Coronavirus (Covid19) Corner

[Big Kev]

He's had 10 in the classroom and 10 on video link to China (they've not been able to get to the UK) since Monday. They're 8 hours in front of us so the kids must be keen to do Business Studies remotely

[Stanley]

I note little straws in the wind that people might be relaxing their guard on precautions.

[Tripps]

I agree - and the idea mooted that June 21st be a public holiday to celebrate the end of the affair is crazy. Even with the most optimistic results from vaccination - I think this will drift on for a very long time yet. It's a process not an event.

Andrew Neil says today -
"Italy re-imposes near-national lockdown Monday, with most schools, restaurants, shops closing, as terrible 3rd wave of Covid hits. Vaccination programme also struggling, as in most of EU."

[Stanley]

Quite right David. People keep talking about 'The New Normal' as if it is in the future. They are wrong, we are in the new normal now and any talk about relaxing precautions is barking madness!

[Big Kev]

What is it that people don't understand about mass gatherings? Regardless of what the vigil was for, the law is the law...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56389824

Met Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball said hundreds of people were "packed tightly together", posing a risk of transmitting Covid-19.

"Police must act for people's safety, this is the only responsible thing to do," she said in a statement.

"We absolutely did not want to be in a position where enforcement action was necessary. But we were placed in this position because of the over-riding need to protect people's safety."

[Tizer]

Sadly, it gives the impression that the protesters wanted to force the police into a situation where they had to do their job and uphold the law by breaking up the crowd. As if they wanted to deliberately get the police into trouble. I hate violence against anyone, especially women, but there are plenty of other ways to protest or express sorrow these days and gathering closely on the street in the middle of a pandemic hurts your cause rather than helping it.

[PanBiker]

There was a Facebook organised vigil. Sally stood on the doorstep for 5 minutes last night at 9.30pm with a light. That was the time Sarah was last seen.

[Tripps]

I agree with all said above. The general public seem not to though, and 'Diana' type sentimentality seems to have over ridden the law/ sensible way to behave. I've heard no credit given to the Police for solving the case, and bringing a man to justice in a very short few days. It involved investigations in Clapham, Deal, and Ashford. Compare it to the case last year in Hull, which took months to resolve.

[Tizer]

I have sympathy with the family and friends of Sarah and with women who've been harassed or worse by men but I also have sympathy with all the good police who must be shocked and depressed by this man who let them down, especially when he was in a special bit of the force. We have a relative who is training to be a fireman and even they have a harder job these days when they get attacked while trying to put out a blaze.

[Stanley]

I agree with all the above particularly Peter's point; " the protesters wanted to force the police into a situation where they had to do their job and uphold the law by breaking up the crowd." That thought had occurred to me. From the tone of the people I heard protesting the protest had become the thing, not the fact a young woman had been killed.
David is also right about the speed and efficiency of the investigation.
News that Johnson is expressing concern about the breaking up of the Clapham Common gathering. Any chance Carrie has had a quiet word with him?

[chinatyke]

Didn't I see a report that Kate Middleton had visited the original vigil?

[Stanley]

Yes, and that isn't helping the situation China.

[plaques]

This whole tragic event of Sarah Everard's murder is now becoming part of a big political football. The original seeds of this phenomenon were sown in 1997 with Diana's death. Masses of public sympathy that was worked into a frenzy via the media aided by are old friend Tony Blair. This Diana syndrome was exploited in the 'Get Brexit Done' wrapping the UK in the Union Flag and battling Johnny Foreigner. Now we move into the Covid-19 lockdown. No crowds of people = no rallies, no organised marches giving the politicians a free hand to do anything they wish without collective protests. All under the umbrella of covid isolation. Back to Sarah Everard's vigil. Yes they broke the rules and it could have been better organised using the police as helpful controllers but the mantra is don't let these events develop into anything that could rock the political boat. Have we entered into a dictatorship where covid controls are cover for manipulating people?

[Stanley]

That's an interesting question Ken and one that is exercising me at the moment. The House is no hotbed of political debate as there is nobody there. Cabinet government seems to have sunk without trace, Its Johnson Carrie and whoever is in favour on the sofa, we all know what that did for the Blair government.
It seems to me there has never been a time when politicians in government had such freedom and there are suspicions that they are using it now with the current bill on legal penalties causing outrage and a big foreign policy review coming up. I don't like the noises off from the States either about trade deals....

[Tizer]

Back to the topic - coronavirus....
`AstraZeneca vaccine: Safety experts to review jab' LINK
This is a good update on the AstraZeneca vaccine safety. Final word from Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford vaccine group which developed the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab -he told the BBC yesterday that there was very reassuring evidence that there is no increase in a blood clot phenomenon here in the UK and pointed out that the UK is where most of the doses in Europe have been given so far. If there was a danger from the vaccine we would have seen it here well before now. And the numbers of blood clots seen in Europe after vaccination are actually fewer than would have been seen when no vaccination is being carried out.

It seems a bit like the hysteria that sometimes breaks out in schools, communities or even countries. You suddenly have everyone convincing themselves they are ill or in danger when neither actually exists. It's worth noting this: Professor Stephen Evans of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said: “The problem with spontaneous reports of suspected adverse reactions to a vaccine are the enormous difficulty of distinguishing a causal effect from a coincidence. This is especially true when we know that COVID-19 disease is very strongly associated with blood clotting and there have been hundreds if not many thousands of deaths caused by blood clotting as a result of COVID-19 disease.” LINK So there is a much greater risk of getting a blood clot from covid-19 infection than from the vaccine used to prevent it.

[Marilyn]

Which is why Australia waits...because we can afford to...

[Big Kev]

Which is why Australia waits...because we can afford to...

Why are they trying to order supplies from Italy?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56279202

[Sue]

Interesting article here about our neanderthal genes and covid 19:

https://www.pnas.org/content/118/9/e2026309118

[Sue]

Which is why Australia waits...because we can afford to...

Why are they trying to order supplies from Italy?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56279202

Because winter is on its way

[Stanley]

The situation in Australia has absolutely nothing to do with us in the UK, a totally different situation.
As for the furore over Astra Zeneca and blood clots, it's not a fact but a construct for other purposes. There are no more occurrences in the vaccinated than in those who haven't been treated. Further, one of the leading US epidemiologists, Michael Osterholm, says that if the research was done he would be surprised if there was any difference in any of the different brands of vaccine.

[Big Kev]

Which is why Australia waits...because we can afford to...

Why are they trying to order supplies from Italy?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56279202

Because winter is on its way

Good point...

[Marilyn]

Ah...I can explain that. The supply was originally ours. Rome stepped in and ordered the Australian supply should be directed towards Italy, due to the surge in cases. And so it was.
Which is all well and good, except now they have put a hold on vaccinations in many countries, including Italy, due to concerns of blood clots.
I wasn’t aware that we had put up our hands to get our “deemed” supply back, but if they aren’t going to use them it does seem reasonable.
I still say we can afford to wait, so it is no big deal really.
( our information from the local surgery is that my husband, who is 71, is unlikely to get his first dose until end of July/early August at this stage).

[Tizer]

Boris wants to delay a covid inquiry but he's facing increasing demands to do it soon...
`Pressure mounts on Boris Johnson to launch coronavirus inquiry: Exclusive: scientific advisers and ex-Whitehall chief join bereaved families, medics and ethnic minority leaders in calling for inquiry' Guardian
`Senior doctors, government scientific advisers and a former head of the civil service have spoken out in favour of a public inquiry into the UK’s handling of Covid-19, raising pressure on Boris Johnson to finally launch the process as the UK’s coronavirus fatalities rose to almost 126,000. Thousands of bereaved families, nurses and ethnic minority leaders also backed calls for an inquiry into everything from lockdown tactics to test and trace after the UK’s handling of the pandemic resulted in the worst death toll per capita of any of the world’s large economies. Lord Kerslake, the head of the civil service under David Cameron, and Prof John Edmunds, a leading scientific adviser to the government on Covid, are among a dozen influential figures who have told the Guardian they support a public inquiry. Kerslake said it could save lives and it would be “criminal not to learn the lessons”. “We can’t rule out the possibility that we will hit this problem again,” he said, adding the inquiry should begin by summer..'.
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There's good news in this following story for the over-70s! And it's also a useful information article...
`Vaccine side effects: My experience of them and what they mean' by BBC Health and science correspondent
James Gallagher LINK
Prof Andrew Pollard, who led trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, told Gallagher: "The older you are, the less the side effects - the over-70s have almost no side effects."

[plaques]

The inquiry can't come too soon. Johnson has been hiding behind the fact that the NHS, doctors, nurses and staff have been doing a tremendous job of dealing with this pandemic and yet he has the audacity to offer a 1% pay award, half of the absolute minimum he promised previously. Everything else is a gravy train disaster with an exception of the council/NHS run element of the tracing system.

[Stanley]

And let's not forget the historic starving of funds for maintenance and day to day running expenses that led to the loss of beds. Then add the bad treatment of staff and trainees. I could go on....