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

[Ogdred Weary]

The flight arrival 14 day quarantine to the UK seems bizarre at this stage of the pandemic.
Countries with a strong incoming tourist sector/business travellers sector to their economy but who have managed low rates of infection have all used the flight arrival quarantine as part of their tactics from much earlier in the pandemic's outbreak (Jamaica, New Zealand, Taiwan, Israel, to name but a few)

From The Guardian:

"There has been mounting scrutiny of UK border controls in the run-up to the crisis. It emerged that 18.1m people arrived in the UK by air between 1 January and 23 March and only 273 were formally quarantined.
Until 13 March the government advised incoming passengers from specific hotspot countries, including Italy, Iran and parts of China, to self-isolate, but this was dropped – “inexplicably”, according to Yvette Cooper, the chair of the home affairs select committee."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...uarantine-plan-makes-no-sense-uk-adviser-says

Indeed, shutting to gate after the horse has bolted, infected all the other horses and then trampled someone. As it were.

 

[ChrisBoardman]

We all know this virus will be with us for a while, but it's interesting what effect it will have on forms of public transport.

I've seen pictures of what self isolating trains and planes will be like in the near future and it all looks a bit crazy.

But I think the airline industry already has the answer, they've had self isolating cabins in first and business class for years. Won't it be nice when economy class has the same self isolating sections for individuals, couples and families?

Of course the cost of a flight will depend on the number of people who can fit on a plane.

I think those airlines who are phasing out their A380s may be acting a bit premature.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Of course the cost of a flight will depend on the number of people who can fit on a plane.

Prices will be sky-high, just like in the old-old days.

 

[Xanatic*]

Unless those self-isolating cabins don't share air, will it matter?

 

[Lobeydosser]

They also forget to mention the school year is different throughout the UK - Scotland finishes about a month earlier and starts back a month sooner - that's why as a kid I never did get to find out if Robinson Crusoe got of that island or Flash Gordon saved the Earth.
It would make zero sense for Scottish schools to go back for only a few weeks at best.
Then again the media does like to bang on about Bank Holidays that only one part of the UK gets as if they were UK wide as well..... grumble....

 

[Ogdred Weary]

They also forget to mention the school year is different throughout the UK - Scotland finishes about a month earlier and starts back a month sooner - that's why as a kid I never did get to find out if Robinson Crusoe got of that island or Flash Gordon saved the Earth.
It would make zero sense for Scottish schools to go back for only a few weeks at best.
Then again the media does like to bang on about Bank Holidays that only one part of the UK gets as if they were UK wide as well..... grumble....

Does Scotland have a bank holiday which the rest of the UK doesn't?

 

[Ermintruder]

<is_it_satire?>
A radical but simple solution: fly widebody passenger jets depressurised, and require all on board to wear oxygen masks.

Compliance would be assured, as those breaking the rules would suffocate en-route, and the corpses could simply be removed from their seats by specially-trained cleaning staff.

The use of adult diapers/nappies in an astronaut style would eliminate the need for visits to the bathroom.

Reduced oxygen levels, augmented by low levels of entonox, will mildly-sedate passengers during flights, making journeys just seem to happen in the blink of an eye
</is _it_satire?>

Everything in the entire world now has to be modied to insane levels of complexity, in order to ensure Covid-safe environments.... perhaps bulk passenger airline travel should help lead the way in this.

 

[gordonrutter]

They also forget to mention the school year is different throughout the UK - Scotland finishes about a month earlier and starts back a month sooner - that's why as a kid I never did get to find out if Robinson Crusoe got of that island or Flash Gordon saved the Earth.
It would make zero sense for Scottish schools to go back for only a few weeks at best.
Then again the media does like to bang on about Bank Holidays that only one part of the UK gets as if they were UK wide as well..... grumble....

Education is devolved to Scotland so whatever happens in England is totally unrelated. Term dates are actually different in different parts of Scotland. As things curretnly stand in Scotland schools will be breaking for the summer at whenever they were originaly planning to do so. However irrespective of when they had planned to go back all schools in Scotland (as things currently stand) are going to be reopening in some form or other on August the 11th. This means some schools are losing holidays with a nebulous footnote of it'll all be sorted out later.

 

[David Plankton]

More reason why we should have invented flying cars by now.

 

[Sabresonic]

lt didn’t leave behind approximately £9,000,000,000 in 2012, money which would come in very handy for sensible purposes about now.

maximus otter

It did leave some white elephants in Sydney and Brazil but London was a real special one and one of the greatest shows on earth but now its time maybe to stop.

 

[Lobeydosser]

According to wikipedia we have one more at the minute and they fall on different days - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_holiday.
Mostly it's a case of them being moved around due to being further North and Summer happening at a different time.
The extra is at New Year - I recall working for an employer who was astonished to find that no one - not even senior management would work 2nd January. (English company that had taken over an existing Scottish based one).
My point , however is that you wouldn't know this, as the supposedly national broadcaster only ever presents everything from a SE of England viewpoint - most blatant being we all get "English" coverage of World cup football - be nice to see it all be handled by BBC Northern Ireland for a tournament for instance - be told how the Senegal centre forward once trialed for a club in Belfast etc.
The BBC is simply too London centric and only get interested in the other bits of the UK when they think they can stir the pot or are looking for a funny "look at the quaint peasants" story.

 

[Lobeydosser]

Education is devolved to Scotland so whatever happens in England is totally unrelated. Term dates are actually different in different parts of Scotland. As things curretnly stand in Scotland schools will be breaking for the summer at whenever they were originaly planning to do so. However irrespective of when they had planned to go back all schools in Scotland (as things currently stand) are going to be reopening in some form or other on August the 11th. This means some schools are losing holidays with a nebulous footnote of it'll all be sorted out later.

It was different long before devolution and indeed different in NI, that's really my point - the "National" broadcaster is very inept and uneasy at reporting on the nation it supposedly represents - we see this even in the coverage of Covid - they really don't handle the reporting of the differences within the UK all that well I think.

 

[Mythopoeika]

The BBC is simply too London centric and only get interested in the other bits of the UK when they think they can stir the pot or are looking for a funny "look at the quaint peasants" story.

The BBC is full of London luvvies.

 

[Ogdred Weary]

The BBC is full of London luvvies.

The media in the UK generally is London-centric, or at least London and South East England centric. As are many other aspects of "national" UK culture. If you move things to other places or start covering other places, people will still complain that say Newcastle got a look in but Liverpool didn't.

The media is also dominated by the Middle Class, more specifically: the Upper Middle Class. I dare say the Upper Class get a bit of the action too, poor things.

 

[Swifty]

Cromer Tourism Board.

Our Tourist information centre has been converted into a covid testing centre in the car park, manned by yoof dressed in army looking camo gear who look like they only shave every three days .. so long as they've been trained up properly and know what they're doing at the moment? ... cool.

 

[Frasier Buddolph]

Nah, the airlines will shrink-wrap passengers and stack them in the empty (no seats) cabin like cordwood. Air will be provided at a nominal extra charge. The cost of the shrinkwrap film will be offset by savings from eliminating the cabin crew. Of course, fares will have to increase because the airlines can no longer charge for carry-on luggage.

 

[Kondoru]

I do have wings, but they are just for show.

I cannot fly and so it wont affect me.

 

[Naughty_Felid]

More reason why we should have invented flying cars by now.

They'd only try and run over the flying bicycles though.

 

[Min Bannister]

You are all wrong. In the future people will travel by Trebuchet, just the way God intended.

 

[David Plankton]

They'd only try and run over the flying bicycles though.

If they weren't paying air tax then rightly so.

 

[Naughty_Felid]

If they weren't paying air tax then rightly so.

Very good

 

[maximus otter]

My major concern throughout all of this is this though - Have we set a precedent?

Are we going to move through this period only to enter into our next winter and find that when the regular 'seasonal flu' comes along that we end up being put into yet another lockdown?

l fear that the media has learned the neologism “lockdown”; and, from now on, that will be their baseline demand in response to all future health scares.

2021: Hamster in Penge develops cystitis - “Prime Minister, when are you ordering the country into lockdown? lf not, why do you want Britain’s babies to die?”



maximus otter

 

[Kondoru]

Im not sure a trebuchet would help me.

 

[ramonmercado]

The BBC is full of London luvvies.

The BBC does have regional HQs and channels.

Some here say the BBC has a leftwing bias, I say it has a rightwing bias!

Maybe it'd somewhere in the middle.

 

[Trevp666]

Surely there is a case for the airlines to look at the (costly) re-configuring of aircraft interiors to provide better 'distancing' in general.
We know that the majority of the aircraft fuselage is devoted to cargo and passenger carrying (and the airlines make more money from the cargo than the passengers in most instances). Maybe it could somehow be divided into separate spaces into which a preloaded passenger 'cell' containing maybe 8 passengers which have been tested beforehand, could be loaded alongside cargo.
Each 'cell' having it's own full facilities for the flight (food and drink, entertainment, toilet/bathroom etc), and carrying all the luggage for the passengers within.
The 'cell' gets unloaded at the destination and the 8 passengers re-tested before being allowed to travel onwards.
If infection of any sort is dicovered the whole 'cell' goes into quarantine and is transported directly to a suitable facility.

 

[Lobeydosser]

The BBC does have regional HQs and channels.

Some here say the BBC has a leftwing bias, I say it has a rightwing bias!

Maybe it'd somewhere in the middle.

By and large the regional stuff is woeful, and also still tends to punt a somewhat SE centric view - I'll make an exception for BBC Alba which even though it's in Gaelic had for many years the best current affairs coverage on all matters Europe - Eorpa -https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mvwb
The BBC is neither left or right wing - it's Establishment
To their credit the government and devolved parliaments\assemblies made an effort to present a united front on Covid and not make any political capital out of it - even though that must have presented some "challenges" to say the least. I for one wasn't keen on Scotland following the Uk gov, but I do understand the value of a "united" message.
I can't help thinking though that if it had been Wales, Scotland or NI that had first started to ease "lockdown" the BBC for one would have stirred it up as much as possible.
I dislike the BBC and how and who it is operated by, it's not held to anything like the standard it pretends to be.

 

[Lobeydosser]

Just saw this over at the FT -
‘Politicised nature’ of lockdown debate delays Imperial report
Neil Ferguson’s team has sent modelling findings to government but not released them to the public
https://www.ft.com/content/41e98ccb-a39c-4f88-b444-74d50a76c383

 

[Naughty_Felid]

l fear that the media has learned the neologism “lockdown”; and, from now on, that will be their baseline demand in response to all future health scares.

2021: Hamster in Penge develops cystitis - “Prime Minister, when are you ordering the country into lockdown? lf not, why do you want Britain’s babies to die?”



maximus otter

This isn't a health scare its a pandemic.

 

[maximus otter]

Im not sure a trebuchet would help me.

How could owning a trebuchet not help anyone?

This UK farmer has built one on his land for giggles, and uses it to launch cars, pianos and drums of fuel:

You’d have to be pretty low not to be cheered up by that!

maximus otter

 

[Min Bannister]

You’d have to be pretty low not to be cheered up by that!

The car alarm going off when the fuel explodes is a nice touch.