Drowning in a sea full of tiers

[Cismyfatarse]

Next thread. DD's birthday so can someone link.

I also don’t understand how you can meet 2 other people outside and bring your kids as under 12s are exempt still yet they can’t go to primary school? Ok then

I just don't get why they can't refill the vials, the guy drops a box of new vaccines, hand him a box of empty vials. The go back to the factory a wee clean and good to go again? What am I missing???

The school I kind of get schools are indoors. Classrooms are cramped. Teachers and other staff need to be there. Doesn't mean I'm not gutted DS is missing out on one of the best teachers he's had.

Alaska the wording its guff, its meet one other adult, a max of 2, from 2 households can meet outdoors, under 12 don't count.

So you can meet your mum in a park, your DH can meet your dad in a park but you can't meet them together - bonkers

@Lockdownbear yeah it is but it was the fact that under 12s are still exempt so clearly still being seen as not a threat despite the more transmissible strain. You could turn have 4 kids and the person you’re meeting could have 4 kids etc just doesn’t make any sense

@Lockdownbear, Legally speaking vials are clinical waste and transport and handling require licenses. All of these things of course can be overcome and prompt a swift resolution.

Breeder is dropping off puppy this afternoon. We will ask him to go into back garden so DH or myself can socially distance and discuss the details before he leaves the property. Puppy can run around outside safely that way whilst we talk. This dog will hopefully keep me sane through all of this🤞

Ooooh puppy day! Congrats!!! That is so exciting.

@WaxOnFeckOff

I think we talked about this before, but I think part of the issue is that the people making the decisions have a bit more normality than most.

They are still working out the house, meeting people, travelling etc. I'm not saying they have an easy job, but they aren't stuck in their house feeling lonely, or trying to occupy young children whilst trying to work or not, worrying about the state of their teenagers health, or worrying about their job, or where their next meal is coming from, or trying to homeschool with multiple dc and not enough space or equipment and maybe with an abusive person in the home, or waiting for some health procedures etc. Maybe some of them have some of these issues and obviously they will have stresses, but I don't think any real appreciation of what people are going through in order for their decisions to have balance.

I completely agree with this. DH and I have been at work all day since summer and the kids have been at nursery. Since we're out anyway I've been popping into shops, having coffees, etc. This has definitely cushioned us from much of the isolation and MH difficulties, I think. (I'm still a borderline basket case, despite this!)

Morning all. Interesting about Indonesia. Their population and health challenges are completely different from ours. Average life expectancy is about 70 and less than 10% are 65+ (Scotland is 20%).

They also have significant health burden from TB and HIV/AIDs. Both of these are concentrated in the younger age ranges. I hadn't realised they had had significant coronavirus but on checking it seems they now do have. There is a lot of travel for work between there and surrounding countries, including eg Australia and Singapore. I wonder if this is a factor in their vaccination strategy.

There is definitely an issue that senior politicians daily routines seem largely unaltered. They still go to their offices, still go to parliament albeit less often, still travel between parliament and constituency. Most either don't have kids, or are men with either stay at home wives, nannies, or both. Their lives still have a veil of normality over them which many of us have lost

There were two suicides in my local area over new year that I know of - both 16 and 17 year old boys (unrelated). It's just so sad. I have no doubt the lockdown restrictions will have played a part. Awful.

Mixed feelings this morning as the youngest one goes back to nursery. It's a relief to all of us (including her!) that she can go back, but there's also guilt as so many people on my Facebook feed are despairing with the expectation that they somehow continue to work with preschoolers demanding constant attention. I know of at least two people (women naturally) whose careers have been severely damaged, probably permanently, because of this issue.

I agree with pp that the main problem (or one of them) is the sheer relentlessness of it. By the time we're out of these latest restrictions that'll be best part of a year at least, with little respite up here while we single-mindedly (and quite naively IMO) chased the zero COVID unicorn. It's not even just that we can't do anything that we would have previously to let off steam (like go for dinner and a movie, or go round to my Mum's for a chat), it's the backdrop of having to be vigilant constantly day in and day out for a year. People just aren't made to withstand that kind of mental pressure and it's not surprising so many of us are breaking.

Did anyone see Chris Whitty's comments yesterday about expecting this to recur in the winter? Makes me wonder if restrictions, in winter at least, are to be a permanent feature now. I believe the excess deaths in this second wave are far lower than the first, but about on par with a bad flu year - even if COVID fades away, will there be similar outcries for restrictions in every winter virus season now?

I think by next winter the restrictions will be SD in restaurants, masks in shops the lighter stuff that's easy to deal with.

Depends how they get in with the vaccines.

Thanks for the comment about vials being clinical waste. Hmmm....its not like they are even handled by manky patients....maybe that's due a rethink.

I hope we don’t have this next winter. They will have to think outside the box if that’s the case. Emergency healthcare worker training?! I know it’s highly specialised but there must be a way to train some kind of help, there would be a lot of people willing. We can’t just accept this as our future 😟

Because the vaccine isn't 100% effective, plus there will be unvaccinated people even if they've worked through the population by then, it'll still be around in winter. But hopefully it will look more like flu in terms of deaths and nhs impact. So just shit, rather than full on chronic diarrhoea we have just now!

Re Chris Whitty's comments. Saw this on twitter:

"SCHOOLS! Just discovered that even after covid19, schools will never be 100% safe. There is a >0% risk of something bad occurring (hitting head, falling, even seasonal flu).

Ergo, schools can never open again. How can education be compared to even 1 life! #twitterexpertise"

And this is the problem with "light restrictions". They will never be enough and so the minute any are implemented they will always be ramped up.

They are even admitting that the new strain is so super spready that lockdowns will likely not slow transmission much. Of course once you get to that admission you can argue that we should all just go back to normal because restrictions make little difference.

@Dinnafashyersel that post is brilliant, and right on the nose. We've lost any sense of acceptable risk or balance, and have well and truly painted ourselves into a corner. After a year of being told that we need restrictions to 'save lives' how can our leaders now admit that there's a level of acceptable risk needed to get life back to normal? Brain is wandering a lot this morning, but I just don't see how we ever get out of this.

The clinical waste is obscene really. They swapped the thin plastic aprons for very thick ones as someone had complained the thin ones blow up in the wind. The thick ones were technically thick enough to wipe down but they were told the had to be disposed. Generally two used per patient in DHs role so going through loads, back to the thin ones now but still loads being binned and obviously masks and gloves etc too. All go for incineration. I'm not saying there is an easy answer, but maybe actual aprons which are laundered? Laundry places that normally work for hospitality might appreciate some extra work if hospital laundry services couldn't deal with the extra.

He saw me recycling a yoghurt pot and laughed as it almost seems pointless compared to what he sees every day. I still recycled it.

Re Indonesia, they had somewhat 'unusual' strategies in terms of enforcement of the rules.

news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-indonesia-people-caught-without-facemasks-forced-to-dig-graves-and-get-into-coffins-12099172

There are a good few (snoozed) folk on my Facebook who would support such measures.

The estimate yesterday was that 1:50 currently have it - they struggled to get R substantially below 1 last time with chilled-butter-covid, it therefore seems unlikely that they will actually achieve it with margarine-covid which might increase r by 0.7

One glimmer of hope is that while cases are out of control and hospitalisations are nearing the April peak (in Scotland anyway), ICU admissions are nowhere near the level they were last time, in part because of better treatments available now. I also heard that there are early signs that deaths might be reducing in the groups vaccinated. If we can reduce the severity of the disease and protect the most at-risk groups through vaccination, does it really matter how wide spread the disease is in the community? I mean, if you took a bad flu year and tested everyone with symptoms plus their contacts, would you see a similar thing? Might it even be a good thing if lots of low risk people get it and develop some level of immunity (as asymptomatic people are less likely to pass it on)?

Butter in my butter dish is not spreading anywhere today and don't get me started on my recycling dilemmas.

On the theme of domino effects Scotsman have the following headline:

"Grit roads to reduce Covid-19 infections in hospital say surgeons".

We're all convinced they're not gritting roads in an effort to keep us and our bugs all at home. However unintended consequence is people having to go out and breaking something and either already having Covid which they bring to hospital or getting it there.

Probably can't grit the road efficiently due to social distancing requirements between Paolo Grittini and Andy McFlurry.

We had a gritter lorry down our street yesterday, first time this winter. We're a no through road that is next to a wee park where everyone local walks their dogs and its been an ice rink this past week. Was glad as my DH has been doing it himself every other day!!