How many of us are still out there working?

[Bensonrad]

Have been working at home throughout, I know some staff have started going back to the office, but for me its a 4 hour round trip of commuting and £60 a day for a train ticket since I cashed in my season ticket. Work I believe had wanted staff to start to show up now and then, but I broke my toe just over 3 weeks back, so am stuck at home regardless, looks like I'll be at home a lot longer now with these new rules.

I don't mind it, as see the kids, have dinner and breakfast now with everyone, can do a bit of gardening at lunch, but life now seems to be me solidly in my lounge by day working and by night watching films.

Weather has defo turned now, so it'll just be cosy house days and nights for me.

 

[John Bennett]

Dogs to the rescue?!
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/24/close-to-100-accuracy-airport-enlists-sniffer-dogs-to-test-for-covid-19

 

[vids]

Mission essential so whatever happens will still be going to work some of my guys are older and have underlying health issues will be looking out for them as we go along and the flu season gets into full swing not going to be easy time for anyone be safe .vids2020-09-24 12:12:20

 

[qjuk]

I was previously furloughed and now on partial furlough but thankfully I have a great employer who is topping up my wage to 100%.

I think there is a lot of people who are getting fed up with the whole Covid 19 pandemic and restrictions. In my view it doesn’t help when there appears to be no logic behind some of the restrictions (like you can sit next to a table 2m away from another family of 6 inside a pub/restaurant but you can’t do it outside in your own garden. Also, weddings are restricted to 15 people but funerals to 30? what’s the difference?).

From today all retail and hospitality staff now have to wear a face covering, but yesterday they didn’t have to because their work places are “Covid Secure”.

I read yesterday (no idea if this is accurate or not) that around 450 people on average in the UK die each day from cancer. It worries me that some sufferers are not getting the treatment they need because their treatment has been postponed or are simply thinking they don’t want to burden the NHS.

I think we are all banking on a vaccine soon so we can try and return to some sort of normality but I fear the damage due to Covid will go on for a long time.

qjuk2020-09-24 12:34:16

 

[_Matt_]

Hey @Vamino, as you seem to love to show us all how you dismissively refer to coronavirus as "this flu" I was wondering, if you had the flu and then got coronavirus at the same time would you tell people you had the fluflu, double flu, flu2?

I could spend a while explaining to you exactly why your viewpoints are wrong but it's really not worth it as you have a way of thinking and nothing will change that.
You don't have to listen to the mainstream media at all, all the data is out there from this country and other countries and your post shows that you either haven't read it or you don't understand it.

Stay safe everyone.

 

[Vamino]

Hey @Vamino, as you seem to love to show us all how you dismissively refer to coronavirus as "this flu" I was wondering, if you had the flu and then got coronavirus at the same time would you tell people you had the fluflu, double flu, flu2?

I could spend a while explaining to you exactly why your viewpoints are wrong but it's really not worth it as you have a way of thinking and nothing will change that.
You don't have to listen to the mainstream media at all, all the data is out there from this country and other countries and your post shows that you either haven't read it or you don't understand it.

Stay safe everyone.

I don't think I'm being dismissive at all mate, I'm always open to listen to what scientists say. But I like to listen to the opinions of multiple sources rather than the one sided view the main stream media pushes.

Everyone sees things from their own personal perspective, just like a plumber sees things in a different perspective to an electrician upon seeing an empty room.

Trying to keep it brief, from my perspective this is what I've seen that leads us up to today, the 6 month anniversary of the first lockdown. Again, other peoples perspective will be different to mine. I'm not suggesting my opinion is considered the truth, it's just my perspective at the end of the day.

Wuhan virus was documented in late 2019, apparently passed on from people eating bats. Now commonly known as Covid 19. Apparently related to MERS and SARS, which are also considered coronaviruses.

Just over 6 months ago we were told that a computer simulation has predicted that 500,000 people in UK will die from Covid 19 if we don't go into lockdown. So on the advice of Imperial College London we went into lockdown.

The mainstream media reported that the guy (Neil Ferguson) who developed the simulation had an affair with a woman during lockdown where he completely ignored his own advice. The virus simulation PC code was eventually released into the public domain and when tested by other people the simulation was inconsistent in it's results. Some scientists criticised the computer simulation.

Hospitals go on high alert. We are told to save the NHS by enforcing social distancing to flatten the curve. Old people in care homes are hit hard, many elderly people unfortunately lose their lives to CV19 and other illnesses.

New hospitals are built to accommodate the expected surge in people developing CV19. Shortly after, many hospitals are reported as being empty. Staff at empty hospitals are put on furlough due to them being empty.

Some scientists, doctors and physicians downplay the virility of CV19, whilst others say it's the biggest threat to mankind in generations. Anyone that goes against the grain are labelled conspiracy theorists and anti vaxxers. No open discussions/debates about this subject are shown on mainstream media, but, there are discussions and debates on this subject on independent media.

Many people are stated as dying from CV19, the numbers of CV19 deaths are considered disproportionately high. The actual number of CV19 deaths is disputed by some sources. Tests have been ongoing, but there are some questions regarding the validity and accuracy of some of those tests.

We are now heading for the biggest recession in known history. 9.3 million UK jobs are on furlough and the true scale of the problem is being masked by the very same job retention scheme. 60 billion is estimated to be spent on the furlough scheme rather than the expected 84 billion first estimated.

The USA debt now exceeds it's gross domestic product. Companies such as Amazon have recorded record profits whilst many others have gone bankrupt.

UK CV19 cases have skyrocketed but UK deaths have flatlined. Parts of the UK can now be shut down at a moments notice. The police can call upon the military for support.

The Prime Minister announces new measures to fight the rising cases. Stage 2 looks like it has started.

But yet, Sweden flattened the curve without any lockdowns.

Over the past 6 months a couple of people that I've spoken to know of someone who's died that have tested positive for CV19, but most of the people I've spoken to have not been affected at all.

Even after all that I've watched over the past few months, Lord Sumption's interview that I linked to earlier in the thread hits the nail on the head for me. And nothing I've read/watched/heard since has managed to sway me since.

And I agree with your comment 100%, I hope everyone keeps safe during all of this.

Vamino2020-09-25 00:58:10

 

[chubsta]

My personal view, just in case anyone cares...

Remember the media showing us video of China in January with people suddenly dropping down dead in the streets, not just one bit but multiple scenes, telling us the virus was so deadly you could literally drop down dead at any minute if you caught it? This was all lies and faked footage, it never happened there or anywhere else.

The original Lockdown was to 'flatten the curve' and 'protect the NHS' from being overwhelmed so that anyone who needed treatment was able to get it - the NHS never came anywhere near being overwhelmed and the Nightingale hospitals were never used.

Old people who were seriously ill in hospital with other illnesses naturally came into contact with the first C19 admissions via healthcare workers or poor hospital hygiene, but instead of being kept in hospital were transferred back into their care homes so that beds could be freed up for the expected huge wave of C19 victims. In doing so they not only took C19 back to their homes, but they did not receive the care they needed for their original illness. If they then died of their original complaint - and lets not forget they were in hospital so were clearly seriously ill - their deaths would be attributed to C19 regardless.

It has since been almost impossible to get medical treatment in the UK for anything other than C19, and even if you live in an area where the NHS has been a little more accommodating there is still perception, particularly amongst the elderly and most vulnerable, that you should not contact your doctor for anything else, so ill people will now die of illnesses such as cancer that will be diagnosed too late, if at all.

The number of deaths and cases have been misreported from the beginning - the Government has admitted that if you had a positive C19 test and recovered but then died from something totally unrelated at a later date (the cliche being a car crash) then you would still be counted as a C19 death. They have now dropped the time scale to 28 days, but the fact remains that you could have a totally asymptomatic case of it but die of a totally unrelated cause within a month and you still make the stats.

The Government now uses the number of positive tests as the barometer of the danger of the virus, this is totally unreliable statistics as there are too many variables. To be an effective method then the base has to be the same - the same number of tests being conducted, of the same demographic, for the same reasons - originally the only people being tested were the small number of people with severe symptoms, then it became key workers and the number of tests increased, then it became open to all, to the point where some people were being tested as they walked down the streets in some cities. The test themselves are unreliable, and can show a very high proportion of false positives as they pick up dead particles from other coronavirus.

Undoubtedly some people are more susceptible to the effects of this virus than others, even the rigged death statistics show that you are only really at risk if you are already very ill or obese, all of whom are far more likely to die anyway. I know two people who have died and have been classes as a C19 death, one was a woman in her 50s who was probably 25stone and smoked like a chimney, the other an old guy who had alzheimers and who undoubtedly died of that rather than C19, although he did test positive.

I am not saying that C19 isn't out there, or isn't dangerous, but it is not dangerous to EVERYONE - in order to be seriously at risk of dying from it you actually have to be older than the average life expectancy in the UK, and yet we are told the whole world has to be shut down, the economies are trashed, peoples mental health will be affected for years to come. There are thousands of old people in care homes who have not been allowed to see their families since March, with no end to it in sight, their lives will be cut short by the lack of human contact and many will spend their last few months feeling lonely and abandoned with no chance of ever saying goodbye, except perhaps over a crappy video-call.

Face masks are now compulsory pretty much everywhere but clearly do not make any difference as cases have coincidentally gone up since we were forced to wear them.

The lockdown was tried in March, and there are many strong arguments why it was done - no-one really knew how bad things could get, this has never happened before, and the media were whipping everyone up into a frenzy, but surely even the dumbest could see that cases would go up once it was relaxed, there is no vaccine, not reliable anti-body test etc.

So we are back at square one, there will be another national lockdown in a few weeks and we will do exactly what we did in Spring - businesses will go under, people will lose their livelihoods and even their lives as other illnesses will go undiagnosed - and then once we end lockdown in Spring the cases will rise again and we will be back to where we started.

This could go on forever...

My personal thoughts are that this may be a particularly dangerous virus that has a big impact on the elderly or seriously ill people, but the vast majority have nothing to fear from it and you cannot destroy a country to protect a small proportion. I work in a environment where close contact is inevitable, we share equipment and are forced into confined spaces with limited ventilation constantly. Over 300 people work where I do and until August we were told we were not allowed to wear face masks because the public would think they were in danger. There has been no furlough where I work, in fact as work has dried up elsewhere in the country the staff have been moved here so numbers are even higher. We are also dealing constantly with people from all over the world. Since March there has been 3 confirmed C19 cases amongst my colleagues, all of which describe it as being like the flu - I am sure far more of us have had it as there is no way we wouldn't have been in close contact with them and their equipment but the rest of us have had no symptoms.

In the meantime, my dad was due to start Chemotherapy for cancer in March, this was cancelled, it was started instead in August but he has been told that his chances or recovery have dropped significantly....

 

[Vamino]

Chubsta, I sincerely hope your Dad manages to get better mate.

I wish I had the ability to convey my thoughts as well as you have. But after completing a long day at work on a late shift my waffling scribble was the best I could do.

Everyone is going to be affected by different circumstances, and I truly hope the majority of people come out of this situation without too much hardship.

Anyway, I'm not gonna say any more as I can't add anything more to what you have already said.

Thanks.

 

[John Bennett]

Hope your dad gets better

The thing with testing - this thing was likely to be rampant in Feb/March, but we had naff-all testing. There could have been millions with it, but we didn't know. However many they were, it's resulted in a huge blip in the numbers of deaths. OK, some might be mis-reported, but doubling the weekly death rate is not insignificant.

Now we have a better idea of cases (even if underestimating) and we're likely to be a few weeks back from when we first locked down. But doubling is doubling - you'll get there eventually. Maybe it's taking longer to double as we're taking more precautions, but it's doubling every week or so.

What alternative is there to not reacting to stem the rise? Asthma, Diabetes... there's so many potentially vulnerable people. There's people with mild cases now barely able to get up stairs.

People do say 'let it run it's course', but to that all I can say is 'you first then'.

It's crap, whichever way you look at it, sadly

. We need to break the cycle with testing/vaccine.

 

[gunblade]

biological attack from china, revamped and improved sars virus- their second attempt at this

created to crash western capitalist economies and cause panic

infiltrate countries and subvert society using extremist organisations, cause civil unrest

create a vaccine and offer to supply to countries with mineral resources and geographical advantages

cyber attacks on medical, industrial, educational and government to disrupt and gain critical information

a new world war but one with soldiers and bombs

hey presto you are now the dominant world power

if us plebs knew this we would demand a response, that response would be mutual world destruction using nuclear weapons

 

[John Bennett]

Erm.

Worth a read anyway, in today's 'paper'

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/sep/25/inside-a-welsh-icu-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-photo-essay

 

[tin]

You been reading Infowars again Grant?

 

[Yin1974]

I've not worked since march 6 months and Looks like it will be next march if I can work again if I can as I work in the entertainment biz Sound/Lighting Etc also do wedding and big corporate events and the government has left me and my company to dry out no help and the last thing they did the other day won't help. lucky My partner is working or I be Fooookkked. hopefully get out of this mess soon.

Hope your all safe and well

 

[gunblade]

You been reading Infowars again Grant?

actually no, i have heard of them- they are some alt right lot

1.8 billion population and less than 5k dead, bollocks -either they had at least 1.5 million dead or their population had already been largely immunized

i am not buying any of this

 

[tin]

Problem is I think we have no hope of having any real idea how many people did or did not die in China. We'd need that as a fact before we go any further.

 

[NaokiS]

Or perhaps... You know. The government isnt against tactics that are highly immoral and illegal to us. So the population follow out of fear and the fact that if they are anything like japan, are better with hygine when it comes to transmission.

Besides which, the further west you go the more idiotic the populus gets so there you go.

Also, China arent against lying with figures to make themselves look better. If there was such a big conspiracy all world governments would know, not just your facebook keyboard warrior who "did research". Seriously.NaokiS2020-09-25 17:12:03

 

[chubsta]

on a related note, does anyone think any of the restrictions put in place by councils etc will ever go away - stuff like having to book in advance to go to the dump, or will it not only stay but will be extended to include a ‘booking fee’? will doctors surgeries ever allow you to just turn up again?

regardless of your thoughts about c19 itself, i think it is pretty clear many organisations are using it to extend control, and many firms are using it as an opportunity to profit by reducing services and being able to blame it on covid...

thanks for the messages about my dad btw, he is being pretty stoic about the whole thing but it can’t help colour my view of this situation

 

[tin]

@chubsta. To a degree I think some places will try this, some out of arsery, some out of genuinley thinking it's a good idea. And it's up to people to tell them they're wrong and hold them to account. Especially councils, doctors etc. They're still getting paid by people's tax, and ofc they have hard choices to make and PITAs to deal with, but not necessarily by just f**king it up for the rest of us.

 

[Vamino]

on a related note, does anyone think any of the restrictions put in place by councils etc will ever go away - stuff like having to book in advance to go to the dump, or will it not only stay but will be extended to include a ‘booking fee’? will doctors surgeries ever allow you to just turn up again?

I think councils are going to be under immense pressure to cut costs and raise more income at every opportunity so I wouldn't be surprised if a booking fee is introduced at some point. I shudder to think what other stealth taxes/cutbacks councils will try to introduce to cover the cost of all this.

I don't even want to think about how doctors surgeries will be in the future. The last time I really needed to see a doctor I got turned away at the surgery because they were too busy, I took a turn for the worse on the evening so the doctor came to me and he sent me straight to hospital due to severe food poisoning where I almost died.

Now I'm sitting here with a shattered tooth which could become infected at any time, the consultation and operation has been postponed indefinitely and no one can tell me when things will be back to normal. If it flares up again then I'll probably have to go private to get it extracted which won't be cheap. Suffice to say I have no confidence at all with this current system.

 

[John Bennett]

Well I've now got my 7 year old son home for two weeks to isolate after his support teacher tested positive (that he's sat in a small room with for prolonged periods last week).
So, aside from having to juggle indoor-only childcare with a hyperactive child that can't entertain themselves and work (with imminent deadlines), I'm also rather hoping my family doesn't get to find out first-hand how nasty this virus is, now we have a potential carrier in the house.

Ho f**king hum.