Yes, tax rises are inevitable. They will have to abandon their election promises on tax. That, incidentally, is one reason why I do not support the idea of making manifesto promises legally binding. The question is which taxes will rise. I hope they will aim to get back some of the furlough money from companies that didn’t really need it.

 

I’m still not sure how the proposed app is going to work. The principle is fine, but it is dependent on a number of factors. Some, such as testing anyone with symptoms, are within the government’s control. Others are not. If it alerts anyone who got vaguely close to someone who then showed symptoms, regardless of whether they were tested, that could send a lot of people into self-isolation. They will soon get fed up if it happens again as soon as they are allowed out.

 

The constant lies from the government will make any promises about data security rather hard for a lot of people to believe.

Yes, tax rises are inevitable. They will have to abandon their election promises on tax. That, incidentally, is one reason why I do not support the idea of making manifesto promises legally binding. The question is which taxes will rise. I hope they will aim to get back some of the furlough money from companies that didn’t really need it.

 

I’m still not sure how the proposed app is going to work. The principle is fine, but it is dependent on a number of factors. Some, such as testing anyone with symptoms, are within the government’s control. Others are not. If it alerts anyone who got vaguely close to someone who then showed symptoms, regardless of whether they were tested, that could send a lot of people into self-isolation. They will soon get fed up if it happens again as soon as they are allowed out.

 

The constant lies from the government will make any promises about data security rather hard for a lot of people to believe.

 

I am not clear how the app works in practise either.

 

Surely in a city like London you may continually pass people who have the virus are you then meant to spend the rest of your days in self isolation if you end up never showing symptoms and therefore can’t get tested. How does that then impact someone’s job that can’t work from home if they are constantly in self isolation.

 

How do they enforce it also, if someone has been in back to back isolations then they will just stop taking their phone out with them to risk is happening for a third time.

As far as I understand it isn’t just passing contact that is registered. Like if you walk past an infected person in the street the chance of you contracting it from them are really very low. It’s when you’re in closer contact for more than a brush past that is when the risk starts to rise. Everyone wearing masks in public helps a lot here as it pulls down the risk of spreading via casual contact in open spaces.

 

The app will alert you if that old school friend of yours you spent 5 mins in Tesco catching up with gets the corona but not if mr jones who you walked past on the street without either of you stopping to converse has it.

As far as I understand it isn’t just passing contact that is registered. Like if you walk past an infected person in the street the chance of you contracting it from them are really very low. It’s when you’re in closer contact for more than a brush past that is when the risk starts to rise. Everyone wearing masks in public helps a lot here as it pulls down the risk of spreading via casual contact in open spaces.

 

The app will alert you if that old school friend of yours you spent 5 mins in Tesco catching up with gets the corona but not if mr jones who you walked past on the street without either of you stopping to converse has it.

 

That makes more sense.

 

The majority of young people will either show no symptoms or never be bad enough to go to hospital and get a test. So therefore this app is going to be mainly useful for the older people who do end up in hospital and get tested and that age group will be the ones you will have problems with downloading the app.

 

Sounds like a bit of a non starter unless they introduce mass testing for everyone with the slightest symptoms.

As far as I understand it isn’t just passing contact that is registered. Like if you walk past an infected person in the street the chance of you contracting it from them are really very low. It’s when you’re in closer contact for more than a brush past that is when the risk starts to rise. Everyone wearing masks in public helps a lot here as it pulls down the risk of spreading via casual contact in open spaces.

 

The app will alert you if that old school friend of yours you spent 5 mins in Tesco catching up with gets the corona but not if mr jones who you walked past on the street without either of you stopping to converse has it.

 

Yeah I read some thing very similar as well, I think it's classed as 20 minutes close contact, at least I am sure that's what I read on an article. I was initially very sceptical too but it seems like it worked really well in South Korea and it's our ticket out of lockdown. I was sceptical about handing my personal data over to the State, but whatever. Desperate times and all that. You'd like to think they wouldn't abuse it..

I’ve been keeping one eye on the daily figures across the world, and what the f*** is happening in Russia? How is it spreading so fast over there all of a sudden...?

I’ve been keeping one eye on the daily figures across the world, and what the f*** is happening in Russia? How is it spreading so fast over there all of a sudden...?

Denial for a long time

 

Belgium is starting to open their borders with neighbours starting from june 8th :cheeseblock:

I’ve been keeping one eye on the daily figures across the world, and what the f*** is happening in Russia? How is it spreading so fast over there all of a sudden...?

 

They have tested 4.1million which is at a minimum double every country other than the US, their deaths are also very low. I think they have mass testing underway so they actually seem to be doing a good job.

I’ve been keeping one eye on the daily figures across the world, and what the f*** is happening in Russia? How is it spreading so fast over there all of a sudden...?

People are constantly outside for no particular reason and there are more tests performed hence the sudden increase over the last 2 days.

 

We will see how this long ass weekend (5 days) affects the numbers later as well.

It's very difficult to tell what is reality with these numbers, for nearly every government you could articulate reasons for why they want to present their numbers the way they do, Russia may want to present itself as a competent alternative to the Anglophone disasters, just as other countries might be hiding numbers (or more likely, counting infections and/or deaths in an unorthodox way) to downplay the true extent (until they get called out on such, as happened in Britain with the care homes). Virus numbers have become a huge propaganda tool.

 

The reason I'm saying that might also just be a natural distrust of the Russian government, and perhaps they have indeed managed to set up a competent testing apparatus that is finding all the mild cases that would be missed in other countries. Maybe.

 

Thing is, the numbers are all about image. The states that manage to exit this first with a confident image that the virus has been beaten will be the first ones to restore consumer confidence domestically.

Yeah I read some thing very similar as well, I think it's classed as 20 minutes close contact, at least I am sure that's what I read on an article. I was initially very sceptical too but it seems like it worked really well in South Korea and it's our ticket out of lockdown. I was sceptical about handing my personal data over to the State, but whatever. Desperate times and all that. You'd like to think they wouldn't abuse it..

This is why I like the sound of the Apple/Android colab because the data remains firmly on your phone and not at the hands of the government or company like Facebook who could monetise the data for their own malevolent purposes. Although I would trust the German Gov with my data because as a country they’re so distrustful and afraid of centrally holding data that the strict privacy regulations will safeguard any data that I would give them

This is why I like the sound of the Apple/Android colab because the data remains firmly on your phone and not at the hands of the government or company like Facebook who could monetise the data for their own malevolent purposes. Although I would trust the German Gov with my data because as a country they’re so distrustful and afraid of centrally holding data that the strict privacy regulations will safeguard any data that I would give them

 

Maybe, but it's all swings and roundabouts for my liking. A de-centralised model means the tracing will be less effective versues a centralised model. We willingly hand our data over to most big tech companies and they do all sorts with it anyways. It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

One piece of potentially good news. Scientists believe they can explain why some people who have apparently recovered subsequently test positive again. If they are right, that makes it a good deal more likely that people who have had it are indeed immune - at least for some time anyway.

Unbelievable seeing this, selfish pricks:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52501417

What?

 

I live near a canal path and last weekend I felt there were more people out drinking and getting together. Plus my mum's friends have all been meeting up secretly for walks and they are in the at-risk category as well.

 

It was so exciting to see friends again and have that human interaction but very quickly I started to feel very guilty.

I'd never met the hairdresser before. She was in her 20s and had everything set up in her iamspamspamamiall the proper utensils and a mirror from her bedroom propped up against the table. She said she needed the money. She had just started her own business so couldn't be furloughed and had fallen through the cracks [of the government's different support schemes].

The idea was to drive about [as a household]four or five miles out of the city to get a better view of the sky at midnight.

 

Do you really read this and the first things that come to mind are 'what irresponsible, selfish people without a conscience'?

Edited May 3, 20205 yr by Harve

The article that Mack posted says that 9,000 fines have been issued in England and Wales. This is a really low number because there isn't a well-publicised, clear system of filling out attestations like in countries. Instead, police officers interpreting unclear and poorly understood rules but not actually being able to bring about charges in most cases. You only need to look at police force tweets that have gone viral.

 

That clearly doesn't stop them - or Mack and a good portion of the UK public - being overzealous though.

 

In comparison, France has issued nearly a million €135 fines and around 1% of the population have received one. I think it's clear that more than 1% of people are breaking the rules here, but then again I think the rules around exercise and distance from home are too strict to work over the course of several weeks. I'm looking forward to the rules being relaxed, which I won't hesitate to make the most of and I can only hope that it's not too soon when it comes to slowing the virus.

Edited May 3, 20205 yr by Harve

There are strong rumours that the reopening of schools will start after half-term on 1 June. The intention appears to be to start with Year 6, the last year of primary school. That makes a lot of sense as their rather abrupt end to their primary school years will have been a bit of a shock for them. Having them back for the last half-term will help prepare them for their move to secondary school.

 

I would guess the youngest primary school children won't be back until September. I really can't see how it will be possible to enforce social distancing on a group of five-year-olds. Unfortunately, that will mean they will have missed half of their first year at primary school.

*In England

 

Both GB devolved governments fired warning shots at the shoddy reporting this morning. Education is fully devolved and it’s likely the three mainland nations will diverge here. Scotland especially might diverge as their schools break up quite substantially earlier than rUKs so a return would only be for a couple of weeks. Sturgeon said that when she did take the decision to call off schooling (before the announcement was made) it was highly unlikely they’d be back before the start of the new term in mid to late August.

What?

Do you really read this and the first things that come to mind are 'what irresponsible, selfish people without a conscience'?

No, I honestly don't. I'm sorry for that post.

*In England

 

Both GB devolved governments fired warning shots at the shoddy reporting this morning. Education is fully devolved and it’s likely the three mainland nations will diverge here. Scotland especially might diverge as their schools break up quite substantially earlier than rUKs so a return would only be for a couple of weeks. Sturgeon said that when she did take the decision to call off schooling (before the announcement was made) it was highly unlikely they’d be back before the start of the new term in mid to late August.

 

I think they were due to finish on 24 June, agreed I can’t see any Scottish school going back such a shame for P7 and sixth year kids to miss their proms and leavers events.

My brother actually interviewed Mark Drakeford the other day and he couldn’t say when schools in Wales will go back only that June 1st would be the earliest starting point. There’s no way they can all go back at once. I can only think phasing the year groups in is the way. I know everyone is keen to see primary schools go back in full so everyone can go to work but it’s going to be nearly impossible for children that age to social distance. I looked after four boys on Friday; one 12 year old, two 10 year olds and an 8 year old and we had to be constantly reminding them about distancing.