Next week's announcement won't be the good news we think it'll be

[likeamillpond]

Listening to the news and reading between the lines regarding the latest variant that's supposed to be resistant to the vaccine, I don't think it's going to be brilliant news next week.
I dont think it'll be a case of, We've got this. You can all go out now.
Im hoping theyll say for certain that schools can go back. At least.
I think we are still in the shit. They just haven't told us.
I'm prepared to be told I'm worrying over nothing.

@PrincessNutNuts

Check out how Florida are doing right now...and what their lockdowns have been like.

Then compare their figures to us rather than Australia.

If the announcement is a very slow and cautious approach to easing lockdown, then as far as I'm concerned that is very good news. The worst thing now would be to open up everything swiftly (as per last time) and end up with another mutation and another round of vaccines and another lockdown down the track. For fuck sake let's do this right. For once.

Florida's numbers are nothing to emulate as far as I can see.

Comparing Florida to European countries, per capita they're not doing as badly as us - but hardly anyone on earth is doing as badly as us!

But France, Sweden, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Austria, Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Latvia, Malta, Greece, Estonia, Denmark, Cyprus, Finland, Iceland, and Norway, are all doing better than Florida.

@PrincessNutNuts

Florida's numbers are nothing to emulate as far as I can see.

Comparing Florida to European countries, per capita they're not doing as badly as us - but hardly anyone on earth is doing as badly as us!

But France, Sweden, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Austria, Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Latvia, Malta, Greece, Estonia, Denmark, Cyprus, Finland, Iceland, and Norway, are all doing better than Florida.

But, in Florida there is no and has been no lockdown. Everyone is free to enjoy life as they please...restaurants, bars, theme parks, beaches, water sports etc They are living, they are vacationing, they are carrying on AND they haven’t had to lock down to get there....that’s the trade off I want. Not just one thing back...I want everything back....I’ll accept mask wearing and reduced capacity.

@likeamillpond at a rate or around 500,000 vaccines a day that 7 million infront of you really only counts for a couple of weeks or so. Don't lose hope!

@DBML

Ah I see.

Florida is the new Sweden.

More people are dying there than in most other places... But look no lockdown!

Call me selfish, but I do hope that teachers will be given the vaccine soon

SEN teachers are being vaccinated in Sussex.

I'd like to get married. And I'm not talking about a wedding, I mean a marriage ceremony. The breach of human rights for fuel sake of a flipping virus is disgusting

@Ahmnotacat

If the announcement is a very slow and cautious approach to easing lockdown, then as far as I'm concerned that is very good news. The worst thing now would be to open up everything swiftly (as per last time) and end up with another mutation and another round of vaccines and another lockdown down the track. For fuck sake let's do this right. For once.

This. What we want is for them to get this right, no one can do another lockdown. I am glad that Boris is resisting the anti lockdown headbangers and has hopefully learned from past mistakes. More than for happy for them to go carefully and get it right.

@IndiaMay

I'd like to get married. And I'm not talking about a wedding, I mean a marriage ceremony. The breach of human rights for fuel sake of a flipping virus is disgusting

Don't forget the convenient new variants either Cant believe people can't see through this

Don't forget the convenient new variants either
Cant believe people can't see through this

What do the government have to gain from lockdowns though? This is something people never seem to really answer.

@Plutoh

*Don't forget the convenient new variants either Cant believe people can't see through this*

What do the government have to gain from lockdowns though? This is something people never seem to really answer.

Because we don't know. Why are they doing this? But they are. Covid gave them the mechanism to do it

Exactly @Beaniecats. We are being so manipulated. I’m just waiting what particular crap they’ll come up with to scare the shit out of us just before 23 March once they observe the proles getting restless at going into year 2 of this. Then when that works too well they’ll give us a bit of good news. So predictable. I honestly am aghast that anyone listens to far less believes a word they say anymore.

Ah okay, 'we don't know', a really well thought out argument for them doing it for their benefit. I have read the reset theories, but surely then governments globally would just let it rip through society and overwhelm healthcare provision, which would give more of a desired outcome in regard to that theory. I don't get why they would close stuff, to spend loads trying to bring levels down to managable numbers and roll out a huge vaccine programme. I am open minded it someone has anything beyond we don't know, haven't heard it yet though.

@Plutoh

Ah okay, 'we don't know', a really well thought out argument for them doing it for their benefit. I have read the reset theories, but surely then governments globally would just let it rip through society and overwhelm healthcare provision, which would give more of a desired outcome in regard to that theory. I don't get why they would close stuff, to spend loads trying to bring levels down to managable numbers and roll out a huge vaccine programme. I am open minded it someone has anything beyond we don't know, haven't heard it yet though.

Just relieved I haven't fallen for the fear propaganda and have been able to see through this The mood is changing, there will be riots soon The overturning of curfew by the Dutch courts is encouraging.

Well, look at who hasn't locked down - either within their borders, or are geographically lucky and have sealed themselves off.

Who's left? Trump's US (now struggling towards more restrictions) and Tanzania.

How did every country make this plot, assuming it is a plot? And who benefits and how?

Just relieved I haven't fallen for the fear propaganda and have been able to see through this

See through what? Covid has been overwhelming the NHS, if you believe that is all propaganda then I don't think you are as enlightened as you think you are. The reality is that most people aren't cowering in fear, nor are they buying into conspiracies online that don't actually give any reasons and aims. Rightly I would say most people have questioned elements of it, such as closing schools, I don't think it's the case at all that everyone has rolled over and just taken it without forming their own views and levels of risk.

The mood is changing, there will be riots soon
The overturning of curfew by the Dutch courts is encouraging.

We don't have a curfew, so good for them?

Don't forget the convenient new variants either
Cant believe people can't see through this

So... you believe that all world governments have come together to fool us all?

Or is it aliens and mind rays?

Educate me, please! I really want to know how this global consporacy happened...

[quote PrincessNutNuts]@DBML

Ah I see.

Florida is the new Sweden.

More people are dying there than in most other places... But look no lockdown! [/quote]
Is there?
Or is that just what you want to believe?

They are doing very well now and remember, many, many people head to Florida to retire, so they have quite a few older people in their population.

When you look at their numbers compared to us in the UK, I think they look pretty good. Clearly a draconian mental health destroying, economy destroying, debt inducing lockdown isn’t the only way.

Propaganda to incite fear has definitely been out there. It’s absolutely transparent.

That doesn’t mean the whole thing is a sham. Time and time again on MN I see people rejecting the idea of government propaganda because ‘the virus is real.’

We know it’s real. We also know that the government have manipulated reaction to it in order to gain compliance.

What do the government have to gain from lockdowns though? This is something people never seem to really answer.

What they gain is limiting scrutiny over how badly they’ve handled more sophisticated approaches to handling the pandemic (track and trace for example.

As well as limiting scrutiny over how poorly the nhs was able to respond to a crisis like this (due to long term underfunding, failure to prepare).

Lockdowns avoid the danger of the NHS being overrun, thus them looking out of control, or them having to oversee difficult decisions about who gets care.

I see lots to gain for the government. Lockdown isn’t exactly an ‘easy’ option, but it is a ‘simple’ one and means the government can avoid doing any difficult stuff to actually tackle this and push the burden on the people again and again.

@TheKeatingFive fair enough, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you, I do agree with most of that.

@TheKeatingFive I'm angry about all those things, but I don't want the nhs to be overrun. It's clear to me that the government has done an awful job, but lockdown is saving lives.

I think you can hate lockdown, hate the government handling of most of the crisis, want restrictions lifted asap and still understand why restrictions being lifted slowly is necessary.

I think we need to change our healthcare system, increase it's capacity, so we aren't ever in this awful position again.

I looked at US restrictions yesterday, with all the talk of Florida. Looks like Florida is one of only 4 states where schools are open for fulltime in person teaching, they went back in September, looks like they were the last to re open. Attendance is optional and counties can close schools if they have a local outbreak. They have set levels of infection that trigger a closure. I couldn't find information on how many children are attending. They are opening up their halls and trying to distance the kids at all times, I'd imagine at the moment they can use outdoor space too. In the UK there's no distancing at all. They are also recommending masks, again in the UK we're told not to have masks in class. Everything is open but only at 50% capacity.

Half of US states are vaccinating teachers as a priority. Most have a mixture of school attendance allowing counties to decide.

There are still more in ICU than during the first peak

There aren't.

April peak 3301. It was at 3302 on 7th Jan and been falling since. Currently 2805 as at 15th Feb.

As for Boris telling us to take what's in the media with a huge grain of salt, that would be much easier for people to do I'd he or his cabinet hadn't leaked every bloody move they were going to make to the press throughout the pandemic......