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Coronavirus - how is it/has it affected you?

I'm never sure how much that holds water, I think the variants circulate all over the place and you'll never really know where they originated. The reason we are picking so many up is that we're responsible for over 50% of the worlds genome testing (I think that figure is correct) so we're the ones picking them up which makes it look like we are a hot bed of virus. In reality they're in every country, they just haven't been picked up yet.

I was reading an articule on Uruguay last night, they were held up as one of the standard bearers of dealing with Covid but are now dealing with huge spike. All you can do with Covid is protect the vulnerable, it will always get into a country at some point and there is nothing you can do to stop it. I think the phrase was 'dry kindling' so those countries who have got away lightly may well still find that they have to deal with issues further down the line, interesting to see what happens with NZ ones they're fully open.
So if it is as you say, why aren’t other Countries recognising this rather than treating us as some sort of pariah?

Or on the reverse, stop their nationsls coming here, It just feels at times we are dealing with this do much better than many Countries, but instead of learning from us we get treated as the bad guy!
 
Still think international travel should be off the table for another year

Green zones are just economy prop ups
Why? Whats the issue with people from a highly vaccinated country visiting another highly vaccinated country, taking tests etc. Its probably safer than a weekend in Blackpool. not to mention the amount of further job losses it would cause in the tourism sector.
 
Great news. So they've really not got an excuse not to go ahead with the final unlocking, although no doubt they will try to find one
Unfortunately that report is 8 days old and doesn’t seem to be taken any notice of.
 
So if it is as you say, why aren’t other Countries recognising this rather than treating us as some sort of pariah?

Or on the reverse, stop their nationsls coming here, It just feels at times we are dealing with this do much better than many Countries, but instead of learning from us we get treated as the bad guy!

That I don't know, the cynic would suggest an element of denial, "If we don't detect it then we haven't got it" type thing? Maybe it's PR, easier to blame the UK for these variants than admitting that your own Covid solutions aren't working? To be honest the UK should have been a lot more like those countries in terms of their willingness to add countries to the red list. Stopping all travel and therefore Covid variants was never an option however stopping the majority of travel from certain, very obvious, countires was and we didn't.
 
Here is the Uruguay chart, seems to me it goes some way to proving that all you can do is protect the most vulnerable as Covid will get in and you will, at some point, have to live with it.

View attachment 36820

Its here. Its not going away. We have to live with it.

The sooner everyone realises that the better. And we can get back to living some kind of normal life where people are free to take whatever precautions they feel are appropriate for them.
 
Why? Whats the issue with people from a highly vaccinated country visiting another highly vaccinated country, taking tests etc. Its probably safer than a weekend in Blackpool. not to mention the amount of further job losses it would cause in the tourism sector.

Because variants are getting in through travel, was always going to be the case.

International travel especially holidays should be banned until 2022 when we have more of an idea if the vaccine actually works fully and what varrients are about

By all means open our own country up a bit allow for recovery but it's irresponsible and down right dangerous allowing travel

We are allowed to Portugal for example but not Spain, are the Spanish, french, Germans allowed to Portugal? If they are it's dangerous as we could be mixing around amber lists

Portugal also has links with Brazil ..all it takes is a bit of lax and we back to square one

The Indian varrient has taken hold so to speak due to people being allowed back for 4 days without having to quarantine. Before they were put on the red list

They should have gone right everyone back now you will have to go in a hotel for 10 days but we will pay it's cheaper than another varrient going undetected

Too easy for green to slip to amber to red at any moment

All to prop up the travel industry rather than do what's right
 
As much as that is brilliant news, there may well come a day when it is not effective against all. An ever changing Covid variant may well make the vaccine about as useful as a ashtray on a motorbike. If that’s the case we are back at square one.
My Major grief is as Paul has said, the amount of people coming into the UK is not helping. 500 K citizens. 1 million foreigner ?
 
Why? Whats the issue with people from a highly vaccinated country visiting another highly vaccinated country, taking tests etc. Its probably safer than a weekend in Blackpool. not to mention the amount of further job losses it would cause in the tourism sector.
If that was the case then fantastic, but some of the people coming into the UK have been coming from other red zone countries and flying into green zone then onto the UK. As much as vaccination has been fantastic in the UK, some. Or tries are now banning the UK citizens from entering there countries due to different variants ☹️
 
Because variants are getting in through travel, was always going to be the case.

International travel especially holidays should be banned until 2022 when we have more of an idea if the vaccine actually works fully and what varrients are about

By all means open our own country up a bit allow for recovery but it's irresponsible and down right dangerous allowing travel

We are allowed to Portugal for example but not Spain, are the Spanish, french, Germans allowed to Portugal? If they are it's dangerous as we could be mixing around amber lists

Portugal also has links with Brazil ..all it takes is a bit of lax and we back to square one

The Indian varrient has taken hold so to speak due to people being allowed back for 4 days without having to quarantine. Before they were put on the red list

They should have gone right everyone back now you will have to go in a hotel for 10 days but we will pay it's cheaper than another varrient going undetected

Too easy for green to slip to amber to red at any moment

All to prop up the travel industry rather than do what's right
Face it this thing this thing is never going away, it will become something we have to live with. So do we ban international travel for ever? Sooner or later we are going to have to roll up our sleeves and get on with life. For nearly 18 months we've been restricted in our daily lives, jobs have been lost, cancers and other nasty fatal diseases have gone untreated, peoples mental health has taken a huge hit. We've done what we were asked, the elderly and vulnerable arw protected, and if they're not then more fool them. In my opinion its time we started getting back to normal.
 
As much as that is brilliant news, there may well come a day when it is not effective against all. An ever changing Covid variant may well make the vaccine about as useful as a ashtray on a motorbike. If that’s the case we are back at square one.
My Major grief is as Paul has said, the amount of people coming into the UK is not helping. 500 K citizens. 1 million foreigner ?
And you can guarantee that one day a new virus will emerge and travel the world, and we will be back to square one with that. Do we stay locked up forever, just in case?
 
As much as that is brilliant news, there may well come a day when it is not effective against all. An ever changing Covid variant may well make the vaccine about as useful as a ashtray on a motorbike. If that’s the case we are back at square one.
My Major grief is as Paul has said, the amount of people coming into the UK is not helping. 500 K citizens. 1 million foreigner ?

You mean like, say, the flu? Where it mutates all the time.

If only there was some science type people to develop vaccines so that they evolve over time...

Come on Tashy, you don't genuinely belive that the vaccine will stand still and the once we get now will be the one we always get?

Yes, Covid will be with us for a long while yet but we have other viruses that are also pretty much with us all the time. Christ, we still get measles doing the rounds now and again.

Over time and with time, we WILL get better at developing vaccines to Covid. The first was a rush job remember (but damn good for a rush job at that). The scientists will settle in to a research and development routine soon enough and the same trust you place in thr flu vaccine protecting you should be given to the Covid vaccine IMO.

We're by no means out of the woods yet but we can certainly see the sky.
 
There’s no doubt that there will come a time we’ll just “accept” it and get on with life, the problem is identifying when the time is right, for some it should of been last year, for some the near future and, possibly, for some the far future.

It’s ok us in the UK saying enoughs enough if the rest of the World disagree.
 
Its here. Its not going away. We have to live with it.

The sooner everyone realises that the better. And we can get back to living some kind of normal life where people are free to take whatever precautions they feel are appropriate for them.

Agree with this. We are nearly all vaccinated and will be fully (adults) soon. The vaccine works at eliminating the worst symptoms and a large element of hospitalisations. It also reduces transmitability. Without having seen any figures i would have thought deaths from the UK as a vaccinated country are likely to be similar to flu. And that means we have to get back to life as normal and live with this like flu and every other disease.
 
Face it this thing this thing is never going away, it will become something we have to live with. So do we ban international travel for ever? Sooner or later we are going to have to roll up our sleeves and get on with life. For nearly 18 months we've been restricted in our daily lives, jobs have been lost, cancers and other nasty fatal diseases have gone untreated, peoples mental health has taken a huge hit. We've done what we were asked, the elderly and vulnerable arw protected, and if they're not then more fool them. In my opinion its time we started getting back to normal.

However. It's still too soon

This a global pandemic not a UK wide pandemic

By all means get what we can in the UK itself back to some kind of normal, live with rapid tests and isolation

But until everywhere is double jabbed including seeing through a winter to see what the true effectiveness of the vaccine is and how it will work in less favourable conditions then international Jollys need banning

This time next year by all means providing we haven't gone backwards but we are learning all time

However we as a country seem to see our mistakes and ready to repeat them.
 
Its here. Its not going away. We have to live with it.

The sooner everyone realises that the better. And we can get back to living some kind of normal life where people are free to take whatever precautions they feel are appropriate for them.
Well we all know who it is that can help us move to the position of understanding, acceptance and trust that will enable us all to get on with life. And unfortunately it’s nobody on this forum.
 
Some really good details here on vaccination details of some of the variants, which is taken from the last reports, well worth a read :-

Meaghan Kall on Twitter: "New @PHE_uk variant reports published: Technical Briefing 13 on B.1.617.2 https://t.co/4QxZVfRnS9 Variant update 3 https://t.co/kmN7xW6qfh B.1.617.2 Risk Assessment https://t.co/tb7mqoAskW" / Twitter

Enjoy;)

We do masses of genome sequencing here, when compared to other countries. This is good, as it will highlight variants that are maybe around and with lab testing of variants, will tell us how likely certain variants can break through. Lots of information on this on twitter, if you wish to read about the variants and vaccines effectiveness with them.

CDC also has interesting information relating to vaccine break throughs (think they have just dropped keeping a records of the minor infections/vaccine status/variant but are going to keep a record of more serious cases)

Stay safe (y)
 
You mean like, say, the flu? Where it mutates all the time.

If only there was some science type people to develop vaccines so that they evolve over time...

Come on Tashy, you don't genuinely belive that the vaccine will stand still and the once we get now will be the one we always get?

Yes, Covid will be with us for a long while yet but we have other viruses that are also pretty much with us all the time. Christ, we still get measles doing the rounds now and again.

Over time and with time, we WILL get better at developing vaccines to Covid. The first was a rush job remember (but damn good for a rush job at that). The scientists will settle in to a research and development routine soon enough and the same trust you place in thr flu vaccine protecting you should be given to the Covid vaccine IMO.

We're by no means out of the woods yet but we can certainly see the sky.

i don't believe that the vaccine will stand still. But it seems to me that the vaccine is now the primary defence against Covid. And without getting to political restrictions are rammel.
 
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