Teaandtoday5

Sorry for your loss.

Former Lancastrian

Thanks and thank you to anybody else but I won't reply to all not because I don't like them but I could be here all night replying

BEVS

Bmth beach in and around the pier is always the goto beach to illustrate a hot day beach crowd. Said photographer has the pier or the gentle overcliff rises each side to gain the angle they want.

Not saying the beach was not crowded but it won't be the only one by far. The area always gridlocks and the services are always over run. Been that way for many decades . A case of too many people squashed onto too small a landmass with not enough open spaces.

Re COVID19 - well, what did everyone there expect. The Govt itself has given the message loud and clear that there is not too much to worry about really. "Be vigilant" whatever the heck that means. People will die but hey. Local authorities AFAIK are unable to close in roads and people are allowed to take these trips so they have.

Knowing the area well , it would difficult to leave once arrived. Better the government had acted properly for once and enacted a max travel distance allowed . Some people would still push against that but likely to a lesser measure.

Hopeless.

BEVS

Stuff that. The UK does not have a handle on COVID and no-one should be travelling much within the country , let alone outside it.

NZ borders are closed except for returning NZ residents and citizens. Exemptions can be applied for and considered for a group of needed workers, as in the case of the German specialists already enlisted to fix a water treatment plant in the capital . They must all do the quarantine and be tested first.

Very much doubt that NZ will want or be able to cope ( capacity) with the uncertainty of UK tourists arriving here. NZ may look to the pacific isles or Oz first .

BEVS

Incredibly hard & uncertain all round , on top of a difficult sad time. My condolences for your loss.

Stumpylegs

Condolences.

Aye its just the way sources seem to be wording it that "an agreement" will be made with other countries (NZ included) in coming weeks - which seems to make me think either they're misreporting it, my take on what constitutes an "agreement" is seriously flawed, or they are truly throwing caution to the wind.

I personally don't think anyone apart from New Zealand has a proper handle on it - whilst I feel the UK has been hit hard (along with Italy etc) I don't feel new cases or deaths are spiralling out of control (surprising given the beach scenes, BLM protests, Liverpool street parties etc - and the fact the people behind us are having a large garden party as I type this!) Given that I think far more people are catching it than numbers suggest, anywhere with 25+ recorded infections per day(unless they are a huge country) present a small but serious risk - that if I was somewhere like NZ wouldn't want coming in - I could see how it could be tolerable that countries with similar infection rates accept each other - but this would require strict protocols, as it would be no use someone coming off an NZ flight at Gatwick, collecting baggage off the same carousel as a flight from Florida.

dave_j

Let's consider a distopean summary view of where I suspect we're heading.

In the first instance there was a wait and see approach.
This was reasonable given the uncertainty surrounding the disease but this didn't last long because it became clear, very quickly, that the disease killed but in some instances too slowly and that many unfortunate victims required a great deal of hospital care. It also became an accepted fact that C19 was easily transmissible and these two facts together led to the unescapable conclusion that health care systems would be placed at great stress.
As New York and elsewhere discovered, essential items, stockpiled in great numbers and easily replaced in 'normal' times, became very quickly used up and this put further stress on both finances and health workers themselves.
The only remedy to prevent health services being overwhelmed and to buy time was, as the chinese implemented in an admirably efficient manner, to lock down the population as a whole and to isolate those infected.
It was a fact of life that modern society was totally unprepared for a pandemic.
It worked.. but..
People needed to be fed, essential services needed to be maintained and a lid needed to be put on individual needs to prevent social collapse.
All this was driven by needs and in many respect was apolitical because it had to be done, decisions were made by themselves.
However, time has passed. Survivors have witnessed what they think is the worst this virus can do and they want to move on.
Politicians have no idea what this virus can do because they don't listen to bad news, they only think in the short term and then only how events will affect them personally.
We've witnessed this in the US where calls to 'Open Up' by the top echelons of government were echoed lower down and we are now witnessing the results. Degrees of 'opening up' are being implemented worldwide because the people want it.
Ttime has passed... What would have been unthinkable four months ago will now be acceptable. It will be hard, the survivors will witness the worst that this virus can do and they'll blame everyone but themselves, but it'll come to pass that everywhere will open up because that's what people in general will do and it's what they want. They'll ignore pleas for restraint but they've had enough. Western countries aren't like China and western leadership doesn't have the will to dominate the streets, in spite of what some might say. It's still, at the moment, political suicide to put troops on the streets to subdue an unruly population and there's no clear idea as to what they'd do if they did.
Health services will put under increasing strain and we'll witness what's happening in Brazil, and we'll live with it because the alternative, for those still alive, won't think that the virus is coming for them and it's better than staying indoors.

Health pundits will have cautioned against opening up but they see the problem through filters aligned to health needs and they'll be ignored.
Financial pundits will have welcomed the opening up because they see the problem as one of maintaining government and they'll be welcomed.
Emergency services will have recoiled at the prospect of maintaining order and services as essential workers fell to the virus but they'll pull through.
Politicians will do what they always do, argue and squabble amongst themselves and do nothing useful but'll claim they knew what was best and did it all the time and they'll give themselves pats on the back and sy it was all up to them.
And those of us who survive, well we'll get on with it and wistfully remember the bad days and look forward to better times and at the next election we'll vote some useless twat into office like we've always done.

Look around you. Nobody is taking this virus seriously. Initial estimates of millions of deaths haven't come to pass and there's a feeling that it's all been overhyped, but I don't think it has, it's not really got going yet, it's out there waiting...

Danny B

I think Bill Burr sums it up perfectly. Listen from the 50 second mark, this is the way that most non believers are behaving.

scrubbedexpat091

Trouble at a Vancouver strip club.

BEVS

I'd go along with much of that.

It is an invisible threat. If it came with green boils and visible external scarring for life and an everlasting odour or an ebola type rash and bleeding ,then people might take it all more seriously in terms of mortality , impairment , long term damage and disability. But it cannot be seen so out of sight is out of mind.

spouse of scouse

Imagine trying to explain to your spouse where you picked up covid-19

dave_j

No problem, it's everywhere.... Waiting...

scrubbedexpat091

A McDonalds near IKEA had an employee test positive. Hope it's not starting to pick up space again.

Shard

That was such a good podcast, the whole 3 hour one I mean !

Shard

That's definitely part of the problem. I think the health authorities should be making some more effective advertising to demonstrate transmission risk. Perhaps dynamic diagrams with balls changing colour as the virus spreads or failing that, some kind of zombie movie parallel. I really feel the vast majority don't understand the concept of a pandemic.