Old duffers rebellion.

[RobinBHM]

I think throughout this pandemic the majority of people made an assessment of risk and made their choices from that.

elderly people, those with health conditions that made them vulnerable took more personal precautions to limit their risk of catching it.

and therefore it makes sense that those people feel more confident once theyve been vaccinated to bend the current rules.

I would estimate that the majority of those people who have been loudly protesting against lockdown are those who are neither vulnerable or old. Most I would guess are in their 30s and 40s.

 

[Rorschach]

No you dont have large swathes of the public thinking that.

please dont make assumptions on others to support your argument.

You're breaking the ceasefire please stop it.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

The government is shifting the goal posts again.

Very early on last March the strategy was briefly herd immunity.

Changed for good reasons to protect (don't overwhelm) the NHS.

Last March there was no immunity to the virus. Now approx 45% have a high level of protection - vaccinated 33% + natural immunity ~12%.

It is unclear what the strategy now is - fed by speculation over whether those vaccinated can transmit, is the virus going to mutate, why do we need to get case numbers in the community down (to what?).

Goverment and scientists must have a clear understanding by now, and need to be far more transparent over confidence levels.

The media is also reporting that one person may now be able to visit loved ones in care homes once a week. Profoundly daft - care home residents have been vaccinated, and any spread of the disease is likely to be from unvaccinated care home staff.

It's starting to look like a shambles again - the chances of general public compliance with any rules after the middle of March is looking remote unless very clearly articulated.

 

[Jelly]

Methinks Thou doth protest too much.

That idiom doesn't make any sense in that context.

Especially to a link from a .gov website posted without comment other than that I found it interesting.

You were surely aware that doing that would feed the flames of controversy in this thread, which is exactly why you used vague wording and added no commentary.

That would have given you good plausible deniability (or allowed you to go "Huh I didn't realise that" if you were being genuine), when @Deadeye provided that commentary from the point of view of someone who is professionally skilled in that area.

But when you kicked off at him for both doing so, and for injecting some emotion into his post, you eliminated your wiggle room and nailed your colours to the mast; so dinnae go playing the offended party now you've got the results you intended.

So I'll save you any trouble of resorting to expletives instead of adult discourse. I won't reply to you again.

Translation:
I don't like the fact that I've been called out in a manner that's hard to argue against, so I'm taking my bat home...

But first I want to make a last ditch attempt to paint you as the bad guy for saying you might in fact get a bit sweary if you were the person who had a reason to feel a specific emotional connection to the issue at hand.

 

[MikeK]

Friendly reminder...keep the conversations civil and on topic. We all know what happens to threads in the Off-Topic forum when the conversations turn to personal attacks. Just sayin'...

 

[Rorschach]

Yes please listen to MikeK, things were going along well for a change.

Saw plenty of people "breaking rules" today when out for a walk on the coast. Clearly multiple households meeting and groups meeting for exercise too, a large group of about 8 were out swimming in the sea and their respective families were all gathered as well, some kind of club. Most of the swimmers were in the old duffers category as well, nearly all grey haired and wrinkly. Nice to see people enjoying socialising. Probably the most "blatent" breaking of the rules I have witnessed for a long time so I seems the public are ahead of the government as usual, good in my mind as it will push the government to open up more for fear of looking even more impotent.

 

[Rorschach]

Very worrying news today on the slow pace of removal of restrictions. If things are going to be as slow as they say I wonder if there will be any business to actually re-open.

 

[MikeJhn]

Better the business fold then there being no one left alive to buy anything.

 

[Rorschach]

Better the business fold then there being no one left alive to buy anything.

Really? That's your response. No wonder the country is stuffed.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

I keep hearing those who advise caution starting their sentence with "the last time we came out of lockdown ........"

This time is NOTHING like last time.

In June 2020 we had naturally acquired immunity in approx 5% of the population. We now have natural immunity and vaccinated totalling ~50% of the population.

We also have increasingly reliable evidence that (a) the vaccine is very effective, and (b) that it very substantially reduces transmission.

Collateral damage - mental health, job losses, economic growth etc - will in a few weeks far exceed the consequences of relaxing lockdown more rapidly.

Timescales currently being reporting are far too extended, although perhaps we should wait for Boris to pronounce rather than relying on the media for accurate reporting.

 

[Rorschach]

Well said @Terry - Somerset

Something I do find interesting, I had an email from a hotel chain I frequently use and have a business account with. The email was offering special deals for stays following the school break in Easter. So the hotels that are currently closed for general travel are clearly expecting to be able to host people from the 18th April. This would very much fly in the face of a possible opening of hotels in June that is being touted in the media today.

 

[rafezetter]

Look. I'm out. If you turn up in my A&E I'll try to help you. I'd be grateful in the meantime if you'd refrain from actively trying to make the very real problem worse.
Which you are.

You're barking up the wrong tree deadeye - we've been telng rorschach that for almost a year with all the evidence that has been presented, and yet he hasn't stopped; why would he do so now?

He thinks he's right, even with empirical evidence to the contrary.

"He who knows, and knows that he knows, is wise - follow him
He who knows not, but knows that he knows not, is intelligent - teach him
He who knows not, but beleives that he does, is a fool - shun him"

One of the few bits of good advise my father ever gave me.

 

[rafezetter]

Are you his interpreter, if so it's refreshing that you can make a point without using the words, silly person and dung.

Artie considering the tripe you (and others) are peddling, you should be thankful that's all you got - why are you picking a fight with one of the people whom are on the front lines dedicating (and risking) thier own lives to help others? His profession requires him to have a greater understanding about this whole situation that you obviously do, and yet you seem to be refuting what he is saying as though you have an even more frontline source; which begs the question what do YOU do for a living every day to justify your opinion, or is it as I suspect and you've merely "read something on the internet and took it as gospel" without even remotely considering that almost every single item of news in the world produced today is ALWAYS done with a particular agenda or angle.

He has said it's misinformation, by cherrypicking results to get the answer they wanted and only a complete moron would beleive a "news source" on the internet over an A&D doctor who's been on the frontline for a year now.

and you wonder why he's got no more patience for people spreading misinformation that just makes all frontline workers jobs harder every day.

 

[Rorschach]

Honestly can't quite believe what I am seeing on the lockdown lifting, they must be absolutely barmy!

 

[artie]

Artie considering the tripe you (and others) are peddling, you should be thankful that's all you got - why are you picking a fight with one of the people whom are on the front lines dedicating (and risking) thier own lives to help others? His profession requires him to have a greater understanding about this whole situation that you obviously do, and yet you seem to be refuting what he is saying as though you have an even more frontline source; which begs the question what do YOU do for a living every day to justify your opinion, or is it as I suspect and you've merely "read something on the internet and took it as gospel" without even remotely considering that almost every single item of news in the world produced today is ALWAYS done with a particular agenda or angle.

He has said it's misinformation, by cherrypicking results to get the answer they wanted and only a complete moron would beleive a "news source" on the internet over an A&D doctor who's been on the frontline for a year now.

and you wonder why he's got no more patience for people spreading misinformation that just makes all frontline workers jobs harder every day.

I'm not getting into a pissing contest with you.
I posted a link from .gov if that's what you call picking a fight? Is the .gov web site tripe?
I don't know who or what he is any more than you know who I am.
I asked a couple of questions there but I don't want you to answer unless you can do it in a civil manner without resorting to melodrama and quoting studies or modelling as fact.

 

[Rorschach]

I'm not getting into a pissing contest with you.
I posted a link from .gov if that's what you call picking a fight? Is the .gov web site tripe?
I don't know who or what he is any more than you know who I am.
I asked a couple of questions there but I don't want you to answer unless you can do it in a civil manner without resorting to melodrama and quoting studies or modelling as fact.

Rafezetter is just up to his old tricks, rant and insult to cause trouble and get a thread shut down that he doesn't like. Don't rise to it, I don't, indeed you will notice the vast majority of his posts on any thread go unnoticed by almost everyone, I suspect many have him on ignore or just skip past his posts.

 

[Lons]

Give it a rest Rorschach, don't you ever stop for breath?

 

[Rorschach]

Give it a rest Rorschach, don't you ever stop for breath?

Boom Boom!

 

[RobinBHM]

The government is taking the sensible approach of unlocking slowly.

That action obviously costs a huge amount of money, so I'm sure the govt will have done significant modelling to do the safe minimum.

I'm not sure why some people think restrictions can be removed faster, safely......why would they know better?

 

[RobinBHM]

Give it a rest Rorschach, don't you ever stop for breath?

It must be wonderful to know better than all of the many governments scientists working full time on this.

Reminds me of that Harry Enfield character..."you don't wanna do it like that...."