[Flyingfemme]

I have never been aware of the flu or any other bug which was such a cause for concern, so, no, I've never been aware of anyone being scared of anything like this because I've never known anything like this.

People being confined to their homes, sent home from school, the news full of numbers of people dying.........this is not normal and must make an impression; particularly on youngsters who have zero control over anything.
Add that to the idiocies being shouted about climate change and some kids must feel that they will have no life. I heard one woman on national media saying (and seeming to believe it) that, if something wasn’t done now, her granddaughter would never see adulthood!
The drama queens are in control. I am not downplaying the serious nature of some of the news but we do not need to concentrate on the doom; we have to take precautions, work towards better things and get on with life.

[OCB]

Remember those fever hospitals on the outskirts of townships - painted cream with red corrugated roofs. They’ve been around here until recently, some demolished, others converted to youth hostels.

They were everywhere - but hardly anyone wants to remember them, I guess "burying bad news".

Fine, sure - scrap the actual buildings - but don't scrap the history and reality of what happened. I know folks who walked into a sanatorium in their teens in the 50s, and that was the last time they saw anything but the confines of the hospital.

I guess this is a large part of what annoys me about "anti-vaxxers". Yes, I object to their unscientific pontification that unduly influences some - but I have the feeling that most anti-vaxxers never stood in front of a warehouse-sized morgue as a kid, that harked back to the previous pandemic and it's little friends.

[StratoTramp]

Does anyone know if they ratio tests conducted versus cases?

They said there was an uptick of people getting tests on the radio this morning

If not .... Entirely predictable...

More tests = more detected cases even if totally asymptomatic = apparent peak increase = apparent situation getting "worse" = media shilling WFH (as it suits them) & making revenue from fear = more controls.

Never ending anxiety. Saw dune the other day (20mins too long) but "Fear is the mind killer"

Totally need to move forwards. Wear a face mask and get a booster if you are worried but then accept ongoing mild peril.

Cases should be seen and not heard. All that matters is long hospitalisations & excess deaths. Especially with such high vacination take up.

[OCB]

@StratoTramp - I have absolutely no interest in any kind of challenge - but are you actually aware that people of your parents/grandparents generation got locked up for life, if they had an infectious disease?

[malcolmfrost]

Does anyone know if they ratio tests conducted versus cases?

They said there was an uptick of people getting tests on the radio this morning

If not .... Entirely predictable...

More tests = more detected cases even if totally asymptomatic = apparent peak increase = apparent situation getting "worse" = media shilling WFH (as it suits them) & making revenue from fear = more controls.

[StratoTramp]

It was more in reply / agreement to Flyingfemme.

I think being more familiar with death would help most people. Both ways, maybe making people a bit more aware, "this could be you if you don't take your vacinne" but also accepting death as a fact of life. Memento Mori.

People & children used to watch hangings, now they get anxiety from seeing a rope. Not saying kids should watch hangings but we are very much at the top of the pyramid of needs. Nothing else to worry about really so it magnifies the manageable things into all consuming doomsday events.

@malcolmfrost

Thanks Malcolm that's good to know.

[JAFO]

@Flyingfemme - thank you for taking the time to try to explain, I do see a little of what you mean now but still think some of the things that you mentioned are reasonable measures to make people aware of or to mitigate risk.

[johnm]

Isolation hospitals, mental hospitals (aka "lunatic asylums" ) and workhouses were all around in my youth and weren't at all amusing, people effectively got long sentences for being sick, mentally ill (or suffering what is now called "learning difficulties) or impoverished.

I hope we've moved on from that though I do sometimes wonder

[Propwash]

Just had an email to say the Randox PCR tests wouldn’t go through the letterbox so have been left at the local collection point ( a post office). The LFT from the same company fitted through the letterbox. Given that I will not be alone in ordering these kits while abroad because of the new requirements, and therefore not expecting to be at home when delivered, why aren’t they suitably packaged?

I now have to go to a post office the day I get home to collect when supposed to be in isolation, presumably mixing with people while doing so. Somebody needs to get in touch with reality. Even people who are striving to keep within the rules are finding it increasingly difficult to do.


Ho hum.

PW

[eltonioni]

@Propwash your postmasteriss might drop it onto the doorstep if you call them. The alternative is....!

In other news, my dog's holiday will unexpectedly be a couple of extra days. Hopefully! Luckily the kennel have space but other people might not be so fortunate. Then what do they do?

I will still be calling at the Coop for milk and stuff on the way home from the airport.

What a shambles these overnight rules are.

[Paultheparaglider]

More tests = more detected cases even if totally asymptomatic = apparent peak increase = apparent situation getting "worse" = media shilling WFH (as it suits them) & making revenue from fear = more controls.


Cases should be seen and not heard. All that matters is long hospitalisations & excess deaths. Especially with such high vacination take up.

I agree that the case numbers are not really as relevant as they used to be following the vaccine rollout. I look far more closely at the hospitalisation data. That has remained relatively stable over the last few months, and a small fraction of what they once were, both in terms of numbers admitted, but also in terms of total numbers in hospital which indicates to me that people are recovering at broadly the same rate as people getting ill.

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare

I can't agree on the fear / control point though. This has been a very real health issue - the biggest in my lifetime - and there really isn't any big government conspiracy going on here. We shouldn't be living in fear, and @Flyingfemme made some important points above, but we still need to pay this virus the respect it deserves and not slip into a complacent mindset just because the vaccines appear to be so effective.

[Flyin'Dutch']

I can't agree on the fear / control point though. This has been a very real health issue - the biggest in my lifetime - and there really isn't any big government conspiracy going on here.

I know you don't, but anyone suggesting this is part of a government conspiracy, really is giving them too much credit for any competency.

[eltonioni]

Nope. We're not in control so all we're left with is lightweight political PR grandstanding, like exit and entry PCR tests as if that can stop it while we pretend that it didn't arrive weeks ago.

If airlines and transport companies we're insisting on tests for customer safety and reassurance I'd understand that, but no, it's being done in the basis that it can't be held at the border. The other idea that it will "slow down" transmission to "protect the [nation of choice's]health service" is also for the birds and helps polticians of all stripes, whether in or out of power, from taking tough real world decisions.

/glancingblowatpolitics


In other news

Up to 740,000 potential cancer cases that should have been urgently referred by GPs have been “missed” since the first lockdown, according to a damning report.

Watchdogs also warned that NHS waiting lists could keep growing until 2025 and even reach double the current six million

[kanga]

Remember those fever hospitals on the outskirts of townships - painted cream with red corrugated roofs. They’ve been around here until recently, some demolished, others converted to youth hostels.

.. some sold off cheaply in the '80s, then turned by developers into posh country clubs with golf courses in their often spacious grounds or posh country hotels. In some cases, as with some airfield sites (see several other threads ), developers managed to persude Councillors (despite central government clarification of the PPG) that the entire curtilage could be regarded as 'formerly developed' and they became housing estates.

[malcolmfrost]

Interestingly near us on Bramshott Common was a very large TB hospital that was returned to common land around that time. The other side of the A3 was a QA nursing college that was also demolished and returned to common land.