Off Topic Corona virus - non football

Yeah someone said today that if this had happened twenty years ago we'd all have been a lot more isolated, which I thought was a good point. It's bad enough as it is but we are lucky to have all these ways to stay in touch.

 

UK government has decided to try to keep us safe during this unprecedented pandemic.

Fixed for you, marra

 

Any idea of a start date

 

We're on a double edged sword here, totally isolated which is good and bad in equal measure.

We could travel to the UK but flying with 200 strangers, passing through airports then hugging loved ones isn't an option.

Plus we'd have to quarantine when we arrived so couldn't realistically see everyone.

It would come down to a choice between seeing people from either mine or Mrs Smug's family.

Best to let Skype take the strain for the moment I reckon

 

After Brexit on 1st Jan, will the French vaccinate you and yours, will you have to come back to the UK for it. Similarly for all ex-pats in Spain etc

 

I'm just trying to find out.

After Brexit they want us to virtually become French citizens, in order to live here, something I'm not intending to do tbh.

The ramifications of Brexit will be astounding and will go on for a decade.

Some people seem to think it's all about fish quotas and waving the flag ....

... imo it'll be a long grinding road full of potholes.

 

Spains PM Pedro Sanchez says the country is standing by with its vaccination plan and that all treatment will be free of charge, hopefully that will include ex-pats. There will be more info released in a press conference on Tuesday so we will know where we stand .

 

On the subject of Vaccines ( and the EU actually) . The Pfizer one, which will be the first to be used widely, is as everyone knows made by a US / German company, and well done to them.

The UK has a guarantee of 40m doses. The EU has an order, to be confirmed, (negotiations with the EU are never simple) of 200m. For 26 countries. 100m of these doses are for Germany, not unreasonable perhaps, but not quite the communitaire all for one stuff we hear about.

The next will be probably be the Uk/Swedish Astra Zeneca jab , of which the UK has 100m guarantee . The EU has a guaranteed price for this jab, but has not yet concluded it's negotiations on numbers.

Countries everywhere have been in an impossible position. Whatever they do or dont do bad things happen, and governments get the blame. Sometimes rightly, sometimes not, but there is almost zero evidence, that any other direction that was taken was proposed. It's all hindsight stuff.

But one thing can be said. Whatever the UK Gov has got wrong, no one can say that the procurement of vaccines has been one of them. They have putative orders for over 300m jabs, more I believe than any other country. Some will come to fruition, some will not, but there is more than likely to be more than enough. This kind of flexibility would have been impossible inside the the EU.

Let's hope the bloody things work as planned anyway, and we can emerge from this ****ey dystopia

 

I'm sure this Christmas thing is a nice idea and some will benefit although it will doubtless result in extra infections and therefore deaths. In a way that's not so bad as most will occur through transmission to family members and friends ... so 'you take your chances' as they say, which is fair enough.

What's obvious though is that everyone, governments included, know it's totally impossible to 'police' so many people will take advantage and just do whatever the like. When there's another surge of deaths people will be blamed for 'not taking enough care' etc, as usual.

I've seen a poll that says 80% think the relaxation at Christmas is a bad idea but, as usual, the 'I know my rights' brigade will be happy to get their way. Or is it all for the benefit of the big country houses and their Christmas traditions ... too cynical?

 

Go in to lockdown in tier 2, come out in tier 3. That's hospitality in the North East ruined in the busiest month of the year.

The sector needs a bail out.

 

When we came out of the last lock down we had long hot summer days to look forward to ...

... this time it'll be dark, cold and miserable.

 

Feel so sorry for small independent pubs, this could be the end for many of them. Christmas and New Year takings are vital to tide them over the January/February period when business always falls off a cliff anyway. Lets hope that when Boris reviews things on 16th December he will be able to cut them some slack and let them open for some of the festive period. Whether that's a good thing or not remains to be seen, but its a tough enough game to be in as it is, good luck to all of them.

 

Is anyone taking part in a vaccine trial?
I am on the Novavax one and had my first shot with absolutely no reaction and assumed I had the placebo. I had the second shot on Tuesday, and was told that 90% of people had the same reaction for the first shot but to expect a reaction for a few days to the second shot.
The symptoms were aching arm, muscles, joints and mild temperature for a day or so, which means my immune system was busy doing something. All i have now is a very slightly tender injection sight. Pretty mean placebo if that is what I had.
For me it has meant 2 days loafing in my shed with sounds, tv and herbal relaxants instead of 2 days paint stripping. One bit of paint stripping with heat gun advice I can give is to wear a heat proof glove on the scraping hand, at least the burns should have healed when I start again.
It felt a bit like those vaccines at school where you walk around protecting your arm from "accidental" bumps.

 

My local village pub is having a lot of cash flow problems. I told the landlord that 6 of us would go there for Christmas lunch...now it may have to be takeaway.....

 

Aye I would support them like that, maybe also buy your bottled beer from him, I know it'll be dearer than supermarket bottles, but it might help him to stay afloat if enough folk did it. well done.

 

The really sad thing is that the British culture was always pub based. Everything stemmed from the pub/club whether it was the Sunday League teams, darts, charity events, bus trips, fishing clubs, whatever.

Now, when I see a village with the pub boarded up I wonder how society works ...

... how do people meet, sort out disputes, organise things, keep an eye on old people or someone obviously in need of help.

The more pubs that go the more people will become insular.

Or perhaps I'm just a man out of step with a better new world.

 

It’s not a better new world though - it’s very much poorer because it is missing all that community stuff and togetherness you mention

 

The French writer and avid Anglophile Hilaire Belloc said exactly that years ago about a very British institution. The smoking ban resulted in 30,000 pubs closing, Covid could be the final nail in the coffin.

 

Good post mate.

We were driving around the wild interior of Sardinia a few years back on an 8 month tour of the Med.

We spent one night in a town called Bitti which was having its 'saints day' and it was staggering, beautiful, breathtaking and slightly unsettling. We realised that, in the UK, our culture is vanishing and we're just adopting everything American despite its inferiority ...

... Black Friday, High School Proms, even our language, ffs we'll be having Thanksgiving next