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

It is not at all surprising that claims to listen to the experts suddenly fall flat when they dare suggest they need funding.
 
Oh.... you think that it’s an either/or switch.

If people clap they support cuts to the NHS and think the doctors should just get on with it.

If people sit indoors, all the NHS workers are recognising silence as being helpful to getting more PPE.

That’s a special kind of stupid. Even in This thread.
If people vote Tory, then infact yes, they do inturn support cuts to the NHS. Clapping at 8pm on a Thursday doesn't change that. And most of the people voted for the Tories. It's beyond hypocritical. Before a pandemic they didn't mind cuts to the NHS, now that Nan's on hospital they'll give them a clap?

Listen you think you're doing a good nice thing and I'm sure it's appreciated. The fact I'm arguing is that for many, it's virtue signalling, probably compensating for something. And for many NHS staff, they'd rather politicians efforts went into gaining PPE (and probably a payrise) rather than claps and badges. It's as simple as that.

Any sane member of the NHS would look at that video of Westminster bridge and be gobsmacked. They'd think you're just giving us yet more to do and wonder how other emergency services are visibly letting it go on.
 
My neighbours had a big party last night and my parents called the police because they were really loud at 2/3 AM and they basically said "what do you want us to do" and "it's not against the law" etc.
 
My neighbours had a big party last night and my parents called the police because they were really loud at 2/3 AM and they basically said "what do you want us to do" and "it's not against the law" etc.
Where do you live? Because it absolutely is against the law where I'm from.
 
In the North East of England. That was our understanding too.
Well, they've got people gathered in their house and it was after 11pm with it being noisy enough for you to complain about. The second reason is more to do with environmental health but the first, under the current government advice, is something that they should have investigated. If you're pissed off about it then you could always file a complaint through https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/complaints-and-appeals/make-complaint but feck knows how far it would go tbh.
 
You sure about that?

bn201_fig1.jpg


The NHS does not have a problem with it's overall budget.

You seriously think the NHS isn't under funded compared to the increase in demand as we live longer as a population?
 
If people vote Tory, then infact yes, they do inturn support cuts to the NHS. Clapping at 8pm on a Thursday doesn't change that. And most of the people voted for the Tories. It's beyond hypocritical. Before a pandemic they didn't mind cuts to the NHS, now that Nan's on hospital they'll give them a clap?

Since the last labour government in 2010 there have been 4 conservative governments, winning 36.1% (2010), 36.8% (2015), 42.3% (2017) and 43.6% (2019) of the popular vote respectively.
 
I doubt it - the outrage at grenfell had largely subsided by the time its got to court... I think by the time an enquiry looked into this it would probably be during the middle of the inevitable huge recession (with added brexit calamity) - it would get some cut through but i suspect not as much as we feel right now it should

I doubt it too!
Disaster planning has never been a great British strength, if it had we would have seen the dangers and avoided a lot of problems down the years. Hence when things do go wrong, we get caught with our pants down, we then have a stage where the Corporal Jones (the Dads Army one) 'don't panic' mentality takes over and then eventually everyone gets on board and we start to 'fix things'.

However things are never quite the same after disasters and after Covid-19 we won't need an enquiry to tell us that our economy is totally out of balance 'Service v Manufacturing' and consequentially we are struggling to make basic PPE in Britain and have to rely on buying it on world markets, when the world and his wife are shopping for the same things.. We won't need an enquiry to tell us that for years the NHS has been underfunded and also mismanaged by umpteen different Governments (of all political shades) and it only survives at all because of the goodwill, dedication and sheer hard graft of its workforce.

Official enquires are generally just a 'sop' to public opinion, how many of the recent OE's have had their outcomes fully implemented, in some case any of the outcomes implemented at all?
 
Well, they've got people gathered in their house and it was after 11pm with it being noisy enough for you to complain about. The second reason is more to do with environmental health but the first, under the current government advice, is something that they should have investigated. If you're pissed off about it then you could always file a complaint through https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/complaints-and-appeals/make-complaint but feck knows how far it would go tbh.
Yeah, it was really annoying with one of my parents having to get up at 5AM for work.

They were shouting and singing and playing music. They had kids in there and also one of the girls works is a care worker. Shocking.
 
I see that the Police in England are gradually starting to loosen restrictions, e.g. you can now drive somewhere to go for a walk and take a picnic halfway round. Good news, and there definitely seem to be more cars on the road today

https://www.college.police.uk/What-...u_gIOavxlrcL3rONHcZ1-UNtpLwM1-TwWVz0JF2Ku2EYw

Not really good news at all, I enjoy my quiet roads drive to work at the moment, can't be arsed with all the thunder cnuts driving about again.
 
Not really good news at all, I enjoy my quiet roads drive to work at the moment, can't be arsed with all the thunder cnuts driving about again.

Maybe when the dust settles, more people will be able to work from home and perhaps this will lead to a reduction in commuting on roads and public transport.
 
Not really good news at all, I enjoy my quiet roads drive to work at the moment, can't be arsed with all the thunder cnuts driving about again.

Must be nice. My daily driving distance has been significantly reduced but the thundercunts are still all over the roads in Toronto.
 
You seriously think the NHS isn't under funded compared to the increase in demand as we live longer as a population?

His original point was that the money that has been provided has been wasted and this has been more influential than the total amount of money the NHS has been given. There is some element of truth in there, such as the attempt to upgrade ICT infrastucture several years ago.
 
You seriously think the NHS isn't under funded compared to the increase in demand as we live longer as a population?

In the last 20 years the average age of death in the UK has increased by 4.7%. In the same timeframe the healthcare budget has doubled.
 
If you would allow a "top-up" NHS (which isn't too dissimilar to what other European countries have) you would immediately close the gap/overtake European countries on overall GDP spending as richer Britons take out more health insurance.

I can understand why people politically don't want this, but I think it shows the weakness of using GDP spending stats as a proxy for healthcare efficiency. The USA leads the world on spending with poor outcomes for the poorest in society.
 
Definitely. As I said earlier, I have heard first-hand from a seasoned cop in my general region that such guidance hasn't been given. They're essentially free to use their own interpretation of the lockdown rules, which means that you'll always have over-zealous jobsworth types who cause friction because they're more cocnerned with exerting their own authority than sensible policing.

That's not surprising.
Many cops are basically bouncers in an official uniform, and at some professional clubs, the bouncers have better defined guidelines than some cops. Not that all cops are incompetent, only that number of them are not the deepest thinkers. And having unintelligent people in authoritarian roles without strict guidelines is not dissimilar to letting 5-year-olds play with loaded guns.
 
That's not surprising.
Many cops are basically bouncers in an official uniform, and at some professional clubs, the bouncers have better defined guidelines than some cops. Not that all cops are incompetent, only that number of them are not the deepest thinkers. And having unintelligent people in authoritarian roles without strict guidelines is not dissimilar to letting 5-year-olds play with loaded guns.


Yeah a lot of it comes down to common sense and like all other walks of life, the police force contains people who while they may be generally good at being a policeman, lack any kind of common sense or rational thought. They are good at painting by numbers and checking boxes but not so good when it comes to thinking on their feet and making sound decisions.
 
If you want to compare NHS spending between countries, you also need to control for loads of factors such as their obesity rates and how they've changed over time. It's probably beyond the ability of anyone here.
Go with what you consider to be the consensus of experts.
 
Can you please explain a scenario in which a policy of deliberately underfunding the NHS for almost a decade does not leave it in a worsened position to deal with a virus pandemic? I don’t see why you need this explaining to you and are acting as if people lamenting Tory cuts are part of some conspiracy.

Well, this is my point. I asked in effect if these 'cuts' have affected the response to the pandemic from an NHS point of view. You chose to answer my w
question with a question.
I dont see how we have been left short. I suppose the main points so far are that testing numbers have fallen short of some other country's but 2 points here 1 is testing part of the NHS? (genuinly not sure, and if it is, has testing capacity been reduced directly due to these cuts?). 2 from what i understand, the tests are not, or have not been as reliable as they need to be, which is what the chief medical officers have banged on about since the start. Bearing this in mind has this been part of the reason we havnt tested as much as some countries.
I conceded that ppe has been an issue throughout, this applies to every country in the world from what ive read.
Again, i ask. How, specifically through this pandemic has our nhs underperformed as a direct result of underfunding ?
 
You’re expected to file for (very expensive) continued coverage under your old plan via COBRA, or use the special enrollment period to apply for coverage via the healthcare exchange or Medicaid. Failing that: a negotiated long term payment plan or bankruptcy.

As far as plans from the government to change that, eh...I don’t know how that would work.

Yes, the White House specifically said that coronavirus treatment would be covered by the stimulus package.

There are also state plans for low cost or completely free. A relative who lost his job, was able to enroll for Medicaid and Blue Cross Blue Shield for free in early despite being it past enrollment phase. He's effectively got full coverage, zero deductibles! (which is what Bernie was advocating all along).

Just as I'm typing this, the city is clapping for HCW

:cool:

What a relieve! I thought they would e without coverage. Good to hear that
 
One German state has decided to open the shopping centres on top of shops 800 up to square metres next week. Kind of funny after all this talk about finding a common approach between the states this week.
 


Hopefully this test is more accurate than the one we wasted millions of pounds on.
 
The trends (or lack of trends, should I say) would still be there without China.

To be blunt, China are totally irrelevant in that analysis, they are only one dot, they can't skew the graph(I'm agreeing with you). But I'm not convinced by the analysis, my anecdotal impression is that the amount of deaths is more linked to the actual location of the outbreaks within a country and the public events that occurred when patient zero was in town which makes an analysis a lot more complicated than what is shown in these graphs.
 
Its obvious that face masks are of benefit for all but the Government are trying to play this down, and avoid recommending them, because they're struggling to get enough for the NHS, let alone care homes and certainly let alone the general public so are trying to dampen down demand
 
What's the reasoning behind Germany have 30,000 more cases than the UK but having 10,000 less deaths?
 
To be blunt, China are totally irrelevant in that analysis, they are only one dot, they can't skew the graph(I'm agreeing with you). But I'm not convinced by the analysis, my anecdotal impression is that the amount of deaths is more linked to the actual location of the outbreaks within a country and the public events that occurred when patient zero was in town which makes an analysis a lot more complicated than what is shown in these graphs.

Completely agree. Loads of complex, often inter-linked, factors means no two outbreaks are exactly alike. I’m really just pushing back on over-simplistic often repeated tropes like using deaths per capita as a fair way to compare effectiveness of NPIs between large and small countries, or that population density is the single most important factor.