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London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain

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Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not like no nation in the world has succeeded at containing this virus. Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, New Zealand. We have the solutions, we just refuse to do what it takes to solve it. Western nations are taking half measures with poor enforcement, and blaming individuals for failures that should be attributed to institutions.

Aussie and I think most impressively China too.

No other western country has actually been willing to do what NZ or Australia did - strict contact tracing, strict lockdowns, and a near-complete ban on entering the country, with those that do being picked up the police or military at their plane and driven to quarantine hotels where the doors lock from the outside.

I don't know why everyone keeps going on about other countries not getting the same results - no other rich country has even talked about trying, as far as I know.

Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain

#92

As has been pointed out in an earlier article about the "new strain"[1]: "Let's not be hysterical. It doesn't mean it's more transmissible or more infectious or dangerous." That there are new strains of COVID-19 has been covered over, and over, and over, and over again on the This Week in Virology podcast[2] (which usually has 4 to 6 virologists on it every week discussing COVID-19 news), and they've always had the s…

yes, obviously things mutate, but all your other information in this comment is out of date - the current information is the strain they're talking about is 70% more infectious.

Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain

#93

I live in London. The core issue here is that the government hasn't really taken any action. There are "rules" but they are full of loopholes and totally unenforced. 2 cases in particular stand out to me: Compliance with mask wearing on TFL is less than 50%. "Covid enforcement" officers walk around about one train in 50, and despite it being 8 months since this started, "I don't have one" is an acceptable answer to w…

Masks might slow it, but they're everywhere in the Bay Area, and cases are rising faster than ever, and we're setting new records for new cases, so "just wear a mask in public" isn't enough.

Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain

#94
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on the wording by Boris Johnson the travel ban is advisory. He uses the word should and not must when referring to the travel ban: "People should not enter or leave tier 4 areas, and tier 4 residents must not stay overnight away from home" Travel ban is advisory, overnight stay is banned by law.

Thanks for clarifying. I don't think that's the correct interpretation though. The government advice for tier 4 says: > You must not leave or be outside of your home except for where you have a specific purpose, or a ‘reasonable excuse’ > If you live in a tier 4 area, you must stay at home. You must not leave your home to travel unless for work, education or other legally permitted reasons So when Boris says "should"…

You might be right, in any case the restrictions are not enforced immediately resulting in the bleeding obvious:

(steady stream of traffic leaving London:

https://twitter.com/Keyboar58668342/status/13403788744594022...

Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain

#95
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boris just says stuff day to day. best just to ignore him completely because the next day he’ll be saying something different.

Three days ago he said it would be inhumane to cancel Christmas. Today he said the data from the last 72 hours forced a change. Johnson is an oaf, but covid has kept him fairly serious. His waffling bumbling act was dropped.

> covid has kept him fairly serious.

no it hasn't, it's kept him doing what he always does, wandering from tactical decision to tactical decision. the March lockdown only happened when public pressure became unbearable, he allowed the treasury to subsidise people eating in restaurants, he continues, in month nine, to hand large contracts to unqualified mates, both wasting money and reducing the ability to deal with the pandemic, and despite it being a once-in-a-century pandemic, did not ask for an extension on the disorganised negotiations with the EU, meaning that in the middle of December, it's still unclear how trade with EU, including...food and medicine, is meant to work in 12 days.

his entire career is just making the easy choice in the moment with no forethought.

Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is always said “if only we were more competent/oppressive/empathetic people - we’d have done fine” instead of perhaps wondering whether much of the mitigation efforts and their implementation are a fraught and possibly even net-negative exercise.

It’s not like no nation in the world has succeeded at containing this virus. Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, New Zealand. We have the solutions, we just refuse to do what it takes to solve it. Western nations are taking half measures with poor enforcement, and blaming individuals for failures that should be attributed to institutions.

> South Korea

You might want to check the news on South Korea. They're hitting daily records right now. This isn't to say they're at US levels, but with their current measures, they don't have control of the virus.

Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain

#97

I live in London. The core issue here is that the government hasn't really taken any action. There are "rules" but they are full of loopholes and totally unenforced. 2 cases in particular stand out to me: Compliance with mask wearing on TFL is less than 50%. "Covid enforcement" officers walk around about one train in 50, and despite it being 8 months since this started, "I don't have one" is an acceptable answer to w…

Masks might slow it, but they're everywhere in the Bay Area, and cases are rising faster than ever, and we're setting new records for new cases, so "just wear a mask in public" isn't enough.

Isn’t slowing it the whole point, especially now with vaccines in the horizon? Slow it enough so that

1) hospitals aren’t overwhelmed and

2) less people die unnecessarily

Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain

#98

I live in London. The core issue here is that the government hasn't really taken any action. There are "rules" but they are full of loopholes and totally unenforced. 2 cases in particular stand out to me: Compliance with mask wearing on TFL is less than 50%. "Covid enforcement" officers walk around about one train in 50, and despite it being 8 months since this started, "I don't have one" is an acceptable answer to w…

Here in Germany everyone is wearing a mask within the mandated areas.

Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain

#99

I live in London. The core issue here is that the government hasn't really taken any action. There are "rules" but they are full of loopholes and totally unenforced. 2 cases in particular stand out to me: Compliance with mask wearing on TFL is less than 50%. "Covid enforcement" officers walk around about one train in 50, and despite it being 8 months since this started, "I don't have one" is an acceptable answer to w…

I'm pretty shocked staff in supermarket employees aren't required to wear masks in London. But this isn't really true: "One staff member with covid will rapidly infect a few 1000 people given how busy they are on a Saturday morning. Covid is pretty contagious, but you really need to be around someone for ~15 minutes to have a good chance of infecting them. Superspreading events can occur, but they are fairly rare. I…

> Covid is pretty contagious, but you really need to be around someone for ~15 minutes to have a good chance of infecting them

...if you are the only one around them who is infectious.

Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain

#100

I live in London. The core issue here is that the government hasn't really taken any action. There are "rules" but they are full of loopholes and totally unenforced. 2 cases in particular stand out to me: Compliance with mask wearing on TFL is less than 50%. "Covid enforcement" officers walk around about one train in 50, and despite it being 8 months since this started, "I don't have one" is an acceptable answer to w…

Here in Germany everyone is wearing a mask within the mandated areas.

My German tutor has declined politely to meet me since March. Cost him a fortune. Every other service provider is still open. My barber just texted to say we're still on for Monday.
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