Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Eddie Teach]

WTF is a non-essential pub?

No pub is essential.

Are you sure you're British?

[Richard Hakluyt]

The children have been home for a fortnight and mixing in family bubbles; so in order to spread the virus it is necessary for them to attend school with each other for a day or two, then come home and infect their grandparents who will be looking after them as their parents try and keep the family finances above water by working 

This is not just any ordinary incompetence; this is Johnson government incompetence.

[Tamas]

Yeah it's just mental. If there was no Marr interview I recon we would have gone at least a week without further lockdown.

[Barrister]

So in ALberta after fairly stringent near-lockdown conditions were put in place (restaurants and bars closed except for takeout, retail stores at 15% capacity, mandatory work from home "if possible", no social gatherings inside of homes) numbers have come down nearly 50% from our early December peak (which well and truly dwarfed our Spring 2020 peak).  Hospitalization/ICU usage remains at a peak but manageable, and is a lagging indicator in any event.

Kids are to do school at home this week (almost certainly until we can assess what kind of damage the holidays did to our numbers) before supposedly returning to school next week.  Government is going to face increasing pressure to reduce some restrictions if the numbers keep on their downward trajectory - but there is the looming threat of the UK variant.

Government also took a massive hit to it's credibility after it's been found that 8-10 senior members of government all took foreign vacations during the holidays, with Hawaii being most popular.  Premier Kenney took responsibility for not specifically ordering them not to go out of province, but the provincial recommendations were already quite clear.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I love the way that Sturgeon invariably manages to take action a day or two before Johnson; thus getting a largely undeserved reputation for prescience and competence 

[The Brain]

WTF is a non-essential pub?

No pub is essential.

[mongers]

Can we open 1970s type Soviet mental asylums for some of these people:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-55531589

Colchester Hospital: Covid deniers removed from 'at capacity' hospital

Nick Hulme said intensive care units at Colchester and Ipswich hospitals were "at capacity"

Security officers removed Covid-19 "deniers" who were taking pictures of empty corridors at a NHS hospital where the intensive care unit is at maximum capacity, its chief executive said.

The incident took place at Colchester Hospital at the weekend.

Chief executive Nick Hulme said it "beggars belief" some people were calling the pandemic a hoax.

He said it was "the right thing to do" to keep corridors in outpatients units as empty as possible.

Mr Hulme said hospital security had to "remove people who were taking photographs of empty corridors and then posting them on social media, saying the hospital is not in crisis".

"When you've got that sort of social media pressure and those people denying the reality of Covid it really concerns us. Words fail me," he said.

"Why would people do that when we all know somebody who has died from Covid?

"Of course there are empty corridors at the weekend in outpatients, because that's the right thing to do.

"We are facing the biggest health challenge we've ever seen and we are still seeing people flouting the [social distancing] rules."
.....

[Duque de Bragança]

WTF is a non-essential pub?

No pub is essential.

Does Mongers try to get deported to the Continent, following the removal of his citizenship? 

[mongers]

WTF is a non-essential pub?

No pub is essential.

Does Mongers try to get deported to the Continent, following the removal of his citizenship? 

Damn, I've been rumbled. 

[Sheilbh]

I love the way that Sturgeon invariably manages to take action a day or two before Johnson; thus getting a largely undeserved reputation for prescience and competence 

Sturgeon's vaccine update was interesting. They expect to have 900k vaccinated by the end of January (which is about 16% of the population - so the equivalent in England would be 9.5 million) and all over 50s plus under 50s with relevant conditions vaccinated by May.

Hopefully Johnson gives an update on the current status too. It still seems a bit too slow for me, but good to see some sort of timeline. And there will come a point in the next month or two when we start having a debate about how many restrictions we need.

Edit: Also the former SNP MP who travelled on the train between Edinburgh and London a few times after getting her positive covid test has been arrested. The Procurator Fiscal has said she's being charged with "culpable and reckless conduct" which is a Scots common law crime - interesting that it's not breach of the covid regulations.

[Barrister]

Hopefully Johnson gives an update on the current status too. It still seems a bit too slow for me, but good to see some sort of timeline. And there will come a point in the next month or two when we start having a debate about how many restrictions we need.

You do realize that except for Israel and Bahrain (which with tiny and very dense populations aren't very good comparitors) the UK is leading the world in vaccination rates?

[Sheilbh]

You do realize that except for Israel and Bahrain (which with tiny and very dense populations aren't very good comparitors) the UK is leading the world in vaccination rates?

Yes - but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be trying to do better and I think the time pressure here is a bigger factor here given the very high prevalence plus the more transmissible new strain which is becoming the dominant variant of covid in areas of the UK.

[Grey Fox]

BB & I are going to get vaccinated in late Summer & here you are saying your timeline is too slow.

[Barrister]

BB & I are going to get vaccinated in late Summer & here you are saying your timeline is too slow.

I might get early summer if I'm declared a frontline or high-risk worker.  

[Tamas]

So I am not really getting it. Maybe the guidance PDF hasn't been properly updated, but you can still get out to obtain goods and services, places of worship are still open - only difference is schools getting closed, then?