The virus. PPE. Part 1

Status
Not open for further replies.
Not busy but then again, we haven't been out of town; just down to the town centre and back.
 
donetello said:
Looks like due to B&Q etc being allowed to open and also takeaways now trading this seems to have been a message for everyone else to also ignore the stay in advice.
Mega busy here on the roads and also by the looks of news sites today has been the busiest day since the start.
What’s your area like ?.
Click to expand...
Not been out so wouldn't know what it was like, but B&Q at Thurrock retail park hadn't closed and nor had quite a few takeaways going by the posts I keep seeing on our local Facebook group. Even restaurants that never had a takeaway service had remained open as takeaways, although they were all running a delivery service as opposed to people going to collect it themselves.
 
Quiet here. Today was a local walk along the Wolds way, staying off the beaten track. Has been busy in the past week, constantly having to step aside to keep our 6 ft distance, but not bad today. Yesterday actually drove somewhere for our exercise for the first time, Beverley Common, about 7-8 miles away. Was half expecting it to be busy but as you can see, pretty quiet.

5 Image Pano over Beverley Common by Steve Vickers, on Flickr
 
Last edited:
nilagin said:
Not been out so wouldn't know what it was like, but B&Q at Thurrock retail park hadn't closed and nor had quite a few takeaways going by the posts I keep seeing on our local Facebook group. Even restaurants that never had a takeaway service had remained open as takeaways, although they were all running a delivery service as opposed to people going to collect it themselves.
Click to expand...
Takeaways now fully open as is B&Q and all the others.Queue outside Scottish takeaway observing social distancing,not,and B&Q,must be some important essential projects to queue in those.
7B00DD1A-0259-4484-B0C3-1A8EF97CE0C5.jpeg6D3C4436-FF88-4BF3-AAA8-BEA8533593AD.jpeg
 
Last edited:
donetello said:
Looks like due to B&Q etc being allowed to open and also takeaways now trading this seems to have been a message for everyone else to also ignore the stay in advice.
Mega busy here on the roads and also by the looks of news sites today has been the busiest day since the start.
What’s your area like ?.
Click to expand...
B&Q and takeaways have always been allowed to open.
B&Q decided to initially close their stores, then started doing click and collect.
Now that they know social distancing can be done in their stores, they've decided to open some fully, but not all of them.
Apparently there was a 2 hour queue at the paisley store when it opened earlier in the week.
The one local to me is only doing click and collect, and wasn't that busy when I went today.
Driving from Prestwick to Glasgow for work, the A77/M77 is noticeably quieter, but around prestwick there always seems to be cars on the go.
 
Bobsyeruncle said:
B&Q and takeaways have always been allowed to open.
B&Q decided to initially close their stores, then started doing click and collect.
Now that they know social distancing can be done in their stores, they've decided to open some fully, but not all of them.
Apparently there was a 2 hour queue at the paisley store when it opened earlier in the week.
The one local to me is only doing click and collect, and wasn't that busy when I went today.
Driving from Prestwick to Glasgow for work, the A77/M77 is noticeably quieter, but around prestwick there always seems to be cars on the go.
Click to expand...
Yes but only via the delivery route,all the DIY places here have been click and collect or delivery only,either by their own choice or government advice.
No Screwfix,Toolstation or Homebase etc has been open here since after the day the restrictions were announced.
Let’s see how long it is before the infection numbers climb and we are back in the same position.
It’s already been announced that there will be several more periods of lockdown to come this year.
 
Last edited:
I have to take the wife to and collect her from her work at the moment, a 16 mile round trip between two towns. There seems to be a systemic increase in traffic every Wednesdays and Thursdays and significantly quieter the rest of the week so I think people are in a routine of errands, office visits and shopping mid-week round here.
 
donetello said:
Takeaways now fully open as is B&Q and all the others.Queue outside Scottish takeaway observing social distancing,not,and B&Q,must be some important essential projects to queue in those.
View attachment 276237View attachment 276238
Click to expand...
The local screwfix and toolstation have been open since the beginning, for click and collect. Same with a lot of the takeaways.
The problem is if they're not observing social distancing, then they'll be forced to close.
I've been in a supermarket on numerous occasions during the lockdown, whereas if I was going to B&Q I'd likely go once to get what I need, so I dont see the issue with them opening if guidelines are observed. Plenty of people are buying plants and garden equipment etc at home bargains etc.
Personally I think the whole lockdown scenario has been a bit half arsed, and there's been too much confusion about some folks interpretations of the guidelines etc.
 
Last edited:
sphexx said:
So the RAF has brought only 30,000 gowns from Turkey not 400,000 expected, I did wonder because only 1 plane was mentioned but 3 were standing by last week to collect the order looks a bit like HMG has been taken for a ride :(.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...f-ppe-order-arrives-in-uk-despite-downpayment
Click to expand...
The other day, all the papers were reporting that the RAF had only flown over 1 plane. They had expected to load up and return straight away, but there was a delay in the items arriving at the airport and had to wait until the following morning. When the load arrived it was half of what they had expected to be picking up.
It doesn't necessarily mean they have been taken for a ride.
 
nilagin said:
The other day, all the papers were reporting that the RAF had only flown over 1 plane. They had expected to load up and return straight away, but there was a delay in the items arriving at the airport and had to wait until the following morning. When the load arrived it was half of what they had expected to be picking up.
It doesn't necessarily mean they have been taken for a ride.
Click to expand...
No, but it sounds better than saying the Turks told us they'd supply 400,000 but only gave us 30,000.
 
Uk started its first vaccine tests today up tp 800 people involved, half will be given the corona one and have something else, results will not be quick it said
 
mikew said:
Uk started its first vaccine tests today up tp 800 people involved, half will be given the corona one and have something else, results will not be quick it said
Click to expand...
According to this report ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52394485 ) it states the something else will be a half a control vaccine which protects against meningitis but not coronavirus.
 
nilagin said:
The other day, all the papers were reporting that the RAF had only flown over 1 plane. They had expected to load up and return straight away, but there was a delay in the items arriving at the airport and had to wait until the following morning. When the load arrived it was half of what they had expected to be picking up.
It doesn't necessarily mean they have been taken for a ride.
Click to expand...
1. All the papers were saying 3 RAF planes were standing by to go Turkey to pick the stuff up.
2. Then they said one of the planes had set off to Turkey to “force the Turks hand”, though how that would work I’m not clear.it sounds a bit like the brexiteers threat of “give us what we want or we’ll shoot ourselves in the foot (feet?j.
3. 30k is not half of 400k, do the math, as they say!

:oops: :$:oops: :$:oops: :$ :LOL::LOL::LOL:
 
JohnC6 said:
...................Two days later the Cheltenham Races went ahead for 4 days attracting 250,000 + spectators and that also included race-goers from abroad, especially Ireland. I'd also posted at the time that these events were about to go ahead and said that we'd probably never know how many COVID-19 cases could be attributed to those attending either event and yesterday I'd said that there were reports from some attending Cheltenham Races that they'd contracted the virus...... .
Click to expand...

https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/23/huge...admissions-cheltenham-festival-held-12600852/
 
sphexx said:
1. All the papers were saying 3 RAF planes were standing by to go Turkey to pick the stuff up.
2. Then they said one of the planes had set off to Turkey to “force the Turks hand”, though how that would work I’m not clear.it sounds a bit like the brexiteers threat of “give us what we want or we’ll shoot ourselves in the foot (feet?j.
3. 30k is not half of 400k, do the math, as they say!

:oops: :$:oops: :$:oops: :$ :LOL::LOL::LOL:
Click to expand...
Where did I say 30k was half of 400k. If you read what I wrote again, they sent out one plane and only picked up half of what they expected to be picking up. That would mean they weren't expecting to be picking up the full 400k order but just 60k. Or would you rather they waited until the full 400k was ready, then fly out and get it.

I notice no one has mentioned the RAF being critical of the NHS and how they have been distributing the shipment. But as that report is in the Daily Mail, I guess that is the reason.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8244313/amp/Military-appalled-coronavirus-PPE-fiasco-NHS.html

The same report mentions the other two planes are ready to fly to Turkey on Monday to pick up the rest of the shipment. Kind of confirms that the full 400k wasn't expected in one shipment.
 
mex said:
https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/23/huge...jlihzsTorT-xKRI8NeL9TtZMi47P4Zn9eEBlccVdDxBkM
Click to expand...

Thanks for this.Much appreciated. (y) A paragraph at the the end really annoyed me inasmuch it was taking the public for fools.

Quote" 'Defending his decision not to cancel the sporting events earlier, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said. "The risk at mass gatherings was no greater or less than it would have been in pubs or restaurants and the advice at that point was that we did not need to ban mass gatherings"

A mass gathering of approximately 60,000 race-goers per day equates to the same risk as there would be at a pub or a restaurant ??? :banghead:

As I mentioned ,it was the same for the game at Anfield v Atletico Madrid the two days before the Races when 52,000 attended with 3000 from Madrid and there was a spike in COVID-19 cases in Liverpool. It was all about money but it's no doubt cost lives unnecessarily.
 
nilagin said:
Where did I say 30k was half of 400k.
Click to expand...

You wrote “When the load arrived it was half of what they had expected to be picking up.”
 
I've been listening to a couple Radio4 programmes this evening re COVID-19 which included reference to previous epidemics going back 670 years to The Black Death then so-called Spanish 'flu..Asian'Flu..infact here's the list

https://www.mphonline.org/worst-pandemics-in-history/

The world should have been far better prepared for this one. As I recall, it would have cost $3.5billion to have defensive measures in place against a loss of $8bn in lost economies...ie GDP etc.

I think what will stand out re this one,apart from the poor response once it was established just how contagious and virulent COVID-19 is and that it was on the march was the initial cover up and under-reporting by China. This included silencing or arresting scientists who spoke out about it. https://www.businessinsider.com/china-coronavirus-whistleblowers-speak-out-vanish-2020-2?r=US&IR=T

My guess is that they could have stopped this at source. The authorities allowed 5 million Wuhan citizens to leave before lockdown around Jan 21st.some fleeing the virus but it coincided with the Lunar New Year holiday..the most important in Chinese culture when 3 billion trips are made. It's the largest human migration over the whole festival period.The virus was first reported to the WHO Office in China on December 31st. On February 3rd President Xi Jinping gave a speech stating that he had continuously been giving verbal and written instructions since January 7th. here's the article https://time.com/5785115/xi-jingping-lead-covid-19/

One State in the US wants to sue the Chinese governmet..but it can't under international law,if I heard correctly.

What it's done for me is to leave me thinking that despite where we are with communications and knowledge of the nature of pandemics, leaders in many countries failed.
The world just has to hope it doesn't get a foothold in Africa.

I see that the that the EU Commission has apologised to Italy for not assisting re the virus in the initial stages. I could never understand why the EU left Italy (again..and Greece) to shoulder the burden of all the migrants fleeing there. All that sort of mishandling does is to give succour to the Far Right .National contributions to the budget are going to be massively increased because of the costs of COVID-19.
 
Last edited:
sphexx said:
You wrote “When the load arrived it was half of what they had expected to be picking up.”
Click to expand...
That's correct, but they weren't expecting to pick up the full order this week, which is why only one plane was needed. Unfortunately only half of what they intended to pick up was available. So they only got 30k instead of 60k.
 
nilagin said:
That's correct, but they weren't expecting to pick up the full order this week, which is why only one plane was needed. Unfortunately only half of what they intended to pick up was available. So they only got 30k instead of 60k.
Click to expand...

One third of 400k is 133.3k. Not 60k.
 
KitsuneAndy said:
One third of 400k is 133.3k. Not 60k.
Click to expand...
Well done.
No one has said they were picking up a third of what had been ordered though. They had picking up the first 60k and the rest, I am assuming should be next Monday when they said they will fly out again. But unfortunately only 30k was available.
Or would you rather they delayed picking up the shipment until it could have been supplied in full?
 
nilagin said:
Well done.
No one has said they were picking up a third of what had been ordered though. They had picking up the first 60k and the rest, I am assuming should be next Monday when they said they will fly out again. But unfortunately only 30k was available.
Or would you rather they delayed picking up the shipment until it could have been supplied in full?
Click to expand...

No just wondering how you came up with 60k.
 
KitsuneAndy said:
No just wondering how you came up with 60k.
Click to expand...
The initial media articles said that only half the shipment they had flown out for was available. Today's article said that only 30k out of the 400k order had been fulfilled questioning whether our government had been had. 30k is half of 60k. The Daily Mail article I linked said the RAF had told them they are due to fly out on Monday with the other two planes. Whether that will fulfill the order remains to be seen.
 
JohnC6 said:
I've been listening to a couple Radio4 programmes this evening re COVID-19 which included reference to previous epidemics going back 670 years to The Black Death then so-called Spanish 'flu..Asian'Flu..infact here's the list

https://www.mphonline.org/worst-pandemics-in-history/

The world should have been far better prepared for this one. As I recall, it would have cost $3.5billion to have defensive measures in place against a loss of $8bn in lost economies...ie GDP etc.

I think what will stand out re this one,apart from the poor response once it was established just how contagious and virulent COVID-19 is and that it was on the march was the initial cover up and under-reporting by China. This included silencing or arresting scientists who spoke out about it. https://www.businessinsider.com/china-coronavirus-whistleblowers-speak-out-vanish-2020-2?r=US&IR=T

My guess is that they could have stopped this at source. The authorities allowed 5 million Wuhan citizens to leave before lockdown around Jan 21st.some fleeing the virus but it coincided with the Lunar New Year holiday..the most important in Chinese culture when 3 billion trips are made. It's the largest human migration over the whole festival period.The virus was first reported to the WHO Office in China on December 31st. On February 3rd President Xi Jinping gave a speech stating that he had continuously been giving verbal and written instructions since January 7th. here's the article https://time.com/5785115/xi-jingping-lead-covid-19/

One State in the US wants to sue the Chinese governmet..but it can't under international law,if I heard correctly.

What it's done for me is to leave me thinking that despite where we are with communications and knowledge of the nature of pandemics, leaders in many countries failed.
The world just has to hope it doesn't get a foothold in Africa.

I see that the that the EU Commission has apologised to Italy for not assisting re the virus in the initial stages. I could never understand why the EU left Italy (again..and Greece) to shoulder the burden of all the migrants fleeing there. All that sort of mishandling does is to give succour to the Far Right .National contributions to the budget are going to be massively increased because of the costs of COVID-19.
Click to expand...
You are right, of course, to say the Chinese govt. was wrong (and stupid) not to get a grip on this when it first occurred but their response was no different from U.K. or US govts. (also wrong & stupid) in the context of the different political systems. What I mean is that all three hoped it would just go away, until it was too late (wrong & stupid).

I just can’t see the utility of concentrating on what the Chinese did wrong* and stupidly, we (UK) need to put our own house in order first.

*China does a lot of things wrong. One of the worst in this context is forcing WHO to exclude Taiwan. The rest of the world has been too busy sucking up to China to do anything about that :(. (Wrong & stupid again! :().
 
One of my workmates takes his dog for a walk every day over Hainault Country Park, people have been driving there, parking free in the car park and spending the day there instead of observing the lockdown. They are reinstating car park fees for an hour, but allowing 90 minutes. After that fines will be issued.
 
nilagin said:
The initial media articles said that only half the shipment they had flown out for was available. Today's article said that only 30k out of the 400k order had been fulfilled questioning whether our government had been had. 30k is half of 60k. The Daily Mail article I linked said the RAF had told them they are due to fly out on Monday with the other two planes. Whether that will fulfill the order remains to be seen.
Click to expand...

I get you :)

Yeah when they sent one plane we knew we weren't going to be getting all of it, I just wasn't sure where you got the 60000 from is all.

The articles I'd read referred to tonnage - two planes at max capacity would've been able to carry back 95% of the shipment (83 tonnes cargo, 40 tonne capacity) so they were going to need 3 so makes sense to split it up more evenly and conserve fuel.

And the plane that came back was reported to be about 60% full weight wise. So about a quarter of the total shipment. Around half of what the plane *could* carry

Which is about the same.

Stupid of Jenrick to say we were going to get all of it on Sunday when it wasn't for certain, but equally stupid if people thought a single plane could have brought back more than a small proportion of it.
 
Why do we have such an inept government - lockdown, PPE etc... We have Boris and Raab running the show, when the solution is staring us in the face. According to Trump we can just inject disenfectant and it cures it!! Why did Boris not realise this. Useless!!! :)
 
Because the plurality of your fellow voters either actively elected, or passively didn't vote against candidates representing the party to which they belong.

Don't like it, didn't vote - vote next time
Don't like it, did vote - vote differently next time
 
cambsno said:
Why do we have such an inept government - lockdown, PPE etc... We have Boris and Raab running the show, when the solution is staring us in the face. According to Trump we can just inject disenfectant and it cures it!! Why did Boris not realise this. Useless!!! :)
Click to expand...
We had a chance to make a major change to our voting system which may have improved the situation (no panacea) but most didn’t vote and those who did rejected it. Which way did you vote?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top