Metropol

Looks like Northern Ireland have suspended the changed mask exemption rules I posted about a couple of weeks back:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/f ... 88151.html

Thankfully some common sense returned, it really was ridiculous. A kneejerk reaction that was never going to be able to work in the real world.

Jonwo wrote: ↑Thu 06 Jan, 2022 20.27 I wonder which will be the first country to stop publishing daily numbers of cases, hospitalisation and deaths? I reckon no one will drop it entirely but I can see it being phased out.

We don't publish daily numbers of other respitatory illnesses, so I don't really see why it will continue once we're past the pandemic phase. In fact once mass testing stops (and the dropping of confirmatory PCRs feels to me like the first step in phasing it out), there'll really be no point as the vast, vast majority of case won't be picked up anyway.

james2001 wrote: ↑Thu 06 Jan, 2022 22.31 We don't publish daily numbers of other respitatory illnesses, so I don't really see why it will continue once we're past the pandemic phase. In fact once mass testing stops (and the dropping of confirmatory PCRs feels to me like the first step in phasing it out), there'll really be no point as the vast, vast majority of case won't be picked up anyway.

I think once one country decides to stop mass testing then others will follow suit but I imagine they will still be surveillance of variants much like they do with the flu.

A permanent exit strategy should really at the forefront of the minds of world governments along with approving vaccines and treatments at a faster pace, the UK and US have been good at approving vaccines and treatments so they're available relatively quickly but other countries are painfully slow.

Jonwo wrote: ↑Thu 06 Jan, 2022 20.27 I wonder which will be the first country to stop publishing daily numbers of cases, hospitalisation and deaths? I reckon no one will drop it entirely but I can see it being phased out.

I wouldn't be in the slightest bit surprised it was the UK. Or at least England.

Bizarre seeing Drakeford attacking how Westminster are handling things when Wales' case rate is quite substantially higher than England's right now. He's also ignoring calls from his own advisors to dial back on restrictions, really does back up my thoughts that the tighter restrictions in the rest of the UK are more about political games against the Tories and Westminster than actually public health.

bilky asko wrote: ↑Fri 31 Dec, 2021 16.33 Under your scenario, you want to seriously hamper widespread LFTs by charging for them for some reason.

According to The Times (and only a week later!), it appears it’s not such an unthinkable plan after all.

My views are obvious: I think this is well overdue. That said, I’ll continue to purchase them going forward, as I find them useful when visiting people who are anxious, for voluntary pre travel testing, and for attending larger events.

Guess it was a good idea to order a pack every day for the last few days then…

I'd already read last year that some European countries were planning on charging for tests before Delta then Omicon came in and stopped those plans, so it's not like we're the first to tout the idea.... but we could be the first to actually bring it in.

cdd wrote: ↑Sat 08 Jan, 2022 19.37

bilky asko wrote: ↑Fri 31 Dec, 2021 16.33 Under your scenario, you want to seriously hamper widespread LFTs by charging for them for some reason.

According to The Times (and only a week later!), it appears it’s not such an unthinkable plan after all.

My views are obvious: I think this is well overdue. That said, I’ll continue to purchase them going forward, as I find them useful when visiting people who are anxious, for voluntary pre travel testing, and for attending larger events.

I think LFTs should only be used in high risk settings like hospitals and care homes rather than for large events.

I've been looking at Australia's case numbers and TBH it doesn't surprise me they've increased so rapidly even in a population that is highly vaccinated and does show the downside of zero Covid. Western Australia which currently has no cases at the moment is going to be in for a hard time when they reopen next month.

It's what many of us were saying about pretty much anywhere in the world who's tried to suppress it- all you're really doing is holding back the tide, and the dam's going to burst eventually. In fact you could argue that England's doing better right now with Omicron as a result of being mostly open in summer and autumn and letting some level of spread and immunity build up in the population than most other countries who still spent all of 2021 trying to minimise cases to some extent or another. Even most of Europe is having a harder time than we are, even places like Portugal with 90%+ vaccinated. You get to the point, particularly now pretty much anyone who wants to be vaccinated has been, where restrictions start to cause more damage than they prevent. Vaccinations clearly do reduce serious illness and death, but it's quite clear at this point that they can't stop it spreading, and restrictions and endless boosting every few months is clearly leading us on a hiding to nothing.

There's going to have to be an acceptance that people are going to keep being infected, and in large numbers, otherwise normal life will never return. The fact here in the UK we have something like 3 times as many cases as this time last year, but less than half as many in hospital and a fifth as many deaths (and many of both of those are incidental) shows how the game has changed and getting panicky about case numbers alone and rushing to bring back restrictions is no longer reasonable

Now there are treatments alongside vaccines, I think that NPIs should be scrapped in due course unless it's in a very localised setting like say a care home.

I do wonder which of the Devolved Governments will crack first and ease restrictions? My guess would be Northern Ireland followed by Wales then Scotland.