Topic: COVID-19:VERIFIED news sources, 0 politishit, 0 CONSPIRACY SHITE

[djahern]

Pre 2020 normality is a dream. Social distancing and masks, which affect a lot of how we behave and act, will be around for a good long while. That will affect businesses, sports, leisure etc.

I disagree with that. I believe we'll see pre-2020 normality pretty much by mid summer if not before.

The virus will still be around, people will still catch it, and some will still die from it. But those numbers will be tiny compared to what we have right now.

With regard to social distancing remaining for the longer term, it's important to distinguish between the varying degrees of what is 'social distancing'. I think what most people regard as social distancing will be largely gone by mid summer. What may remain is periodical requests for people to take certain measures - wearing a mask on the tube for example will almost certainly come back in next Winter. That's a far cry from not being allowed to visit your family or go to the pub.

The measures restricting visiting family etc I think will begin to disappear in Spring when the pressure on the hospitals is relieved and community prevalence has fallen considerably. It will be important though not to rush into this at the first sign these measures are falling and stick with them until we really drive down both numbers. It's at this point that wide spread vaccination plays its role - preventing a resurgence like we've seen in March and December. A successful vaccination campaign can keep this to the kind of levels we see with influenza. We'll see increased pressure on hospitals during winter but nothing like this past one.

There is an incorrect air of thinking in government and the public that vaccination is our saviour from this situation and will force the numbers of infections and deaths down. That's incorrect. We can really only achieve that quickly in the short term by limiting transmission using social distancing. It will take a long time for vaccination alone to achieve the same. The importance of vaccination comes after social distancing has achieved the aims of reducing transmission - preventing any future surges in transmission, and preventing us from needing the kind of measures we have now to regain control. It will work best if current social distancing remains in place long enough to bring transmission levels right down - the lower it is when we release social distancing restrictions the better mass vaccination will work at keeping control of it.

What we also require in place for Spring-Summer and then longer term into the future is a robust surveillance system to monitor community prevalence stretching out over the next 5 years. This has to be linked to a large viral genome surveillance running alongside it - constantly monitoring for changes to the virus and as an early detection system for any variants that might be giving a transmission advantage. We also need ongoing surveillance of immunity levels in the population over this and subsequent years so we can adapt our vaccination programme to what's needed. These things wont be cheap, but they have to be done and in the long run are way cheaper than the alternatives of shutting down the economy. 

[filopastry]

UK numbers now out

47,525 cases
1,564 deaths


UK



London (as the area that has been in Tier 4 for longest)

[Qston]

I disagree with that. I believe we'll see pre-2020 normality pretty much by mid summer if not before.

The virus will still be around, people will still catch it, and some will still die from it. But those numbers will be tiny compared to what we have right now.

With regard to social distancing remaining for the longer term, it's important to distinguish between the varying degrees of what is 'social distancing'. I think what most people regard as social distancing will be largely gone by mid summer. What may remain is periodical requests for people to take certain measures - wearing a mask on the tube for example will almost certainly come back in next Winter. That's a far cry from not being allowed to visit your family or go to the pub.

The measures restricting visiting family etc I think will begin to disappear in Spring when the pressure on the hospitals is relieved and community prevalence has fallen considerably. It will be important though not to rush into this at the first sign these measures are falling and stick with them until we really drive down both numbers. It's at this point that wide spread vaccination plays its role - preventing a resurgence like we've seen in March and December. A successful vaccination campaign can keep this to the kind of levels we see with influenza. We'll see increased pressure on hospitals during winter but nothing like this past one.

There is an incorrect air of thinking in government and the public that vaccination is our saviour from this situation and will force the numbers of infections and deaths down. That's incorrect. We can really only achieve that quickly in the short term by limiting transmission using social distancing. It will take a long time for vaccination alone to achieve the same. The importance of vaccination comes after social distancing has achieved the aims of reducing transmission - preventing any future surges in transmission, and preventing us from needing the kind of measures we have now to regain control. It will work best if current social distancing remains in place long enough to bring transmission levels right down - the lower it is when we release social distancing restrictions the better mass vaccination will work at keeping control of it.

What we also require in place for Spring-Summer and then longer term into the future is a robust surveillance system to monitor community prevalence stretching out over the next 5 years. This has to be linked to a large viral genome surveillance running alongside it - constantly monitoring for changes to the virus and as an early detection system for any variants that might be giving a transmission advantage. We also need ongoing surveillance of immunity levels in the population over this and subsequent years so we can adapt our vaccination programme to what's needed. These things wont be cheap, but they have to be done and in the long run are way cheaper than the alternatives of shutting down the economy.

Thanks DJ. As ever, a very informative post

[Jono69]

47,525 cases
1,564 deaths

Jesus , absolutely frightening numbers

[Hedley Lamarr]

47,525 cases
1,564 deaths

Sickening figures as far as deaths are concerned, but cases are down significantly from this time last week.  It definitely seems like it's flattening/creeping down.  There are going to be a lot of families losing loved ones over the next fortnight though.

[Ashburton]

I disagree with that. I believe we'll see pre-2020 normality pretty much by mid summer if not before.

The virus will still be around, people will still catch it, and some will still die from it. But those numbers will be tiny compared to what we have right now.

With regard to social distancing remaining for the longer term, it's important to distinguish between the varying degrees of what is 'social distancing'. I think what most people regard as social distancing will be largely gone by mid summer. What may remain is periodical requests for people to take certain measures - wearing a mask on the tube for example will almost certainly come back in next Winter. That's a far cry from not being allowed to visit your family or go to the pub.

The measures restricting visiting family etc I think will begin to disappear in Spring when the pressure on the hospitals is relieved and community prevalence has fallen considerably. It will be important though not to rush into this at the first sign these measures are falling and stick with them until we really drive down both numbers. It's at this point that wide spread vaccination plays its role - preventing a resurgence like we've seen in March and December. A successful vaccination campaign can keep this to the kind of levels we see with influenza. We'll see increased pressure on hospitals during winter but nothing like this past one.

There is an incorrect air of thinking in government and the public that vaccination is our saviour from this situation and will force the numbers of infections and deaths down. That's incorrect. We can really only achieve that quickly in the short term by limiting transmission using social distancing. It will take a long time for vaccination alone to achieve the same. The importance of vaccination comes after social distancing has achieved the aims of reducing transmission - preventing any future surges in transmission, and preventing us from needing the kind of measures we have now to regain control. It will work best if current social distancing remains in place long enough to bring transmission levels right down - the lower it is when we release social distancing restrictions the better mass vaccination will work at keeping control of it.

What we also require in place for Spring-Summer and then longer term into the future is a robust surveillance system to monitor community prevalence stretching out over the next 5 years. This has to be linked to a large viral genome surveillance running alongside it - constantly monitoring for changes to the virus and as an early detection system for any variants that might be giving a transmission advantage. We also need ongoing surveillance of immunity levels in the population over this and subsequent years so we can adapt our vaccination programme to what's needed. These things wont be cheap, but they have to be done and in the long run are way cheaper than the alternatives of shutting down the economy.

Great response and this kind of optimism is perhaps the kind of take we need at the moment.  I'd like to see this happen for sure.  Perhaps we're conflating 'keep on as we're doing', and it's fair comment to say this is going to go away as soon as we remove the vast majority of the population from turning up in hospital.

Out of the current mix and match of rules what I can see us keeping:
- 1.5m+ between groups (so we'll probably do every other cinema seat or something)
- Max cap on gatherings
- Maybe some kind of mask restriction this winter to keep winter flu down since the NHS will be knackered

Maybe dropping masks as of the end of the winter.  Although on the horizon I'm starting to see growing concern over E484K which appears to be a Brazilian variant which has evolved a vaccine escape mutation.  So as soon as we get this track and trace/border measures package up to speed it'll make a massive difference.

[pazcom]

UK numbers now out

47,525 cases
1,564 deaths

bloody hell - I'm sure I heard/saw on the news yesterday that the peak wont be for another week or so.

[Fromola]

Sickening figures as far as deaths are concerned, but cases are down significantly from this time last week.  It definitely seems like it's flattening/creeping down.  There are going to be a lot of families losing loved ones over the next fortnight though.

Yeah, we already knew January and February were going to be a disaster due to the government's negligent decisions in December (which are now being spun onto the public).

The positive is cases appear to have peaked last week. This week, although case numbers are still very high, the lockdown appears to be kicking in now with bringing cases down.

[Fromola]

bloody hell - I'm sure I heard/saw on the news yesterday that the peak wont be for another week or so.

It's the lag from Christmas period and the weeks leading up to it. For the coming weeks we'll be getting the death tolls from all the 60 thousand a day cases.

[killer-heels]

I disagree with that. I believe we'll see pre-2020 normality pretty much by mid summer if not before.

The virus will still be around, people will still catch it, and some will still die from it. But those numbers will be tiny compared to what we have right now.

With regard to social distancing remaining for the longer term, it's important to distinguish between the varying degrees of what is 'social distancing'. I think what most people regard as social distancing will be largely gone by mid summer. What may remain is periodical requests for people to take certain measures - wearing a mask on the tube for example will almost certainly come back in next Winter. That's a far cry from not being allowed to visit your family or go to the pub.

The measures restricting visiting family etc I think will begin to disappear in Spring when the pressure on the hospitals is relieved and community prevalence has fallen considerably. It will be important though not to rush into this at the first sign these measures are falling and stick with them until we really drive down both numbers. It's at this point that wide spread vaccination plays its role - preventing a resurgence like we've seen in March and December. A successful vaccination campaign can keep this to the kind of levels we see with influenza. We'll see increased pressure on hospitals during winter but nothing like this past one.

There is an incorrect air of thinking in government and the public that vaccination is our saviour from this situation and will force the numbers of infections and deaths down. That's incorrect. We can really only achieve that quickly in the short term by limiting transmission using social distancing. It will take a long time for vaccination alone to achieve the same. The importance of vaccination comes after social distancing has achieved the aims of reducing transmission - preventing any future surges in transmission, and preventing us from needing the kind of measures we have now to regain control. It will work best if current social distancing remains in place long enough to bring transmission levels right down - the lower it is when we release social distancing restrictions the better mass vaccination will work at keeping control of it.

What we also require in place for Spring-Summer and then longer term into the future is a robust surveillance system to monitor community prevalence stretching out over the next 5 years. This has to be linked to a large viral genome surveillance running alongside it - constantly monitoring for changes to the virus and as an early detection system for any variants that might be giving a transmission advantage. We also need ongoing surveillance of immunity levels in the population over this and subsequent years so we can adapt our vaccination programme to what's needed. These things wont be cheap, but they have to be done and in the long run are way cheaper than the alternatives of shutting down the economy. 

You and Asburton clearly know your shit so I will bow to your superior knowledge and optimism.

To be honest I am over the initial concern I had as to how long it would last. I hated masks and I guess I still do but if it and social distancing continues long term then it is what it is.

[[new username under construction]]

12-01-2021   207,661   Vaccinated

[Fromola]

You and Asburton clearly know your shit so I will bow to your superior knowledge and optimism.

To be honest I am over the initial concern I had as to how long it would last. I hated masks and I guess I still do but if it and social distancing continues long term then it is what it is.

The virus is also seasonal. We're right in the middle of winter now. Coupled with the vaccine and summer season we should be okay through the summer, although it'll be a phased return to normality.

There'll be a hiccup in September again when the kids and colleges go back, as they won't have been vaccinated and it's the start of respiratory virus season. Much of the September spread was schools and unis. That may see some restrictions again, but mainly around social distancing/masks.

[naYoRHa2b]

What's the general consensus around transmissibility once vaccinated?

[No666]

Although on the horizon I'm starting to see growing concern over E484K which appears to be a Brazilian variant which has evolved a vaccine escape mutation.  So as soon as we get this track and trace/border measures package up to speed it'll make a massive difference.

Why aren't we banning travel to and from Brazil now? What's the point of the vaccination programme if we're doing nothing about importing a variety that evades it?

[Medellin]

BBC News - Covid: UK reports record 1,564 daily deaths
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55653161

[Commie Bobbie]

I disagree with that. I believe we'll see pre-2020 normality pretty much by mid summer if not before.

The virus will still be around, people will still catch it, and some will still die from it. But those numbers will be tiny compared to what we have right now.

With regard to social distancing remaining for the longer term, it's important to distinguish between the varying degrees of what is 'social distancing'. I think what most people regard as social distancing will be largely gone by mid summer. What may remain is periodical requests for people to take certain measures - wearing a mask on the tube for example will almost certainly come back in next Winter. That's a far cry from not being allowed to visit your family or go to the pub.

The measures restricting visiting family etc I think will begin to disappear in Spring when the pressure on the hospitals is relieved and community prevalence has fallen considerably. It will be important though not to rush into this at the first sign these measures are falling and stick with them until we really drive down both numbers. It's at this point that wide spread vaccination plays its role - preventing a resurgence like we've seen in March and December. A successful vaccination campaign can keep this to the kind of levels we see with influenza. We'll see increased pressure on hospitals during winter but nothing like this past one.

There is an incorrect air of thinking in government and the public that vaccination is our saviour from this situation and will force the numbers of infections and deaths down. That's incorrect. We can really only achieve that quickly in the short term by limiting transmission using social distancing. It will take a long time for vaccination alone to achieve the same. The importance of vaccination comes after social distancing has achieved the aims of reducing transmission - preventing any future surges in transmission, and preventing us from needing the kind of measures we have now to regain control. It will work best if current social distancing remains in place long enough to bring transmission levels right down - the lower it is when we release social distancing restrictions the better mass vaccination will work at keeping control of it.

What we also require in place for Spring-Summer and then longer term into the future is a robust surveillance system to monitor community prevalence stretching out over the next 5 years. This has to be linked to a large viral genome surveillance running alongside it - constantly monitoring for changes to the virus and as an early detection system for any variants that might be giving a transmission advantage. We also need ongoing surveillance of immunity levels in the population over this and subsequent years so we can adapt our vaccination programme to what's needed. These things wont be cheap, but they have to be done and in the long run are way cheaper than the alternatives of shutting down the economy. 

Normality by July? I would take that to the bank right now.

[smicer07]

BBC News - Covid: UK reports record 1,564 daily deaths
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55653161

It'll be 2000 soon. Horrific. Johnson has a lot to answer for.

[spen71]

No one should be allowed to travel unless it is “essential”.   Easy to test before they leave and 3 days in quarantine before they leave to show a negative result

[Jwils21]

It'll be 2000 soon. Horrific. Johnson has a lot to answer for.

There's still overwhelming support for him though, not helped by those who are disengaged from Politics thinking he's just big funny Boris. I'm sick of seeing "Can't wait to catch up when Boris lets us haha!" and things along those lines... like it's just some harmless bumbling idiot.

He's failed the country, led to thousands of deaths yet he would still get plenty of support should there be an election tomorrow. It's really, really sad.

[djahern]

Yeah, we already knew January and February were going to be a disaster due to the government's negligent decisions in December (which are now being spun onto the public).

The positive is cases appear to have peaked last week. This week, although case numbers are still very high, the lockdown appears to be kicking in now with bringing cases down.

Daily hospital admissions for England seem to have plateaued for the most recent dates with data available - around 3,500 for Jan 4th and 3,500 for the most recent data on Jan 10th. That's encouraging as it's here that we'll see the first real sign of any improvement for those working so hard in the health care system. Hopefully we see this continue and drop sharply.

The total in hospital in UK is continuing to rise to the most recent date of data, Jan 12th. We can't really expect this to peak and begin to fall until we see it first in the daily admissions numbers above. If we are now seeing that (at least for England), then it may begin to drop by the end of the week. Not fast enough for those working in the hospitals of course, but the first signs in the numbers that things might be about to improve.

[Fromola]

Normality by July? I would take that to the bank right now.

I think we'll have normality near enough in July and August. It's a case of where we are late September/October, at the start of winter virus season, after everyone has been traveling all over the place for their summer holidays, the kids go back to school and the thousands of probably still unvaccinated students turn up at universities.

Certainly make the most of your summer once you've had your vaccine (assuming transmission is low).

[Medellin]

It'll be 2000 soon. Horrific. Johnson has a lot to answer for.

Shambolic throughout.
A valid excuse for his father receiving his 2nd Covid jab when others still awaiting their first too.

[filopastry]

Deaths by day shown below, obviously always some catchup from the under-reporting over weekends

[Commie Bobbie]

I think we'll have normality near enough in July and August. It's a case of where we are late September/October, at the start of winter virus season, after everyone has been traveling all over the place for their summer holidays, the kids go back to school and the thousands of probably still unvaccinated students turn up at universities.

Certainly make the most of your summer once you've had your vaccine (assuming transmission is low).

I'm flying to Amsterdam in October for ADE - but even if that doesn't happen in its usual form (City wide festival and events) I'm heading out - if only to get off this island for five days.

[ljycb]

I disagree with that. I believe we'll see pre-2020 normality pretty much by mid summer if not before.

The virus will still be around, people will still catch it, and some will still die from it. But those numbers will be tiny compared to what we have right now.

With regard to social distancing remaining for the longer term, it's important to distinguish between the varying degrees of what is 'social distancing'. I think what most people regard as social distancing will be largely gone by mid summer. What may remain is periodical requests for people to take certain measures - wearing a mask on the tube for example will almost certainly come back in next Winter. That's a far cry from not being allowed to visit your family or go to the pub.

The measures restricting visiting family etc I think will begin to disappear in Spring when the pressure on the hospitals is relieved and community prevalence has fallen considerably. It will be important though not to rush into this at the first sign these measures are falling and stick with them until we really drive down both numbers. It's at this point that wide spread vaccination plays its role - preventing a resurgence like we've seen in March and December. A successful vaccination campaign can keep this to the kind of levels we see with influenza. We'll see increased pressure on hospitals during winter but nothing like this past one.

There is an incorrect air of thinking in government and the public that vaccination is our saviour from this situation and will force the numbers of infections and deaths down. That's incorrect. We can really only achieve that quickly in the short term by limiting transmission using social distancing. It will take a long time for vaccination alone to achieve the same. The importance of vaccination comes after social distancing has achieved the aims of reducing transmission - preventing any future surges in transmission, and preventing us from needing the kind of measures we have now to regain control. It will work best if current social distancing remains in place long enough to bring transmission levels right down - the lower it is when we release social distancing restrictions the better mass vaccination will work at keeping control of it.

What we also require in place for Spring-Summer and then longer term into the future is a robust surveillance system to monitor community prevalence stretching out over the next 5 years. This has to be linked to a large viral genome surveillance running alongside it - constantly monitoring for changes to the virus and as an early detection system for any variants that might be giving a transmission advantage. We also need ongoing surveillance of immunity levels in the population over this and subsequent years so we can adapt our vaccination programme to what's needed. These things wont be cheap, but they have to be done and in the long run are way cheaper than the alternatives of shutting down the economy.

This seems a little too optimistic, but I’m happy to just believe what you’re saying because the alternatives are grim.

[Red Beret]

1500? Fuck.

[Fromola]

It'll be 2000 soon. Horrific. Johnson has a lot to answer for.

Instead he's getting credit from a fawning media for rolling out the vaccine quicker than the rest of Europe.

[killer-heels]

Is travel from Brazil still allowed? Let me guess, of course it is.

[ianburns252]

I read where there's been 100% uptake in nursing homes here so far. That generation saw the effects of polio, TB and other insidious diseases. They then saw the benefits of vaccinations
.
There's loads of people who've never seen the harmful effects of numerous diseases because they've been vaccinated   . Now they don't believe in either the illness or the vaccine. People are mental.

The bit in bold has massively got on my tits lately.

Had someone at work giving it a load about how this is just like flu as we have a different one of that each year and anyway, they want the Japanese version as they are more stringent on what goes in their vaccines!

She had literally just been complaining about how to get to work and drop her kids at school she has to get three buses. I'd be offering to tap a vein and jab the bloody needle in my arm myself if it meant I got it sooner so I can't see how she can go on like that.


We had a right nonce of a lad at work - got himself pinged by track and trace last week. He then decided to still come into the office, as you do. I believe it was the Tuesday that he came in so loads on his floor had come in to try and get info from TPTB on any changes from the Lockdown 28.94 announcement.

Got rightly sent home, and two days later he gets a test and comes up positive. Whole department are isolating now because the dopey prick came in. Swear to Christ you could shine a torch in his ear and light his head up like a Goddamn Jack-o-lantern!!

[Commie Bobbie]

Just a thought - and mods please amend if it doesn't make sense.

America’s last daily death toll for Covid was 4,406.

UK's daily death rate for today was 1,564.

If the UK had the same population as the US and they had the same death rate as they have now, the daily death rate would be 7,692.

Think about that. And then fucking weep.

We’re being let down. Criminally.

[Red Beret]

I'm honestly regretting getting a takeaway tonight. Just threw it in the microwave for two minutes, and not to warm it up. Going to stick to preparing my own food.

[west_london_red]

Just a thought - and mods please amend if it doesn't make sense.

America’s last daily death toll for Covid was 4,406.

UK's daily death rate for today was 1,564.

If the UK had the same population as the US and they had the same death rate as they have now, the daily death rate would be 7,692.

Think about that. And then fucking weep.

We’re being let down. Criminally.

Unfortunately that piece of basic maths is beyond a lot of people in the country. We rightly look at the US numbers with shock and horror and yet people don’t realise on a per capita basis we are performing even worse then a country lead by a man whose spent most of the time questioning the existence of the virus and promoting ineffective (if not dangerous) remedies for it.

[Medellin]

Unfortunately that piece of basic maths is beyond a lot of people in the country. We rightly look at the US numbers with shock and horror and yet people don’t realise on a per capita basis we are performing even worse then a country lead by a man whose spent most of the time questioning the existence of the virus and promoting ineffective (if not dangerous) remedies for it.

Uk deaths per 1m population = 1245
USA deaths per 1m population = 1176

[jonnypb]

BBC News - Covid: UK reports record 1,564 daily deaths
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55653161

Those are terrible numbers

Some scientists saying it might not peak until start of Feb as well    Still so many people not keeping to the rules.

[rob1966]

Unfortunately that piece of basic maths is beyond a lot of people in the country. We rightly look at the US numbers with shock and horror and yet people don’t realise on a per capita basis we are performing even worse then a country lead by a man whose spent most of the time questioning the existence of the virus and promoting ineffective (if not dangerous) remedies for it.

You have to take into account that the UK is 8 times more densely populated than the USA though. England is the roughly the same size as Alabama with a population 11 times bigger.

[Qston]

It is an incredibly sobering milestone that we have reached over 100,000 dead.

Looking back at the start of this thread I wonder what we would have said if someone had posted that there would be over 100,000 deaths in the space of less than 12 months from this - in other words 1 in every 660 people in this country.....and still counting.

It makes you so sad and angry at the same time. Whilst no government would have coped perfectly with this, and I don`t envy those that have to take such difficult decisions, the stark fact is that lives could have been saved with more timely action. That remains as much the case now as it has done for the last 12 months.

The chink of light is that to have got a vaccine from the emailing/posting of the genetic code to a vaccination going into arms as we speak in less than 12 months is nothing less than utterly remarkable.

[jonnypb]

Unfortunately that piece of basic maths is beyond a lot of people in the country. We rightly look at the US numbers with shock and horror and yet people don’t realise on a per capita basis we are performing even worse then a country lead by a man whose spent most of the time questioning the existence of the virus and promoting ineffective (if not dangerous) remedies for it.

Completely true, both the UK and USA are led by numpties that have failed to tackle this pandemic properly.

Also you just have to look at the mentality of people in other countries as well.  Where they've introduced lockdowns in places like New Zealand, China, Australia etc, the majority of people have followed the letter of the law, they respect their governments, their governments have acted swiftly and applied strict measures, and that's a major reason why the spread of the virus has been contained in these other countries.  You don't have to look far in this country to see the amount of dick heads that we have, protesting outside hospitals saying it's a hoax and all that bollox.

You have to take into account that the UK is 8 times more densely populated than the USA though. England is the roughly the same size as Alabama with a population 11 times bigger.

That is a valid argument and one that I've said in the past.  However, If you look around the world, some extremely dense cities, such as Singapore, Seoul, and Shanghai, have outperformed many other less-populated places in combating the coronavirus.  Their death rates have been far less per 100K compared to a lot of other Cities/Countries with a lower population density.  It all comes back to how Governments deal with the pandemic and how the residents respond to the governments measures.

[CraigDS]

Completely true, both the UK and USA are led by numpties that have failed to tackle this pandemic properly.

Also you just have to look at the mentality of people in other countries as well.  Where they've introduced lockdowns in places like New Zealand, China, Australia etc, the majority of people have followed the letter of the law, they respect their governments, their governments have acted swiftly and applied strict measures, and that's a major reason why the spread of the virus has been contained in these other countries.  You don't have to look far in this country to see the amount of dick heads that we have, protesting outside hospitals saying it's a hoax and all that bollox.

to be honest China is an authoritarian state, so you can’t really compare it at all.

Australia has had it’s fair share of dickheads from what I’ve seen, but I don’t really follow their local news all that closely to know just how well it’s been followed. Than again though, it’s population is a 3rd of ours, and New Zealand’s is a lot less than that, so likely much easier to control and a lot less dickheads to give the sheep someone to follow.

[djahern]

This seems a little too optimistic, but I’m happy to just believe what you’re saying because the alternatives are grim.

Maybe, it would be hugely dependent on what we're doing right now being effective.

[jonnypb]

to be honest China is an authoritarian state, so you can’t really compare it at all.

Australia has had it’s fair share of dickheads from what I’ve seen, but I don’t really follow their local news all that closely to know just how well it’s been followed. Than again though, it’s population is a 3rd of ours, and New Zealand’s is a lot less than that, so likely much easier to control and a lot less dickheads to give the sheep someone to follow.

Totally agree, if you have a much lower population then it makes the job of controlling it easier.  If you've got an incompetent government like we have though then it doesn't really matter what your population is at it'll still get hit hard.  Everywhere has it's fair share of dickheads, some countries have a lot more than others tho.  I have friends who emigrated out to Australia many years ago and a lot of local reports over there when they had the issues with people on the beaches during lockdown where due to expats, they didn't say what their nationalities were, but on the whole locals were more or less respectful of the lock downs and social distancing.