What pandemic alert level do you think we are at?

[PrincessNutNuts]

In your opinion which coronavirus alert level are we currently at?

5

Careful tealights, if you're having dinner soon you'll need to get in your fireproof suit before getting it out of the oven, you know, in the name of STAYING SAFE!! Can't be too careful with anything after all...

Or don't tell me... you're going OUT for dinner?! It's not SAFE, surely?!

@MarshaBradyo

Like Mark Drakeford says, England is an outlier.

How are people clinging on to this when France and elsewhere have such high rates?

Is it just look at what fits your story?

It’s glaringly high cases.

Yep, plenty of other countries with higher cases than us.

But I'm sure there's "reasons" why England is the worst 😒

@Tealightsandd

How are people clinging on to this when France and elsewhere have such high rates?

And with rates rising, Macron is taking action to mitigate.

Won’t your dinner be getting cold?

5 but measures 3

@Tealightsandd

How are people clinging on to this when France and elsewhere have such high rates?

And with rates rising, Macron is taking action to mitigate.

Is he? Nothing new has been introduced lately and their rates have been climbing despite them being much stricter with mask wearing, mitigations in schools and border control.

6

5+

Hmm... 🤔

I'd like to know the new restrictions in France? I know on the third those who could work from home were told that they should but that's hardly leading the charge with restrictions.

We’re at 1. Omicron is a cold. The NHS issues are caused by self isolation rules, not that they are overwhelmed.

I love how all of a sudden mask wearing is now "doing nothing" when a few weeks back it was a minor mitigation that would make all the difference 🤡

Places like France and Germany are having more of an issue because they still had high delta cases and ended up with overlapping waves. We had let delta transmit and were through the worst of it.

Also, despite their mask wearing and vaccinate passports, this variant isn’t being constrained.

Although France are allowing health workers with no symptoms to keep treating patients even if they test positive, is that the kind of change you are looking for Tealightsandd?

Bodies in the streets again, already......wondered what that was when I tripped over in the dark this morning. I assumed it was just a mountain of uncollected rubbish bags.

But then I remembered that

1. never have we had bodies in the streets.
2. my local authority run behind and miss collections every year after Christmas because if the increased waste. Usually takes till february for them to get back on their usual schedule.

@FourTeaFallOut

I'd like to know the new restrictions in France? I know on the third those who could work from home were told that they should but that's hardly leading the charge with restrictions.

Well there’s the much debated, still be voted through change to the pass sanitaire which will mean a negative test alone will no longer suffice for access to restaurants etc and the pass becomes a pass vaccinal.

Other than that I’ve certainly got the impression some, but obviously not all, of the increase in cases here is down to the large increase in the amount of testing that has gone on in France since mid December……it IMHO is really difficult if not impossible to draw a direct comparison between the two nations, but it’s obvious France is in the grip of wave five.

In the context of hospitals anecdatally having had to drop into our local hospital here in deepest France a few times recently Invan attest there’s no obvious signs of major overload and routine consultations, day surgery etc still seem to be running to schedule…so far it’s been a case that if you get a RDV for whatever then it goes ahead as planned.

There is however some “de programming” of non urgent surgery/consultations in some hospitals in other areas, so it’s not plain sailing everywhere.

Yeah, I agree. I'm not on this thread attempting to compare prevalence. I'm just interested in the different approaches to managing the crisis.

3

@FourTeaFallOut

Yeah, I agree. I'm not on this thread attempting to compare prevalence. I'm just interested in the different approaches to managing the crisis.

I think that’s a fair question to ask and TBH we might only find out what really did work a year or two down the road.

We (in France) have had various rules on mandatory mask wearing in public on and off for months on end, generally v well observed, and the passé sanitaire…yet here we are in the grip of the current wave….

I guess one plus point saving is that looking at the various indicators available on line and from elsewhere whilst it is fair to say the healthcare system is under pressure we are not (yet at least) being told the Health service is in crisis..

A lot of pressure on the health service here is as a result of the restrictions. I'd be in favour of adopting the same approach of allowing healthcare workers to work without symptoms here too at this point but I don't think it could be tolerated politically even if it could be shown to provide a better route to keep things going over the coming months.

.

PrimcessNutNuts yet again another graph you just drop in without any comment as to the point you are trying to make

Which I assume is that New Zealand have a much lower death rate. Which of course they do for a myriad of reasons so the comparison doesn’t work.

Even with omicron they could and have shut down their border in a way that we couldn’t because it was already here

Unless you have a different point

Quartz you seem to have your own special type of British exceptionalism.

All this "We can't", "We couldn't" etc.

The reality is we're not spectacularly different to most of the rest of the world.

There was - and is - plenty we could do to mitigate (just as seat belts don't eliminate all car crash deaths but do mitigate).

Like Mark Drakeford says, England is an outlier.

I just posted this on another thread but I think it's worth putting here too.

www.standard.co.uk/comment/unvaccinated-lockdowns-novak-djokovic-london-covid-b975487.html

@Quartz2208

PrimcessNutNuts yet again another graph you just drop in without any comment as to the point you are trying to make

Which I assume is that New Zealand have a much lower death rate. Which of course they do for a myriad of reasons so the comparison doesn’t work.

Even with omicron they could and have shut down their border in a way that we couldn’t because it was already here

Unless you have a different point

What Omicron update did you want?

I have a minute.