Your idea of stable??

In France you cannot board a train without wearing a mask AND having proof of double jabs or recent negative test.

I think you mean in England Juicywords? The rest of us do still have to wear masks. We also have vaccine passports, although they aren’t required at the moment in pubs and restaurants here in Wales, only for larger events.

The question was put to the Health Secretary today that parliament wasn’t setting an example by wearing masks but as usual it wasn’t pointed out that it was only the Conservative part of parliament that was mostly mask free. It’s also been pointed out on Facebook that the PM is unlikely to impose any sort of lockdown until after COP26 because he doesn’t want to jeopardise it.

In France if someone isn’t wearing a mask a gendarme will “have a word”. And they have a vaccine passport (in a nation of vaccine sceptics). In the UK people just do whatever they want and nobody will challenge non-mask wearers. It frustrates me as well Maddyone.

I think Callistemon is right about the positive test errors affecting the numbers in Wales, the other big factor has been the return to school before children were vaccinated. Until the last two weeks, the majority of cases were in children. The profile here has changed recently though, it’s now high in all age groups up to 60, and rising in older people too.

Thank you for that Juicywords. I’ve always thought that a face mask must do something to protect the wearer, and I’ve never bought into the whole ‘it only protects others’ idea. Obviously if everyone wore a mask it would work reasonably well. To be honest I’m sick of seeing people in shops not wearing masks. They’re either stupid or selfish in my opinion. Hard words, but Covid is a hard disease.

Javid saying we could have 100,000 cases a day this winter. Well what a surprise.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/masks-do-reduce-wearers-chances-of-catching-covid-svlcjnxk0
Wearing a facemask does protect the wearer.

It’s puzzling why Wales and Scotland covid numbers are high. Perhaps people are ignoring the rules? We see it all the time on TFL where only approx 20% are bothering to wear a mask despite Sadiq Khan’s rules. Unfortunately he can’t make it legal because of BJ’s “ Freedom Day”.

I am just astonished that not many people are that bothered or interested in the PCR testing scandal and its part in the increase in Covid numbers.

I must admit, that as numbers rise, I am wearing my mask in more situations.

We should all be mature enough by now to know when we should tighten our procedures without waiting for someone to tell us to do it. In the same way, when figures were low I wore my mask much less.

Every region in England showing an increase in covid hospital patients.

Casdon some of that may be because PCR testing for part of Wales was sent to the now discredited Immensa Lab.
SE Wales, bordering areas of Gloucestershire, Bristol, Somerset, BANES, all have soaring case numbers as people unwittingly spread the virus having been told their tests were negative.

Even now the government side of the House of Commons is, in general, not wearing masks whereas, on the opposition benches, they are. Should the government not set an example. What sort of message is this giving the rest of the country? Or are they just being led by the Covid Recovery Group? (which, like the ERG is pretty much the opposite of what it pertains to be).

We’re still wearing masks in public places in Wales, but we are now the part of the UK with the highest infection rate, after being behind the curve all summer. Many of our current measures are England’s plan B.

So, if we are going to reduce infection rates the measures will potentially need to be more stringent. The difficulty for the other nations is that decisions about furlough are made by the UK Government, so there’s only so far our Government here can go. I can see more measures, short of lockdown, being introduced quite soon.

…..go back to mask wearing for example…….but not yet. Why?

Why indeed? I’d love to know the rationale behind the government’s current thinking.

Daisymae

The NHS Confederation have requested that the government urgently implement Plan B. Matthew Taylor Chief Executive of the Confederation said: “We are right on the edge – and it is the middle of October. It would require an incredible amount of luck for us not to find ourselves in the midst of a profound crisis over the next three months'. I'm going to assume that he knows what he's talking about. Meanwhile the government sail on saying 'everything's under control'. This government loves a gamble. Driving me to distraction, no action will be taken until we are in a crisis, or more of a crisis, instead of planning, managing and really trying to take some sort of lead.

Absolutely. I just heard on the radio some politician ..actually I think it was the Business Secretary saying we may have to go back to mask wearing for example…..but not yet. Why ?? Wait until disaster strikes first just like last time ?
Infuriating.

I agree with you Daisymae. I feel as though we are walking headlong into a storm. People are behaving as though there is no Covid anymore.

It has crossed my mind too about the herd immunity. We’ll never know though because after the last debacle over herd immunity I don’t think we’ll ever be told. I’m not a scientist let alone a virologist but we haven’t got herd immunity with flu so is it even possible to get herd immunity with Covid. Like flu I assume it’ll simply mutate. I understand that viruses gradually mutate to be less dangerous, but nonetheless flu still kills many people every year. Plus Covid is a virus that is, as understand it, different, or novel, and we don’t really know how it will behave. Thank God for Professor Gilbert and all the other dedicated scientists working on the vaccines.

The NHS Confederation have requested that the government urgently implement Plan B. Matthew Taylor Chief Executive of the Confederation said: “We are right on the edge – and it is the middle of October. It would require an incredible amount of luck for us not to find ourselves in the midst of a profound crisis over the next three months'. I'm going to assume that he knows what he's talking about. Meanwhile the government sail on saying 'everything's under control'. This government loves a gamble. Driving me to distraction, no action will be taken until we are in a crisis, or more of a crisis, instead of planning, managing and really trying to take some sort of lead.

The UK has accounted for about 3% of Covid cases worldwide. Chances are, if there's a VoC, it won't have emerged here.

If a variant mutates to become instantly vaccine immune, somebody needs to let Prof Gilbert know, because its never happened before. Ever.

The big risk of the covid cases running at such high numbers is to allow another variant to develop, and this is precisely what has happened. Not one of too much concern.

Let us hope one doesn’t mutate that is vaccine immune or pretty nasty.

It is a risk Johnson seems to be prepared to run for what seems to be eventual herd immunity.

I keep reading that what Johnson is in fact doing now is once again pursuing herd immunity.

He had better be careful with that as Bolsonaro along with other members of his government are being charged with homicide.

lightallan, you have a point, but just read through any GN thread and wonder how on earth what you suggest could come about. There isn’t even a consensus on here on what constitutes taking precautions for everyone’s safety.

The only way to reduce the enormous daily numbers, is if the public used what common sense they have, if any, and kept their distance from other people and take precautions for everyone's safety

So there!

Thank you Alegrias for your kind comment. You already know that I like reading your posts about Covid because you were a scientist and know about statistics, unlike me. I do like to read the optimistic posts such as that which JenniferEccles has just posted, I find them reassuring.
Maybee you could be right, there doesn’t seem to be any urgency, that we know about anyway, to get the world vaccinated from Boris Johnson or other world leaders. I know we have donated a large number of vaccines, and so has America, but we need to give more, and quickly if we want to control the spread of this virus.