Coronavirus and You - Page 405

On July 18 2021 23:55 sharkie wrote:


You can't keep people closed in during summer with everyone knowing winter wont be better

On July 18 2021 23:01 WombaT wrote:

Who could have possibly predicted this would happen?

It’s quite frustrating, yeah Covid times haven’t been fun for many but we couldn’t hold on a few months longer? It’s like running 25 miles of a marathon and then going ‘fuck it, I’m going home’ at the last stretch.

On July 19 2021 17:18 Silvanel wrote:
Poland is looking to sell some of our vaccines as vaccination rates are dropping hard. Currently we have 42,7% of population vaccinated and it looks like it will stop around 50%. Maybe there will be another wave of vaccinations once summer ends but i doubt it.

On July 19 2021 18:19 maybenexttime wrote:

It's one thing to have packed stadiums but require people to be either vaccinated or have a negative test result. It's another thing to have pubs packed full of young, unvaccinated people.

@Malinor

How is the information being updated bad or surprising? The situation changes (the virus mutates) and we learn more about it. The herd immunity threshold depends on the value of R0. It was around 2-3 with the original variant, and with Delta it's closer to 6-8. That's a massive difference.

Edit: Also, the UK has been pretty much fully open for a few months now. What are you on about?

On July 19 2021 21:51 Acrofales wrote:

Sounds like Poland is in trouble then. 50% vaccination is not enough to be useful, so every new variant will just cause another wave of infections.

On July 20 2021 00:06 JimmiC wrote:
Globally I think it makes sense to donate to the have nots over force. The wealthier countries for the most part should have the heathcare capacity to deal with surges and then can put in measures (as shitty as they are) to drop it when needed.

Many of the have not countries do not, so from human lives saved it makes a lot of sense. Also, the biggest risk to everyone is new more terrible variants and stopping the rampant spread there will do a much better job of lowering that risk than making our countries completely protected.


As to the people that keep talking about health officials and doctors chaning their messaging. This is not hypocrisy or them lying. Early on it was them learning new information and getting better and now it is a combo of that and the virus changing. This is not a static situation so the answers are not going to be static, if they were that would be a problem.

On July 19 2021 16:48 Malinor wrote:


"Hold on for a few weeks/months longer" is what has been told to the German people from November 20 up to May 21.
Things opened up in June, so if you close down again in August or something, why would people choose to believe you?

Especially since information is updated all the time:
"herd immunity at 70%"
"herd immunity at 80%"
"herd immunity at 85%"
A first model came out last week that said 95%.

Different narrative: We have to beat Alpha, then we are through. Now we have Delta, how do you go with the same narrative again? Why would people have any confidence, that this cycle does not repeat over and over?

In Germany we have now the situation that more vaccine is available than what is needed. So everyone could be vaccinated within 6-8 weeks.

So with all that going on, keeping people locked up for some more time does not seem like a reasonable narrative at all.

UK had this super strict lockdown starting from January, but they were always told that it will all be worth it so that come June things go back to normal. This was already postponed for one more month. How do you sell not lifting the restrictions to anyone anymore?

I mean yeah, I would keep masks in place, have events be at like 20% capacity or something. Seems like a foolish way to lift everything (maybe that is exactly what you meant, not trying to create a strawman).

Anyway, for me it seems pretty clear that this is not "just a few more months", regardless of where and how. This thing is going to stay relevant for at least 1-2 more years and will kill a lot of people, regardless of what we do. I believe you can only try to prevent the real tragedies like in India or Italy.

On July 20 2021 05:24 WombaT wrote:

Lifting of the restrictions has been handled sillily IMO, granted the English/Scots/Welsh and us over here have differing levels of caution being employed.

The English approach is ‘fuck it’ basically, there’s differing levels of circumspection with the other regions.

You can’t lock people up forever, absolutely. Life’s alright here, bars and nightlife are open but subject to sensible precautions.

There’s little not available in terms of social experiences, although live music has really, really been overly delayed in coming back vs say, sporting events.

Is recreational travel abroad without some kind of effective quarantine period worth the risk of dragging new variants in? I’m not sure, time will tell. I would instinctively not feel it particularly wise.

After last year, i think a lot of people got to the conclusion that stuff will go bad even if they act responsible because there are simply too many idiots who don't. And in that situation, if you are responsible, you are the most fucked in the end.

On July 20 2021 16:12 m4ini wrote:


I think Boris Johnson pushed that point over the line quite handily.

Not only with the text messages that are coming to light through Cummings, but also his attempt to weasel out of quarantine etc after getting pinged by the already struggling track and trace service - with thousands and thousands of people uninstalling the app straight after. BJ singlehandedly undermines every bit of trust and/or responsibility someone could have.

Why give a shit if the guy sitting at the top doesn't? It's utter ridiculous.

That said? It's not just BJ. Already plenty of reports from welsh towns along the coast asking the english politely to fuck off back into their petri dish - because they don't appear to be grasping the fact that there certainly are restrictions in place still in wales, causing disruptions.