Covid-19 discussion thread

[phil06]

Phil, just remember we all need to take nearly everything the Daily Fail says with a pinch of salt.

I also think you're being a bit premature in writing off 2021 as a whole, as we're still not even 6 months into the year.

Well we have to see how it goes. I must admit I am worried this will delay things but hope I am wrong. As I say cases are not rising so not sure why they need to delay.

[Lencoboy]

The roadmap hasn’t changed, they’re going ahead with it as planned. They are bringing second vaccine doses forward for over 50’s and performing surge testing in affected areas.

Cases of the Indian variant have tripled in a week so they have to jump on the flames to stop it spreading. One area I think the Government have actually performed well in is detecting and halting newer variants. Think of the hubbub over the Brazil and South African variants only a few weeks back, they’ve completely disappeared from the radar.

It’s really not all doom and gloom, in fact a more positive way of looking at it is that in the last 4 or 5 months we’ve shown a real ability to start fighting back against this virus. This is simply another battle in a really horrible war.

You're right, it's not all doom and gloom, Gary.

Surely if this Indian variant was considered a potential 'Armageddon' situation, the national Covid threat level probably wouldn't have been downgraded from 4 to 3 this week, plus the govt would have put off giving this Monday's easements the go-ahead.

So far there have only been 4 'official' culminative deaths attributed to the Indian variant in the whole of the UK, and it's most likely that they were unvaccinated persons.

You're also correct that the SA and Brazilian variants don't currently seem to be the big deal they still were a few weeks back.

[phil06]

Six patients in hospital had the vaccine got the Indian variant seemingly that’s why Glasgow kept in lockdown. Source Daily record

[pulisa]

Six patients in hospital had the vaccine got the Indian variant seemingly that’s why Glasgow kept in lockdown. Source Daily record

Of course the media will love this.

It's a big test for the vaccines but it's still a waiting game. I'd rather be vaccinated than take my chances and trust my immune system.

[Phill2]

502 cases according to Boris on tonights news down here.

[Lencoboy]

Of course the media will love this.

It's a big test for the vaccines but it's still a waiting game. I'd rather be vaccinated than take my chances and trust my immune system.

There will probably always be the odd cases that slip through the net, though it's not right to jump to conclusions about just 6 cases in one UK city, in this case, Glasgow.

Hardly the 'be all and end all', nor representative of the entire population.

But you're right, the media will as per usual, revel in these scare stories and blow things out of proportion, almost always in pursuit of profit!

[Lencoboy]

Only 31 remaining grey squares on the UK's vaccination chart in the dashboard site, so looks like the jabs are starting to gather pace once again now, especially in places like Bolton.

Surprisingly, cases in England are down again today, both on yesterday and last Saturday. They are up in Scotland (in the 400s range) partly due to missed cases from yesterday. NI's stats have been delayed for some reason today whilst Wales don't publish their stats on Saturdays of late anyway.

Only 7 deaths reported today (all in England), which is quite encouraging in spite of the current hysteria over the Indian variant.

[phil06]

Only 31 remaining grey squares on the UK's vaccination chart in the dashboard site, so looks like the jabs are starting to gather pace once again now, especially in places like Bolton.

Surprisingly, cases in England are down again today, both on yesterday and last Saturday. They are up in Scotland (in the 400s range) partly due to missed cases from yesterday. NI's stats have been delayed for some reason today whilst Wales don't publish their stats on Saturdays of late anyway.

Only 7 deaths reported today (all in England), which is quite encouraging in spite of the current hysteria over the Indian variant.

Do you think it won’t come to much? They said it will become the dominant strain but surely another would replace that eventually? If cases don’t rise surely no reason to delay lockdown easing?

[AntsyVee]

Meanwhile in the U.S....

Vaccines have been approved for 12-16 years. We're trying to get all of the kids at my school vaccinated now.

However, while India has thousands dying everyday, and needs vaccines, we're still begging adults in some states to get vaccinated :/ It's hard to stomach sometimes.

[Pamplemousse]

Do you think it won’t come to much? They said it will become the dominant strain but surely another would replace that eventually? If cases don’t rise surely no reason to delay lockdown easing?

Errr... what lockdown? I see no lockdown? There's 21,000 people at Wembley today.

Cases are rising, though: deaths however, continue to fall. We need to see if that disconnect holds. It's a virus: it knows nothing other than to replicate and to do that it must evolve and it will continue to do so forever unless humanity decides to eradicate it, which I think it is too late for.