22nd February - Roadmap out of the pandemic, lifting of restrictions.

[roversfan2001]

Once, which does not give full protection.

The second dose doesn’t give full protection either. No vaccine has ever been 100% effective.

 

[Darandio]

The second dose doesn’t give full protection either. No vaccine has ever been 100% effective.

Crikey don't tell them that, they'll be screaming for eternal lockdown.

 

[brad465]

From the BBC Live feed, Johnson's finally had a haircut, although personally I don't think it's made much of a difference:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-56713639

The prime minister has wasted no time in getting his sometimes unruly hair under control as hairdressers reopen in England.

Boris Johnson is famous for his shock of blond hair but the wind played havoc with his overgrown locks on a trip to Truro last week.

But, as he emerged from Downing Street earlier his hair looked noticeably shorter.

Downing Street confirmed the prime minister had his hair trimmed this morning before joining MPs in Parliament to pay tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh.

Johnson had previously suggested he would prioritise a visit to the pub over a trip to the hairdressers but he postponed his plans for a pint in the wake of Prince Philip's death on Friday.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Well there is an 'I'm alright Jack' attitude if ever I saw one. The genie is out of the bottle on the worst mental health crisis we have ever seen, far too many people out there cannot manage like this for another six months to a year.

And don't get me started on routine treatments that have been absolutely decimated for over 12 months. Coupled with these huge mental health issues, the cost of this 'resilience' is going to unneccessarily kill a hell of a lot of people, i'm willing to bet over the coming years this death toll far exceeds any official Covid figures.

Spot on this single Covid issue is storing up huge problems for society but of course Boris and his Tory mates are hoovering up the cash and won't be affected by it. He will then resign after he's been bestowed with the accolade of saving Britain from Covid and leave someone else to clear up the mess.

 

[johntea]

The second dose doesn’t give full protection either. No vaccine has ever been 100% effective.

Interestingly I read somewhere yesterday that people that have been Pfizer vaccinated could be MORE at risk than unvaccinated people from the South African variant 'breaking through' the vaccine defenses but there simply isn't enough data to support that claim one way or the other yet (for the record I personally have now had both doses of Pfizer as a healthcare worker and did have an antibody test which came back positive in 2020 although I certainly didn't feel ill at any point)

 

[Jamiescott1]

This is really offensive to those around the world who have lost loved ones to the disease.

Is feeling a pair of breasts offensive to those who've lost people to breast cancer ?

 

[Richard Scott]

Interestingly I read somewhere yesterday that people that have been Pfizer vaccinated could be MORE at risk than unvaccinated people from the South African variant 'breaking through' the vaccine defenses but there simply isn't enough data to support that claim one way or the other yet (for the record I personally have now had both doses of Pfizer as a healthcare worker and did have an antibody test which came back positive in 2020 although I certainly didn't feel ill at any point)

Sounds like a load of utter nonsense to me. What's the science behind that claim, if none then ignore it?

 

[takno]

From the BBC Live feed, Johnson's finally had a haircut, although personally I don't think it's made much of a difference:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-56713639

It looks like they took it out in clumps rather than just cutting it. Definitely still a mess though

 

[greyman42]

This is really offensive to those around the world who have lost loved ones to the disease.

How do you know? Do you speak for them?

 

[Freightmaster]

Let's not encourage too much drinking beer at 9am! people having the audacity to enjoy themselves after three months of miserable lockdown!

Fixed that for you.




MARK

 

[Yew]

Here goes in response to recent posts...

If we accelerate the re-opening of society, we risk accelerating the spread of covid. It's that simple. And pressing fast-forward now risks pressing pause later in the year.

Let's use science here. See how gradual re-opening works. See what happens with the figures. And then take it slowly, slowly from there. A Tory MP was quoted in the Observer yesterday (anonymously) worried that we'd be back to square 1 if gradual re-opening ends up causing more harm than good. And I agree.

We've proven that we can be resilient for 13 months. We can prove the same for 18, or 24, if required. The danger of being too eager is being too unprepared.

If you wish to continue restrictions, you should have to prove empirically that they are effective, economically that they have a strong cost/benefit ratio, and ethically that subjugation of the majority of us is worth what we gain. Many of these were implemented with no clear evidence base, and are therefore not science, but unsubstantiated hypotheses, since the legislative environment surrounding the public health act requires the 'least restrictive means possible' the onus is on those proposing keeping them to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they are necessary and that less restrictive measures would not suffice in preventing the NHS being overwhelmed.

This is really offensive to those around the world who have lost loved ones to the disease.

Well they'll just have to be offended then. They don't have a right to years of my life just because they're a little upset.

Once, which does not give full protection.

If you're wanting full protection from anything, I have bad news for you. Even with one dose, the vaccine is still very effective, and is above the 5o% protection threshold that the WHO has set to consider a vaccine viable.

 

[Djgr]

Interestingly I read somewhere yesterday that people that have been Pfizer vaccinated could be MORE at risk than unvaccinated people from the South African variant 'breaking through' the vaccine defenses but there simply isn't enough data to support that claim one way or the other yet (for the record I personally have now had both doses of Pfizer as a healthcare worker and did have an antibody test which came back positive in 2020 although I certainly didn't feel ill at any point)

I think you should stick to reading proper news stories and avoid the mumbo-jumbo.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Reported cases well up today but on closer investigation looks like around a third are historic cases being added back from months ago so nothing to see here.

Also NHS released Englands hospital admissions this morning and show continue overall weekly downtrend of c20% to 2108 this morning or 480 over the last week.

Have to wonder why NHS is still at level 3 when less than 2% of its beds are in use with Covid patients! Keeps the fear factor up of course.

 

[brad465]

Reported cases well up today but on closer investigation looks like around a third are historic cases being added back from months ago so nothing to see here.

Also NHS released Englands hospital admissions this morning and show continue overall weekly downtrend of c20% to 2108 this morning or 480 over the last week.

Have to wonder why NHS is still at level 3 when less than 2% of its beds are in use with Covid patients! Keeps the fear factor up of course.

Did it ever go below level 4 recently? I heard the NHS recommended a drop to level 3 recently but either that hasn't happened or it did but didn't get much press coverage.

 

[Butts]

Is feeling a pair of breasts offensive to those who've lost people to breast cancer ?

No, might it might up with a slap around the face or worse in you are not intimately connected to the host.

 

[kez19]

No, might it might up with a slap around the face or worse in you are not intimately connected to the host.

What about had it been a breast from a chicken then? lol

 

[Baxenden Bank]

What about had it been a breast from a chicken then? lol

Didn't your parents tell you - don't play with your food.

I went for a country walk today and saw some people (several separate groups) sat in a pub beer garden, enjoying themselves. How dare they! For the benefit of the terminally nervous this was at a socially responsible time though - I didn't go past pre-dawn but perhaps they had all been there since midnight, hic! Didn't join them as I have lost my instructions on how to visit a pub and be sociable with strangers, perhaps Boris will send me (and the whole country) a letter telling me/us it's now safe to go out.

 

[kez19]

Didn't your parents tell you - don't play with your food.

I went for a country walk today and saw some people (several separate groups) sat in a pub beer garden, enjoying themselves. How dare they! For the benefit of the terminally nervous this was at a socially responsible time though - I didn't go past pre-dawn but perhaps they had all been there since midnight, hic! Didn't join them as I have lost my instructions on how to visit a pub and be sociable with strangers, perhaps Boris will send me (and the whole country) a letter telling me/us it's now safe to go out.

lol

We should all be out enjoying life than being couped in binge watching TV or shall I say letting the news media direct us in what we should do? The media have led the panto on for too long now and I am afraid that the curtain may well indeed be bringing it to a close (people can read that comment anyway they want but even for me I barely watch the news as its became so predictable and that they think the public have their zips up their back zipped when its clear they don't), as I even said before the news media are quick to judge on Boris and his way of doing things but not so towards the devolved nation approach and people are waking up to this fact but again media being selective in coverage doesn't give the full picture and choosing what they want people to hear than thinking for ones own self - this will truly backfire (if its not happening now it will indeed soon)

You would expect our devolved nation(s) and UK government to be encouraging people to go out and enjoy themselves - ie go to beach etc (the simple things), but we have media and selected individuals that we would tell us to mask up/distance ourselves and to hide behind a sofa whilst watching news media on the next fear story. It comes to that point and I think it has been raised its became more of a propaganda cycle and that people doing things are wrong but yet if we took look back no less than 2 years the same activities that people are getting wind up about wouldn't say nothing back then!

When the truth does eventually come out I do wonder if these same people will apologise to those people who were right about certain things about it or will just willow in self pity and still blame everyone else but themselves.

As I see it its became a you vs me approach and the media love it - but be us vs Piers its more of a meh approach but if people don't see this then they are pretty much to blame for this.

 

[Philip]

The police who stopped the Good Friday Service have spoken of their deep regret for what happened. They also attended Mass on Sunday alongside the bishop to address the congregation and express similar by the looks of it.

Covid: Police 'regret' over halting church Good Friday service

Video of officers addressing the Good Friday congregation, from the altar, circulated online.

www.bbc.com

I think this is good of the officers in question and a credit to them, a particularly nice touch in visiting the church a week later to talk kindly to the congregation.

 

[bramling]

This is not an attitude I can agree with.

Viruses spread by today's behaviour will cause an acceleration of cases, and deaths possibly, and cause another lockdown.

Being libertarian about 9am boozing means being responsible for future restrictions.

So do people just stay cooped up forever?

There comes a point where we have to say enough’s enough and time to move on.

Having said that, I do cringe at some of the reports like people queuing for 3/4 mile to enter Primark, surely the whole world didn’t have to descend on the shops in one day?! We took the opportunity to do some other stuff today, and enjoyed some nice empty places. Evidently if there were that many people queuing for shops, there are still loads of people either not at work, or testing the boundaries of “work”ing from home.

The police who stopped the Good Friday Service have spoken of their deep regret for what happened. They also attended Mass on Sunday alongside the bishop to address the congregation and express similar by the looks of it.

Covid: Police 'regret' over halting church Good Friday service

Video of officers addressing the Good Friday congregation, from the altar, circulated online.

www.bbc.com

I think this is good of the officers in question and a credit to them, a particularly nice touch in visiting the church a week later to talk kindly to the congregation.

I wonder if the person who grassed them up will be doing the same?

 

[DorkingMain]

This is not an attitude I can agree with.

Viruses spread by today's behaviour will cause an acceleration of cases, and deaths possibly, and cause another lockdown.

Being libertarian about 9am boozing means being responsible for future restrictions.

What's the end goal here?

Sit in misery for years until COVID is completely eliminated?

Doing anything will potentially cause an "acceleration in cases" in the same way that more people driving results in more road accidents. That doesn't mean the solution is to stop driving forever until cars are made 100% safe. There's a balance to achieve and I don't think criticising people for doing things that are perfectly legal and harmless is the right side of that balance at all.

 

[Pete_uk]

The charity where I work has a charity shop selling mostly cloths but also the useral bric-a-brac etc. It's at the top of the high street beyond which there is no retail of note so people are passing through. They opened at 9am yesterday and it was their busiest day they have ever had.

I just hope it's the same for all the other small shops around town and that it continues.

I do think Saturday will be a big day too.

 

[Jamesrob637]

I do think Saturday will be a big day too.

Definitely however schools still being off in 95% of the country means that more people will have taken this week off work, or at least some of it, than if hospitality and retail had reopened in the school term.

 

[35B]

The second dose doesn’t give full protection either. No vaccine has ever been 100% effective.

Bad phrasing on my part; "full" refers to the level of protection offered by the vaccine, not 100% efficacy (which I agree is unachievable). There's a lot of people saying x% have been vaccinated so let's release all measures, missing the large numbers who either haven't been, haven't had time for the vaccine to take effect, or who have still to have a second jab.

Delighted as I am to see the figures coming out of Israel, I also note the spread of Covid in Chile despite it's well advanced vaccination programme and regard that as a reminder that the best case is not the only possible outcome.

 

[Bald Rick]

Definitely however schools still being off in 95% of the country means that more people will have taken this week off work, or at least some of it, than if hospitality and retail had reopened in the school term.

I wouldn’t say 95% of the country. 100% of my children went back yesterday!

 

[Jamiescott1]

I wouldn’t say 95% of the country. 100% of my children went back yesterday!

0% round here.
My school is back tomorrow and others are back next Monday

 

[Bantamzen]

Bad phrasing on my part; "full" refers to the level of protection offered by the vaccine, not 100% efficacy (which I agree is unachievable). There's a lot of people saying x% have been vaccinated so let's release all measures, missing the large numbers who either haven't been, haven't had time for the vaccine to take effect, or who have still to have a second jab.

Delighted as I am to see the figures coming out of Israel, I also note the spread of Covid in Chile despite it's well advanced vaccination programme and regard that as a reminder that the best case is not the only possible outcome.

The two current vaccines are believed to be between 50% - 65% effective after a couple of weeks of the first dose. So despite you trying to downplay it, the first dose is going to be very effective in quickly driving down numbers. And now there are over 7.5 million people with the second dose, most of which will be in the groups most likely to be at risk. Even most of the most apocalyptic death scenarios came nowhere near that kind of mortality figure.

And the data is backing all this up. Hospitalisations and deaths are in steep decline. There's really little more to discuss, we have an effective barrier going up to prevent the NHS from being at risk again. Like it or not, its time to get moving again, not sitting around hoping the data will give the experts another excuse for keeping us in limbo.

 

[Bald Rick]

Like it or not, its time to get moving again,

As happened yesterday.

 

[Jamesrob637]

As happened yesterday.

And what a sight it was! Hope a few YouTube videos circulate soon. I only took a couple of discreet photos.

And I'm additionally in the generation who blogs/vlogs seemingly every tree they see

 

[YorkshireBear]

Bad phrasing on my part; "full" refers to the level of protection offered by the vaccine, not 100% efficacy (which I agree is unachievable). There's a lot of people saying x% have been vaccinated so let's release all measures, missing the large numbers who either haven't been, haven't had time for the vaccine to take effect, or who have still to have a second jab.

Delighted as I am to see the figures coming out of Israel, I also note the spread of Covid in Chile despite it's well advanced vaccination programme and regard that as a reminder that the best case is not the only possible outcome.

The Chile story is interesting. Doesn't seem to be widespread reporting of it and I would have expected the scare mongering media to leap onto it which for me questions how relevant it is. But I probably need to do some more research.