How concerned are you about Coronavirus?

[MalcolmR]

In our pubs, you have to have a mask if you are standing up and moving about, but not if you are sitting down. Apparently the virus only lives above 5' off the ground.

[mank]

Jun 7, 2021 8:27:19 GMT -5 MalcolmR said:

In our pubs, you have to have a mask if you are standing up and moving about, but not if you are sitting down. Apparently the virus only lives above 5' off the ground.

Okay, I literally laughed out loud at that! It goes to show the idiocy of a lot of this.

[graham]

Well I've just had my second jab, hopefully I won't feel knackered tomorrow, but I'm going to give the gym a miss anyway...

[MalcolmR]

Jun 7, 2021 11:32:29 GMT -5 mank said:

Jun 7, 2021 8:27:19 GMT -5 MalcolmR said:

In our pubs, you have to have a mask if you are standing up and moving about, but not if you are sitting down. Apparently the virus only lives above 5' off the ground.

Okay, I literally laughed out loud at that! It goes to show the idiocy of a lot of this.

Oh there was a lot more. It is a tradition that prayers are said in every church, every day, even if it was just by the priest on his own. They were banned from entering the churches, even on their own. BUT, you could hold a funeral with 30 people present or a wedding with only 15 people present but no Sunday services at all. I do hope the virus could tell the difference.

[mank]

Jun 7, 2021 12:05:23 GMT -5 MalcolmR said:

Jun 7, 2021 11:32:29 GMT -5 mank said:

Okay, I literally laughed out loud at that! It goes to show the idiocy of a lot of this.

Oh there was a lot more. It is a tradition that prayers are said in every church, every day, even if it was just by the priest on his own. They were banned from entering the churches, even on their own. BUT, you could hold a funeral with 30 people present or a wedding with only 15 people present but no Sunday services at all. I do hope the virus could tell the difference.

Malcolm, 

Same thing here. The one pub I was going to that still served at the bar had these plastic dividers that were on the bar but not between the bar stools. The dividers were in stands that could be moved anywhere to accommodate two, three or more people sitting at the bar together. The virus was so smart or dumb as the case might be, that it couldn't travel from bar stool to bar stool. It said to itself, wait, there is a divider on the bar there must also be an invisible barrier that I can't see between barstools. Every time I looked at those dividers I cracked up because they did absolutely nothing.

[Gimpy]

I've been in 4 states in the last week and mask use is mixed. At a rest area everyone would have a mask on and the next gas stop not a mask in sight. Most of the businesses in Manitou springs, CO didn't care one way or the other. Parks and outdoor areas of tourists was not a mask in sight.

[Stan]

For what it's worth, Colorado Springs is Colorado's version of the bible belt. I believe Focus on the Family is centered there.

Up in Boulder, you'd see >50% mask usage, with it still required in many businesses.

[mank]

WOO HOO! Today at work if you are fully vaccinated and voluntarily provide a copy of you Covid Vaccine Card you can take off your mask. I filled out the form and provided a copy of my vaccine card. I am not wearing a mask as I type this at work. Now, if there was a form for no pants that would be great.

[graham]

24 Hours on from my second Covid Jab (Oxford AZ) and, thankfully, very few side effects.

I can feel a tiny ache in my arm and, this afternoon I had to zonk out for a couple of hours, but apart from that I'm fine

[Jim]

I think it's safe to say the concern here is all but gone. Went to the race track last night. 10,000 people in attendance. Not a mask seen anywhere. Zero distancing as well.

Ran into my cousins today. She's still masked but her mother is at death's door.

[Gimpy]

Illinois went into stage 5 of the recovery plan that includes large gatherings are OK. Cubs ballgame was packed yesterday and church looked like my church this morning! Not a mask in sight!

[Juli]

The stores took down their signs last week, and the local supermarket is allowing us to bring reusable bags again. Some places still have sanitizer stations, and that may be a smart thing in general. There are a few people still wearing masks, I think one is immunocompromised. What amuses me is a few who hadn't worn masks before are wearing them now. I'm guessing they believe the theory that vaccinated people shed "particles" that can do whatever they find scary.

My bossy aunt has decided that we're having a family gathering for my Mom's birthday on the 29th, both for the birthday and to introduce her new granddaughter who was born last year.

[martycanuck]

Getting my 2nd Vax tomorrow afternoon. This time I am getting Pfizer.

Canada now leads the world in 1st doses administered (as a percentage of population).

[kellylorraine]

Jun 16, 2021 7:43:05 GMT -5 martycanuck said:

Getting my 2nd Vax tomorrow afternoon. This time I am getting Pfizer.

Canada now leads the world in 1st doses administered (as a percentage of population).

Mixed brands? That's interesting. I've not heard of that before now. Is AZ the newer mRNA method (like Pfizer's) or the more tried and true method (like J&J's version or the flu shot)?

[frodi]

In theory mixed brands/types should give better coverage. But at the moment the data (inlc safety data) is lacking.

[MalcolmR]

Jun 7, 2021 8:27:19 GMT -5 MalcolmR said:

In our pubs, you have to have a mask if you are standing up and moving about, but not if you are sitting down. Apparently the virus only lives above 5' off the ground.

It was pointed out in my paper this morning that in a pub you can take your mask off whilst sitting down but in Parliament, the MPs must wear them sitting down but take them off if they stand to speak.

This presumably is due to the effects of alcohol. There's more alcohol consumed in Parliament than any pub in the UK.

[martycanuck]

This little bash happened about 3 km from my house and I could hear the PA running from my back yard last night.

In the video Rhonda Mulcahy who is on our municipal Gov’t is my neighbour over our back fence. Not sure if the Apple News link works for everyone or not but first place I found a whole story.

apple.news/AQv7o8bhBS4GDz5bLG8cCzw

[Gimpy]

Republican leaders, such as De Santis, should be told that they have blood on their hands every time one of their Constituents who is not vaccinated dies from Covid.

[Jim]

Jul 20, 2021 11:29:14 GMT -5 Gimpy said:

Republican leaders, such as De Santis, should be told that they have blood on their hands every time one of their Constituents who is not vaccinated dies from Covid.

As long as it's not the blood of a fetus, they won't care.

[Gimpy]

[MalcolmR]

LA man who mocked Covid-19 vaccines dies of virus

[frodi]

The figures for Covid in Northern Ireland made me change my plans for the photorally. In previous years I would make a leisurely spin up north, across to Donegal and back via whatever points that I had missed in theses areas.
Despite being ahead with vaccinations their numbers are way too high for my liking. To my view this is because they opened up everything too soon for political reasons.
So this year I made three separate trips in and out in a day with as little contact as possible with locals. About a month ago I did the points west of the Bann and then a few weeks ago I did the points east of the Bann (around Belfast mostly).
Today I did the last two points up at the northern end near Ballymoney and Derry. I used the motorway to get up, boring but effective and then some back roads and minor roads to get back to the N2 in the republic which is about 2 hours from home.
I still have to do Donegal but I can get there using roads that mean I'm only in the North for 30 minutes max. It's a bit of a pity as the back roads in the north are usually of a decent standard making biking fun. But being self employed and having other risk factors means it is just not worth the risk.

[Gimpy]

[martycanuck]

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The article of course dates from the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic.

[martycanuck]

Malc and Graham, we’re hearing reports that whilst Omicron is surging over there, hosptialization is not following at the kind of pace that it did with other variants. Can you shed anymore info we’re not getting? The data is encouraging out of both South Africa and the UK.

[MalcolmR]

Hahahahaha! Do you honestly think that we get told the truth?

Seriously, we are hearing that it is quite a mild version, but our government never "lets a good panic go to waste". They are ramping it up like the hospitals are bursting at the seams. The truth is, they're not.

This is the site that I trust to see the real data. It shows, not just cases but deaths per million too. They are currently running at 10% of the last peak.

The number of cases reported is going off the scale in the UK. Why? Because the number of people being tested is going off the scale. We test more people more often than any other large country. On that site above, you can re-order the table by clicking on each column heading.

We have tested every man woman and child over 5 times. No other country of a similar or larger size comes anywhere near that. France is next at 2.7, the USA is 2.3. And of course, the more you test, the more you find. All those people who are walking around with no symptoms at all suddenly become cases.

And deaths are still being reported as "with Covid". So if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, and get tested as positive, I will be a Covid death.

Politicians want to be seen as powerful, they will not just stand around and say, "we'll see", they would rather look at the worst case scenario and issue edicts. There was a powerful piece in my newspaper yesterday, which suggested the statisticians were being told what outlook to put on their figures, to justify the actions the ministers wanted to take. Easy enough when you know how to manipulate data.

[frodi]

The issue isn't so much that the hospitals are jammed but more a case of the lack of capacity. Because of covid beds have to be kept further apart, there is more staff off sick and in isolation as well as beds taken up by covid patients.
In Ireland the amount of elective surgeries and treatments has fallen to just emergencies and nothing else. This extends past the public health system as the HSE is buying up capacity in the private hospitals to try and get urgent work done. Unlike earlier in the crisis the private hospitals are holding back capacity as they realised that this was also affecting their ability to "attract" customers if they had no capacity.
There is a crisis coming down the road as many cases are being presented much later in their prognosis resulting in worse outcomes. Many GPs are also still only doing mostly phone and Zoom consultations which ultimately means that they will miss things. They are also doing an awful lot of lucrative covid vaccinations leaving less time for regular work.
Within the health service many other professionals have been diverted to jobs away from their core role so things like PT and speech therapy have become almost nonexistent. Mental health services were already in a poor way but now they have been decimated.
In short an underfunded health service that was already stretched every winter has now been pushed past breaking point. Case in point, last week they had to turn down an offer of a kidney for a kidney transplant as no ICU bed was available for the receiving patient. Ireland at the start of this had only half the average number of ICU beds per head of the population compared to the rest of the EU, we haven't improved.

[graham]

Dec 21, 2021 17:42:16 GMT -5 frodi said:

The issue isn't so much that the hospitals are jammed but more a case of the lack of capacity.

Here the lack of capacity has been caused by a decade or more of (deliberate) government underfunding of hospitals and nurse training etc.

They're now saying that they're going to make sure there are "more beds", but the NHS keeps telling them that that will be utterly pointless if they don't have the trained staff to take care of the people in them.

It's the same nonsense as the Tories "Nightingale Hospital" (basicially converted exhibition centres etc) that were set up with a big fanfare, but never did anything useful because the actual hospitals would have had to cut staffing levels elsewhere to operate them

[frodi]

Dec 21, 2021 18:21:06 GMT -5 graham said:

Dec 21, 2021 17:42:16 GMT -5 frodi said:

The issue isn't so much that the hospitals are jammed but more a case of the lack of capacity.

Here the lack of capacity has been caused by a decade or more of (deliberate) government underfunding of hospitals and nurse training etc.

They're now saying that they're going to make sure there are "more beds", but the NHS keeps telling them that that will be utterly pointless if they don't have the trained staff to take care of the people in them.

I'll take your decade of under-funding and raise you to a century of under investment.  (Ireland is only 100 years old BTW)

As for staff levels you will find more Irish medical staff all around the world than in Ireland.  It's one of our best exports.  As soon as they qualify most Irish doctors, nurses etc head abroad.  For many reasons.  Lifestyle choice (80 hour weeks are still common for junior docs), more money (middle east esp) and better training opportunities (US and Australia) . 

Most of the nurses in Irish hospitals are from The Philippines and doctors are from India and Pakistan. What few training place for consultant positions are prioritised for Irish and then European graduates then all others.  So that many of them are giving Ireland a miss for other locations.

[graham]

Dec 22, 2021 17:56:44 GMT -5 frodi said:

Most of the nurses in Irish hospitals are from The Philippines and doctors are from India and Pakistan.

And so were a lot of nurses in UK Hospitals.

Then the Tories come up with this sort of bullshit:

Dido Harding (who'd already squandered £37 BILLION of public money on a failed Test and Trace system) wanted to take over the running of the NHS and her pitch for the job includes a pledge to stop relying on overseas-born doctors and nurses and train British-born replacements instead.