Coronavirus discussion thread

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Spideog Nov 2020 9:37am, 2 Nov 2020 822 posts	0 Spideog The only activity they are trying to limit which is known to be a common cause of transmission is people meeting in homes. But all they can do to limit that happening is to get everyone to be nosey neighbours and call the covid police on anyone in their street having visitors. Workplace without social distancing are also known locations for transmission, but they can all stay open. The only things being closed with any prospect of enforcement if they don't are pubs, restaurants, gyms, etc but those locations haven't been shown as the cause of transmission. It's all just a smokescreen to make it look like something is being done whilst they wait for a vaccine and for one of their mates who is mildly more competent than Dido Harding to come in and fix the NHS, Test and Trace, and the next thing they think of which can be used to siphon off another few billion to some offshore fund they all have a stake in.
swittle Nov 2020 9:41am, 2 Nov 2020 69,404 posts	0 swittle Re T & T: on Sat., didn't the PM refer to the army in relation to the logistics of getting T & T to work better?
LindsD Nov 2020 9:41am, 2 Nov 2020 42,094 posts	0 LindsD I think, although it's only anecdotal, that most universities are online as much as possible. It's not possible to teach some things remotely, e.g. dentistry, interpreting. Whether these things should be suspended is another question, but it's my understanding that universities have already moved everything that can be relatively satisfactorily taught online, online. My point is that I don't think there's a lot to be done in that area that isn't already being done short of actually closing institutions and suspending teaching altogether.
K5 Gus Nov 2020 9:44am, 2 Nov 2020 4,126 posts	0 K5 Gus Spideog, you say restaurants and pubs haven't been shown as the cause of transmission - the people at Warwick Uni would disagree, they say the Eat Out to Help Out scheme was the cause of a "significant" increase in Aug/Sep independent.co.uk
um Nov 2020 9:46am, 2 Nov 2020 3,606 posts	0 um Swittle - I thought it was the mass 'moonshot' saliva test & result in 30 mins that the army were running the logistics for - Soldiers will be deployed to carry out a mass coronavirus testing programme in six northern towns as part of Boris Johnson’s “moonshot” to avoid a second national lockdown. The saliva-based tests will be offered to people whether they have Covid-19 symptoms or not. They will receive the results in half an hour.
swittle Nov 2020 9:49am, 2 Nov 2020 69,408 posts	0 swittle tbh, my hearing had dipped to 50% active early in the briefing, um.
Spideog Nov 2020 10:01am, 2 Nov 2020 823 posts	0 Spideog @K5 Potentially, and it would seem to be obvious that the Eat out to Help Out scheme would cause a change. But as also mentioned in the article other countries have had a similar up tick in cases without running the same type of scheme and the lack of a track and trace system is a more significant factor. That the Eat Out to Help Out was a Monday to Wednesday scheme as well would mean that any drunkenness and overcrowding of places was limited. Did the discount in the first half of each week increase numbers out eating and drinking at the end of the week? If as claimed in the article the scheme caused cases to rise 2 weeks earlier, then why is the UK still trailing other EU countries by a few weeks just as we were back in March/ April?
Hunkyteddy Nov 2020 10:09am, 2 Nov 2020 335 posts	0 Hunkyteddy If Drakeford follows through his commitment to end the fire break next Monday we will be able to see within a couple of weeks whether that works, at the same time England is in lockdown. Will be very interesting to look at the numbers coming out from each country.
geordiegirl Nov 2020 10:12am, 2 Nov 2020 12,104 posts	0 geordiegirl I said that at day 1 pushing people out to pubs & restaurants in their hordes was always going to push rates up esp the queueing I saw outside of one of our local bars. And true enough the cases went up then surged after unis back which was also to be expected. It will have minimal impact on us other than not seeing parents beyond going back to dropping shopping off. That said my mum insists they’re ok to do their shopping as they have been since July.
Markymarkmark Nov 2020 10:23am, 2 Nov 2020 13,135 posts	0 Markymarkmark I'm actually confused by the conflicting possible causes of various surges and no surges in numbers and areas following various events - from VE day celebrations, end of Lockdown One, Eat out to Help Out, Shops reopening, introduction of Tiers, Schools and Universities back, Gyms and Bars etc. opening and shutting...... and so on. There appears to be no obvious "smoking gun" events or triggers. Over and above the bleeding obvious one the people give it to people, and if you keep lots of people in close proximity it seems to be worse (Care Homes, University Halls, Boarding Schools)- but even then, there's enough conflicting (anecdotal?) evidence about some people giving it to a lot of people, and other people not giving it to anyone. Wake me up when it's over, please? (I know - not an option.)