Covid-19 discussion thread

[MyNameIsTerry]

I reckon Sajid the Sage will throw his beanie in the ring if BoJo is ousted. Very quick to state that he did the right thing throughout the lockdowns and didn't bend any rules. No doubt the tabloid journos are burning the midnight oil trying to unearth evidence to the contrary.

He's always been after it.

No doubt the Dancing Gove will throw his hat in too.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Sounds fair to me

They brought it on themselves by pissing the public off. The likes of the idiot, Steve Bray, just a nuisance.

Make the police do something or XR type protests might lead to violence.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Yes, I am wondering if there's currently some kind of agenda right now?

In fact, I don't even feel as if I trust the this week's ONS stats either.

Sorry for sounding so pessimistic but I'm just on a real downer right now, what with all this relentless hypocrisy in general, which now seems so entrenched within society pretty much the world over.

Testing is down. Cases up. Time will tell.

If you look at local patterns you'll see there have been loads of instances of a couple of days of increases then further drops then slight spikes again. However trend continued downward or flattened out at times.

Scientists said trend would not be as clearly up or down as in previous waves. This can be due to higher baseline levels. It would be worrying if that were the case at these levels.

Basically unless you have access to all the data, you can't determine where isolated factors might impact the whole yet aren't a big concern.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Yes maybe I'm being a little extreme saying 'sack the lot of them', it's just a touchy subject for me. It's not just the work thing, having a funeral and a cremation during the last lockdown was incredibly hard.

I just really feel that it's time politicians should be made accountable for their actions. I guess in an ideal world they would be, but at 54, I guess I should know by now that that isn't going to happen. I'll put my Che Guevara t-shirt and beret back in the drawer.

I'm not sure you are, of course sacking them, unlike any company we mortals work in, just means loss of ministerial pay and a fat MPs salary keeps their noses well fed in that trough we call the Commons.

If I was you I would be very angry at them. I'm sure you are one of many. This whole "it was a work event" BS spun by both parties will only annoy people more. Sometimes it's best to own up to being an idiot and you may get some understanding. But they double down, keep digging and just remind us of the toads they are.

I lost an aunt last year. Elderly with advanced dementia. She went in due to non Covid reasons, similiar symptoms so they weren't taking the risk, she improved and shortly before discharge one week later she passed. No one was allowed to see her. Luckily one grand daughter is a paramedic so was able to bypass those rules otherwise her last week would have been strangers.

If so many are going through an injustice like that then some corporate types can do without some jollies.

[pulisa]

I'm very sorry to hear about your aunt, Terry and how sad it is that so many very elderly people were forced to spend their last days in isolation and away from the comfort of family support.

As for politicians...I think this whole pandemic has illustrated just what a corrupt bunch they are. Covid's suddenly morphed into "something like flu" to suit the political agenda and deflect away from the Partygate detritus. It's farcical.

[Lencoboy]

Testing is down. Cases up. Time will tell.

If you look at local patterns you'll see there have been loads of instances of a couple of days of increases then further drops then slight spikes again. However trend continued downward or flattened out at times.

Scientists said trend would not be as clearly up or down as in previous waves. This can be due to higher baseline levels. It would be worrying if that were the case at these levels.

Basically unless you have access to all the data, you can't determine where isolated factors might impact the whole yet aren't a big concern.

Looking at the dashboard map, every ward in my borough is on a downward trend (as of 14th Jan), so is every ward in Burton.

Whilst Tamworth and Burton are still in dark purple territory, there only nationally seems to be a tiny amount of areas still in black territory.

Some parts of Wales are now already in blue territory, so the upturn in 'cases by date reported' since Monday could still be just a blip.

Meanwhile, UK-wide hospital admissions and persons in hospital now look like they're starting to fall.

And deaths, while they've edged up over the past couple of weeks, they're still well down on what they were this time last year.

[Lencoboy]

I wonder if the cases are rising again because a load of LFTs have now become available? With mask restrictions being lifted they'll rise even more. Still, the figures will plummet when LFTs become chargeable.

I was also wondering this last night, especially after watching (dare I say it) Dr JC's latest video where he mentioned that there had been a bit of a shortage of LFT kits and more have now finally become available.

So perhaps the recent decline in UK-wide daily case numbers could partly have been artificial due to 'missed' cases due the the LFT kit shortage then?

Also the daily testing stats on the dashboard site had been declining over the past week or two but have started edging upwards again over the past couple of days.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I was also wondering this last night, especially after watching (dare I say it) Dr JC's latest video where he mentioned that there had been a bit of a shortage of LFT kits and more have now finally become available.

So perhaps the recent decline in UK-wide daily case numbers could partly have been artificial due to 'missed' cases due the the LFT kit shortage then?

Also the daily testing stats on the dashboard site had been declining over the past week or two but have started edging upwards again over the past couple of days.

If the dates match that would tally. The previous reduction was partially artificial. What do ZOE numbers say since they don't rely on testing? If they don't, and also show a similiar reduction, then it's not the reason.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I'm very sorry to hear about your aunt, Terry and how sad it is that so many very elderly people were forced to spend their last days in isolation and away from the comfort of family support.

As for politicians...I think this whole pandemic has illustrated just what a corrupt bunch they are. Covid's suddenly morphed into "something like flu" to suit the political agenda and deflect away from the Partygate detritus. It's farcical.

Thanks pulisa It was very hard on her sister who spent everyday with her. I've always questioned this element of infection control but early on I guess they didn't understand it enough.

I think there is a campaign to have an inquest into this aspect of lockdown measures. I'm seem to recall a petition about it.

I'm not sure I've ever viewed politicians any other way. I don't recall a year with some form of scandal. Who watches the watchman? The watchman's mate...

[pulisa]

There's so much hype about how young people have been so badly affected mentally by the pandemic but in my opinion the toll on the elderly and clinically vulnerable has been far far worse and should not be just accepted and swept under the carpet. It must be an ongoing nightmare for you, Terry with the strain of keeping your parents safe. I hope you are ok but it must be gruelling for you..