Coronavirus | Page 25 | Vital Football

Coronavirus

That didn't take long (Graun):

"More than 200 schools in South Korea have been forced to close just days after they reopened, due to a new spike in virus cases. Thousands of students had earlier on Wednesday returned to school as the country began easing virus restrictions, but a day later, 79 new cases were recorded, the highest daily figure in two months."
 
I wrote to my MP about my 'disquiet' over the example set by Mr Cummings. The reply, once I had proved I was not a robot and that I lived in said MP's constituency, had all the appearance of being produced by the press office for mass circulation to all.
 
I wrote to my MP about my 'disquiet' over the example set by Mr Cummings. The reply, once I had proved I was not a robot and that I lived in said MP's constituency, had all the appearance of being produced by the press office for mass circulation to all.
Sadly all parties do that, based on my own experience of receiving replies from different MP's over time and comparing the content with other released sources regarding the same subjects. There's a fair bit of whipping goes on in the background.
 
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Sadly all parties do that, based on my own experience of receiving replies from different MP's over time and comparing the content with other released sources regarding the same subjects. There's a fair bit of whipping goes on in the background.

Absolutely the case. Lincoln's previous MP, Karen Lee (Labour) promised to help keep the walk-in centre on Monks Road open. Bearing in mind she is a nurse, it was odd that she actually did very little and it was left to a group of independent campaigners and a decent pro-bono solicitor to do the work.
 

For NHS staff, the speech felt a little like prime ministerial gaslighting. At this point in the pandemic, the Cheltenham races were still in full tilt, some 250,000 people jamming into the stands over four days, and schools were still open. Government discussions about abandoning community testing for herd immunity had just been leaked, to great consternation. And PPE guidance for frontline staff had just been mysteriously downgraded so that most of us now were (indeed, still are) advised to wear equipment that fell short of World Health Organisation and EU standards. Meanwhile, friends working in intensive care in London were describing unfolding horrors in their ICUs. “I don’t know how much longer I can take it without lockdown,” one of my colleagues murmured as we walked towards the hospital. “I mean, have they actually decided to just ignore what’s going on in Italy?”

Everyone with even the most basic medical training, and those who bothered to educate themselves knew this was coming, knew what the cost would be, knew what the pain for the NHS staff would be and yet our government stood by and did so little preparation that one hesitates to say what their motive might have been.

Remember this when a miracle has happened and things start to get to normal in a years time, remember this when Boris' and his government start to try and take credit for managing this crisis successfully. Remember this when people start taking our NHS for granted again, remember this when the minimum wage discussion comes up for delivery drivers, public transport workers and retail workers, remember this when our food prices skyrocket. They cannot manage anything except by last minute, panic driven, news cycle focused reactions designed to make tomorrow's headlines look vaguely better, they are not interested in making things better by hard work, attention to detail and effective forward planning, this is not in their culture or in their range of abilities.
 
I will remember all those things. Many won't.

I think, living in England, we have to get used to the idea of governments like this is one in perpetuity.
 
"they are not interested in making things better by hard work, attention to detail and effective forward planning, this is not in their culture or in their range of abilities. "

I'd add to that not interested in taking responsibility and setting an example.
 
Prof Robert West (Graun):

"This should not be treated as a political crisis but as a health crisis. If you treat it as a political crisis it’s all about managing your reputation, if you treat it as a health crisis it’s about saving lives."

When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail...
 
Just as an addendum to all this, Cummins' claim that he came to the outskirts of Barney, parked his car and walked about 15m to sit on the riverbank is only marginally flawed. There is no place on the outskirts where he could do that. The only places where he could park and the river is close enough and suitable to get to (many parts of the bank resemble cliffs) - are in two places. The Demesnes which is heavily walked and in the middle of town - or below the castle itself, below Scar Top. Again heavily walked. Even in lockdown, these areas remain very popular. I restrict my exercise to late evening for that reason.

Perhaps the existence of the large GSK facility in the town might be of relevance. As might the announcement on Easter Monday of them being given a contract with the government.

To my mind, driving half the length of the country with an adult that you believe has the virus is criminal. As for childcare, I am of the opinion that the government bodies could easily have set this up - or he could - in London, a place with a population of over 8 million. Just for comparison, Scotland has less total population than that. At the very least, one should be worried over his abilities to advise properly if he couldn't solve that without such travel.

Lies, lies and arrogance I'm afraid...
 
Just as an addendum to all this, Cummins' claim that he came to the outskirts of Barney, parked his car and walked about 15m to sit on the riverbank is only marginally flawed. There is no place on the outskirts where he could do that. The only places where he could park and the river is close enough and suitable to get to (many parts of the bank resemble cliffs) - are in two places. The Demesnes which is heavily walked and in the middle of town - or below the castle itself, below Scar Top. Again heavily walked. Even in lockdown, these areas remain very popular. I restrict my exercise to late evening for that reason.

Perhaps the existence of the large GSK facility in the town might be of relevance. As might the announcement on Easter Monday of them being given a contract with the government.

To my mind, driving half the length of the country with an adult that you believe has the virus is criminal. As for childcare, I am of the opinion that the government bodies could easily have set this up - or he could - in London, a place with a population of over 8 million. Just for comparison, Scotland has less total population than that. At the very least, one should be worried over his abilities to advise properly if he couldn't solve that without such travel.

Lies, lies and arrogance I'm afraid...

It's every man/woman for themselves in CovEngland. The government isn't going to help you and could actually kill you. Still, I'm sure most of the cabinet is busy working on opportunities to make themselves some money.
 
Well this thread is certainly an interesting one... not the sort you'd normally expect to find on a football site... very interesting stuff.

Most of you guys here seem to be very pro-lockdown, and I noticed a few comments previously about my adopted country Sweden. Therefore, this graph makes quite interesting reading, especially if you were to play a game of 'Spot the Epidemic'...

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The numbers for May should be out shortly so I'll try and put these up if/when I find them.

Interestingly, the Norwegian government have come out recently and said they would follow the Swedish model if there was any second wave... maybe that means it's not so bad after all if a Norwegian can admit a Swede is doing something better!

Two final recommendations... you may be interested that a German scientific group have started up a website and campaign against lockdowns... a short video is here about that...


And I'd also highly recommend the excellent UK Column news bulletins that go out on YouTube every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Friday's bulletin was a particularly good one as it had some interesting stuff on the antibody testing that I can see has been discussed on here several times.


Am new to these boards but will try looking in on this thread more regularly from now on... some very interesting stuff discussed here.