No 10 must have watched the movie Wag the dog. I am starting to wonder if Boris was even positive. Maybe have had the case of bad food poisoning --- and his media folks probably thought, lets make it topical and say he was on the frontline fighting, on the beaches of Covid.
SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)
- Thread starter Don't Kill Bill
- Start date
No 10 must have watched the movie Wag the dog. I am starting to wonder if Boris was even positive. Maybe have had the case of bad food poisoning --- and his media folks probably thought, lets make it topical and say he was on the frontline fighting, on the beaches of Covid.
dammit I had a dress picked out and everything.Phwoar! Welcome back to the People's Front of Belgravia!
ok I'm all laughed out for the night.Pretty sure time is telling us right now that they weren’t.
Compare them to their neighbors.
Their neighbours, Norway, Denmark and Finland. Similar in economy, density and culture are doing better so far I believe
I can't believe that counties like the UK and US, who are suffering so much for late and/or inadequate restrictions, are talking about relaxing them.
Australia has reduced their daily infection rate from 20% to 2% (only 58 deaths with under 40 ICU beds being used at any one time) and the government are still saying lock down will probably have to last at least another 6 months.
Australia has reduced their daily infection rate from 20% to 2% (only 58 deaths with under 40 ICU beds being used at any one time) and the government are still saying lock down will probably have to last at least another 6 months.
Oh, sorry, I misunderstood you.
Yes, for now doesn't look like compared to them, but if the strategy is herd immunity will be long term. And if it works it might save more lives.
So if it doesn't go out of hands, might work
Don't allow him the satisfaction of butchering a Bill Hicks bit !!
They’re just playing along and leading on their citizens. You can’t tell me their scientists don’t know how it’s going to go, it’s not like UK advisors are stupider than those from everywhere else.
For the UK particularly, if they were actually honest about how long it’s going to take, they’d face revolt and civil unrest within a week. You can even see it on this board occasionally. Too many people are pissed off about being stuck inside while the sun’s out and think “lockdown” is just a button to flick on and off, and when “lockdown is over” (whatever the feck that means) they’re off to Ibiza with mates.
It’s going to be a slow-burner of a reveal and the idiots will only realise it when there’s still nowhere to party in the middle of June.
Such a stupid point.
Why is New York much worse than Massachusetts?
Sweden’s second City Gothenburg is doing as well as their neighbors capitals (so far) which are of a similar size.
Right now Stockholm, an area of 2.3 million people, the most populous in the Nordics and where the virus has been circulating since late February has just 523 deaths and just 213 people in ICU.
Does that really tell that Sweden were “wrong”? Think again.
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That’d all make sense @Hal9000 if you just completely ignored that Stockholm has half of all of the infected cases and 523 of the 887 deaths.
Stockholm has 2.3m people in 6500 km2. The city has 4800 people per km2, the county 359 per km2.
So take Stockholm out and yeah, you have a point, the same point I made weeks ago but had to spend an entire day arguing about urban density and such nonsense. Sweden is a huge place, with a small population, if was never likely to be the next Spain or Italy as many on here were predicting.
I’m not sure what ‘opening up the economy’ even means, because the US government isn’t really directing this response. It has mostly been at state level: several states still don’t have shelter-in-place orders last I checked, whilst others have orders that almost certainly won’t be lifted at the end of the month.
It’s almost like there’s a lack of quality leadership. Almost...
Given how many people he was in contact with for months before falling ill and even when it would have been prudent not to be out and about so much but he wanted to reassure the public etc, I'm not surprised at all he was given a diagnosis of COVID-19. Be in that much contact with strangers as well as acquaintances and everybody else and it's just a matter of time.
I must admit to being tired of the hysteria coming from some media quarters and not just social media.
Reputable papers like The Guardian - although they can be as hypocritical and selectively outraged plus smug in their political correctness when it suits them - have great information but also run articles asserting there will be 'New World Order' and how our lives will never be the same again, etc. There is no need for that and it is definitely propaganda.
The way out of this economic crisis is debt-financed spending and as democratic govts never have a problem with doing that including giving massive bail-outs under the Obama Govt, I can't see why some sections of the media are getting hyped up in the way they are.This is not post WW1 or WW2. Be suspicious when the propaganda is coming from the left as well as from the right.
A lot of people need to get back to work soon. Not everybody in the uk is a 23 year old kid heading off to Ibiza
100% that Australia will not be fully locked down for 6 months. If they mean social distancing then sure, that’s been touted as last 18 months in the UK but a 6 month full lockdown would destroy the economy.
Seems like you are the one being revisionist about it all. But I hope to read soon for the 12th time about your anecdotal flu in December also, and how it is possible that 50% in UK already had it
Thailand have done some things well, it also starts to seem quite likely that hot and humid weather lessens the spread. Doesn't erase it, but lessens.
I think they've made a mistake, the cufflinks should be sent by Boris to the consultant who's been in charge of his care. In any case, I think Boris can afford his own stuff.
I'm sure they are hoping current levels of restriction won't be neccesary but we are considering the possibility. Victoria has extended the current arrangements for another month already. And remenber this is the neccesary response when we only have a few thousand infections, 58 deaths and only 35ish in ICU. Countries like the UK and US, who are in deep trouble and farcfrom under control, talking about relaxing things is madness.
I didn’t say everybody was.
This is spot on.
The virus will spread to 60-80% of the population, no matter what we do.
Covid-19 is a highly infectious global pandemic. So even if we somehow manage to eradicate it from the UK, it's going to eventually come back from abroad just like it did the first time.
Indefinite lockdowns also aren't possible. We're only going to be able to shut down economic activity for so long. After a certain point, the country will no longer able to afford the basics such as paying for the NHS. Not to mention that huge swathes of population would end up jobless and penniless if the furlough scheme ends up consuming all its funds.
The best we can do is try and keep the peak of the disease below NHS capacity, whilst keeping the economic gears turning as much as possible. The final analysis of this will only come in 18 months time once herd immunity is actually achieved. You can't simply look at statistics within a narrow window and proclaim one strategy a success and another a failure. Even China and Singapore are seeing resurgences in cases.
If you don't talk about the light at the end of the tunnel, people will give up.
Australia are in a comparable position to Austria, Czechia, Denmark and Norway, all of whom will be relaxing restrictions this month. Surely you can't believe the governments of each of these countries are crazy, given they were among the best in the Western world at controlling the spread of the virus?
Economies are fecked anyway. Theres no saving them with this blight about.
If immunity lasts as long as it does with the other 2 most common forms of Corona, which is about 8 months, then closing everything down is the only option.
Everything else is just lip service.
Lockdowns were based on a lack of understanding. The virus appeared out of nowhere and spread rapidly threatening to overwhelm healthcare. Shutting everything down was the only response.
As we learn more about it and how it spreads, we can relax rules. If we know it doesnt spread in open spaces, for example, why do we need to close parks?
Because it becomes less open when everybody flocks to it?
Up here in Donegal, Ireland we have lovely beaches and wide open spaces. Only thing is it becomes chock a block when Derry folk flock over during the good weather or holidays. With everybody off work that could be everyday during the summer.
Schools are reopening for graduating classes in the German state of Saxony next week and final exams will be held as normal. Other years will follow "as soon as possible".
MegaDude and Ronaldo’s Mother: PREMIER LEAGUE MUST BE RESTARTING NEXT WEEKEND!
It isn't spot on. Required level for herd immunity is calculated like this: (R0-1)/R0, so if R0 is 3 then 67% infected is needed. But if we can bring R0 down to 1.5, only 33% infected is needed.
We can achieve that with masks (once enough is produced), banning mass gatherings and hand washing, increased testing and contact tracing and other similar activities. And still keep schools, restaurants and bars open and save millions of lives.
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Luckily it seems like mutations are slow with COVID-19 which should make immunity last.
There's a fantastic website tracking the current strains of all diseases including this one based on analysis as it comes in from hospitals.
https://nextstrain.org/ncov/global
https://www.fastcompany.com/9048389...ins-of-coronavirus-spreading-across-the-world
Website tracking the current stains of COVID-19 around the world from hospital / lab analysis
https://nextstrain.org/ncov/global
https://nextstrain.org/ncov/global
The federal government learned some lessons after the bushfires debacle especially the PM. Get experts together, give them a real hearing and follow the best advice regardless of clamouring groups within a diverse society.
I forget when but Australia banned Chinese nationals with no legal right to live in Australia earlier than most countries. Despite screams of racism, Chinese people with the right to live in Australia could return - dual citizens, permanent residents, international students.
There was a clampdown on Chinese visitors and border security was instructed to deal with the inevitable anger of Chinese people with the right to live in Australia who were trying to bring in family and relatives with no right whatsoever. Some got on planes from China bringing those family and relatives and they were instructed no go, such people would be turned back.
Visitors from everywhere were told at a fairly early time in March that they would have to self-isolate for 14 days if they came to Australia. Of course tourists like the Japanese don't take much vacation time and cue much outrage here because many of them had planned to only come for a week or so just like some other countries' visitors.
Stiff cheddar. It discouraged visitors and of course the virus that some of them would bring unknown to themselves. Then visitors were banned altogether. If you look at South Australia where visitors at wineries infected residents, for one example, it was a great call to do so.
However, the universities and colleges with international students encouraged them to get around quarantine rules and other rules about when to re-enter Australia that were designed to keep out the virus as much as possible. Significant cases came from them while the second wave came from dual citizens and citizens returning from abroad. That cruise ship being allowed to disembark cost lives.
Testing was pursued aggressively through pop up shops, drive-through arrangements etc. South Australia re-opened a hospital that had been shut down but still was functional, SA, the Northern Territory and West Australia were the earliest states to close their borders to other Australian states' residents - a successful lock-out that prevented cases being brought from Sydney and Melbourne viral hotspots although residents of the states were allowed to return home.
The traditional Indigenous owners of different land areas were encouraged to lock-out everybody except their own and those delivering vital supplies - a great move that has prevented the virus' spread there. Australia is very fortunate in its land mass and the fact that you can close borders. That is impossible in the UK and Japan for starters. You couldn't lock down each county in the UK and you couldn't lock down each prefecture in Japan - millions commute from adjacent prefectures to their jobs and activities in Tokyo.
However, now since a state of emergency has been declared, more and more companies have ordered remote work, people are not hanging out in the entertainment areas like Shibuya, the numbers of company men haunting the sex districts around the major train stations in Tokyo and elsewhere has fallen, and prefectural governors are telling their populations not to travel outside the home prefecture.
However, testing is still minimal in Japan. The authorities are gambling on people staying home without a legal lock-down to stop the spread. True, most of us are staying home now and working from home. However, the strategy is herd immunity although the government won't admit it and let's see how well that works out.
The state of the Tories here, attacking Keir Starmer after he raised concern about PPE:
On what planet is that attacking NHS England.
Is one journo doesn't ask whomever is running the brief later today about whether the Patel 'I'm sorry you feel that way' non-apology is the official government response, I'll be very angry indeed and write a stern post in here later to convey that.
It was an orchestrated attack by CCHQ, nearly 10k dead and they want to spend time doing this. Pathetic. Just twist the words for their followers.