Why aren't everyone there gripped by uncontrollable hysterical laughter at her 'evidence'?
‘Cause it isn’t funny, that’s why
By taking this as 'evidence' the whole thing lends the ideas the credibility of something being taken seriously. Treating it as a stand-up routine would be far preferable, comedy of the absurd.
In other news, another month, another course of Prednisolone, which is likely to affect the booked vaccination next week. It adds to the complications: two steroids, anti-histamines at maximum dose and carrying Epipens so contraindicated for Pfizer, under 40 so contraindicated for AstraZeneca, shot immune system, hence the urticaria and angioedema that the next dose of Prednisolone is trying to get under control. The GP isn't sure the standard vaccination site will touch her with a bargepole, that it's linked to a major hospital may help, or may get her referred to the hospital's more complicated vaccinations site. Or they may wait until her appointment at the same hospital for immune system/allergies next month. In the meantime, we're still shielding.
The GP was right. New appointment for the vaccine is to be the rebooked later the same day as the new allergy consultant's appointment. But the system couldn't book that far in advance, so she has a date she has to move nearer the time (that almost certainly means me). Should anyone be interested Moderna is made in a similar way to Pfizer, so is as contraindicated as Pfizer. And although Johnson and Johnson is licensed it doesn't become available until September.
And the Guides keep agitating that "we're opening up, why can't we start meeting in person?" Because it's complicated that's why. The other leader <snip> [is] up to starting face to face from 30 June.
Which is all very well, but both the other assistant leaders are on holiday that week! That leaves us with a problem anyway as we'd want three leaders available, and we're currently down to one. I suspect we're back online that session.
Our Place has a large (officially affiliated) Scouts/Cubs etc. group, with whom relations have at times been...er...frosty - albeit not in recent years, though! We don't have regular *Parade Services*, but they do come to church in reasonable numbers 3 or 4 times a year - or did, before Ye Plague struck.
I wonder if they're meeting IRL again yet? They are, as I guess applies to many groups, perennially short of leaders at the best of times.
I've been doing everything pretty much via video calls on computer. A large screen of 36" for meetings. As I have started talking to people in person, with everyone wearing masks, I realize that I can't actually understand people if I'm not seeing their faces. I've been reading lips more than I know. Unfortunately my sort of hearing loss is not helped by hearing aides- I've had so many different tests, consultations, trials of amplification.
The Rainbows and Brownies who use our hall aren't back yet. The leader of the group is a care nurse, and has had the John Prescott (Two Jags). But, still doing what she can to protect the people she cares for, and so isn't going to spend time with lots of girls until incidence rates have fallen to a much lower level. Which seems a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
Have you tried to stick a key to an actual magnet? It doesn't work.
Thanks for that reminder. Keys are mainly brass, and cutlery is mostly stainless-steel. Some recipes of the latter are magnetic, but generally, it is not. Brass never is.
Have you tried to stick a key to an actual magnet? It doesn't work.
Thanks for that reminder. Keys are mainly brass, and cutlery is mostly stainless-steel. Some recipes of the latter are magnetic, but generally, it is not. Brass never is.
Key rings, on the other hand, are often magnetic steel.
Today my husband has gone to stay with his daughter for a few days. He used to go down once a month but he hasn’t seen her since February last year.
So I am alone in the house, a weird feeling after so long. What used to be “normal” now feels odd. Actually I am taking a short break myself tomorrow, returning a day before him, so the time will pass quickly.
Getting out and about more is good.
The Rainbows and Brownies who use our hall aren't back yet. The leader of the group is a care nurse, and has had the John Prescott (Two Jags). But, still doing what she can to protect the people she cares for, and so isn't going to spend time with lots of girls until incidence rates have fallen to a much lower level. Which seems a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
There are differing approaches around here. I know of groups fully back inside, who have to wear masks to do so, but they started back after Easter outside, and have gone inside as soon as they could. Other groups are meeting outside, and a few groups like us that are trying to start meeting outside again. We have been meeting on Zoom since April 2020, so have kept going and done a lot, but we're running out of options that work online. As to how concerned they are about being Covid secure, some of the Guide leaders are just shrugging and not bothered, others are taking it cautiously. Others have lost their halls or the halls are no longer safe to use, so the Guiding group is meeting on Zoom or outside, no option otherwise. The younger age groups tried to go back to face-to-face faster than the older groups as Zoom meetings don't work well with 5-7 year olds or even 7-10 year olds.
Our state will fully open next week. If you are not vaccinated they say wear a mask, if vaccinated you need not do so. Mr. Image has cancer and so we do not want him getting so much as a sniffle just now so I will continue to wear a mask. We are living in a very high tourist area I am not yet comfortable in public without a mask, as the vaccination does not mean 100% protection. We just had someone die in the county last week who was fully vaccinated.
Tomorrow is my last day of working from home. Since August I have been working half the days from home, half in the library. Next week we start being entirely in the library. I for one am looking forward to it.
Tomorrow is my last day of working from home. Since August I have been working half the days from home, half in the library. Next week we start being entirely in the library. I for one am looking forward to it.
Funny how people are different. I'm loving the way that the pandemic has blown a massive hole in the "you must be here to do your job" arguments management meant to use. I'm expecting to be in once or twice a week in the future, rest of the time at home, which suits me.
There's also been a relaxation of "normal working hours". I'm not a morning person, and do my best work after mid-morning coffee, so unless there's a very good reason to do otherwise (eg: there are visitors in at 9am) I'd prefer to roll in at 10.30-11 and work through until after 6pm. I've spent 20y with management complaining that I'm not working normal hours (even with a contract that is explicit "no fixed hours" and "hours necessary to do the work"). I've a colleague who drives in and found that if she aimed for arriving at 9am she'd have to leave home at 7.30, but if she aimed for 8am she could leave at 7am (and, conversely, leave work at 3.30 is a half hour drive home but wait 'til 5pm and it takes forever) so has always started early (she has horses so is usually up by 5am anyway), and I'm sure my boss waited until a few minutes before she'd leave to talk to her about something (or, a few minutes after she left to complain she wasn't there).
Now, when we started to return to the building we formally introduced staggered working limiting the time when both of us are in the office at the same time. Which suits both of us just fine, and we're not getting the complaints about not being there when management want to just come into the office or lab to chat (of course, management aren't supposed to be doing that now anyway - if at possible they should be line managing using scheduled Zoom meetings rather than in person).
I have received a questionnaire from my local community choir, asking our views about any future restrictions, masks, social distancing, refreshments etc, ready for when we restart rehearsals in August, if all goes to plan.
I am finding it so hard to answer. I cannot envisage a situation of no restrictions, but if that is the norm by then, why not.
I have received a questionnaire from my local community choir, asking our views about any future restrictions, masks, social distancing, refreshments etc, ready for when we restart rehearsals in August, if all goes to plan.
I am finding it so hard to answer. I cannot envisage a situation of no restrictions, but if that is the norm by then, why not.
Hmm. Your last sentence seems like a very sensible answer to the questionnaire, if I may say so.
It's very hard to see how things can get back to anything near *normal* by August, given the current rise in infections. OTOH, the vaccination programme proceeds apace (well done NHS!), so there is hope...
I am inclined to think that, if all restrictions have been lifted, we should not need to impose any, given that all members will surely have been vaccinated. But I can’t bring myself to say so on the questionnaire.
I rather think that anyone who does not feel it is going to be safe to go to an indoor venue will not be confident enough to return to rehearsals. Or does the choir have a responsibility to provide safer conditions than the government prescribes, to cater for the most fearful?
Or the church, for that matter?
I am inclined to think that, if all restrictions have been lifted, we should not need to impose any, given that all members will surely have been vaccinated. But I can’t bring myself to say so on the questionnaire.
I rather think that anyone who does not feel it is going to be safe to go to an indoor venue will not be confident enough to return to rehearsals. Or does the choir have a responsibility to provide safer conditions than the government prescribes, to cater for the most fearful?
Or the church, for that matter?
I wouldn't say it's a matter of fear, it's a matter of a careless and inept government. The government have allowed two large waves of covid infections, each causing 10s of thousands of deaths. Vaccinations reduce the chances of infection, serious illness and death but don't eliminate them, particularly not in relation to the now dominant delta variant.
But not everyone can be vaccinated - my daughter is waiting for a consultant appointment to approve a vaccine because she's contraindicated for AstraZenica (and Johnson & Johnson when it's available) because of the blood clotting effect at her age, and she's contraindicated for Pfizer (and Moderna) as she carries Epipens for her chronic idiopathic angioedema and allergies. I've grouped the vaccines as the manufacturing methods are so similar the same effects are known in the two groups.
You cannot assume that everyone can be vaccinated. It's one of the known problems with the vaccine roll out. There are too many people with contraindications who won't get covered, which means that together with vaccine hesitancy, the emergence of new variants and the lack of vaccines for children reduce the coverage so herd immunity becomes impossible. So we will have to continue taking precautions for the foreseeable future.
And, even if fully vaccinated there isn't 100% protection. So, we need to continue to take some precautions until the virus has been eliminated (or, at least all variants that result in severe illness). At least people who can't be vaccinated know they're not protected and can take other precautions - even though those precautions are of limited efficacy if the general population doesn't take precautions to protect the vulnerable. No one can predict who of those fully vaccinated will succumb to the disease, so we'll either have to accept that risk or continue with precautions among the general population (wearing masks in public, physical distancing as much as possible etc).
And those covidiots who think everything is over and are wandering around without masks in the supermarkets and on the tube - about 50:50 masks or not last night - are endangering those who cannot get vaccinated for whatever reason. Especially in an area where cases are on the up significantly.
So more shielding here we come. Bored now, very, very bored now.
Masks are still very much the norm on public transport here: on my morning commute there's one wee woman who used to wear a mask over her mouth but not her nose, who now appears to have abandoned it altogether. I wonder if she's had both her jags and thinks she doesn't need a mask any more?
Fortunately she's only on the bus for half a dozen stops ...
Once again, there's a line of the usual suspects queuing up to talk about masks as being a "personal choice" and "if you're worried, you can wear a mask".
Both of these statements are technically true, but they ignore the fact that if someone in the room has Covid, then the most effective place, by quite a long way, for a cloth mask to be is on the face of the infected person.
Sure, the risk from a maskless vaccinated person is comparatively low. But while Covid still circulates freely in the community, why would I choose to impose that (small) risk on someone by not wearing a mask, and why would I make them worry about "has that maskless guy been vaccinated"?
Did my first in-person church visit today in over a year. It was held outside. We were spaced apart and told we need not wear our masks if we were in social distance, but to put them on to come forward for communion and then back at our seat, we could again remove them to consume the bread. We were also asked to wear them to sing. I seemed to be the only person wearing mine the whole time, but I have a problem with my hearing aids when taking masks on and off and must also remove my glasses to do so it just seemed a whole lot easier to stay masked. That said it was nice to again gather in community.
As aged parent is moving up to a care home nearer me- I need to sort tests / certificates / ppe/ all things COVID related that I know not about .
I foresee a sharp learning curve coming up!
We had our second face to face meeting with Guides last night, but we are just meeting outdoors this term. I don't think that the church hall are in a hurry to have us back, and the cleaning requirements before and after would take a lot of time.
For quite a few of the older Guides this was their first meeting as they had to miss last week due to school related isolation.
Dragonlet 3 hates being held by new people as she isn't used to it. This will make starting nursery really fun. I took her to her first baby group yesterday, which is designed as a more structured class, but the carefully distanced chairs, individual bag with shaker and scarf, and need to keep the children apart, means that the interactions in that felt a bit stilted.
I must admit that I am hoping to benefit from blended working in my new role, as the commute is far enough to be too much of a pain more than a couple of days a week.
Dragonlet 3 hates being held by new people as she isn't used to it. This will make starting nursery really fun. I took her to her first baby group yesterday, which is designed as a more structured class, but the carefully distanced chairs, individual bag with shaker and scarf, and need to keep the children apart, means that the interactions in that felt a bit stilted.
My neighbours' baby is 3 and a half months or so. They're taking a fairly hands on approach to getting her used to other people, and I have been left holding the baby on a number of occasions...
When our granddaughter starts kindergarten in September her Papa is expected to stay with her full time for two weeks! Then he is to leave her there a few minutes, slowly building up to all day.
When our granddaughter starts kindergarten in September her Papa is expected to stay with her full time for two weeks! Then he is to leave her there a few minutes, slowly building up to all day.
That sounds marvellous! Daughter Erin has been told horror stories by the parents in her NCT class of having to leave their child on a mat at nursery and just walking out as no other interaction is allowed currently.
I’m so grateful that I’m in a position to look after my new grandson. As it is he misses her dreadfully.
When our granddaughter starts kindergarten in September her Papa is expected to stay with her full time for two weeks! Then he is to leave her there a few minutes, slowly building up to all day.
They are doing this with all the kiddos? Is there room for all the kids and adults and for social distancing? Sounds ambitious!
My place of employment has just started a vaccine incentive program. For being fully vaccinated before today's date, and submitting proof, I get two extra paid days off this year. Nice.
If I was unvaccinated, and chose to get vaccinated because of the incentive program, there's a list of stuff to pick from. So since I don't get to choose my incentive, I'm actually loosing out by having been vaccinated early, but... oh well. Two days off is nice.
When our granddaughter starts kindergarten in September her Papa is expected to stay with her full time for two weeks! Then he is to leave her there a few minutes, slowly building up to all day.
Good grief! TIG#2 is just handed over on the doorstep of the nursery, and so is his LRWC (though her parents can see her through the window). Neither of them have had a moment's trouble though - in fact the LRWC had her days at nursery increased because she loves it so much!
Finely did it with various psychological interventions and diazepam.
Painless my arse. Some people must just lack nerve endings.
Mine was a barely noticeable sting. My suspicion is that if you're tense it's likely to hurt more.
Given @KarlLB has previously indicated he has a needle phobia, and that's it not been about not wanting the vaccine, but psychologically not being able to cope with an injection, that's not very helpful... Of course he was bloody tense, that's why it required psychological interventions & diazepam.
Good on you @KarlLB, and well done for getting this far.
Finely did it with various psychological interventions and diazepam.
Painless my arse. Some people must just lack nerve endings.
Well done! You are a brave man.
I understand exactly. A few weeks ago I had a dental experience that went much the same way. Karl surely is brave. I don't think I have the courage for this stuff any more. I can deal with cancer surgery, and in fact, back then, the surgeon asked me how I was managing the pain, and I told her that my dentist had set the gold standard and she wasn't anywhere close. Yes - once in a while, diazepam is good stuff. It will be a long time before I am back in the dentist's chair without a sedative.
It’s time for my 19 year old son, the Giraffe, to register for his jags. There is a website for Scottish people of that age and in their 20s to do this, since it is understood that this is an age which may not be local to where they are registered wit a doctor (students etc). So, no problem, except that he has to have his NHS number. We have that. But the number we have is only 8 digits rather than the expected 10. Also when he keys himself into the “find my NHS number”. It they seem not to know of him. If anyone in Scotland knows of a way to get round this…… his sister has managed the process and had her first one last week.
Comments
I think this something about the credibility of the anti-vax movement if this is the best "expert" they could field.
I'd laugh if it didn't kill people.
‘Cause it isn’t funny, that’s why
Wonder whether she is a medico or whether she has another doctoral degree such as from the like of Bob Jones University
If she is a deadset MD then the local medical registration board should be taking a close look at her fitness to practise
Which is all very well, but both the other assistant leaders are on holiday that week! That leaves us with a problem anyway as we'd want three leaders available, and we're currently down to one. I suspect we're back online that session.
I wonder if they're meeting IRL again yet? They are, as I guess applies to many groups, perennially short of leaders at the best of times.
Thanks for that reminder. Keys are mainly brass, and cutlery is mostly stainless-steel. Some recipes of the latter are magnetic, but generally, it is not. Brass never is.
Key rings, on the other hand, are often magnetic steel.
So I am alone in the house, a weird feeling after so long. What used to be “normal” now feels odd. Actually I am taking a short break myself tomorrow, returning a day before him, so the time will pass quickly.
Getting out and about more is good.
There are differing approaches around here. I know of groups fully back inside, who have to wear masks to do so, but they started back after Easter outside, and have gone inside as soon as they could. Other groups are meeting outside, and a few groups like us that are trying to start meeting outside again. We have been meeting on Zoom since April 2020, so have kept going and done a lot, but we're running out of options that work online. As to how concerned they are about being Covid secure, some of the Guide leaders are just shrugging and not bothered, others are taking it cautiously. Others have lost their halls or the halls are no longer safe to use, so the Guiding group is meeting on Zoom or outside, no option otherwise. The younger age groups tried to go back to face-to-face faster than the older groups as Zoom meetings don't work well with 5-7 year olds or even 7-10 year olds.
Funny how people are different. I'm loving the way that the pandemic has blown a massive hole in the "you must be here to do your job" arguments management meant to use. I'm expecting to be in once or twice a week in the future, rest of the time at home, which suits me.
Now, when we started to return to the building we formally introduced staggered working limiting the time when both of us are in the office at the same time. Which suits both of us just fine, and we're not getting the complaints about not being there when management want to just come into the office or lab to chat (of course, management aren't supposed to be doing that now anyway - if at possible they should be line managing using scheduled Zoom meetings rather than in person).
I have received a questionnaire from my local community choir, asking our views about any future restrictions, masks, social distancing, refreshments etc, ready for when we restart rehearsals in August, if all goes to plan.
I am finding it so hard to answer. I cannot envisage a situation of no restrictions, but if that is the norm by then, why not.
Hmm. Your last sentence seems like a very sensible answer to the questionnaire, if I may say so.
It's very hard to see how things can get back to anything near *normal* by August, given the current rise in infections. OTOH, the vaccination programme proceeds apace (well done NHS!), so there is hope...
I rather think that anyone who does not feel it is going to be safe to go to an indoor venue will not be confident enough to return to rehearsals. Or does the choir have a responsibility to provide safer conditions than the government prescribes, to cater for the most fearful?
Or the church, for that matter?
I wouldn't say it's a matter of fear, it's a matter of a careless and inept government. The government have allowed two large waves of covid infections, each causing 10s of thousands of deaths. Vaccinations reduce the chances of infection, serious illness and death but don't eliminate them, particularly not in relation to the now dominant delta variant.
You cannot assume that everyone can be vaccinated. It's one of the known problems with the vaccine roll out. There are too many people with contraindications who won't get covered, which means that together with vaccine hesitancy, the emergence of new variants and the lack of vaccines for children reduce the coverage so herd immunity becomes impossible. So we will have to continue taking precautions for the foreseeable future.
So more shielding here we come. Bored now, very, very bored now.
Fortunately she's only on the bus for half a dozen stops ...
Both of these statements are technically true, but they ignore the fact that if someone in the room has Covid, then the most effective place, by quite a long way, for a cloth mask to be is on the face of the infected person.
Sure, the risk from a maskless vaccinated person is comparatively low. But while Covid still circulates freely in the community, why would I choose to impose that (small) risk on someone by not wearing a mask, and why would I make them worry about "has that maskless guy been vaccinated"?
I foresee a sharp learning curve coming up!
For quite a few of the older Guides this was their first meeting as they had to miss last week due to school related isolation.
Dragonlet 3 hates being held by new people as she isn't used to it. This will make starting nursery really fun. I took her to her first baby group yesterday, which is designed as a more structured class, but the carefully distanced chairs, individual bag with shaker and scarf, and need to keep the children apart, means that the interactions in that felt a bit stilted.
I must admit that I am hoping to benefit from blended working in my new role, as the commute is far enough to be too much of a pain more than a couple of days a week.
My neighbours' baby is 3 and a half months or so. They're taking a fairly hands on approach to getting her used to other people, and I have been left holding the baby on a number of occasions...
I’m so grateful that I’m in a position to look after my new grandson. As it is he misses her dreadfully.
They are doing this with all the kiddos? Is there room for all the kids and adults and for social distancing? Sounds ambitious!
If I was unvaccinated, and chose to get vaccinated because of the incentive program, there's a list of stuff to pick from. So since I don't get to choose my incentive, I'm actually loosing out by having been vaccinated early, but... oh well. Two days off is nice.
Good grief! TIG#2 is just handed over on the doorstep of the nursery, and so is his LRWC (though her parents can see her through the window). Neither of them have had a moment's trouble though - in fact the LRWC had her days at nursery increased because she loves it so much!
Painless my arse. Some people must just lack nerve endings.
Mine was a barely noticeable sting. My suspicion is that if you're tense it's likely to hurt more.
Given @KarlLB has previously indicated he has a needle phobia, and that's it not been about not wanting the vaccine, but psychologically not being able to cope with an injection, that's not very helpful... Of course he was bloody tense, that's why it required psychological interventions & diazepam.
Good on you @KarlLB, and well done for getting this far.
Well done! You are a brave man.
I understand exactly. A few weeks ago I had a dental experience that went much the same way. Karl surely is brave. I don't think I have the courage for this stuff any more. I can deal with cancer surgery, and in fact, back then, the surgeon asked me how I was managing the pain, and I told her that my dentist had set the gold standard and she wasn't anywhere close. Yes - once in a while, diazepam is good stuff. It will be a long time before I am back in the dentist's chair without a sedative.
Well done @KarlLB .
@Cathscats - if he's registered with a GP (or is trying to) they should be able to find his CHI number if they've got his name and date of birth.