BBC news...Matt Hancock says tier 4 could last for months due to this new strain

[ssd]

He must be joking.

Months of this there will be no businesses left

Pointless to prioritise T4 while there are still legal reasons that people can and will move in and out of T4. The new strain is not only in London and the SE anyway so pointless regardless.

[quote Bushola]^@RedToothBrush T4^

Will it be presented by Vernon From Bolton and The Sarpong woman this time?[/quote]
Hey I've Got Coronavirus Get Me Out Of Here sounds about the right level for T4 and 2020....

Ok so anywhere in the country that's the equivalent of Tier 4 (whatever it may be called in other parts of the UK)

There doesn't seem much point in having Tier 4 but keeping the schools open as they are now, where a lot of spread is happening. So perhaps bump Tier 4 area teachers up the priority list so we can at least keep schools open.

Isn't he a little ray of sunshine. Prioritise the teachers and NHS workers then for vaccines. What's the point of vaccinating the over 80s when we don't even know if there will be an adequate immune response to the new strain ... and I say that with parents and parents in law over 80

@BewareTheBeardedFatMan

Pointless to prioritise T4 while there are still legal reasons that people can and will move in and out of T4. The new strain is not only in London and the SE anyway so pointless regardless.

How do you go about prioritising 25% of the population anyway?

I'm curious.

If this is the route we’re following then we have to accept that it’s going to lead to economic devastation on a scale that no-one has ever seen before. No amount of furloughing and piecemeal grants are going to change that. It’s the inevitable price of the strategy that’s being followed.

“So, what is the priority? Vaccinating over 80s and HCP, definitely. That is happening, is it not?”

I’m not saying this is my view. But I can see an argument that says vaccinating otherwise healthy retired/home working people in their sixties and seventies like my parents, who don’t need carers etc, and therefore could shield, is less important from a national perspective than vaccinating people who work in food production, lorry drivers, teachers, supermarket staff etc. There’s even an argument, cold and heartless though it is, than given the very elderly, especially in care homes, aren’t going to be burdening ICU (they’ll never get that far) they shouldn’t be prioritised either. I’m pretty sure however it is sliced HCP will be prioritised.

As I say, I’m not advocating changing the priority list. But I’m pretty sure ministers will be discussing it.

Personally I prioritise schools being open over say pubs. But it might well have reached the point where however much you prioritise them, they can’t open.

Surely this is worst case scenario?

With people being vaccinated daily it must stop covid in its tracks soon? The vaccine is supposed to protect against the new strain too.

@dreamingbohemian

Ok so anywhere in the country that's the equivalent of Tier 4 (whatever it may be called in other parts of the UK)

There doesn't seem much point in having Tier 4 but keeping the schools open as they are now, where a lot of spread is happening. So perhaps bump Tier 4 area teachers up the priority list so we can at least keep schools open.

My suspicion is that schools are now a particular problem.

One of the reasons children didn't get covid so much as they had less ace2 receptor cells to fix to.

If the new strain does this more effectively, what happens?

I hate to break it to people but if you want to process the above information and what it means for schools its fairly obvious...

The fact of the matter is that the transmission rate is too high and therfore contact must be reduced. Christmas is nothing but a day on the calendar. All we can do is try to follow the guidance and hope. Personally I think easing restrictions for a holiday was a daft idea anyway, infact a national lockdown form the 18th dec to 4th Jan would have been a good circuit breaker whilst minimising economic impact. But I'm not in charge so I just have to go with the guidance.

I agree @RedToothBrush

At the very least they will have to get more creative about school options, not just keep insisting that all schools everywhere must be totally open as normal

We should do everything we can to keep schools open. No nail bar, pub or football match should open prior to opening schools. It is a priority, home education doesn't work, we do what we can but it's no comparison.

But I can see an argument that says vaccinating otherwise healthy retired/home working people in their sixties and seventies like my parents, who don’t need carers etc, and therefore could shield, is less important from a national perspective than vaccinating people who work in food production, lorry drivers, teachers, supermarket staff etc.

I can also see this argument.

For a lot of these people, there has been no lockdown. They have been working throughout, many of them with even longer and more stressful hours, keeping the country going for everyone else who can stay home. And now that there's a vaccine, those people who can stay home will get it before the people who are making lockdown possible.

Let's not forget, with the new rules telling people they can't leave Kent, that that's where the food trucks come from. You can't keep all those lorry drivers at home.

“We should do everything we can to keep schools open. No nail bar, pub or football match should open prior to opening schools“

I agree. But none of that is happening in tier4. It wasn’t happening in lockdown either, yet cases still rose. I am desperate for schools to stay open, but they are about the only thing left open in the November lockdown that could feasibly still shut. What else is there?

I’m sure most of the country will be in tier 4 within a few weeks.

Boris said yesterday that things will be much better by Easter
Matt Hancock today says tier 4 could last for months
Truth is, nobody knows how this will pan out. Not even the scientists.
Best to do our individual little bit in keeping ourselves to ourselves as much as we possibly can with all our different circumstances, in the hope that herd immunity will eventually give us back some freedom.

@RedToothBrush and @MissLucyEyelesbarrow please do not insult Disney in this way, even with some of the nasty traits of Walt Disney as a person.

Disney do not pretend their fiction is the truth, unlike the Prime Minister who is not even truthful to the women in his private life, never mind any one else.

@JacobReesMogadishu

I’m sure most of the country will be in tier 4 within a few weeks.

My guess is a few days. I'm in T4. An adjoining county is T2, with large numbers of people coming into this area to work. I don't think it will work if Johnson tries telling the virus it can't leave a T4 area.

After this the country needs to have an honest discussion about the funding of the NHS. Is it fit for purpose? 1000s of new houses built on the SE but hospitals are not expanding or coping.

After yesterdays announcement I was thinking Easter before I can finally hug my 8 year old dgs who lives in London as I sadly look at his presents under my tree

The Express has Breaking News of a new strain in South Africa that particularly affects the young more virulently. Sunak has extended Furlough money into May. We still have no proper quarantine for passengers in and out of the country (unlike Australia who make you quarantine in a government requistioned hotel and passsengers have to fund their stay). Sorry to be a doom monger but it's not ending anytime soon

Hancock is loving all this. I absolutely despise him.

@Coffeeandcocopops

After this the country needs to have an honest discussion about the funding of the NHS. Is it fit for purpose? 1000s of new houses built on the SE but hospitals are not expanding or coping.

The uk needs a lot of honest conversations about a lot of things. But the uk population has an aversion to hearing things it doesn't like. The phrase 'scaremongering' is the favourite for trying to avoid these type of conversations.

Our basis problem is a population who act like spoilt brats and love Disney Dad because he doesn't tell them to go to bed on time and he gives them endless takeaways rather than telling them to eat their greens. Instead of being the grown up.

He then gets himself into all these situations where he over promises and eventually gets caught out and has to disappoint everyone.

I think schools will end up closing

This is an absolute tragedy for our children and young people (not just in terms of education either) and they will quite rightly end up hating the older generations who have allowed this to happen

IF ONLY efforts and resources had been made available to make schools safe - co-opting empty buildings, p/t learning, optional home learning, recruiting additional teachers - then they wouldn't have been the hotbed of virus they apparently are

IF ONLY our NHS hadn't been asset-stripped for the last 10 years and had capacity that could be activated to allow it to function in a crisis

IF ONLY proper investment had been made in testing, and test and trace

@JacobReesMogadishu

I’m sure most of the country will be in tier 4 within a few weeks.

Definitely this. Happy new year.