COVID-19

Where did you read that? Fisher Price News?

 

Cant see us taking a Continental holiday this year .

 

Me neither, can't get to Anglesey or Skye....!!

 

whether we do it now or later down the line it’s only a matter of time working pensioners are charged NI on work income. Probably rightly so too. We are living a lot longer and are fitter than previous generations, in the main anyway.

Does the current system allow to differentiate NI payments from earned income and occupational pensions? Or would we tip them into self assessment to pay it?

 

QE is a generic term that is used for printing money, It just sounds better for public consumption, I understand its common use to buy back assets to increase liquidity in the market hoping to get the banks etc to lend more, But it is not the only use of QE, The US used it to send $500 to every person to try boost spending in the consumer market,
In general the banks hate this direct use of any QE as if the government sells bonds to them and then buys them back it leaves the banks with some control over the economy,
A system where the government paid revenue out of QE temporary would be beneficial to the public and economy but detrimental to the banks who claim it would increase inflation, This may or may not be true as there is little evidence worldwide that the printing of money has contributed to inflation, It is almost always caused by bad political decisions by governments

 

Whether it is printing money or QE, what is being discussed is effectively controlling the supply of money: the central tenet of 80s economic policy. This, in my opinion, failed because it ultimately failed to acknowledge the role of fiscal policy other than to reduce taxes as far as possible - a bad political decision in my view.

Interestingly, one of the key Government advisors at that time was Patrick Minford. He crops up again now as a lead advisor and thinker of economic policy post Brexit. I've not kept up with his thinking, although he was a guest lecturer when I studied in the early 90s. I hope he is more amenable to the role of Government rather than leaving it to the markets these days.

 

True, some mainland places too
It’s strange Here, not the holiday place you know

 

Down to 85 deaths in the last 24 hours, no death is good but the slowly decreasing.

 

I owe you an apology as I thought you were talking about the UK

 

Was lockdown a massive mistake:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8505699/Swedens-coronavirus-death-rate-falling-faster-UKs.html

 

I would have thought the answer was obviously no. They obviously had to get it under control somehow.

 

As I posted the government have made mistakes as have the majority of countries but the time for them to be called to task is when a vaccine is found and we have the virus under control.

 

Not encouraging news.
Looking like immunity for those infected by Covid 19 is short lived, suggesting that you can be reinfected, just as with other corona viruses that cause the common cold.

" Professor Jonathan Heeney, a virologist at the University of Cambridge, said the study confirmed a growing body of evidence that immunity to Covid-19 is short-lived. “Most importantly, it puts another nail in the coffin of the dangerous concept of herd immunity,” he said.

“I cannot underscore how important it is that the public understands that getting infected by this virus is not a good thing. Some of the public, especially the youth, have become somewhat cavalier about getting infected, thinking that they would contribute to herd immunity. Not only will they place themselves at risk, and others, by getting infected, and losing immunity, they may even put themselves at greater risk of more severe lung disease if they get infected again in the years to come.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/12/immunity-to-covid-19-could-be-lost-in-months-uk-study-suggests?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

 

Seems like it's Vaccine or bust.

 

I don't honestly think anybody knows that much about T Cells outside of the specialist scientists. Doubt anybody had even heard of them before!

However the bits that I saw about them didn't really help much with "immunity" as such because there was nothing linking them to transmission. Might be a reason why some people get a milder form though?

 

Between that and the Lancet study saying that only 5% of the Spansih population has had the virus it's not been a good week for the old herd immunity!

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/07/06/health/spain-coronavirus-antibody-study-lancet-intl/index.html

 

Yeah I'd seen it. Unfortunately the good professor is making a leap and ignoring the caveats the actual study themselves put in place.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/health-53248660

Also have to bear in mind that the study hasn't been peer reviewed and was only done on 200 people I believe so extrapolation of that data needs to be cautious.

Two keys bits from the article though.....

"But it's not yet clear whether this just protects that individual, or if it might also stop them from passing on the infection to others"

And

"This doesn't necessarily get us any closer to herd immunity, though, according to assistant professor Marcus Buggert, one of the study's authors"

 

Have a feeling that like the Flu jab we may have to have a Corona virus jab Annually