IOM Covid removing restrictions

[Roger Mexico]

3 hours ago, WTF said:

so the south african variant has sprung up for no apparent reason without foreign travel,   will it occur to anyone that viruses can mutate on any continent and what is putting the willies up the powers that be in the Uk probably mutated in the UK to be similar or identical to was first identified in SA ?

I'm not sure what some of this means, but the South African variant was first detected in Eastern Cape on 18 December and was already in the UK 5 days later.  So there has certainly been foreign travel and it has already spread around the World.  For example that New Zealand case, infected in managed isolation, was of this variant.

There are two reason why the UK is making a fuss about this.  The first is that gives them a chance to implicitly blame Filthy Foreigners for things that go wrong - ignoring the actions and inactions of those actually running the country.  This isn't new, because it's pretty much the only way the journalist-dominated Conservatives now know how to do things.

The second and more immediate reason is that the latest trials for the Novavax vaccine were carried out in both the UK and South Africa and were less successful in the latter. So there's a fear that the new variant will also cause problems for other vaccines.  

[Andy Onchan]

Just listened to this: https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/surgery-given-green-light-following-lockdown-lift/

Quote

The hospital is still seeing the pressure of winter admissions.

What are these winter admissions? Can't be things like flu (resulting in pneumonia) shirley? 

What's The MBE talking about? Specifically? Wrighty??

[Barlow]

22 hours ago, horatiotheturd said:

Yep.  Totally cringey knowing its bei g broadcast round the UK.

Having said that I have seen several thousand comments from people wanting to move here or visit (probably in jest) this could be really positive coverage if handled properly.

We basically said that we are ok because we didn't break rules and the UK are rule breakers who deserve what they get ffs

The UK are rule breakers. That has to mean they deserve it? They certainly brought much of their CV problems on themselves.

If 85,000 people on an Island can keep it together then so can 850,000 people on a big Island, or in the case of somewhere say like the UK 85,000,000 people on a bigger Island.

[Andy Onchan]

12 minutes ago, Roxanne said:

It certainly highlighted how much better HQ is talking when he's not reading from a story written by someone else.

Mmm... not so sure about that. 

[horatiotheturd]

Despite what people here think about anyone who disagrees with a decision just being anti government,  I would like to say that having now seen HQ's appearance on TV this morning I think he handled it far better than SKY news yesterday.

Possibly having been spoken to and receiving a bit of constructive criticism.

There has been loads of positive lress coverage through Europe and beyond.

Handle.the next few weeks we'll and this could be a real bonus for the island.

Still need level 3 ASAP though.

[Andy Onchan]

Just now, Roxanne said:

He did alright. You can't deny he was better ad libbing than reading from papers shirley?

I would treat with caution any utterances that he spouts, written down or otherwise. Sorry Shirley.

[Happier diner]

19 minutes ago, Barlow said:

The UK are rule breakers. That has to mean they deserve it? They certainly brought much of their CV problems on themselves.

If 85,000 people on an Island can keep it together then so can 850,000 people on a big Island, or in the case of somewhere say like the UK 85,000,000 people on a bigger Island.

Its clearly harder to do on a big Island. But if they applied to same principles and stuck to the rules the mess would be considerably smaller than it is.

I know lots of people who ignore the rules. Not in a major way but sneaky things like going round to friends/relatives. The cumulation of millions of people cheating a bit = Mass Infection rates. The stupid buggers don't even realise they are dragging the lockdown period on themselves

[Cambon]

9 minutes ago, Roxanne said:

That's extremely unfair on the people of the UK. They've been led by donkeys who, despite saying they did all they could omitted the many things they could have done but didn't. It's no wonder the government there have lost the trust of the public.

I have to agree. The main reason they didn't lock down the borders is because they could not until the eu exit agreement period had ended at the end of 2020. As soon as that was done things started to change and uk gov started to implement flight bans, talk of Covid hotels, etc. 

In my opinion, they are too late. They should just crack on with the vaccination program. 

[Albert Tatlock]

23 minutes ago, Happier diner said:

Its clearly harder to do on a big Island. But if they applied to same principles and stuck to the rules the mess would be considerably smaller than it is.

I know lots of people who ignore the rules. Not in a major way but sneaky things like going round to friends/relatives. The cumulation of millions of people cheating a bit = Mass Infection rates. The stupid buggers don't even realise they are dragging the lockdown period on themselves

Pro-rata...if the UK had jailed the same amount of people we had...you're talking about them jailing upwards of 25,000 people...nearly a third of the current overcrowded UK prison system.

[TerryFuchwit]

40 minutes ago, Happier diner said:

Its clearly harder to do on a big Island. But if they applied to same principles and stuck to the rules the mess would be considerably smaller than it is.

I know lots of people who ignore the rules. Not in a major way but sneaky things like going round to friends/relatives. The cumulation of millions of people cheating a bit = Mass Infection rates. The stupid buggers don't even realise they are dragging the lockdown period on themselves

It's hard to compare the UK and the Isle of Man.

The UK have of course done a number of things wrong.  The lack of control over flights into the UK at the outset was a major mistake.

But at the same time there are a number of reasons why it's been more successful in the Isle of Man.  One of the big advantages over the UK here is the relatively high standard of living created by the sort of jobs that can be done from home.  So the lock downs here have cost very few people their livelihoods.  And those who need support generally got it.  The UK is full of disenfranchised people who are skint, now unemployed and largely care less because they have less to lose.

Clearly our borders being largely closed provides a major control on people movement.  There is no doubt the UK could have done a lot better but it's very much a different animal to the Isle of Man.

[Gladys]

41 minutes ago, Cambon said:

I have to agree. The main reason they didn't lock down the borders is because they could not until the eu exit agreement period had ended at the end of 2020. As soon as that was done things started to change and uk gov started to implement flight bans, talk of Covid hotels, etc. 

In my opinion, they are too late. They should just crack on with the vaccination program. 

Good point on the EU aspect, but how come France closed its borders or am I misremembering? 

[TerryFuchwit]

43 minutes ago, Cambon said:

I have to agree. The main reason they didn't lock down the borders is because they could not until the eu exit agreement period had ended at the end of 2020. As soon as that was done things started to change and uk gov started to implement flight bans, talk of Covid hotels, etc. 

In my opinion, they are too late. They should just crack on with the vaccination program. 

It had nothing to do with eu exit agreements.

They could easily have quelled the demand for travel by simply imposing draconian requirements on entry.  Demand would die overnight.

They based their decisions based on economics.

[Gladys]

28 minutes ago, Roxanne said:

They didn't close the borders, they didn't lockdown quickly enough (twice), they opened schools and threatened legal action for those who did not send their children in only to close schools the next day, they paid billions to their mates to build a track and trace that has never worked, they had no isolate system, there was no help for those who could not work, no support for those isolating, they did not follow the timeframe for vaccinations, they refused to listen to the scientists, they didn't attend Cobra meetings, they didn't support businesses, and they ignored the Cygnus report.

That's just off the top of my head.

Anything else?

Encouraging people to eat out and socialise when it was not really under control, not publicly criticising or sacking public figures who broke the rules, etc. etc.

[Andy Onchan]

8 minutes ago, TerryFuchwit said:

It's hard to compare the UK and the Isle of Man.

The UK have of course done a number of things wrong.  The lack of control over flights into the UK at the outset was a major mistake.

But at the same time there are a number of reasons why it's been more successful in the Isle of Man.  One of the big advantages over the UK here is the relatively high standard of living created by the sort of jobs that can be done from home.  So the lock downs here have cost very few people their livelihoods.  And those who need support generally got it.  The UK is full of disenfranchised people who are skint, now unemployed and largely care less because they have less to lose.

Clearly our borders being largely closed provides a major control on people movement.  There is no doubt the UK could have done a lot better but it's very much a different animal to the Isle of Man.

Please don't think for one minute that there aren't some in IOM that have been and continue to be economically disenfranchised.

[John Wright]

47 minutes ago, Cambon said:

I have to agree. The main reason they didn't lock down the borders is because they could not until the eu exit agreement period had ended at the end of 2020. As soon as that was done things started to change and uk gov started to implement flight bans, talk of Covid hotels, etc. 

In my opinion, they are too late. They should just crack on with the vaccination program. 

That’s just not true. During 2020 every EU country has had its own entry prohibitions, quarantine or entry testing requirements against third countries AND against Schengen and Schengen associate states.

It was the lobbying pressure of Tory donor chums in airports and airlines that led to UK not closing borders, imposing quarantine, entry restrictions, both EU and further afield.