Chat about Novel Coronavirus - 2019-nCoV - COVID-19

Are we close to rolling back the relaxation of restrictions from tomorrow, do we think?

Glasgow and Moray in Scotland remaining in level 3. Pockets of Indian variant infection cropping up in England. Fuck me, I'm so nervous

In England at least a rise in cases is part of the government's plan, with the the hope there won't be too many hospitalisations and deaths if the vaccine does its job.

Whether the general public go along with that, or have the same definition of "too many" we've yet to see, but it'll take a few weeks to find out.

Are we close to rolling back the relaxation of restrictions from tomorrow, do we think?

Took an overground train across London yesterday, with a transfer at Blackfriars. I counted 20 people not wearing masks, and then I stopped for my own peace of mind. This doesn’t include a posh party/dinner boat packed with mask-less guests, maybe 50 people, mostly standing close together.

Theres little point stressing about other people now, I’m just focusing on doing my rational best to keep myself and my loved ones safe while getting back out there and living life.

Don't want to depress anyone, but outbreak at my daughter's school (South London) last week with a number of children testing positive and their bubble shut down on Thursday. My partner tested positive yesterday morning so we're now all isolating - she seems to mostly have symptoms of a bad cold/cough & I'm expecting there's a good chance I'll get it too. But we've both had first doses of vaccine so presuming it could be worse.
In retrospect I suspect younger child had it at start of last week - she complained of a headache and was a bit hot (but no temperature) - however at that point cases seemed to have decreased so much it being covid didn't cross our mind. Obviously any sort of social distancing (or even hygiene) between 4 year olds at school is pretty much impossible.
No idea if this is down to an easy spreading variant, or just that testing is so much more widespread that it's being quickly detected in children with minimal symptoms.
PCR tests for us should be arriving tomorrow, which I presume may establish if it's a variant or not.

I used public transport every day last week, on the Jubilee & Central lines I didn’t see anyone without a mask. Trains were comfortable with good spacing out of people. Journeys were Stratford to Green Park 9am, Bond St to Leyton 4pm.

Train from Stratford to Chelmsford was the same, everyone masked up, coming home the same, even the school kids were about 80% masked. Same journey times.

I’ve heard not so good reports about rush hour but that’s just anecdotal.

Fingers crossed for you all.

Where as I walked into town yesterday to go to supermarket. What's the point in having limited numbers and masks in shops, if when outside in the town centre its packed like sardines and no one wearing a mask.

Coming back from.spain I find it baffling, like no one knows someone who's died of covid or has such a short term memory. People really are daft.

What's the point in having limited numbers and masks in shops, if when outside in the town centre its packed like sardines and no one wearing a mask.

Because outdoor transmissions is really very rare compared to indoor?

Is it? Perhaps. But when there is no social distancing and hundreds of people in a small outdoor area, it seems wild to me.

Took the Overground last weekend for the first time in forever, Sunday late night most people not masked but lots of space and Overground always feels pretty well ventilated.

A friend who has been taking the Victoria line across London in rush hour reported the first instance of 'full trains' a few days ago - all seats full plus standing (not full in the pre-covid sense!).

https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/223/4/550/6009483

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I'm not saying why wear masks in shops, if that's what you think? What i meant was, if town centres are packed like sardines, why not wear masks there too. I did. Each to their own.

I was just sharing a study that supports the contention that outdoor transmission is very rare compared with indoors.

Yeah, wear a mask outdoors / helmet on a bike if you want to, but it's hard to justify wanting others to do likewise.

it's hard to justify wanting others to do likewise.

Is it?

I used public transport every day last week, on the Jubilee & Central lines I didn’t see anyone without a mask.

Hopefully your experience is the norm!

Herne hill to Blackfriars to Finsbury Park around 10am. Return around 5, which is when we saw the party barge. Even some station staff didn’t have a mask on (Herne hill) or kept pulling it down around their chin when talking to people (Blackfriars).

Is it?

I think so. Did you read the study?

This doesn’t seem very ‘each to their own’ of you

What i meant was, if town centres are packed like sardines, time to have some music festivals.

I think the operant word, and where I might’ve gotten the wrong end of the stick, was ‘justify’. I’d taken your message to say it was hard to find a reason for wanting others to wear a mask.... My initial thought was it was quite easy to find reasons for why someone would want others to wear a mask outdoors, hence my querying your message. I didn’t mean to imply anything about the validity of those reasons.

Does that make sense?

This doesn’t seem very ‘each to their own’ of you

See above.

This has become a semantics conversation, so probably of limited value.

But, FWIW, I wrote "justify" to mean "support the reasons that you have found with a basis that is arguable and defensible in the context of known evidence, in accordance with the classical liberal approach of allowing others to have their liberty, unless that liberty deprives others of an equivalent or greater liberty."

CF wanting others to wear masks indoors: I justify asking others to forego the liberty of choice over mask wearing, since them not wearing a mask has a demonstrably high chance of depriving yet more people of their liberty of being healthy and alive.

Outdoors, very much not so much.

I'm fully aware that I could have written those sentences more coherently.

Sorry.

forego

'forgo'

Again:

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/14405672/

:)

Oops, that obviously hasn't sunk in.

I'll try harder.

Thanks.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/17/how-did-covid-slip-through-taiwans-gold-standard-defences?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

A cautionary tales from Taiwan. One lax hotel and flight staff socialising and voila, outbreak brewing.