[Falling Down]

Test came back -ve. so it must be longer term symptoms or pvf.  Been alright this week.

[tomtom]

Apparently Grant Shapps is on holiday in Spain atm. 😃

[petejh]

Me too. Currently in Asturias, drove out last Thursday grabbing a window of opportunity. Quite relaxed about a two week stay at home on return next week. TBH I can do virtually all the work I need to do from home.

[tomtom]

Glad it’s not a big problem for you Pete. I’m surprised the amount of “I’m outraged” at being quarantined comments from holidaymakers being reported in the press (though they may be courting those type of comments of course). If I was heading overseas at the moment I’d be half expecting CV19 to throw a spanner in the works somewhere...

[mrjonathanr]

Upcoming family holiday at gite in Brittany mid August, booked 12 months ago. Fully expecting virus to throw a complete bag of spanners in the works. If quarantine imposed we’ll stay home but lose the money. Insurers will want  FCO ‘don’t travel ‘ notice to pay out.
tbh, anything positive will be seen as a bonus right now.

Not keen on losing money but it’s only money, not something big like health, so will not get too exercised over it if we have to stay home.

[TobyD]

Upcoming family holiday at gite in Brittany mid August, booked 12 months ago. Fully expecting virus to throw a complete bag of spanners in the works. If quarantine imposed we’ll stay home but lose the money. Insurers will want  FCO ‘don’t travel ‘ notice to pay out.
tbh, anything positive will be seen as a bonus right now.

Not keen on losing money but it’s only money, not something big like health, so will not get too exercised over it if we have to stay home.

If only everyone saw it like that. All I ever seem to hear on the news, or at work is whining bores bleating about how their annual couple of weeks cultivating alcoholism and skin cancer is their right.

[Oldmanmatt]

Upcoming family holiday at gite in Brittany mid August, booked 12 months ago. Fully expecting virus to throw a complete bag of spanners in the works. If quarantine imposed we’ll stay home but lose the money. Insurers will want  FCO ‘don’t travel ‘ notice to pay out.
tbh, anything positive will be seen as a bonus right now.

Not keen on losing money but it’s only money, not something big like health, so will not get too exercised over it if we have to stay home.

If only everyone saw it like that. All I ever seem to hear on the news, or at work is whining bores bleating about how their annual couple of weeks cultivating alcoholism and skin cancer is their right.

It’s obvious this isn’t over.
What’s happening in Spain, will happen here.
As time passes, more and more people will have personal experience of the more extreme effects of Covid. Even where directly  uninfected, they’ll know know someone who died, someone disabled by it, someone unable to shake it.
As it progresses, the whining will change in character, the conspiracies shift from “it’s exaggerated/a hoax, to more “it’s a weapon” and the countries that have done the most to control it, will suddenly look like the “source” and increasingly see the blame from the conspiracy minded.

What I’m saying is, those moaning as Toby describes, will still moan, they’ll just change the minutiae of their whine.
Not worth listening to. Follow the numbers, listen to the people who spent entire careers studying this sort of stuff and not politicians and  look after yourself and your loved ones.

[Paul B]

Can I briefly ask what people's opinion is on travel towards the back-end of the year (early Oct)? I'm beginning to think it's time to cancel anything I can at this point.

[mrjonathanr]

I don’t think anyone knows but some things to bear in mind..
Prevalence can change very quickly with restrictions abruptly imposed
The virus is likely to experience a resurgence as weather deteriorates, especially as people mix more indoors
You might be all right..

[Will Hunt]

We cancelled our planned Font trip in September. Full refund was available on accomodation through Air BnB and ferries etc not booked. I felt like it was a fairly low risk venture to start, being that we'd be outdoors or in our own accomodation the whole time, with just trips to the supermarket or patisserie to contend with - which will be subject to the same adaptations as we see here.
Other half not so keen to chance the possibility of getting stuck there or having to isolate on our return, so I think we'll be heading to the Lakes instead.

Slightly puzzled by the outrage at the abruptness of the government's messaging. If you give people warning you'll see a scramble to return (see also "Last Night of the Pubs"), making the problem worse. I expect that a lot of people returning from Spain won't bother going full quarantine anyway.

[dunnyg]

I've got flights booked to the US in October. Not sure if BMC insurance will let us cancel at this stage, I need to get into the fine print (we got insurance before COVID kicked off). There is 0% chance of us getting on a plane for 10 hours. I do have a shit immune system so I am more cautious than the general population. Fortunately I didn't book anything else so other than the flights, it's pretty low key.

I'm pretty gutted because this was a month long trip round classic western US venues with the Mrs at the end of my PhD, but  (most) of the rocks will still be there in a couple of years...

[abarro81]

We're still planning (and booked) Sept holiday (driving), and provisionally planning Nov (flight? tbc...) but not booked that yet. But I'd rather take the punt and lose some money than not bother, and I don't care about getting stuck there or quarantining when home (just about getting insured - we'll bail elsewhere if our planned venues are in areas with FCO essential-travel-only advice)

[Nutty]

I think that depends a lot on your own circumstances: whether you can shrug-off losing the money, take the hit of being quarantined etc. If it means losing money you can't afford to and losing your job/income if you get quarantined then I'd be thinking of cancelling. With all schools back in September, what's the likelihood of the UK being on everyone's no-travel list in October? Personally I've written-off the idea of any foreign travel in 2020, but I'd accepted that when this hit in back in March. I don't have any current burning euro/US climbing ambitions though so pootling around in the UK doesn't bother me much.

[SA Chris]

We've got holiday booked for the first week in October shool holidays here, but leaving it til last minute before booking a holiday anywhere. Will probably wait until after schools are back here in August, to see how things play out, we are usually last minute anyway!

[Paul B]

Interesting to see people's views. Thanks.

I think that depends a lot on your own circumstances: whether you can shrug-off losing the money, take the hit of being quarantined etc. If it means losing money you can't afford to and losing your job/income if you get quarantined then I'd be thinking of cancelling.

Thankfully, this isn't an issue for either of us as we're both able to WFH and both have understanding employers. It makes a few things more tricky (getting the dog back from the parents) but these definitely fall under #firstworldproblems. The trip is to Bavella, Corsica so the accommodation (AirBnB) isn't that cheap for a fortnight. The flights are Easyjet and I'm much more willing to write them off. With a bit of an injury (haven't climbed for 6M) and the Covid uncertainty, I'm thinking it may be best to manage the risk by cancelling the accommodation as there'll be somewhere on the island we can get last minute and whether we go or not will be based around advice on non-essential travel/insurance.

[SA Chris]

What's going to be interesting with the Spain travel quarantine is how long it stays in effect for here in Scotland. Schools go back on the w/c 11th August here, will teachers and pupils who have been on holiday in Spain not be able to go to school?

[gme]

If only everyone saw it like that. All I ever seem to hear on the news, or at work is whining bores bleating about how their annual couple of weeks cultivating alcoholism and skin cancer is their right.

What a fucking horrible comment, typical of a few you get on here. A lot of people work there arses off all year, are not outdoor types, and whos one big break a year is to fly to Spain and chill in the sun having a few beers but as they are not living in a van doing what you deem as virtuous stuff you write this.

Very daily mail esq stereotyping.

[seankenny]

I do have a shit immune system so I am more cautious than the general population...

I'm pretty gutted because this was a month long trip round classic western US venues with the Mrs at the end of my PhD, but  (most) of the rocks will still be there in a couple of years...

This may not be much of a consolation right now, but last year I spent a month in the US and my employer at the time was fine with it - a couple of weeks holiday allowance and a couple unpaid leave. It's not as if I had to do years in the place to get that either, I was on a shortish contract and just said that's what I wanted from the outset. These opportunities do exist if you ask for them, it's just that most people don't because they want other things.

On the other hand, covid is really horrible to have and not worth the risk, at least in my view.

[petejh]

During this pandemic I seem to have progressed from being able to go local bouldering during the lockdown, to being able to climb routes on the Naranjo Bulnes while nobody wants to risk being in Spain. Plus ca change.

[dunnyg]

Cheers Sean, yeah hopefully when I get a job and COVID is less of an issue I should be able to wangle something like that.

I'm with GME on that.

[gme]

Big increase in cases in the climbing areas of Spain and also lie de France which includes font. Guess they are both more related to the city areas but if lockdowns come in again will be regional.

[TobyD]

If only everyone saw it like that. All I ever seem to hear on the news, or at work is whining bores bleating about how their annual couple of weeks cultivating alcoholism and skin cancer is their right.

What a fucking horrible comment, typical of a few you get on here. A lot of people work there arses off all year, are not outdoor types, and whos one big break a year is to fly to Spain and chill in the sun having a few beers but as they are not living in a van doing what you deem as virtuous stuff you write this.

Very daily mail esq stereotyping.

That wasn't how I meant it, apologies. It wasn't specifically people going on beach holidays; I love going on beach holidays if I've got the time. It was the concept of feeling that flying abroad on holiday is anyone's right. But I accept that I was generally in a bad mood this morning, and should have moderated that one

[Bonjoy]

Interesting article here. Researchers have found a gene defect linked to severe Covid in otherwise healthy young men - https://medium.com/@shinjieyong/a-robust-genetic-risk-for-covid-19-in-healthy-young-men-is-finally-found-c1876369e24f

[Offwidth]

I wonder how many of such rare genetic issues will lead to problems through hypo or hyper sensitivity to infection. Kawasaki has already been widely highlighted.

One side of my family is prone to auto immune diseases so it's very pertinent to me. My father suffered from Guillain-Barré Syndrome, which is horrible... he was healthy and very fit but after a bout of flu was rushed into intensive care after his immune system attacked his body. He was initially paralysed but then his long recovery started, all the gain in nerve response comes with hard work and intense pain.

https://www.polyneuroexchange.com/gbs?gclid=Cj0KCQjwvIT5BRCqARIsAAwwD-SmzN_yLzbw2U2YAOBd3Fjy3Fi0_kB8zInqFlyS8QdEQSDK63WxE0MaAmcbEALw_wcB


On a different subject some musing on waves...it would be good to see a more in depth look at such things.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/29/one-big-wave-why-the-covid-19-second-wave-may-not-exist-coronavirus

[Oldmanmatt]

More evidence of children carrying the virus as much as any adult:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/health/coronavirus-children.html