Off Topic Coronavirus - 606 tales from the Inquiry

I have no problems with the Government requesting the wearing of masks on public transport, they are 3 months too late but anyway.

I was with Mrs Elfs trying to get on a bus earlier, I had a mask(I look better with one so I'm told), she didn't. These two guys from TFL then stopped my wife getting on. I then said that the driver did not have one on, apparantly because he is shielded that is good enough. I then said to the geezer was he going to get on the bus to see if there were anybody on there without a mask, his reply was that was not part of his job. At this point I said to the other guy that I understand the ruling but this is all a load of b********! He laughed in agreement.

The guy then said as long as my wife had a scarf/whatever to cover her mouth and nose she could get on, out came the jumper from the rucksack. A total farce.

It was of no surprise to me that there was somebody on the bus without a mask!

 

After updating the European infection / mortality stats in the 'Information' thread, I can't really work out why the UK Government regards it as OK to travel to France and Italy, but not to Portugal.

It is true that Portugal's relatively low population means the proportion of people infected there is relatively high. But in absolute numbers Portugal has suffered a tiny fraction of what the UK, France and Italy have endured - and Spain for that matter.

Boris would give his right arm (though not his right-hand-man) to have infection & mortality rates as low over here as they are in Portugal.
So why can't Brit holidaymakers go there?

My European history is a bit patchy, but I thought the UK (or England as it was then) helped Portugal to become a Sovereign State about 400 years ago, just to annoy the Spanish.
We ought to back them up now.

PS:

With our shocking infection & mortality rates, I'm amazed anybody else in Europe will touch us with a barge pole, never mind rubber gloves.
Surely German money is as good as ours - and a sight cleaner.

 

I don't think this is a good time to be opening borders at all. Greece (for example) badly needs the tourist industry to move. They had very low rates of infection, and relatively few deaths, but inviting people from Spain, France,Germany, or Belgium risks setting all that back. It's a fine line between economic disaster and lots of dead people but it seems like economists are winning the arguments.

 

Boris passes the buck...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53315178

Breathtaking throwaway insult from the PM.

 

Applaud the care workers one day, then blame them for your own incompetence the next. There seem no depths Boris won't sink to in order to deflect blame from himself.
Odious little man.

 

All the Cabinet toadies have rallied round, like they did with the Cummings scandal.
"What the Prime Minister actually meant was...."

There is absolutely no doubt Britain should have a National Care Service.
Reform the NHS, create the NCS to go with it.
Both funded by National Insurance, both free at the point of need, both effectively audited for quality, both properly funded with staff on respectable wages.
This Government could bring about changes as profound as those in the decade after WW2 if they have the vision and the conviction.

Let the legacy of Coronavirus be real change - change like we've not seen for 70 years.

 

And if they did, they could stand up in front of the country, admit they made mistakes and say 'look, we're going to remedy this and give the country a health and care system the envy of the world's and they'd be applauded for it. And rightly so.
But only if they did what they promised. A Johnso promise currently carrys less weight than an incoming Charlton owner promising a five year plan to get into the premiership. And with reason.

 

It is curious (though welcome) that all the lockdown easing and mass gatherings going on in the UK - beaches, protest demos, raves, all night drinking etc. - have not produced any rise at all in the Coronavirus infection rate, which continues to fall steadily.

The main cause of spikes in local areas seems to be sweat shop factories, mostly in Northern towns.

If there is a link between infections and exploited workers (including immigrants who are afraid to stand up for their rights) this needs to be fully exposed and the problem dealt with.
Not swept under the carpet.

Leveling up is what we were promised. Time to deliver some if it.

 

Is anybody following these ever-shifting guidelines anymore?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-53340520

People are just doing their own thing.
I also hear Cummings is going to fix the Armed Forces for us next. Hooray

 

Be happy. We have 73 outbreaks in Spain now, including the one around Lerida with 210,000 people locked down, now described as out of control.
This morning, compulsory mask wearing everywhere came into force in Catalunya and the Baleares. We had 40 deaths yesterday, having had days with none at all weeks back.
Unlike the USA, we do have a government who tend to impose laws to try and rectify outbreaks, but like the UK, they tend to do it well after the horse has bolted.
Despite tales to the contrary this is much more to do with a lot of people who decided the pandemic was over, despite tales it has come from immigrants working in the fields and/or tourists.

Covid-19 is well entrenched. Wash hands and wear masks.

 

12 months later and still waiting for a vaccine....

People seem to think with the relaxing of the guidelines COVID has disappeared.

 

Moved to Italy last week for an unknown time frame, the rules on mask wearing are a lot stricter here and temperature checks are constant, don’t think I was checked once in England before the airport

 

The wife has been told we’re expecting a spike by October

 

As long as it is in SE25

 

Or SE16 3LN

 

Both

 

10th July update;

'Normality' returning slowly.
Fans at football matches? A select few perhaps.
Holidays back on the agenda, meal tokens from the Government.

6 more days of data added to the July table in the first post on this thread.

Infection rates in the UK are continuing to fall, now broadly matching those in Germany, France, Italy and Sweden.
But more people in the UK continue to die from Coronavirus.
The UK has had the highest mortality rate in Europe for 93 of the last 129 days.
On average we're still losing about 100 people per day, where in the rest of Europe it's only 10% of that or less.

 

On the last leg of my 6 miles cycle ride today, I was approaching the Farnborough(Kent) Frankie n Bennies and saw vehicles in the car park. I thought to myself that it was good they were open.

On passing the place I discovered I was mistaken. Pikeys have set up shop there!

 

Boris is making an arse of himself again.

We need clear guidance on the use of face coverings, not bumbling comments and contradictions.

Personally I'll not wear a mask.
But if the law changes and I can't go into the supermarket without a covering, then I have a scarf that will have to serve.

Boris has said the Government won't go as far as to order everyone to wear a face covering in all public places.
They had better not either.
If this country is ever perceived to be so soiled by the virus that nobody is allowed to show their face except in their own homes, we will have truly fallen into the gutter of the world. Already millions of these discarded masks are littering every public space. They are disgusting, and about as dangerous as needles left lying around by junkies. I feel sorry for the street sweepers who have to pick them up.