Covid-19 and Politics

[GlennB]

Translation from British English:

Just been down the hospital: Uncertain, but I think it means "It has been reported that a hospital"

with Boris wheel: A colloquialism describing a vehicle immobilisation device. Here in North America I've seen it described as a "Denver boot."

clamping the nurses cars: vehicles owned by nurses are being immobilised.


How'd I do?

2/10

Just been down the pub with Blue Mountain - visited the pub with Blue M

wheel clamping - applying Denver boots to ...

the nurses' cars - self explanatory

but I expect you knew this all along. Still, having to pay to park at your place of work is shocking, especially for the poorly-paid workers. £8 per day is no small amount.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

I laughed at this bit: "The Germans were lucky. They had lots of machines lying around and a system in place."

Those lucky, lucky Germans! Always so lucky! No, it isn't skill! Just blind luck!

You know how it is, you fill the car up with petrol and the garage is doing a special price on respirators if you spend twenty quid on fuel, so you pick one up. Then you get home and it turns out the wife bought one at Tescos, then the kids get home from school and someone had a spare they didn't want so they brought it home and now they want to keep it. Then there's the one you bought in case you ever felt like a bit of respirating, put 'somewhere safe' and forgot about, you always find it the day after you've gone out and bought another one. I'm sure something like that happened with Germany...

 

[Rolfe]

I think the machines they're talking about are PCR analysers, though. Scotland had a lot of capacity lying around because the lab where I used to work does the bulk of the veterinary disease control screening for the whole of Britain (and some of Ireland and the continent). This was offered right at the start and turned down. I saw in the newspaper that they finally got the lab on stream at the end of last month.

The Faroes stayed on top of the epidemic from the start because they accepted the offer from a fish farm disease surveillance lab to repurpose immediately for human coronavorus testing.

I don't believe Germany had significantly more resources in this respect than Britain had. It wasn't just our lab, there were university and college and research and industrial labs across the country who came forward and said we can help with this, and they were all turned down in favour of "letting the virus move through the population" without mass testing. Then when Westminster realised what a mistake it made its reaction was to throw billions at setting up completely new labs run by political donors with no experience in the field.

It's not luck with Germany, it's competence.

 

[jimbob]

I think the machines they're talking about are PCR analysers, though. Scotland had a lot of capacity lying around because the lab where I used to work does the bulk of the veterinary disease control screening for the whole of Britain (and some of Ireland and the continent). This was offered right at the start and turned down. I saw in the newspaper that they finally got the lab on stream at the end of last month.

The Faroes stayed on top of the epidemic from the start because they accepted the offer from a fish farm disease surveillance lab to repurpose immediately for human coronavorus testing.

I don't believe Germany had significantly more resources in this respect than Britain had. It wasn't just our lab, there were university and college and research and industrial labs across the country who came forward and said we can help with this, and they were all turned down in favour of "letting the virus move through the population" without mass testing. Then when Westminster realised what a mistake it made its reaction was to throw billions at setting up completely new labs run by political donors with no experience in the field.

It's not luck with Germany, it's competence.

Exactly, repeated in multiple areas.

Delay for 6 weeks, then panic and ignore available capacity but try eye-catching novel suppliers with no experience of the issues. It's exactly what you would do if you thought you were the protagonist in a libertarian science fiction story... which is what Cummings seems to think.

 

[Darat]

Exactly, repeated in multiple areas.

Delay for 6 weeks, then panic and ignore available capacity but try eye-catching novel suppliers with no experience of the issues. It's exactly what you would do if you thought you were the protagonist in a libertarian science fiction story... which is what Cummings seems to think.

Must have been advice from one of his quirky, not mainstream, non-expert superforecasters.

ETA: For anyone who doesn't know the current UK government is being run using this book: https://dominiccummings.com/2016/11/24/a-review-of-tetlocks-superforecasting-2015/

 

[The Don]

Looks like Wales is accelerating the lifting of lockdown with pubs and cafes allowed to open indoors from August 3rd.

Pubs, cafes, restaurants and bars can reopen indoors in Wales from 3 August, providing coronavirus cases continue to fall.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said it would also depend on how the reopening of hospitality outdoors goes next week.

At least there's a nod to science I suppose by tying this to a continued fall in the number of cases.

Wyld Bird Seed are booked to play a Welsh outdoor venue on 2 August. Looks like that will have to be postponed or cancelled.

 

[zooterkin]

Wyld Bird Seed are booked to play a Welsh outdoor venue on 2 August. Looks like that will have to be postponed or cancelled.

Well, despite the surprise announcement yesterday, outdoor gigs in England are not really going to be happening just yet.

We announced last week that our local music festival will not be happening this year. I looked at the new guidelines this morning, and there are still restrictions on the volume level of performance, and no singing or dancing in the audience allowed.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

Looks like Wales is accelerating the lifting of lockdown with pubs and cafes allowed to open indoors from August 3rd.



At least there's a nod to science I suppose by tying this to a continued fall in the number of cases.

Wyld Bird Seed are booked to play a Welsh outdoor venue on 2 August. Looks like that will have to be postponed or cancelled.

[OffTopic] Is the spelling of 'Wyld' a reference to "Wyld Stallions" ?[/OT]

 

[Lothian]

Is is easy to criticise the UK's response to the Corona Virus epidemic. It is incredible how well we have overcome the difficulties caused by the virus considering Dominic is doing absolutely everything on his own. As such he is bound to make the odd mistake, what with his eyesight issues and everything.
It is not fair for people to compare us to nations with proper functioning Governments and the civil support structures who delegate responsibility, use experts and follow the science.

 

[The Don]

Well, despite the surprise announcement yesterday, outdoor gigs in England are not really going to be happening just yet.

We announced last week that our local music festival will not be happening this year. I looked at the new guidelines this morning, and there are still restrictions on the volume level of performance, and no singing or dancing in the audience allowed.

Not an issue for a Wyld Bird Seed audience (social distancing isn't much of a problem either)

[OffTopic] Is the spelling of 'Wyld' a reference to "Wyld Stallions" ?[/OT]

Certainly in that general vein. I'd have had an umlaut over the 'r' in Bird if I'd have been allowed as well as a nod to Spinal Tap.

 

[The Don]

The UK is opting out of the EU vaccine programme because of *reasons*.

Brexit dogma is more important than British lives - although the British government wants the EU to share their research.

 

[catsmate]

Certainly in that general vein. I'd have had an umlaut over the 'r' in Bird if I'd have been allowed as well as a nod to Spinal Tap.

An "umlaut" !? That sounds rather......"European".

 

[Rolfe]

An umlaut on an "r" sounds - well I don't know how it would sound. Is that a feature of any known language?

 

[Darat]

Is is easy to criticise the UK's response to the Corona Virus epidemic. It is incredible how well we have overcome the difficulties caused by the virus considering Dominic is doing absolutely everything on his own. As such he is bound to make the odd mistake, what with his eyesight issues and everything.
It is not fair for people to compare us to nations with proper functioning Governments and the civil support structures who delegate responsibility, use experts and follow the science.

Never mind not fair - it is downright not British!

 

[The Don]

An umlaut on an "r" sounds - well I don't know how it would sound. Is that a feature of any known language?

It's a "metal umlaut" as featured on the 'n' of Spinal Tap - it's a joke.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Firm with links to Gove and Cummings given Covid-19 contract without open tender

The Cabinet Office has awarded an £840,000 contract to research public opinion about government policies to a company owned by two long-term associates of Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings, without putting the work out for tender.

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...s-given-covid-19-contract-without-open-tender


Is anyone surprised?

 

[Puppycow]

Actual Trump Tweet:

For the 1/100th time, the reason we show so many Cases, compared to other countries that haven’t done nearly as well as we have, is that our TESTING is much bigger and better. We have tested 40,000,000 people. If we did 20,000,000 instead, Cases would be half, etc. NOT REPORTED!

 

[Rolfe]

 

[zooterkin]

Still very few people wearing masks at Tesco or Waitrose (but in both stores it's generally possible to keep 2m apart). One change is that Tesco have removed the direction arrows for the aisles (Waitrose never had them); it was nigh-on impossible to follow them, anyway, since there was no apparent logic to some of them, and I think more people were ignoring them.

I'd have no problem if wearing a mask was required, though.

 

[Tero]

I think people are having a hard time socially distancing even outdoors. Previously when we tried to stay home and avoided crowds, that was easy. Now that people started doing some things normally and some sort of "activity" appears, they throw themselves into it fully, disregarding any virus. This aspect is not really much to do with our political views so much, more to do with your life situation. Old couples, such as me and the Mrs, have a slightly easier time keeping strangers off, and only acting with a small number of people.

Lonely old people seem to have it tough. Old lady at post office talked for minutes with clerk, haw hawing and making enormous clouds of virus, if she happened to be a carrier.