Mr Newbie

You can see every post I’ve made from my feed. I think suggesting some posters might be Covid mentalists when they’ve posted a load of scaremongering rubbish to deliberately try to twist arguments seems to be grounds enough. We really do seem to prefer the general doom and gloom spreading here. Let’s just shut the borders for a few years and hope we don’t have to resort to cannibalism in the meantime. I’m coming round to that idea as it’s been force fed to me so many times now.

Thanks for clarifying.

Which language specifically given that I have only made a few posts above in the last few weeks as I was banned for suggesting that many people posting fear and spreading general panic and false information in relation to Covid are bordering on being obsessive lunatics. That doesn’t seem to be a popular view on here which seems to prefer posts being about doom and gloom so we all might finally believe we’re going to die if the borders open up again. So no not on my follow list at all. The messiah comments come from seeing how many people re-share those Tweets like they’re gospel.

Now there’s a real conspiracy theory if ever there was one. To be honest I don’t follow you I only follow re posts about you on here or things that others re-tweet. Who is trolling you either? It was just an observation from some of the re posts and re-tweets I’ve seen of your content. You see that’s the thing about social media you often create impressions of yourself that don’t come across to others in the same way as you meant. A few people have mentioned costs above and if in that response you’re saying that you’re running yourself ragged trying to do stuff on the cheap for government and that’s perhaps one of the reasons why we aren’t testing as many people as other islands seem to be doing then I’d say that’s information that might be material to others wondering why we’re still taking the low volume self service approach that we seem to be taking when Jersey seem to be blitzing it and Guernsey is testing a significant amount more too.

That’s your opinion but she seems to have a strong leaning towards self-publicity and scoffing at anything that falls outside of what is clearly the agreed government party line. When that happens I’m afraid it usually suggests that they don't want anyone digging at the substance as it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny and they know it. The Jersey approach seems to be the right one. It’s open, it’s transparent, it’s producing loads of data that can be assessed and analyzed to establish the real risks of an open island and it’s allowing the economy to function better by facilitating business and tourist travel whilst at the same time managing transmission risks. In contrast our policy seems to be to ask people to lock themselves up for 14 days, don’t monitor them anyway, don’t test them unless they themselves ask for a test (!) but then claim that somehow miraculously just closing the borders is responsible for no Covid which also accentuates people’s sense of isolation from the rest of the world and fear of ‘newcomers’. It makes little sense to me. As Thommo2010 says there’s bound to be people who have brought it back and had it. But if we actively don’t test them unless they’re actually ill and ask for a test we’ll never know. As it stands people aren’t observing self isolation we know that for a fact from the arrests and all the nosy neighbour reports on social media. But then I suppose looking at the data why should they self isolate? The official statistics show that nobody self isolating has had Covid as we haven't tested any of them unless they asked to be tested so does that mean that officially the risk of breaking quarantine is next to zero as nobody has tested positive anyway? So that then leaves the question of what is the real transmission risk in the IOM? Nobody knows. The system is only as tight as our self isolation checking process which seems to be pretty slack given only 1/3 of people got a visit or a phone call up until a few weeks ago.

Now there’s someone with a messiah complex if ever there was one.

Absolutely correct. It seems like the perfect IOM government solution. Let’s not test those at the very highest range of the risk spectrum and claim we’re Covid free.

Are they? I see arguments above being twisted by a load of covid mentalists to suit their paranoid scaremongering views but I don't see anyone actually calling for that at all.

I just think you should probably just learn to read.

How is that going to happen. We’ve got entry controls and a requirement to self isolate for two weeks. How is this forecast second wave going to happen here exactly outside of a few isolated cases which will be found and traced within the matter of a day or so?

It seems that it’s really a load of bored petrified pensioners like you who are ignoring the facts. If you’re that scared because of your age or health then you should have shielded yourself since the middle of March not demanded that the whole world stops around you. There will be something new to worry about soon. Nobody will have any money as the state support is ending and people will start to be laid off in record numbers. Still I suppose even then you can still afford to sit in your house posting scaremongering covid rubbish on your pension forever!

I agree but how is that going to end up in the IOM with border controls and a requirement to self isolate for 14 days on return from the UK? I’m sorry but it’s all just scaremongering. There are people out there who literally can’t wait for the next wave. They’ll be holding next wave parties next so that they can all collectively pray to the Gods that it’s going to happen! The fact is that we all need to learn to live with this and take risks otherwise things are just going to get worse. But the hardcore of people who seem to think they’ve been handed a get out of jail free card on all this and that they just sit at home for a few years getting paid to do sod all is untrue. There will be a very rude awakening towards the end of the third quarter of 2020.

It’s happening again on Facebook this morning now following Ashfords announcement about the possible return of covid (how?) https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/island-prepared-for-possible-covid-return/ CLOSE THE BORDERS LETS HAVE ANOTHER THREE MONTHS OFF !!!!

That’s highly unlikely on past performance. The problem with the IOM is it’s specific demographic. Too many pensioners on fixed incomes, too many people working for government who will get paid whatever and only a small proportion of people who want or need to work. That’s really the problem (which is different to Jersey and Guernsey where residents are largely private sector) and sadly it seems that a whole pile of people have seen that if they can pad this out they’ll be getting paid to do bugger all for years as the economy dies around everyone else. It feels like a race to the bottom at the moment. We had a chance to come out of it exceptionally well but the general mood here seems to want the economy to tank as so many people seem to think that they can live on magic government money forever and they won’t be affected.

The Guernsey trips are sold out and more flights now added so it’s unfair to say we’re doing nothing for tourism. But it is certainly the case that uninformed public opinion is holding us back. Government seems to literally be petrified of upsetting a load of covid-obsessed lunatics who want us to go back to spuds and herring just so they can spend the next 10 years doing sod all instead of working.