Connie eldreth moody In our Covid ICU, we went from 9 Covid patients to 21 in the past week. To say they are very sick is a gross understatement. When I see so many people on Facebook downplaying the seriousness of Covid, I have many emotions. The most prevalent feelings include angry, frustrated, sad, and disheartened. I’m also just incredibly tired. I’ve held the hands of Covid patients that are struggling to breathe and are frightened and alone. I’ve facilitated video calls between Covid patients and their families so they could say their final goodbyes. I have heard my Covid patients say “If I only knew...” and “I didn’t think it would be this bad...” To be honest, these statements are tough to process because the ENTIRE WORLD has been told of the seriousness of this virus. It is real. It is bad. Masks work. Social distancing works. The vaccine is necessary. Please don’t debate with me. I really can’t take one more person that works in construction, the bank, retail, the food industry, blah blah blah something else that’s not on the frontlines of caring for Covid patients spewing some political, personal, selfish BS that downplays the importance of masking, distancing, and staying home. I am a nurse. I am tired.
. Steel is correct down south too. There are Covid "roads" . So anyone brought into A and E with Covid symptoms are fast-tacked into isolation and not allowed to mix with the ordinary broken bones AandE patients. Bucks Health Trust have now declared an emergency ( that means they are at full capacity in I C U)....so we are in the thick of it This is no scaremongering or conspiracy.. This is life or death time....again There is no doubt about it.. It will not be helped by the people partying round us last night....I think we will be in tier 4 lockdown until February thanks to Christmas and New Year gatherings
Here we go, over promising under delivering central strikes again. Chris Whitty writes to doctors to tell them that ‘shortages of vaccine will be a reality for months’. Clearly it’s all over by Easter is a bit optimistic then Boris, who told us tens of millions of doses would be available soon. Apparently the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation now says that a single jab of the vaccine gives 90% protection for the Pfizer jab and 73% protection for the AZ jab. A reminder, Pfizer itself says there is no data on how long protection lasts. Somehow the JCVI has manipulated the figures to make a single jab of the AZ vaccine more effective than two jabs (62%). And of course, Jonathan Van Tam tells us we can’t compare the efficacy of different drugs, so I’m not sure what ‘protection’ means in either of these cases. Outstanding. At least they do say, for both vaccines, that it is recommended that both jabs are given. But why, if one jab is more effective or at least as effective as two? I have the strong impression that they are making this up as they go along.
At some point it will be but it does seem like a lot of people have seen the new year as a bit of a checkpoint after which things will magically improve. Eventually one of the grand, baseless proclamations of “it’ll all be back to normal by X” has to be right but I wouldn’t be making any big plans for the first half of the year. Sadly the real pain comes when furloughs eventually end, assuming they don’t extend that again. That’s a huge old can to be kicking down the road.
Stop testing healthy people, just test those who need medical attention to be sure of their viral infection. No proof on mask efficacy. No proof that asymptomatic transmission is a thing. No consideration of the notion of immunity. Still working with a test which is not fit for purpose on a mass, industrial scale. No significant hike in hospital usage compared to recent years. All cause mortality, since the spring spike, is not significantly different than compared to 5 or 20 year averages. Still referring to cases as a positive PCR test. Still persisting with the nonsensical attribution of deaths.... within 28 days of a positive PCR test. I see you all managed to ban a member who didn’t agree with your views. Nice.
There’s an argument for opening up the economy and ‘just learning to live with it’ albeit with horrific consequences in the short to medium term. Not my view but then I’m lucky that I’ve been able to work and might feel differently if I’d been ruined financially by this as no doubt millions have/will be. However I don’t see how anyone can argue against wearing masks indoors. They might do nothing at all but logically they help if even just by a tiny amount. It’s an incredibly simple thing almost everyone can do to limit the spread and if somehow it turns out they were entirely useless, what’s really been lost?
So what you seem to be saying is we have created uncertainty within people who are being given any of the vaccines that was supposed to give us a high level of certainty of protection against this awful virus. Brilliant!! NOT.
Interesting announcement from Piers Corbyn standing in the London Mayor election on a #LetLondonLive platform. Up to now I thought Khan would have an easy stroll to re-election but this changes the picture as he will certainly eat far more into Khan's vote than Bailey's. The Corbyn name alone will take a percentage of the vote so it will interesting to see Khan sweat a bit. He'll probably still win but personality carries weight as Livingstone and Boris proved...
Well, that's what Stan and Beth seem to be suggesting. I'm trying to find out as much as I can about it, as a lot of very educated people seem to think it's the right way to go. Not sure what to think right now.
You are absolutely right to get as many perspectives as possible Col. I am increasingly confused by the whole thing, and am hoping that I have made a stupid assumption, a fundamental error or just a dumb mistake in the way I am looking at this. I’d gladly take the knock to my ego of being shown to be utterly wrong. But now, for the first time in 20 years of trying to get market access for pharmaceutical products (admittedly not vaccines which are a bit different) I am seeing regulators and assessors saying products are better than the manufacturers claim. Which, in addition to scrambling my brains, would make me redundant if I still worked in the UK. My only conclusion is that the scale of the COVID threat is now seen to be so huge by the governments advisors that all straws will be clutched. If it works they will be heroes, and there is a chance it will. But it’s guesswork not science. I’ll give this a rest for a bit, I’m conscious that I’m getting repetitive and a bit manic about it. Perhaps something will happen which will show that I have got the wrong end of the stick. I sincerely hope so.
I certainly wasn't having a dig mate. You've forgotten more about most of this stuff than most of us will ever know. As you say, just trying to get the best perspective on it that I can. You and Beth are very anti the government, so maybe this tips you more a certain way. Then again, you may be spot on and the government certainly deserve an awful lot of criticism on their handling of this thing. The worrying thing for me is that we may waste more months before finding out who's right.
Seems a certain PL player had a Christmas party with up to 20 players present and 11 tested positive leading to the Everton v Man City game being postponed. Not the first time he's cocked up...
