Sajid Javid

Well at least no one else will be caught kissing by that camera. Get the important things out of the way first.??

Maizie some countries should be on the red list, obviously. But we do not need an amber list of countries with lower Covid than our own (at present.)

maddyone

If you want to go to the football, even if you’re a bigwig flying in from abroad, if you went to Ascot, or to Wimbledon this week, the the restrictions don’t apply to you. But if you want to go to a restaurant as a group of seven, then the restrictions do apply.
Logical and sensible? No!

Absolutely agree, but we do still need some logical and sensible guidelines/rules in place. Based on what science can tell us about how the virus spreads, and distributed widely.

Perhaps a bit of investment in upgrading public spaces to make them more covid safe (like vastly improved ventilation) would be good. Help to restart the economy and provide training and employment.

Alegrias1

OK everyone, what's the plan?

The vaccines aren't 100%, there will always be variants, some of them will be more resistant to the current vaccine, some people won't take the vaccine anyway.

Are we all going to sit in our houses till we die of something else?

No, we're not. We haven't, aren't now and won't in the future.

Why does this issue get so polarised? It isn't about "lockdown" or "freedom". It's about understanding that infection is still lurking and there need to be mitigations, which will be a balancing act. The evidence at the moment seems to be that the government is stealthily pursuing a herd immunity strategy with inevitable consequences.

MaizieD

maddyone

If you want to go to the football, even if you’re a bigwig flying in from abroad, if you went to Ascot, or to Wimbledon this week, the the restrictions don’t apply to you. But if you want to go to a restaurant as a group of seven, then the restrictions do apply.
Logical and sensible? No!

Absolutely agree, but we do still need some logical and sensible guidelines/rules in place. Based on what science can tell us about how the virus spreads, and distributed widely.

Perhaps a bit of investment in upgrading public spaces to make them more covid safe (like vastly improved ventilation) would be good. Help to restart the economy and provide training and employment.

I agree 100%. A start could be made on making schools a safe working environment, which they're not.

They are working on new treatments which reduce time spent in hospital which are very promising but not yet in place. This new variant is so rampant that although having both vaccines I am still being very careful although venturing out more. I will continue to do so whatever July 19th brings. Bearing in mind his previous role I can see Javid more interested in getting the economy going than health.

I wonder what he'll do to "get the economy going". It's become increasingly apparent that the economy never shut down for some people. Approximately a third of people in the UK are wealthier since the start of the pandemic. Will there be an attempt to claw back some of that money to compensate the people who have lost out?

25Avalon

They are working on new treatments which reduce time spent in hospital which are very promising but not yet in place. This new variant is so rampant that although having both vaccines I am still being very careful although venturing out more. I will continue to do so whatever July 19th brings. Bearing in mind his previous role I can see Javid more interested in getting the economy going than health.

I can't see that July 19th will make much difference to me personally. Like you, I'll continue to be careful when out and about, will continue to wear and a mask and avoid large indoor gatherings and prolonged contact with people outdoors, unless I know for sure they're not infected. If other people are going to abandon precautions (and some will), it will mean that I have to be more careful.

“Great news that
@sajidjavid
wants to end the pandemic. That must mean he’s planning to pay people properly to self-isolate, sort out Test and Trace and keep masks mandatory on public transport and in shops. Hooray! “

I’ll be glad if he could keep masks mandatory on public transport and in shops, but I suspect I’ll be in the minority.

Ye Gods the man has been in the job a couple of days and people claim to "know" what he is going to do - I doubt even he knows yet as he will need to have a full briefing from the staff. As for comments regarding his appearance!!!! If that had been aimed at a female politician everyone would be up in arms

Whitewavemark2

“Great news that
@sajidjavid
wants to end the pandemic. That must mean he’s planning to pay people properly to self-isolate, sort out Test and Trace and keep masks mandatory on public transport and in shops. Hooray! “

I would have thought everybody wants to end the pandemic. Maybe he really does have a magic wand.

Thankfully for the rest of the UK, the Tories are also only in charge of health in England.

The vaccination programme has been very successful in Wales but waiting lists for other procedures are worse than in England.
People I know have been sent over the border for operations in England because there is such a problem but obviously more capacity there.

Of course, the Government only has what money is allocated to them by Westminster, although Health boards have been allocated an extra £100m by the Welsh Government to tackle the backlog.
A recent report stated that Wales has nine times the amount of people waiting more than a year for treatment in Wales than in England.

MawBe

I’m sure he has many admirable qualities, but am I the only one to see a resemblance?

No, Maw, as risk of being criticised for being shallow / silly (fair enough)
I think that you will find that Javid bears an uncanny resemblance to Morph's brother, Chas.

If someone more clever than I could post a picture of Chas, I'd be very grateful!

No, we're not. We haven't, aren't now and won't in the future. Why does this issue get so polarised? It isn't about "lockdown" or "freedom".

I do agree with you growstuff, maybe I was just being a bit too antagonistic But when I see what amounts to misinformation I get a bit annoyed.

Vaccine not 100%? We'd have given our right arms for 80% this time last year.

Hospitalisations going up fast? Well they're not.

Variants coming in from abroad that will evade the vaccine? Effectiveness won't fall off a cliff, it will wane. There's no short term prospect of a vaccine resistant variant. And we're quite good at brewing our own variants, we don't need those foreign ones.

A commentator on Jeremy Vine just now said he would tell Javid to move away from this campaign of fear with the scary NHS posters and the idea that we are all disease ridden carriers who are going to kill our friends and relations. We have to do that.

No resemblance whatsoever. He has to be an improvement on little Matty.

I will certainly continue to wear a mask on public transport after 19th July. Not that I use public transport very often, but will, all being well, travel by plane in September. Will definitely wear a mask and sanitise then.

A commentator on Jeremy Vine just now said he would tell Javid to move away from this campaign of fear with the scary NHS posters and the idea that we are all disease ridden carriers who are going to kill our friends and relations. We have to do that.

I agree with the above. If every single one of us totally self-isolated for a few weeks, the infection could be stopped dead in its tracks. Unlike bacteria, viruses need a host, so denying them a host means they can't spread.

However, there has never been total self-isolation and it would be unrealistic to expect it to be possible. Some people (eg health/care workers and parents of young children) need to have close contact with others and society would collapse if some others self-isolated.

The juggling act has been (and still is) to ensure that those who need to be in close contact are kept as safe as possible. After all this time, it's understandable that people want social contact. Most infection has occurred from social contact and in educational settings. My feeling has always been that an enforced short, sharp shock would have been better in these areas, but it didn't happen and it's too late now. Too many people just ignored any guidelines/laws, which has had repercussions for community transmission and for all of us.

Imposing strict laws for more than a very short period wouldn't work in the UK. Most of us have seen that the laws aren't consistent anyway. Nevertheless, I feel very strongly that I'm not going to go down the route of the lowest common denominator. It just means that I, as an individual, have to be aware that others are not so cautious as I am. It's not that much different from looking in all directions at a roundabout when driving. I know the rules of the road and I do my best to follow them, but I can't know what other people are doing.

I hope that July 19th doesn't become a free-for-all and it's accompanied by some very strong public health messages.

Mollygo

Well at least no one else will be caught kissing by that camera. Get the important things out of the way first.??

Javid won’t have a camera trained on him at least then.It’s a very interesting question that needs answers...how many Ministers did not know, and were never told, that there was a ceiling camera in their office?If some did know, did they agree to it?Who exactly is watching those images?

maddyone

I don’t think we’ll have overrun hospitals in the winter. Yes, there will be Covid cases, and also no doubt flu cases in hospital. But 80% of the adult population have got Covid antibodies and by winter the whole adult population will have been double jabbed, so why aggie would the hospitals be overrun? Your post sounds as if you like having restrictions in place.

????

You clearly know something that the NHS providers themselves don’t!
nhsproviders.org/news-blogs/news/trusts-grappling-with-challenges-on-multiple-fronts-as-survey-reveals-fears-over-waiting-lists-covid-19-and-winter-pressures
The material point is that ANY covid admissions put additional pressure on beds in a system that has too few, because this group is not not catered for the in the core beds of the diminishing NHS bed stock.

The young are still very vulnerable. They haven’t been vaccinated, they can still catch covid and unfortunately will need hospitalisation in some cases, which of course leads to the scenario you have pointed out casdon

“Irreversible” makes Javid a hostage to fortune as well.

Whitewavemark2

The young are still very vulnerable. They haven’t been vaccinated, they can still catch covid and unfortunately will need hospitalisation in some cases, which of course leads to the scenario you have pointed out casdon

So many people don’t seem to care about the young, despite the fact that they are the ones who have suffered most in the pandemic.

I wish that fighting Covid hadn’t ended up a political argument. We should be led by scientists who understand how viruses work, both within populations and when different populations are allowed to mix. If their recommendations mean that we can do as we please, nobody would be happier than me. I don’t enjoy living with masks and social distancing, and really feel for young people who are missing out on so much.

If, on the other hand, the data suggests that we need to put up with restrictions for longer, I’d rather that than put the as-yet-unvaccinated at risk from those lucky enough to have had both jabs.

Maybe one day he'll be as respected and modest as Dame Sarah Gilbert.

twitter.com/joepike/status/1409498376836575240