The 2 metre rule was often unworkable simply due to the size of shops and pavements around most of the country, but i still wear my mask so the argument there is sound.
On a separate note, had my flu jab today and so am starting to feel rather crappy this evening.
Covid: Masks mandatory for everyone in the Commons - except MPs
MPs are special
Face coverings have been made mandatory for everyone working in the House of Commons except MPs. In updated guidance, the Commons authorities said all staff, visitors, contractors and press must cover their faces to combat the spread of Covid. But it remains up to individual MPs to decide whether to follow suit - and many Conservatives have chosen not to. Sajid Javid has said he will wear a mask for Wednesday's Budget when the chamber will be packed. But the health secretary said on Monday it was a "personal decision" for ministers and backbenchers as to whether they did too.
Covid: Masks mandatory for everyone in the Commons - except MPs
MPs are special
Face coverings have been made mandatory for everyone working in the House of Commons except MPs. In updated guidance, the Commons authorities said all staff, visitors, contractors and press must cover their faces to combat the spread of Covid. But it remains up to individual MPs to decide whether to follow suit - and many Conservatives have chosen not to. Sajid Javid has said he will wear a mask for Wednesday's Budget when the chamber will be packed. But the health secretary said on Monday it was a "personal decision" for ministers and backbenchers as to whether they did too.
Given how old a lot of the Tory back benchers are I'm not sure they've really thought this through.
The tube in the morning has a high percentage of mask wearing going on, not sure if that's because TFL requires a mask (but is unable and unwilling to enforce it) or because people broadly recognise "a packed, hot and humid tube that I'll be using for up to an hour is pretty much guaranteed super spreading, I'll wear a mask".
By contrast when people are leaving pubs etc the mask wearing on the tube percentage goes right down but that's no surprise.
Scotland's vaccine passport requirement kicked in last week so seems likely they will overtake the UK average on vaccinated.
Even in hospitals, where it’s actually mandatory, face mask usage has dropped sharply. It’s just crazy…there’s a bloody box of please-take-one at most entrances.
I'm still seeing reasonable levels of mask usage when I'm in the supermarket, I'd say a good 50% of people still, but it's definitely nothing like the near universal use we had during lockdown periods.
One of the most frustrating things is how few staff seem to be wearing them now - lead by example FFS! But then when our government can't even be arsed to put a mask on then I can see why most people have given up
Vermilion wrote:The 2 metre rule was often unworkable simply due to the size of shops and pavements around most of the country, but i still wear my mask so the argument there is sound.
On a separate note, had my flu jab today and so am starting to feel rather crappy this evening.
I felt rotten for two days after the flu and covid booster.
Apparently test and trace pay £500 a week to hire each gazebo at the drive through testing centres. There's are the cheap ones you can pick up for about £200 each. The waste has been shocking.
Vermilion wrote:The 2 metre rule was often unworkable simply due to the size of shops and pavements around most of the country, but i still wear my mask so the argument there is sound.
On a separate note, had my flu jab today and so am starting to feel rather crappy this evening.
I felt rotten for two days after the flu and covid booster.
Feel pretty rotten today tbh, i think the fact that i've had back to back viruses recently (my original appointment was Oct 13th, but i delayed it by 2 weeks because i wasn't well) means the jab is hitting me harder than it would normally.
I felt fine after my second jab and my flu thing, but my arm genuinely still hurts (needle emoji) when I reach in certain directions. If I go to put a shirt on, it really hurts putting my arm in the sleeve.
It's going to take a long time to work out the true effect of lockdown though, and causes that exasperated the pandemic. My son went to hospital on Monday with asthma problems, and a few things became apparent. We've been on holiday on the South Coast of Cornwall and the NHS here is shockingly poor. Not the staff, but the service. We had to ring 111 and were sent to a 24 hour urgent care unit in Penzance. However the urgent care unit does not have a doctor between 8pm and 9am or something. The hospital in Penzance also doesn't link to the 111 service electronically and were unaware we were arriving.
The nurses were shitting themselves as our sons oxygen levels were scarily low and they weren't really trained to deal with the situation as they needed a doctor. Fortunately they got him on a nebuliser and they were superb to have him turned around within 4 hours.
The doctor came in at 9am and was telling us that we should have been sent to Truro by ambulance as they have doctors 24 hours a day. It was clear the NHS here is chronically underfunded and poorly equipped in terms of staff, facilities and hospitals. Dangerously so in my opinion.
The doctor also told us anecdotally that they are under huge pressure from people with normal winter respiratory illnesses, he speculated it was because of lockdown related low immune systems.
So the takeaway for me was that lockdown was largely necessary due to shockingly bad NHS investment in services, possibly as much to do with that as with the threat from Covid. However, I think lockdown has also caused some severe public health issues that will become apparent over the next few years. The NHS is in real dire straits.
We really need a proper, open public inquiry that looks at the response to Covid, exasperating circumstances like poorly equipped and under funded local authorities, and the health impact of lockdown with a real terms health cost benefit analysis.
The utterly shocking state of some areas of the UK has really surprised me when you see it in action. For example, Penzance Heliport was closed and redeveloped some years ago. A huge retail park was built on it, and there are 3 major supermarkets within a 1 mile stretch of road. They really should have built a state of the art hospital on that site rather than sell the land to private developers. Instead people down here have to travel something like 26 miles, 40 mins on a good day, to the local A&E.
How the Tories keep getting elected here is just baffling.
Edit: As an aside, a similar thing happened to me in around 1989, and in those days my parents were able to call out a GP overnight. That doesn't seem to be a service offered much anymore. Truly local services don't seem to exist and it's putting unbelievable pressure on hospitals which have had a real terms cut in capacity since the 80s.
The further down the south west you go, the worse things seem to get, it's a part of the country which is probably the most left behind area as no one in government ever seems to give a toss about it.