London put in emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new strain • Hacker News Board

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

#201

Post by newsgourmet » Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 9:10 PM UTC

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 are doing great with this pandemic"

They are great at controlling the flow of information.

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

#202

Post by CodeGlitch » Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 9:10 PM UTC

LatteLazy wrote: post #158

grey-area wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If only the UK had the same level of government as Melbourne and Singapore and Japan and South Korea and New Zealand and all the other places that did that...

I'm not sure that's completely fair. Countries vary so much that putting it down to "the government" ignores all the other factors. You're examples are all on the southern hemisphere, with mostly nice weather where people spend more time outside. General population health also has a massive effect. Here in the UK we are a nation of overweight old people, but fat-shaming is a thing so that's only going to get worse.

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

#203

Post by nicoburns » Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 9:10 PM UTC

randomsearch wrote: post #136

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.

It is definitely being used as an excuse. The whole country’s restrictions have been changed whilst the “new strain” is focused in London. Regardless of the recent uptick in London, the rules needed to be changed, everyone knew it, Boris didn’t do it, and then to mask another U turn they seized on this. Chris Witty said today the idea that the new strain is more contagious is “just a theory”.

It is being used as an excuse. But I wouldn't go as far as to think that means it isn't real. It's difficult to explain the numbers in Kent going up through lockdown and Tier 3 restrictions otherwise.

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

#204

Post by fakedang » Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

dboreham wrote: post #163

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…

Wow. Here in deepest Republican middle America mask wearing by _staff_ in supermarkets is universal. Customers around 90% if you count "nose-slingers" as non compliant. Pretty much nobody just swanning around with no mask these days. Costco has heavy mask enforcement -- they will hunt down and eject anyone with their nose out. Where masks are not worn here is in smaller family owned businesses. Some have notices requ…

I was on a flight from Abu Dhabi to Frankfurt last month. The moron in the next counter traveling to Paris literally told the check-in counter employees that he had Covid and asked whether he could travel.

I don't know, I'd like to call this Angevin idiocy or something. But yeah, Europe does have its fair share of covidiots too.

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

#205

Post by anigbrowl » Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 9:12 PM UTC

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…

> 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 why you're not wearing a mask.

Is it policy for the officers to pull one out and say 'you do now'?

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

#206

Post by paulnechifor » Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 9:13 PM UTC

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…

> "I don't have one" is an acceptable answer to why you're not wearing a mask.

I haven't worn a mask twice. Once because I forgot it and once because I just forgot to put it on.

If "I don't have one" isn't an acceptable excuse what am I supposed to do: produce one out of thin air? It's not like they give out free ones if you forget. There are so many signs now that they're basically invisible. If I'm fined for not wearing it I'll stop wearing it entirely.

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

#207

Post by curiousllama » Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 9:13 PM UTC

dboreham wrote: post #163

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…

Wow. Here in deepest Republican middle America mask wearing by _staff_ in supermarkets is universal. Customers around 90% if you count "nose-slingers" as non compliant. Pretty much nobody just swanning around with no mask these days. Costco has heavy mask enforcement -- they will hunt down and eject anyone with their nose out. Where masks are not worn here is in smaller family owned businesses. Some have notices requ…

"nose slingers"

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

#208

Post by null_object » Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 9:14 PM UTC

randomsearch wrote: post #150

pjc50 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Sweden’s population is double Norway’s. It has denser and bigger cities. Norway has had severe flu seasons, with high fatality rates that may have reduced the number of vulnerable people in the pop. Cultural similarities are debatable; many in Sweden have complained about that outdated comparison. Finally: minimising lives lost is not the only goal in a pandemic, or even in the day to day management of a country.

As you know if you’re Swedish, Expressen (a major newspaper here in Sweden) exploded these myths about the supposed demographic differences between Sweden and Norway by comparing the sparsely populated northern region of Sweden with its Nordic neighbors and it still had more than FIVE times the death rate.

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

#209

Post by nicoburns » Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 9:14 PM UTC

elyobo wrote: post #178

gnusty_gnurc wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia is an island with a population almost half California. China welds people in their houses and forcibly enters homes and drags family to some location. I have no desire to emulate them.

I really don't understand the island fixation that so many seem to have. Is it just accepted that non-island nations are incapable of policing their borders?

I think the argument is that other nations have economies that depend much more heavily on interaction with their neighbours. Which is probably true to an extent. But I mostly agree with you that this option was open to other countries.

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

#210

Post by alexisread » Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 9:15 PM UTC

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 don't think anything much has changed wrt a strategy. The main pointer here is the allowance in the strictest tier for group worship, and allowing Christmas grottos to stay open- not exactly science led.