Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Tamas]

Gonna' be receiving a test kit as part of a national survey. It is called "antigen" but they are sending the nose impaler so I guess it is to see if I have it right at this moment.

[Josquius]

Gonna' be receiving a test kit as part of a national survey. It is called "antigen" but they are sending the nose impaler so I guess it is to see if I have it right at this moment.

If I want to go into the hospital to see Tyr Jnr pop out I need a test apparently. I hope its not the nose impaler

[Sheilbh]

Ugh - yeah I'm afraid I think the nose impaler is still standard based on the last time I got tested

[Duque de Bragança]

I wonder if that's behind some of it and if that's another NHS difference because my understanding is that in some European countries you can use your health insurance for alternative therapies or homeopathy etc, whereas because of the way the NHS is run and it's clearly a rationed healthcare system there is very little tolerance/space for that stuff so you normally need to go private for it which reduces how widely it's done.

Certainly not here. You can't get alternative therapies through public health care.

Homeotherapy got defunded recently, starting this year actually. And yes, people keep saying vaccines were developed too quickly, beyond the usual anti-vaccine suspects. OTOH, people are complaining about the slow-motion vaccine effort as well.

[Tamas]

Scotland is going into lockdown lockdown from tonight.

We don't know about England yet, perhaps Boris hasn't got home yet from his morning photo op where he explained teachers are not more exposed than regular people.

[Sheilbh]

Scotland is going into lockdown lockdown from tonight.

We don't know about England yet, perhaps Boris hasn't got home yet from his morning photo op where he explained teachers are not more exposed than regular people.

Yeah - I give it until tomorrow before England follows. We'll probably get the customary announcement via someone briefing Robert Peston, the Times and the Telegraph tonight.

Then the inevitable press conference which will, inevitably, be late.

[garbon]

Coming at 8pm!

[Tamas]

Coming at 8pm!

Which means Sheilbh is right and we'll know all details well before the announcement. 

[Sheilbh]

Which means Sheilbh is right and we'll know all details well before the announcement. 

Of the many inexplicable comms decisions taken by the government the one that baffles me most is the way they consistently try to brief against the virus in the same you'd try to brief a policy announcement or stymie your opponent's announcement during an election campaign. It's a fucking virus - it doesn't have a grid

Edit: It begins:

Robert Peston
@Peston
PM will be directly addressing the nation. It won't be a press conference. Tier 4 restrictions will be imposed everywhere. Schools closed. No more team games in parks. But outdoor exercise will still be allowed.

Starting to feel that pre-briefing all policies to Robert Peston may be one of those bizarre quirks in the UK constitution - like the Queen owning all the swans or whatever

Edit: Also in the long litany of Gavin Williamson's failures forcing schools to open for ONE DAY is right up there

[celedhring]

Over here they have just announced a municipal lockdown starting thursday. Non-essential travel ouside your town will be forbidden, gyms/malls closed, all non-essential businesses closed down on weekends. Christmas is over!

This will be the harshest lockdown since Spring.

[Barrister]

Ugh - yeah I'm afraid I think the nose impaler is still standard based on the last time I got tested

I've had the nose test and I've had the throat test.

As someone with an overdeveloped gag reflex I'll take the nose test every time.

[mongers]

All i know is the level of activity I see around me is way higher than during the spring lockdown so I think we could easily squeeze out some further improvement of the situation if he had the willingness to do so.

I see a similar pattern here, we're tier 4, yet I haven't seen a significant difference in evening traffic from normal times, so where are all these people travelling to if non-essential shops/pubs are closed and other household visits are banned?

[The Brain]

WTF is a non-essential pub?

[mongers]

....
snip
.....
Edit: Also in the long litany of Gavin Williamson's failures forcing schools to open for ONE DAY is right up there

It's like they put School Bully (al a Tom Brown's school days) in charge of education.

Maybe the 'thought process' was, he's good at shouting at people or blackmailing them in our school (House of Commons), so he'll be good at telling schools what to do.

[mongers]

WTF is a non-essential pub?

No pub is essential.