Metropol

The LFTs will likely have to be paid for in the future, in the US and Australia, they're not free.

bilky asko wrote: Fri 31 Dec, 2021 16.33Widespread PCR testing shouldn't come to an end because someone like yourself arbitrarily decides that enough money has been spent.

My objection is not that “enough money has been spent”. I’m happy for money to be spent indefinitely as long as that is the best use of the money. In this case I’m not convinced it is.

Jonwo wrote: Fri 31 Dec, 2021 17.20 The LFTs will likely have to be paid for in the future, in the US and Australia, they're not free.

Quite a few countries were going to start charging for them earlier in the year, until Delta, then Omicron hit.

The amount of plastic involved in LFTs horrified me, to say nothing of the disposable everything else we’ve used during this pandemic.

Joe wrote: Sat 01 Jan, 2022 00.37 The amount of plastic involved in LFTs horrified me, to say nothing of the disposable everything else we’ve used during this pandemic.

Certainly goes against the environmentally conscious route we're supposed to be taking.

I don't know, it's been strangely comforting to have the styrofoam cup come back into fashion.

I'm still occasionally finding places which aren't accepting reusable coffee cups. I'm pretty sure baristas aren't going to catch the covid by touching my keepcup.

thegeek wrote: Mon 03 Jan, 2022 07.53 I'm still occasionally finding places which aren't accepting reusable coffee cups. I'm pretty sure baristas aren't going to catch the covid by touching my keepcup.

It seems one of the hangovers of the past 2 years is that 'because covid' has been used as an excuse to deliver poor service, and still is to some degree.

BBC TV Centre wrote: Mon 03 Jan, 2022 17.13

thegeek wrote: Mon 03 Jan, 2022 07.53 I'm still occasionally finding places which aren't accepting reusable coffee cups. I'm pretty sure baristas aren't going to catch the covid by touching my keepcup.

It seems one of the hangovers of the past 2 years is that 'because covid' has been used as an excuse to deliver poor service, and still is to some degree.

I'm pretty sure that the line 'due to Covid' is going become as overused (and as incorrectly used) as 'due to Health & Safety' and 'due to The Data Protection Act' have been in the past.

Mind you, still probably not as likely to be frequently overused as justifying the damaged state of our society in the next few years with the words 'and then Covid hit' as if A) this type of chronic destruction to a functioning society (I didn't say perfect, I said functioning) without thinking about what damage that would cause was ever justified lest Covid 'hit' (which it rather seems to have done anyway) and B)...refer back to A.

BBC TV Centre wrote: Mon 03 Jan, 2022 17.13

thegeek wrote: Mon 03 Jan, 2022 07.53 I'm still occasionally finding places which aren't accepting reusable coffee cups. I'm pretty sure baristas aren't going to catch the covid by touching my keepcup.

It seems one of the hangovers of the past 2 years is that 'because covid' has been used as an excuse to deliver poor service, and still is to some degree.

I agree, although I think it’s also been an excuse to rationalise and make efficiencies by stripping out practices that were previously wasteful under the guise of “because of covid”. So for example my previous job role was made redundant at the end of 2020 in favour of a streamlined structure, sold as the need to preserve cash following a terrible year for the business. In reality though this structure had been planned long before covid, and this allowed it to be brought in. Never waste a good pandemic.

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.