Covid 2.0

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Given that many areas that have seen a steep rise in cases recently are in outer London or the London commuter belt, might the drive to get people back to the offices to ensure they buy expensive sandwiches have greatly accelerated the spread of this new variant?

Undoubtedly.

[greenman]

The BBC's consistent stream of stories of anguished juice bar owners doesn't really help either, little of it tends to focus on there actually getting proper subsidies and mostly on simply being closed being a terrible hardship on society.

I strongly suspect if you polled for a very stringent lockdown in Jan and Feb you would get a strong majority of support.

[Menu]

All the polling shows that the public are very pro-lockdowns despite the relentless media onslaught.

[buttgammon]

The BBC's consistent stream of stories of anguished juice bar owners doesn't really help either, little of it tends to focus on there actually getting proper subsidies and mostly on simply being closed being a terrible hardship on society.

I strongly suspect if you polled for a very stringent lockdown in Jan and Feb you would get a strong majority of support.

RTÉ is the same. It's not uncommon to see reports about the virus that interview politicians and business owners but not scientists.

[Chedney Honks]

All the polling shows that the public are very pro-lockdowns despite the relentless media onslaught.

You're absolutely right. I find the stories of struggling business owners among the worst coverage because they're falsely presented as oppositional. "Look at the harm these blasted lockdowns are doing." In the overwhelming majority of cases, this is not the tone of the business owners themselves who completely understand the need to protect public health. They need and want financial support, not for people to die.

Ultimately, that's what I find most exasperating about the UK government's response and the media coverage. It's presented as a subtly shifting balancing act of vacillating restrictions where we choose health for a bit, then the economy for as long as we can, then the NHS, and rinse and repeat. In doing so, and as the data supports, we've fared far worse than comparable neighbours in terms of deaths and economic impact. Arguably, we've just about (touch wood) prevented a collapse of the NHS, but you've got to be the worst kind of Tory lickspittle to attribute that to anyone but the NHS staff themselves, who have been fucking unbelievable in the face of utter cuntery.

And even now, with the golden ticket of two vaccines handed to the cunts, they can't keep it clear and simple. There has to be some smug showboating because they know best. Lock the fuck down, put your hands on in your pockets, correctly administer the vaccines to the most appropriate candidates and plan for a restart after Easter. But, no. It'll be shuffling this way and that like a dithering cunt, leaks to the Telegraph, last-minute U-turns, small businesses going under, schools and unis in disarray and a massive cunt off pile of corpses.

Even if this vaccine gamble works, they can take no fucking credit for it.

[Zetetic]

I think the reaction to the vaccine stuff is also unhelpful, because it's not like Matt Hancock or senior civil servants have come up with these things - this is stuff from the JCVI and scientists in PHE/PHW/etc.

They may be wrong, of course, and they're not completely independent from political pressures but I don't think they're doing this for "smug showboating". (And these are the hallowed "NHS staff" in some cases, setting aside PHE's weird status.)

The handling of the change in policy (with the consent and appointment fuckups) seems a slightly different issue to the policy itself, as well.

[Zetetic]

They need and want financial support, not for people to die.

Labour's inability to hammer this home has also been miserable as fuck. There's practically no representation of this point in the media (as you say) or, it seems, in UK-level politics.

[Chedney Honks]

You're right of course that the theorising and implementation has not come from the government, and the JCVI are in a much better place than me (!) to decide how to roll things out. But it's the triumphal exceptionalism around the messaging which makes my shit itch. You can see Class Monitor Hancock practically filling his pull-ups with spunk at the prospect of gambling the vulnerable on a vicarious victory.

Even if this adjusted 'more vs more effective' roll-out is the plan, it still shouldn't be used as an opportunity to offset cadavers with a fortnight more business for Wetherspoon's.

[jobotic]

So this South African variant might be too much for the vaccines we have? Any truth in this?

Should we all just shoot those we love and ourselves now?

It's never going to fucking end is it?

[Fambo Number Mive]

From the Metro story quoting Sir John Bell

Sir John added it was 'perfectly possible' to adjust vaccines in a matter of weeks if necessary.

'It might take a month, or six weeks, to get a new vaccine, so everybody should stay calm. It's going to be fine,' he said. 'But we're now in a game of cat and mouse, because these are not the only two variants we're going to see. We're going to see lots of variants.'

So it will only take a few weeks to get a new vaccine, then I presume they will just need to go back and revaccinate?

[jobotic]

I wish you'd posted sooner, I've shot the cat.

[steveh]

So this South African variant might be too much for the vaccines we have? Any truth in this?

Researchers are expected to have data on it early this month but testing against other variants with the N501Y mutation suggested there wasn't likely to be an issue. The consensus amongst virologists seems to be that current vaccines will likely be fine within the 1-2 year timescale, although there are still concerns about the prospects for other mutations.

[katzenjammer]

Nobody knows for sure yet, but they also are very far from saying 'we're fucked'

"If you want my gut feeling, I think the vaccine will be effective against the Kent strain and I don't know about the South African strain. I think there's a big question mark above that," he said, according to The Mirror.

But, Bell added that he doubts the vaccines would be rendered completely ineffective against 501.V2.


"I think it's unlikely that these mutations will turn off the effects of vaccines entirely – I think they'll still have a residual effect," the researcher said, according to The Sun.

And should a new vaccine be required to tackle the mutations, Bell said a new drug could be completed in six weeks.

"So everybody should stay calm. It's going to be fine," he said.

https://nypost.com/2021/01/04/covid-19-vaccines-effect-on-south-african-strain-still-unknown/

Edit: ah sorry, just seen this has already been posted. News outlets seem to be being very selective about the quotes they use, depending on how profitable they think it is to shit everyone up I guess

[katzenjammer]

It's never going to fucking end is it?

Well I guess it's never going away completely but should be much less of a problem in future (I hope!)