Let's face it, they're letting it rip.

[ZednotZee]

Aren't they?

The vaccines aren't seemingly preventing transmission.

We are opening up on the 19th.

This is being done presumably as the public appetite for further lockdowns will be nil come October/November so best to get it over with now and have heard immunity come the autumn.

They won't say it but its becoming very clear that the immunocompromised need to continue to shield til the rest of us have contracted and got over the infection.

pointed out I mean lol

As ever it was, people miss the whole point of lockdowns

We have been told right from the start of this that
1.there is no end in sight
2.we have to prevent health services being overwhelmed for everyone

Once you understand those two basic things, you more or less understand everything that has happened, is happening and what is likely to happen in the future

It's not just the virus, it's the after effects. My 17 year old ds has long covid, he caught covid right at the beginning of the pandemic, he was on a school trip to Italy & within a week of returning started with the cough, fever, pain, loss of taste & smell. He was ill for 3 weeks & started to recover just as the first lockdown was announced, but he was always shattered, had muscle pain, if he went out he had to go to bed for a couple of hours to recover, he struggled to retain information, his sleep cycle was terrible. 16 months on he is no better, he got his diagnosis through the Long Covid Clinic. Thankfully as a carer he is now double vaccinated.

I suffer from ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia, Peripheral neuropathy so bad I am waiting for a wheelchair, Arthritis, I am autistic & have severe mental health problems, I have only left the house for hospital appointments since the first lockdown, I got the shielding letter in March this year, I don't know which one of my conditions have made me ecv.

Obviously it was a typo….

No, it wasn't a typo. These two words have been constantly confused from the beginning. I'd have thought though that most would have worked out the difference by now.

I don’t believe I said it doesn’t affect children, what I said was, the risk of them dying from it is about one in a million.

And of those 34 I suspect most had underlying health conditions? That’s an important factor to consider because most children don’t.

I don't see why this makes them any less important. The fact they may have underlying health conditions might have contributed to their deaths; it may not. Covid is a devastating disease. You are making an unhelpful division between healthy/unhealthy that is particularly odious when it involves children.

The problem is that by ditching even minimally intrusive yet reasonably effective measures such as masks we're unnecessarily risking that number of CEV deaths become higher than what's unavoidable. I'm all for the review of measures in place and dropping as many as possible if they are not effective enough anymore, god knows I want things to go back to normal as soon as possible. But "now or never" is false dichotomy. In the end, it's a futile debate because it is practically inevitable that some of those restrictions will return in a few months time, to mitigate the combined effects of Covid third (fourth? can't keep track anymore) wave + flu coming back with a vengeance. I suspect it's a dance we will live with for some time yet.

@Toesies

Obviously it was a typo….

No, it wasn't a typo. These two words have been constantly confused from the beginning. I'd have thought though that most would have worked out the difference by now.

I don’t believe I said it doesn’t affect children, what I said was, the risk of them dying from it is about one in a million.

And of those 34 I suspect most had underlying health conditions? That’s an important factor to consider because most children don’t.

I don't see why this makes them any less important. The fact they may have underlying health conditions might have contributed to their deaths; it may not. Covid is a devastating disease. You are making an unhelpful division between healthy/unhealthy that is particularly odious when it involves children.

You don’t get to decide whether I made a typo when I was typing too fast and pressed send without checking. Im telling you it was!! Do you think if you typed ‘Apple’ the word ‘frozen’ would pop up…. Obviously not, it obviously autocorrects similar words

Get a grip. Don’t try to emotionally manipulate your agenda to get your ignorant point across. For someone that seems hellbent on correcting other people, you might want to look at ‘covid risk factors and underlying health conditions’ before you reply with absolute nonsense!!!

Who cares if tens of thousands of kids are suffering with mental health issues? Sod them is it? We shouldn’t give shit about them is what you’re saying?

@TableFlowerss

Who cares if tens of thousands of kids are suffering with mental health issues? Sod them is it? We shouldn’t give shit about them is what you’re saying?

No. Did I?

All the way through the government has effectively pissed all over people's efforts. Always too late, so economic and health impacts more afffected. Coming out of lockdown measures earlier in the year - a longer lockdown with deadlier results due to delaying again (or maybe it's wilful who the fuck knows) followed by the delay to putting India on the red list - disgusting. The government literally shat on everyone's efforts and it's why our cases are so rampant now. It's why kids education is so disrupted. To have absolutely nothing in place when we open up fully, not even encouraging (if not mandating) trivial measures such as masks inside busy places etc, is quite frankly no less than I'd expect from this government. Investment in schools could help too, but pigs might fly.

@musicalfrog

I don't get the ECV argument. Yes they are at greater risk of covid, even with a vaccine. But weren't they always at greater risk from any virus? How did they go about their lives before?

Genuinely interested, I don't know any personally.

DS1 has the flu jab. The Covid jab doesn't offer him the same protection. If he catches Covid, he will die. Hospital have advised him not to leave the house since March 2020. I haven't seen him in all that time.

@beentoldcomputersaysno

All the way through the government has effectively pissed all over people's efforts. Always too late, so economic and health impacts more afffected. Coming out of lockdown measures earlier in the year - a longer lockdown with deadlier results due to delaying again (or maybe it's wilful who the fuck knows) followed by the delay to putting India on the red list - disgusting. The government literally shat on everyone's efforts and it's why our cases are so rampant now. It's why kids education is so disrupted. To have absolutely nothing in place when we open up fully, not even encouraging (if not mandating) trivial measures such as masks inside busy places etc, is quite frankly no less than I'd expect from this government. Investment in schools could help too, but pigs might fly.

This. Totally agree.

@Chillychangchoo

Yes. Common sense has finally prevailed 🙌.

Except it won't fly through an MOT will it, because it's a rust bucket not a fucking aeroplane 👏

Sorry!!!!!!!!! Wtong thread

@ShortBacknSides

They won't say it but its becoming very clear that the immunocompromised need to continue to shield

It's hugely disablist (and ageist) this policy. Condemning the immunocompromised & the elderly to retreat from society. I have a friend with a terminal illness, who is looking at shielding for the rest of his (shortened) live. He's not particularly frail, and could work, but was advised to take early medical retirement because the risk was too great. He's active and currently well but now housebound because of this government's attitude.

Let the bodies pile up, indeed.

DS1 is in the same position. Also he's never worked because he'd get too tired, and in the last few years has only managed the short walk to Tesco's every day to get a meal deal for lunch. This was part of his daily physio. He's lost that, but also, not being allowed to leave your house in 16 months is incredibly depressing, and he was already prone to depression.

Chillychangchoo
Yes. Common sense has finally prevailed 🙌.
🙌 🙌 🙌

@TheLovelinessOfDemons and @ShortBacknSides sorry to hear that. 'Opening' up in this way is ironically going to limit and 'close' things for a lot of other people.

No. Did I

You may as well have. You’re ignorant post implied it

@TableFlowerss

*No. Did I*

You may as well have. You’re ignorant post implied it

Oh, sure. (I wouldn't say such a thing; mental health, for me, falls under the category of health. I don't separate them.)

BTW: I think you meant "your ignorant post" not "you're ignorant post".

**Oh, sure. (I wouldn't say such a thing; mental health, for me, falls under the category of health. I don't separate them.)

BTW: I think you meant "your ignorant post" not "you're ignorant post**

@Toesies

And that’s you’re best come back??? To try to scrutinise someone’s post for spelling mistakes. It was about 3am.

Mind you, you’re original point was moot so you couldn’t use that could you!

Btw FYI I’ve purposely used the wrong your just because I can

I hope the mathematical worst case modelling is incorrect but suspect there may indeed be real concerns as the government has thrown in the towel after being found out to be anything but on the (hand)job in recent months. Having spent billions of our tax payers monies enriching themselves and mates with doggy deals including unfit for purpose PPE using deliberately off audit personal emails when most required to save the lives of medics who died of Covid trying to save others in the initial months. The corruption has lead to a test track and trace system that is run by mates and relatives of the political ruling class elites and is now the de facto you must self isolate “lockdown” system. Only small issue being the fact that there is no mandatory obligation to own a new smartphone compatible with the App that does not work anyway. Indeed although many of us have multiple latest and greatest mobile smart devices, the elderly and by definition most vulnerable being pre mobile tech age may not even own or use any mobile smartphone device or if they do, only use for telephone and video calls.

We have allowed not only Indian but also Peru Lambda variants to mix with our homegrown Johnson/Cornwall variant to ensure we request our brilliant scientists to come up with new vaccines to beat the mutations versus vaccination race. This popularist government is only hanging on because of no effective political opposition as frankly who wants to be in charge of this once in a lifetime mess and won votes because of Brexit, vaccines and furlough which will be a medical war debt paid back over generations and decades.

Perhaps even that clown Johnson will finally say in a later podium press conference:

“Folks we got it wrong. The scientists are telling us that we need to stay at home again to protect our NHS and the most medically vulnerable. However we can’t afford to let the economy collapse so get a test and get back to work if you can but wear a mask keep testing to seek treatment if necessary. Sorry folks it’s not a u turn but there is no other choice as new variants are impacting all including children our future generations who we need to keep this great nation great. Bah, bah, bah a few choice words of latin perhaps even res ipsa loquitur or "the thing speaks for itself"!”

I think 'letting it rip' as they're clearly doing will end up in another lockdown at some point. Whereas keeping moderate mitigations such as masks, limiting massive events and ventilation (with the vaccine) could have prevented another lockdown.

I'm a bit sick of people claiming that having to wear a very thin mask in a shop is 'lockdown' because I remember January and the two are not remotely comparable.

I expect the next thing will be to stop testing and publishing data.

We should be worried I think because what's next - do away with the 'restrictions' around not drink driving / speed limits and seatbelts?

Or no more hard hats on building sites - in that case it only really affects the individual so 'personal responsibility' actually seems to work better there anyway.

@TableFlowerss

**Oh, sure. (I wouldn't say such a thing; mental health, for me, falls under the category of health. I don't separate them.)

BTW: I think you meant "your ignorant post" not "you're ignorant post**

@Toesies

And that’s you’re best come back??? To try to scrutinise someone’s post for spelling mistakes. It was about 3am.

Mind you, you’re original point was moot so you couldn’t use that could you!

Btw FYI I’ve purposely used the wrong your just because I can

You're just making yourself look silly now.

Also agree with @ResIpsaLoquiturInterAlia it seems they've massively enriched their mates and now are giving up?

If you compare what the UK's done with almost any other country, they have treated their population (and particularly children) far worse.