Boris & The Pandemic

[Baggiemadguern]

In response to Swedish, Mickd & Al. (It is easier to write to all than several individually.)

It is quite funny really. When this pandemic started, so before it was a pandemic, my good lady was proclaiming all sorts of horrors that would unfold, and dismissed this and said it would not be as bad as everyone thought and that people catching it and death rates would be nowhere near what they were projecting. Well we now see, 9 months later, that we were both right, albeit she more so than me. It was and remains out of control, however the number of deaths particularly in the U.K. remain way below the initial U.K. prediction of around half a million. The thing is, I was thinking in the short term initially but now we do not know how long this will go on for.

Initially, I thought the Guernsey Government had gone to far in locking down. However, it very soon became quite clear that it was having an effect in reducing transmitting and therefore, the numbers of people falling victim fell quite quickly. After a couple of months things were so well controlled restrictions started to be reduced and soon we were out of lockdown. What we did not do was see the numbers reduce a little and then start allowing the hospitality, gyms, cinemas etc to open willy nilly. It was never the intention locally to eradicate the virus but they actually did do that.

The route taken, by Guernsey and the Isle of Man was strict and hard bit it damn well worked. Unlike the U.K. though, the way out of lock down was done very differently, in levels whereby small permissions were granted every couple of weeks. To date it has worked. So from being against a lockdown at the outset, I am now in favour. What I am trying to say if every country had done properly in the first place it have been a different story and we could well be back on our way to normality. As it stands, most places are back to where they were three or four months ago.

I see the point Swedish makes in regard to the vulnerable young people, those with mental health etc. but unless someone grabs this by the throat and deals with it properly then we could be in a serious situation. If we thought it was bad last time, I am sure that would seem like a walk in the park compared to another round as winter approaches and food shortages worsen. And who will want to expertise for two hours in the pouring rain, gale force winds and snow.

I can listen and absorb all points of views made and could easily be swayed in my thinking re a herd immunity type of way for dealing with this virus. However, having seen and gone through a lockdown, properly controlled with excellent Governance and a top class Chief Medical Officer of Health, I am not of anywhere else, other than the IOM, that has dealt with as effectively. Like Mickd, I have completely changed my view, in reverse to his change of view of course.

I have noticed this weekend, locally, supermarkets and some smaller shops are putting more hand sanitiser out and returning protective screens to the auto pay checkouts, so something is on the horizon.

What ever happens keep up the hand washing etc and stay safe. And I hope that the world will bring those that introduced this virus to us all will be brought to task. Unlikely though is it.

[WBA123]

A journalist friend of mine based in London has told me that the Government, aka Cummings, is about to start a PR campaign to shift blame for new restrictions onto 'irresponsible people' and away from the Government.

The same government who paid people to go out to eat and who's chief advisor broke the rules himself and drove a 60 mile round trip to a beauty spot on his wife's birthday to test his eyesight.

No doubt, this will be splashed across the Daily Mail (and other dodgy Govt influenced rags) in the coming days, in an attempt to divide and split opinion.

As I said earlier. PR is more important to this government. And if this is true, which it sounds plausible enough, then our Government are focusing more on this new PR campaign than they are on things like testing and tracing. Pretty standard behaviour from them right now.

[stripes39]

A journalist friend of mine based in London has told me that the Government, aka Cummings, is about to start a PR campaign to shift blame for new restrictions onto 'irresponsible people' and away from the Government.

The same government who paid people to go out to eat and who's chief advisor broke the rules himself and drove a 60 mile round trip to a beauty spot on his wife's birthday to test his eyesight.

No doubt, this will be splashed across the Daily Mail (and other dodgy Govt influenced rags) in the coming days, in an attempt to divide and split opinion.

As I said earlier. PR is more important to this government. And if this is true, which it sounds plausible enough, then our Government are focusing more on this new PR campaign than they are on things like testing and tracing. Pretty standard behaviour from them right now.

I think the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle tbh. I also think that this government has not handled this at all well as there's no way vulnerable people in care homes should be seeing a second spike as many are now and not sorting track & trace is a major failing. Cummings did more damage than they initially realised as it was a real case of one rule for one and one for another and yes, I didn't believe a word he said at his press conference. After 6 months there really aren't any excuses as to me it seems they're making it up as they go.

That said, a friend of mine works for the Dorset coastguard. He was saying that they had 500,000 people on the beaches over one weekend. People queued for ages to get car parking and endured long traffic jams. Add in the various protest groups that have popped up and you do realise that there is a high % of self-entitled idiots who simply will not tow the line as no one is telling them what to do regardless.

I really don't think the economy can stand another lockdown. I would imagine the hidden cost has yet to be counted. I know someone who committed suicide as she could not cope with lockdown but no one knew. How many more like that?

I don't believe these figures about deaths either notwithstanding it is a killer disease to certain people. I had an elderly relative who had Covid on the death certificate. The fact she'd been 3 years in care with dementia and cancer and was given 3 weeks before anyone had heard of Covid does make you wonder.

It should be a basic requirement that front line staff and not just NHS get protection and the elderly and those in care homes. If only we had a decent track and trace we could then let the rest of society function as the far reaching damage to the economy and the knock-on effect of huge debts will be much worse imo.

[Dubbag]

All governments are struggling with this....because it is hitting money more then people.....
By that I mean the economies of the world......you are processed according to your earnings potential.....
If you take money out of the system...then you take out the worth of a person in the system....harsh but true...

[baggieal]

A journalist friend of mine based in London has told me that the Government, aka Cummings, is about to start a PR campaign to shift blame for new restrictions onto 'irresponsible people' and away from the Government.

The same government who paid people to go out to eat and who's chief advisor broke the rules himself and drove a 60 mile round trip to a beauty spot on his wife's birthday to test his eyesight.

No doubt, this will be splashed across the Daily Mail (and other dodgy Govt influenced rags) in the coming days, in an attempt to divide and split opinion.

As I said earlier. PR is more important to this government. And if this is true, which it sounds plausible enough, then our Government are focusing more on this new PR campaign than they are on things like testing and tracing. Pretty standard behaviour from them right now.

Totally agree 123! Boris has become a laughing stock and no wonder why the public do their own thing. Today - I went to the bank and staff were all kitted out in masks and only let a couple of customers in whilst others stayed outside - customer could only step forward when told and then told to take a step back. In M&S staff were wondering around without masks and in the cafe servers wore no masks and were almost touching you. I challenged this with an M&S floor manager and was told - there's no government legislation for staff to wear masks and he said - our staff like to converse with elderly customers! What bollox - so almost standing on top of an elderly customer without social distancing telling them where the apples are etc is sensible! Idiot!

What chance do the public have! Boris really is a buffoon and a PR company should recommend he takes a course in public speaking as opposed to waving his hands thinking everyone is deaf! I thought speech and drama was a payable extra at posh schools!

[kettering_baggie]

An effective testing and tracing system would have Been so important in Keeping a lid on the spread of the virus. Unfortunately we have a government that hasn’t a clue what to do; they have put a useless bag in charge of test and trace, although to all intent and purpose, it is non existent. I am seriously pi$$ed off with it all, I and all of my family, and all friends that I know of, have abided by the regulations and now we face even more restrictions, imposed by a bunch of clueless tw@ts. I am pretty sure that the statistics that we are being fed do not tell the full story.......

[SwedishBaggie]

In response to Swedish, Mickd & Al. (It is easier to write to all than several individually.)

It is quite funny really. When this pandemic started, so before it was a pandemic, my good lady was proclaiming all sorts of horrors that would unfold, and dismissed this and said it would not be as bad as everyone thought and that people catching it and death rates would be nowhere near what they were projecting. Well we now see, 9 months later, that we were both right, albeit she more so than me. It was and remains out of control, however the number of deaths particularly in the U.K. remain way below the initial U.K. prediction of around half a million. The thing is, I was thinking in the short term initially but now we do not know how long this will go on for.

Initially, I thought the Guernsey Government had gone to far in locking down. However, it very soon became quite clear that it was having an effect in reducing transmitting and therefore, the numbers of people falling victim fell quite quickly. After a couple of months things were so well controlled restrictions started to be reduced and soon we were out of lockdown. What we did not do was see the numbers reduce a little and then start allowing the hospitality, gyms, cinemas etc to open willy nilly. It was never the intention locally to eradicate the virus but they actually did do that.

The route taken, by Guernsey and the Isle of Man was strict and hard bit it damn well worked. Unlike the U.K. though, the way out of lock down was done very differently, in levels whereby small permissions were granted every couple of weeks. To date it has worked. So from being against a lockdown at the outset, I am now in favour. What I am trying to say if every country had done properly in the first place it have been a different story and we could well be back on our way to normality. As it stands, most places are back to where they were three or four months ago.

I see the point Swedish makes in regard to the vulnerable young people, those with mental health etc. but unless someone grabs this by the throat and deals with it properly then we could be in a serious situation. If we thought it was bad last time, I am sure that would seem like a walk in the park compared to another round as winter approaches and food shortages worsen. And who will want to expertise for two hours in the pouring rain, gale force winds and snow.

I can listen and absorb all points of views made and could easily be swayed in my thinking re a herd immunity type of way for dealing with this virus. However, having seen and gone through a lockdown, properly controlled with excellent Governance and a top class Chief Medical Officer of Health, I am not of anywhere else, other than the IOM, that has dealt with as effectively. Like Mickd, I have completely changed my view, in reverse to his change of view of course.

I have noticed this weekend, locally, supermarkets and some smaller shops are putting more hand sanitiser out and returning protective screens to the auto pay checkouts, so something is on the horizon.

What ever happens keep up the hand washing etc and stay safe. And I hope that the world will bring those that introduced this virus to us all will be brought to task. Unlikely though is it.

It could def be difficult to know what is exactly right and to have exactly the same opinion all the time BMG.

Good that your lockdown has worked out. Some observations and thoughts from me. I believe you wrote that there are some 65 000 people living in Guernsey, and an island to that (Sweden have only about 10 million people, my town, sizewise ca # 20-25 in Sweden, have ca 30 000 more inhabitants than Guernsey). I believe maybe that is is quite a homogenous society? I may of course be dead wrong and way off the mark, apologies then.

If a small community on an island does not have many people working zero hours (and hence can’t afford staying home with symptoms/when ill), does not have a great amount of poor people with children with special needs, does not have a great amount of immigrants living in densely populated flats with many generations etc, etc - I def believe a lockdown might work. For a (any) country, I say firmly no.

Lockdowns hurt those at the bottom of society - not me, who can work from home if I must, and who is generally quite fortunate.

Some food for thought:

We may be an ignorant and irresponsible lot over here but, figures are going down right now, and have for some time (that could of course change).

In July our beaches were totally crammed with ”ignorant selfish *******” (exercising their human rights of will and movement, eh...&#128526, our NHS and Public Health of Sweden have since then really checked the figures, which ought to have risen a period after the beach incidents, what happened, figures went down...

We have never had compulsory masks, and figures are, well, you know.

In all this you also have to consider life quality, not only ”life quantity”, i e for every individual to maximise the number of years they live.

[Dubbag]

It could def be difficult to know what is exactly right and to have exactly the same opinion all the time BMG.

Good that your lockdown has worked out. Some observations and thoughts from me. I believe you wrote that there are some 65 000 people living in Guernsey, and an island to that (Sweden have only about 10 million people, my town, sizewise ca # 20-25 in Sweden, have ca 30 000 more inhabitants than Guernsey). I believe maybe that is is quite a homogenous society? I may of course be dead wrong and way off the mark, apologies then.

If a small community on an island does not have many people working zero hours (and hence can’t afford staying home with symptoms/when ill), does not have a great amount of poor people with children with special needs, does not have a great amount of immigrants living in densely populated flats with many generations etc, etc - I def believe a lockdown might work. For a (any) country, I say firmly no.

Lockdowns hurt those at the bottom of society - not me, who can work from home if I must, and who is generally quite fortunate.

Some food for thought:

We may be an ignorant and irresponsible lot over here but, figures are going down right now, and have for some time (that could of course change).

In July our beaches were totally crammed with ”ignorant selfish *******” (exercising their human rights of will and movement, eh...��), our NHS and Public Health of Sweden have since then really checked the figures, which ought to have risen a period after the beach incidents, what happened, figures went down...

We have never had compulsory masks, and figures are, well, you know.

In all this you also have to consider life quality, not only ”life quantity”, i e for every individual to maximise the number of years they live.

I agree with you here Thomas...it is about quality and not quantity....

[BaggieBlood]

A journalist friend of mine based in London has told me that the Government, aka Cummings, is about to start a PR campaign to shift blame for new restrictions onto 'irresponsible people' and away from the Government.

The same government who paid people to go out to eat and who's chief advisor broke the rules himself and drove a 60 mile round trip to a beauty spot on his wife's birthday to test his eyesight.

No doubt, this will be splashed across the Daily Mail (and other dodgy Govt influenced rags) in the coming days, in an attempt to divide and split opinion.

As I said earlier. PR is more important to this government. And if this is true, which it sounds plausible enough, then our Government are focusing more on this new PR campaign than they are on things like testing and tracing. Pretty standard behaviour from them right now.

Sunak tried to help the hospitality industry avoid collapse and I see no issue as long as the restaurants did their home work and leave space between tables and take all other necessary precautions.

The fact some of these restaurants took the pi ss by pressing the sale button fraudulently says more about the society we live in these than anything else, as a lot of companies have taken the p iss during lockdown.

But, enforcement is helped when a tory pr ick caught on a train without mask.

He should have been sacked by the tories and made an example of, but no he is allowed an excuse "of I forgot."

[regis80]

Today they announced that we are now in category 4. We could be facing exponential virus growth, with possible 200 deaths a day.
So why have we closed all the field hospitals again????

Everywhere I look online, whether it be FB, twitter etc you’ll see in every 10 poster claiming it all to be false pandemic.

Reckon you’ll hear anyone saying they have the flu in the coming months? or the man flu even?? No idea what to believe. Yet China is having festivals.