Here's a Twitter feed (a Swiss virologist I think?) with decent info on the new strain.
Dr Emma Hodcroft (@firefoxx66): https://twitter.com/firefoxx66/status/1340327606303027201?s=...
London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain
101–110 of 448 posts
Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain
#102I 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.
I don't know, Melbourne is A-Okay. They'd have been that way much earlier if it wasn't for one major super spreader event.
Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly my experiences in London. Crazy isn't it? I just don't think people even believe it's real. Half the people with a mask on TFL wear them over their chin or with their nose out anyway.
The uk always has this 2 levels of laws: laws that are passed and laws that are enforced. When a new law is passed people watch to see whether its enforced. This law is not enforced, so it goes in the same category as speed limits. I remember the 2011 riots, courts were run 24h a day, sentences were extreme and people were tired and convicted the same day as the offense. That's very heavy handed. But that shows you t…
That sounds less like justice and more like fear tactics
Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Natural selection. Deadlier strains reduce life span of hosts that transmit the disease.
You mean the natural selection of hosts, not viruses. Why should one kind of organism "care" about the natural selection of another?
It’s not about caring but what survives. Viruses variants that regularly kills hosts are less likely to spread than ones that don’t.
Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain
#105I 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…
> The attitude here is rapidly becoming "why should I bother if no one else is?". And frankly, I think the government know and encourage this. Its all but policy. Time and again we see them decline scientific advice, then act surprised when infection rates spike.
They always believed in "herd immunity", so they're going to run with the minimum restrictions that achieve an ""acceptable"" death rate.
We still don't have a great picture of what's driving the infections, due to the failure of track&trace. I suspect it's schools, universities, workplaces, and (unfortunately) hospitals, but I don't have handy evidence for that.
Having Folkestone jammed with containers of undistributed PPE while the clock runs down to the Brexit logistics crisis isn't helping either.
Anyway, the Tory public have been inexplicably satisfied with the performance so far, and are probably going to widely ignore the last-minute changes to Christmas rules.
Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain
#106I 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…
It is so fascinating how some cultures are just ready for different environments on this planet.
Authoritative collectivist monocultures are doing great with this pandemic, and that is practically the only combination that has a grip on things.
Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain
#107I 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…
It is so fascinating how some cultures are just ready for different environments on this planet. Authoritative collectivist monocultures are doing great with this pandemic, and that is practically the only combination that has a grip on things.
Australia?
Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
the concept of velocity is too hard for people to grasp
they need binary good/bad cause/effect edicts, like children. state and municipal governments are poorly catering to their own velocity based directives, and the juvenile more simplistic expectations of their population.
Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is so fascinating how some cultures are just ready for different environments on this planet. Authoritative collectivist monocultures are doing great with this pandemic, and that is practically the only combination that has a grip on things.
Australia?
Also New Zealand?
Our (UK) response has been a bit of a clusterfuck so far, we're not a good example to judge by.
Re: London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain
#110I 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…
> Compliance with mask wearing on TFL is less than 50% where? my counter-anecdote is I've taken to counting everyone on the carriage I'm on (between zone 2 and 1), and it's never more than 2-3 people without a mask, something like 90-95% compliance (seems down from a few months ago, though). in supermarkets it seems higher than that, to the extent I was quite weirded out to see a single person not wearing a mask last…
TFL Rail, the Eastern half, Romford, Chadwell Heath etc. To be fair, it got better on the central line. This was mid day not commuter rush. I do think East London is pretty poor at compliance culturally...