Corona Virus main thread

[ricardo 7,385]

National

2524 - 33

Local

Unavailable at this time

[Surfer 1,547]

22 hours ago, Rock The Boat said:

That's one half of the story. The other half has played up the risk of the virus, encouraged mask-wearing and advocated for getting vaccinated. In other words there has been a healthy and vigorous debate both in the US and the UK, and that's just the way it should be. Even on our own Pinkun message board these threads have carried both sides of the argument and in an open and tolerant society I can't see anything wrong with that  

Isn't that what I said in my original post - 

Meanwhile, your politics (and news media preferences) could get you killed.... quite literally. 

[ricardo 7,385]

National

2396 - 22

Local

 

[Herman 9,760]

Clucking bell, this is grim, sorry.

 

[Van wink 2,994]

27 minutes ago, Herman said:

Clucking bell, this is grim, sorry.

 

Gets out of control so quickly, tragic.

[Indy 3,298]

45 minutes ago, Herman said:

Clucking bell, this is grim, sorry.

 

Didn’t they just have a massive religious festival where everyone took little or no precautions about Covid? Really massive increase though.

[Herman 9,760]

Aye, the Kumbh Mela. Millions of people converging at one festival that makes Glastonbury look like a vicar's tea party. Even someone like Modi could not have stopped it going ahead.

[Tetteys Jig 830]

seems the big uptick in their R number happened prior to the festival so wouldn't be the reason but sure it probably didn't help.

It's a bit like the people falsely stating Christmas caused our recent devastating spike. Sure it won't have helped but a) the uptick in R was way sooner and b) the areas that had most spread were locked down in tier 4+ for Christmas anyway so by that logic perhaps banning Christmas contributed to the spread (yes I know it didn't but just making a point of correlation not equalling causation).

Ours was simply that b117 variant that started in the south east getting a foothold. Compare the case waves from the south east and the north and you'll see us up here really had 3 waves compared to 2 in the south, which had largely remained unaffected by the autumn surge.

I suspect the same is happening in India simply because of the more contagious variant rather than anything else in particular.

Edited April 21, 2021 by Tetteys Jig

[Surfer 1,547]

That and another right wing government in denial that there is a problem - see also Brazil and until recently US, and maybe UK to a degree.

[Barbe bleu 824]

8 hours ago, Surfer said:

That and another right wing government in denial that there is a problem - see also Brazil and until recently US, and maybe UK to a degree.

You might have to explain this one.

Most people googling India coronavirus measures will find stories of long hard lockdowns and vaccine export bans.  Denial of the problem is about the last thing I think the modi government can be accused of.

 

 

Edited April 22, 2021 by Barbe bleu

[ricardo 7,385]

National

2729 - 18

Local

We are at the more people falling down stairs stage now.

[ricardo 7,385]

15 hours ago, Surfer said:

That and another right wing government in denial that there is a problem - see also Brazil and until recently US, and maybe UK to a degree.

A problem they don't have in N.Korea, Russia, Venezuela etc etc.

much easier to fiddle the numbers.😉

[horsefly 4,300]

https://goodlawproject.org/news/ppe-urgent-hearing/

Explosive emails revealed in a hearing on our legal challenge over direct awards of PPE contracts show civil servants raising the alarm that they were “drowning in VIP requests” from political connections that do not have “the correct certification or pass due diligence”.

One email shows a civil servant warning that when VIPs “jump to the front of the queue it then has a knock on effect to the remaining offers of help.”

For ordinary people the pandemic was a tragedy. But for well-connected VIPs it was the chance of a lifetime – huge fortunes were up for grabs. What this civil servant is saying is that it became more of a tragedy because so many VIPs – overwhelmingly introduced by Ministers – were interfering with civil servants’ ability to purchase the PPE needed by healthcare workers on the frontline.

Remember Ayanda, the company linked to Liz Truss, fast-tracked through the VIP Lane – who supplied £155m worth of unusable face masks to the NHS frontline? This email shows Ayanda threatening to escalate their bid to ministerial level and another includes a civil servant warning of the Ayanda deal “the bar seems to have been lowered on this one.”

This is the cost of cronyism – good administration suffers, efficient buying of PPE suffers.

Government has been doing everything it can to keep a lid on the names of VIP contacts and those responsible for putting them in the VIP lane. We went to Court today, along with our co-claimants EveryDoctor, to try and force them to disclose this information.

So far, Government has provided partial and incoherent evidence, heavily redacted. And key items are missing from the evidence we’ve received – in particular no Whatsapp messages, text messages, file notes or submissions to ministers are included. If ministers were pushing civil servants to prioritise PPE contracts to politically connected suppliers, then this information is highly relevant to the case.

The Judge agreed that the identity of an individual can be relevant and should be publicly available if they were involved in the procurement or had a significant role to play in decision-making, in particular on companies referred to the VIP Lane. But has said we will need to ask for specific disclosure of details on specific documents.

We’ll be back in Court next week with that application. The fight for truth and transparency continues.

You can read our skeleton argument and the evidence disclosed in Court today in full.

[ricardo 7,385]

National

2678 - 40

Local

Almost nothing locally now.

With the U.K. vulnerable now almost fully vax'd the number of excess deaths has gone negative. Unless there's a new dangerous variant or vax immunity proves short lived then the pandemic is essentially over in this country. The rest of Europe is between six to twelve weeks behind. Until the rest of the world catches up I expect restrictions will remain in place for the forseeable future.

Edited April 23, 2021 by ricardo

[Herman 9,760]

Any of you guys under 45 do check if you can get the vax. A guy at work got his booked in for tomorrow. It could simply have been due to excess supply but worth a try if you want to have it.

[Essjayess 307]

The UK vaccination program has been tremendous and continues apace despite quite a few  warnings in the past couple months about vax shortages...heck, even  1st dose numbers  continue to rise by around 100k a day despite the 2nd dose now being the main centre of action. I wait each day to see any evidence of a definite rise in new case  numbers due to the lockdown easing  and / or the new Indian variant but right now the opposite is happening...still a slow decrease despite  the UK  now being at low numbers  catching Covid.

Globally thou Covid is still increasing  even after more than a year...yesterday 892k new cases reported...another  new record...due mainly to the huge  numbers from India...but of note to that in the past few weeks quite a few Asian nations have  seen either new daily highs or just a steady increase day on day of new cases. Has to be said to..after more than a year so many third world nations are still really only testing for Covid in small amounts so in those nations the  number of affected  with Covid  being missed  has  run into millions...no doubting that.

[Well b back 3,203]

Later tonight or tomorrow afternoon will see the billionth vaccine given. 
 

[Rock The Boat 1,330]

3 hours ago, Essjayess said:

The UK vaccination program has been tremendous and continues apace despite quite a few  warnings in the past couple months about vax shortages...heck, even  1st dose numbers  continue to rise by around 100k a day despite the 2nd dose now being the main centre of action. I wait each day to see any evidence of a definite rise in new case  numbers due to the lockdown easing  and / or the new Indian variant but right now the opposite is happening...still a slow decrease despite  the UK  now being at low numbers  catching Covid.

Globally thou Covid is still increasing  even after more than a year...yesterday 892k new cases reported...another  new record...due mainly to the huge  numbers from India...but of note to that in the past few weeks quite a few Asian nations have  seen either new daily highs or just a steady increase day on day of new cases. Has to be said to..after more than a year so many third world nations are still really only testing for Covid in small amounts so in those nations the  number of affected  with Covid  being missed  has  run into millions...no doubting that.

It's great to see infections going down even though schools are back. I'm often critical of public services but let's give the teachers some praise for implementing effective measures while trying to recover some semblance of order to the curriculum after this massive upheaval. A job well done.

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

13 hours ago, Rock The Boat said:

It's great to see infections going down even though schools are back. I'm often critical of public services but let's give the teachers some praise for implementing effective measures while trying to recover some semblance of order to the curriculum after this massive upheaval. A job well done.

Yes, well done the teaching profession.

The question is, how long do we keep the protocols? There is a Middle School near me and it is chaotic how the pupils, their parent(s) and supervising Teachers, manage arrivals and departures.

Is this going to be the norm, even after June?

[Van wink 2,994]

under 1000 👍

[ricardo 7,385]

National

2061 - 32

Local

[Well b back 3,203]

The billionth dose was given in the last 24 hours.

71% of all doses were given by US, China, India and EU combined.

[Barbe bleu 824]

1 hour ago, Well b back said:

The billionth dose was given in the last 24 hours.

71% of all doses were given by US, China, India and EU combined.

Those four probably make up 71% of the world's population.

[Well b back 3,203]

12 minutes ago, Barbe bleu said:

Those four probably make up 71% of the world's population.

Nowhere near, but they do manufacture most of the worlds vaccine.

[Well b back 3,203]

This maybe a silly question but why are certain parts of the world not flying oxygen into India, last I heard China had offered, but heard no more.

[Herman 9,760]

8 hours ago, Well b back said:

This maybe a silly question but why are certain parts of the world not flying oxygen into India, last I heard China had offered, but heard no more.

A couple of links in here. Them Germans and French helping out.

 

[Barbe bleu 824]

12 hours ago, Well b back said:

This maybe a silly question but why are certain parts of the world not flying oxygen into India, last I heard China had offered, but heard no more.

Obviously I cannot say for sure but I imagine that the issue is distribution and not supply.  There would be no point flying supply in and having  it sit at an airport, in fact it might actually complicate things.

[ricardo 7,385]

National

1712 - 11

Local

No positives, no deaths, no admissions

Over 600k vax's reported

[Van wink 2,994]

30 minutes ago, ricardo said:

National

1712 - 11

Local

No positives, no deaths, no admissions

Over 600k vax's reported

Fantastic effort, great to see some fans at Wembley today.

[Herman 9,760]

It's a good start.👍