Ok then let's see what the Prime Minister has to say........

[frozendaisy]

It's the hope that destroys you isn't it!

My previous comment to @hamstersarse was about risk . Personally I’d like to see a lockdown again.

@Jilljams

That stitch in time line. Do you think they’ve focused group that? He’s got a nerve to say about people not following the rules considering Cummings.

Are people really still using Cummings as an argument for not following the rules?

@Beebityboo

Despite being prone to anxiety and being quite generally repulsed by the tory government, even I don't think they would reopen schools if they knew Covid would cause a huge majority long lasting disability. Many of them have their own children in schools. I just can't believe that could be true.

Even Rees Moog's fancy school wasn't immune, though I doubt the Ministers with kids at Eton and the like have to go shoulder to shoulder in classes of 30 plus, via the #11 city centre bus and with NO community testing available.

Army being used to free up police to enforce the rules.

Worrying...

hamsterarse, do 'we know there are a large number of false positives'? What's your source?

I've not seen latest research but saw specificity close to 100% quoted in www.immunology.org/news/covid-19-testing-what-does-it-mean-for-me

The first thing that came to mind for me , is who the hell cuts his hair

@SleepaholicsAnonymous

"Follow the rules"

Unless you feel the urge to break them in a limited and specific way.

Or break wind during your address to the nation

The comments from social media are scary. Why do people think the word has had to shut down? Why can’t they just believe this is a really nasty virus? We didn’t go to this length for swine flu cos it wasn’t such an awful virus and we had tamiflu to treat it. Personally I think the government are downplaying the awfulness of it so as not to scare people too much

@Msmcc1212

“Carlislemumof4

Good speech and exactly the right message. Adhering to the new rules and laws isn't optional. Everyone needs to take responsibility for protecting others as well as themselves. If we do that, wear masks, socially distance, we can work, see our children get an education, shop, eat out rather than have a winter locked down at home.”

Can’t stand Bozza but I agree. I just couldn’t stop the little voice in the back of head saying... ‘yes but what about effing Dominic Cummings?! He didn’t stick to the rules so if he didn’t why should we?’’

I will stick to them and have done but good god the hypocrisy!

BTW. To those that are doubting the severity of this illness please don’t. I know people that have had it. Some thought they were going to die but luckily didn’t. Some had it mildly but are still struggling with a wide range of symptoms. All under 50 and previously healthy. I know doctors. Lots of them. I’m not in a high risk bracket but having heard from the horses mouth what it can be like I’ll avoid it like the....er....well you know.

I’m sorry but it really isn’t the disease you make out. It on a par with flu, depending on the exact fatality rates you see, but pretty similar in terms of death rate and who it impacts.

Flu makes you feel like you are dying. Have you ever had it? But most people get over it

And we certainly don’t shut down the fucking world for it

And before someone says ‘oh we have a vaccine’...well the flu vaccine is at most 50% effective and almost pointless in the over 75s

Again, this is disproportionate and absolute lunacy

@FredaNerkk

Is it just us, or did others hear something rumble at the end? Like a tummy rumble? ... or letting something rip? In the last minute or at the end.

Not joking. OH heard it too. Definitely seemed to come from the TV.

Yes. Was it the point where he seemed to take a very deep breath? I wonder if his breathing is still affected by his bout of Covid? I could listen to it again to try to see where it was, but I can't bear to!

Personally I think the government are downplaying the awfulness of it so as not to scare people too much

If that's true, they should come clean and be brutally honest as social distancing is no longer happening and people are no longer keeping space and care at malls, in shops, supermarkets, on footpaths, school run, cafes etc.

[quote Zilla1]hamsterarse, do 'we know there are a large number of false positives'? What's your source?

I've not seen latest research but saw specificity close to 100% quoted in www.immunology.org/news/covid-19-testing-what-does-it-mean-for-me[/quote]
Prof. Carl Hennegan from oxford uni is all over the false positive rate, unlike Matt Hancock.

The PCR test was never meant to be a diagnostic tool

www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-many-covid-diagnoses-are-false-positives-

Months ago BJ said "You will all lose somebody you love." This has not come to pass thank God. It was scaremongering and lies.

Yes, I take it seriously, but he was irresponsible saying that. A Sandwell councillor said it recently to her constituents. Puts the fear of God into some who are then too scared to leave the house.

With the union jack drape and talk about invisible enemy, think we should just get it over with and have the next address from a spitfire!

TV turned off. I'm not giving that overpaid clown any of my attention.

And yes, we are pointing out Cummings. Saint Boris thinks we've forgotten that - we haven't. We're not necessarily using him as an excuse for not following the roolz, but it needs to be POINTED OUT when Saint Boris's merry men blatantly disregard the roolz, and GET AWAY WITH IT, to highlight the TOTAL FUCKING HYPOCRISY.

And in other news, Danny Kruger, MP was maskless on a long train journey, a day or two ago. Boris said he wanted the public to act as snitches and grasses, didn't he? Somebody listened.

How I read it is many businesses will close now and never reopen. Furloughed employees who may have been brought back will now have their employment terminated. Section 21 notices will be issued for renters to leave in March. Mass redundancies will follow and businesses will fall into administration. Many pubs, restaurants and smaller shops had already closed. This will now snowball. A national economic suicide mission has commenced.

I understand why people are deeply frustrated and I recognise that some people believe lockdown was a mistake, but I’m not sure how this is any more damaging for the economy than any alternative. Yes, much of the entertainment industry will continue to be hit, but letting everything open up fully and getting back completely to where we were in February, and letting it rip would end up being pretty devastating economically. People won’t carry on regardless.

Army being used to free up police to enforce the rules.

Were you worried when they helped man testing centres? Was the fear put into you when they were transporting oxygen and PPE to hospitals? If needed they won't be patrolling the streets with shotguns, it'll either be menial work to free up police time, or logistics more than likely.

"I don't believe this Govt, who try and make people dying of cancer go back to work, have let levels of child poverty rise to the levels they have, kept wages so low that people who work full time still need to to use a food bank have thrown billions of pounds at a furlough scheme for a mild infection!"

Exactly!. It's not a mild infection at all and the only people who ever thought so were random people on youtuber/facebook.

He seems to say no we can’t have those shielding again because education is important? He knows key workers and teaches who need to shield will knock the whole pile of bricks down.

@hamstersarse

Prof Hennegan makes a very valid point, and we should be re-testing all positives - or taking two tests - to minimise people and their contacts having to isolate unnecessarily. However, the problem false positives doesn’t explain away the recent rise in infections, it just means that they are somewhat overstated (but then again many more who are infected are never tested).

@PicsInRed

And yet it can't be COVID - because they wouldn't reopen the schools, and put their own kids back in, if a whole generation of kids would be rendered disabled by long COVID.

So it's something else.

What is it? What are we being readied for?

Really what were you thinking? Something to do with the secret lizard government ? Or UFOs?

Remember the whole world is doing this. It's not a secret Tory plan.

"I’m sorry but it really isn’t the disease you make out. It on a par with flu, depending on the exact fatality rates you see, but pretty similar in terms of death rate and who it impacts."

lol how would YOU know?

You're not a hamster are you.

Well Said lasttraineast

Army being used to free up police to enforce the rules.

This might not be a very popular opinion but WHY THE HELL NOT? They can do something useful instead of practising manoeuvres for 'conflict' with impoverished nations that later come to hate us.
It doesn't mean they have to come storming in with tanks, merely manpower and organisation. They should have plenty of both.

It astounds me how so many many people with no qualifications whatsoever in medicine, science and infectious diseases seem to think they no better than the world Leading experts