IOM Covid removing restrictions

[horatiotheturd]

The Manninline.  Dear God.

They played clips from Mr Thomas, Mr Hooper and Mrs Barber stating that we need to open up and that its perfectly possible to do so in a controlled and safe way.

My god the responses.  This island is a total embarrassment, loads of xenophobes who don't have a clue what they are talking about.

Accusations of MHKs only wanting the border open so they can go on holiday themselves.

Government need to provide a really clear explanation to these spoons as to why we need to get some movement back and forth.  Idiots on the radio blaming the students at Christmas etc.

Facebook and twitter are the same.  No wonder the politicians are wary of doing what is the obvious thing with all the inbreds waiting to weild pitchforks if any incomer brings the lhergy with them.

I don't know what they are supposed to do but to an extent they have created this fear and panic themselves.

They need some clever PR to show those that are clearly happy living in their own bubble (as I type, on the radio "why do people need to go to funerals.  Keep the borders closed")

Signed

Embarrased to be Manx

From up north 

Edited January 21, 2021 by horatiotheturd

[Gladys]

Just now, horatiotheturd said:

The Manninline.  Dear God.

They are clips from Mr Thomas, Mr Hooper and Mrs Barker stating that we need to open up and that its perfectly possible to do so in a controlled and safe way.

My god the responses.  This island is a total embarrassment, loads of xenophobes who don't have a clue what they are talking about.

Accusations of MHKs only wanting the border open so they can go on holiday themselves.

Government need to provide a really clear explanation to these spoons as to why we need to get some movement back and forth.  Idiots on the radio blaming the students at Christmas etc.

Facebook and twitter are the same.  No wonder the politicians are wary of doing what is the obvious thing with all the inbreds waiting to weild pitchforks if any incomer bring the lhergy with them.

I don't know what they are supposed to do but to an extent they have created this fear and panic themselves.

They need some clever PR to show those that are clearly happy living in their own bubble (as I type, on the radio "why do people need to go to funerals.  Keep the borders closed")

Signed

Embarrased to be Manx

From.up north 

They all seem to be from a certain demographic though, don't they? 

What do you call a septuagenarian snowflake?

The police have also proclaimed that private buy and sell is not allowed.  Hmmmm.  

[Andy Onchan]

34 minutes ago, Filippo said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here goes the Covid-obliteration monkey: "The Isle of Man Government's response to the virus since day one has been to pursue a strategy of elimination. We are not seeking to suppress the spread of the virus. We are not seeking a way to co-exist with the virus. We are not seeking to make the virus a normal part of our lives. The Council of Ministers remains resolute that our objective is to obliterate the virus from our shores…"

I was at Wien Hauptbahnhof when, using the WiFi system of the station, I checked my email box and saw a message from the NSC warning of the impending closure. Then, reflexively, checked with Manx News and I was flabbergasted about a new lockdown in the isle just because of a few positive cases. It follows the above logic of absolute eradication of the virus from the island, which will have to be revised to a more realistic proposition at a certain point. Unless your fellow islanders are willing to accept an authoritarian government permanently intruding and controlling their lives and experimental drugs/vaccines pursuing the chimera of sterilizing immunity rather than individual resistance to infection.

About at the same time as above speech, Stephane Bancel, CEO of Covid-19 vaccine maker Moderna, warned that “SARS-CoV-2 is not going away”; it will be with us as an endemic respiratory illness “forever” (the occasion was JPMorgan Healthcare Conference on the 13th of January to be precise). But then, as some of you have already pointed out in this thread, CoMin never really had a long-term Covid plan; it decided early on that having their own plan was beyond them and too risky. It looks at what other insular jurisdictions are doing and adjusts its policy according to a short-term narrative that is perceived as political convenient within the context of the island.

I had left the isle two days earlier, on the 4th of January, with a BA flight to Heathrow. My connecting BA flight from Heathrow to Vienna had been canceled one week earlier, thanks to the scaremongering of the dangerous English variant of Covid (Covid has 4,000 known strains; of course some have higher prevalence; it is the discovery of the hot water); and so I had a number of alternative plans to escape the British Isles, as I do every winter; my normal winter in the Alps. I spend an overall four weeks in various Alpine resorts, back and forth from one of my homes (a few details omitted here, just in case it causes me trouble). These winter sports (skiing, climbing, running at altitude) in the open wilderness of the mountain is a sort of spiritual activity for me, the yearly reboot of the unbreakable kernel. I have been going up and down these mountains for the past million years; and I will always keep going up and down these mountains; nothing is going to break my spirit; certainly not those lefties using a stupid respiratory illness to make the world more congenial to them.

I don’t keep any of my skiing and climbing gear in the isle; I had to go to pick up those, before heading to Switzerland, the only country keeping its mountain resorts up and running this year. The three alternative routes I had in mind were (i) the Baltics, which would have entailed at the least three flights; (ii) the French route, all by train; and (iii) flying through Prague. Routes (i) and (iii) would have not required a Covid test, for a traveler only transiting through those places; route (ii) would have required one. Before leaving the isle I had bought tickets for travel through (iii) on the 4th; and a ticket for the early part of (ii), the train from London to Paris, on the following day as a backup option.

The flight to Heathrow in the ERJ-145 had been incredibly smooth and I took that as a good omen (wishful thinking in light of what follows). Went from Heathrow to Luton by underground and train through a mostly deserted London like one of those day-after movies (the sick show of all those empty trains). As soon as I arrive at Luton, a reality check comes down hard on me. One hour earlier the Czech authorities had rang up the airport: only Czech citizens and those with a demonstrable Czech residence permit could fly from the UK; that call had just arrived to spoil my whole journey and make it so much harder than I had hoped.

Stranded at Luton, I decided that the best course of action was having the antigen test, being it needed for the French route (two hours standing in the cold open space of a car park to have it done; and charged twice the cost on my credit card as the connection had fallen shortly after entering PIN and there was not certainty the first transaction had gone through). Already mid afternoon, I was growing so uneasy and impatient with the idea of having to wait until next morning to catch the train to Paris. UK news were prospecting an imminent third lockdown, which could have made travel out of the UK even harder or impossible; I had to get out of the UK ASAP. I improvised a fourth escape route, I had just found about it online: a bus from Bulgarian company Union Ivkoni leaving from London at 22 pm and travelling all the way to Sofia (my intention being jumping out at Bruxelles to catch a train): most unhinged fellow travelers I have ever been with (believe me I have seen it all, like Ukrainian trains during the war with Russia five years ago). At Dover, the bus could not go through because the UK government had just shut the Covid testing facility in there for anyone but truck drivers (another critical change of policy just a few hours earlier). Only four passengers on that bus had a viable Covid test. A French nurse, among the most disquieted and inflamed passengers, called the police, and that police, understanding the unmanageable situation of the bus, directed it to a couple of other places, which also, it turned out, could not offer tests to anyone else but truck drivers. Comes the morning, I had managed to ramp up the hysteria of the French nurse who, through various threats, bullied the bus driver into bringing the two of us to Dover train station. Jumping out of the bus and catching a train from Dover to London, me and her. She continued to Coventry, her place of work (much better pay than France she said). The whole train, me, the French nurse, and five cops telling me that even with a nearly empty train, I still had to keep the bloody mask on.

Back to London, I headed to St Pancras (shocking, those huge stations empty of people, apart the police at every corner directing one’s path through the station with a sense of urgency) and caught a train to Paris Gare du Nord. France only permits limited categories of people to arrive from the UK, such as transport workers or those who normally live in France. Armed with the Antigen test, two passports and one national ID card, and a convincing story, I talked my way through French border control. Then, all the way to the other side of Europe by train. Stopped for a few hours in Frankfurt and changed station before catching an overnight train. Came across one rave in the underground levels of Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof and two in the underground levels of Frankfurt Sud; all music and drinking to cheer one up. Later on two polizei, not believing my explanations and obviously disliking my freewheeling spirit, kicked me out of a train; and of course I went on by catching the next train.

Had two nights sleeping in a proper bed of mine, then, on the 8th, headed to Zermatt. As soon as I got that message in my mobile “Welcome to Lietchenstain” I knew I was safe and, thanks to OBB trains’ WiFi, booked four contiguous weeks, until the 6th of February; had not wanted to take the chance of wasting thousands of pounds with reservations I could not use (the back and forth between home and a ski resort across international borders is obviously not viable this year). Arrived at Zermatt in the early morning, knowing that the apartment was not yet ready, I left my stuff in the deposit facilities of the train station and headed straight to the slopes. Of the previous six nights only two had been slept on a bed; one had been slept on a bus, one on a train, the other two, including the one of the trip to Zermatt, not even tried to sleep. A few days later I joined a group of French skiers. In a godola of the Matterhorn Express a French couple were arguing with animosity about something. Then they gave me a mobile with two pictures of a shorthair tabby cat with golden stripes and asked me to judge which cat was better (he had a cat, and she had a cat, though I could not tell one from the other). Normally I would have declined the invitation to join a group of people I don’t know (and even those I know); made an exception this time. Dear control freak Chief Minister, I am living with the virus and I am much happier with this virus than under your crass obliteration policies. It is my choice, my life.

Zermatt usually attracts a mature international clientele, which hasn’t turned out in significant numbers this year. France, Austria, Italy, Germany have all shut their own resorts; and thus the Swiss ones have been a watershed for die-hard skiers, usually in the prime of their years, from Switzerland and neighbouring countries; but there seem to be only so many of them who can travel or foot the bill; and so overall attendance to the resort and the skiing facilities is about one third of the normal, from what I can see. I had an early clue of the different crowd this year when I bought a ticket on the panoramic train between Visp and Zermatt two days in advance, and a 1st class ticket was being given away at 10% discount to a 2nd class one. I would rate half of these skiers between good and expert level; rarely saw anyone falling ad rolling down the mountain. Apart from the days I have been with the French skiers, I usually have a whole 8-person gondola or a 6-person chairlift all for myself. And the snow remains well groomed in the afternoon.

For a month before I left the isle, I had been watching with growing concern the number of Swiss coronavirus deaths climbing to over 150 per day, while keeping a side eye on web-page “zermatt.ch”; and every time there had been that reassuring upfront message: “The whole of Zermatt’s mountain railway and cable car infrastructure is sill available to guests to guests this winter, blah, blah, blah” to keep my hope alive. In the end the powerful Alpine cantons of the Helvetic Confederation had their way and made the point of keeping the whole show running. The few restrictions come from Swiss federal government, which anyway has made it clear that its aim is not to eradicate the virus but to keep hospital loads manageable. All non essential shops are all open. The only things that are shut are night-clubs and restaurants outside hotels are only open for takeaway. Furthermore, there are no restrictions on personal freedoms, you can travel and meet whomever you want to meet. I saw the local police only once; it was overseeing emergency civil engineering work in the river that cuts through the village. I cook my own food and have no time or interest for going out in the evening; couldn’t care less for current restrictions on apres-ski. This isn’t only about winter sports; it is about sticking a finger to those lefties who thought about using the virus to deplete our net-worth and degrade our livelihoods (by the way, I am not regarding the Chief Minister as one of those lefties; he doesn’t seem to think much about anything).

Repressive government is creating a new class of common herd pigs, usually marooned in their native lands, hardwired to state TV’s dumb news feds, staying at home all time just waiting to be fed by their next Tesco delivery. As opposed to those who instead can get away from all of it; or at the least capable of minimizing the effect of the repression on their lives. If the repression is pushed further, the end result will be a final separation: the pigs in their pigsty and the free spirits in the liberal jurisdictions of the world. When you engage in all those lockdown rituals and then join the orderly queue of the vaccine, that Eucharist to make peace with the powers that be, think about me skiing down those slopes shaded by the Matterhorn or running up the glaciers of Monte Rosa. The stay-at-home deprived of physical exercise looks so right to those who have unhealthy lifestyles by habit and are so mean and hypocrite as to want everyone to become the pig they are.

IOM’s zero Covid delusion, with its obvious implications, the travel restrictions, the jailing of dissidents etc, makes the island of little value to the kind of people who can choose where to live and what to do in life. You may not like to hear it, or you may not care about it, but that is how it is. The island will be poorer and its population older and sicker (forget the TT as well). I am not writing this to scorn you; it is more because of a mixed feeling of anger and sorrowfulness about the isle. I keep telling myself, it is a temporary aberration, it will pass.
 

 

 

As interesting as your comments are, why would you ever want to come back to IOM?

I can recommend a good removal company! 

[AlanShimmin]

Testing is great. But all it can do is tell you how many new cases you've successfully imported. 

Testing isn't a standalone solution. Politicians should be careful making promises of false hope to those who are desperate for the borders to be opened. 

[The Chief]

1 minute ago, Andy Onchan said:

As interesting as your comments are, why would you ever want to come back to IOM?

I can recommend a good removal company! 

i ignore anything flilipo has to say as at the beginning of this crisis he was quoting Fox news and since proven fascist and white supremacist Tucker Carlson.

[Banker]

13 minutes ago, horatiotheturd said:

The Manninline.  Dear God.

They played clips from Mr Thomas, Mr Hooper and Mrs Barber stating that we need to open up and that its perfectly possible to do so in a controlled and safe way.

My god the responses.  This island is a total embarrassment, loads of xenophobes who don't have a clue what they are talking about.

Accusations of MHKs only wanting the border open so they can go on holiday themselves.

Government need to provide a really clear explanation to these spoons as to why we need to get some movement back and forth.  Idiots on the radio blaming the students at Christmas etc.

Facebook and twitter are the same.  No wonder the politicians are wary of doing what is the obvious thing with all the inbreds waiting to weild pitchforks if any incomer brings the lhergy with them.

I don't know what they are supposed to do but to an extent they have created this fear and panic themselves.

They need some clever PR to show those that are clearly happy living in their own bubble (as I type, on the radio "why do people need to go to funerals.  Keep the borders closed")

Signed

Embarrased to be Manx

From up north 

Caught some of it whilst at amenity site, some of it was embarrassing to listen to and typical snowflake pensioner types. Someone was on Monday when ashie was on saying he had been told all MHKs had been vaccinated which was why he hadn’t been done yet and he believed it!

[Utah 01]

25 minutes ago, Gladys said:

No, I said it was the ideal, everyone would agree.  How achievable is a different matter

Yebbut, yebbut - the concept of the irradication of a virus is pure fantasy and shouldn't even enter your admirable thinking. Ideally it should never have been allowed to escape from the Wuhan lab in the first place.

Mr Wright, technically we could claim there is no COVID (to the best of our limited knowledge) on the Island but this virus is here to stay - forever and ever.  We cannot possibly remain a cut-off economically declining lump of rock and must accept that with CV circulating freely around the planet it will have to come and circulate in the Island's population as with every other virus we co-exist with mitigated by vaccine.

 

[jaymann]

Interesting new tech out there.

https://www.bosch-vivalytic.com/en/product/vivalytic-tests/pcr-test-for-sars-cov-2/

I've just seen an airline announce they've bought a TONNE of these and they are able to produce PCR test results within 1 hour and at a greatly reduced cost.

Would be intrigued to know the expert opinion on stuff like this. Would be very effective to have a bank of these at the airport as part of an on-arrival test? 99% accuracy, unlike traditional rapid tests e.g. lateral flow.

[horatiotheturd]

19 minutes ago, AlanShimmin said:

Testing is great. But all it can do is tell you how many new cases you've successfully imported. 

Testing isn't a standalone solution. Politicians should be careful making promises of false hope to those who are desperate for the borders to be opened. 

Who said testing was a standalone solution?

Testing and isolation are the solution when used together and regularly reviewed based on levels in then UK and result we get at day 1, 6 and 13.

Eg, test 1000 people and see no positives at day 13 then change to 1, 4 and 9 and reduce the isolation to 10 days.

Get loads of day 13 results then move to a later test and longer isolation.

People just want to see sensible precautions and flexibility.  Noone is going to object to longer isolation if it can be evidenced thatbits needed

[wrighty]

4 minutes ago, Utah 01 said:

Yebbut, yebbut - the concept of the irradication of a virus is pure fantasy and shouldn't even enter your admirable thinking. Ideally it should never have been allowed to escape from the Wuhan lab in the first place.

Mr Wright, technically we could claim there is no COVID (to the best of our limited knowledge) on the Island but this virus is here to stay - forever and ever.  We cannot possibly remain a cut-off economically declining lump of rock and must accept that with CV circulating freely around the planet it will have to come and circulate in the Island's population as with every other virus we co-exist with mitigated by vaccine.

 

Do you worry about Polio? Thought not.  Still present in the world, but not over here.  Eliminated thanks to physical measures and effective vaccination.

Covid won't be the same, but in the years to come it will become a non-problem, and in places such as here, probably eliminated locally for most of the year.

[Roger Mexico]

21 minutes ago, AlanShimmin said:

Testing is great. But all it can do is tell you how many new cases you've successfully imported. 

Testing isn't a standalone solution. Politicians should be careful making promises of false hope to those who are desperate for the borders to be opened. 

Testing does more than that - it identifies your cases, so they can stop spreading the disease and possible be treated. 

But there are no standalone solutions and a whole range of different things have to be used: testing, tack and trace, genomics, isolation, social measures, lockdowns, vaccination, travel restrictions and so on.  It seems to me the real difference in arguments about this is between those who realise this and those who think there is some sort of magic bullet - be it testing, vaccination or just pretending the virus isn't there - that will miraculously solve everything.

[horatiotheturd]

4 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

Testing does more than that - it identifies your cases, so they can stop spreading the disease and possible be treated. 

But there are no standalone solutions and a whole range of different things have to be used: testing, tack and trace, genomics, isolation, social measures, lockdowns, vaccination, travel restrictions and so on.  It seems to me the real difference in arguments about this is between those who realise this and those who think there is some sort of magic bullet - be it testing, vaccination or just pretending the virus isn't there - that will miraculously solve everything.

And those who think we need to stay as is until the UK "have it under control"

[Cambon]

5 hours ago, horatiotheturd said:

Will take to long.

Get things moving again and if people want to shield until they get a vaccine that's their shout.  Set a system up where those who want to do that get priority on the vaccine lists so they don't have to wait to long

Absolutely not! The uk situation is still crazy. When they have their cases under control and are out of lockdown, then consider easing it. 

At the moment, your relatives could not visit anyway because it is against their lockdown. 

[horatiotheturd]

2 minutes ago, Cambon said:

Absolutely not! The uk situation is still crazy. When they have their cases under control and are out of lockdown, then consider easing it. 

At the moment, your relatives could not visit anyway because it is against their lockdown. 

Wrong on both counts.

What is thenacgual.risk of travel here at the moment? That someone might have to isolate in their accommodation for longer than 14 days or in an extremely rare case might need medical attention?

You second point.  Are you suggesting there are no commercial flights, ferries or trains out of the UK at all at the moment because people arent allowed to travel to terminals to leave the country?

[AcousticallyChallenged]

1 minute ago, horatiotheturd said:

You second point.  Are you suggesting there are no commercial flights, ferries or trains out of the UK at all at the moment because people arent allowed to travel to terminals to leave the country?

Given how loosely the UK has enforced any COVID related measures, aside from the odd fine, I don't think they're any measure to go by.