Coronavirus update - NO MORE RESTRICTIONS

[surge]

makes me mad with all these rules between the home nations with different rules

Krankie up in Scotland and Drakeford here really need to align with the rest of the UK and form a common policy

i won't hold my breath tho

It's so feckin' lazy to suggest that things would be better if Wales and Scotland signed up to one approach because a) that's what they've asked for at several times and it hasn't happened because England has often wanted to be an outlier and b) at several important moments (not all) Scotland or Wales have done it correctly and/or better - England's plan during the winter lead to huge numbers of deaths that was largely avoided in Wales.

[surge]

I keep seeing the line 'EU is having vaccine problems because it was too slow in negotiating contracts' repeated in United Kingdom and United States media.

I want to push back on this narrative because I think it's missing where real EU-level mistakes lie. Let's review what happened in past year....

(thread: https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/stat...97635577761803)

EU assumed good behavior. US & UK manoeuvred to benefit themselves.

Many EU countries flubbed vaccine rollouts. EU negotiations & approval maybe took too long.

But what's striking is, for many in US & UK there seems to be 1 set of rules for them and another for everyone else.

More to the vaccine story.

[lardy]

yes working for a company that wants me to have one of these tests as i work between 2 sites within the same company in England

company policy so they say

rang 911 and they told me sorry sir can't help me as i,m in Wales there is no support !

you need to have symptons to get a test done in wales

You called 911?

[MOZZER2]

sorry 119

[goats]

Doesn’t look like holidays abroad will happen this summer......

Covid: Summer holidays abroad 'unlikely', warns government adviser https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56467813

[blue matt]

Doesn’t look like holidays abroad will happen this summer......

Covid: Summer holidays abroad 'unlikely', warns government adviser https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56467813

Seeing alot of US news stories last night about the US border opening up end of May for the UK, EU, Brazil, Canada and Mexcio

Still holding my reservations

[City123]

It's so feckin' lazy to suggest that things would be better if Wales and Scotland signed up to one approach because a) that's what they've asked for at several times and it hasn't happened because England has often wanted to be an outlier and b) at several important moments (not all) Scotland or Wales have done it correctly and/or better - England's plan during the winter lead to huge numbers of deaths that was largely avoided in Wales.

Stop talking sense. Its all Wales/Labour/Dripford's fault and we should bow down to our English masters

[goats]

Seeing alot of US news stories last night about the US border opening up end of May for the UK, EU, Brazil, Canada and Mexcio

Still holding my reservations

Wow that would be great Matt. I guess the Brazil variant isn’t such a problem then if the yanks will let them in....there’s bound to be another one like South Africa mind, could be anywhere! Fingers crossed hey.....

[surge]

One interesting element of the coronavirus story going forward will be how honest/critical the press are about each government's actions. Walesonline have put up another good article here: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/w...demic-20220816

[Rjk]

https://twitter.com/PublicHealthW/st...060692995?s=19

0 deaths in Wales again today. good news

[City123]

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/p...nsons-20226671

Drakeford said similar to "i News" so it looks like Wales will be taking a more cautious path

[Gofer Blue]

I see the surge in COVID cases in Germany is being blamed on the "British" variant. Presumably much easier to sell to the EU citizens than the "Kent" variant!

[Vindec]

Given that Germany were considered to be a paragon of virtue that country has declared a third lockdown, described as a third pandemic, by Merkel today. Perhaps we are not doing so badly going forward after all.

[goats]

Given that Germany were considered to be a paragon of virtue that country has declared a third lockdown, described as a third pandemic, by Merkel today. Perhaps we are not doing so badly going forward after all.

Are they not already in one? Thought they were just extending it? Is it only us that’s been in lockdown since before Christmas? With half the adult population we aren’t doing too badly for once.

[surge]

Given that Germany were considered to be a paragon of virtue that country has declared a third lockdown, described as a third pandemic, by Merkel today. Perhaps we are not doing so badly going forward after all.

Isn't it the Kent variant which has now made it's way across the channel? If anything they're now experiencing the effects of resistance to science (in their case vaccine skepticism, but with a lack of vaccine protectionism also) that particularly England and Northern Ireland demonstrated this winter.

[MacAdder]

Isn't it the Kent variant which has now made it's way across the channel? If anything they're now experiencing the effects of resistance to science (in their case vaccine skepticism, but with a lack of vaccine protectionism also) that particularly England and Northern Ireland demonstrated this winter.

The chances are it came from over there in the first place.

[City123]

I see the surge in COVID cases in Germany is being blamed on the "British" variant. Presumably much easier to sell to the EU citizens than the "Kent" variant!

In fairness, would we call something the "Baden-Wurrtemberg Variant"?

[blue matt]

I see the surge in COVID cases in Germany is being blamed on the "British" variant. Presumably much easier to sell to the EU citizens than the "Kent" variant!

just remember what Basil said

[Harry Paget Flashman]

In fairness, would we call something the "Baden-Wurrtemberg Variant"?

Didn't know the royals have their own variant.

[blue matt]

interesting stat released by the ONS from the week ending 12 March from England and Wales

There were 10,987 deaths from all causes registered in the week ending 12 March, Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show.

This is 511 deaths (4.4%) below the five-year average of deaths registered during this seven-day period between 2015 and 2019.

And it's the first time since the week ending 4 September that overall deaths have fallen below the five-year average.

[the other bob wilson]

Given that Germany were considered to be a paragon of virtue that country has declared a third lockdown, described as a third pandemic, by Merkel today. Perhaps we are not doing so badly going forward after all.

UK Covid figures v Germany (in brackets)

taken from here;-

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

deaths 126,284 (75,708)
cases per million 63,208 (32,023)
deaths per million 1,853 (902)

Things have got to change an awful lot before we can look upon Germany as being inferior to us when it comes to tackling the pandemic.

Maybe a reason why our death rate is more than double Germany's is that we had a policy whereby your chances of receiving intensive care treatment, or even being admitted to hospital decreased if you were over 60 and suffered from either hypertension or diabetes?

I've got that information from this book that I'm currently two thirds of the way through;-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Failures-St...s&pageNumber=2

As yet, the test and trace shambles and the cronyism charges have barely got a mention, but I've just finished a couple of heart wrenching chapters about how older patients were, essentially, left to die after being refused the ventilator treatment they would have received in pre pandemic times.

I should emphasise that the two journalists who wrote the book do not work for the Mirror or the Guardian, but for the Sunday Times and former Minister for exiting Europe, David Davis, is quoted on the subject of refusing treatment to the oldest patients as follows;-

It had "fatal consequences for thousands whose lives could have been rescued"

"The policy appears to have given the least care to those who needed it most. It is profoundly wrong that the government did not come clean to the public about this tragedy.".

[surge]

Boris Johnson says that there are many things he would have done differently in hindsight

'The single biggest false assumption we made was about the potential for asymptomatic transmission, and that did govern a lot of policy in the early days'

Sir Patrick Vallance says the one thing that would have made a difference early on would have been 'better data early on' so virus could be tracked

'We simply didn't have that data at the beginning'

https://twitter.com/Steven_Swinford/...09715401195532

Though as I put to the Health Secretary last summer, SAGE were warning about asymptomatic transmission at the outset of the pandemic. This argument has previously been used by the government to explain the high death toll in care homes, but it was discussed from early on.

https://twitter.com/PaulBrandITV/sta...10666157568007

Few things to think about that:

i) lack of data due to low testing capacity which is one area Germany had the advantage - cuts to capacity in UK over 10 years
ii) False impression being provided by the politicians
iii) Most deaths happened in winter when there was information - Sunak wanted to stop a lockdown.

[Rjk]

https://twitter.com/allthecitizens/s...127386114?s=19

been a while since one of these stories emerged.

days probably.

[goats]

UK Covid figures v Germany (in brackets)

taken from here;-

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

deaths 126,284 (75,708)
cases per million 63,208 (32,023)
deaths per million 1,853 (902)

Things have got to change an awful lot before we can look upon Germany as being inferior to us when it comes to tackling the pandemic.

Maybe a reason why our death rate is more than double Germany's is that we had a policy whereby your chances of receiving intensive care treatment, or even being admitted to hospital decreased if you were over 60 and suffered from either hypertension or diabetes?

I've got that information from this book that I'm currently two thirds of the way through;-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Failures-St...s&pageNumber=2

As yet, the test and trace shambles and the cronyism charges have barely got a mention, but I've just finished a couple of heart wrenching chapters about how older patients were, essentially, left to die after being refused the ventilator treatment they would have received in pre pandemic times.

I should emphasise that the two journalists who wrote the book do not work for the Mirror or the Guardian, but for the Sunday Times and former Minister for exiting Europe, David Davis, is quoted on the subject of refusing treatment to the oldest patients as follows;-

It had "fatal consequences for thousands whose lives could have been rescued"

"The policy appears to have given the least care to those who needed it most. It is profoundly wrong that the government did not come clean to the public about this tragedy.".

It will be interesting to see what happens there now the UK variant has taken hold. A strict lockdown decision now reversed a day later, looks like a mess with the vaccine rollout going to slow....

[Elwood Blues]

I see Dr Jenny Harries deputy chief medical officer who has often been on the government press conferences is to head the New UKHSA ( UK Health Security Agency) which take over from Public Health England next month.

This will also include taking over Track and Trace from Dido Harding