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

bloomberg.com

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

#111

Post by codeulike »

A lot of you missing the context of what's been going on here in recent days - they've seen an unexpected spike in infections and it seems to correlate with a strain with an unusually high number of mutations. So they're not totally sure the new strain is responsible but it looks serious enough to get extra cautious.

By tracking the growth of that strain then reckon it's 70% more easily spread. That could be statistical fluke due to a series of superspreader events or something like that but it seems less likely day by day.

See here for strain analysis https://twitter.com/firefoxx66/status/1340327606303027201

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

#112

Post by lend000 »

pjc50 wrote: post #107
vmception wrote: post #106

Earlier 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?

And islands. Australia may be a continent, but its low population density and lack of roads connecting it to more populous regions is certainly a contributing factor. All of the countries doing best are either authoritarian or effectively political islands (Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, China).

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

#113

Post by mhh__ »

tobylane wrote: post #18
jon889 wrote: 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.

I'm of two minds about this particular decision - Johnson is a crook and a fraud, but in this case I can't really blame him for making the decision (Our late decision to go into lockdown killed people, though).

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

#114

Post by leg100 »

vmception wrote: post #106
LatteLazy wrote: post #59

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…

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.

"Authoritative collectivist monocultures"...That sounds like you're insulting them three times over :)

You could call them sensible, mature, selfless societies.

Either way one cuts it, the UK is neither.

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

#115

Post by LatteLazy »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #103
LatteLazy wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yes, massive over prosecution for people who upset the status quo, clemency for people endangering the public...

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

#116

Post by pjc50 »

gnusty_gnurc wrote: post #45
sideshowb wrote: post #34

One has to wonder to what extent the new strain is really responsible for this, versus being a convenient excuse for the government's failure to manage the normal variant.

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.

https://twitter.com/pati_gallardo/status/1340037836972699648

"How’s Sweden doing, you ask? More people have died of COVID-19 in the past 5 days than have died altogether in Norway throughout the entire pandemic.

Tegnell still hasn’t been fired."

(Sweden and Norway have similar populations, climate, and even language and culture, but very different COVID approaches)

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

#117

Post by pjc50 »

mhh__ wrote: post #109
pjc50 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Indeed. We could have chosen to be an island, but that would have meant quarantining business travel.

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

#118

Post by mhh__ »

nicoburns wrote: post #33
AaronFriel wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He thought it was however perfectly humane to cancel all of the other religious holidays, and though that doesn't speak to his bumbling act, it speaks volumes about his character.

Most of the UK is secular. Christmas has cultural significance (and everyone gets time off work), not just religious.

"We don't do God", as the saying goes, is a major difference between (say) the UK and the US.

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

#119

Post by grey-area »

LatteLazy wrote: post #102
dehrmann wrote: post #93

Earlier 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.

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.

Aggressive contact tracing works when the disease is at low levels.

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

#120

Post by lefrenchy »

dehrmann wrote: post #96
lefrenchy wrote: post #53

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.

> 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.

It’s not even remotely comparable though. 1,000 cases a day and less than 1,000 total reported deaths. It puts Western nations to absolute shame.
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