Coronavirus - is enough being done to contain it?

Are we having a Forum Christmas party this year?

It appears we could have had one last year.

Ros Atkins on... The No 10 Christmas party

(03-12-2021 12:32 )Goodfella3041 Wrote:  Are we having a Forum Christmas party this year?

It appears we could have had one last year.

There was one. We just didn't tell you

Bit like Boris. They probably told him it was a telly on downstairs...

^Should we all get together and march down to10 Downing St and demand Boris host a party for us??

A friend’s daughter attends a fancy boarding school with lots of international students. It appears that all the boarders have been told to pack up and go home early for xmas so they aren’t “trapped” at school in the event of a lockdown.

It’s all “precautionary” of course, but it’s the same rumbling noises that preceded other lockdowns.

The government have said that the lockdowns are unlikely, but I can still see it happening.

So much for the mandatory mask wearing in shops and on transport. I was in two supermarkets yesterday and there's still so many not bothering. There can't be this many exemptions. Same with the bus journey home from the football match. The staff in both instances are reluctant to, or unable to, enforce the measures.

We still aren't sure about how much more deadly this new variant is or if it is more resistant to vaccines. People need to be more responsible to give the science time to carry out more tests.

As damaging financially and socially as lockdowns are, more of Europe is again implementing this measure and if cases continue to rise here the government will be under pressure to do the same.

As soon as the north gets overrun again then they will put restrictions on us again

Another lockdown is unlikely for political reasons given the libertarian stance of some Tory backbenchers and the cost to the Treasury of furlough. The pressure on the NHS of admissions is largely limited to the unvaccinated population which is much smaller than during previous lockdowns so the NHS is unlikely to be like Italy in March 2020.
We needed clear and concise messaging about the importance of mask wearing but we got Boris being reluctant to 'upset' the voters so hundreds, if not thousands, more deaths will result. Living with the virus should mean mitigation measures becoming more common place... No mitigations in name of normality will result in more deaths and long-term Covid morbidity.

It's like I said before "Living with the virus" can mean so many things and the Goverment needs to put this into context giving us a clear idea
of what they think it DOES mean. Even if it means us taking the simple approach to things and doing the simple things like respecting each other's space on a social level ensuring we handwash and things like that. But the Govewrnment umms and aahs so much that when it does finally come up with with a definitve explanation, there will be so much more shit in it than there is in my arse that no one will take notice of it.

I agree that a full lockdown is unlikely, especially because of the furlough cost.

But I am sceptical that “clearer guidance” will do the trick at this stage, because they’ve muddied the water too much and created too much expectation that things like mask-wearing, social distancing and work-from-home mandates are a matter of choice.

Appealing to the better angels of individuals gets us nowhere, because a significant minority of people who don’t give a shit, soon becomes a majority of people who think, wtf, if everyone’s breaking the ‘rules’, then they aren’t really rules.

Personally, I would suggest doing now what the government should have done six months ago — come down hard and for real on a few ‘middlemen’ who can influence the behaviour of many.

No attending professional football matches, concerts, cinema, theatre or clubs unless you can produce proof of vaccination. No boarding a flight without proof of vaccination. Work-from-home mandates applied to employers, not employees.

Let the football clubs and airlines do the heavy lifting on enforcement, instead of bus drivers and supermarket workers.

(05-12-2021 12:16 )Goodfella3041 Wrote:  I agree that a full lockdown is unlikely, especially because of the furlough cost.

But I am sceptical that “clearer guidance” will do the trick at this stage, because they’ve muddied the water too much and created too much expectation that things like mask-wearing, social distancing and work-from-home mandates are a matter of choice.

Appealing to the better angels of individuals gets us nowhere, because a significant minority of people who don’t give a shit, soon becomes a majority of people who think, wtf, if everyone’s breaking the ‘rules’, then they aren’t really rules.

Personally, I would suggest doing now what the government should have done six months ago — come down hard and for real on a few ‘middlemen’ who can influence the behaviour of many.

No attending professional football matches, concerts, cinema, theatre or clubs unless you can produce proof of vaccination. No boarding a flight without proof of vaccination. Work-from-home mandates applied to employers, not employees.

Let the football clubs and airlines do the heavy lifting on enforcement, instead of bus drivers and supermarket workers.

you can still catch it and pass it on even if you've been double jabbed you know!