Off Topic Coronavirus and NOTHING to do with football thread

More problems looming as Felixstowe container port are turning ships away due to a backlog.

I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone - the Port Authorities pay an MP £100K a year to give them advice - Chris 'Failing' Grayling.

It appears that his advice has been up to its usual standard.


https://www.theguardian.com/busines...ges-loom-as-felixstowe-struggles-with-backlog

 

One case of Covid in My region of France yesterday......I reckon is safer in France than the UK

 

I've been reading up a little about African Wild Dogs recently - apparently when one of them is diseased or has excessive flees they will, without prompting, separate themselves from the rest of the pack until the problem is over. It appears that social distancing is very well established in the animal kingdom, though amongst African Wild Dogs they have such a high sense of social responsibility that this is completely voluntary. We have so much to learn

 

It's such a shame the Eton Wild Dogs are so less advanced. But maybe help is at hand with Matt Hancock now being a UN 'special envoy' to Africa...

 

It's certainly safer than here. My wife's stint of self-isolation ends today and she's back teaching tomorrow - but she's not looking forward to it. Since she went off, five more teachers and six nursery staff have all tested positive, as well as around a quarter of the children - awful for a school with an enrolment of 420.

At least tomorrow is the last day of school term - giving the building's owners two weeks to deep clean the place.

 

Dominic Cummings firing off a few more shots at BoJo & Co on Twitter yesterday. The tweet at the bottom is rather disturbing - he appears to be suggesting that the government signed the NI Protocol in bad faith, fully intending to break it later. Playing with people's lives just to win a general election is not a good look - but will voters care?

I guess this explains his hurry to hide in sunny Spain for a while - he knew this was coming.

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Not often do I agree with Jeremy Hunt, but as he is being very critical of the government I feel I can on this occasion.

As someone who tried & failed to get 5000 more GPs into the system, I don’t think this package will turn the tide. We got 000s more graduates into GP surgeries, but we didn't make progress because experienced GPs were retiring/going part time faster than new trainees arrived. The lesson? This is a burnt-out workforce running on empty because of a massive mismatch between supply & demand. The only thing that will convince them not to continue retiring or opting for part-time hours in droves is a clear plan to end the unsustainable pressure they face. That means in the short-term a big recruitment drive: incentives to persuade retired GPs who stepped up temporarily during the pandemic to extend their service; relaxation of immigration rules on overseas medics…incentives to move here including waiving bureaucracy for people moving from countries with good medical training e.g. Canada/Australia, and reform of pension disincentives which drive people into early retirement. But sticking plaster after sticking plaster will no longer cut it. Unless we fix workforce planning in the NHS for the long term, the future will be bleak and the number of face to face GP appointments will go down not up.

He has pointed out that immigration rules are making it difficult to get doctors and wants a relaxation of them. Shortages of doctors, nurses, vets, lorry drivers, warehouse workers, butchers, poultry farm workers or agricultural workers are also a problem. This shows that you cannot turn the much needed workforce on and off like a tap.

 

Over 45,000 new cases today. What is PLAN B ?

 

Who needs Plan B, ofh? Our fine leaders have everything under control, unlike Johnny Foreigner.
(Data is new cases per 100k, 14 days to 13th Oct)



PS Couldn’t lend us some drivers, butchers, farm workers etc, could you? All fine in UK! Move along, please! Nothing to see here!

 

For several weeks now people who follow testing data have been saying that something was wrong, with LFT tests showing positive results, but a follow up PCR test showed them to be negative. It seems that a new company set up last year, and given a huge contract has been doing something wrong as there is no fault found in the actual testing kits. This has resulted in 43,000 people being told they were negative, and free to continue going about as normal, when they were in fact positive, and likely to spread the virus further. The contract has been taken away from the company and the tracing system is trying to contact those who have been given the wrong results.

 

What dreadful news that another MP has been stabbed and died. It doesn't matter what party he came from, this not how our democracy should work.

 

Yes.

Awful to hear.

Just killed doing his and offering his services.

 

True. I find it really hard to understand what motivates people to act in this manner - politics is a very emotive and divisive subject but there's simply no excuse for murder.

 

"Border Force staff who enact Priti Patel’s plans to “push back” migrant boats in the Channel could be given immunity from conviction if a refugee dies, officials have confirmed."

What sort of country is the UK turning into when the government effectively gives the green light to allowing refugees to drown at sea?


https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news... enact,refugee dies, officials have confirmed.

 

It is difficult not to compare the words of Patel when she is speaking about an MP being killed and her comments about refugees dying. She is a total disgrace. Fired for trying to channel aid money to the Israeli army, then guilty of bullying and swearing at her own staff, and now threatening to break international maritime law. She shouldn't be anywhere near government.

 

Which in England is translated to “Welcome to the Tory front bench.”

 

This is worth a read from a very good and well regarded professor in health matters. What seems to be sensible to an ordinary layman is put into a proper framework in this thread.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1449437841260531717.html

 

On a brighter note, I see that Matt Hancock has been left red-faced by the UN.

After announcing that he had been offered and had accepted a post as a 'special envoy' to Africa, the UN withdrew the offer.

I presume that someone whispered a few home truths about him in their ears.

 

Excellent.. And i must say i 'love` it when sge starts swearing.. Empirical scientists must bee past it when it comes to that..

 

Reminds me of that old chestnut simile about it being like putting King Herod in charge of Mothercare.