With the latest announcement in the easing of the Covid-19 restrictions I must admit I have both had enough and become more confused every time Johnson and Sturgeon open their mouths. Have we given up on the fight to beat Covid-19 or are we bowing to the inevitable conclusion that Scotland and the UK have handled the pandemic worse than any other country in the world. The announcement that Scotland will move to level 0 on Monday 9th August is welcome but is it a smoke screen? England of course will have it’s so called Freedom Day on July 19th. In Scotland face masks indoors are to remain for the foreseeable future, 1 metre social distancing indoors to remain, but 200 people can attend a funeral or a wedding indoors but hardly anyone can return to the football or the office, what a *&%$ shambles.
John Swinney said last night that “We know the virus is going to be with us for a long time so the more that we can do, a gradual elementary level to provide obstacles and barriers to the circulation of this virus, the more we should do that.” Infection rates are still high, more people are in intensive care, vaccination has slowed, yet the decisions on restrictions make little sense to me now and would appear to be a mixed message from the blind leading the blind, either Covid is still a public health emergency or it is not. At the start of the pandemic and through the first 8 months I applauded the Scottish Government’s communication of where we were, while I think in some ways now it was a mask to hide an equally poor handling of the pandemic as the rest of the UK, I do think the message helped at the start. For me though it is all a mess, in level 0, up to 8 people from up to 4 households can meet indoors at home – compared to 6 people from 3 households in levels 1 and 2, yet in August we will send thousands of young people back to school to sit in crowded classrooms but if they want to go to an event they can’t because it is too risky. It just doesn’t make any sense to me anymore and I don’t consider myself to be totally thick.
I also take on board that Scotland being a colony has very little power to do things differently from the English Parliament due to us giving them all our money and allowing them to control all of the important levers we need to actually do things properly here in Scotland but at the very least we should expect some clarity. I’ll be honest I have had enough of masks, I have had enough of the impact on my work with young people, I have had enough of the incompetence of the handling of the pandemic in total but surely we cannot live in this middle road any longer, we are either in a public health emergency as I said or we are not.
My older brother from day one has felt that this is something that we have to live with and he felt the restrictions from the start cost lives rather than save them, he is not a flat earther, he accepts that the restrictions will have saved lives from Covid-19 but those same restrictions in limiting access to both physical and mental health services, the rise in poverty and hunger due to the impact of Covid on employment, with there being 120% increase in waiting times for treatment on the NHS and cancer treatment now being a ticking time bomb, the handling of the pandemic in Scotland will have in the end cost more lives than Covid did it’self, who is to say he is wrong, I don’t anymore. 7761 lives have tragically been lost to Covid-19 in Scotland but how many will be lost to critical illness due to the handling of the pandemic?
I am now at the point where I think we just have to live with Covid as we do with the winter flu, I am not saying I am right, but I have had enough and we need a new approach and clarity now, not this mess and confusion. We need the NHS services to open up, we need business to open up, we need to get back to a degree of informed normality.
Many leading scientists have noted that Covid-19 is here to stay and have said that “Eradicating this virus right now from the world is a lot like trying to plan the construction of a stepping-stone pathway to the Moon. It’s unrealistic.” They go on to say that “the darkest days of the pandemic are still ahead of us”. So while I accept that we do still need some restrictions is it a lot to ask that the restrictions make sense and stop adding to the confusion that certainly I feel every day now. As I said earlier I have had enough of the confusion and the mixed messages, it is time for clarity, it is time for honesty, it is time for restrictions that allow us to live with this virus and to get vital services up and running again or the 7761 deaths will be nothing compared to what is coming down the road due to the lack of access to the services that we so badly need now.
Anyone any thoughts on this or am I totally off base here?
grumpyscottishman.wordpress.com 
Can’t disagree with your feelings of confusion. Just one point though – we go down to level zero on 19th (same as England) not August 9th. So basically she is following Johnson.
I feel much the same and am becoming more and more frustrated by the day. The pandemic has had a huge impact on my daughter’s wellbeing and things that should have been sorted over a year ago are only now beginning to be addressed. It’s a nightmare to get to see the GP and even more to get dental treatment. We can have thousands gather outside, get drunk and party for the football, but home teams still have to socially distance in the stands? There is no logic to their announcements and it is no wonder that people are beginnign to no longer follow the rules. The UK ( and I include Scotland in that ) has made an absolute pig’s arse out of the whole affair and looks like will continue to do so.
Lil
I am totally confused with it now, the Aug date is the one I have received from my employer as the date we enter the 0 level properly and there in lays all the confusion. I am way over a year for the dentist and they don’t know when they will see me and I am still waiting another 6 months for optician now having just got an appointment yesterday. I dread to think what those with serious illness are going through. I agree with you on the handling, it has been a shambles in Scotland the slightly better communication has hidden an equally dire scenario of not having a clue.
Thanks for commeting.
Bruce
I admit that I find it is difficult to judge what the state of play is.
From the off, I have played it safe.
Rather than waiting on the government’s every announcement and following the rules (that change frequently), myself and my wife agreed a few simple things:
1. I would do the supermarket shopping (I drive, she doesn’t), once per week.
2. We would not travel (abroad, to rUK, or anywhere in Scotland).
3. We would not go out for social events (pubs, restaurants etc).
I can honestly say that in 18 months we have stuck to these 100%. And have found it easy to do so:
Why should 2 people waste time on a mundane task such as getting in the groceries?
Why travel when there is a risk you would get stranded due to rule changes?
Why go for a drink or a meal when you have to put on a mask to go for a pee?
It’s also common sense really, and, being an adult, I could very easily delay ‘having my fun’ for as long as it takes. We both enjoy cooking and if you fancy a drink, well, you can do that at home too. I do miss seeing people but, again, it’s not forever and there is a bit too much sentiment in not being able to hug loved ones.
IT’S NOT A WAR!
But for people who look to government to advise them how they live their lives in minute detail now the situation is confused. And difficult to follow as there are so many depending on circumstances or combination thereof
In addition, if the virus is again surging, why the easing of restrictions? Why are we doing virtually the same as rUK, but with a couple of weeks delay? (Health is devolved so it doesn’t have to be the same, or anything like it, if the Scottish Government choose).
Vaccination might have slowed but around 53% of the Scottish population have been double-jagged which, once you exclude low risk under-18 year olds must mean a much larger proportion of people are protected. So surely, if the treatment is effective, we are much safer?
So many questions …
But until they are answered I will continue to adhere to my own rules, which are much stricter and clearer than government recommendations and regulations.
It’s not difficult.
Duncanio
We have done the same as yourself pretty much exactly but I am just at the point now that the message is so confused and I have pretty much had enough of the mixed messages. I do think we are at the point where we have to live with this, it is not going away any time soon so the message needs to be very clear and the restrictions informed not the mess they come across as right now. We have got to get things opened up asap, esp the NHS, I suspect my brother is 100% correct and that deaths from other illnesses due to the handling of the pandemic will dwarf the deaths from the pandemic and that is a tragedy and possibly could have been avoided if we had looked at how esp Asian countries have handled these in the past. We just never learned the lessons.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
Some great comments/advice/lifestyle decisions made there. My partner and I have been doing similarly. To put it simply, as a nation and as inhabitants of this planet, our behaviour needs to change. We have created the perfect atmosphere for viruses to flourish with large populations which travel widely and often. To counter this we have to act accordingly. I think this is what politicians are afraid of, effectively being responsible for the curtailing of our freedoms to do as we please.
To add to your perspective on the disease/s and it’s handling by our governments, I’d also like to add that the vaccinations are very limited in efficacy.
What the vaccine DOES DO is to reduce the severity of the symptoms once COVID-19 or it’s variants have been contracted by a specific individual. The efficacy is changing all the time because of new strains which are being ACCELERATED because vaccination-resistant strains are being created at a faster rate because we continue to spread the disease and new variants/strains amongst the wider community by reducing prevention measures (unnecessary travel, lessening of restrictions, etc).
What the vaccine DOES NOT DO is prevent contraction of Covid, reduce likelihood of infection, prevent or reduce likelihood of reinfection to others. This is what properly implemented track and trace measures alongside travel bans, border closures, mask wearing and other preventative measures can achieve. Other countries have achieved this and it does not correlate directly to population densities or being on an island (which we are anyway). None of our politicians are willing to admit these simple points.
I understand your frustrations with our governments’ systems that have been put in place and then subsequently relaxed/removed. They have been limited in effectiveness from the beginning because they were introduced too slowly, badly implemented and there were insufficient measures. This is primarily down to political cowardice and money-making schemes by our “overlords”. They don’t want to adversely affect the country’s economy (although, ironically, they have done exactly that). Where did the £Billions for our track and trace system go?
While the UK is far from the only nation to get Covid-19 badly wrong, we are up there amongst the worst offenders. I include Scotland in that same frame of reference obviously.
The UK/Scotland’s handling of the virus has been an utter disgrace considering the amount of extra time to prepare and a big stretch of water all the way round. Johnson was like a rabbit caught in the headlights; Sturgeon’s frequently hailed “brilliant” performance was down to her being able to read stats out better than that bumbling buffoon.
Maybe we could look at what more successful countries have done and copy them instead of following the English establishment’s mindset that no virus would dare invade old Blighty. It’s probably too late now though and we’ll just need to see this through no matter how catastrophic it gets. When you’re tied to people who willingly elect right-wing xenophobes who see a crisis as a means to further enrich themselves and their donors, well this is what you get.
Aye they’ve got all our money, but whose fault’s that? They’ll have it for some considerable time to come as well.
Dave
I agree, I think we just need to move on now. We need to get things opened up, especially medical care, and come up with common sense guidance for moving forward in the long term as Covid is here to stay, like the flu, and we need to learn to live and function with it as soon as possible in my opinion.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
7761 lives have been lost…..in 15 months. Devastating though these deaths are for the nearest and dearest, the median age is 82. This number is hardly apocalyptic, roughly equal to the deaths from respiratory diseases in 2019 (6552). It is surely totally disproportionate to what’s been done to the economy and the population.
This guy gives an excellent explanation of the the mechanism whereby the human body reacts to a virus or bacterium – the explanation of how the mRNA vaccine (which is still in the experimental stage) works is truly worrying.
https://rumble.com/vjktjf-an-urgent-message-from-professor-sucharit-bhakdi.html
Extremely worrying.
Gordon
I’ll check it out thanks and I am starting to think my older brother is spot on.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
To be honest all I want to know is will we be allowed to stand at the bar from August 9th onwards? My right foot is desperate to rest upon the battered brass railing again.
No, Bruce, you are not alone, The handling of this pandemic has been chaotic from the start and it looks like they will continue as they began. They learned not a single thing from Asia and Europe. It was all there in plain sight, but Sturgeon decided to throw our lot in with an idiot who was running an administration that Basil Faulty would have been proud of.
The main problem throughout this pandemic was the schools, now I understand the importance of children’s education but it was as clear as could possibly be that hundreds of thousands of children freely mingling every school day were going to cause huge problems and it did.
After the first wave when the children were about to go back to school, the information coming from the Scottish government was verging on criminal incompetence.
I have a coach/bus company and when the schools were about to go back last year I made it plain that I thought the Scottish government guidelines were unsafe and refused to restart a large contract we had with one of the local authorities. As a result, we lost the contract, the schools went back and the figures once again went out of control.
We are being governed by an inefficient and incompetent administration and history will condemn them
Bob
I thought at the start the Scottish Government were dong well but the more we learned the more it became clear that while the communication was better the rest was just a total shambles like the rest of the UK. I never thought the schools should have went back when they did and I work in them, social distancing was impossible end of, I appreciate the effect this had on education but the impact on things like cancer treatment etc will make the deaths from Covid seem paltry, Sturgeon made a mess of it and I think could have done better in some areas.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
Got to admit, I am with everybody here. Had more than enough of this messy madness. One minute people can’t gather outside in groups, the next there are faux-American, white middle class BLM statue-attacking parties and Sturgeon is saying she supports them. One minute we can’t go to the pub to sit next to each other, the next we get a random number of people from a random number of households we can sit beside. One minute we are being directed as to numbers who can enter a supermarket, the next…ah, why go on? I do think this virus scenario has been handled with absolute shambolic ineptitude from the start. In one way you can almost not blame them – we have no real precedent – but in another way it’s risible and anti-common-sensical. And it’s certainly not getting any better. which, after the length of time it’s been going on, is quite simply not acdceptable.
As for Sturgeon using her wee daily slimelight-fix narcissist tapdances to rant at Salmond and whatnot, well, she has less and less credibility in the country she has run unfairly and squarely into the ground. What else can you say? The whole planless pandemonium pandemic thing is an absolute abortion from top to bottom, start to finish, and we really should be opening back up. The damage done to the country, its morale, hospitality and other services, health service, trade…all the other myriad damages…make this humming and hawing (we all see people without masks on in shops all the time anyway, and curse them under our breath, as they make us feel stupid for wearing one) intolerable and a pyrrhic victory at best, a psychotic imposition at worst.
Enough is enough.
Scot
I think we need to get services like the NHS opened up now and have common sense measures in place the best we can. We have never had control of Covid from the start and never learned any lessons at all so we need to move on. I also think it is an Endemic now and like the flu we will have to live with it for a long time, maybe ever with different variations, so we might as well get thinking about we have precautions that we can all live with and that will help, esp in the winter.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
Had both my jags. Looking forward to an apparent coming third ‘booster.’ Somebody has to keep Pfizer and Astra Zeneca in profits, after all. Maybe I should invest in their stock…
You’re not alone, I believe wholeheartedly that there will be more deaths caused by lockdowns, masks and vaccines together than there would ever have been with covid, of course we’ll never get the true figures of the damage done and lives lost to these draconian measures.
I haven’t seen one measure taken throughout this pandemic that made any sense whatsoever.
Helen
I feel the same now, it’s a shambles and they don’t have a clue what they are doing.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
I’ve not listened to any of the Government’s updates about covid . I’ve followed the rules got my jags ( never been ill for years until l got them ). I’m done with it all , not on social media anymore , don’t read the papers or watch the news . Think yours is the only blog l read now Bruce . Thanks for your input , l agree with you .
Pauline
I tend to watch EuroNews now and just read some blogs and selected articles for news. I want to keep trying to inform so need to keep an eye out but I haven’t watched a Covid briefing since last year and switch over if anything Sturgeon comes on now.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
There’s absolutely no point whatsoever in reading mainstream media shite. I have been avoiding it all pretty much since the beginning, when I realised what it was going to be like soon after it started: constant 24/7 self-torturing, brain-frying clickbait effluvia from round the world, all contradictory, all weird, all scaremongering, all confused, never the same twice. Then the all-singing, all-dancing Sturgeon Show to add the icing to the turd. Not to mention the conspiracy theories from those poor paranoid souls (we all know them) who have gone down the death jab/implant zombie remote control rabbit holes and are tragically never coming out sane again. I refuse to subject myself to new Cold War (in a manner of speaking) paranoia written for moneymaking and propagandist purposes. Not a chance.
I agree
At the start, a lack of finance meant that ScotGov had no option but follow the English timetable as we have no control over our own finances, so couldn’t have underwritten a Scottish only lockdown. Of course, that situation was down to Sturgeon’s inept handling of the various independence opportunities which have come our way since 2014, so she doesn’t escape scot free.
The biggest opportunity lost has been caused by the lack of any attempt to use the levers we had to prevent the spread of the virus from other parts of the UK. We had just about eradicated the original Covid variant in the summer of last year, but as the numbers started to rise in the South, no attempt was mad to close the border to all but essential traffic. We even had the ludicrous situation that Cumbrian Police were doing more to prevent English holidaymakers coming to Scotland than Police Scotland. Decisive action at that point could have prevented the rise in cases in England in the Autumn having as big a knock on effect here.
Since then, Sturgeon’s efforts on Covid have simply been an echo of her independence efforts. All talk with very little action. Restrictions, when applied, were on the native population, ignoring the impact of incomers from other parts of the UK. Dither is dangerous, whether we’re talking about Covid or independence.