“I know of no episode in history, where a government has willingly aided and abetted the spread of a dangerous infectious disease amongst its own population”

Just seen this on twitter

Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer
@doctor_katie
·
1h
No paediatric intensive care beds in the entire country this evening.

I repeat,

No paediatric intensive care beds in the entire country this evening.

MayBee70

I know. But they obviously picked it up from someone. And that person probably wasn’t wearing a mask. At least I know it wouldn’t have been me.

I think that is why we all have to be as careful as we can. They were all in their bubbles at school but of course once out of school, siblings mix, friends play together. Villages are close communities. Parents feel reasonably relaxed because we know from the data that children are low risk, but you never imagine it will be your child do you?

Maybee masks are not 100% unless you happen to be wearing a Ffp3 mask
It could have been anyone another child a family member

I know. But they obviously picked it up from someone. And that person probably wasn’t wearing a mask. At least I know it wouldn’t have been me.

Maybee if mask wearing worked that well there would not be the amount of cases there are
A six year old child is totally different they could have picked it up anywhere

rosie1959

Whitewave that is absolutely tragic to hear But is there a solution?

Mask wearing?

I understand what you are saying Kali and shall correct my comment by saying "I am not a political animal", despite Aristotle saying we all are!
I've just looked back on my GN account and have rarely entered a political thread over the past year, though I take your point about education being included. Anyway, I have no intention of derailing this thread but wanted to be courteous enough to reply.

Whitewave that is absolutely tragic to hear But is there a solution?

MawBe

When I look down the page at thread titles, I try to guess who has started each thread.

Yes, I guessed right! ???

Me too

Oh I forgot, Covid and how our Governement deals with it and best protects the population, including the vulnerable and elderly. That is political, for sure.

Galaxy

Calm down dear is one of the most patronising comments ever used, do people really think it's funny now.

It is - tbh I'd prefer to be told something much worse.

Ellianne 'I just don't 'do' political threads - wow, you could have fooled me!

Tell me which subject is not political, please. Transport, social care, health care, education, recycling, water treatment, sport and library access, international treaties and import/exports, human rights ..... and on, and on - the list is endless, so it is hard to avoid 'politics'.

Thanks for your concern MayBee70 but I can afford a holiday. I have also been double jabbed. I am not young so unfortunately am not 'immortal' ?. We chose not to go to Manchester following government guidance. Looking at the daily map most of central and north of the UK has gone red (>400 per 100,000) with areas in the NE brown (>1,000). Call me chicken but, even though I can see the benefits of the governmsnt's strategy, I am in no rush to travel up and down the country to test if I'm in the 95% that has protection from the vaccine. Good to hear it is working though. Every day brings more hope.

rosie1959

Up until a week ago I only knew one person that had suffered from Covid
Hearing of a few more now my DIL included but none are particularly ill and she only picked it up through a lateral flow test because she feels absolutely fine. All this is good news for the vaccine

Tragically a young girl of 6 with no underlying health issues caught covid snd was dead within a week in my daughters village.

That is the sort of thing we don’t want to hear, but it is a wake up call that children can die from it, or get long covid.

Up until a week ago I only knew one person that had suffered from Covid
Hearing of a few more now my DIL included but none are particularly ill and she only picked it up through a lateral flow test because she feels absolutely fine. All this is good news for the vaccine

Most high infection rates are in the places that have a higher density of population. In the NE is seems to be around Sunderland and Tyneside, not the holiday areas. I’m sorry that you haven’t been able to afford a holiday this year HolySox. Perhaps things will be better next year now that the country has opened up and businesses can prosper.

Young people are unlikely to be very ill Maybee or require hospitalisation.Some scientists believe teenagers will make their own anti-bodies naturally if they have Covid rather than the vaccination in any case, which seems reasonable.
My DGS has had both vaccines because he is in the vulnerable group.

Whitewave thanks for explaining about your travels. Thought the government advised against travelling areas with high infection like the NE, hence we're not going to Manchester. Glad you enjoyed your holiday. Many people can't afford a holiday due to the stranglehold COVID has on our economy. But I guess that's Boris's fault as well. After all it was his government that forced people and businesses into lockdown.

Good post Holysox

Glad to see that the OP is getting out and about in the country and enjoying life in the sun and meals out....not a bad life here in the UK at the moment, and we can do things like that with more confidence now that we are double vaccinated.Just use caution.

Have read that people in Australia are totally fed up with their government due to imposed lockdowns and only 14% of the population vaccinated.

But surely the young people going clubbing have only recently been in the age group to have the vaccine and it would take 12 weeks for them to have a degree of immunity. So even if they were sensible and had the vaccine they would still be at risk. I thought I was immortal at that age and I’m sure they do too.

growstuff you may well be right and 'herd immunity' may be wishful thinking but hopefully we'll get to point where COVID is less deadly, and will be like the cold or flu. My mum died following flu a few years back so I know flu is a killer. I can appreciate COVID will remain a threat. But hopefully the vaccines will add to our natural resistance so COVID is relegated to be a low level threat to the population as a whole.
My only criticism of the government's recent handling of the situation is that they didn't require everyone to have been vaccinated before easing things further, including children. However, it is a 'benefit' of living in the UK that we are given choices. Every adult was offered at least one jab. Unfortunately many young people have chosen not to be jabbed and theiy're probably the ones that will be most at risk (nightclubs). No point delaying easing any further. The government has told us what the plan is. We can get vaccinated. We can take precautions. Or not.

HolySox

At 08:19 the OP said she had been enjoying the sun on the Northumberland coast and then at 20:07 said she had lunch out in WGC which is in Hertfordshire. I don't dispute this but 'joked' about the distance, assuming she was enjoying the sun on the same morning. I would expect she probably was in neither place to keep herself anonymous. Point was she said she had lunch out. I trust she did but then I was commenting this implied she felt reasonably safe from COVID to do so. Would this not mean she displayed some faith in current government policies and procedures?

??? you are over thinking this.

We have been on holiday for two weeks, so that is before the 19th June. We came home yesterday.

We hopped up to Northumberland stopping on the way, and hopped back stopping on the way.

And no I have zero faith in this government, neither to manage, covid, the economy or social welfare. I also think that out NHS is in peril. Brexit is falling apart.

But my behaviour regarding covid is governed by scientific advise. I take zero regard of Johnson who frankly does not appear to know his ass from his elbow.

Mark Harper is threatening to overthrow the PM. I thought it was someone thinking the PM was bad for the country but it seems the people wanting to overthrow him are even worse.

Yes there is still a shortage GrannyGravy13, what’s available at the moment is the unused stock already allocated for the young adults, where the uptake has been less than optimal. If you’re over 40 and haven’t been vaccinated you will still be offered AZ so they can conserve the Pfizer for the young.

growstuff we have a walk-in Pfizer clinic up the road from us tonight, no appointments needed. (Have had at least two of these a week for the last month)

No shortage of Pfizer vaccines in this part of the County/Country.

Unfortunately, the situation is more complicated than that. It is probably true of primary school children, but not of secondary age children, for whom the Pfizer vaccine is licensed.

Not only that, but it appears that immunity acquired by infection might not be strong enough to prevent further infection and might lead to autoimmune deficiencies later. There have been reports of children suffering long Covid even after only having mild symptoms or being asymptomatic.

Research is ongoing. At the moment, the disease hasn't been around for long enough to know what the long term effects will be. Many scientists and medics think that we're storing up problems for the future. The UK is falling behind with vaccinating over 12 year olds.

PS. I read Ladhani's tweets.

PPS. It would appear that the country has a supply problem with the Pfizer vaccine. We've used up (or allocated) the 40 million doses we initially ordered. Pfizer has promised more doses in the autumn and it wouldn't surprise me at all if there's a u-turn on vaccinating teenagers, by which time many will already have been infected.