So happy tests are to be axed

[Wizzbangfizz]

So according to reports they are going to stop handing out LFT and will be stopping mass testing - this is excellent news for both the tax payer and the environment and surely marks a clear path this whole thing becoming endemic

France had over 300,000 cases on at least three days this week, so far the U.K. has never had more than 250,000 cases reported on one day. I am puzzled by the france is doing well narrative! It’s current case rate is def not 30 percent below the una, it’s been higher than us on quite a few days in the last week!!

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html

Okay so this data says that ROI, France, Denmark, Greece, Australia all have higher rates of Covid per 100,000 of pop than UK at this particular moment in time, with Spain, Italy, Switzerland not far behind at all.

Did i mention ROI or France... let me see? ah yes it was France...

The France which has tighter restrictions but higher cases than Britain, even with lower testing numbers?

Or a different France?

France is a comparable country to the UK, ROI isn't, which shares a UK land border.

What's your basis for this?

France has a very similar population to that of GB, but with twice the landmass. With Paris, it also has a major multi ethnic world city similar to London.

But I would say in terms of culture and lifestyle, Ireland is more similar to the UK than France.

But the fact is that cases in most of Europe are as high if not higher than in Britain. Even with 'sensible mitigations'. Even The Netherlands, which has been in lockdown for weeks, is seeing rising cases.

This idea that SARS Cov 2 is a uniquely British problem for which Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is personally responsible, is ridiculous. I have never voted Tory and never will, but anyone who believes in introducing 'restrictions' for the sake of it clearly isn't keeping up with actual facts.

My personal view is that we are fairing relatively well now compared to many other European nations is a direct result our “freedom day”. We’ve just spread out our cases over a longer period and in the warmer summer / autumn months . Just as “freedom day” was designed to do and as Whitty and Valance and yes even Boris said. I think that was why England in particular was able to take a bit of a gamble with Christmas etc as we already had cases in the bag so to speak. Omnicron did throw a bit of a spanner in the works but luckily Boris kept the faith with plan B for England and it’s so far paying off.

Tbf it's not like Boris had the option of introducing more restrictions over Christmas even if he'd wanted to. He isn't in a position where he could do something that unpopular with the backbench and stay put, and they would've been quite widely ignored.

@sashagabadon

The massive booster roll out was a massive intervention to stop spread. U.K. are at maybe 60% over 12’s , one of the best rates in the world. People seem to forget this in their claims of “Gov has done nothing!”

And I agree with the pp that Boris has steered a steady path and we (in England anyway ) have avoided so far some of the more authoritarian responses we have seen in other parts of the world and I am grateful for that.

What we have here is a rather unusual incident - a bunch of absolute pricks doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. They are right in reducing restrictions (which are really only desirable if you are someone who only has to worry about Covid ie you are financially comfortable with a safe, pleasant home you share with people you like). But they are doing it because they don't want to have to pay furlough, sick pay or bring back the UC uplift. Oh, they might like to paint themslves as libertarians, but the 'liberty' they are so fond of is basically the right of wealthy, mostly white, mostly male people to do what the fuck they like while the lives of other people are restricted and controlled.

If you look at the Netherlands with lockdown and spiking rates it’s become clear that omicron can’t be combatted without the usual

Anything less and it’s still a fast spike - France

Higher immunity, faster peak and tg the SA Dr was right after all in that it’s milder.

I’m not sure what SAGE would have achieved other than more damage, with a ‘circuit breaker’

I’m very glad we held on this as a prolonged but spiking rate with not knowing when to release would be very bad

…with the usual

@VikingOnTheFridge

Tbf it's not like Boris had the option of introducing more restrictions over Christmas even if he'd wanted to. He isn't in a position where he could do something that unpopular with the backbench and stay put, and they would've been quite widely ignored.

^this

And this is an absolute travesty. Imagine if he was in this position back in March 2020 when we didn’t have vaccines and needed a lockdown?

Can you imagine. Public health measures being prevented because of politics.

That’s wrong IMO.

Boris is lucky it’s going ok and he’s got away with it - so far. It could have been worse.

Yeah, I'm glad we haven't had some of the dafter measures I've seen advocated for this wave, but ideally I'd rather we arrived at the decision in a different way.

That said, I don't think we could ever have had this situation in March 2020, because a big part of the reason Boris has got himself into this position is his behaviour during lockdowns and attitude to breaches. The rage from the public is specifically rooted in the context of almost two years of sacrifices.

Pretty much everyone agreed with the March 2020 lockdown though? It’s an interesting counter factual to imagine that Boris couldn’t have lockdowned even then due to a few of his Mp’s.
I think he couldn’t lockdown Dec 2021 because the data wasn’t there, SA doctors were saying it was milder and we all now know the damage that lockdowns cause. We didn’t have that knowledge in March 2020 plus we’re all tripled jabbed!

@RoyalFamilyFan I don't think there is any need to panic about accessing the lat flow tests at the moment . If there are no tests available to order one day, then have a look the following morning. The news article states that the change to happen regarding the free tests will be in a few weeks (I have seen March mentioned), not next week.

The other thing is you can quite safely drive your friend to hospital if they sit in the back of the car behind the passenger seat with the window open. Even better if you both wear masks. That's what we were all doing in 2020 before the introduction of the LFTs.

Yes, the public support for lockdown isn't there now and even relatively 'milder' restrictions are more controversial.

Johnson's personal polling was really high in March 2020, so it would've been really stupid even for MPs who didn't agree with him to try and challenge his leadership. Hence there wasn't much criticism even from the right of the party. No point. Whereas his popularity has tanked now, and the Tory MPs sticking the boot in are doing it because they know that.

My personal view is that we are fairing relatively well now compared to many other European nations is a direct result our “freedom day”. We’ve just spread out our cases over a longer period and in the warmer summer / autumn months . Just as “freedom day” was designed to do and as Whitty and Valance and yes even Boris said. I think that was why England in particular was able to take a bit of a gamble with Christmas etc as we already had cases in the bag so to speak.

Yes. It's clear from looking at other countries that omicron cannot be stopped. So letting it spread through the population (without overwhelming the nhs) seems sensible at this point.

That might be created for public health but covid measures that are laws not guidance should go through Parliament (as the covid act did originally) I am not personally comfortable with a suggest that doctors should be given the reasons Lilith for saying when it is or isn’t legal to leave your house etc…that is for our elected politicians to do both in March 2020 and now, they supported the restrictions in March 2020 but the Conservative party was less keen on restrictions in December 2021, unsurprisingly since the situation has changed. But yes if they hadn’t supported it in March 2020 we wouldn’t have had a lockdown as we have a representative democracy not a dictatorship!!! And it will never been a doctors job to declare unilaterally that there is to be a new law!

Equally confused about France. They are not doing ‘better’ and have had stricter restrictions. Yet higher cases.

@sashagabadon

Pretty much everyone agreed with the March 2020 lockdown though? It’s an interesting counter factual to imagine that Boris couldn’t have lockdowned even then due to a few of his Mp’s. I think he couldn’t lockdown Dec 2021 because the data wasn’t there, SA doctors were saying it was milder and we all now know the damage that lockdowns cause. We didn’t have that knowledge in March 2020 plus we’re all tripled jabbed!

A lot of people didn't, for a variety of reasons, some of which were pretty sound. (I wasn't impressed with it: the dangers were pretty obvious, especially to those worst-placed to endure it). It did cause an enormous spike in domestic violence. It did increase inequality. Fucko the Clown and his mates did take advantage of it to award themselves more power to do whatever they liked. All very well for the comfortable, WFH on pay that, if it was slightly reduced, was still more than adequate: doing a couple of Zoom meetings a day and spending the rest of the time posting pious bullshit and snitching on the neighbours. Furlough was more about keeping the respectable, self-righteous middle-classes who make up a pacifyingly large proportion of the Tories' voter base from discovering quite how awful Universal Credit is (in terms both of how little money you get and how deliberately humiliating the application process is).

One of the most ridiculous and harmful concepts of the whole business is this idea that the lockdown came too late (by only DAAAAYS WAAAAAAAAH). Given that they abandoned testing and contact tracing early on, discouraged mask-wearing and, most importantly, sent infectious people into care homes, added to the enormous damage already done to public health by a decade of brutal underfunding, it's not particularly feasible that the timing of the mass house arrest made that much difference.

There are reports that we’d already peaked by the first lockdown. And it definitely went on too long.
Don’t get me started about opening pubs before schools...

Oh I agree the”lockdown was a week too late” argument from last summer is in the bin now. Seems delightfully quaint that so many people thought that would have made all the difference to the course of the pandemic when we’re still here 2 years later.

@sashagabadon

Oh I agree the”lockdown was a week too late” argument from last summer is in the bin now. Seems delightfully quaint that so many people thought that would have made all the difference to the course of the pandemic when we’re still here 2 years later.

That lockdown was a week too late - we could have avoided a large number of deaths and potentially have had a shorter lockdown.

Where we are now with omicron is a different situation.

On the timing of first lockdown I always questioned why the North had such long restrictions when it was earlier on their curve.

Many posts criticising London / SE timing, so maybe earlier wasn’t that good

@RoyalFamilyFan

Great I will have to self isolate rather than lateral flow test before seeing my friend undergoing cancer treatment. She will have less visitors as well as many wont be prepared to do this.

You could test negative on a lat flow, visit your friend, and be positive a day later . Surely isolating before visiting someone with cancer is a good idea anyway, Covid isn't the only danger in town.

It's clear from looking at other countries that omicron cannot be stopped. So letting it spread through the population (without overwhelming the nhs) seems sensible at this point

err the NHS is overwhelmed, has been for many weeks, if not months,

UK 14.5 million reported cases.
France 11m reported cases.

UK 14.5 million reported cases.
France 11m reported cases.

But that's across the whole pandemic. Right now France have higher rates than the U.K. despite their restrictions.

@Mookie81 I have children at school. I cant isolate my whole family for months at a time. And my friend needs help.