Interesting

More or Less started a new series on R4 this morning, worth a listen if you can get it on BBC sounds. Among other things did we have the highest daily death rate one day last week? (Here's a clue, the answer is No, we had higher days in the first wave) and why a more infectious but less deadly version of the virus is worse than a more deadly less infectious one. Interesting stuff.

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Originally Posted by Muddy Retriever

I don't understand why there is such a fuss about people exercising again. I thought we'd learned from the first lockdown that transmission of the virus outside is considerably more difficult than inside. The number of infections from this source must be tiny. It is crowded indoor venues where the virus is mainly spread. Not so long ago people were being encouraged to exercise more to reduce obesity and prevent them from being badly affected if they caught Covid.

It seems to me there are much more obvious targets to address, supermarkets for a start. In the first lockdown they restricted the numbers entering and some had one way systems. Not anymore, now it is a complete free for all. I went to Tesco's the other and day it was chock a block.

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I guess the fuss is more around people travelling to exercise, not the exercise itself. In many ways I agree with you as it seems unlikely transmission would take place in the outdoors (are there any recorded instances of this even?), but I can see the sense in reasonable* restrictions to people's movements as part of a bigger push to encourage folk to reduce contact/transmission points as much as possible. It's an attempt to instill a mentality where we all stay at home as much as we can, and exercising only from our front door seems a logical extension to that in order to give a clear message. It lacks nuance, but it's probably safer overall.

*Obviously the reasonableness of restrictions will be subjective!

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Originally Posted by Mark G

More or Less started a new series on R4 this morning, worth a listen if you can get it on BBC sounds. Among other things did we have the highest daily death rate one day last week? (Here's a clue, the answer is No, we had higher days in the first wave) and why a more infectious but less deadly version of the virus is worse than a more deadly less infectious one. Interesting stuff.

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More or Less is the best programme on BBC Radio, including the (alleged) News.

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Originally Posted by Graham Breeze

And I shop pretty well every day in the Tesco in Ikley and I have only once seen one person without a mask in 10 months. It was so unusual I did a double-take.

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That's probably a good advert for Ilkley (as if another one were needed). It might be different if you went to the Canal Road branch in Bradford. I regularly see maskless shoppers in Tesco in Macclesfield.

Also, thanks Mark, I'm a loyal listener to More or Less.

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Originally Posted by Muddy Retriever

I don't understand why there is such a fuss about people exercising again. .

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I think all journalists should set out their credentials with their by-line before commenting on exercise eg

- I am a sub 3-hour marathoner and I can ride a 25 miles Time Trial in under the hour,

or

I smoke 50 at day, weigh 20 stones and like 6-8 pints a night to go with my fish 'n' chips.:)

Everything is context.

I took the footpath over the M4 near my house again today. (For my friends living in the North, the M4 is one of those big roads that leads in and out of London. London is that big city in the South in which, for the past few weeks, there have been areas which have experienced some of the highest infection rates in the country.) There was perhaps slightly less traffic than there was last week - much, much less than normal but still significantly more than at the peak of the last lockdown. Crossing the bridge, an image of a conveyor belt jumped into my head. (On a positive note, more people I met seemed to be taking social distancing very seriously. Although that might have been because I was smiling at everyone as we approached each other.)

The situation has been compared to a race between the virus and the vaccine. That analogy could perhaps usefully be extended a little. The virus had planned to use a quad bike but has been banned from doing so by the authorities. However, it has been sponsored by Nike and has been provided with a pair of Vaporflys[*], a Sat-Nav enabled navigation device with 'breadcrumb' functionality, a few pills in a bottle with 'Lance Armstrong Specials' on the label, and a team of helpers to supply a variety of food and drink at regular intervals throughout the race. The vaccine, on the other hand, has ... well, you can make up the rest of the joke yourselves, depending on your individual views.
[*] I wasn't sure which shoes to use for this humorous (?) bit of surrealism. I considered asking the question on Facebook but thought that might telegraph the joke and hence make it even less funny. So, feel free to insert your own choice of shoes to replace my reference to Vaporflys. You can even use deep sea diving boots if you're of the persuasion that the seriousness of the situation has been exaggerated - I'm a very inclusive and woke sort of person, so I've just given you the flexible framework for a joke, which you can tailor to your own individual taste.

PS. If anyone thinks I'm suggesting that wearing Vaporflys would be beneficial for a fell race, you're over-analysing my humour. (Yes, it is humour.)

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Originally Posted by Graham Breeze

And I shop pretty well every day in the Tesco in Ikley

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Tesco's every day!

Is there a checkout girl with "a come to bed smile" drawing you into the store, Graham?

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Originally Posted by Flem

I took the footpath over the M4 near my house again today. (For my friends living in the North, the M4 is one of those big roads that leads in and out of London. London is that big city in the South in which, for the past few weeks, there have been areas which have experienced some of the highest infection rates in the country.) There was perhaps slightly less traffic than there was last week - much, much less than normal but still significantly more than at the peak of the last lockdown. Crossing the bridge, an image of a conveyor belt jumped into my head. (On a positive note, more people I met seemed to be taking social distancing very seriously. Although that might have been because I was smiling at everyone as we approached each other.)

The situation has been compared to a race between the virus and the vaccine. That analogy could perhaps usefully be extended a little. The virus had planned to use a quad bike but has been banned from doing so by the authorities. However, it has been sponsored by Nike and has been provided with a pair of Vaporflys[*], a Sat-Nav enabled navigation device with 'breadcrumb' functionality, a few pills in a bottle with 'Lance Armstrong Specials' on the label, and a team of helpers to supply a variety of food and drink at regular intervals throughout the race. The vaccine, on the other hand, has ... well, you can make up the rest of the joke yourselves, depending on your individual views.
[*] I wasn't sure which shoes to use for this humorous (?) bit of surrealism. I considered asking the question on Facebook but thought that might telegraph the joke and hence make it even less funny. So, feel free to insert your own choice of shoes to replace my reference to Vaporflys. You can even use deep sea diving boots if you're of the persuasion that the seriousness of the situation has been exaggerated - I'm a very inclusive and woke sort of person, so I've just given you the flexible framework for a joke, which you can tailor to your own individual taste.

PS. If anyone thinks I'm suggesting that wearing Vaporflys would be beneficial for a fell race, you're over-analysing my humour. (Yes, it is humour.)

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This is how all jokes should be delivered. Workshop style. :)

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Originally Posted by Travs

But been in the supermarket a couple of times since new year and it is now one place i'm pretty hesitant to go to unless a complete necessity...

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Once you've moved oophnorth Travs you'll be able to avail yourself of both Booths and Cranstons and your supermarket nightmares will fade into the dim, hoi polloi ridden, past :D

On the message about exercise, I recall how we all curtailed our exercise (running, horse-riding, cycling, etc.) and also car travel in Lockdown 1.0 so as to reduce our risk of getting into an accident and so putting unnecessary pressure on the NHS. Indeed, the FRA produced some excellent guidance on moderating 'challenges', etc. That aspect of the exercise message seems absent in recent communications.

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Originally Posted by Llani Boy

Tesco's every day!

Is there a checkout girl with "a come to bed smile" drawing you into the store, Graham?

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There was but I told her, "if you don't come with a Porsche 928 love, forget it!"