Hope you've all seen (or are going to see) the latest Brooker Screenwipe....
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Naah it's all cr*pOriginally posted by jayne lee wilson View Post
The BBC has gone to the dogs
Bring back Pied Piper
and beer like it used to be
and so on and so on and so on
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From the "Torygraph" (ha ha ha how witty am I
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From Ambrose Evans-Pritchard who is International Business Editor of The Daily Telegraph
"I have been silent on Covid-19 for a while. There was little to be gained from harrying the Government once it had abandoned the misadventure of herd immunity and was at least trying to get a grip. Much of the belated media onslaught is reflexive gotcha-journalism (where were they in February when the mistakes were made?), or hides an ideological agenda.
But claims by both Downing Street and Public Health England that they “got it right” cannot be allowed to stand. Nor can the pretence that each stage of the containment policy is being fed out at just right time and at just the right calibration under the Jupiterian guidance of behavioural theorists.
There was never anything to be gained from delaying the lockdown once the brushfire had slipped control due to lack of testing/tracing. Each three days of prevarication meant a doubling of the infection case load. It was to sink deeper into the quagmire. Nor did the SAGE committee ever have a sufficient grasp of the basic facts to fine-tune the timing, let alone to play God.
The facts will out but it is hard to escape the conclusion that this secretive body – neither institutional fish nor fowl, with opaque responsibilities – gravely misjudged the speed of contagion long after the danger was obvious to virologists, immunologists, and epidemiologists across the world, and indeed to anybody paying attention.
Why does it make sense to impose a two-week quarantine on foreign arrivals at this late stage (excluding Ireland and France), rather than having done so when imported cases were first causing an explosion of infections in a virgin host community?
A Covid cardiologist at a top London hospital – friendly to Boris – has been so incensed by the daily charade of bogus omniscience that he vented his spleen in an email to me on Sunday night. It is a poignant indictment, so I pass along a few snippets.
Basically, every mistake that could have been made, was made. He likened the care home policy to the Siege of Caffa in 1346, that grim chapter of the Black Death when a Mongol army catapulted plague-ridden bodies over the walls.
“Our policy was to let the virus rip and then ‘cocoon the elderly’,” he wrote. “You don’t know whether to laugh or cry when you contrast that with what we actually did. We discharged known, suspected, and unknown cases into care homes which were unprepared, with no formal warning that the patients were infected, no testing available, and no PPE to prevent transmission. We actively seeded this into the very population that was most vulnerable.
“We let these people die without palliation. The official policy was not to visit care homes – and they didn’t (and still don’t). So, after infecting them with a disease that causes an unpleasant ending, we denied our elders access to a doctor – denied GP visits – and denied admission to hospital. Simple things like fluids, withheld. Effective palliation like syringe drivers, withheld.”
The public has yet to realise that the great quest for ventilators was worse than a red herring. The overuse of ventilators was itself killing people at a terrifying ratio and behind that lies another institutional failure.
“When the inquiry comes, it will show that many people died for lack of oxygen supply in hospitals, and this led to early intubation,” writes the doctor. “Boris survived because they gave him oxygen. High flow oxygen wasn’t available as a treatment option for all patients.”Comment
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Originally posted by MrGongGong View PostFrom the "Torygraph" (ha ha ha how witty am I)Ouch - really damning stuff. Truly appalling. This does't look like fake news, but rather a view from someone who really saw what was happening.“We let these people die without palliation. The official policy was not to visit care homes – and they didn’t (and still don’t). So, after infecting them with a disease that causes an unpleasant ending, we denied our elders access to a doctor – denied GP visits – and denied admission to hospital. Simple things like fluids, withheld. Effective palliation like syringe drivers, withheld.”
The public has yet to realise that the great quest for ventilators was worse than a red herring. The overuse of ventilators was itself killing people at a terrifying ratio and behind that lies another institutional failure.
“When the inquiry comes, it will show that many people died for lack of oxygen supply in hospitals, and this led to early intubation,” writes the doctor. “Boris survived because they gave him oxygen. High flow oxygen wasn’t available as a treatment option for all patients.”
I don't expect the government to get everything right, but it looks as though they have got an awful lot very wrong. In addition, the pretence that it was all planned and managed - just dreadful. Seems disingenuous to me. Apologies would help - fractionally.Comment
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Apologies (and we aren't going to get one) don't help at allOriginally posted by Dave2002 View Post
We do have lots of places we can send Boris and the others responsible... Dartmoor, Rampton, The Scrubs, Brixton and so on
for a long time would be a good idea IMV
But, there is no justice and they will simply walk away with more wealth.Comment
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I didn't suggest that apologies would help a great deal, but some people seem to now think - no doubt "politics nouveau" that the days when one would screw up, either deliberately or otherwise, and then have to apologise, or resign are just "so early 21st Century"! Totally passé. All that political "etiquette" - a load of ............!!!Originally posted by MrGongGong View PostComment
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Apologies might help a lot in the long run. Many of the Tory faithful believe what they're told, and if they're told "We got everything right" - so did Trump, incidentally - that's what they'll believe. Tell them we made so many mistakes in our ignorance that your loved ones are now dead and people may think again when it comes to voting. Heaven knows, I wouldn't wish them to make a hash of things just so that people will vote them out. But they have made a hash of things, so get rid when you get a chance, people.Originally posted by Dave2002 View PostComment
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Hancock has been spinning their latest "lets make believe" line in the last day or two that they put a protective ring around Care Homes early on. Instead of commandeering all supplies of PPE for the NHS.
They really think we are stupid. Trouble is too many are - wilfully or not.
I'm fairly amazed to think that the Tory daily rag would print an article like that (look forward to some background info emerging in Private Eye).Comment
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I found this interesting, and telling, in light of the two documentaries shown earlier this week on BBC2 following the Covid-19 teams at the Royal Free. A patient who had been intubated for 13 days was at risk of dying because the tube had got stuck in her throat. A surgeon was able to remove it and it was replaced with a smaller one - this was a first for the surgeon but as he said what was learned from the operation(a first and very much a case of 'she will die if we don't at least try') has informed subsequent practice about using smaller tubes to prevent the problem arising. It was not known beforehand how a throat area infected with the virus would develop swelling and ulcers in response to the tube, and presumably the thinking had been to put in as large an airway as possible given the critical state of the patient's breathing problems.The public has yet to realise that the great quest for ventilators was worse than a red herring. The overuse of ventilators was itself killing people at a terrifying ratio and behind that lies another institutional failure.
“When the inquiry comes, it will show that many people died for lack of oxygen supply in hospitals, and this led to early intubation,” writes the doctor. “Boris survived because they gave him oxygen. High flow oxygen wasn’t available as a treatment option for all patients.”
The issue with oxygen supply was frightening to see - alarms and warning lights going off all over and having to make decisions about how much oxygen to give to the patients using it, knowing the effects of reducing the quantity for so many. The tanks on site were being emptied so quickly that trying to keep up was very difficult - a month's supply being used in two to three days. There were also worries about the system being used at maximum capacity 24/7, as that had never been necessary before. Additional tank storage was being installed which they hoped would solve the capacity issue.
Something else from those programmes was how it seemed impossible to say who would and who would not survive a critical infection. The lady on the ventilator( a BAME nurse, working in the NHS since 1970) recovered and walked out of the hospital - her thank-you speech to the staff was very moving. A recent kidney transplant patient in his 40s looked certain to succumb, and his medical team didn't expect a positive outcome I think even if they hoped for the best, but he did recover, although as they said it justified the hospital's decision to suspend transplants when they did( I think he was the last one they did). Of two gentlemen in their 80s who were very ill, one survived and one didn't - again what were the determining factors(if any other than age) - pre-existing health conditions, better infection- fighting capability - who knows? They both had similar practical mental attitudes.Comment
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Thanks for this. Fascinating and frightening. I did not see this programme but they showed the film of the operation on the BAME nurse on Gogglebox last night, and I found the whole thing very moving, especially her farewell speech to the Staff as she left the ward.Originally posted by oddoneout View Post
In an unfortunate development in the care home in Portree on Skye, where there have now been ten deaths in as many days, the suggestion is that there were not enough staff in the home and the decision was made to move staff from a Kent care home, part of the same company. There is no Covid reported in the community so far, so the assumption is that this is where the virus came from.Comment
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Here is an interesting map of the geography of Covid-19 deaths in the UK.
In section six it shows the deaths per "Middle Layer Super Output Areas" which seems to mean areas with the same population, about 10-20k. In Cumbria, which has a very high rate per 100k population, it shows that most of the deaths are in the surrounding areas (where I live), rather than the Lake District.
As it was published on 1st May, I expect a revised edition on 1st June.Comment
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....yes, interesting....Originally posted by Beresford View PostHere is an interesting map of the geography of Covid-19 deaths in the UK.
In section six it shows the deaths per "Middle Layer Super Output Areas" which seems to mean areas with the same population, about 10-20k. In Cumbria, which has a very high rate per 100k population, it shows that most of the deaths are in the surrounding areas (where I live), rather than the Lake District.
As it was published on 1st May, I expect a revised edition on 1st June.bong chingComment
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I haven't read the fine detail (if any) but assume that, if hospital deaths, the home address will be registered and show up as a dot; for care home deaths, the care home is likely to be the home address too, so it is perhaps not surprising that, for example, the Lake District as such shows up as less affected than Kendal or another town where there might be a care home. Isn't the greatest Cumbrian concern Barrow?Originally posted by Beresford View PostHere is an interesting map of the geography of Covid-19 deaths in the UK.
In section six it shows the deaths per "Middle Layer Super Output Areas" which seems to mean areas with the same population, about 10-20k. In Cumbria, which has a very high rate per 100k population, it shows that most of the deaths are in the surrounding areas (where I live), rather than the Lake District.
As it was published on 1st May, I expect a revised edition on 1st June.Comment
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Bearing in mind Professor Spiegenhalter's view that judicious comparisons CAN be made between countries, I thought the comparison between Sweden and Portugal might be interesting. Roughly the same population 10.3m, comparable number of infection cases 29k. Sweden has more recorded recoveries, but also more than twice the number of deaths. Portugal, adjoining Spain which was hit very hard, went into lockdown very promptly and attributes the small number of deaths to that fact. Sweden, where Scandinavian countries have all been less affected, went for voluntary social distancing and has done less well. Portugal also has quite an elderly population. What other factors might have been in play?
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Difficult to be sure, and the data will be changing on a day to day basis. From the map it doesn't look significantly worse, and it's significantly better than large cities such as Manchester and Liverpool. Probing the map suggests that some parts of the UK do have low incidence - for example the south west. It only takes a few minutes to scan the map, though whether it gets updated frequently I don't know, and it's clear that in some parts of the map the figures are just averaged out over a rather large area.Originally posted by Pulcinella View PostComment
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