United Kingdom VI: Summer Lovin'

[Hirst]

I want tests to open up international travel, I'm sick of the world being closed and feeling trapped in this miserable hell hole.

[MartyG]

One game-changer regardless of vaccine will be cheap, quick home tests. I see Boots are doing a quick test now, or at least I saw a headline to that effect.

yeah, but it's not cheap, it costs you £120 - Boots claim that they're not making a profit from it. I contracted to Boots and worked at their head office in Notts for six months and have seen how they operate there. I don't believe them.

If the cost of doing a test is £120 to break even, the current cost for the NHS tests based on the daily test numbers (let's say 300,000 a day) is £252 million a week.

[Dogg Thang]

Yep, but that's now. Assuming (which I do) that we're still probably a long way off a vaccine, a quick cheap test might be something that's considerably closer.

[MartyG]

People are going to be a lot less willing to take tests that they have to pay for daily or weekly even if they are the price of a coffee. Same for vaccinations - unless these are provided by the state for free then there are going to be large sections of the population that don't bother if there's a payment involved.

[Cepp]

.....

[Dogg Thang]

Well one real negative about this pandemic is that it is hardening me and I'm caring less and less about the morons. If me and my circle can stay safe, and quick cheap tests would help with that, then I'm going to hope that happens.

Edit: Yikes, that looks like I'm replying to Cepp. Jeeeeeez. Sorry, Cepp, that was to Marty. So sorry for your loss. That sucks. Very poor post timing.

[Cepp]

Well one real negative about this pandemic is that it is hardening me and I'm caring less and less about the morons. If me and my circle can stay safe, and quick cheap tests would help with that, then I'm going to hope that happens.

Edit: Yikes, that looks like I'm replying to Cepp. Jeeeeeez. Sorry, Cepp, that was to Marty. So sorry for your loss. That sucks. Very poor post timing.

Don't worry mate, I posted in the wrong thread and I know it wasn't aimed at me.

[MartyG]

Well one real negative about this pandemic is that it is hardening me and I'm caring less and less about the morons. If me and my circle can stay safe, and quick cheap tests would help with that, then I'm going to hope that happens.

That's the trouble though, it only takes a couple of people not playing by the same rules and the bubble is burst, unless you're completing isolating yourself from society.

[Asura]

That's the trouble though, it only takes a couple of people not playing by the same rules and the bubble is burst, unless you're completing isolating yourself from society.

Not when it comes to the antivax brigade. If they have a working vaccine that's judged to be safe, I'll take it right away and let other people just get on with it at this point.

For those who won't take it... Well, I'm not so heartless as to say that the NHS should refuse them medical care but I'm just going to be less sympathetic when I hear about it.

[MartyG]

Not when it comes to the antivax brigade. If they have a working vaccine that's judged to be safe, I'll take it right away and let other people just get on with it at this point.

For those who won't take it... Well, I'm not so heartless as to say that the NHS should refuse them medical care but I'm just going to be less sympathetic when I hear about it.

It depends on how many of them there are. A recent survey showed that 20% say they are "unlikely" to get a vaccine - it's far higher in the US.

For herd-immunity, it requires the vaccine to be effective and for a good portion of the population to have it - the less effective the vaccine is, the bigger that percentage needs to be, likewise, the more infectious a virus is, the more people need to be be vaccinated.

[Dogg Thang]

Why are we still talking about herd immunity? Really? Bottom line is, what Asura is saying is that those of us who have the vaccine will be protected regardless of what choices morons make. You don't need herd immunity in that scenario. You just need to be sensible enough to go and get the vaccine.

[MartyG]

Why are we still talking about herd immunity?

Herd immunity is achieved through two methods

1) People catching it

or, drum roll .....

2) Being vaccinated

What you've post is not corrected - for Covid-19 to go away it requires herd immunity via the vaccine, and for that to be both effective and widely distributed. Read the article I linked to above, it explains why.

You will only be 100% safe if the vaccine is 100% effective to be protected on your own, otherwise you need the herd to have the vaccine in sufficient numbers too.

[Neon Ignition]

All vaccines should be nasal vaccines, I hate needles

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk

Testing capacity up, tests carried out way down.

New cases steady, deaths way up

[Dogg Thang]

That didn't remotely answer the question. We are not a herd, Marty. Herd immunity in real terms also often ends with sections of livestock being culled if the numbers game that is herd immunity doesn't work in their favour.

Asura's point and now mine is that, if there is a vaccine and we get the vaccine, then we are safe. Herd immunity is only a factor for the morons who don't get it. If I have a vaccine and those who I care about get the vaccine, I don't need to hear about herd immunity. Honestly, I never needed to hear about herd immunity. It was a flawed myth sold without even the promise of a vaccine by people who didn't understand it and yet it has stuck and here we are still talking about it. The messaging has done so much damage.

[MartyG]

Asura's point and now mine is that, if there is a vaccine and we get the vaccine, then we are safe.

That is not correct unless the vaccine is 100% effective. Read the article I linked to above, it explains the science.