Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

I knew things were bad in the UK but apparently now my in-laws' entire family in the UK currently have COVID

Also, surprised to read (in the Guardian) that a majority support a ban on individuals from different households being able to walk outside together. I'm guessing this isn't a major source of transmission? Perhaps it is?

― djh

I've always thought these kind of restrictions are for them to keep you from doing things you shouldn't do by preventing you from doing things they can verify. Like people from different households are likely to have met at one household, indoors, maybe had a few drinks and then went for a walk. They can't check inside peoples' houses, but they can check public areas.

Thanks, Aimless.

I've been fairly "locked down", I think. Definitely stricter than the guidance has allowed. I guess what I mean is that I'm surprised people are saying they supportive of restricting outdoor walks?

"household group walks" is a rule that cunts who don't care if they kill people can exploit by lying that they're observing it. abolishing the rule means removing cover for the lie.

Sorry to hear that Katherine - hope they are okay.

Something has definitely shifted, in the sense that ... people I know are starting to have Covid, whereas for a long time it was "friends of friends", often with specific circumstances.

also, deaths in the UK are going fucking wild due to ten months of pissweak shithouse rules, a lot of people will probably say they support anything up to armed guards in gasmask delivering food parcels via trebuchet bcz it'll be more effective than any gov't policy to date.

I've always thought these kind of restrictions are for them to keep you from doing things you shouldn't do by preventing you from doing things they can verify. Like people from different households are likely to have met at one household, indoors, maybe had a few drinks and then went for a walk. They can't check inside peoples' houses, but they can check public areas.

― nickn,

Maybe?

Actually, may have lost track of the rules but in my head at least, it's not one household, is it? [at the moment]. It's one individual with a child under five?

Aye, sic.

Was watching one of the press briefings recently where I was expecting there to be an announcement about increased lock down (as above, something that makes me feel shifty while welcoming it) ... and it was just self congratulatory tat about vaccines. Vaccines are brilliant but the messaging is that it will be alright regardless of what you do.

I think localities have gotten far more timid about further restrictions in general. Things have gotten dramatically worse here in the last couple weeks, but there's been very little changed in terms of new rules despite now being at "stage 5".

Think I misread your original post, thought it was multi-household, which could be safe if people were masked and kept their distance. Never mind!

as to sic’s point, the deaths per 1M population have risen in parallel in the US and UK over the last several months, with the US only slightly behind the UK. But in the last couple of weeks the deaths per million in the UK have risen much faster

xp -- so far everyone's OK but I'm worried about the grandfather, who was already in bad health before this

(to be honest they kind of brought it upon themselves because apparently they held a holiday party that was a spreader event, but it still sucks)

Public health guidance is often deliberately stricter than it needs to be on the assumption that not everyone will follow it (a lot of guidance about what you can do during pregnancy is like this). It’s condescending and it undermines trust but they’ll alternatives are apparently worse.

I mean isn't the problem that public heatlth guidance is nowhere near strict enough

given how people I know react to the guidance, in this case that’s my impression

I’m talking about the UK rule about two people from separate households not being allowed to meet in a park.

ah ok, got it, wasn't aware that was a UK rule (in the US we have... nothing like that)

(for context in the US it is a nightmare and impossible to convince someone that it is a risk to be indoors, unmasked, with people you don't live with)

Xxp surely it would be a lot more logical to have the people physically administering jabs be among the first to be vaccinated before coming in contact with an unknown public. Would think that would be obvious to a point of given. Not having them possibly get vaccinated on the chance that somebody didn't turn up.

A friend of mine's daughter is vaccinating people and she was given the vaccine herself before starting which seems sensible

I haven't seen anyone inside in months, even my elderly parents. 95% of my friends are the same way.

Having a masked and distanced walk with a friend outside isn't going to do either party any harm if they're following the rules elsewhere, I guess, is my point.

yeah I don't see how walks with friends become a spreader even

*event

yes things are really bad in uk and there is a pathological insistence - among govt and populace - on accentuating the positive (vaccinations plus a slight dip in cases from our enormous 2nd peak, basically) and refusing to acknowledge the terrible parts (absolutely everything else); this is understandable from ppl trying to kip & get through the winter and unforgiveable from actual policymakers I think

I watched the latest briefing from the independent SAGE panel and it seems clearer than ever what a mess we're in

- cases coming down in all age groups except over 80s which are rising: this is obv the most vulnerable group, the ones who are dying and who we are in the biggest rush to vaccinate so this is a concern. unclear the exact cause of this trend but probably something to do with all the christmas cheer being spread to elderly relatives, & in particular care homes who only required a notoriously unreliable lateral flow test before letting ppl come visit at xmas (there was also a suggestion in the comments that they might be getting infected at vaccination centres, which are indoors & only require 1m distance post jab per guidance). the thing they stressed was that vaccines are great but not enough, you need to have an actual strategy (narrator:)

- workplace infections are surging because thousands of ppl are being made to go to work despite it not being a) necessary or b) safe - legally employers are required to make workplaces "covid safe" but there is no system for certifying this and it has never been enforced. Also many ppl are deliberately not getting tested because there isn't adequate financial support for ppl who have to isolate. call me crazy but stopping ppl going for walks is not a big fucking priority for me.

- schools a prime example of the strategy point above: don't just close them, wait a few weeks and open them again, have an actual plan to make them safe to open (they will never have an actual plan to make them safe to open)

- it's in the news today that we are "considering" managed isolation of ppl coming into the country - weirdly this is being put down to the brazilian variant rather than being something we should have been doing since the fucking start (one of the panel members on friday said that uk & ireland are "almost unique" in not bothering to do this, I will go out on a limb & guess usa one of the few others). the "system" for the last year has been for the person at the airport to say "be good, yeah?" to new arrivals, send them off to get the tube and never follow up ever

- lots more bits & pieces but the thing they were focusing on this week was mental health among young ppl and they had 3 guest speakers, 16yo kids who talked about their experience of the pandemic and how it was affecting their mh. so sad and infuriating listening to them, they have been utterly failed by these cunts & it did not have to be this bad. one was a trans lad who was living on his own at the ymca, had experienced mh issues in the past & made the point that many people in situations like his were already being neglected before the pandemic and it's only got worse. also spoke really eloquently about the strain of living in indefinite stasis at a time of life that is meant to be all about transition, moving to the next stage towards adulthood, which I hadn't considered.

it's all so pointless and tragic. whoops there go another 1400! I feel like there is the general acknowledgement that the next few weeks are going to be "tough" but that too many ppl internalised that "take it on the chin" rhetoric from last spring, like this is just a necessary stage we pass through on the way back to the pub. maybe we'll get another fucking £10 off a ploughman's

booming post

🤨

All OTM. Comes from the top down and the Prime Minister's need to be liked and for the world to be cardboard box models of buses full of happy smiling people inside. The BBC and most of the British press is basically a propaganda wing of the government and there's no effective political opposition.

OTM, plus likely a thousand examples of shitty admin systems/ processes adding to the nonsensical picture everywhere else, e.g. anecdotally lots of people, healthcare staff included, are trying to volunteer to become vaccinators but the bureaucracy is overwhelming

Ripping post there.

Nothing much more than lip service has been paid to vital elements for controlling a pandemic too. When was the last time anyone mentioned test and trace? It's just been shoved under the carpet with a tacit admission that no-one ever cared about the idea in the first place. The whole thing's been an object lesson in how not to manage a public health crisis, that no-one with any authority will learn from. I suppose we can be thankful that the 1922 Committee or whatever they're called don't have more power than they do, otherwise the death toll would be nearing half a million and the NHS would have completely collapsed.

-have an actual plan to make them safe to open (they will never have an actual plan to make them safe to open)

If we think of COVID as just another type of workplace injury (like falling beams or lecherous bosses) we naturally address it in the same manner as the others: barely and spitefully.

My mom’s cousin passed away at around 2:00 AM this morning from COVID. He was visiting his children in Texas over Christmas, was hospitalized there during the visit, and never recovered.

My sincere condolences, DJP. Fuck covid, and fuck the Trump administration for making this so much worse than it needs to be.

I'm sorry, Dan, that's terrible news

i'm so sorry, Dan :(

Ugh, so sorry

Aw Dan, that’s horrible. Love and condolences xx

So sorry Dan.

My condolences DJP 😞

Just awful. So sorry to hear it.

I'm so sorry, DJP.

Sorry to hear Dan.

sorry DJP, best to you and your family

my condolences, DJP. :(

So sorry, Dan.

Sorry to hear that.

I'm sorry, DJP - keeping your family in my thoughts

Sorry for your loss, Dan.

Sorry and infuriated to hear, Dan.

That's grim, DJP. Thoughts.