What restrictions will Nicola announce on Tuesday?

[ShiftingSands21]

Does anyone have a strong sense of what we should expect tomorrow?

"She's just tweeted that omicron is driving a steep increase in cases. There are over 5000 today, however there's been a record number of tests, and the positivity rate is actually lower than yesterday! Ive never been able to fathom why she does this, why she reports a rise in cases with no (significant) context."

It drive me nuts when she does this. It's not like the figures are hard to find so people know it's spin and then everything is viewed with suspicion.

She's just retweeted another doom monger warning that even if omicron is less severe the numbers could easily overwhelm the NHS. Well, no shit Sherlock, but why not try to do something about it? Why just retweet the worst, most sensationalist scenarios to scare the shit out of everyone?

@Scottishskifun I was in a community midwife unit, but I would not have thought that made a difference. I guess the different boards (or maybe even hospitals?) are implementing their own procedures. Which then creates risks…

I would think that part of being in charge in a crisis is creating an air of being in control and reassuring those relying on you.

Not unadulterated panic and blame shifting

@WouldBeGood

I would think that part of being in charge in a crisis is creating an air of being in control and reassuring those relying on you.

Not unadulterated panic and blame shifting

Its tactical though more panic spread more outcry from the public that WM is "putting Scots at risk" = more support for her and then in future WM doesn't care and refused to help in our public health emergency.......

It's a way of improving support for her cause.

I think it’s backfiring.

I want the surgeon with the calm authority as he staunches the bleeding, not the one running round screeching

There's a certain panic in her posts as she catastrophises and claims they're not overreacting. I think she knows she's lost the room so to speak, and no-one outside of her core support are listening any more. We've all had too much spin, too much political bullshit, and she's been wrong too many times for people to take it any more. We were supposedly taking the more 'responsible' route back in July/August by retaining restrictions that England ditched, but not only were we no better off (the doomsayers were comprehensively proved wrong) we actually had the largest spike of infections of anywhere in the UK!

I agree with PP that she is too closely aligned to this - she's such a marmite figure that she instantly turns off huge swathes of the population who are angry with her for myriad reasons, and any public health message is lost. (Of course it doesn't help that she can't seem to resist banging on about 'powers' any chance she gets - about half the population must just roll their eyes and switch off at that point.)

Yep

The increasingly hysterical nature of her tweets isn’t inspiring confidence

I stopped watching Nicola Sturgeons briefings weeks ago. I just couldn't listen to them anymore.

Can’t be bothered to continue to read the whole SG bashing on this thread. But just to say for those not really paying attention to the new risks all NHS staff and council care staff are now exempt from the 10 day isolation if in close family contact with some one PCR +ve and remain symptom free. So if my dc are +ve I have to go to work with no one to watch them. That along with the email sent out today from board directors advising staff of once again redeployment to wards/ clinics with insufficient staff is the reality of the situation.
So by all means go about your business saying fuck you SG/wee nippy and all the rest we’ll do as we please.
I’ve had absolutely enough of COVID but still remain concerned about my fellow citizens to follow the advice.
As someone asked on an early page and appears to have been completely ignored, for every one shouting off what exactly do you think the alternative is? Just curious.

Weigh up one’s own risks and crack on

And stop isolating healthy people and children. Pay the very vulnerable who want to stay home.

Open the Louisa Jordan as a discharge convalescent facility to prevent bed blocking.

This helps to clarify a few things

Covid in Scotland: What is guidance and what is the law? www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-59668602

It also seems unlikely that English out of school/university activities would be intrinsically 'safer' than Scottish ones, given that England since about July has had fewer restrictions in society generally (testing/isolation for asymptomatic people was optional, no mask mandates, no specific guidance for people to work from home etc.)

I never said they were safer. I pointed out that if kids are catching covid in schools in such big numbers, those kids aren’t also catching it out of school, as catching it twice in a short time is very unusual.

I hate it, but I think there is no way to avoid a lockdown with a growth rate like this… I’m anti lockdown in general but the timing here could not be worse. For a lockdown to be worth it, it has to be before January, otherwise things will peak before we do it. Right now the UK government response looks to me in a way like they are too stunned to act but I think they will hit the panic button eventually. We have been here before. I had a look back at the timeline last year and how rapidly the rules changed and I think that we will see similar again. This is my prediction, which I will be very happy to be proved wrong on.

Pay the very vulnerable who want to stay home.

Yes, just lock up the vulnerable, elderly, disabled people. They don’t mind having to stay home at all!

I feel very sad about it all.

Just got an overwhelming sadness tonight. People's fear and anxiety for their own or loved one's wellbeing is not misplaced, it's not an over reaction - and the people saying "we need to get on with it" are not deluded or naive, but realists because someone needs to go to work or systems will collapse.

I read somewhere that the timeline for that is 3 days. If you go to the supermarket and there is no bread because no bread lorries come - and you really need the bread well, what do you do?

I wish I'd stuck with that sourdough starter nonsense I got sucked into last time. And bought a cow. Or a greenhouse. Can you be a subsistence farmer in a city in the winter?

Sorry to all those who are feeling anxious - I agree @vivariumvivariumsvivaria covid is a divisive subject but most perspectives are people trying to do what they think is best in this quagmire - hope you got some rest.

Going to surprise the kids with unexpected mid week pancakes to beat off the gloom.

Does anyone remember how to qualify for Furlough? While I am really hopefully it doesn’t happen as we cannot afford it, if it does in the new year, would I qualify as I started a new job this month? Is it just one month’s pay through the payroll?

I’m wondering the same @lonsdaleshorts

I’m sure it was more than a month though. I will be 4months in my new job.

I now wake every morning with my stomach churning again

I consider myself to be a realist rather than have my head in the sand. I know there is probably a large peak of cases coming, and this might put some pressure on the NHS. I’m triple jagged and will test before events to avoid spreading it if I can, I don’t go around licking strangers, but I won’t lock myself away (indeed no one is asking me to). I think that’s enough. It’s too late to stop the omicron wave, and at this stage in the pandemic when we have treatments and a lot of immunity, probably too damaging to try. We’re not in the same situation as the first wave at all. I don’t think the UK govt are stunned, I think they realise that the next month or so could get rough hence the massive push to get people vaccinated. Rather, the costs of locking down to the economy, education, mental health etc. are not worth any gains to trying to stop the inevitable. This solution protects the vulnerable and I think is the most reasonable and fair solution to society as a whole.

@BoredZelda exactly why I said “if they want to.”

No one wants to. But it makes sense that it’s those who are at risk who get that choice. Everyone else just need to get on with things.

No one wants to. But it makes sense that it’s those who are at risk who get that choice. Everyone else just need to get on with things.

They don’t want to. They are forced to because of their disability. Just one more way an ableist society treats them as second class citizens.

Funny when anyone suggests the same for unvaccinated people, who have a choice they can easily make to avoid it, that’s an abuse of their human rights apparently.

@giggly

Can’t be bothered to continue to read the whole SG bashing on this thread. But just to say for those not really paying attention to the new risks all NHS staff and council care staff are now exempt from the 10 day isolation if in close family contact with some one PCR +ve and remain symptom free. So if my dc are +ve I have to go to work with no one to watch them. That along with the email sent out today from board directors advising staff of once again redeployment to wards/ clinics with insufficient staff is the reality of the situation. So by all means go about your business saying fuck you SG/wee nippy and all the rest we’ll do as we please. I’ve had absolutely enough of COVID but still remain concerned about my fellow citizens to follow the advice. As someone asked on an early page and appears to have been completely ignored, for every one shouting off what exactly do you think the alternative is? Just curious.

We're living the alternative; the past 2 years has been the alternative (to normal life).

For the overwhelming majority of people, C19 is a mild illness. We have vaccine and we have antivirals (the latter will hopefully be as impactful as vaccine). So, at this stage (2 years in, so firmly in long term territory) protective measures such as face coverings and WFH are the ONLY realistic protections we can maintain. Do I, personally, want to see a 'new normal' established with permanency (whereupon the social aspect of living is no more, and things such as concerts, cinemas, sporting events, theatres, nightclubs, parties - amongst many, many other things - no longer exist. Theyre gone for good? Education is no longer recognisable?). God no, one million times over, NO, I absolutely do not want to see that!

@BoredZelda I know it sounds a little heartless, but clinically vulnerable people have always been advised to take additional steps to protect themselves. Mild illnesses to others have always been an threat to them, and I understand if some might feel like they want to shield (and they should be supported to do so if they wish). It absolutely sucks for them, but are you seriously suggesting that everyone else should also be locked down in some kind of solidarity? COVID isn't going anywhere, and it is now very well established that measures taken to control spread have heavy costs, hence all the talk of being proportionate. It is clear at this point that vaccines will not stop spread, so there is no reasonable argument for forcing people to undergo a medical intervention that does carry risks (which may well be greater than the risks of COVID for them as individuals). I do think it's an abuse of basic human rights to force medical interventions on people; I can't believe that is even in question. For society as a whole we need to have one of those grown up conversations about whether, at this point, the 'cure' of trying to stop COVID is worse than the disease.