Are you worried yet.

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Wattie

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So basically head of ongoing testing propaganda.

“You will primarily be responsible for delivering a communications strategy to support the expansion of asymptomatic testing, that normalises testing as part of everyday life”

Presumably this applies to everyone as the vaccine doesn't stop you getting covid...it just minimises the effects and i dont think its been conclusively proved that it doesn't stop you passing it on either......so you could be asymptomatic!
 
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midlifecrisis

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Some of you go to some dodgy pubs by the sound of it. You must choose wiser next time, get out of the weatherspoons gutter, you'll end up voting for Brexit and reading the sun.
Like Sam's, mine was very civil. Call up , book a table and you're in. No trouble whatsoever. No need for security
 

MarkMas

Chief pedant
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So basically head of ongoing testing propaganda.

“You will primarily be responsible for delivering a communications strategy to support the expansion of asymptomatic testing, that normalises testing as part of everyday life”

Presumably this applies to everyone as the vaccine doesn't stop you getting covid...it just minimises the effects and i dont think its been conclusively proved that it doesn't stop you passing it on either......so you could be asymptomatic!

YES, the highlighted part of your post is literally true, as when you get a viral infection, then (of course) you have the disease until your immune system cures you or you die. And if you have a vaccine, which prepares you for that infection, then it is still literally true that since you have been infected with a disease, then you have 'got' the disease. While your prepared immune system gets to work 'minimising the effects'.

BUT in any practically meaningful sense, the highlighted part of your post is absurd twisted propaganda, as it leaves the reader with the impression that the vaccine just ameliorates your symptoms a bit, when actually it prepares the immune system sufficiently (in over 90% of cases) to mean that the infection goes from being anything from a mild 1-week cold to a catastrophic and lethal illness to being just a very brief and mildly tiresome infection that is rapidly defeated by your body.

AND of course it hasn't been "conclusively proved that it doesn't stop you passing it on" because if your body is full of viruses (even if they are being rapidly killed off by your vaccine-prepared immune system), then (of course) you could spread these viruses to other people at that point.

AND, the way that vaccines (or good levels of herd immunity) stop pandemics is not by stopping 'you getting covid' (or smallpox or polio) and by 'conclusively proving' that the vaccine stops you passing on' covid (or small pox or polio) but by massively reducing the severity and duration of most infections, so that they stop being passed around the population. Ideally to the point where the virus is eradicated as there are low levels of transmissions and few susceptible hosts.

AND, while you are doing this, you also save the lives of most of the people who might have died or been impaired by severe infections by covid (or polio or smallpox) as a very useful by-product of slowing the general infection levels and protecting the whole population.

Please just stop with this nonsense.
 

Phil H

Member
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So basically head of ongoing testing propaganda.
“You will primarily be responsible for delivering a communications strategy to support the expansion of asymptomatic testing, that normalises testing as part of everyday life”
Exactly that Wattie, and I'm getting seriously p*ssed off with all the talk of Covid passports and further loss of liberties, especially when we were repeatedly told that normal life was on hold until we had vaccines to combat Covid-19.
 

MarkMas

Chief pedant
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Exactly that Wattie, and I'm getting seriously p*ssed off with all the talk of Covid passports and further loss of liberties, especially when we were repeatedly told that normal life was on hold until we had vaccines to combat Covid-19.

Just because you are upset about 'loss of liberties', or were promised 'normal life' would return soon, doesn't mean that the pandemic is over.

There is a great cartoon somewhere (can't find it right now) with someone in a besieged city saying "Open the gates! I'm tired of being cooped up in the city! I want to go outside!" and the guards saying "You know the Visigoths are still out there right?" and the first person saying "Nonsense! I haven't see a Visigoth for ages, and literally nobody I know has been killed by one for months. Open the gates! I have my rights!"
 

Wattie

Member
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8,640
YES, the highlighted part of your post is literally true, as when you get a viral infection, then (of course) you have the disease until your immune system cures you or you die. And if you have a vaccine, which prepares you for that infection, then it is still literally true that since you have been infected with a disease, then you have 'got' the disease. While your prepared immune system gets to work 'minimising the effects'.

BUT in any practically meaningful sense, the highlighted part of your post is absurd twisted propaganda, as it leaves the reader with the impression that the vaccine just ameliorates your symptoms a bit, when actually it prepares the immune system sufficiently (in over 90% of cases) to mean that the infection goes from being anything from a mild 1-week cold to a catastrophic and lethal illness to being just a very brief and mildly tiresome infection that is rapidly defeated by your body.

AND of course it hasn't been "conclusively proved that it doesn't stop you passing it on" because if your body is full of viruses (even if they are being rapidly killed off by your vaccine-prepared immune system), then (of course) you could spread these viruses to other people at that point.

AND, the way that vaccines (or good levels of herd immunity) stop pandemics is not by stopping 'you getting covid' (or smallpox or polio) and by 'conclusively proving' that the vaccine stops you passing on' covid (or small pox or polio) but by massively reducing the severity and duration of most infections, so that they stop being passed around the population. Ideally to the point where the virus is eradicated as there are low levels of transmissions and few susceptible hosts.

AND, while you are doing this, you also save the lives of most of the people who might have died or been impaired by severe infections by covid (or polio or smallpox) as a very useful by-product of slowing the general infection levels and protecting the whole population.

Please just stop with this nonsense.
So you’re happy with ongoing testing then, even if you’ve been fully vaccinated.....presumably at risk of lockdown if you test +ve?
 

MarkMas

Chief pedant
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8,795
So you’re happy with ongoing testing then, even if you’ve been fully vaccinated.....presumably at risk of lockdown if you test +ve?

Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer:

I don't think it is really about whether I am 'happy' or not. I don't expect the government to make me happy, I expect them to take reasonable steps to keep the population reasonably safe, even if that makes me a bit unhappy. I'm not really happy that there are speed limits, but I accept them because it probably improves general safety. I'm not really happy that the earth is an oblate spheroid, as that is an uncomfortable notion, and I would be happier to think of it as a flat plane; but its not.

My understanding, from what reputable public health officials are saying, is that while whole-population vaccination rates are below somewhere around the 60-80% zone (and while quite a few people are travelling between the UK and other nations with different infection rates and variants), then ongoing testing is an important part of continuing to contain the spread of covid.

I think 'vaccination passports' are probably sensible (and have been for years) for people traveling between countries (despite their weak security); But I'm feeling that 'vaccination passports' are probably a bit much (and a bit impractical) for pubs, especially as the vaccination roll-out is going so well and so fast. I'm prepared to have lunch with people who have been vaccinated or recently tested; I'm a little reluctant to do so with pre-vaxers, anti-vaxers, anti-testers, and flat-earthers.

Happy, no. Willing to be mildly inconvenienced to maintain public health, yes.
 

Wattie

Member
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8,640
Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer:

I don't think it is really about whether I am 'happy' or not. I don't expect the government to make me happy, I expect them to take reasonable steps to keep the population reasonably safe, even if that makes me a bit unhappy. I'm not really happy that there are speed limits, but I accept them because it probably improves general safety. I'm not really happy that the earth is an oblate spheroid, as that is an uncomfortable notion, and I would be happier to think of it as a flat plane; but its not.

My understanding, from what reputable public health officials are saying, is that while whole-population vaccination rates are below somewhere around the 60-80% zone (and while quite a few people are travelling between the UK and other nations with different infection rates and variants), then ongoing testing is an important part of continuing to contain the spread of covid.

I think 'vaccination passports' are probably sensible (and have been for years) for people traveling between countries (despite their weak security); But I'm feeling that 'vaccination passports' are probably a bit much (and a bit impractical) for pubs, especially as the vaccination roll-out is going so well and so fast. I'm prepared to have lunch with people who have been vaccinated or recently tested; I'm a little reluctant to do so with pre-vaxers, anti-vaxers, anti-testers, and flat-earthers.

Happy, no. Willing to be mildly inconvenienced to maintain public health, yes.
Fair enough.

I think the vast majority of the population will have a “massive sense of humour failure” if they are told to lockdown having been vaccinated. Especially if they don’t feel Ill.
Vaccine success.....but asymptomatic so stay home.

It’ll be a wtf moment as they suddenly realize that their liberty is being sacrificed.
 

MarkMas

Chief pedant
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8,795
You may be right about that reaction. But having to experience a 'massive sense of humour failure' or 'stay at home for a few days' seems like an utterly pathetic 'sacrifice' to be asked to make, and I'm tired of people bleating about it.


(edited to improve link)
 

Phil H

Member
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4,107
Open letter to Wattie:

Dear Wattie

Please forgive the intrusion, but a Moderator rightly suggests that I should clarify your status.

Are you real?
Do you have boundaries?
If you do, can they be made public?
If you have no boundaries, why not?
Is it true that the forum Mods had you transported to the colonies?

I think that should suffice, but do feel free to contribute further if you think it would benefit the community.

Yours in anticipation

Confused - over many things.
 

Felonious Crud

Administrator
Staff member
Messages
21,013
Open letter to Wattie:

Dear Wattie

Please forgive the intrusion, but a Moderator rightly suggests that I should clarify your status.

Are you real?
Do you have boundaries?
If you do, can they be made public?
If you have no boundaries, why not?
Is it true that the forum Mods had you transported to the colonies?

I think that should suffice, but do feel free to contribute further if you think it would benefit the community.

Yours in anticipation

Confused - over many things.

We should check if there's a safe word. Maybe we have forgotten to use it at the point where the pain and anguish become too much.

Biscuits!
 
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