Coronavirus

[PaulCP]

I think there was some sort of suggestion last week that the reason why the number of cases has flattened was somewhat expected when the schools opened up due to the increase in tests being carried out.

Hence a more indicative statistic given out to gauge the ongoing situation would be the % of positive tests from total tests per day.

[Barrykearley]

1 hour ago, Bibs said:

Oh, and it's illegal, a crime, to go on holiday as of Monday. You could end up with a £5k fine or I assume jail for booking a week in Benidorm.

We still ok to go out rioting though?

And this whole vaccination passport caper just seems like a back door way to track and trace peoples movements all the more - remember the national identity card idea? Hmmm all the while rubber boats will keep arriving at Dover and we won’t deport foreign born criminals.

the whole world is bloody screwed.

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

1 hour ago, PaulCP said:

I think there was some sort of suggestion last week that the reason why the number of cases has flattened was somewhat expected when the schools opened up due to the increase in tests being carried out.

Hence a more indicative statistic given out to gauge the ongoing situation would be the % of positive tests from total tests per day.

Yes that’s a good point. Some of the new positive cases could now be asymptomatic school children, who wouldn’t previously have undergone any testing to appear in any statistics. I don’t think my kids had any testing in the first year of the pandemic, but they have each been tested several times in the past fortnight.

[SFO]

The statistics that really matter, IMO, are numbers of people in hospital, and deaths. Both these have been steadily declining .. even as cases have plateaued. 

truth is, with over 99% of the most vulnerable vaccinated, it is time to end lockdown .. the main risk has been addressed. Against this background, trying to eliminate CV19 altogether or to keep cases low is not justified on social, economic or moral grounds. 

[andydclements]

I had my first jab yesterday late morning, and last night I was feeling rough. 'Flu-like symptoms, still not feeling great, but if that's the price of not suffering a severe case of COVID-19, and not being likely to pass it on, then that seems a good trade-off.

I think that I partially agree with @SFO, in that the people most likely to die as a result of infection, or to suffer severe symptoms, have some protection, but I don't think that they've all had their 2nd jab yet which is what takes it to a good level of protection (it's not going to ever be 100%), the question has to be (and I don't know whether such data is available to us general public): Could the ICU/ cope with the increased occupancy from a slightly higher COVID-19 infection rate, and still allow the backlog of other treatments that cannot go ahead without a bed being available?

I wouldn't expect to see foreign hols coming back soon, or not without a strictly enforced quarantine. Nor the removal of the requirements over masks distancing etc.

[C8RKH]

According to the BBC just now the EU has "denied any form of proposal for a vaccine export ban".

FFS - you could not make this up and can no longer believe anything about what they say.  Christ, has everyone now understood why we really left?  With Ursula Lies a Lot at the helm what did we expect?

[pete]

Seems like a blockade by another name

[march]

The EU is already seizing doses of vaccine. 29 million seized in Italy - some of which cannot be used by the EU as the source has not yet been approved, others are meant for the EU and worst of all some is for poorer countries countries. What an absolute mess.

https://www.fxempire.com/news/article/astrazeneca-says-29-million-covid-19-doses-in-italy-are-for-eu-poorer-countries-713240

I wonder when the Biotech Exodus from the EU will start.

[SFO]

It's an export ban, it's interference with contracts, it's I messed up my contract so I will just improve my contract terms by throwing my weight around like a bully (couching it as fairness and reciprocity), and I will seize things that don't belong to me because I can ..

Draghi, unelected Italian PM and former ECB Head, is losing all credibility and becoming an unhinged despot 

all cheered on by Ursula Von der Lying 

[PaulCP]

They are loading up their sawn off, double barrel shotguns which they will eventually use to blow their own feet off.

The unaccountable EU Commission, led by a President who is a career long failure, are now demonstrating to the world why the U.K. wanted out 

[Barrykearley]

Come on Boris nows the time to act.

Block exports to the eu right now. All vaccine components that the eu require sourced from Yorkshire should now be funnelled into new uk manufacturing centres. Time for massive expansion and investment in the uk.

we can publicly state that we are working hard on a compromise 👍

On 23/03/2021 at 08:20, Bibs said:

Oh, and it's illegal, a crime, to go on holiday as of Monday. You could end up with a £5k fine or I assume jail for booking a week in Benidorm.

The only country in the world where it’s legal to enter even illegally but illegal to leave......

[C8RKH]

@PaulCP - I think this is the evidence that they have just blown their own feet off!

 

Italy's bid to shame UK backfires as 29 million jabs 'hidden for UK' destined for BELGIUM

CLAIMS AstraZeneca "hid" almost 30 million doses of vaccine in a bottling plant in Italy to send to the UK have been debunked after it was confirmed they were destined for Belgium.

[Barrykearley]

What would be interesting is how many AZ vaccines the eu are sat on.

[Barrykearley]

[Neal H]

I had my first dose on Saturday. I also felt pretty rough from about mid-morning Sunday with what I would describe as mild flu like symptoms - tired, groggy and head ache which all lasted about 24 hours. Not bad enough to confine me to bed or anything, and a price worth paying for the protection it offers 👍

[TdM]

2 hours ago, Barrykearley said:

What would be interesting is how many AZ vaccines the eu are sat on.

Just saw on the news an EU chap saying that if AZ had delivered the promised doses, they would have the same level of vaccinations completed as the UK. The reporter then pointed out that they are sat on lots of vaccines that they aren't using... 'good point' was the response. They are a real joke at the moment.

[SFO]

EU always forgets that AZ never promised the doses but promised to use "reasonable best efforts" to deliver them. That has been spun by EU into AZ breach of contract when in fact there is no such thing. The reason EU has to rely on confiscation or export control/ban laws is that EU has no basis in contract to demand the doses. 

EU also forgets that UK planned months in advance, spent upfront money, provided expertise and other assistance to AZ when there was no assurance that the vaccine would work. UK thus benefits from that investment, and rightly so.

EU, which did nothing, apart from ordering doses late, wants the same treatment that the UK gets, in the name of "reciprocity" and "fairness". The sheer cheek of it is truly outrageous and spectacularly ridiculous. And yet, Ursula Von der Lying thinks EU is acting reasonably and fairly; utterly delusional. 

 

[Colin P]

7 hours ago, SFO said:

EU also forgets that UK planned months in advance, spent upfront money, provided expertise and other assistance to AZ when there was no assurance that the vaccine would work. UK thus benefits from that investment, and rightly so.

 

They also forget that if it wasn't for this, and if we'd done what the EU did there wouldn't be a bloody vaccine to argue over. Remind me how vaccines did Germany and France develop?

[C8RKH]

French politicians (who are very much not representative of the French people) are some of the most gutless, spineless, untrustworthy and ungracious twits in the world.

They have an air of entitlement through the privileged bubble they were born into and serve. 

Such a shame as France and the French are a warm, welcoming people and country in general.

[910Esprit]

No politician is goimg to put their hand up and say we f***** u* - Its not part of the job.  If the EU had a case, AZ would have been in court long ago.  This is purely around saving face (and attempting to procure additional supply in an underhand manner).  I hope the european population understand the full facts.

Hopefully we have enough vaccine to get the 2nd doses done for the more vulnerable folk.   In due course, we can take advantage by forging closer trading ties with the other nations that are going to be stiffed by the EU.   Every cloud....

Edited March 25, 2021 by 910Esprit

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

21 minutes ago, Colin P said:

They also forget that if it wasn't for this, and if we'd done what the EU did there wouldn't be a bloody vaccine to argue over. Remind me how vaccines did Germany and France develop?

The Germans developed the Pfizer vaccine at their Biontech subsidiary. Funny how AZ gets all the flak though, just because the other manufacturers are dragging their heels. 2 weeks ago the EU wouldn’t touch the AZ vaccine with a barge pole.

[C8RKH]

6 minutes ago, 910Esprit said:

No politician is goimg to put their hand up and say we f***** u* - Its not part of the job

I get that. But being accountable to your citizens and not LYING THROUGH YOUR TEETH is also not part of the job. Unfortunately, working for a global company as I do, HQ'd in Europe, I am finding that many Europeans are swallowing this bullshit whole and I am having to point out basic facts to them when comments are made in jest on conference calls etc. They are genuinely shocked as it seems their press is even worse than ours when it comes to reporting facts.

Such a shame that at a time of need like this, what we are seeing is politics being used to forge division, as opposed to being used as a force for diplomacy and the common good through bringing people and nations together.

The EU have shown their true colours now. I think a lot of people will be thinking long and hard re whether they should support an xxexit in their own country.

Italy - stiffed

Greece -stiffed

Ireland - stiffed

.......

[Barrykearley]

21 minutes ago, LotusLeftLotusRight said:

2 weeks ago the EU wouldn’t touch the AZ vaccine with a barge pole

And still - the number of AZ doses the EU are holding isn’t clear.

[Chillidoggy]

EU   = "The Empire".

[C8RKH]

EU = Empire Unhinged