Am I missing something?

Have you ever been to a funeral of a loved one and come out of the church or graveyard to see cars flying by, people laughing and talking and suddenly you realise that life is continuing for everyone apart from you and your family. It comes as a shock but that’s what life is like. Covid 19 is still about and still killing people. My dear friend who has had lymphoma for the past 6 years caught it while out walking and stopped for a chat with a fellow Walker. Now he is on a ventilator, not responding to any drugs and the prognosis isn’t good. Others catch Covid and become poorly but gradually get well again. Until we can irradiate Covid 19, we are all vulnerable double jabbed or not. What should we do? Lockdown everything and stay at home? Nobody wants that. Sadly, life must go on with all the risks we face in life. We could be knocked down by a car or bus, killed in a car accident, fall own the stairs, drown…the list is endless but naturally we are scared of Covid.
The U.K. has gradually relaxed guide lines as have other countries. People want to travel for various reasons and people need to work to pay their bills. Airline carriers are vital to our everyday lives and travel must be allowed to be available to all of us.
So, what are you missing? You aren’t missing anything. You are horrified when you hear and read the daily figures of Covid ….19 well, so am I. We have all been living in a strange bubble since Covid began attacking our fellow man. We will continue to live in a world that each of us sees fit to venture into. You may decide not to leave your home or you may venture our for a walk or perhaps you too will decide to take a flight somewhere. It’s all up to ourselves how we deal with this pandemic. However, we must be allowed our freedom to choose. If we could convince those who won’t take the vaccination to have it and all the others who refuse it, we could almost irradiate the virus.
Friends of family refused the vaccination as they didn’t like the idea of putting something suspect into their blood stream were both hospitalised for over 3 weeks , both very ill and frightened. Home now but still poorly.
Will we ever manage to break these conspiracy theories and save lives?

If we were all careful things would be easier.

If we wore a mask, kept our distance, avoided large crowds, had the vaccinations and generally behaved sensibly we can all get on with life reasonably well.... and basically that is what we do, and we are enjoying life.

Sadly it is the antivaxxers and those conspiracy theory nutters who call masks "face nappies", think vaccines make you magnetic, and truly believe the world leaders are "out to get us" that is making life more difficult for everyone.... including themselves.

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Let's hope Darwinism sorts things out..
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An old girl sitting in the doctors waiting area had no mask, half an hour we were sitting there, I didn't even notice. A nurse came out and said mask, mask. The old girl got a tissue out of her bag and held it there. I said you need a mask the tissues no good. She said it's in the car and it's difficult for me to walk back to it. Don't know how she was going to make it back after her treatment then. I said you've had 2 years to get used to always having one on you go and get one! She never did.

suzi wong wrote:Unless every country does the same amount of testing,it’s pointless comparing the amount of known cases.

This is the thing. Cannot believe people can overlook such a simple fact.

If a country does no testing whatsoever, arguably its reported rate of infection would be zero.

Utterly meaningless comparison to say X has an infection rate greater than Y is X test a far higher percentage of people.

On my own straw poll I saw little evidence of self-testing in my Covid time in Spain, other than when it was a mandatory requirement. On the contrast, in the UK I know of many who are almost greedy with the free lateral flow tests and some taking them daily. Many others testing at least weekly.

PGA wrote:

suzi wong wrote:Unless every country does the same amount of testing,it’s pointless comparing the amount of known cases.

This is the thing. Cannot believe people can overlook such a simple fact.

If a country does no testing whatsoever, arguably its reported rate of infection would be zero.

Utterly meaningless comparison to say X has an infection rate greater than Y is X test a far higher percentage of people.

On my own straw poll I saw little evidence of self-testing in my Covid time in Spain, other than when it was a mandatory requirement. On the contrast, in the UK I know of many who are almost greedy with the free lateral flow tests and some taking them daily. Many others testing at least weekly.

. Take as many free tests as you like. It STILL doesn’t alter the FACT that U.K. cases and deaths are NOT COMING DOWN.

Benjy wrote:

PGA wrote:

suzi wong wrote:Unless every country does the same amount of testing,it’s pointless comparing the amount of known cases.

This is the thing. Cannot believe people can overlook such a simple fact.

If a country does no testing whatsoever, arguably its reported rate of infection would be zero.

Utterly meaningless comparison to say X has an infection rate greater than Y is X test a far higher percentage of people.

On my own straw poll I saw little evidence of self-testing in my Covid time in Spain, other than when it was a mandatory requirement. On the contrast, in the UK I know of many who are almost greedy with the free lateral flow tests and some taking them daily. Many others testing at least weekly.

. Take as many free tests as you like. It STILL doesn’t alter the FACT that U.K. cases and deaths are NOT COMING DOWN.

Restrictions have opened up. There is now almost no sign of any preventative measures in place. You can argue this is good or bad depending on your view point, but its fact. Nightclubs are heaving, stadiums are full, concerts are taking place. Students are back (and they like to party and bump uglies more than any group). The UK has crap weather at best, but is now heading to winter months when the virus thrives.

With that backdrop, the fact that deaths have remained pretty steady shows the success of the vaccine, coupled with crowd immunity in addition.

"Cases" cannot be compared for the reasons I said previously. Even within a singular country, the level of testing fluctuates. However, if "cases" indeed remain relatively static, that again seems a positive outcome given the absence of any restrictions and the unencumbered opening up of society, education, workplaces and socialising.

Then how can you account for the fact that Spain has come down from basically the same levels as the U.K. only a few weeks ago to under 2500 new cases per day. What is the U.K. doing wrong?

mondo wrote:If we were all careful things would be easier.

If we wore a mask, kept our distance, avoided large crowds, had the vaccinations and generally behaved sensibly we can all get on with life reasonably well.... and basically that is what we do, and we are enjoying life.

Sadly it is the antivaxxers and those conspiracy theory nutters who call masks "face nappies", think vaccines make you magnetic, and truly believe the world leaders are "out to get us" that is making life more difficult for everyone.... including themselves.

..

Let's hope Darwinism sorts things out..
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I have watched about 50 or so of these magnetic videos (the most recent from Spain of all places) and i am yet to figure out how they do it. If you know, please tell me as i would love to have this as a party piece.

One major thing that in my opinion the U.K. is doing wrong is the relaxation of rules in enclosed areas. It is an excepted ‘norm’ in Spain and it is mostly adhered to by locals and visitors alike.

Benjy wrote:Then how can you account for the fact that Spain has come down from basically the same levels as the U.K. only a few weeks ago to under 250- new cases per day. What is the U.K. doing wrong.

Deaths have pretty much flatlined thankfully in both countries.

The UK is, however, testing is currently at 14.85 per 1000 people versus Spain's 1.79 tests per thousand. If you are testing more than 800% more, you will find more cases. It's why its utterly pointless to compare.