r00lish67
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Post by r00lish67 on Mar 22, 2021 14:29:09 GMT
I arrived back into the UK a few days ago, so have the joy of being able to report on the quarantining process.
Both my wife and I now each receive a call every day from DHSC to check up on us. That sounds sort of sensible in theory, but it's really not.
We're on day 3 now, and they just read from exactly the same script each time. This makes no sense.
So my 'conversation' today was:
Caller: "Am I talking to <garbled form of surname without first name>" Me: "Um, maybe? Say that again" Caller <incredibly botched attempt at what is really not that complicated a first name> ( 3 days in a row from 3 different people) Me: "Yes, that's me" Caller: "Can you confirm you're aware of the need to quarantine?" Me: " You guys called up yesterday and the day before, so yes, I haven't forgotten overnight" Caller " Are you aware of the need to take day 2 and day 8 tests? Me: " Yes I still am, but as advised yesterday, they're late and so I won't be taking the day 2 test on time. Hopefully today if it arrives." Caller <in the one deviation from the day 2 script> " As it is day 3, can you confirm you've taken your day 2 test already" Me: "Umm..."
They are clearly not even actually listening to anything you say beyond 'yes' and 'no'. I know this isn't really surprising, and I don't blame them at all, they're just doing what they've been told to do. However, I do reserve some ire for the person who designed these call scripts.
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r00lish67
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Post by r00lish67 on Mar 22, 2021 12:54:24 GMT
Ok, place your bets, actually in the process of "adopting world class platform technology" for their website or perhaps under FCA restrictions preventing their operation? My initial thought was that they'd be appearing on Abl's ASMX platform given their financial / technical connections to Abl. Maybe, but isn't it a bit weird to also restrict access to the SM with immediate effect? If it was that, why wouldn't they have given users notice? Doesn't smell right to me.
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r00lish67
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Post by r00lish67 on Mar 22, 2021 11:30:48 GMT
"Dear Client, As a user and client of Huddle Capitals' platform we wish to inform you that the website has been temporarily closed to new lenders and borrowers and we have restricted the secondary market use however you can still make withdrawals and access your account through the link on www.huddlecapital.com. We are currently restructuring both the company and the website to improve not only the user experience but also the customer interaction and will be adopting world class platform technology. This will take some time and we appreciate your patience in this matter and will ensure we keep you updated on our progress as we hope to have some exciting news in the very near future. Please feel free to contact us on customer.services@huddlecapital.com" Ok, place your bets, actually in the process of "adopting world class platform technology" for their website or perhaps under FCA restrictions preventing their operation?
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r00lish67
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Post by r00lish67 on Mar 20, 2021 16:58:58 GMT
700K jabs administered yesterday #shambles That is pretty amazing. I don't like the noises coming from Ursula though: "We have the option of prohibiting a planned export. That is the message to AstraZeneca: you first fulfil your contract with Europe before you start delivering to other countries"Just as the UK is/was being idiotic to act unilaterally Brexit, here too the EC is joining in. If they didn't have a sound contract before, they don't now either. Blocking exports unilaterally would be a pretty extreme act. Especially ridiculous given the level of complaining going on about the vaccine. It's like some sort of inverse Brexit. The thing that we don't need or want and that is terrible anyway and that we're REALLY ANNOYED is not being given to us right now.
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r00lish67
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Post by r00lish67 on Mar 18, 2021 11:37:51 GMT
Oh, and P2P dead? No.
P2P hugely diminished? Sure. A reasonable % of the UK population had at least heard of Funding Circle, Ratesetter and Zopa if just from the adverts. Have they heard of Loanpad/CP/others? I doubt it. It's much more niche, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Ok, yeah, there's a few devotees on this forum but frankly there are more people here interested in talking about COVID and politics than P2P, and for what is nominally a P2P forum that is rather telling.
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r00lish67
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Post by r00lish67 on Mar 18, 2021 11:29:18 GMT
By any sensible definition, P2P is not dead. There are many platforms that are so popular that lenders are clambering over themselves to get funds deployed. Take CrowdProperty's loan this morning; it was 20 times oversubscribed. A platform that's strongly resisted the temptation to drop its standards to make a quick short-term profit, and is far from the only one. Given the past experiences of many of us here, is general popularity and loans being easily oversubscribed a good sign? I confess to knowing nothing of CP so I'm obviously not paying close attention, but has much DD been done on the platform/loans? The only recent discussion I've seen here of it are notes of excitement/disappointment of receiving more/less of a particular loan than the participant had hoped for.
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r00lish67
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Post by r00lish67 on Mar 15, 2021 18:32:28 GMT
I had the AZ jab on Saturday. I haven't died. Ye#'fds#... Reddit blokey's argument appears to be that these type of blood clots are so supremely rare as to be unheard of in healthy young people and therefore highly suspicious even in small numbers. Personally still think that it will be a coincidence, or at the outside maybe a contaminated batch. Either way, the actions thus far will result in an even larger pile of untaken AZN vaccines around Europe, unfortunately.
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r00lish67
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Post by r00lish67 on Mar 15, 2021 17:56:27 GMT
So here's a moral/ethical question... There's this exact debate in the comments on the reddit thread. Basically "But only X people out of X million died, this is normal" vs "Yeah but these clots are mega-rare and all happened at once, it can't be a coincidence, they had to stop". TLDR; they don't agree. In my view, perhaps stop jabbing with any batches that resulted in this effect as a precaution. But, otherwise, 17m have been jabbed in the UK so it would seem overcautious to stop it altogether. Especially since, as you point out, it's not a cost free exercise. People will die as a result of the delay, and some additional people will now refuse the AZ vaccine too. Probably resulting in far more deaths than has been seen due to these clotting issues.
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r00lish67
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Post by r00lish67 on Mar 15, 2021 17:26:21 GMT
I don't think it's yet had full P2P independent forum peer review and accreditation, but some bloke on reddit said some stuff about these blood clots, and it was interesting. Excerpts: "In Norway, 3 young healthy people presented with blood clots in unusual places, including the brain and stomach, low platelet counts (this means your blood doesn't clot) and haemorrhaging. These are symptoms that match disseminated intravascular coagulation where your blood clots in several places, resulting in lower platelet counts which causes haemorrhaging. It's a life threatening condition even for young people and can cause multiorgan failure and widespread bleeding...
...It could just be a very weird coincidence, it could be caused by something else, it could be the batch, it could be the vaccine itself. We won't know until it's investigated. The highly abnormal symptoms and the patients' good health however strongly indicates there's a common cause, and the only commonality they know about as of now is the vaccine.
Here's the Norwegian and Danish Medicines Agencies statements (google translate the Danish one):
legemiddelverket.no/nyheter/norwegian-medicines-agency-notified-of-blood-clots-and-bleeding-in-younger-people-after-vaccination-with-astrazeneca-vaccine laegemiddelstyrelsen.dk/da/nyheder/2021/laegemiddelstyrelsen-praeciserer-information-omkring-dansk-doedsfald-efter-vaccination-med-astrazeneca-vaccine/" (to be fair, that subreddit is not your average subreddit, it is very actually scientific). edit: I'm not saying I agree with the logic of the above, by the way. In fact, enrobing myself with the heavy burden of scientific responsibility that being a P2PIF contributor entails, I think that in all likelihood those countries are being overcautious and their actions will cost lives through delay of vaccine rollout and encouraging vaccine hesitancy. Probably. edit2: If you want to see a right bunfight over the rights and wrongs of the decisions of some countries to pause rollout, then read through the rather lengthy exchange leading from this comment. An interesting moral quandary, for sure.
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r00lish67
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Post by r00lish67 on Mar 13, 2021 11:35:49 GMT
The reasonable worst case scenario given to the NHS and civil servants (including my partner) last summer following the first wave, for this autumn and winter, wasn't pessimistic enough. There have been more positive cases and deaths than this planning scenario. My partner and others have now been given new scenarios for the rest of the year. The reasonable worst case scenario for next autumn and winter has been made more pessimistic this time. Obviously this is not necessarily what will happen, merely a reasonable scenario than needs planning for. Planning for one or more more deadly and transmissible strains that need a tweaked vaccine to contain them seems sensible. It is hard to move fast enough to prevent another spike in cases and deaths and another lockdown worst case. Fingers crossed the more positive scenarios will be closer to what actually happens. "The reasonable worst case scenario for next autumn and winter has been made more pessimistic this time" Wouldn't that scenario happening require a variant arising that is almost totally vaccine resilient, more infectious and/or more deadly? And then, even if that happens, we'd have to spot it late, not act to close borders or clamp down hard (local lockdowns etc) and permit it to spread without taking urgent action? I mean, I'm not dismissing the possibility, and as a responsible Government they should absolutely be putting plans in place. Yet, if I'm honest that seems quite unlikely. I certainly hope it is. Above said, given that this Summer we should be seeing very very few cases/deaths (we had <1000 a day often last Summer, so you'd hope?), I'd hope they'd be using that quiet time to enhance the sequencing of those cases that do arise in order to act fast.
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r00lish67
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Post by r00lish67 on Mar 13, 2021 10:43:33 GMT
I notice that the infection rates have been increasing slightly over the last few days and was wondering why.
Do any positive results from the millions of lateral flow tests being carried out on school children this week count in the overall totals? If so are there any sites out there that split the positive cases between PCR tests and lateral flow?
I'm not sure about this, but don't positive lateral flow tests generate a subsequent confirmatory PCR test, some of which will be positive? So in this case it really could be "more testing resulting in more infections", because previously asymptomatic children / families who would have remained untested would be picked up by the lateral flow tests and subsequently confirmed by the PCR testing. Happy to have this corrected / refuted . I don't have the answer either, but this worldindata live graph shows the % of tests conducted that are positive, which perhaps could give an indication as to whether there are actually more cases, or if we're just testing more. Also a useful graph in demonstrating that unfortunately Poland is far more of a COVID disaster zone than it first appears. Apparently they try to insist on you having no less than 4 symptoms before they agree to test you
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r00lish67
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Post by r00lish67 on Mar 12, 2021 16:50:31 GMT
I won't depress myself by watching, but my tip on the cheap booze front is the Lidl weekly special. This week, their South African Sauvignon Blanc, £3 a bottle when you buy 6. OK, it's not NZ quality, but can't complain for the price.
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r00lish67
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Post by r00lish67 on Mar 12, 2021 11:12:22 GMT
Is there any reason we're yet to have an update on the container loans, ablrate ? Could you please advise.
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r00lish67
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Post by r00lish67 on Mar 4, 2021 12:40:38 GMT
It may be because I'm in Spain. Lucky you, it's bloody freezing over here at the moment! If it makes you feel any better, I'll shortly be flying back and forking out for a noseful of tests both pre and post arrival and locking myself indoors for 10 days, as I'm rapidly running out of Schengen days. Still, plenty of sovereignty over there to keep me glowing warmly inside I'm sure.
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r00lish67
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Post by r00lish67 on Mar 4, 2021 12:05:00 GMT
It may be because I'm in Spain. To be fair, doesn't seem hugely prominent on the Guardian either - though again, same caveat. Not that I particularly want to read about it either to be honest as it's probably nearly as much fiction and half truths as the Royals nonsense
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