SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)

Watching the governor of California giving his briefing; it's night and day away from Trump's daily show, which I've stopped watching now for a few weeks.
 
Just noticed that Scotland has 447 deaths from only 4957 cases, with 1781 hospitalized - that's a very worrying rate on every level, which points to a severe lack of testing. Not to be too morbid, but is there a detailed list of the UK, where you can monitor the testing done in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, or possibly the counties of England? I've watched quite a few news reports from the London area, but the rest seems to be a bit forgotten.
 
Walrus said:
Meh. You can indeed argue that the odus should not be on private commercial organisations, or indeed wealthy individuals, to be responding to a crisis, but the reality is simply that government simply cannot afford it by itself. Its an extreme comparison, but look at the World Wars - companies were enlisted to produce was was required for the national war effort, civilian factories were repurposed into military ones.
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It is an extreme comparison, but we're not anywhere near a world war style scenario. People's lives aren't on hold for years and years, this is a short term (by war time scales) scenario. There are some commercial organisations that can do something to help, using knowledge, expertise and capability - i don't see any problem with this, and certainly should be applauded but society issues shouldn't sit at their door to fix. However this is just a convenient smoke screen for government and their failings of being prepared for a scenario like this, both in terms of physical supplies and the structure to support it.

Walrus said:
As mentioned, the current initiatives to me smell a bit like "PR stunt" rather than "genuine effort to improve the situation". The phone companies could [for instance] offer discounts on line rental for key workers, or offer contract freezes/months free for those who have been made unemployed due to the pandemic. Do they have to? No. Do they stand to gain from it? Not financially, although an argument could be made for reputational value. As someone who worked for Vodafone for 5 years - giving away some free data is largely meaningless and costs the company pretty much nothing.
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Having sold into Vodafone for 7 years and knowing them intimately, the data element is an easy one for them to give away but actually will help people. Giving away discount as a notional gesture is a bit hollow for me, they weren't doing it before - so why now? What defines a key worker? The industry i work in now classes some people in our industry as a key worker which in reality is laughable. It doesn't necessarily help the hardest hit or the most needy, but as a gesture i can see why people assume that giving money away is the right thing to do.

The commercial reality is that businesses up and down the chain have challenges of money coming in to keep the business afloat (Vodafone is a wrong example here), but for some businesses the pitch fork nature of offering discount isn't going to help them keep their business solvent once restrictions are lifted. There's certainly a bandwagon & if i speak to my other half who works for the NHS, they would rather have the tools to do the job than some temporary and notional £10 off their phone contract.
 
Hansa said:
Just noticed that Scotland has 447 deaths from only 4957 cases, with 1781 hospitalized - that's a very worrying rate on every level, which points to a severe lack of testing. Not to be too morbid, but is there a detailed list of the UK, where you can monitor the testing done in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, or possibly the counties of England? I've watched quite a few news reports from the London area, but the rest seems to be a bit forgotten.
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People are only being tested when they're admitted to hospital.
 
Foxbatt said:
I think you misunderstood what I mean. Even now the Chinese are being blamed for this. Even though in my opinion the countries who are getting it so badly got it because of the incompetence of their own politicians .
Now if China opens up Wuhan and it comes back and spread out again USA and UK could declare war on China. A war of some sort and not necessarily military.
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Guess contact tracing and flight tracking will be taken a little more seriously over next few months then from January-March so you'd like to think any new outbreak will be more locally contained.

The problem remains with the virus already in the UK and everything else. It will be back in the winter but then you hope the antibody tests will be around, decent % of population already got immunity and then a vaccine might only be a few months away.
 
Ian Reus said:
I'm not buying that either. Too many people have come out of the woodwork to claim they were infected back in December. Flu or not, none of their relatives died or anybody they knew.
F
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Pretty sure I read there was higher % of deaths from "flu" in UK hospitals than in many other previous years. A few people living in China are freely saying it was around in November so I think it's a sure bet it was roaming in europe earlier than we've seen.
 
Smores said:
The idea of opening pubs any time soon is mental, as if drunks are going to abide by social distancing.

Open restaurants and hope they abide by half service. You want a social drink have it with a nice meal.
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I agree. Miss my Beer and Burger for six quid on a Tuesday so much. :lol: (not at a Wetherspoons before you ask).

Think pubs will have curfew restrictions in the short term, open during work hours where it's quieter at lunchtime and early afternoon but asking for trouble if you keep them open in evenings and weekends in the short term.
 
FootballHQ said:
Guess contact tracing and flight tracking will be taken a little more seriously over next few months then from January-March so you'd like to think any new outbreak will be more locally contained.

The problem remains with the virus already in the UK and everything else. It will be back in the winter but then you hope the antibody tests will be around, decent % of population already got immunity and then a vaccine might only be a few months away.
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what do you by it will be back in the winter? As if this is going away for some time.
 
Rajma said:
what do you by it will be back in the winter? As if this is going away for some time.
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Hopefully number of deaths/cases reduces in next few months like in other countries? But winter months people will start getting general flu which will start the panic again.

Simply have to be better prepared in winter months anyway.
 
FootballHQ said:
I agree. Miss my Beer and Burger for six quid on a Tuesday so much. :lol: (not at a Wetherspoons before you ask).

Think pubs will have curfew restrictions in the short term, open during work hours where it's quieter at lunchtime and early afternoon but asking for trouble if you keep them open in evenings and weekends in the short term.
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I'm going to assume that pubs and restaurants will have reduced seating with more spacing between tables.
 
So my wife’s hospital system is using temporal thermometers to check the temp of every doctor and nurse that comes into work... but they’re aiming it at the middle of their forehead instead of their temple, because the forehead shows a lower temperature than the temple.

Also, if the doctor / nurse does have a fever and has to go into 2 weeks of quarantine, they’re not going to be paid unless they have 2 weeks worth of “paid time off” built up.
 
Revan said:
With the increase on infections, also the testing should increase. France now per capita is doing the same as the US (which is blamed for not doing enough testings). Of course much better than the UK, but for example, far worse than Germany (who is trying to increase it from 80k to 200-300k per day).
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Its not really much better than the UK, the tests per capita are almost identical. Cases and deaths per capita are higher in France too.

There are some countries which are doing well in Europe. They don't include either France or the UK unfortunately.
 
Carolina Red said:
So my wife’s hospital system is using temporal thermometers to check the temp of every doctor and nurse that comes into work... but they’re aiming it at the middle of their forehead instead of their temple, because the forehead shows a lower temperature than the temple.

Also, if the doctor / nurse does have a fever and has to go into 2 weeks of quarantine, they’re not going to be paid unless they have 2 weeks worth of “paid time off” built up.
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Jesus christ that is so fecked up.
 
Just give everybody the BCG jab and that will sort it. Never should have been stopped in the first place.
 
The Guardian have embarrassed themselves with publishing that Robert Jenrick story and running it as the lead item.
 
sammsky1 said:
Rightfully getting slammed for it in the comments too.



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I'd say it's at best a grey area. Yes you're allowed out to help vulnerable people, but I find it hard to believe there's not a neighbour/friend/relative closer that could have done that errand.
 
NinjaFletch said:
I'd say it's at best a grey area. Yes you're allowed out to help vulnerable people, but I find it hard to believe there's not a neighbour/friend/relative closer that could have done that errand.
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If me and the wife had to isolate, it would be my parents who live 30 or so miles away who would help us out. We’re not that close to anyone else to oblige them with that burden.

It’s an absolute garbage story in its current form and I’m amazed the editor isn’t pulling it.
 
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