Have You Started Attending Concerts?

[HighlandDougie]

As we are going to try to get to Glyndebourne in a few weeks time I thought I'd try to get the vaccination documents. Total shambles. Scottish system doesn't seem to cope. One gets passed from pillar to post - [web-site, then phone] REPEAT

Then try phoning the surgery. They don't have any helpful suggestions, and when the receptionist mentions that "it worked for her" I point out that if it works for 99 people there's no guarantee that it'll work for 100. As usual silo thinking means that there's no communication between government departments and local surgeries, and no sensible way that I can see to progress this further.

There's always my MP, I suppose.

No wonder the government has dropped attempts to do ID cards - someone must have realised that it would be so chaotic and badly implemented that there'd be riots in the streets!

Omnishambles!

While I wouldn't disagree with the general view of anything to do with vaccine certification and Scotland being omni-shambolic, it should be possible to download the, 'NHS Scotland record of vaccination', if you have had both vaccinations in Scotland. It's a slightly clunky process through NHS Inform which requires the generation of a unique user name (for which, I think, you may need your 10 digit CHI number). But, that done, it's then very straightforward to generate a PDF with your vaccination status and related QR codes. If, however, you are referring to the new NHS Scotland Covid Status App, that now does work, although I suspect that it would give TS apoplexy as it demands photographic proof of one's identity to be uploaded (Passport or Driving Licence).

If you want a simple vaccination pass on your smartphone, you can scan the NHS Scotland QR code (the right-hand one on the certificate) into the very easy-to-download and then use French 'Tous Anti Covid' app which doesn't require photographic proof of identity, about which I have to admit feeling decidedly uneasy as that is starting to stray rather near to identity card territory.

[Dave2002]

Interesting comments re the NHS Scotland app.

I suspect that we don't in fact need to bother with any of this anyway - hope not. Glyndebourne are not requiring documentary evidence any more, and the recommendations about lateral flow tests are just that - AFAIK - recommendations.

I did try to get details of my vaccinations via this site - https://nhsinform-n1.azurewebsites.n...ination-status and maybe a very similar one.

The process is clunky as you say, and I believe I was able to retrieve my user name required to access the data. However either retrieving the password, or creating a new one led up blind alleys and seemingly registration errors or failures. One is supposed to know the data of vaccinations in order to retrieve the user name, though I suspect that it doesn't have to be correct to the nearest day.

So basically I stick by my assertion that the process is next to unworkable. It "should" be possible to download relevant information, but in practice it might not be. For random and uncertain reasons some people may have more success with this than others.

[Cockney Sparrow]

As we are going to try to get to Glyndebourne in a few weeks time I thought I'd try to get the vaccination documents. Total shambles. Scottish system doesn't seem to cope. One gets passed from pillar to post - [web-site, then phone] REPEAT

Then try phoning the surgery. They don't have any helpful suggestions, and when the receptionist mentions that "it worked for her" I point out that if it works for 99 people there's no guarantee that it'll work for 100. As usual silo thinking means that there's no communication between government departments and local surgeries, and no sensible way that I can see to progress this further.

There's always my MP, I suppose.

No wonder the government has dropped attempts to do ID cards - someone must have realised that it would be so chaotic and badly implemented that there'd be riots in the streets!

Omnishambles!

Would that be your MSP? I presume your problems are within the more authoritarian/community minded/what Nicola thinks mini-state of devolved Scotland?

Down here, south of the border, anything goes at present - and anything that is going to change usually happens at 10 or more days notice. Unless you are located out of these Isles on holiday or business... Actually to be fair, we are asked to be cautious, to wear masks in crowded situations, hospitals and Transport for London services. But if you think its a load of baloney, doesn't look like anyone will force you otherwise.

You should be OK at Glyndebourne:

https://www.glyndebourne.com/your-visit/keeping-you-safe-at-glyndebourne/

Perhaps its setting you thinking about gatherings of more than 500 (IIRC - think I read 500) in Scotland though. In fact, I'll be crossing the border (but not by much) for a week's stay later this month, so I suppose I'll be looking up the current regs at Visit Scotland soon.

[Jonathan]

Not yet but if I'd been in the vicinity of London, I could have seen Boris Giltburg at the Wigmore this evening because I was lucky enough to win two tickets from Naxos's competition on FaceBook. Unfortunately, I can't there this evening (it's a long way from Yorkshire and I have zero holiday left plus it was too short notice). I actually entered the competition in the hope of winning his boxed set of Beethoven Sonatas.

All the times I've entered competitions and won nothing and then, I actually win something I would have liked to go to and I can't.

Stephen Hough is playing in York on Wednesday and I can't make that one either

[teamsaint]

The best thing that could happen to vaccination passports is that everybody boycotts them , at the very least till there is some actual demonstrable public health benefit. Apart from any moral or ethical concerns, they will always have issues around practical implementation.
I certainly will be boycotting anywhere that requires them, tough though this may be.
Just IMHO of course.

[LHC]

Would that be your MSP? I presume your problems are within the more authoritarian/community minded/what Nicola thinks mini-state of devolved Scotland?

Down here, south of the border, anything goes at present - and anything that is going to change usually happens at 10 or more days notice. Unless you are located out of these Isles on holiday or business... Actually to be fair, we are asked to be cautious, to wear masks in crowded situations, hospitals and Transport for London services. But if you think its a load of baloney, doesn't look like anyone will force you otherwise.

You should be OK at Glyndebourne:

https://www.glyndebourne.com/your-visit/keeping-you-safe-at-glyndebourne/

Perhaps its setting you thinking about gatherings of more than 500 (IIRC - think I read 500) in Scotland though. In fact, I'll be crossing the border (but not by much) for a week's stay later this month, so I suppose I'll be looking up the current regs at Visit Scotland soon.

Hopefully you won’t be met at the border by Nicola’s minions.

[Bryn]

The next time I visit England's northern neighbour, I intend to prepare for the visit by getting hold of a range of Ulster Bank 'paper' money. just to see the range of reations when proffering them in payment for this, that and the other.

[Barbirollians]

People can get seriously and die from lots of different communicable diseases. Flu for example. I never let that stopped me going to concerts before.

I've looked at the details and I judge my risk following double vaccination to be insignificant, but then I don't have any underlying conditions. YMMV etc

I see a well known 53 year old double vaccinated (make up artist I think ) with no underlying health conditions is reported in The Times as having died of Covid yesterday. We have twice as many cases per 100 people as the rest of Europe and the second highest number of new cases in the world- 1000 or so died last week of Covid . I am rather less blasé about this awful disease.

[Bryn]

I see a well known 53 year old double vaccinated (make up artist I think ) with no underlying health conditions is reported in The Times as having died of Covid yesterday. We have twice as many cases per 100 people as the rest of Europe and the second highest number of new cases in the world- 1000 or so died last week of Covid . I am rather less blasé about this awful disease.

I find it decidedly concerning that more and more the gist of the govenment's line is that the pandemic is effectively yesterday's problem. However, https://theconversation.com/most-cov...arm-you-163671 offers a rather different perspective.

[Cockney Sparrow]

The next time I visit England's northern neighbour, I intend to prepare for the visit by getting hold of a range of Ulster Bank 'paper' money. just to see the range of reations when proffering them in payment for this, that and the other.

Promise me you'll include Glasgow outer estate corner shops in your target recipients......

[teamsaint]

I see a well known 53 year old double vaccinated (make up artist I think ) with no underlying health conditions is reported in The Times as having died of Covid yesterday. We have twice as many cases per 100 people as the rest of Europe and the second highest number of new cases in the world- 1000 or so died last week of Covid . I am rather less blasé about this awful disease.

One problem is that the remorseless focus on covid, clearly at the expense of other health interventions, leads us to results like this.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bdfaa928-2535-11ec-80e0-b4b33b6f1716?shareToken=cb75d38407235acbc930751dc9045492

We can't "solve" covid, as New Zealand have discovered. And applying unproven interventions just compounds the health issues by creating other societal problems.
And the issues around serious adverse reactions to the vaccines are getting minimal media coverage.
Coercion won't solve an " hesitancy " issues either, as the govt well knows.
None of which is to take covid at all lightly. There is just more than one thing to deal with.

[CallMePaul]

I will be at the Quatuor Danel concert at Manchester University on Friday (unfortunately I cannot get to the Thursday lunchtime freebie). The programme is quartets by Hans Rott (I hope it's up to the quality of his Symphony) and Hugo Wolf (I have heard and enjoyed these previously). I have just done a Day 2 test following a holiday in Greece, which was negative and I have no qualms about attending a concert. Sadly, the University does not market these concerts well, so attendances are poor. Perhaps R3 should be invited to record some of them (there will be a complete Shostakovich cycle in the new year, so this might be a good place to start)?

[gurnemanz]

For a year of pandemic I was very (even neurotically) cautious. Since double vaccination we have been to two concerts and once to the theatre. Our choir practices have resumed with about three quarters of previous members returning. I find myself not regarding the danger involved as greater than that of the other thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to (the play we saw was Hamlet) - crossing the road, breaking down on a smart motorway, a lorry crushing me as I ride my bike, falling down stairs, getting flu, cancer, dementia, food poisoning etc.

(... hope not my famous last words)

[Barbirollians]

I ducked out in the end of going to the Halle's first concert in Sheffield since lockdown began in March 2020 .

WE have the second highest number of new cases everyday in the world and they are now in the mid/low 40,000s a day and how many I wonder are missing due to the Wolverhampton laboratory cock up. Cases are increasing in older groups which may mean vaccination immunity is waning and despite the booster announcement nothing seems to be happening in Yorkshire about it. It is rife in schools up here too.

Our Prime Minister is an ostrich just wanting and pretending it has all gone away and I think it is time to reduce not increase risk fo exposure.

[french frank]

IOur Prime Minister is an ostrich just wanting and pretending it has all gone away and I think it is time to reduce not increase risk fo exposure.

Virtually all regions of England, and Wales, have now passed the 400 new cases per 100k population.