Coronavirus

[MrGongGong]

I am related to a couple of police officers and object to your tone.

I am also related to folks in the police
and have friends who also are police officers

It's not "with us or against us"

[LMcD]

I've seen a few - but even those were too many - examples of appalling behaviour by members of the public, but the great majority appear to be behaving well, and I'm sure that goes for those who are trying to enforce - or encourage observance of - government guidelines that are not always as clear as they could be.

[MrGongGong]

Govt: We're talking to supermarkets
Supermarkets: You're not.

Govt: There's a shortage of chemicals
Chemicals companies: There isn't

Govt: The science has changed
Scientists: No it hasn't

Govt: We never got the email
EU: Yes you did

Govt: 25,000 tests per day
PHE: 7,000 tests per day

Govt: Ventilator companies are making ventilators for us
Ventilator Companies: you never got back to us. Dyson are though.

Govt: We've got 30,000 ventilators coming
Dyson: actually, it's 30 for now

Govt: PPE has been delivered
NHS: No it hasn't

Govt: We've built the Nightingale
Nurses: but no one can staff it though

Govt: Unprecedented economic package!
Self-employed: Not until June!

Govt: Banks will give you short term loans
Banks: 40% overdraft rates and we want your home as collateral

Govt: Save the NHS
Me: You bastards have been killing it for the last decade

Govt: We are not pursuing Herd immunity
WHO: Yes you are

Govt: We are not lying
Media: oh ok, good job old boy

Carry on ...............

[eighthobstruction]

Carry on ...............

[oddoneout]

A lot of these attempts to put Coronavirus deaths into context miss the point of the current restrictions. These are in place not just to reduce potential deaths from around 500,000 (if no action was taken at all) to around 20,000, but also to stop the NHS being overwhelmed by having to treat people with Covid19. The restrictions are intended to slow and reduce the infection rate and thereby to keep the numbers of hospital admissions at a manageable level; it is not just about how many people will die.

This is something which I feel isn't spelled out enough. Treating a Corvid19 patient is not equivalent to or just a bit more difficult than treating someone presenting with pneumonia. The resources needed for the former in terms of equipment, staff and space resources are an order of magnitude greater, ie one Covid19 patient could be as much of a load on the system as ? how many other respiratory patients. This would be enough of a challenge in any circumstances as events in other countries show, but given the much weakened state of NHS resources it is very much more of an issue. How many other patients could be routinely treated and survive/have acceptable outcomes if Corvid19 wasn't having to be dealt with, hence as I see it the priority that is needed, as you say, to try and limit spread and infection rates.

[Bryn]

I am related to a couple of police officers and object to your tone.

I will no longer take part in this group.

Good ridance!

Most members of the police service act with common sense. My next-door neighbour, for instance, has been most helpful and, unless he is on duty, will be outside the front of his house clapping along with his family and many other near neighbours. However, as clearly acknowledged by leading politicians, some police officers, including some of senior rank, have OTT in their response to those they see as not fully complying with government recomendations. Most police, as most of the public, are acting proportionately. A few are not. Nuff Sed.

[oddoneout]

Indeed and unless I have quite misread the sequence of events, the government has been following the lead of much of the populace, rather than taking a bold lead.

As to your second paragraph, while I would not go rock-hopping (and chimneying down between a couple of large rocks at one point) between high tides, from Shaldon to Maidencombe (a favourite 'stroll' when visiting the area), I do boot up and take in the boggy sections of my daily exercise here in east Berkshire. That way I stay very well distanced from other walkers.

Didn't some fairly well known chap make a comment about that - something about seeing which way people are going etc?

[jayne lee wilson]

“Rieux resolved to compile this chronicle [......]...to state quite simply what we learn in a time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in humankind than to despise.

He knew that the tale he had to tell could not be one of final victory. It could only be the record of what had to be done, and what assuredly would have to be done again, in the never-ending fight against terror and its onslaughts, despite their personal afflictions, by all who, while unable to be saints but refusing to bow down to pestilences, strive their utmost to be healers.

And indeed, as he listened to the cries of joy rising from the town, Rieux remembered that such joy is always imperilled. He knew what those jubilant crowds did not know but could have learned from books: that the plague bacillus never dies or disappears for good; that it can lie dormant for years in furniture and linen chests; that it bides its time in bedrooms, cellars, trunks, and bookshelves; and that perhaps the day would come when, for the bane and the enlightenment of humankind, it roused up its rats again and sent them forth to die in a happy city.”

Albert Camus, La Peste, 1947

[oddoneout]

“Rieux resolved to compile this chronicle [......]...to state quite simply what we learn in a time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in humankind than to despise.

He knew that the tale he had to tell could not be one of final victory. It could only be the record of what had to be done, and what assuredly would have to be done again, in the never-ending fight against terror and its onslaughts, despite their personal afflictions, by all who, while unable to be saints but refusing to bow down to pestilences, strive their utmost to be healers.

And indeed, as he listened to the cries of joy rising from the town, Rieux remembered that such joy is always imperilled. He knew what those jubilant crowds did not know but could have learned from books: that the plague bacillus never dies or disappears for good; that it can lie dormant for years in furniture and linen chests; that it bides its time in bedrooms, cellars, trunks, and bookshelves; and that perhaps the day would come when, for the bane and the enlightenment of humankind, it roused up its rats again and sent them forth to die in a happy city.”

Albert Camus, La Peste, 1947

Plague is still endemic in Mongolia.

[Dave2002]

Isn't it astounding that this suggested benefit of face masks hasn't been studied in detail - conclusively - for the flu virus? For some years now listed as the most likely, severe threat to health worldwide, when a highly transmissable mutation (bird flu, etc) occurs.

it is also surprising that the effect of sneezing hasn’t been looked at more carefully - or perhaps it has. Last year I saw a video demonstration of the effects of children sneezing norovirus in a room. Unless the video was fake, it went everywhere.

[johnb]

Phew, I can breath a sigh of relief now that Mat Hancock has told us that he has five pillars.

Reassuring.

[Jazzrook]

it is also surprising that the effect of sneezing hasn’t been looked at more carefully - or perhaps it has. Last year I saw a video demonstration of the effects of children sneezing norovirus in a room. Unless the video was fake, it went everywhere.

Remember when people used to say "Bless you" when you sneezed?

JR

[Padraig]

Remember when people used to say "Bless you" when you sneezed?

JR

That's a cue for tonight, 8 pm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNZQzpWCTlA

[eighthobstruction]

....Matt has pillars....but has he a foundation and a roof....is his first pillar keyed in....is Hercules anywhere to be seen....Pillars of Wisdom....????? Pillars of Bodge....Flakey Pillars....are all the Pillars the same height....????

Ed: 'pillars' especially chosen by Whitehall because it is difficult to rhyme....

[zola]

Anybody had their letter from Johnson yet ? Presumably being dealt with by the same people procuring PPE ?