Covid-19 Virus

Quite.

We went veggie a while back too, but unfortunately my wife is one of a small percentage of people who doesn't do well on a non-meat diet (it's somewhat genetically common in Native Americans). So we're mostly-veggie (and I always go with veggie options when eating without her).

One thing I think a lot of the environmental groups do wrong is the framing of their messaging. They need to stop the "save the planet" stuff. Too many people don't care about that. They need to make it more visceral and closer to home: "save your grandchildren".

 

Totally agree. It's not about saving the planet. The planet Earth will be fine without us. We need to save the human species.

 

I think any reduction in meat eating is great and will make a huge difference. The world doesn’t need to go meat free (although it would be great) but just cutting back a bit would be hugely significant. You’re doing more than your bit and if everyone ate as your wife does we’d be fine.

No doubt you’ve watched all the same documentaries as me, but I think it takes something like 32x the amount of soya to produce the same amount of calories from a cow. So when you factor in the amount of rainforest (if in Brazil for example) destroyed to make way for the cow and all its food, plus all the water it needs during its average 2.5 year life and all the methane produced, its madness. With all the burgeoning demand from places like China it’s just not sustainable.

Might seem an odd thing to say as we’re in the middle of a pandemic, but we’re all very lucky to be living now and not 100-200 years down the line, unless of course we make some drastic changes.

 

We should look to view Earth as a living being and humans at this moment in time
are a virus living on it . Earth will rid itself of the virus and regenerate itself if we carry
on with this spend\consume\destroy way of life .
Also, and I don't mean to be a doom merchant, but we are overdue a bunch of natural
disasters , Tokyo earthquake , Canary Islands , being hit by something from outer space
etc etc.

 

Totally agree.

Oil is in the ground for a reason . When it is gone . It is gone . At least for
many , many millennium. It could be that we are destroying\consuming something
that is vital for the Earth's well being?.

 

Report your neighbours! It's your moral duty fellow citizen. Inform the authorities and they'll be sure to come down gently on you and your family in return for your earlier loyal obedience.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54142699

 

I can’t get my head around the restrictions and so I just take potshots at anyone approaching the house with my Dad’s old shotgun.

Let no one say I never did my bit.

 

Presumably Jacob Rees Mogg will have to ask nanny to stop popping round.

 

Bitty!

 

Make sure you don't accumulate more than 6 corpses on your driveway or I'll be straight on the grass line.

5 is fine by the way.

 

Ben Kentish LBC
@BenKentish

EXCL: There are currently no tests at all available in ANY of the top 10 Covid-19 hotspots in England, LBC can reveal. No walk-in, drive-through or home tests available for people in Bolton, Salford, Bradford, Blackburn, Oldham, Preston, Pendle, Rochdale, Tameside or Manchester.

 

Rule of 6 unless you are shooting defenseless animals for fun:
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/en...ing-exemption_uk_5f5f4ad0c5b6b4850803110f?ggg

 

It’s grim up north.

 

I'm confused by this rule of six, I'm sure prior to today you could only book tables of 6 at pubs and restaurants with a maximum of 2 households (not that anyone enforced that) - but now you can meet 6 people from different households?

 

Almost 800 schools with confirmed cases in the UK, and they've only been back a week or two. Think the unions have been proven right in wanting an effective track and trace system in place before children to return. Inexplicable they were allowed to return with no social distancing, and staff being told they aren't allowed to wear masks/visors in many cases.

https://twitter.com/ToryFibs/status/1305499877187694593

 

Depends how they're defining 'school' but Google reckons there are over 32,000 in the UK. So under 3% have cases. That doesn't seem particularly out of control to me.

 

Also of those 800 it doesn't say how many cases, they may have one or two each. I also don't believe that staff are being told they can't wear masks in all cases, my son's maths teacher is isolating currently but is doing the lesson from home to the classroom.

 

Now up to 868. Considering that children tend to be asymptomatic, the fact that schools have been back for 2 weeks or less, and that there are many cases of people being unable to get tested, I would imagine the true number is much higher, and will be rising rapidly.

Not in all cases, no. The government have given headteachers discretion with regards to face coverings. From what I hear, most common ruling from headteachers is masks when greeting parents, and during staff meetings, but not in classrooms. Some have said no face coverings full stop, and some are enforcing them during indoor learning.

Good to hear that your son's school have put that in place to allow the teacher to isolate. Some schools have definitely been more proactive than others when it comes to home learning and preparing for further school closures.

 

I'll set aside concerns about the source's motives for a second and assume their number is correct. And lets say you're right and the number is much higher and rising rapidly.

But...so what? The harm done to young people through denial of education, missed socialising with those of the same age and, for a significant minority, prolonged exposure to risky home environments - as well as the knock on impact for the economy as a result of parents (disproportionately women in reality) being unable to work - is much greater than Covid. We always knew increasing activity would lead to increased cases as lockdown relaxed. But unless it translates into deaths or ICU admissions at the same rate it did in March/April we just need to get on with things.

 

A local school has just sent home all year 11's as one has tested positive for the virus. My opinion is that this is f***ing bonkers. Year 11 FFS.

Otherwise what @UEA_Hornet said above is spot on.

 

I believe the source I quoted is working with a parents group who are just using newspaper reports, school websites etc.

I think we agree that kids should be back in school. I've seen first hand what the first lockdown has done to their mental health and social skills. It's essential that they are socialising and learning. The main concern I have, as I mentioned in my first post, is the lack of an effective track and trace system, and now what seems to be a collapsing testing system.

I believe the impact of a second wave, mixed with the NHS being more stretched due to the winter, is cause for major concern. Hospital admissions are starting to rise again and so will deaths, as we're seeing in France and Spain. France have introduced a scheme to pay 84% of wages to parents who need to stay at home in the event of school closures.

 

Lots of parents with kids being sent home with coughs etc, not allowed to bring their children back to school without a negative test result. No tests available, or nearest testing centre 150 miles away! Schools needed to return, but had to be backed up by an effective, robust and speedy testing system in place, and track and trace up and running to full efficiency.

This kind of issue will get more and more ridiculous as we go into the winter months where every other child has a cough or symptoms of some sort.

 

So if most children are as you say asymptomatic, why are they being tested at all? No one should be going to get a test if they don’t have any symptoms surely given the state of the testing centres procedure?
And also the WHO said asymptomatic people don’t pass on the virus although there have been cases that were reported to have?


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It’s not an open and shut case, it’s a fine balancing act. Without question children will suffer if they miss school and at the moment the balance is well in favour of them being in.

On other hand, if we don’t manage outbreaks well and cautiously, the mental health of kids with vulnerable parents and grandparents will suffer as they become hospitalised and die via transmission from their own family. Too much of this and on top of those personal tragedies we face greater restrictions, further economic damage.

 

Sorry if I was unclear. What I mean was if there are 800+ cases of school staff/children tested positive, there are potentially many schools with individuals carrying the virus but as they are asymptomatic, they wouldn't be adding to the total until passed on to someone who subsequently shows symptoms and tests positive.

This was from the WHO a little while back: “The WHO created confusion yesterday when it reported that asymptomatic patients rarely spread the disease,” an email from the Harvard Global Health Institute said Tuesday. “All of the best evidence suggests that people without symptoms can and do readily spread SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/09...onfusion yesterday,virus that causes Covid-19.

 

Wasn’t trying to get at you was just saying that it’s so messed up with conflicting information everywhere that how the f**k are we joe public supposed to know how to do what’s best for our kids!!


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100% agree. So much misinformation and conflicting information put out by newspapers, TV and the government itself that it's no wonder people aren't sure what to believe. Some parents I've spoken to still thought that kids physically can't catch Covid, because of rumours about that a few months ago.

 

Wow, that’s what gets me? How can a highly contagious deathly disease choose who to infect or who not to? It kills humans period! The weaker humans get struck down easier so need protecting!


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My antibody test kit arrived today, just about to do it:

 

The collapse in the testing system is definitely a concern. It seemed to be going surprisingly well only 2-3 weeks ago so something has clearly gone awry.

I'm not sure I agree with the French solution. In essence it means their kids get all the detriment caused by missing out on their education now and have to pay the bill for it over the next few decades too.

 

I agree the mental health argument you make is certainly a factor to consider, but not that large a factor.

First, we need to be mature enough to move away from any idea that a person may be to blame for infecting another person with Covid - certainly in the case where the infected person has not had a positive test anyway. It's a naturally occurring virus. Our children need not be traumatised by that nightmarish blame game. And there's far too much of that narrative doing the rounds in adult society too I'd say.

And then second if you're tallying up the impact on 100% of children of postponing their education against a much, much smaller percentage who would suffer the ill effects you describe, I think I'd say that's still a fair trade. I admit it's something of a zero sum game.

 

Yep, and the messaging has changed over the last few weeks from "if in doubt, get a test" to "young people are getting tested when they don't need to and it's ruining everything". I certainly wouldn't be voluntarily getting tested unless I had symptoms or it was required, it's not a nice experience.

True, could be a short term solution to a long term problem. I don't personally have the answer but I think a short term furlough-type scheme in the event of local lockdowns may be better economically and morally than the potential of missed mortgage payments etc.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-54158100

Testing centre closed for lorry holding park.

 

I did the antibody test for Imperial College, as I suspected I have not have the virus.