Not a massive fan of Christmas, best parts are going out until late and getting drunk on Christmas Eve, going out for a few hours on Christmas Day, then going to Elland Road on Boxing Day. No matter how well everyone behaves them things will not be revived, so from my viewpoint at least you can do as you please
Thanks bud i knew i could rely on you. Can't bloody wait till we can have that promotion get together.
My gripe about the new lock down and picking one sector, non essential shops.... Independent shops have spent money on making themselves “Covid Safe”. They lost out on 4 months trade and are lucky to be still in business. They were hoping to have a decent November with people looking for Christmas presents and Black Friday deals. Many might have been lucky to have had 50 customers a day through the door. They have to shut for a month whilst places like Amazon remain open. People (if they have any money for presents) will now buy from the likes of Amazon, they’ll also pick up cards, gift wrap, DVDs, Games you name it from the likes of Asda, Tesco and Morrison’s. I’m not arguing if a lock down is right or wrong, I’m complaining how it kills small retailers whilst giving the big companies a free run at the busiest time of the year. You’ve more chance of catching Covid in the Amazon warehouse than a local small gift shop. *End Gripe***
So if control is based on the population of a city then Birmingham (1.1 million) 2nd largest UK city and any that are smaller, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds etc must be virus free. Because all these Australian cities are bigger than Birmingham in population and had no local transmission yesterday Sydney - 5.26 million Melbourne - 5 million Brisbane - 2.25 million Perth - 2.0 million Adelaide - 1.3 million I'll give you that Australia is big but an awful lot doesn't have a lot of people.
Why do you think Australia kept the numbers so low? Maybe the rest of the world can learn from what they did right. It's not a trick question. If we can follow a model that works so well then maybe we can move past this virus? Are the residents of Australian cities packed in like they are in the UK cities you mention? I ask because we have inner city areas where there could be 10 people living in a small house. I've never been but from what I've seen each property has a bit of space around it.
Forget the 'racial' aspect of his post, but following on from what Blono has jst posted, has anyone any knowledge of figures regarding the ethnicity of patients? After all, we know that some communities do live several generations in the same dwelling, this can lead to rapid spread of any disease, Covid or other. As Blono says, Australians are not quite as packed in as some other countries' cities may be, non-the-less, we still have some of the same ethnic groups that UK has an who live within the same social structure. Are they any more prone to infection? I don't know.
I'm not 100% sure why our numbers have stayed low. I think No10 was the most important 1. We stopped people coming here very early on, the borders are still essentially closed, except to Kiwis 2. Anybody who comes back has to spend 2 weeks in quarantine 3. We restricted travel between states 4. At the height of the pandemic we restricted travel within states, Melbournians have only recently been able to move more than 5km from their home 5. We have high levels of testing and strict quarantining for those tested, their immediate contacts and the contacts of these immediate contacts 6. If you are a contact then you are in 14 days isolation regardless of positive or negative testing 7. After restrictions we re-opened cautiously 8. In Melbourne there was a curfew. No not just that the pubs closed early, you weren't allowed out 9. There is an excellent track and trace system that identifies all contacts etc 10. On the whole we stuck to the rules and followed medical/ scientific advice We aren't the only ones that have managed to get it in check. As for social housing, yes we have tower blocks too but not victorian housing terraces
We never really had a lock down, I’d guess that 50% of the population here was still working. We announced essential shops and services could remain open. Every plumber, roofer and electrician felt they were essential, the garages, tyre fitters, pound shops (as they sold some food), hardware shops, big warehouses like Amazon all remained open. It created a divide as people started to feel hard done by, if they’re allowed to open why can't I attitude. Then we had the BLM protests, mass gatherings allowed to take place and again we started asking why is that okay but I can’t have 15 people at my wedding. This next lockdown we’re going to have is just a waste of time, warehouses open, supply chains open, schools open, garages open, supermarkets open, hardware stores open, pound shops open, takeaways open, the only thing closed is hospitality, beauty and hair and independent shops.
If the government can tell us who has tested positive they must be able to tell us where the virus is spreading most frequently. I think they don't because they don't trust us with the real information. They must also have some very important information about those in hospital with coronavirus: Were they admitted with it or did they catch it there? It's very important because, as happened to someone I know, they were admitted due to problems with diabetes and caught the virus there. How many of those are in icu? What is the average age of those in icu? Truth rather than constant fear mongering would be helpful.
I'm no expert about pandemics but even I would say the new lockdown in the UK isn't going to stop it. It might reduce the numbers temporarily but come the 2nd Dec if the country reopens the issues will remain. We had protests here as well, but the general view was that those protestors were doing the wrong thing not, "Well I'll have some of that"
I think international visitors was a huge problem. The virus was widespread in Italy and Spain very early on and because we are so close to Europe, and have pretty much, open borders it was tough to stop travel between us and mainland Europe. We have also had hundreds of illegal immigrants land since March. I think locking our borders was much more challenging. We locked down the country at the same time the Aussies did from what I can see.
Most of our cases came from Europe in the first wave, and the same again now, most UK infections are a Spanish variation, come about from millions going on late holidays.
Boris may have got things a bit wrong But did he organise illegal raves? Did he tell everyone to fill the beaches in the summer? Did he invite your mates to your garden for a BBQ? Did he tell thousands of people to protest for weeks about an incident in the US? Did he tell all the pub goers to congregate outside in big groups or fight after they close? Did he instruct Billy Ten-Men not to wear a mask and tell everyone to piss off if he was challenged? It's funny how people are quick to blame one person for this mess, and not the minority who did any of the above mentioned.
What a lot of the ravers etc don’t understand is that there is a bill to pay for all this and it will them who will be picking up the tab providing of course they even have a job
