Recent events really have brought out the forces of illiberalism (is that a word?).
Hundreds of people have backed Natasha Howard’s campaign to introduce a “shielding hour”.
The idea is to set a time when people who aren’t shielding stay indoors, so those who are shielding can leave their homes and know they won’t come close to someone with coronavirus.
No. If you are trying to avoid potential infection, then it is your responsibility to manage that. It is not the responsibility of everyone else to pussy-foot around you. Not least, given that going outside carries minimal risk anyway. The idea that the rest of us should have to undergo a curfew is highly illiberal and, frankly, I refuse to comply. If I need to be out and about, then I will do whatever it is that I need to do. What if I am already out and about? What should I do? Find somewhere to scurry away to leave the streets clear?
The group National Voices, which represents hundreds of health and social care charities, is urging the government to carefully consider the issues facing those who are shielding, in order to avoid creating a “two-tier pandemic society”.
And their solution is to create a two-tier pandemic society. The lack of self awareness going on would be staggering if we haven’t already been overwhelmed by rampant hypocrisy and double standards on steroids day after day for the past ten weeks.
We had a curfew here for several months – 9pm to 6am.
It was (for me at least) psychologically very hard to cope with – even if I had no reason to go out.
It is far more serious than the bedwetters realise.
Here’s a compromise. We maintain the virus prevention measures (queues outside shops, one-way systems, masks, 2m distancing, etc.) every morning from 7am-9am, for the bedwetters. Then for the rest of the day, the measures go away and sensible people get to enjoy normal life.
At present we are seeing about a thousand new cases per day in the UK. Out of a population of around sixty seven million that means that each day you have a one in 67,000 chance of getting the virus and it being bad enough for you to notice. As a percentage I make it around 0.0015%. If you do get it you have around a one in two hundred chance of dying from it. That works out at 0.0000075% if I have got my sums right, or less than one in a hundred thousand. Of course the odds are worse if you are older and have an underlying condition, I am pushing 62 and I do. Seriously there most be thousands of ways of dying that have shorter odds even for me.
I’m very sceptical about the underlying condition part. How many >70yo people are in perfect condition? And to include the whole spectrum of mental health issues as a relevant underlying condition just smacks of number manipulation. I suspect that when broken down by age range (if the data even exists) we would find that a study of *any* cause of death would have similar percentages to that of COV-19 simply because lots of old people have health conditions.
@BiK
All broken down here inc Only ~1,330 C-19 with no pre-diagnosed co-morbidities
https://hectordrummond.com/2020/06/15/week-22-graphs-from-christopher-bowyer/
See Changing trends in mortality by leading causes of death
and
Causes of death over 100 years
Pushing 61 myself with COPD, hasn’t stopped me being out and about (key worker) since Day Zero.
For two days Local Live has not had a single Covid article because it isn’t here, three about significant local businesses going lockdown bust though.
I expect my chances of kopping Covid are now about the same as getting struck by lightning, twice.
Fuhrer Sturgeon has given permission for ‘shielded’ to venture outside from Monday. Perhaps she noticed many were already doing it weeks ago
As for Natasha Howard, she can FO and Gov’t should tell her same. Most streets are empty now and were before lockdown too
Petition End lockdown to prevent further economic damage to the UK’s economy
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/315979
I have also heard her addressed as the Head Goblin of the Spiteful Nannying Party.
She is certainly showing her Stalinist roots, wee bit of authoritarian power and they go beserk, hold my beer time on crashing the economy.
An article in Unherd about schools going back links to a Dutch study (under 12s back in full with no social distancing or ill effects thus far), brings in a Virology Professor to tell us that the main problem will be infected airborne vapour droplets.
Said Prof tells us that Ventilation is the key
Thanks, but, as I have mentioned previously, as a child riding London Routemasters, if anyone started coughing or sneezing on the top deck (only whimps sat downstairs of course) everyone opened all the windows since We Knew Then that ventilation was the key
Sadly when they rebuilt our four High Schools (PFI under Blair) Energy Efficiency was all the rage and they are so designed that windows are not opposite each other hence no through draughts which is why the kids started keeling over once it got a bit warm. Dunno if they ever did anything about that, drill a few holes in the walls would be my solution.