COVID-19 Pandemic

[Methuselah]

31 minutes ago, alexisj9 said:

So you think half the world including some EU countries, shutting their borders to stop the virus getting in or out is normal? 

Not that any of that'll prevent wild/domesticated animals from carrying viruses hither and yonder...And, what of those lovely, warm, cuddly and airborne flittermice that allegedly caused all this in the first place?

IMO, we can either accept emergence, for what it is (and prepare for it) or we can pretend we have everything under control and hope for the best...?

But we can't do both!

Edited March 15, 2020 by General Cluster

[Spikecollie]

Starting to talk about shutting down transport here now - Djebbari, the Transport Minister says 7 out of ten trains will run, then down further from the coming week.

A train or bus is the last place I would want to take myself right now.

[Zak M]

 

[kold weather]

1 minute ago, Zak M said:

 

If we believe in the offical cases thats another record day for deaths, getting ever closer to the 1,000 mark now, and I fear its going to be getting much worse!

[mountain shadow]

A neighbour of ours has gone round all the houses to set up a Whats App group so we can all look out for one another, particularly as we have a couple of over eighties in our street who live alone.

Things like this, can bring communities together.

[Snowyowl9]

47 minutes ago, General Cluster said:

Indeed Matty; I have been thinking of re-watching Contagion for some days now (I have two doctors in my immediate family)...

And, anyway, it's a good opportunity for seeing Kate Winslett wearing clothes!

That`ll depress you thats hollywood over the top

[nick sussex]

The French semi lockdown is a mess . And holding the municipal elections today after announcing that last night look even more ridiculous.

A lot of politicians here are now rounding on the government, rightly so IMO.

Regarding the mixed messaging in the UK.  Patrick Vallance the UK chief scientific officer says says the aim is to build up some herd immunity . Matt Hancock today , says no this isn’t government policy . So another mess .

Edited March 15, 2020 by nick sussex

[Azazel]

30 minutes ago, Zak M said:

 

South Korea seem to have handled this thing rather spectacularly.

I’m super envious.

[kold weather]

Malaysia has also seen a fairly dramatic increase in the past 24hrs, up nearly 50% on yesterday.

So that is now 4 countries in SE Asia that have seen a dramatic clock upwards at the same time...could be about to test the hot weather theory as there looks like a new hot zone for the virus maybe brewing down there given all 4 countries show a large increase (all 4 are above 20% increase)

[matty007]

9 minutes ago, Zak M said:

 

This is so widely under the real figure that I have no more words.

 

[markyo]

1 hour ago, General Cluster said:

Much of that apparent daftness'll be down to would-be black marketeers, I suspect...Out to make a killing!

Surely you don't mean the supermarkets.....having stacks of loo rolls as the first thing you see when you go in,having offers on frozen food all of a sudden,they aren't out to make a killing are they..

[booferking]

This is the big question i have with all this the government had plenty of money over the years why has there not been stock supplies of these type of things (ie) ventilators and so on for the likely event of an outbreak of a deadly virus history tells us this happens nearly every 100 years we pay plenty of taxes?

Edited March 15, 2020 by booferking

[Spikecollie]

2 minutes ago, nick sussex said:

The French semi lockdown is a mess . And holding the municipal elections today after announcing that last night look even more ridiculous.

A lot of politicians here are now rounding on the government, rightly so IMO.

Regarding the mixed messaging in the UK.  Patrick Vallance the UK chief scientific officer says says the aim is to build up some herd immunity . Matt Hancock today , says no this isn’t government policy . So another mess .

What I don't fully understand is the closure of Centres Commerciales. Take our Carrefour in Limoges. There is the food shop, which presumably stays open, but all the small peripheral shops will be closed. What conceivable difference will that make to the situation. What's happening with DIY stores? That's something my neighbour asked this morning. People are just confused by these measures and confusion is not what we want...

[kold weather]

Just now, booferking said:

This is the big question i have with all this the government have had plenty of money over the years why has there not been stock supplies of these type of things (ie) ventilators and so on for the likely event of an outbreak of a deadly virus history tells us this happens nearly every 100 years we pay plenty of taxes?

I think its the end result of the 'just in time' 'just enough' 'profit vs cost' environment that has existed in the last 30 or so years. The concept of saving in general has more or less decayed to irrelevance now.

 

[Methuselah]

6 minutes ago, markyo said:

Surely you don't mean the supermarkets.....having stacks of loo rolls as the first thing you see when you go in,having offers on frozen food all of a sudden,they aren't out to make a killing are they..

As far as I'm concerned, they can stick their loo rolls where the sun don't shine...There's no way, I'll be buying 50 packs at once...

Edited March 15, 2020 by General Cluster

[nick sussex]

1 minute ago, Spikecollie said:

What I don't fully understand is the closure of Centres Commerciales. Take our Carrefour in Limoges. There is the food shop, which presumably stays open, but all the small peripheral shops will be closed. What conceivable difference will that make to the situation. What's happening with DIY stores? That's something my neighbour asked this morning. People are just confused by these measures and confusion is not what we want...

This looks like an ill thought out panic measure . And even more embarrassing when you’re putting in social distancing measures the night before you’re telling people to go and vote in elections.

[matty007]

1 minute ago, booferking said:

This is the big question i have with all this the government have had plenty of money over the years why has there not been stock supplies of these type of things (ie) ventilators and so on for the likely event of an outbreak of a deadly virus history tells us this happens nearly every 100 years we pay plenty of taxes?

This is the million-dollar question. Basically, it's a head in the sand mentality. 'Oh, it won't happen again'. Disease X has long been anticipated, and this is it. As said earlier, the cost of more ventilators, masks (so important) and more medicine is but a slither of the money we spend annually on warfare. They always think we are impending war, but fail to see the real threat in their face...microbes.

Unfortunately, quite a few elderly people will pay for this mistake with their lives when there are no ventilators, no masks. Many nurses to become infected too.
.

[ciel]

A new policy regarding testing for Covid19 has apparently been announced by the Scottish Govt. this morning. Testing will be carried out in GP surgeries for people presenting with symptoms. I can’t find this advice via a search on the internet, but a Scottish prof, Devi Sridhar, on BBC ‘Politics Scotland’ confirmed and welcomed this policy change but would like it extended to those self-isolating at home. In her opinion, testing and contact tracing were essential in order to break the chain of transmission

[alexisj9]

2 hours ago, beatpete said:

I run a few holiday cottages in Wales. we have 2 issues, everyone is cancelling as too scared to travel, my cleaners are quiting as the virus stays on surfaces for days, we are currently closing down everything for a few months, I have not idea if the business will survive. 

I'm sorry to hear that, unfortunately you are not alone, this is going to be bad for the whole industry. I hope somehow you will be alright. 

[Spikecollie]

1 minute ago, kold weather said:

I think its the end result of the 'just in time' 'just enough' 'profit vs cost' environment that has existed in the last 30 or so years. The concept of saving in general has more or less decayed to irrelevance now.

 

Exactly. There's a societal-wide problem and this "thing" has just blown it wide open for everyone to see. The question is whether we will, everyone, every culture clan and country, actually learn anything from this let alone make any changes.

[kold weather]

7 minutes ago, nick sussex said:

The French semi lockdown is a mess . And holding the municipal elections today after announcing that last night look even more ridiculous.

A lot of politicians here are now rounding on the government, rightly so IMO.

Regarding the mixed messaging in the UK.  Patrick Vallance the UK chief scientific officer says says the aim is to build up some herd immunity . Matt Hancock today , says no this isn’t government policy . So another mess .

Seriously that is utter madness. If your going to lockdown, to have any hope you need to do it properly. It may be impossible anyway, but doing things like that means you may as well not even bother making the sacrifices in the first place because it will undo all the hard work.

As for our government, I feel the problem is the herd immunity is politically too difficult for large numbers of the public to swallow. I suspect now the best thing to do is to purposefully scare the public into listening. It might need Boris saying something like 1 in 10 of your grandparents/parents will die from this. It might help to focus minds, or say outright based on current projections with no change, half a million will die. It won't be nice to hear, but it might snap people out of their complacency. 

[Snipper]

13 minutes ago, nick sussex said:

The French semi lockdown is a mess . And holding the municipal elections today after announcing that last night look even more ridiculous.

A lot of politicians here are now rounding on the government, rightly so IMO.

Regarding the mixed messaging in the UK.  Patrick Vallance the UK chief scientific officer says says the aim is to build up some herd immunity . Matt Hancock today , says no this isn’t government policy . So another mess .

Day to day policy is not the same a a long term aim. 

Edited March 15, 2020 by Snipper

[Snipper]

30 minutes ago, Spikecollie said:

Agree! OH's parents are very confused ATM, are they not supposed to go out or will that happen later - these mixed message are not helping anyone.

Same here in France, what's open and what's not? Seems to be very ad hoc...

Can you imagine if us lot were trying to agree  a policy? No chance of ever achieving something any time soon. None of us has our heads on the block so we can all  be fairly relaxed about it.

[Spikecollie]

2 minutes ago, kold weather said:

Seriously that is utter madness. If your going to lockdown, to have any hope you need to do it properly. It may be impossible anyway, but doing things like that means you may as well not even bother making the sacrifices in the first place because it will undo all the hard work.

As for our government, I feel the problem is the herd immunity is politically too difficult for large numbers of the public to swallow. I suspect now the best thing to do is to purposefully scare the public into listening. It might need Boris saying something like 1 in 10 of your grandparents/parents will die from this. It might help to focus minds, or say outright based on current projections with no change, half a million will die. It won't be nice to hear, but it might snap people out of their complacency. 

I've gone passed the scared phase and I'm just really annoyed. Mixed messages from leaders are just insane. We need to know what we are doing here - locking down like Italy/SK/China or just letting this "thing" take its course. Uncertainty will just impede any measures that are taken as people simply won't know what they should be doing and will make their own decisions. Either make decisions for us, or stop these half-bummed measures that are just leaving people in a complete quandry...

[Snipper]

20 minutes ago, mountain shadow said:

A neighbour of ours has gone round all the houses to set up a Whats App group so we can all look out for one another, particularly as we have a couple of over eighties in our street who live alone.

Things like this, can bring communities together.

And some low lifes might risk being lynched.