COVID-19: Non-Medical Effects (Responses; Disruptions; Etc.)

[maximus otter]

If the variant is more common in East Anglia, I wonder why East Anglia still remains in tier 2? .. unless that involves a political answer which we don't go into here of course.

Haven’t they established that this version is no more dangerous than basic Covid, it just spreads more readily?

“Nothing still happens, just quicker.”

maximus otter

 

[uair01]

From a security blog comment:
CabbageControl • December 20, 2020 7:43 AM

The staff of a fancy bookstore in central Bucharest has recently photographed a customer in full diving suit, complete with oxygen tanks.
Since that photo was removed from Facebook before I could save it, I could only find this old article from another part of the world:
hXXps://www.msn.com/en-us/video/viral/man-goes-grocery-shopping-wearing-diving-gear-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/vp-BB12hKPn

 

[maximus otter]

Not to disagree with you but the problem with that is that the NHS is the worlds 5th largest employer, they get loads of funding, but there is wastage and profligacy on an almost industrial scale.
The amount of funding could be doubled but the end result would be unchanged as those at the top would invent new ways of spending it faster.

We spend £2,200,000,000 per week on the NHS, yet - like the old joke about banks - "They'll lend us an umbrella when the sun's shining, but as soon as it starts raining they want it back."

maximus otter

 

[Tempest63]

On the evening news last night they reported Italy has identified their first case of the new variant, thus far only found in the U.K.
With the amount of international travel and business centred around London, the ports in Essex and Kent and Stanstead, Heathrow and Gatwick in the “Hot Zone”, I guess it won’t be too long before the new variant becomes an issue globally.

 

[Yithian]

If we'd planned for this as everyone knew something like this was on its way and actually kept the health service funded then we wouldn't be in this mess.

Not to disagree with you but the problem with that is that the NHS is the worlds 5th largest employer, they get loads of funding, but there is wastage and profligacy on an almost industrial scale.
The amount of funding could be doubled but the end result would be unchanged as those at the top would invent new ways of spending it faster.

We spend £2,200,000,000 per week on the NHS, yet - like the old joke about banks - "They'll lend us an umbrella when the sun's shining, but as soon as it starts raining they want it back."

Unless somebody wishes to argue a direct link between NHS funding and the current spread of / response to the coronavirus outbreak, this is taking the discussion off topic.

Naughty Felid's first point about preparing for the near-inevitable seems much more apposite.

When I'm back home later, I shall see whether I can locate a thread on the NHS that did not become a political bun-fight and end up locked.

I don't recall whether there is one.

 

[Yithian]

Happy for my post to be moved somewhere more appropriate if it is put in context.
TBH I hadn't even thought about the thread we were in - I just thought that the bit about NHS funding should be addressed.

I'm going to leave the posts that have been made in place with a request that any debate on the much wider issue of NHS funding take place here:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/the-nhs-thread.29513

That is not, however, (any longer) a place to debate the successes or failures of the various parties. The proper place for that is on some other message board.

 

[Trevp666]

I can fix that then.
No worries.

 

[charliebrown]

England has been set adrift by itself in the world, as countries cut off the Brits.

There is a concern of shortages in England of everything.

The new mutant strain spreads.

 

[Stormkhan]

Hark at you, CharlieBrown, you and your "Project Fear" nonsense!

 

[Mythopoeika]

England has been set adrift by itself in the world, as countries cut off the Brits.

There is a concern of shortages in England of everything.

Only England is affected?
I guess we could buy excess stuff from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

 

[Stormkhan]

Excess? How quaint.

 

[Tempest63]

One of the things we noticed is the sky rocketing price of puppies.
we paid £700 a year ago for our springer spaniel, he comes with an excellent pedigree, is KC registered and, coming from working stock he had his tail docked. At a year old he is flushing on our shoot but I won’t let him retrieve for another year.

Roll on the lockdown and puppies without his pedigree, non-KC registered are commanding £2000 - £2500. I’ve been searching for a litter of reasonably priced, pedigree dogs as, after agreement with my daughter and her partner, I was going to buy one for my youngest grandson to grow up with, and a brother to move in with our ménage. There are some pups that fit our bill in the £1000 price range, something I would be happy to pay, but these are in places like Scotland and Ireland so are currently impossible to travel to to view and then collect once weaned.

The downside of this is the number of 9 and 10 month old puppies now looking to be rehoused as people find that the cuddly springer pup they bought needs a lot of TLC and even more exercise. And most I have seen for rehoming, the owners want to recover their losses and are looking to get back the money they paid for the cute bundle of fluff at 8 weeks. Either that or they are looking to cash in on a puppy they bought at a reasonable price and have seen the prices treble.

People need to understand a dog is for life, not just lockdown.

 

[Kondoru]

Spaniels are insane and need a lot of attention.

They are hardly suitable as pets.

Particularly those from working dog stock.

My shooting friends keep spaniels of all sorts and agree they are trouble.

 

[Tempest63]

Mad as a box of frogs...I love them

 

[maximus otter]

22.12.2020: ALARMING pictures from inside the country’s flagship Nightingale Hospital show it stripped bare despite soaring Covid cases.

The new strain is rampant in the capital but the coronavirus facility in East London is deserted.

Our photos show the largest of the Nightingales without staff, equipment and the 4,000 beds it has room for at the ExCeL centre.

Cases have doubled in London in a week and health bosses are being urged to open the site and start treating patients.

It is one of seven hospitals built at the start of the pandemic at a cost of £220million, but it was shut and placed on standby soon after.

The Nightingale at Birmingham’s NEC is empty, too. It and Sunderland’s are also on standby.

NHS England said while three were on standby, Manchester was open for “non-Covid care”, Exeter and Harrogate as “specialist diagnostics centres”, and Bristol for “local NHS services”.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13553463/nightingale-hospitals-sit-empty-despite-mutant-covid/

maximus otter

 

[Trevp666]

I expect that (like me) everybody thinks it has just been sitting there, full of beds and equipment, all year, waiting for the patients to arrive.

 

[Naughty_Felid]

I expect that (like me) everybody thinks it has just been sitting there, full of beds and equipment, all year, waiting for the patients to arrive.

What planet do you live on?

I'm not being rude, but there is no way you are going to mothball so much equipment, (if it was ever there in the first place). Equipment is going to be redistributed pretty sharpish, (if it exists).

 

[Trevp666]

What planet do you live on?

Fair comment, lol.
I meant that assuming it was still a going a concern which is just as dumb TBH.
I'll shut up.

 

[Yithian]

22.12.2020: ALARMING pictures from inside the country’s flagship Nightingale Hospital show it stripped bare despite soaring Covid cases.

The new strain is rampant in the capital but the coronavirus facility in East London is deserted.

Our photos show the largest of the Nightingales without staff, equipment and the 4,000 beds it has room for at the ExCeL centre.

Cases have doubled in London in a week and health bosses are being urged to open the site and start treating patients.

It is one of seven hospitals built at the start of the pandemic at a cost of £220million, but it was shut and placed on standby soon after.

The Nightingale at Birmingham’s NEC is empty, too. It and Sunderland’s are also on standby.

NHS England said while three were on standby, Manchester was open for “non-Covid care”, Exeter and Harrogate as “specialist diagnostics centres”, and Bristol for “local NHS services”.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13553463/nightingale-hospitals-sit-empty-despite-mutant-covid/

maximus otter

How did this story get past the editor?

It's incredibly stupid.

Resources are shifted around as and when needed or to where they are most likely to be needed. If the hospital wards overflow with critical patients in the new year, you will have a very different photo opportunity.

They didn't fire the medical staff and dump the ventilators in the Thames!

 

[maximus otter]

maximus otter

 

[maximus otter]

Firms start work on 'freedom passports': Documents would allow people who have tested negative for Covid-19 to enter pubs, schools and workplaces

The contracts envisage a system under which people are assigned a QR code on their smartphones linking to a digital passport that includes a photo of them.

After a Covid test, this would be updated at the test centre and when people want to enter a venue they could present their QR code as proof of their negative status.

After scanning in the code, the venue could refuse entry to those without a recent negative result.

The Department of Health source said the scheme was 'exploratory work' and the system was not being introduced imminently. 'It is about looking at ways we could use this in future,' the source added. 'It is looking at whether it would be possible.

'There are no plans to introduce immunity passports.'

Ministers have previously ruled out introducing passports for those who have had a vaccine. This had led to fears that those who declined to have the jab would be discriminated against.

The proposal for the 'negative Covid-19 test certification' system was revealed on the Government's contracts checker.

It shows a £42,000 contract was signed with Netcompany UK for a 'Covid-19 Certification/Passport MVP' in November.

The contract is described as being to 'develop a negative Covid-19 test certification minimum viable product' – a simple version of the app to prove it would be feasible to go forward with.

A similar contract – worth £34,000 – was awarded to the Hub Company. Under its scheme, individuals would sign up to an app giving them a personal QR code.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9077385/Firms-start-work-freedom-passports.html

maximus otter

 

[Schrodinger's Zebra]

Firms start work on 'freedom passports': Documents would allow people who have tested negative for Covid-19 to enter pubs, schools and workplaces

The contracts envisage a system under which people are assigned a QR code on their smartphones linking to a digital passport that includes a photo of them.

After a Covid test, this would be updated at the test centre and when people want to enter a venue they could present their QR code as proof of their negative status.

After scanning in the code, the venue could refuse entry to those without a recent negative result.

The Department of Health source said the scheme was 'exploratory work' and the system was not being introduced imminently. 'It is about looking at ways we could use this in future,' the source added. 'It is looking at whether it would be possible.

'There are no plans to introduce immunity passports.'

Ministers have previously ruled out introducing passports for those who have had a vaccine. This had led to fears that those who declined to have the jab would be discriminated against.

The proposal for the 'negative Covid-19 test certification' system was revealed on the Government's contracts checker.

It shows a £42,000 contract was signed with Netcompany UK for a 'Covid-19 Certification/Passport MVP' in November.

The contract is described as being to 'develop a negative Covid-19 test certification minimum viable product' – a simple version of the app to prove it would be feasible to go forward with.

A similar contract – worth £34,000 – was awarded to the Hub Company. Under its scheme, individuals would sign up to an app giving them a personal QR code.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9077385/Firms-start-work-freedom-passports.html

maximus otter

Yup, this has been bubbling in the background for a while now and is quite concerning to say the least. I haven't seen the above linked article as I don't read the Daily Mail but I am aware of the contract it describes, the details of which can be found here on the government website:
https://www.contractsfinder.service...f4-858a-1d25cbacd532?origin=SearchResults&p=1
At the bottom of the linked page there is a further link, to a PDF with details of the contract.


I'd like to think there is an 'innocent' explanation for this plan, but I can't think of one. In my view we should absolutely not be discriminating between people who have had negative tests or not (a negative test doesn't mean a person hasn't picked up the virus since the test, plus they aren't 100% accurate!), or people who have had the vaccine or not (many people cannot have, or do not want, the vaccine and that should be their choice). Not to mention that unless the government proposes giving everyone a smartphone, then people without such technology will also be left out.

This is not the same thing as some countries already requiring vaccination for certain diseases before a person can travel. This goes way beyond that.


In my opinion we are teetering at the top of a very slippery and dangerous slope, and I fear with how things have gone this year, that it is now too late to stop the inevitable descent.

I won't say any more than that, but frankly the consequences of what has happened this year and the potential for what it all could mean, frighten me more than the virus does.

 

[ramonmercado]

Firms start work on 'freedom passports': Documents would allow people who have tested negative for Covid-19 to enter pubs, schools and workplaces

The contracts envisage a system under which people are assigned a QR code on their smartphones linking to a digital passport that includes a photo of them.

After a Covid test, this would be updated at the test centre and when people want to enter a venue they could present their QR code as proof of their negative status.

After scanning in the code, the venue could refuse entry to those without a recent negative result.

The Department of Health source said the scheme was 'exploratory work' and the system was not being introduced imminently. 'It is about looking at ways we could use this in future,' the source added. 'It is looking at whether it would be possible.

'There are no plans to introduce immunity passports.'

Ministers have previously ruled out introducing passports for those who have had a vaccine. This had led to fears that those who declined to have the jab would be discriminated against.

The proposal for the 'negative Covid-19 test certification' system was revealed on the Government's contracts checker.

It shows a £42,000 contract was signed with Netcompany UK for a 'Covid-19 Certification/Passport MVP' in November.

The contract is described as being to 'develop a negative Covid-19 test certification minimum viable product' – a simple version of the app to prove it would be feasible to go forward with.

A similar contract – worth £34,000 – was awarded to the Hub Company. Under its scheme, individuals would sign up to an app giving them a personal QR code.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9077385/Firms-start-work-freedom-passports.html

maximus otter

Those who have Covid-19 will be required to ring a bell and cry: Unclean! Unclean!

 

[maximus otter]

In my opinion we are teetering at the top of a very slippery and dangerous slope, and I fear with how things have gone this year, that it is now too late to stop the inevitable descent.

I won't say any more than that, but frankly the consequences of what has happened this year and the potential for what it all could mean, frighten me more than the virus does.

Yep.

maximus otter

 

[Comfortably Numb]

Breaking from BBC News...

Zhang Zhan: China jails citizen journalist for Wuhan reports

A Chinese citizen journalist who covered Wuhan's coronavirus outbreak has been jailed for four years.

Zhang Zhan was found guilty of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble", a frequent charge against activists.

The 37-year-old former lawyer was detained in May, and has been on hunger strike for several months. Her lawyers say she is in poor health.

Ms Zhang is one of several citizen journalists who have run into trouble for reporting on Wuhan.

There is no free media in China and authorities are known to clamp down on activists or whistleblowers seen as undermining the government's response to the outbreak.

[...]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-55463241

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

Here's a thought; why was Trump slammed for calling the original Wuhan virus the China Virus, when it appears to be perfectly acceptable to refer to the new variant as the "UK Variant" or "English Variant"?

 

[GNC]

Intent, I think.

 

[Kondoru]

Hypocrisy.

Plus, of course we make good bad guys

 

[GNC]

Hypocrisy.

Plus, of course we make good bad guys

There's still the South African strain if you want a non-white variation.

 

[maximus otter]

Here's a thought; why was Trump slammed for calling the original Wuhan virus the China Virus, when it appears to be perfectly acceptable to refer to the new variant as the "UK Variant" or "English Variant"?

lt was first detected in Brazil.

Referring to “The Brazilian” might lead to misunderstandings.

maximus otter