Re-opening…we aren’t the only country!

[Pantene23]

So I’ve seen lots of doom and gloom recently about reopening and all the people we are about to kill off. Also that we are the only country dropping all restrictions.

I’ve just spoken to my friend in Canada. As a whole they were extremely impressed with the UK vaccination rollout but although they started later, Canada has now double jabbed over 50% of adults and children over 12, over 80% with one vaccine. They are now open as usual to people who live there. There doesn’t appear to be the same media coverage with such negative connotations there. Why?

Are we addicted to the drama? Is it all scaremongering?

I double checked all figures so it’s not just “my friend said”.

What do you all think?

@Dghgcotcitc

Arr yes Canada unlike all the other countries will avoid delta because they have shut boarders (not as much as Australia of course but they they avoided delta…oh erm wait!).

People on here like to think this is a U.K. epidemic it’s comforting I think. Silly is if we could just be like x country everything would be fine! Last summer it was Germany only that hasn’t worked out so this summer we should have been Canada. I do believe there were posts were we should have been more like India (which incidentally also talked of shut boarders oh abs mask they supressed it with masks into oh they didn’t!))

Facts
It’s global
Most developed country are trying to vaccinate there way out if it

We are only unique in that thankfully are nice scientists at Oxford have a vaccine that is actually affordable to the rest of the world. But it doesn’t fit with the narrative so yes we are crap compared to x country (will keep it at x country then you can just exchange based on the facts at the time April x was India July it’s Canada await with interest next month’s country!!)

I know. It’s everywhere on here. Not as bad irl tg

od 85-90% of our population will never have had both vaccines because they're not vaccinating the majority of under 18's. I read that even if every single over 18 is double vaccinated, we will never reach herd immunity because the vast majority of under 18's, the super spreaders you might say, are not even eligible.

OP this is probably the most uninformed post I've read (in the last hour LOL).

I'm in Canada. Each province is doing something different. Where I am there is a criteria for loosening restrictions. If the criteria isn't met, we don't move to the next stage. And we are all watching the UK and shaking our heads BTW....

@hamstersarse

I’m just back from a two week holiday in a green country and the uk was seen as the “leader in dealing with covid”. The locals would give their right arm to be part of the Uk strategy…. No furlough being the main one.

The self flagellating and doom mongering is intense here. The small minded hatred for the Uk from uk people is saddening. We really are very lucky

Which country did you visit where the UK was seen as the leader in dealing with covid?

I talk to people in multiple different countries on a regular basis, and while there was certainly some envy over the speed of our vaccine rollout, most people are aghast at what is happening right now. Just as they were when we failed to lock down early enough in the first and second waves and allowed such high numbers to die. We are so far from being seen as leaders that it's laughable to even suggest it!

They may be worried about us but Delta is fast everywhere- France Aus

It rises quickly and best way to deal with it is vaccination and high antibodies

@Quartz2208 Spain’s figures on Monday are always for Saturday, Sunday and Monday added together. But still high. Tuesday was about 27,000.

I don’t see how anyone can be annoyed at the us for putting the UK at level four, when the uk is asking for £300 in tests and 10 day quarantined for arrivals from countries with far lower case loads.

I also think it’s quite alarming to view criticism of one’s government as hatred of your country. Almost dictatorial. I love the UK dearly which is why it hurts so much to see it being torn apart and plundered by the current glorious leaders.

Delta is everywhere now. We were unlucky in that Boris invited it in when our vaccination numbers are low. Now that it’s just taking off in Europe, and there the vaccination numbers are more or less where we are, hopefully they’ll be able to manage it a little better. I know France has eased restrictions considerably despite the rising cases, so it isn’t just us. Spain still has strong restrictions but the cases are rising anyway.

Od130990
A bit of sanity at last.
BJ has certainly been slow off the blocks, particularly at the beginning, but has got it right this time. The figures that matter are those hospitalised and those dying with it - it's a shame we've never had numbers of those dying because of it as they would be the ones that count. The rest of the world can carry on shaking their heads and hand wringing at our foolishness, who cares? As far as nightclubs are concerned (real petrie dishes), you'd need to be pretty dumb to go to one at the moment but, hey, if you think it's worth the risk...

The bottom line is we are a bunch of whingers and I doubt any other country is as bad.

Can't believe all the 'WE SHOULD'T BE OPENING UP' posters when not long ago 'MY MENTAL HEALTH IS DESTROYED BY BEING LOCKED DOWN IN ISOLATION' was the theme.

You really couldn't win in the UK.
Whingeing poms.

NEtherlands seems to have plateaued like us but who knows if it will hold

Could I check what figures you’re seeing that suggest case rates have plateaued?

My brother lives in Canada too but they have no cases in Alberta so it’s not comparable. Here we’re opening up with numbers like January and our population has largely had AZ which they don’t use in Canada and it doesn’t have as high effectiveness.

@PersephoneJames agree these threads always occur without taking into account our own border controls that are actually pretty high

US level 4 is fairly similar I think to Amberplus for us

@Weebleweeble

The bottom line is we are a bunch of whingers and I doubt any other country is as bad.

Can't believe all the 'WE SHOULD'T BE OPENING UP' posters when not long ago 'MY MENTAL HEALTH IS DESTROYED BY BEING LOCKED DOWN IN ISOLATION' was the theme.

You really couldn't win in the UK.
Whingeing poms.

opening up isn't necessarily either/ or.

I'm glad so many people apparently still wear masks.

There can be some more freedoms with cautions.

Delta is indeed everywhere now. What's different about the UK is that we are removing all restrictions in the middle of it.

@Weebleweeble, I was never one of those anti lockdown posters, so there are no contradictions here. I didn't enjoy lockdown but accepted it was necessary at the time. It doesn't have to be all or nothing, though. We could have kept some sensible restrictions in place while retaining many of our freedoms. But that didn't fit with BJ's politically motivated plan.

X post with @herecomesthsun.

Herd immunity won't work like this. We're making ourselves into a Petri dish for new variants through mutation, some of them will be vaccine resistant and we'll all be stuck back inside again.

This is about Boris Johnson being too weak to face his own backbenchers, not to mention giving no shits about the people who will die or have long term sickness due to his recklessness.

I'm glad so many people apparently still wear masks.

They are, I’m not sure why people think we are doing all or nothing when this mitigation they would like is mostly there

Because the mitigation is largely being left up to individuals @MarshaBradyo.

@MarshaBradyo The rhetoric of "Freedom Day" is a bit all or nothing, I think that was a mistake. There is a lot of propaganda against having any restrictions at all in the right-wing media.

@AlexaShutUp

Because the mitigation is largely being left up to individuals *@MarshaBradyo*.

That’s alright if the effect is the same

On the overground it was same uptake

People who didn’t wear them before still probably won’t

Most of what we do is individual choice anyway

It was before as you could opt out

Most people know what to do by now

[quote herecomesthsun]@MarshaBradyo The rhetoric of "Freedom Day" is a bit all or nothing, I think that was a mistake. There is a lot of propaganda against having any restrictions at all in the right-wing media.[/quote]
The media love a story it’s a sales / click tactic

But what I’ve seen in last week is not in line with it

I’m good with that - both individual choice and people choosing to wear them

@Weebleweeble

The bottom line is we are a bunch of whingers and I doubt any other country is as bad.

Can't believe all the 'WE SHOULD'T BE OPENING UP' posters when not long ago 'MY MENTAL HEALTH IS DESTROYED BY BEING LOCKED DOWN IN ISOLATION' was the theme.

You really couldn't win in the UK.
Whingeing poms.

Nooooo. You're confusing your whingers! There are two lots!

"We shouldn't be opening up" - now they belong to the subset of "I've followed all the restrictions and my husband sleeps in the shed and I never want to return to the office because it's not safe and I'm worried because my neighbour is sitting BREATHING in her garden"

Your second group is arguably more interesting as they are the Shroedinger's cat group. They can't cope any more with lockdown (since about 2 days after it started last March) but won't wear a mask or get a vaccine. They like to trawl the murk of the WWW posting links to conspiracy theory blogs written by men who live with their mothers and wear white socks and brown sandals. These blogs show Covid is a conspiracy to do the microchip thing.

You can spot the difference as it's the second lot who say things like "I am DONE!!!" very dramatically.

In the middle you've got the quiet masses of decent people who would just like to get back to as normal a life a possible, see their kids in school, have a week in Majorca without both groups above descending on the airport with flamethrowers ("nobody should be travelling! It's a pandemic! My god! I've only ever had 3 days in a tent made from an old bedsheet near the local flyover"/ "I'd go on holiday but the fucking foreigners are saying I'd have to wear a mask! For a virus that doesn't exist!" ) and have the temerity to wonder if, 16 months after the UK govt has repeatedly a) not taken any action when everyone else has b) said they might take action c) taken action that everyone goes wtf? about d) stopped that action and done what everyone else was already doing in a never-ending loop, said govt might not be a little unreliable and untrustworthy.

As a Canadian living in England, I promise you that not a single one of my family and friends are ‘impressed’ by the UK.

I think being former colonies Canada etc take great delight in dissing the U.K. Even Bidens on the 'evil Brits' bandwagon - so proud of his Irish roots conveniently forgetting the relatively recent less savoury bits . My DBro is in Australia and regularly comments on 'terrible' things here.
It's also our media which fans the flames - I mean the Daily Mail has an international version. If you asked someone in Brazil or Tunisia about us they probably wouldn't know - though they might know about Portugal and France as they have links with them from the past.
No country deserves a gold star or halo - let them get on with it.

I am cutting and pasting @Geamhradh's post into every Covid thread from now on where someone tries to put everyone into either the 'frightened betwetter sheep' or 'conspiracy theorist yellow-star wearing loons' camps.

That middle ground is pretty big.