#easing lockdown

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Keep seeing headlines talking about how 15 million people in the UK have been vaccinated.

This is a lie.

15 million people in the UK have received a first vaccination dose. That gives them a roughly 50% reduced chance of becoming ill with coronavirus.

To get the full protection, people need two doses. Right now, 539,630 people have had two doses, getting the full potential protection from the vaccine. That’s <1% of the UK population.

It’s true we are potentially starting to see the impact of vaccination in the death rates but this level of vaccination is not enough for us to carry on with life as normal.

If, in 2 or 3 months, we are in a third wave and thousands of people are dying needlessly, don’t let them say “no-one could have predicted this”. I am predicting it. Right now. There are medics and scientists all over twitter predicting it.

Whatever happens next, the government have chosen it.

[spiced-wine-fic]

[generalelectionmusings]

[ceevee5]

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Just remember if there is a second wave, the blame for that is on the government, not individuals. 

The day we went into lockdown, there were 74 coronavirus deaths. Yesterday, there were 137.

In Leicester, just before the local lockdown, most new cases were in teenagers who’d been back into school, and adults who’d been back into work.

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

During the peak of the second wave, the average age of someone in ICU was 60.

Now part of that is because the very elderly usually don't make it to ICU. But it does suggest that there were lots of people under 60 in ICU, let alone in hospital.

And despite falling numbers in hospital, there are still more people in hospital than at any point during the first wave.

It won't take much for the NHS to reach crisis point again. We need to be cautious when releasing lockdown.

Our perception of case numbers has been skewed by the huge figures we saw over the new year. 9000 cases a day is a lot. If cases increase at the rate they did in December, we would easily be seeing 40,000 a day cases by Easter.

This second wave has been more deadly than the first. Let's not risk a third wave that's even worse.

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

These "pilot" events with mixing and no social distancing based on lateral flow tests scare me. I know a lot of people want to "get back to normal", but given all the new variants that have come into the country, the lack of people who've been properly vaccinated, just encouraging people to basically ignore the risks feels scary to me.

Yes, these events are pilots and part of a study, but I feel it's unethical to dangle these exciting events in front of people as a bribe to risk getting seriously ill.

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Boris suddenly babbling on about “summer catch up” for school children which AFIAK has never previously been mentioned.

Just as an FYI, teachers’ salaries are calculated so that the holidays are effectively unpaid. Teachers have already worked through Easter and over half term and the VE day bank holiday with minimal complaint- again without any extra pay.

If he wants teachers to work over the summer, he needs to start coming up with a proper plan and consulting us pretty damn quickly.

Also, the constant flip-flopping on schools is making me feel ill and stressed out, let alone how it must be making teenagers and students feel.