Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[viper37]

And yet non-essential stores are open. Ontario's lockdown is de la poudre aux yeux.

it will be in effect by Thursday.  I guess non essential stores will be shutdown by then.

[mongers]

The UK reported 1243 deaths today, almost exactly four times the 310 deaths in France today. 

[Sheilbh]

It's amazing to think out there in the world people are still going to restaurants and work et al.

I'm still furious estate agents are open.

[Sheilbh]

Also promising news from Israel - they've found infections are reduced 50% 14 days after people get the vaccine. We didn't know about whether the vaccines stop transmission or just symptoms but this seems to indicate it has a significant effect on transmission too.

In less positive news about 20% of serious cases in Israel in recent weeks had their vaccine. Basically people got the jab and immediately relaxed when you should stay isolated for at least the 14 days it takes to have a definite immune response to the vaccine.

[celedhring]

The Catalan election scheduled for February is most surely going to be postponed. There's a bit of a cynical calculation from the parties that are openly supporting the move (from both sides of the separatist/unionist spectrum), but I suppose it's the right thing to do. Still, we don't really have proper legal coverage for postponing elections so if one of the other parties appealed, all bets would be off. I suspect none will do though (maybe Vox, because they don't give a fuck).

Also, in bad news, the latest round of restrictions is not showing the same results as the one in November (they are mostly the same), but probably the system is still picking up a lot of cases from the holidays.

[Sheilbh]

We have reached the Piers Morgan speaks for the nation stage of all this
https://twitter.com/johnharris1969/status/1349306698218024960?s=20

[garbon]

We have reached the Piers Morgan speaks for the nation stage of all this
https://twitter.com/johnharris1969/status/1349306698218024960?s=20

Hancock making Piers seem sane.

[Tamas]

Why do they think a politician can never admit there was a moment of time when he was wrong? It's disgusting.

[Richard Hakluyt]

This government ...sigh... it is like shooting fish in a barrel for the likes of Piers Morgan. Marcus Rashford has them on the run too, perhaps he should be drawing the salary for the role of leader of the opposition  ?

[Sheilbh]

This government ...sigh... it is like shooting fish in a barrel for the likes of Piers Morgan. Marcus Rashford has them on the run too, perhaps he should be drawing the salary for the role of leader of the opposition  ?

Boris Johnson says the free school meals food parcels families received were disgraceful, "appalling and an insult to the families who have received them".

He's going to be furious when he finds out who's in office

Would also just flag another catastrophe at the desk of Gavin Williamson.

[Maladict]

The government may resign this week over a tax dept scandal. That's just what we need now.

Lockdown extended by at least three weeks, everyone is bracing for the British virus.

[garbon]

This government ...sigh... it is like shooting fish in a barrel for the likes of Piers Morgan. Marcus Rashford has them on the run too, perhaps he should be drawing the salary for the role of leader of the opposition  ?

Boris Johnson says the free school meals food parcels families received were disgraceful, "appalling and an insult to the families who have received them".

He's going to be furious when he finds out who's in office

Would also just flag another catastrophe at the desk of Gavin Williamson.

Williamson said he'll name and shame the companies as if that's what it needed.

[Richard Hakluyt]

One has to wonder what sort of contracts were drawn up. £30 spent judiciously buys a lot of food.

[Sheilbh]

More forgiving of the big vaccination centres now - according to Israeli reporter unlike us not talking to Korea or Taiwan about stopping covid, we have spoken to Israeli health officials and basically totally changed the way we're doing vaccinations, including the big vaccination centres.

Having spent a big chunk of last spring moaning about the fact we weren't learning from countries that were doing well, it would be churlish not to say it's a good thing we've spoken with Israeli health officials and are implementing things that they did:

Amichai Stein
@AmichaiStein1
1/ Scoop: After talks with Israeli officials - Britain revolutionized the country's vaccination system and 'duplicated parts of the Israeli vaccination system' >>
2/ Due to low % of vaccinators in the UK, the first to begin vaccination, and following a request from te UK there have been a number of talks between Israeli and British officials, including a conversation between British Health Minister Hancock and Health Minister Edelstein >>
3/ Following these talks, the UK has put this week some of the methods of vaccinations in Israel into action with them, including the mass centers in the UK that allow vaccination within 4 minutes and will allow much more vaccination. >>
4/ Sources with knowlege of the detils say: "The method has revolutionized the UK vaccination system and will help to accelerated the rate of vaccines."

[Tamas]

I guess that establishes that Jews are not as low in the British rankings as Chinese and Koreans. 

But yeah we seem to be doing well. It's a big churn though. My job is linked to NHS services in some ways so without going into details its sufficient to say the vaccination drive is having a clear effect. My work is only connected to this quite indirectly so if I was a step further away from it I would be not connected at all, yet the cascading effects of a lot of people being busy on this reach me and keep me quite busy in turn.

Let's hope no high-level government person will want to take charge of the program, so it won't be ruined.