The fear of covid isn't a tool to propagate totality ideas. It is just a silly thing to say.On this forum there's far more people sympathetic to the China approach than think the virus is a hoax. If memory serves there was literally a thread asking if we should be more like China a few months ago.
In terms of threats to Western society I would put the use of fear as a tool to propagate totalitarian ideals far above a small minority of nut jobs believing the virus is a hoax. Hell our Home Secretary is regularly guilty of the former, whilst I've seen no member of the cabinet promoting Covid denial.
Isn’t it the case that antibodies aren’t necessarily always present after a certain period although the body is capable of quickly making more should they come into contact with the virus?This is pretty remarkable. Estimated 20% of UK have been infected already. Up to 50% in some areas.
Arguably makes an even more compelling case for doing an antibody test on everyone and putting everyone with prior infection at the back of the queue. Would be a major shortcut to herd immunity, assuming supply is the rate limiting step.
My wife works here. Seemed strange to ask staff to come in by social media, and not by you know, ringing them
Hospital in ni appealing for any staff close to come in and work
Kind of true, yes. Although the serology tests for prior exposure specifically test for the type antibody that lingers round the longest. But there is a chance that some people with undiagnosed prior infection would get a vaccine. Not really a problem though.Isn’t it the case that antibodies aren’t necessarily always present after a certain period although the body is capable of quickly making more should they come into contact with the virus?
So you could have someone who is essentially “vaccinated” however an antibody test wouldn’t actually suggest that?
The longer post infection the greater the chance that antibodies will decline to the point where they aren't detectable. Hopefully (and likely) the memory cells will still be there to kick into action when needed. So an antibody test wouldn't catch everyone who had some immunity and we also don't really know if the aysmptomatic/low symptomatic cases produce as good an immune response as the vaccines will.Isn’t it the case that antibodies aren’t necessarily always present after a certain period although the body is capable of quickly making more should they come into contact with the virus?
So you could have someone who is essentially “vaccinated” however an antibody test wouldn’t actually suggest that?
In truth I didn't mean specifically that the fear of Covid is being used to propagate totalitarianism; I meant that using fear as a tool was a far greater threat to Western society than vaccine deniers. I was thinking specifically anti-terrorism legislation (snoopers charter, extended rights to hold with charge etc), legislation compromising the right to protest (London police getting a ban on Extinction Rebellion from protesting and Cressida Dick stating more powers were needed to effectively deal with protesters) and anti-immigration legislation/rhetoric (hostile environment etc). However I think it would be naive to think that governments present and in the future aren't taking note of the extent to which the public will support draconian measures when a few "protect the NHS" slogans and the fear of God is put into them.The fear of covid isn't a tool to propagate totality ideas. It is just a silly thing to say.
I doubt 1 person is advocating a Wuhan style lockdown but a NZ or AU style response would have saved most of the 80,000 lives lost in the UK so far.
Yo, what's this shit? I gave an honest opinion on what kind of reaction I experienced, while also offering a pre-warning that I tend to react terribly to vaccines (Flu, Hepatitis boosters, Yellow Fever vaccination) etc. Not sure why, but it happens.I understand your reaction . When BFA Hernandez posted that I initially thought he must be a hypochondriac.
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I wasn't calling you one It's a long story.Yo, what's this shit? I gave an honest opinion on what kind of reaction I experienced, while also offering a pre-warning that I tend to react terribly to vaccines (Flu, Hepatitis boosters, Yellow Fever vaccination) etc. Not sure why, but it happens.
Hypochondriac? Damn. Never been called that in my life.
He was on the news advocating for the 'dont use Pfizer vaccine properly' approach in the week before it. Not a surprise if it's true.Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date
Genocidal? I am no fan of Blair but what genocide was he involved in?Keep that genocidal cnut away from everything. Please.
It would have been harder but quite possible if the political will and competence was there. At the end of July Australia (mainly Victoria) and the UK both had just over 700 daily infections. Australia got that down to zero even though the outbreak started during winter and the UK went the other way due to doing almost nothing in summer and autumn and far too little/too late in winter.In terms of advocating a NZ/AU approach I think given the state of the UK by March (wholesale community transmission) and the inter-connected nature of the Country it's disingenuous to say that those measures would be effective. If they would be you'd have seen dozens of EU countries implementing them.
The UK looks like a bit of a basket case from outside now so I can't see any chance of decisive proactive decision coming from this government. Their best hope is getting as many people as possible vaccinated during this belated and rather half arsed lockdown and hope the public forget the death toll come the next election.I can't see anything less than China type measures being able to achieve Covid zero in the UK. In truth they'd probably fail as well as public and media criticism would force a U turn quickly.
Enthusiastically immune?I wasn't calling you one It's a long story.
I thought you might have been when you said "I've had COVID twice and vaccine is worse" but then I actually read your post and you obviously aren't.
I know I know - my comment was very tongue in cheek. I didn't portray it the way I was aiming for.I wasn't calling you one It's a long story.
I thought you might have been when you said "I've had COVID twice and vaccine is worse" but then I actually read your post and you obviously aren't.
The most immune member of the caf at any rate!Enthusiastically immune?
I'd guess the good news for @Hernandez - BFA is that we could probably start farming him to make monoclonal antibody treatments
3 day lockdown ends but masks and distancing still mandated. No transmissions from the 1 case of community transmission (quarantine hotel worker with the UK variant) and they have tranced the 370 people they had contact with while infectious - some tests still to come back but looking good so far.Central Brisbane yesterday.
3 day lockdown while we contract trace all the contacts of the quarantine hotel worker who was infected with the new UK variant. 175 contacts have been traced and 112 tested negative so far with the rest waiting on results.
The NSW outbreak seems in its final stage with only 3 new cases - all close contacts of known infections.
Feck this piece of shit. Disgusting that he is trying to wingle his way into the ‘good books’ after what he did in Iraq.Tweet
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Do 600,000 Iraqi deaths not count?Genocidal? I am no fan of Blair but what genocide was he involved in?
As genocide? No.Do 600,000 Iraqi deaths not count?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-death-toll-from-the-iraq-war-is-still-murky/
Whilst I agree the UK response has been nothing short of atrocious; why do you think no European country has gone down the AU/NZ route if it was "quite possible" (especially given that almost every country has adopted a somewhat different approach)?It would have been harder but quite possible if the political will and competence was there. At the end of July Australia (mainly Victoria) and the UK both had just over 700 daily infections. Australia got that down to zero even though the outbreak started during winter and the UK went the other way due to doing almost nothing in summer and autumn and far too little/too late in winter.
The UK looks like a bit of a basket case from outside now so I can't see any chance of decisive proactive decision coming from this government. Their best hope is getting as many people as possible vaccinated during this belated and rather half arsed lockdown and hope the public forget the death toll come the next election.
I think their covid response isn't far off a Yes prime Minister script
Sir Richard Wharton: In stage one we say nothing is going to happen.
Sir Humphrey Appleton: Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it.
Sir Richard Wharton: In stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we *can* do.
Sir Humphrey Appleton: Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it's too late now.
You should go and research the definition of genocide.Do 600,000 Iraqi deaths not count?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-death-toll-from-the-iraq-war-is-still-murky/
Because it would have been harder and more painful than it was for NZ or AU so nobody was prepared to take bold enough action early enough. As usual politicians are worried about votes rather than doing the right thing. Many like the UK (initially) and Sweden were seduced by the idiotic idea of letting the virus run riot to get get herd immunity when it was fairly obvious how flawed that thinking was.Whilst I agree the UK response has been nothing short of atrocious; why do you think no European country has gone down the AU/NZ route if it was "quite possible" (especially given that almost every country has adopted a somewhat different approach)?
This is extremely interesting IMO. The latest variants popping up are supposed to be much more transmissible. However, there seems to be minimal transmissions (if any) to 370 contacts. Were masks and social distancing mandatory at the time?3 day lockdown ends but masks and distancing still mandated. No transmissions from the 1 case of community transmission (quarantine hotel worker with the UK variant) and they have tranced the 370 people they had contact with while infectious - some tests still to come back but looking good so far.
NSW is down to a handful of daily infections with known sources so again fingers crossed NSW will be covid free again soon especially as the Northern beaches cluster that started it all has been stamped out most likely. The worrying thing is that we don't known how this cluster escaped from the quarantine hotel where is was genomically traced to.
It would never have been possible in Europe. Closing all the borders would be fundamentally against what the EU is about, and there are too many countries with differing levels of will and competence to make it work. The infrastructure to close internal borders is just not there. They could have attempted to close external borders (and have now done so, sort of) but it's still haphazard. You might expect Germany could effectively close its borders to the world, but how confident are you Greece and Bulgaria would lock Turkey out?Because it would have been harder and more painful than it was for NZ or AU so nobody was prepared to take bold enough action early enough. As usual politicians are worried about votes rather than doing the right thing. Many like the UK (initially) and Sweden were seduced by the idiotic idea of letting the virus run riot to get get herd immunity when it was fairly obvious how flawed that thinking was.
Others just tried to muddle through. Australia would have done almost the same but our Federal government weren't allowed to make a cock up by the state premiers who could shut borders etc and sell it as looking after "my people" which was and is hugely popular in the main.
Think an interesting question is whether the UK will close all external borders for the next pandemic given what we have learned from this one. There is a greater flux of people between the UK and the world than for Aus/NZ so it would likely be an unpopular/divisive policy. Would have been a very hard call to make at the beginning of the pandemic and given that it took the government a while to take it seriously it was never going to happen.It would never have been possible in Europe. Closing all the borders would be fundamentally against what the EU is about, and there are too many countries with differing levels of will and competence to make it work. The infrastructure to close internal borders is just not there. They could have attempted to close external borders (and have now done so, sort of) but it's still haphazard. You might expect Germany could effectively close its borders to the world, but how confident are you Greece and Bulgaria would lock Turkey out?
With Brexit already underway the UK as an island could possibly have done it and got away with it.
The contacts could mean anything though. Does it include everyone at the hotel whose room they entered, plus everyone whose trays they might have touched, or food they may have prepared, plus all the other staff at the hotel. In which case it might give us some reassurance about fomites (surfaces/objects carrying infection).This is extremely interesting IMO. The latest variants popping up are supposed to be much more transmissible. However, there seems to be minimal transmissions (if any) to 370 contacts. Were masks and social distancing mandatory at the time?
Depends entirely on the government. This government wouldn’t change a single thing about their response given the chance to do it all over again. How am I so sure about this? Because at every single turn they have ignored expert advice until it is too late and they learnt absolutely nothing from the first wave. They also failed to implement sensible measures like requiring a negative test when you arrive in the country for months and months with absolutely no explanation as to why.Think an interesting question is whether the UK will close all external borders for the next pandemic given what we have learned from this one. There is a greater flux of people between the UK and the world than for Aus/NZ so it would likely be an unpopular/divisive policy. Would have been a very hard call to make at the beginning of the pandemic and given that it took the government a while to take it seriously it was never going to happen.
I vaguely remember that that the dogma when all this kicked off was that closing international borders wasn’t necessary (and masks wouldn’t help!).
Only 10 were considered close contacts and one of those (her husband) just tested positive.This is extremely interesting IMO. The latest variants popping up are supposed to be much more transmissible. However, there seems to be minimal transmissions (if any) to 370 contacts. Were masks and social distancing mandatory at the time?
Scary to think they could have been even worse if it hadn’t nearly killed fat Boris.Depends entirely on the government. This government wouldn’t change a single thing about their response given the chance to do it all over again. How am I so sure about this? Because at every single turn they have ignored expert advice until it is too late and they learnt absolutely nothing from the first wave. They also failed to implement sensible measures like requiring a negative test when you arrive in the country for months and months with absolutely no explanation as to why.
Yet France closed its border with UK late last year. Each country can still close its borders it would seem.It would never have been possible in Europe. Closing all the borders would be fundamentally against what the EU is about
Sad to think it probably would have been much better if it had killed him.Scary to think they could have been even worse if it hadn’t nearly killed fat Boris.
Closing is genuinely difficult within Europe though, even for an island. France implemented a temporary border closure with the UK just before Christmas - within two days we had 10000 lorries + drivers waiting at the port.Think an interesting question is whether the UK will close all external borders for the next pandemic given what we have learned from this one. There is a greater flux of people between the UK and the world than for Aus/NZ so it would likely be an unpopular/divisive policy. Would have been a very hard call to make at the beginning of the pandemic and given that it took the government a while to take it seriously it was never going to happen.
I vaguely remember that that the dogma when all this kicked off was that closing international borders wasn’t necessary (and community use of masks wouldn’t help!).
Assume that was an offshoot of Brexit and jostling around a deal.Yet France closed its border with UK late last year. Each country can still close its borders it would seem.
The fact that's a sea border makes it easier though right?Yet France closed its border with UK late last year. Each country can still close its borders it would seem.
Closing borders within the EU is a non-starter. I wish people would stop pretending it’s an option (or ever was an option). It won’t ever happen. For obvious reasons.The fact that's a sea border makes it easier though right?
For example, I can't see how it'd be possible for Switzerland and Germany to close their border. There's a heap of road crossings between the two, as well as towns and cities built on the border. A lot of people live in one and work in the other (usually live in Germany and work in Switzerland).
And that's just one border, I guess the same is true for most countries on the continent.