Coronavirus - Part Two.

[Mister M 1,609]

With regards to the news reports yesterday of stations like Kings Cross Rail Station, filled with people living in Tier 4, rammed with people wanting to travel all over the country, why are they selling tickets to facilitate the spread of the virus?

My understanding is that it's against the law to travel outside these areas unless it's for work or school. Of course people will lie, but people with suitcases....

Could British Transport Police be deployed to these stations to enforce the law, and help stop the spread of the virus?

[petemcewan 27]

Enntee

 

Thank  you for that direction.

 

Quote

The two earliest sampled genomes that belong to the B.1.1.7 lineage were collected on 20-Sept-2020 in Kent and another on 21-Sept-2020 from Greater London.

How on earth did UCL miss that one ?

[El Cid 214]

1 hour ago, enntee said:

If you google N501Y, you will see that your copied headline does not refer to the mutation causing the Tier 4 decision.

Analysis of more than 25,000 viral sequences in the U.K. suggests that viruses with this mutation transmitted slightly faster and caused larger clusters of infections.

Slightly more does not sound like the 70% increase which I believe is what Boris said. How much is slightly, I dont know, its almost like they dont want us to know. But then we would be mad conspiracy theorists.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/a-mutation-may-have-made-covid-19-more-contagious?c=970164808003#Increased-infectivity

[ECCOnoob 1,021]

2 hours ago, Mister M said:

With regards to the news reports yesterday of stations like Kings Cross Rail Station, filled with people living in Tier 4, rammed with people wanting to travel all over the country, why are they selling tickets to facilitate the spread of the virus?

My understanding is that it's against the law to travel outside these areas unless it's for work or school. Of course people will lie, but people with suitcases....

Could British Transport Police be deployed to these stations to enforce the law, and help stop the spread of the virus?

Are you expecting the ticket sellers to interrogate every purchaser to find out where, why and how they are going somewhere? Are we expecting the BTP officers to track them and follow them put them under surveillance for the rest of the week to evidence that they were not travelling for legitimate purposes? 

 

Let alone the change of rules on christmas not officially starting until midnight yesterday the courts would be inundated with people trying to overturn their punishments. It would be a lawyers dream.

 

It's not that simple. 

 

Edited December 20, 2020 by ECCOnoob

[Mister M 1,609]

18 minutes ago, ECCOnoob said:

Are you expecting the ticket sellers to interrogate every purchaser to find out where, why and how they are going somewhere? Are we expecting the BTP officers to track them and follow them put them under surveillance for the rest of the week to evidence that they were not travelling for legitimate purposes? 

 

Let alone the change of rules on christmas not officially starting until midnight yesterday the courts would be inundated with people trying to overturn their punishments. It would be a lawyers dream.

 

It's not that simple. 

 

Just been announced on LBC that British Transport Police will be deployed at train stations in Tier 4 areas to provide back up to ticket staff and challenge members of the public travelling from those stations.

 

Tier 4: Extra police in London to crack down on non-essential travel - LBC

 

Very sensible.

Edited December 20, 2020 by Mister M

[Organgrinder 1,946]

Although I am disappointed with the performance of Boris and Hancock throughout this virus pandemic and think that their reactions have been too slow and marred by U-turns, the fact is that the spread of this virus

is caused purely and simply by the action of ordinary citizens who, by their impatience, thoughtlessness and sheer stupidity,  are responsible for the large scale spread of Civid-19.

I walk for 90 minutes every day for health reasons and have worn a face mask every time I have left the house  and make sure that I am distancing from others.

I very rarely see anyone else wearing a mask except just before entering shops and I see lots of people every day day standing close to each other whilst chatting, including mothers at school gates, dog walkers, neighbours etc.

I consider it worth going to this trouble for the sake of members of my family and also the NHS and the well being of the general population.

Do others not care about their own loved ones or the poor NHS workers, or is it just down to stupidity?

The scenes at the London stations are disgraceful and much more needs to be done to enforce the rules.

 

[Westie1889 0]

The whole thing about people at train stations is a bit irrelevant now in terms of containing the new variant. 
Lots of people will have travelled home

last week for Christmas from London, certainly most in the business I work for did.

As soon as the restaurants closed they saw no point in staying so all headed back to their parents on Thursday or Friday.

 

Unfortunately the only thing that will help to contain this is another lockdown after Christmas where anyone who travelled has to stay in their Xmas bubble until the risk of infection has passed.

 

They said all along that Winter would be very tough, well I guess we know what that looks like now.
 

[Mister M 1,609]

1 minute ago, Westie1889 said:

The whole thing about people at train stations is a bit irrelevant now in terms of containing the new variant. 
Lots of people will have travelled home

last week for Christmas from London, certainly most in the business I work for did.

As soon as the restaurants closed they saw no point in staying so all headed back to their parents on Thursday or Friday.

 

Unfortunately the only thing that will help to contain this is another lockdown after Christmas where anyone who travelled has to stay in their Xmas bubble until the risk of infection has passed.

 

They said all along that Winter would be very tough, well I guess we know what that looks like now.
 

I agree with you.

I think those who have already travelled out of tier 4 areas, who don't have a legitimate reason for doing so (e.g. caring responsibilities), are not thinking of the potential that their actions may help spread the virus.

However getting people to stay in their Xmas bubbles won't be easy. As I said earlier, British Transport Police need to really strict about this.

I also think that the Government should really look at not allowing people to travel into the country from other parts of the world (except in exceptional circumstances).

I don't want to see the death rate rise any higher.

[tinfoilhat 11]

5 minutes ago, Westie1889 said:

The whole thing about people at train stations is a bit irrelevant now in terms of containing the new variant. 
Lots of people will have travelled home

last week for Christmas from London, certainly most in the business I work for did.

As soon as the restaurants closed they saw no point in staying so all headed back to their parents on Thursday or Friday.

 

Unfortunately the only thing that will help to contain this is another lockdown after Christmas where anyone who travelled has to stay in their Xmas bubble until the risk of infection has passed.

 

They said all along that Winter would be very tough, well I guess we know what that looks like now.
 

Yep,totally agree with that.  And you have to think about the tiny broom cupboards an awful lot of Londoners live in. No restaurants open now, off they pop like they do every year.

 

I normally do a job or two in London this time of year and was always struck on how quiet it was compared to the rest of the year. 

[Westie1889 0]

Personally I’ve written off any kind of normality in terms of being in tier one or tier two until Easter now. Until the weather changes it will be too risky for the govt to open things up now the new variant has increased the risk.

 

27 minutes ago, tinfoilhat said:

Yep,totally agree with that.  And you have to think about the tiny broom cupboards an awful lot of Londoners live in. No restaurants open now, off they pop like they do every year.

 

I normally do a job or two in London this time of year and was always struck on how quiet it was compared to the rest of the year. 

I was down a couple of weeks ago the night the lockdown ended and is was dead everywhere.

Oxford Street and Regent street were all empty the next day which surprised me as the shops had just re-opened.

Restaurants were quiet but most were heavily advertising that you could mix households if it was a business meeting, a bit naughty as people in them didn’t look like they were discussing business! but I’m guessing that’s the only way the restaurants feel they can survive as there were no tourists understandably and most of the offices are closed.

[melthebell 862]

so weve got people "fleeing" london

 

London Shopping Streets deserted

 

 

Protestors arrested in London (and alledgedly a knife was found? interesting to hear more on that)

 

 

The apocalypse is here folks

Edited December 20, 2020 by melthebell

[ECCOnoob 1,021]

1 hour ago, Westie1889 said:

The whole thing about people at train stations is a bit irrelevant now in terms of containing the new variant. 
Lots of people will have travelled home

last week for Christmas from London, certainly most in the business I work for did.

As soon as the restaurants closed they saw no point in staying so all headed back to their parents on Thursday or Friday.

 

Unfortunately the only thing that will help to contain this is another lockdown after Christmas where anyone who travelled has to stay in their Xmas bubble until the risk of infection has passed.

 

They said all along that Winter would be very tough, well I guess we know what that looks like now.
 

Yeah that would be great. However in reality its completely unfeasible.

 

You cannot simply "stop" people from travelling.

 

People have jobs to return to, they have commitments, they have split families and  responsibility to care for, they have 1001 potential arguments of legitimate purposes why they need to get somewhere and anyone putting up a barrier to that is going to be met with robust challenge, controversy and even legal action -which is only going to tie up the already stretch public services even more.

 

It is an extremely difficult balancing exercise.  Whilst of course I agree that has to be some form of control there are also extremely limited resources to manage it all and an extremely limited amount of public acceptance of any such control methods.

 

It is quite clear, fueled by the pot stirring media, that there is obvious warring conflict.....with 50% of the population blaming the government for overreacting, crippling the economy and unreasonably disrupting their lives for some "piddling little flu" ......against 50% of the population  blaming the government for not acting quick enough, decisive enough nor hard line enough by failing to lock people down in their homes 24/7 until all risks are totally eliminated.

 

They can't do right for doing wrong and people will always make their own decisions on whether they are going to tow the line.

 

Back in wartime, there was no shortage of stories and tales of those who rebelled against the system and took a stand against the rules. Bear in mind that was a period when actually must governments had the respect of their public and ultimate superiority.  

 

In modern times 2020 when governments or any public bodies are lothed, distrusted, ignored and constantly challenged by their public more than ever - trying to get the people to fall in line is going to be even more of a challenge no matter how legitimate the reasons.

Edited December 20, 2020 by ECCOnoob