Well That’s Christmas Cancelled For Us

Urmstongran

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I'm a bit like that, too!

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On another note re Drakeford ...

“Welsh face ‘outrageous’ £60 fine for going into the office... but they can still go to the pub
Labour administration in Wales has effectively made going to work a crime, introducing penalty for anyone unnecessarily travelling to office”

In the newspapers tonight.

Parsley 3 thank you x

Urmstongran

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On another note re Drakeford ...

“Welsh face ‘outrageous’ £60 fine for going into the office... but they can still go to the pub
Labour administration in Wales has effectively made going to work a crime, introducing penalty for anyone unnecessarily travelling to office”

In the newspapers tonight.

Thank goodness I've retired!!

So what happens if you live in Wales but work in England as thousands do?

Drakeford
He's usually quite sensible.

I'm not a fan of Boris Johnson, but have to admit I think he's got it right - just about - at the moment.

Of course, it does leave people - and businesses - in limbo land, but to shut everything down now just days away from Christmas would cause... how shall I phrase this... a certain amount of revolt / resistance from quite a large and volatile section of the public. If Facebook is anything to go by.

The last thing we need at the moment is the emergency services tied up with riots up and down the country. The 'anti' contingent are quite determined that they are not going to be "controlled" or told what to do by a government many of them feel alienated from. Of course, there are some very 'mouthy' people on FB and some of it is hot air. Nevertheless, I think the 'movement' is growing and I believe Johnson is very aware of that and its implications.

I think it will rest on the number of admissions in hospital over the next hours / days and I'm sure the PM is aware that there is a tipping point at which the NHS will simply not be able to cope. Leaving politics aside, I believe that will be the yardstick. If we reach this tipping point - where there are simply not enough beds nor staff to cope, the prospect of people possibly lining hospital corridors with nowhere to lie down, or even sit; ambulances lined up outside unable to offload their patients; doctors and nurses unable to deal with the numbers because there's too many and not enough of them, is possibly keeping him awake at night. Talk about a rock and a hard place... I think he knows he's going to be damned if he does and equally damned if he doesn't.

He's probably got one eye on the ever-changing (it seems) scientific data and the other on the NHS.

If only people would be sensible, consider others... well, you know the rest...

I heard a minister on the radio this morning - can't remember who - say that he had faith in "the British public being sensible and doing the right thing to protect themselves and others". I'm afraid I don't share his faith, and if he'd take a peek at FB, he'd understand why such faith might be misplaced. There's an awful lot of people who believe the government are trying to control them for nefarious purposes, poison them with vaccines in order to eliminate them - or even plant some kind of device in the vaccine and anti-viral pill to 'track' them, or impair their functioning ability, or use them as guinea pigs. I thought such people were a very small minority but, again, if FB is anything to go by... well, there's an awful lot of them. To me, they are more dangerous than the virus which, of course, their antics will only help to spread it.

Anyway... just me thinking out loud. I'm off to do some clearing up and last-minute stuff to be ready for the arrival of my son tomorrow. Hope everyone has a peaceful and relaxing night.

D-e-e-p breath... flippin' heck, this is a long comment - forgive me, I'm a touch-typist, so it just flows. And I've had a wee drink.

What he failed to take into account is that such a worrying number would be balanced by around 600 Covid discharges each day. According to my source, the current seven-day average for Covid hospital discharges is 623 per day compared with average admissions of 780
So that might have been 600 beds freed up for elective surgery/cancer treatment/fracture clinic care or any other illness. No?

Yes the same has happened to us. We and our son were to travel to our eldest daughter, partner and baby, where we were to be joined by our youngest daughter and partner. Our eldest daughter and partner both tested positive this morning so that’s our Xmas scuppered ?

M0nica

Do most people over 60 have underlying conditions? High blood pressure, under control and statins are unlikely to cause much problem.

Really? Says who?

For a start, 36% of people between 65 and 74 are obese. A further 39% are overweight.

researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN03336/SN03336.pdf

Obesity is a risk factor in its right, in addition to the health conditions its causes.

58% of people over 60 have a long-term condition, such as coronary heart disease, COPD, diabetes or cancer, which makes a person more susceptible to severe effects from Covid.

www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/time-think-differently/trends-disease-and-disability-long-term-conditions-multi-morbidity

MayBeMaw

^What he failed to take into account is that such a worrying number would be balanced by around 600 Covid discharges each day. According to my source, the current seven-day average for Covid hospital discharges is 623 per day compared with average admissions of 780^
So that might have been 600 beds freed up for elective surgery/cancer treatment/fracture clinic care or any other illness. No?

No, I don’t think so Maw. I took it to illustrate that approx 700 are admitted (as Neil Ferguson said) but he failed to mention that 600 are coming OUT. so yes, admissions for Covid would be going up but by 100 a day (approximately) not 700 exponentially.

I will leave this here - Matt from the Telegraph this morning.
Highlights the problems faced by the hospitality industry engineered by our ‘self imposed’ lockdown. Bars, pub and restaurants ARE open! Some people are now so scared they won’t touch them with a barge pole.

It’s not just about hospital admissions though is it? Omicron may be mild for most but it’s spreading very fast and can affect staffing levels in hospitals and other essential services. I’m in a London borough where hospitals, fire services, transport, postal workers all hit by huge staff sickness. My DD is +ve and will have to isolate till next Tuesday now. Its worse than the figures too, since many aren’t getting tested as they think they’ve only got a cold or are scared of testing +ve and having to isolate.

Well if many aren’t testing be a they think it’s just a cold that reinforces how mild it is for most people. I’m full of a cold so I did a LFT last night. It was -ve.

The figures show that in the last 5 days cases are flattening which is guardedly good news. Some scientists even think we’ve reached the peak now. Fingers crossed eh?

Infection rates are relative to the numbers tested. You can test 100 people and find 1 has Covid. And then you can test 1,000 people and find that 8 have Covid.

The result is actually that less people have Covid, but it looks like a huge increase. I think we have all gone punch drunk looking at graphs and are failing to grasp basic maths.

Our daughter was sent to hospital by the dr on Saturday evening(not Covid).When they got there the A and E department was overcrowded with no social distancing.Very few staff, no dr for at least 11 hours,triage wait was a minimum of two hours.The poor staff who were there were doing their best but were exhausted.
DD was advised to go home and call an ambulance if her condition worsened as she was at risk of Covid if she stayed.
The situation is dire.

It’s certainly spreading here. 3 members of our family have it ( different branches and all young). Our Christmas celebrations have shrunk rather, only one family able to come. Most of them have the delta strain though, not the new omicron. One caught it whilst in hospital which is a bit of a worry.

A local GP practice ( not mine fortunately) has had to close due to Omicron infection in staff. We haven’t had post for days. A and E is like a war zone, queues of people and ambulances outside just to get in the door. Have a look at London hospital data. So those saying it’s all fine - it’ll be in your area soon

And maybe not vegansrock. Being vaccinated makes a HUGE difference (which is why we’re all being encouraged to take it up) yet a THIRD of Londoners have not even had one jab yet. That was in The Times a few days ago!

Here’s another article from a different source - same story.

www.mylondon.news/news/east-london-news/london-covid-vaccine-uptake-bad-22472750

Dickens Make the most of the time with your son. Time is precious, and for all of us. Make special memories while you can.

Big hugs to you.

Urmstongran But people are getting omicron who are triple jabbed ( my 31 yr old DD for one) and are having to stay off work for a week - this is what’s causing much of the crisis - not hospital admissions,

The medical staff who are getting it are inoculated btw.

TwinLolly

Dickens Make the most of the time with your son. Time is precious, and for all of us. Make special memories while you can.

Big hugs to you.

Thank you TwinLolly!

Time is precious - as you say, for all of us. And I'm not going to waste a minute of it. The dust, the housework and all the minutiae of the daily grind- it can all wait for a few days... we're just going to light the candles, sit back and enjoy the moment!

xx

Following on from my post yesterday as 12:07:27, my AC are disappointed that I have opted to stay at home alone on Christmas Day, and have suggested that we have a "Synchronised Christmas Lunch Zoom", so that I don't feel left out but I'm still safe, which is a really great idea, and has given me such a boost.

So we will be having a Zoom with my oldest granddaughter and her husband who work in Qatar in the Middle East on Christmas Eve, and then another lunchtime Zoom on Christmas Day. I feel blessed and no longer stressed.

Thank heavens for technology.

It feel so happy with this.

What more can you expect when the masses of the populace are still not taking care, and, distancing themselves from other likely carriers, of the disease that most people seem to ignore, and especially the self-indulgent non-vaccinated lot.

End of gripe.

All these problems we have during any winter epidemic, whether flu or anything else. As vegansrock and others say, it causes a mild illness, that lasts, maybe a week for most people.

Figures for London, where so many are unvaccinated, are already starting to stabilise.