The moronic covid regulations are falling by the wayside. They must never be allowed to happen again.
Tourism companies have hailed the ‘final game-changer’ as all remaining Covid travel measures are axed even as cases continue to rise in the UK.
Grant Shapps said lifting the requirements, which include pre-travel tests for unvaccinated people, would allow ‘greater freedom in time for Easter’ to go abroad.
After a meeting with senior ministers on Monday, he confirmed the measures were ending for travel to the UK from 4am on Friday under plans to ‘live with Covid’.
I’ve been paying attention to Isle of Man travel and at the moment, I need to effectively get a visa and do a test within 48 hours of arrival. Hopefully, by the time June comes around, this nonsense will have been dropped.
But it comes amid another surge in Covid which is being driven by a new highly transmissible ‘Stealth Omicron‘.
They really can’t help themselves, can they? What they really mean is ‘a bit of a cold.’ But ‘stealth omicron’ sounds so much more scary.
Meanwhile a mass booster vaccine rollout is likely this autumn as the NHS starts offering over-75s a fourth jab from next week.
Fer cryin’ out loud.
On a related subject, I managed to get a nurse appointment to do a follow-up on my blood pressure results. It’s a bit higher than I’d like, but not scarily high. So I rocked up at 08:30 this morning only to find that I had been booked the ‘wrong’ appointment.
“You need to have a pharmacist appointment.”
“I’ve spoken to the pharmacist. He told me to book this appointment.”
“This is for an initial assessment not a follow up. You need to go back to reception and book another one.”
Back at reception with mixed feelings shifting between complete bafflement and irritation, I get told that the process is a blood test then a pharmacy appointment then a nurse follow up. I’ve done the first two, but as this was now a couple of months ago, we start again from the beginning.
I’m saying nothing. Really, if I do, I’ll start to swear too much. Kafka had nothing on this lot. Next Tuesday, they take bloods again and the whole charade begins anew.
All hail the great and glorious NHS.
“…if I do, I’ll start to swear too much.”
Well you did say pharmacy.
I have been having slight blood pressure problems and have been resisting being put on medication for it. I have been abstaining from beer and doing a lot of swimming instead which appears to be working. Interestingly, my systolic readings are just a little on the high side but the diastolic readings are what is classed as ideal. The received wisdom seems to be that, when these differ, the systolic reading is the more important number. Before I retired I was an engineer and did quite a lot of work involving fluid power systems. Obviously organic beings are very different from machines but there are fundamental principles that apply to both. If high blood pressure is caused by restrictions caused by constricted blood vessels then I would expect both readings to be high. If only the systolic reading is high and the diastolic reading is normal, that suggests to me that I just have a very strong pulse. This is fairly basic hydraulics. Is there a doctor in the house who could explain this?
Actually, with pedant hat on – the word pharmacy dates back to at least the 14th Century. Its roots are originally Greek and we get it from the French, so it’s a perfectly acceptable word in English.
Sorry, I was referring to the fact that when one of my posts got blocked it turned out to be the word pharmacy that the spam blocker didn’t like.
Oh, yeah, of course. Forgot that. Sorry. That was a fairly standard list of spammy words and pharmacy does tend to crop up in spam.
On a related subject, I managed to get a nurse appointment to do a follow-up on my blood pressure results. It’s a bit higher than I’d like, but not scarily high.
Are you sure that the blood pressure being high isn’t a result of having to deal with the NHS?
Hmmm… now that could be a point you have right there.
Are you having your blood pressure taken at the surgery, or doing it yourself? I’ve got an Omron home tester – we originally got it to check mothers dangerously high readings – but I started checking myself. I always found that the first reading would be high enough to trigger the amber warning, but on following a local pharmacist’s advice, I now do three tests with 5 minutes between each. This gets round “White Coat Syndrome” which is an inevitable consequence of being in a surgery or hospital setting – particularly if the fuckers are winding you up!
When I was having the pre-med before my hip replacement, the nurse wasn’t happy with the readings, but I insisted she let me sit quietly while she did some paperwork. That did the trick and the following ones were acceptable.
Yup, I do the same. It steadily falls over a period of time. The final reading is always in the normal range. The average though is first level hypertension.
I have a home tester. The nurse has asked me to do weekly diaries of four tests per day for a week during each month. Average for Jan is 152/74 (Mild hypertension). Average for Feb after no beer and lots of swimming is 139/79 (High normal). I’m doing March at the moment and it looks as though it will be similar to Feb.
As far as I can tell, we can leave the UK without any problems, but no other country will let us in without being boosted, having swabs stuck up our noses, wearing masks when we get there or other such odious requirements.
I’m waiting to see what the Manx government does. At the moment, because I’m one of the unclean, I need to fill in a form and if it is approved, I have to get a PCR test within 48 hours of landing. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to them that this is utterly absurd and will have no effect whatsoever on spread if I was infected. But, then, see also every stupid, moronic, insane dystopian idea these cretins have imposed on us for the past two years.
The Manx TT races got their original start when their government said yeah why not? when motorcyclists asked if they could close some roads off to go racing after the mainland government refused. Just over a hundred years ago they were presumably less uptight.
The Isle of Man website says that there will be no testing or isolation for alk arriving visitors from 31st March
Odd. I didn’t see that bit. Might be a new addition.
I’ve had another look and am still getting the same info. Can you put a link in?
All. Why should my phone think that alk is a valid word?
Tell me about it.
Maybe it’s part of the trend of shortening words?
Merchandise = merch
Family = fam
Alk… Alkali? Similar to how things are basic? Which is apparently a word which the trendy kids were using for a while.
@All
A wee survey. What are your BPs?
Mine are usually iirc
Systolic: 120-135
Diastolic: 80-95
As for NHS: last blood samples I had at GP, Nurse did not know what Fe, K, Mg, Na, Venesection or Formites are
My current average is 142/85.
Hah! I’m 82, smoked since I was 12, and haven’t been to bed sober since I was 16. No intention of giving up either ‘though if I did it would be cold turkey. (Worked for George Floyd: he’s been dry and drug-free the past two years.)
Oh, and my BP is 135/70. My continuing good health I owe to a lifetime of temperance, hard toil, and pure thoughts. Well, that’s what I tell people – a statement greeted by, usually, I regret to say, by vulgar mockery and coarse abuse.
Not sure whether you’re bullshitting us a little bit there Oswald but you’ve done a pretty good job of defying the odds. I don’t think that there is any harm in trying to tilt the odds a little in your favour as long as you aren’t making yourself miserable doing it. It says a lot about Longrider’s demographic that we all seem to be able to quote our blood pressure readings.
Checked last BP test – late January:
130 / 78
PS: Fear harms one’s immune system
I suspect that my slightly raised BP has a couple of causes. I’m reasonably fit, healthy and active and my diet is well balanced, the remaining probable causes are stress and genetics.
https://www.visitisleofman.com/
Ta.
These statistics say you are all fucking mad:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/
The point Greg is that none of these prevention measures actually work. People are also truly terrible at doing the most basic arithmetic needed to assess their actual level of risk. You carry on hiding behind your sofa if you want to but I’m not going to stop living for fear of dying.
The statistics say nothing of the sort. As Stony has already said, hide behind the sofa if you wish, but the sane amongst us wish to get on with our lives and manage our own risk, thankyou very much.
@Greg T
I diagnose projection syndrome and CDS
The statistics are Death With Covid” – ie a positive test in preceding 28 days
Death From but With other illness/comorbidities are ~17,000
Deaths From with no comorbidities are ~5,000
As I said way back in Feb 2020:
Like bad Flu – Keep Calm and Carry on as Normal
It’s also worth mentioning that my diabetes management, which is based a lot on my doing plenty of exercise, has taken a hit during the previous two years of collective insanity. Other people with far worse illnesses have been harmed as the health service was mostly closed down to deal only with Covid to the exclusion of anything else. Meanwhile people who are supposedly not all fucking mad have lost two years of their lives hiding from this bug. I heard a couple of guys at the gym talking about someone that they know who, even now, is too afraid to go out.
Further to my last comment, I just came across this on the Diabetes UK Support Forum.
“I got my ‘diagnosis’ via a curt text from the GP. Still not seen any of the cowardly &&&s since Jan 2020.”
Disgraceful. But that’s been the case all along.
Just a bit of an update. Popped in for an appointment finally. BP was 138/78.
No update here. Hospital phoned to say bloods fne, no visit needed
Out of interest, what is your Na level? Mine is regularly too low
Don’t know yet. I’m still waiting for the results.