Coronavirus

[phart]

1 hour ago, Jim Beem said:

I've been on a few trains and I have to say, everyone of them has been absolutely spotless. 😂 A world apart from some of the filthy shit you normally have to endure. 

One of very few COVID benefits; clean trains 👍

My maw is a cleaner on the trains, it's been a lot easier for them. Some right clarty fecks out there.

[TDYER63]

1 hour ago, Jim Beem said:

I've been on a few trains and I have to say, everyone of them has been absolutely spotless. 😂 A world apart from some of the filthy shit you normally have to endure. 

One of very few COVID benefits; clean trains 👍

AND get a seat.  AND they run on time.
In fact its been a pleasure travelling on trains every day I hope a lot of people continue to WFH after this is over 😊

[TDYER63]

On 5/16/2021 at 10:09 PM, Lamia said:

When did social distancing on planes end?

 

 

At the risk of sounding like a complete numpty is this a genuine flight from the weekend ? 

 

[Jim Beem]

1 hour ago, phart said:

My maw is a cleaner on the trains, it's been a lot easier for them. Some right clarty fecks out there.

Fair play. Must be a thankless task at times. As you say, some dirty lazy bastards in this country 😡

[Scotty CTA]

2 hours ago, Jim Beem said:

Fair play. Must be a thankless task at times. As you say, some dirty lazy bastards in this country 😡

Absolutely.

Honest work.

[TDYER63]

Heard on the radio last night that people in Glasgow were getting urged to get their vaccination as 15% havent taken it up. Not sure how that compares to other areas but it sounds quite a high percentage . 

[Orraloon]

2 minutes ago, TDYER63 said:

Heard on the radio last night that people in Glasgow were getting urged to get their vaccination as 15% havent taken it up. Not sure how that compares to other areas but it sounds quite a high percentage . 

15%  isn't very high. Especially if it's only some groups that are "only" at 85% uptake. We don't know what the optimum uptake is yet, but 85% is pretty high uptake compared to the likes of flu vaccinations etc. In 2019/20 the flu vaccination uptake was about 75% and that was a record high in uptake. I think this year's flu uptake will be higher but the figures haven't been published yet. 

What I don't understand is why they seem to be putting so much effort into persuading folk who aren't keen to take it (for various reasons), when they haven't even got close to vaccinating all the folk who do want it. Why don't they just concentrate on whacking it into the arms of the folk who do want it, then concentrate on trying to persuade the others later?

[phart]

See the "MSM" have cottoned onto the guy i was using for vaccine levels etc

 

[TDYER63]

3 hours ago, Orraloon said:

15%  isn't very high. Especially if it's only some groups that are "only" at 85% uptake. We don't know what the optimum uptake is yet, but 85% is pretty high uptake compared to the likes of flu vaccinations etc. In 2019/20 the flu vaccination uptake was about 75% and that was a record high in uptake. I think this year's flu uptake will be higher but the figures haven't been published yet. 

What I don't understand is why they seem to be putting so much effort into persuading folk who aren't keen to take it (for various reasons), when they haven't even got close to vaccinating all the folk who do want it. Why don't they just concentrate on whacking it into the arms of the folk who do want it, then concentrate on trying to persuade the others later?

Meh, I thought 15% sounded a lot , probably because I dont personally know anyone who has refused it plus it was a news headline which made it sound an issue.

Agree that they should concentrate on getting it to the people who are keen though. 

[phart]

7 minutes ago, TDYER63 said:

Meh, I thought 15% sounded a lot , probably because I dont personally know anyone who has refused it plus it was a news headline which made it sound an issue.

Agree that they should concentrate on getting it to the people who are keen though. 

it is quite a bit when compared to the relative uptake of the same vaccination. Sure you could compare it to other uptakes like flu jag and it doesn't seem too bad.

It's why they're having a surge in vaccinations someone is trying to bridge the gap ASAP.

[Alibi]

I can't figure out what the situation with travel is going to be over the next few months.  We have a holiday booked, postponed from last year, to Sorrento in Italy, flying from Manchester on the 28th June, which is only about 5 weeks away.  It's with TUI, who I have always found to be pretty good.  We have had no recent communication from them, so I have no idea whether the holiday will be going ahead or not; can't book car parking at the airport or any other ancillary requirements because if you have to cancel, you don't get your money back, just a voucher for future use (in fact I already have one from last year for car parking).  Also, our annual travel insurance policy expired in February and I'm not going to stump up another few hundred quid for insurance for a holiday that might not happen and for which covid cover won't be included.

I would actually prefer that the holiday was cancelled as with the best will in the world, things are not going to be back to normal in Italy by the end of June and I don't want to be going around wearing a mask or any of the other restrictions.  This time rather than postponing I'd just take my money back, but it seems unreasonable for no decision to have been made so close to departure when there are arrangements that have to be made.  Whole thing's a shambles and the holiday companies need to be more pro-active in letting folk know what's happening.

[Orraloon]

27 minutes ago, TDYER63 said:

Meh, I thought 15% sounded a lot , probably because I dont personally know anyone who has refused it plus it was a news headline which made it sound an issue.

Agree that they should concentrate on getting it to the people who are keen though. 

I suppose it is quite high when you compare it to older age groups. Over  95% of everybody over 50 has had at least one dose, according to official figures. I'm guessing that they are talking about specific demographic groups that are only at 85%. It must be under 50s in Glasgow. Might be some ethnic or social demographics that they are concerned about? This could be part of what is driving the increase in cases in the Glasgow area. 

They won't know for a while yet what the optimum uptake is required but they can get an estimate based on the R nought for a specific virus. For example we need over 95% uptake for measles which is one of the most infectious viruses with R nought of about 18. Different flu viruses vary from about 1 to 2.5 so the required uptake is at a lower level. Obviously going higher than that level doesn't do any harm. For SARS-Cov2 the original variants look to have R nought about 2 to 4. One worry about the Indian variant (B.1.617.2) is that it might turn out to have a higher R nought. Maybe as high as 6? Too early to say though. 

In the overall scheme of things, in the longer term, having one group of people stuck on 85% uptake might not be too much of an issue, if all the other groups are close to 100%. Depends on the size of the group. In the shorter term it makes sense to try to fire in with the vaccines to as many folk as possible to try to control this outbreak. But the vaccines used today won't start to have any effect on the numbers for about three weeks.

I still think they could do it quicker if they focused on the folk who are willing and/or eager to take the vaccine.

 

[TDYER63]

3 hours ago, Alibi said:

I can't figure out what the situation with travel is going to be over the next few months.  We have a holiday booked, postponed from last year, to Sorrento in Italy, flying from Manchester on the 28th June, which is only about 5 weeks away.  It's with TUI, who I have always found to be pretty good.  We have had no recent communication from them, so I have no idea whether the holiday will be going ahead or not; can't book car parking at the airport or any other ancillary requirements because if you have to cancel, you don't get your money back, just a voucher for future use (in fact I already have one from last year for car parking).  Also, our annual travel insurance policy expired in February and I'm not going to stump up another few hundred quid for insurance for a holiday that might not happen and for which covid cover won't be included.

I would actually prefer that the holiday was cancelled as with the best will in the world, things are not going to be back to normal in Italy by the end of June and I don't want to be going around wearing a mask or any of the other restrictions.  This time rather than postponing I'd just take my money back, but it seems unreasonable for no decision to have been made so close to departure when there are arrangements that have to be made.  Whole thing's a shambles and the holiday companies need to be more pro-active in letting folk know what's happening.

I was supposed to be going to Greece on Friday, holiday postponed from last year .  Jet 2 only cancelled it about 3-4 weeks ago so I understand how you feel about not knowing. The date that had been pencilled in for potentially resuming  holiday travel abroad was 17 May, 4 days before my holiday , so although I expected it to be cancelled there was a small chance it would go ahead until I received the official email. This time it was just completely cancelled and I got a full refund. 
Last year when everything was getting cancelled TUI were one of the better airlines. I just wanted to cancel my holiday completely as we would need to isolate on return  but Jet 2 only offered to change the date. TUI on the other hand were offering  refunds to people in Scotland as they recognised that Scotland had different rules for people returning from Greece than England did . 
With all the uncertainty going on just now regarding green countries and amber countries I wouldnt be surprised if they cancelled it. The english school holidays wont have started by 28 june so if the flight isnt full they may just pull it, along with the entire holiday. Whatever you do dont cancel it yourself, wait for them to cancel it. And if they dont, check what the score is with travel abroad from Scotland nearer the time in case it is different from England. If Italy isnt in our green zone I would challenge the airline  because although the flight is from England you are travelling from Scotland. 

[TDYER63]

3 hours ago, Orraloon said:

I suppose it is quite high when you compare it to older age groups. Over  95% of everybody over 50 has had at least one dose, according to official figures. I'm guessing that they are talking about specific demographic groups that are only at 85%. It must be under 50s in Glasgow. Might be some ethnic or social demographics that they are concerned about? This could be part of what is driving the increase in cases in the Glasgow area. 

They won't know for a while yet what the optimum uptake is required but they can get an estimate based on the R nought for a specific virus. For example we need over 95% uptake for measles which is one of the most infectious viruses with R nought of about 18. Different flu viruses vary from about 1 to 2.5 so the required uptake is at a lower level. Obviously going higher than that level doesn't do any harm. For SARS-Cov2 the original variants look to have R nought about 2 to 4. One worry about the Indian variant (B.1.617.2) is that it might turn out to have a higher R nought. Maybe as high as 6? Too early to say though. 

In the overall scheme of things, in the longer term, having one group of people stuck on 85% uptake might not be too much of an issue, if all the other groups are close to 100%. Depends on the size of the group. In the shorter term it makes sense to try to fire in with the vaccines to as many folk as possible to try to control this outbreak. But the vaccines used today won't start to have any effect on the numbers for about three weeks.

I still think they could do it quicker if they focused on the folk who are willing and/or eager to take the vaccine.

 

Thanks, thats interesting.

Yes I was wondering too if the higher rates of infection in Glasgow was due to the lower uptake. 

[Orraloon]

25 minutes ago, TDYER63 said:

Thanks, thats interesting.

Yes I was wondering too if the higher rates of infection in Glasgow was due to the lower uptake. 

Now I think about it a bit more, the timing of events probably means that it didn't play a big part in the increase in cases, but higher vaccination rates can definitely play a part in getting these cases reduced again.

[Orraloon]

32 minutes ago, TDYER63 said:

I was supposed to be going to Greece on Friday, holiday postponed from last year .  Jet 2 only cancelled it about 3-4 weeks ago so I understand how you feel about not knowing. The date that had been pencilled in for potentially resuming  holiday travel abroad was 17 May, 4 days before my holiday , so although I expected it to be cancelled there was a small chance it would go ahead until I received the official email. This time it was just completely cancelled and I got a full refund. 
Last year when everything was getting cancelled TUI were one of the better airlines. I just wanted to cancel my holiday completely as we would need to isolate on return  but Jet 2 only offered to change the date. TUI on the other hand were offering  refunds to people in Scotland as they recognised that Scotland had different rules for people returning from Greece than England did . 
With all the uncertainty going on just now regarding green countries and amber countries I wouldnt be surprised if they cancelled it. The english school holidays wont have started by 28 june so if the flight isnt full they may just pull it, along with the entire holiday. Whatever you do dont cancel it yourself, wait for them to cancel it. And if they dont, check what the score is with travel abroad from Scotland nearer the time in case it is different from England. If Italy isnt in our green zone I would challenge the airline  because although the flight is from England you are travelling from Scotland. 

We didn't have a problem with Jet 2. They were excellent to deal with. They offered us the chance to rebook for another date, or a take a voucher. Just emailed them to say we would prefer to cancel and have a refund. They just replied "nae bother bud" and the refund was in my account in a couple of days. Couldn't believe how easy it was.

[Lamia]

5 hours ago, phart said:

See the "MSM" have cottoned onto the guy i was using for vaccine levels etc

 

I would have a slight concern if I was waiting for my second vaccine in Wales 

[TDYER63]

53 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

We didn't have a problem with Jet 2. They were excellent to deal with. They offered us the chance to rebook for another date, or a take a voucher. Just emailed them to say we would prefer to cancel and have a refund. They just replied "nae bother bud" and the refund was in my account in a couple of days. Couldn't believe how easy it was.

I normally rate Jet2 very highly, have used them  a few times and been really impressed. But they were not particularly helpful on this occasion .
Tbh I think the girl I dealt with did not have much experience as she kept contradicting herself and seemed uncertain. Plus she had no idea about the different rules for Scotland. 
When Greece were put on the isolation on return list last September I  checked what different airlines were offering before I called Jet 2 and knew that they were not offering refunds,  I was really surprised because I did rate them highly. I mentioned to the girl that TUI were offering refunds but it didnt wash.

I was given the option of rebooking to a different country but there was no way I was booking somewhere else as we were supposed to be leaving in a few days time and that counrty could they ended up on the isolation list too. They wouldnt even give me a voucher the only other option was to book another holiday months ahead and I was told I had to make up my mind within 2 hours. Ended up booking the same holiday to Greece for 7 months later ( this month) and paying  another 300 quid for the pleasure. 
Anyway, I have ended up with a refund in the end so quite happy , but at the time I had the problem TUI were by far the most flexible  of all the travel companies. 

Edited May 19, 2021 by TDYER63
.

[Orraloon]

14 hours ago, TDYER63 said:

I normally rate Jet2 very highly, have used them  a few times and been really impressed. But they were not particularly helpful on this occasion .
Tbh I think the girl I dealt with did not have much experience as she kept contradicting herself and seemed uncertain. Plus she had no idea about the different rules for Scotland. 
When Greece were put on the isolation on return list last September I  checked what different airlines were offering before I called Jet 2 and knew that they were not offering refunds,  I was really surprised because I did rate them highly. I mentioned to the girl that TUI were offering refunds but it didnt wash.

I was given the option of rebooking to a different country but there was no way I was booking somewhere else as we were supposed to be leaving in a few days time and that counrty could they ended up on the isolation list too. They wouldnt even give me a voucher the only other option was to book another holiday months ahead and I was told I had to make up my mind within 2 hours. Ended up booking the same holiday to Greece for 7 months later ( this month) and paying  another 300 quid for the pleasure. 
Anyway, I have ended up with a refund in the end so quite happy , but at the time I had the problem TUI were by far the most flexible  of all the travel companies. 

Maybe I just got lucky and got the right person to deal with it? Couldn't have been easier.

[Big Ramy 1314]

I have a quick question, just popped on this thread

 My mum just got a message from her pal in Scotland saying people have arrived from India, and have tested positive from this new variant? Apparently her local was suppose to open on Monday, but for some reason, it's not now because of this new variant. Is there any truth to this? Anyone know? Sorry if this had been discussed earlier...

[Lamia]

14 minutes ago, Big Ramy 1314 said:

I have a quick question, just popped on this thread

 My mum just got a message from her pal in Scotland saying people have arrived from India, and have tested positive from this new variant? Apparently her local was suppose to open on Monday, but for some reason, it's not now because of this new variant. Is there any truth to this? Anyone know? Sorry if this had been discussed earlier...

Indian variant is in Glasgow and Glasgow has had to remain in level 3 restrictions because of increasing rates which they think may be due to the new variant.

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by Lamia

[Big Ramy 1314]

1 minute ago, Lamia said:

Indian variant is in Glasgow and Glasgow has had to remain in level 3 restrictions because of increasing rates which they think may be due to the new variant.

 

Oh ok then. Thank you Lamia. Yes, my mums pal was very sad that Scotland has been doing so well, and then this happens.. Another question, sorry. What is the screening process, surely they knew there was a new dangerous variant from India, how did these people get into Scotland? Have they not learned from the past? I'm not pointing fingers, but I dont get it..

[Big Ramy 1314]

16 minutes ago, Lamia said:

Indian variant is in Glasgow and Glasgow has had to remain in level 3 restrictions because of increasing rates which they think may be due to the new variant.

 

While I have you Lamia, wee bit off topic, but just want to apologize for my rude remarks to you in another thread a wee while ago.. No place for it, so apologies to you...🙂🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[AlfieMoon]

16 minutes ago, Big Ramy 1314 said:

Oh ok then. Thank you Lamia. Yes, my mums pal was very sad that Scotland has been doing so well, and then this happens.. Another question, sorry. What is the screening process, surely they knew there was a new dangerous variant from India, how did these people get into Scotland? Have they not learned from the past? I'm not pointing fingers, but I dont get it..

Unfortunately the government has chosen not to learn from the first 2 waves. This is mainly because they have no real desire to properly protect/close UK borders. They are merely paying lip service to it and implementing half-arsed measures to give the impression of actually doing something. 
 

This gives some good perspective: 

 

[Big Ramy 1314]

2 minutes ago, AlfieMoon said:

Unfortunately the government has chosen not to learn from the first 2 waves. This is mainly because they have no real desire to properly protect/close UK borders. They are merely paying lip service to it and implementing half-arsed measures to give the impression of actually doing something. 
 

This gives some good perspective: 

 

Cheers for that Alfie. That is shocking.. How on earth a country placed on this supposed "red list' and they are allowed to travel into the UK is beyond a joke. Have they not learned??? Turn them back for fuck sake..... All the best Alfie..🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿