United Kingdom V: Son of a beach

[fallenangle]

You're very doomy.

I think we'll get a new spike of sorts but I just can't imagine that there can be many of us left in the UK's major cities and big towns who have not been exposed to it multiple times and if we were going to get it with life threatening symptoms would have done so already.

Its those who've been strictly self-isolating, especially in smaller communities and places such as care and retirement homes outside those large population areas who are likely now the most vulnerable. Particularly so when they start mixing with their relatives/visitors or travel anywhere.

On the local level my Tesco has been fairly well policed throughout. After the first week when I was the victim of queue jumpers as I stepped out to get a shopping trolley from an adjacent rack, the behaviour has generally been pretty civilised.

There was nobody controlling the number of people going into the store on Friday for the first time in months and people were generally respecting the distancing advice and one way system around the aisles as much as has ever been possible.

Numbers of staff wearing masks by my rough estimate, like customers, have dropped from about 66% to under 50%, gloves maybe even lower.

As I'm in the area of London with the second highest Covid 19 death rate in the country and as such living with that higher potential chance of being a victim myself, it will be interesting, in a morbid way, to see if a new spike occurs here as the lockdown eases more.

If it doesn't hit or its not that bad it is going to raise some uncomfortable questions about what we've been doing for the last 3+ months.

[Brad]

If it doesn't hit or its not that bad it is going to raise some uncomfortable questions about what we've been doing for the last 3+ months.

Following the advice of pandemic experts and other scientists?

Israel went into full lockdown early. Got it under control (more under control than we have it btw), then started easing up and now have it worse than the first time around and are having to enforce measures again,

The uncomfortable questions will come when everything goes to crap here when we already knew that it would just by looking at what happened in other countries,

[Zaki]

Stay alert.

[teddymeow]

Nipped to Asda after work

Of all.the supermarkets, Asda seems to be the one that has been constantly rammed / had social distancing issues.

I hate going into Asda if I'm honest.

[Colin]

People have started to regularly ask me when collecting their beer if I’ll be reopening the shop fully soon. That’ll be a solid no.

[Cassius_Smoke]

On the news the police are expecting the pub openings to be like new years eve. I don't doubt it. Staff may try to keep the numbers entering low, but once people get pissed all social conversations go out the window. I predict the news tomorrow will show a cluster**** of drunkards storming pubs.

[cutmymilk]

Luckily the weather is ****e. 2 weeks ago it would have been busy, but today is like getting on a bus to go to an xmas do in the pissing rain.

[Golgo]

On the news the police are expecting the pub openings to be like new years eve. I don't doubt it. Staff may try to keep the numbers entering low, but once people get pissed all social conversations go out the window. I predict the news tomorrow will show a cluster**** of drunkards storming pubs.

I'm in Leicester lockdown and it would be tempting (I won't) to go park up in one of out-of-boundary villages to photograph the Leicester pissheads trying to sneak into the pubs. Should be top entertainment. There's no love lost among the tribal Brexiteer gammons around here so I imagine lots of punch ups when the unclean Leicester mobs try it on.

[teddymeow]

The weather won't stop idiots who have missed going to the boozer and causing trouble.

Of course, according to some, it isn't really that bad so we're all being doomy for nothing... Looks at the 45,000 and climbing reported deaths. Yeah, that's fine.

[fishbowlhead]

People have started to regularly ask me when collecting their beer if I’ll be reopening the shop fully soon. That’ll be a solid no.

Thought about cutting the shop itself loose and just keeping the brand going as a delivery service? Wont be long until the gov pulls all support for shops, then your stuck with dead weight you can’t realistically open safely.

[fallenangle]

Following the advice of pandemic experts and other scientists?


The uncomfortable questions will come when everything goes to crap here when we already knew that it would just by looking at what happened in other countries,

Israel went into full lockdown early. Got it under control (more under control than we have it btw), then started easing up and now have it worse than the first time around and are having to enforce measures again,

That sort of thing is what I was thinking about. The advice of experts and scientists has always been open to challenge because it is all guess work based on numbers. They're comparing figures from countries of completely different make up and geography against each other which is not science, its statistics.

Praise for New Zealand's handling of the crisis and their consequent low death rate is a particular example. A population of less than 5m in a country larger in area than the whole of the UK and split between two major islands and easily isolated from the rest of the world. No comparison.

Science requires a control group or groups so you can test the theories and you can not, at least in this country, forcibly isolate a section of the population and test the transmission theories on them. What New Zealand does prove is that if you have a small population and isolate completely you can stop the spread of the disease. But it is unique in that and can not be used as a model applicable to anywhere else.

In the UK with our delayed lockdown more people had been exposed and that's why we had worse infection rates but in the long term that might actually turn out to be a beneficial in being able to getting those key areas of the country up and running again quicker.

In the big cities many more have been exposed so unless Covid 19 mutates those larger areas of population may (just may) be able to return to normal with less risk of a deluge of new cases that overwhelms the health services. We've already taken the hit because we were slow in applying lockdown rules and there was, and still is, a more cavalier attitude to some of the restrictions.

As I said its the people who've been more strictly isolated and haven't been exposed at all is where the spike, if it hits, may be worse. That could be why the Scottish authorities have been more cautious with their lockdown easing as that part of the UK has a much higher percentage of geographically isolated rural areas and islands where, possibly, nobody has yet been exposed.

[Dogg Thang]

Sounds like you’re basically saying that it’s great that it was allowed to run rampant because the dead people can’t now get it. That much is true. The rest sounds like uninformed nonsense. This is not the first pandemic. There is a huge amount of data and strategising based on what experts have learned from them. And the UK and New Zealand are not the only countries. The entire world is being used as examples, looking at the strategies and outcomes from each individual country. And honestly, from someone outside the UK, lets be very clear that what’s happening there is not a great look. There is no upside to how it has been handled in the UK.

[kryss]

I think we'll get a new spike of sorts but I just can't imagine that there can be many of us left in the UK's major cities and big towns who have not been exposed to it multiple times and if we were going to get it with life threatening symptoms would have done so already.

I was thinking like this. In February. When it was all comparisons to the flu and "we're all going to get it".

I was an idiot.

People don't HAVE to get it, that means they don't HAVE to die.

[Golgo]

"No upside"? But 'Model Villages and Railways' are now officially sanctioned to open to visitors! https://wistow.com/wistow-rural-centre/model-village/

[kryss]

"No upside"? But 'Model Villages and Railways' are now officially sanctioned to open to visitors! https://wistow.com/wistow-rural-centre/model-village/

In small numbers?


I'll get me coat.