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

This is 2nd interview from Professor Woo-Joo Kim from Korea University Guro Hospital, who is credited with masterminding South Korea's medical response to covid19.




For proper appreciation, you may benefit from watching his first interview from a few weeks ago:

 
The big lesson from South Korea's coronavirus response
Professor Woo-Joo Kim talks about what South Korea learned from MERS and how that transferred into his covid19 strategy




From Geoff Bannister in comments section: I'm a Brit living in Korea. The government response here has been absolutely incredible. I'm a huge advocate for personal privacy, but I'll be the first to admit that all of the information we have been getting from the government through forced emergency messages to our phones is amazing and IMO it should be a necessity. If I go out, I know exactly WHERE and WHAT to avoid. There is obviously a stark difference between the countries that took this seriously to begin with and the countries that didn't. As mentioned in the video - I know that the UK is larger than S. Korea, but IMO all of the deaths in the UK are down to the government just not taking the thing seriously enough.
 
Australian Government briefing claims we are detecting 92% of symptomatic cases very few of which are untraceable community transmissions. With only just over 6000 cases, about half of who have recovered and only 41 patients on ventilators this is good news, if true.
 
Wibble said:
Australian Government briefing claims we are detecting 92% of symptomatic cases very few of which are untraceable community transmissions. With only just over 6000 cases, about half of who have recovered and only 41 patients on ventilators this is good news, if true.
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Australia is currently showing the world how it's done.
 
Australia keeping the social restrictions for at least another month. That's from 6462 cases and 63 deaths. Seems like Europe has a long path ahead..
 
Prometheus said:
Australia is currently showing the world how it's done.
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I think the Kiwis hold that title but we are doing well after a shocking start with failing to quarantine the Ruby Princess. A third of our deaths were onboard and 15% of infections are directly or indirectly linked to the vessel. And there may be up to 600 of the 1000 crew infected currently on the ship in Port Kembla, who aren't included in our numbers as they only get tested when they have to be evacuated for hospitalisation. If all 600 have Covid that would link 25% of all Australian infection to the one ship. Australian Border Force and NSW Health fecked up but I think the ship's owners are going to end up charged with corporate manslaughter (or whatever it is called under Australia law) as the suspicion is that they lied about having Covid patients onboard to get them off the ship ASAP.
 
Grinner said:
I'm getting a bit bored of the old man walking story now.
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I usually would but I absolutely love this guy.

The fecking Marsh family can eat a bag of dicks though.
 
Withnail said:
Cares about what?

Getting infected/following the rules or social distancing?

Everyone I know in Ireland is settling in for the long haul. Some people are getting a bit more relaxed and not as strict as they were but when I go out people are still making sure not to come too close to you if they don't have to.
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Exactly that. They're not really bothered about it. If you get it you get it seems to be the overriding opinion. I think it's coming from the small amount of actual deaths, especially in younger age ranges.. Friends of mine are seeing their livelihoods disappear, decades of savings shrivel... I think people will generally behave for another few weeks but after that it'll be more dangerous to keep people inside than letting them out.

They've got a point certainly, even if many will feel its premature. Where do we draw the line? A few weeks inside? OK. A few months? Hmmm. A year? Not happening, regardless of how many people die.
 
Pexbo said:
I usually would but I absolutely love this guy.

The fecking Marsh family can eat a bag of dicks though.
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He's doing great but it's just on saturation right now. Why not do a story on that poor pregnant nurse where you tell her life story and what she did for people. She gave so much.
 
Grinner said:
He's doing great but it's just on saturation right now. Why not do a story on that poor pregnant nurse where you tell her life story and what she did for people. She gave so much.
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I think it’s clearly a concerted effort by BBC news to keep things a bit lighter when we are already being pummelled with bad news every waking minute. Theyve even changed the theme music slightly so it’s less dark and dramatic.

It does get a bit much though. Dan and Naga are quite natural in their positive chitter chatter but Charlie Stayt can be a difficult watch as it comes across as sycophantic and forced.
 
The care home numbers are going to be horrific when it all comes to light. It's hard to say whether the government could have protected them more.

Hancock now promising families can go into care homes and promising testing. You hope they've actually got the testing and PPE in place to facilitate that otherwise families will be getting mixed messages from government and their local home.
 
Smores said:
The care home numbers are going to be horrific when it all comes to light. It's hard to say whether the government could have protected them more.

Hancock now promising families can go into care homes and promising testing. You hope they've actually got the testing and PPE in place to facilitate that otherwise families will be getting mixed messages from government and their local home.
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My aunt and her wife run one in the North-East of England, they've been fecked really. Working 12hr shifts 6 days a week, sometimes 7, due to staff dropping like flies with illness. Some genuine, some they suspect weren't ill but just scared to go to work (understandable I guess). They lost, I think, something like 8-9 long-term residents all very old and all with heavy health issues. They only know 1-2 of them died of covid19 I think, the others is anyone's guess but probably likely to be the virus - they didn't get to find out. Apparently, things have now peaked there and they're now entering much calmer waters. Hopefully that's it for them.
 
Smores said:
The care home numbers are going to be horrific when it all comes to light. It's hard to say whether the government could have protected them more.

Hancock now promising families can go into care homes and promising testing. You hope they've actually got the testing and PPE in place to facilitate that otherwise families will be getting mixed messages from government and their local home.
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I only found out yesterday that a lot of care home workers are on zero hour contracts. So will have been incentivised to keep coming into work even if they start feeling unwell. Absolutely shocking state of affairs.

Maybe one for the other thread but I hope that one of the positives coming out of this is an end to zero hour contracts.
 
The story of the old man is great.
My only problem with it, is I can see somehow the government seeing it and thinking, well that 15m he's raise can now be used elsewhere, like bailing out our personal businesses.

(And I mean them taking 15m out of their own NHS fund)
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I only found out yesterday that a lot of care home workers are on zero hour contracts. So will have been incentivised to keep coming into work even if they start feeling unwell. Absolutely shocking state of affairs.

Maybe one for the other thread but I hope that one of the positives coming out of this is an end to zero hour contracts.
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Social Care generally has been on it's knees for years. Poorly paid staff on crap conditions doing what is a very difficult (but at times rewarding) job who feel underappreciated and undervalued. Care staff are some of the lowest paid workers in the UK - this all needs to be looked at. Personally I think they should do in England what we have done in Scotland and NI which is to integrate health and social care. No more council funding, bring them all into the NHS. I sincerely hope there is a pay review for all NHS and social care staff after all this is finished to pay them a fair wage - people just tend to say 'it's a vocation' and that people do these jobs out of the desire to care for people. That is all well and good but you need to value and pay them properly.
 
Igor Drefljak said:
The story of the old man is great.
My only problem with it, is I can see somehow the government seeing it and thinking, well that 15m he's raise can now be used elsewhere, like bailing out our personal businesses.

(And I mean them taking 15m out of their own NHS fund)
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Yeah there's always gonna be some bait and switch going on unfortunately, scum the lot of them. How they can stand there issuing war-cries and bigging up the NHS when they have personally denied them pay-rises in the past makes me feel like going berzerker sometimes.

The old guy is a legend though, its a great story but my main gripe is........15m for what? What is that going to be used for? We're being told that the PPE/Ventilators etc simply arent there to purchase. So whats the 15m going to be spent on? I'd be very wary of who that gets handed over to.
 
Igor Drefljak said:
The story of the old man is great.
My only problem with it, is I can see somehow the government seeing it and thinking, well that 15m he's raise can now be used elsewhere, like bailing out our personal businesses.

(And I mean them taking 15m out of their own NHS fund)
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This will probably come across as dismissive of what he's done and I don't mean it to, but that won't happen because £15m is the sum total of feck all compared to the NHS budget; it's less than 1% of the total funding.
 
It's not just the old boy, it's everybody who gave the money and I agree, how do you handle it? Do you just rock up to the Dept. of health with a cheque? feck that, they'd piss it away.
 
NinjaFletch said:
This will probably come across as dismissive of what he's done and I don't mean it to, but that won't happen because £15m is the sum total of feck all compared to the NHS budget; it's less than 1% of the total funding.
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That's a fair point, it is nothing but a drop in the ocean in comparisons.
I just feel like Boris and co could easily just give themselves a nice little payday or some bullshit
 
Igor Drefljak said:
That's a fair point, it is nothing but a drop in the ocean in comparisons.
I just feel like Boris and co could easily just give themselves a nice little payday or some bullshit
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If they made it clear that this money was being used exclusively to purchase PPE then that would be the best way to use it plus would be a bit of a morale booster.
 
blue blue said:
Reports would suggest the Chinese government covered up the spread and the doctors reporting the virus were closed down and now mysteriously have gone missing.
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavi...19-and-its-apparent-cover-up-attempt-11966539
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Yeh there is plenty of allegations being thrown around with out anything really to back them up, that article is another example.

There is a massive propaganda campaign going on at the moment against all things China, naturally China is responding in kind. So I'm just a bit wary of it all.
 
CountryPopulationDeaths Per Million
Spain46 Million (approx)402
Belgium11 Million (approx)383
Italy60 Million (approx)358
France65 Million (approx)263
UK67 Million (approx)190
Netherlands17 Million (approx)183
Germany83 Million (approx)83

Whilst its clear Germany stands out as having clearly managed the situation exceptionally well (at least so far) and of course although most countries seem to think they are at or just past peak there will be some further movement in the figures would it be fair to say that although the UK government has clearly made some (significant) errors (eg not participating in the ventilator scheme, testing of front line NHS staff, PPE ) overall they seem to be doing better than most comparable countries (i.e. EU countries with populations over 10 million and advanced healthcare systems)? at least using the metric of deaths per capita which I think ultimatley probably has to be the most comparable metric amongst nations (given there may be some discrepency over what deaths are linked to CV19 but overall would still seem most comparable)

Is Macron in trouble for his handling in France for example?
Also Belgium seems dramatically different from both Holland and France which seems hard to explain at least when thinking in geographic terms
 
sun_tzu said:
CountryPopulationDeaths Per Million
Spain46 Million (approx)402
Belgium11 Million (approx)383
Italy60 Million (approx)358
France65 Million (approx)263
UK67 Million (approx)190
Netherlands17 Million (approx)183
Germany83 Million (approx)83

Whilst its clear Germany stands out as having clearly managed the situation exceptionally well (at least so far) and of course although most countries seem to think they are at or just past peak there will be some further movement in the figures would it be fair to say that although the UK government has clearly made some (significant) errors (eg not participating in the ventilator scheme, testing of front line NHS staff, PPE ) overall they seem to be doing better than most comparable countries (i.e. EU countries with populations over 10 million and advanced healthcare systems)? at least using the metric of deaths per capita which I think ultimatley probably has to be the most comparable metric amongst nations (given there may be some discrepency over what deaths are linked to CV19 but overall would still seem most comparable)

Is Macron in trouble for his handling in France for example?
Also Belgium seems dramatically different from both Holland and France which seems hard to explain at least when thinking in geographic terms
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Unless I am mistaken, we have got thousands to add to our totals due to the lack of care home figure currently available.
 
sun_tzu said:
CountryPopulationDeaths Per Million
Spain46 Million (approx)402
Belgium11 Million (approx)383
Italy60 Million (approx)358
France65 Million (approx)263
UK67 Million (approx)190
Netherlands17 Million (approx)183
Germany83 Million (approx)83

Whilst its clear Germany stands out as having clearly managed the situation exceptionally well (at least so far) and of course although most countries seem to think they are at or just past peak there will be some further movement in the figures would it be fair to say that although the UK government has clearly made some (significant) errors (eg not participating in the ventilator scheme, testing of front line NHS staff, PPE ) overall they seem to be doing better than most comparable countries (i.e. EU countries with populations over 10 million and advanced healthcare systems)? at least using the metric of deaths per capita which I think ultimatley probably has to be the most comparable metric amongst nations (given there may be some discrepency over what deaths are linked to CV19 but overall would still seem most comparable)

Is Macron in trouble for his handling in France for example?
Also Belgium seems dramatically different from both Holland and France which seems hard to explain at least when thinking in geographic terms
Click to expand...

You'd have to compare at comparable points in time rather than just any given date. We're weeks behind Italy for example so it's meaningless.
 
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