum has said she thinks the most dangerous time is yet to come (she is shielding, and has no intention of stopping, thank goodness).

Yes is my short answer!

Reason is because there are so many unknown asytomatic carriers, no mass compulsory test (instant results or rapid accuracy), track and trace (real 100% prisoners grade always on and not occasional switch on rubbish) and validated cross checked bubble self isolation.

Plus everyone is going to out and about ignoring rules even more as it will be a jolly free for all even Cummings will be envy of!

Oh and more people in and out internationally just to ensure good Covid spread.

Is the Scottish government continuing with her daily Covid briefings? Is so, at least some live and regular official update if not massively locally relevant.

Yes. Two b

Yes. A 'bubble' of 15 kids in one of our local schools were sent home today because one of them had a high temp.

It does feel all a bit ‘we’re opening up again, crack on with it, nothing to see here’.

I agree a weekly one would be useful and beneficial and would also serve the purpose to keep people’s minds on the fact we are still in the middle of a pandemic. Boris seems to treat the briefings like something he wants to get through as quick as possible the way he whizzes through everything he reads.

It would be convenient for the govt if lack of briefings means out of sight out of mind, because if figures go up again, it won’t be highlighted in a briefing to give awareness and they won’t be held to account directly so easily.

I wonder if they will distract everyone away from coronavirus so we can crack on and boost the economy, with an influx of stories about Brexit.

I would like weekly briefings - weekly numbers reported, updates to guidance (done weekly and not random days of the week), new research round up, questions from public and press.

@gluteustothemaximus

Yeah but how many people (out of pop of 67M) die of cancer or sepsis or heart attack even flu etc every day? Yet most people take little or no steps to avoid those things.

I don't think you can catch cancer/heart attacks or sepsis.

You can't catch cancer or heart attacks but there are steps people can take to reduce or avoid the risk, eat healthily, not smoke, maintain good health habits. But the poster was right, many people dont take these steps.

For the people complaining about lockdown ending, note that the number of children in care has gone up by nearly 50% over the course of lockdown. Have a long, hard think about that.

Because the abuse or neglect has been discovered.

Re children going into care, what this lockdown has highlighted for me is how many children are left in completely unsuitable homes during the normal course of things. No child should be living in a home environment so poor that a daily escape to school is needed for safeguarding purposes. I am aware that there will be some families who just about coped before this crisis and some of the hits from Covid will have pushed them over the edge, but I am talking about households known from before covid to be a nightmare for the children. I know the care system is not exactly an answer, but then what do we need to do because we can't leave children in these situations surely?

This. They've been rescued mainly.

You lot do realise that we cant all carry on sitting in our houses, peering through our over- long fringes at special one subject briefings forever don't you?

The daily briefing viewing figures have now dropped off a cliff. I expect announcements to be made in the usual way should any changes be needed from now on.

I do believe it is a psychological shift from severe emergency daily briefings to managing the situation, and the timing is okay as far as I can see. I will be pretty upset if we are in the position of needing them again before the winter.

We need to get on with life, enjoy the summer as much as we can now restrictions have eased, be as safe and careful as possible and hope for the best!!

I reckon Boris has his wedding and honeymoon planned for soon after 4 July and wants some peace and quiet to enjoy it.
Plus the usual parliament shutdown.

And only the scientists will be worried what happens next.

And only the scientists will be worried what happens next.

They looked and came across as very nervous last night about the whole prospect.

@Nicedayforawedding that’s it, the virus is only suppressed because we’re all largely at home. It’s only slowed due to us all keeping a bit of a distance and buying a couple of masks.

I don’t disagree with easing the lockdown like other European countries have done, and monitoring numbers of new infections. But we’re very out of sight out of mind in the UK (no one even mentions Cummings now). A weekly update and reiteration of the guidance would be a good thing. The time to give briefings up would be when a permanent solution is rolled out (vaccine, effective treatment)

"You can't catch cancer or heart attacks but there are steps people can take to reduce or avoid the risk, eat healthily, not smoke, maintain good health habits.
But the poster was right, many people dont take these steps."

And many more do. What is your point and where is the relevance to the new "measures"?

The Scientists look just as they always look to me suspect there are a fair few people here projecting their own anxieties.

I think the press ruined the briefings for everyone to be honest. They put too much emphasis on Cummings and didnt ask enough questions about Education etc. I'm not surprised they arent doing any more.

It depends on your overall aim. If your sole aim is to reduce deaths/harm from Covid then yes we have relaxed measures too quickly.

If your aim is to manage the risk of harm from all causes then it a more complicated balancing act. Lockdown is not benign and causes harm as well as preventing it. If you look at children as a group for example they have almost certainly lost more than they have gained from the lockdown. A different cost/benefit analysis will apply to different groups of people and each of those groups needs to be considered in policy decisions.

CW was very clear yesterday (as he always is) that this was a balance of risk and that he felt a reasonable balance had been struck. He was also very clear that no course of action is risk free and that people need to follow the updated guidance to keep things under control.

Time will tell if the right balance has been struck. I am not a fan of this government and acknowledge significant mistakes have been made but I don’t envy them the current balancing act they are faced with.

I’m very optimistic about a vaccine and am hopeful that if the Oxford group come up trumps we will be well on our way to having vulnerable groups vaccinated by Christmas.

Some people will behave recklessly but a lot won’t. Realistically, whenever they chose to relax restrictions will be too soon for some and not soon enough for others. Time will tell.

@Bunsygirl - part of that figure will be that new foster carers couldn't be onboarded during lockdown. Also, many existing, experienced foster carers couldn't accept children due to shielding. That's if the 'in care' figures you refer to exclude foster placements. I'd be interested in the link as I work in this sector and it isn't the number in my local area, to my knowledge.

I’m very optimistic about a vaccine and am hopeful that if the Oxford group come up trumps we will be well on our way to having vulnerable groups vaccinated by Christmas.

But doctors don't believe this. I've spoken to so many of late about the possibility of a vaccine and not one of them believes that it will be available this year. It's a possibility by next year if this one is proved to work and be safe but even the more optimistic ones are cautious about that too.