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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Without intensive social distancing the UK death-toll could re

SystemSystem Posts: 11,682
edited March 2020 in General

imagepoliticalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Without intensive social distancing the UK death-toll could reach 500k – leading epidemiologist

2/4 -This is not the case. Indeed, if anything, our latest estimates suggest that the virus is slightly more transmissible than we previously thought. Our lethality estimates remain unchanged.

Read the full story here


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Comments

  • Options
    TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 40,085
    edited March 2020
    Firts.

    Leaving the typo for pistorety.
  • Options
    JonathanJonathan Posts: 20,901
    sekond.
  • Options
    Richard_TyndallRichard_Tyndall Posts: 30,942
    This header is an excellent and timely antidote to those claiming this is no worse than seasonal flu.
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,745
    edited March 2020
    eadric said:

    The longer version is possibly even better

    https://twitter.com/parnell_alfie/status/1243282930891358209?s=21

    Something may be stirring in humanity

    The simultaneously great and terrible thing about humanity is how our inherent goodness and badness can, in the long term, be largely unaffected by events. The curve flattens, as it were, as the greatness, and terribleness, is there all along, thankfully and regretfully shown respectively at specific times.

    It's nice to see the positive sometimes.

    Edit: And no, I didn't get that insight from a fortune cookie, it was probably a fantasy novel, since that's where I get most of my insights :)
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285
    How did anybody confuse what Ferguson said the other day? It was pretty damn clear.

    Probably the same people who think the instruction to only leave the house for essentials and one short walk / run / cycle per day, including going on a 10hr day trip to the Peak District.
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285
    edited March 2020
    I really hope all the 100,000s of people volunteering and this public spirit can be harnessed for long term good. Perhaps all the Brexit divide stuff can be put behind us, all the Gammon / Remoaner nonsense is trivial compared to this.

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    We might also see more of the stuff with the likes of Dyson getting in on the ventilator business. Perhaps this pause will allow other companies to see what other opportunities there are out there.

    Perhaps the media might no be quite so sniffy about the idea of "Big Society" type initiatives. Although, so far, their reaction to every announcement by the government, is well this is shit. You know they were waiting for only 10,000 people to sign up to this volunteer scheme and claim what a stupid idea it was.
  • Options
    glwglw Posts: 9,549

    How did anybody confuse what Ferguson said the other day? It was pretty damn clear.

    Probably the same people who think the instruction to only leave the house for essentials and one short walk / run / cycle per day, including going on a 10hr day trip to the Peak District.

    I'm getting quite fed up with people being "confused" because honestly it all seems quite straightforward to me. Maybe for 1 in 100 people some sort of weird exception might apply, but for the vast majority of us the advice has been quite simple to understand.
  • Options
    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,616
    "Humberside Police has created an online reporting portal where people can send details of those not following social distancing rules. A form can be submitted advising of gatherings that are going against the current guidance."

    https://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2020-03-26/humberside-police-creates-online-portal-to-report-people-not-social-distancing/
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285
    edited March 2020
    glw said:

    How did anybody confuse what Ferguson said the other day? It was pretty damn clear.

    Probably the same people who think the instruction to only leave the house for essentials and one short walk / run / cycle per day, including going on a 10hr day trip to the Peak District.

    I'm getting quite fed up with people being "confused" because honestly it all seems quite straightforward to me. Maybe for 1 in 100 people some sort of weird exception might apply, but for the vast majority of us the advice has been quite simple to understand.
    I honestly don't think most people are confused at all, they use it to try to justify doing what they want...well the government didn't specify to the minute how long my exercise should last, therefore, I am confused, why shouldn't I drive 200 miles to the lake district and go for a bike ride.

    Although in Kay Burley's case, I think she genuinely is.
  • Options
    glwglw Posts: 9,549

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285
    edited March 2020
    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Listening to him last night, if he stood for POTUS against either Trump or Biden, he would walk it.
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100

    I really hope all the 100,000s of people volunteering and this public spirit can be harnessed for long term good. Perhaps all the Brexit divide stuff can be put behind us, all the Gammon / Remoaner nonsense is trivial compared to this.

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    We might also see more of the stuff with the likes of Dyson getting in on the ventilator business. Perhaps this pause will allow other companies to see what other opportunities there are out there.

    Perhaps the media might no be quite so sniffy about the idea of "Big Society" type initiatives. Although, so far, their reaction to every announcement by the government, is well this is shit. You know they were waiting for only 10,000 people to sign up to this volunteer scheme and claim what a stupid idea it was.

    When Zuckerberg makes me angry I think of Gates. Tech can be overwhelmingly good in the hands of good people.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,597
    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Apart from anything else, it’s going to massively drive down the seasonal flu figures for the next twelve months...
  • Options
    James_MJames_M Posts: 48
    FPT Get well soon @Foxy
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100
    glw said:

    How did anybody confuse what Ferguson said the other day? It was pretty damn clear.

    Probably the same people who think the instruction to only leave the house for essentials and one short walk / run / cycle per day, including going on a 10hr day trip to the Peak District.

    I'm getting quite fed up with people being "confused" because honestly it all seems quite straightforward to me. Maybe for 1 in 100 people some sort of weird exception might apply, but for the vast majority of us the advice has been quite simple to understand.
    simple except for simpletons
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285
    Nigelb said:

    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Apart from anything else, it’s going to massively drive down the seasonal flu figures for the next twelve months...
    I bloody hope we adopt the Asian culture of wearing masks when you feel ill. It has to be the least you can do for everybody. When you think about it now, you really are an arsehole aren't you, sitting there on a bus coughing your guts up, spreading colds and flus everywhere.
  • Options
    GideonWiseGideonWise Posts: 1,123

    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Listening to him last night, if he stood for POTUS against either Trump or Biden, he would walk it.
    I'm with you on that but I think he probably believes he can do more good for population health with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation than he can as POTUS.
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100
    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Is this yesterday of which you talk of?
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285

    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Listening to him last night, if he stood for POTUS against either Trump or Biden, he would walk it.
    I'm with you on that but I think he probably believes he can do more good for population health with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation than he can as POTUS.
    Can't Mrs G, who is highly impressive lady in her own right, do the Foundation and he kick Trump out? Win win.
  • Options
    eggegg Posts: 1,749
    In previous thread today we all agreed we know the mother of all austerity and tax take is coming, to payfor Promise we are all in it together

    just trying to work out what’s fair way to do it I think the consensus the discussion coming to, If there is going to be claw back cost of “whatever it takesonomics”, the tax should be targeted at gainers, and non movers, not any big losers or “were struggling already”?

    Can we pinpoint those? who is doing well and making money in this crisis.

    Supermarkets surely?
    Amazon.
    Netflix? If viewing figures up, advertising revenue up, all TV companies?
    Money not otherwise spent would be in savings accounts or investments, should we go there with tax plans?
    If offices not being used, they consumed less energy, so target the energy firms?
    People spent the time in the garden. The gardens look great. Garden tax.
    PB. Getting more posts, more hits, more revenue? Tax PB?
  • Options
    MortimerMortimer Posts: 13,942
    edited March 2020

    glw said:

    How did anybody confuse what Ferguson said the other day? It was pretty damn clear.

    Probably the same people who think the instruction to only leave the house for essentials and one short walk / run / cycle per day, including going on a 10hr day trip to the Peak District.

    I'm getting quite fed up with people being "confused" because honestly it all seems quite straightforward to me. Maybe for 1 in 100 people some sort of weird exception might apply, but for the vast majority of us the advice has been quite simple to understand.
    I honestly don't think most people are confused at all, they use it to try to justify doing what they want...well the government didn't specify to the minute how long my exercise should last, therefore, I am confused, why shouldn't I drive 200 miles to the lake district and go for a bike ride.

    Although in Kay Burley's case, I think she genuinely is.
    Yep. The stubborn selfishness of some in this crisis would have been hilarious, if it wasnt so dangerous.

    I actually wonder if that is the point of the demonstrations as seen at 8pm tonight.
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100
    Nigelb said:

    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Apart from anything else, it’s going to massively drive down the seasonal flu figures for the next twelve months...
    I don't think that's particularly motivating 😊
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100
    James_M said:

    FPT Get well soon @Foxy

    I missed that. Has he succumbed?
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285
    Ozarks Season 3 out tomorrow at 9am....I guess that's tomorrow chance of work out the window.
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100
    egg said:

    In previous thread today we all agreed we know the mother of all austerity and tax take is coming, to payfor Promise we are all in it together

    just trying to work out what’s fair way to do it I think the consensus the discussion coming to, If there is going to be claw back cost of “whatever it takesonomics”, the tax should be targeted at gainers, and non movers, not any big losers or “were struggling already”?

    Can we pinpoint those? who is doing well and making money in this crisis.

    Supermarkets surely?
    Amazon.
    Netflix? If viewing figures up, advertising revenue up, all TV companies?
    Money not otherwise spent would be in savings accounts or investments, should we go there with tax plans?
    If offices not being used, they consumed less energy, so target the energy firms?
    People spent the time in the garden. The gardens look great. Garden tax.
    PB. Getting more posts, more hits, more revenue? Tax PB?

    This is not the time. You're showing your proclivities.
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100
    Mortimer said:

    glw said:

    How did anybody confuse what Ferguson said the other day? It was pretty damn clear.

    Probably the same people who think the instruction to only leave the house for essentials and one short walk / run / cycle per day, including going on a 10hr day trip to the Peak District.

    I'm getting quite fed up with people being "confused" because honestly it all seems quite straightforward to me. Maybe for 1 in 100 people some sort of weird exception might apply, but for the vast majority of us the advice has been quite simple to understand.
    I honestly don't think most people are confused at all, they use it to try to justify doing what they want...well the government didn't specify to the minute how long my exercise should last, therefore, I am confused, why shouldn't I drive 200 miles to the lake district and go for a bike ride.

    Although in Kay Burley's case, I think she genuinely is.
    Yep. The stubborn selfishness of some in this crisis would have been hilarious, if it wasnt so dangerous.

    I actually wonder if that is the point of the demonstrations as seen at 8pm tonight.
    Self interest must be put to bed, for the foreseeable future.
  • Options
    BournvilleBournville Posts: 303

    How did anybody confuse what Ferguson said the other day? It was pretty damn clear.

    Probably the same people who think the instruction to only leave the house for essentials and one short walk / run / cycle per day, including going on a 10hr day trip to the Peak District.

    Based on the correspondence my MP has received, it's 90% people who have ignored all the information on the daily government press conferences/social media/basic common sense, and 10% people with extremely specific queries about visiting their severely autistic children or similar.

    Sadly the media has vastly exaggerated confusion over government advice. The vast majority seem to get it, at least to the extent that they don't see the need to ask their MP about it.
  • Options
    GideonWiseGideonWise Posts: 1,123
    edited March 2020
    Blank
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100
    eadric said:
    and then cry
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285
    eadric said:

    Nigelb said:

    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Apart from anything else, it’s going to massively drive down the seasonal flu figures for the next twelve months...
    I bloody hope we adopt the Asian culture of wearing masks when you feel ill. It has to be the least you can do for everybody. When you think about it now, you really are an arsehole aren't you, sitting there on a bus coughing your guts up, spreading colds and flus everywhere.
    I find this frustrating to the point of fury. WEAR A MASK

    You don’t wear it because you will stop yourself catching it (tho it will help) you wear it because it will stop you SPREADING it. You can’t sneeze and cough so freely, through a surgical mask.

    This alone counts for the huge difference between East Asian death/infection rates, and those we are now seeing in the West.

    WEAR A MASK. ALWAYS.
    Obviously before this 99.9% of the British public were arseholes on this front (including me), but now the stigma of wearing one has gone, so hopefully bit of government education / nudging and we can make this the new norm.
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100

    How did anybody confuse what Ferguson said the other day? It was pretty damn clear.

    Probably the same people who think the instruction to only leave the house for essentials and one short walk / run / cycle per day, including going on a 10hr day trip to the Peak District.

    Based on the correspondence my MP has received, it's 90% people who have ignored all the information on the daily government press conferences/social media/basic common sense, and 10% people with extremely specific queries about visiting their severely autistic children or similar.

    Sadly the media has vastly exaggerated confusion over government advice. The vast majority seem to get it, at least to the extent that they don't see the need to ask their MP about it.
    The most accurate description of the media's motivation is attention seeking; more viewers/ readers requires more sensationalisation. That's too many letters for Scrabble.
  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 40,927
    I have followed the governments advice from day one, ordered my parents to stay in, clapped for the NHS at the front door at 8pm tonight, the whole shebang... but am I really the only one on here who doesn’t have nagging doubts that the 24hr news cycle, the tabloid headlines, the way of human nature to be preoccupied with catastrophe might mean we are over reacting?

    I feel slightly like one of the Peoples Temple folk who drank the pretend poison Jim Jones gave them to test their loyalty before the kool aid came out


  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285
    edited March 2020
    isam said:

    I have followed the governments advice from day one, ordered my parents to stay in, clapped for the NHS at the front door at 8pm tonight, the whole shebang... but am I really the only one on here who doesn’t have nagging doubts that the 24hr news cycle, the tabloid headlines, the way of human nature to be preoccupied with catastrophe might mean we are over reacting?

    I feel slightly like one of the Peoples Temple folk who drank the pretend poison Jim Jones gave them to test their loyalty before the kool aid came out


    See NYC....Mayor says they need to double the capacity of every hospital, they need 9 new field hospitals, they need as many hotel rooms as possible...and that won't be enough.

    They are already stacking the bodies in refrigerated trucks, because the hospital morgue is full.

    And this is in the most developed country in the world. The healthcare insurance system might be crap and inefficient, but they have huge capacity and the best tech in their hospitals.

    And they haven't even got near the peak yet.
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100
    isam said:

    I have followed the governments advice from day one, ordered my parents to stay in, clapped for the NHS at the front door at 8pm tonight, the whole shebang... but am I really the only one on here who doesn’t have nagging doubts that the 24hr news cycle, the tabloid headlines, the way of human nature to be preoccupied with catastrophe might mean we are over reacting?

    I feel slightly like one of the Peoples Temple folk who drank the pretend poison Jim Jones gave them to test their loyalty before the kool aid came out


    I was brought up to be on the safe side and I tick quite a few risk boxes, so I'm not sure I agree with your optimism. I may tomorrow.
  • Options
    DadgeDadge Posts: 2,038
    isam said:

    I have followed the governments advice from day one, ordered my parents to stay in, clapped for the NHS at the front door at 8pm tonight, the whole shebang... but am I really the only one on here who doesn’t have nagging doubts that the 24hr news cycle, the tabloid headlines, the way of human nature to be preoccupied with catastrophe might mean we are over reacting?

    I feel slightly like one of the Peoples Temple folk who drank the pretend poison Jim Jones gave them to test their loyalty before the kool aid came out


    We are overreacting inasmuch as we could have carried on largely as normal and a couple of hundred thousand people, mainly 60+, would've died.
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285
    eadric said:

    isam said:

    I have followed the governments advice from day one, ordered my parents to stay in, clapped for the NHS at the front door at 8pm tonight, the whole shebang... but am I really the only one on here who doesn’t have nagging doubts that the 24hr news cycle, the tabloid headlines, the way of human nature to be preoccupied with catastrophe might mean we are over reacting?

    I feel slightly like one of the Peoples Temple folk who drank the pretend poison Jim Jones gave them to test their loyalty before the kool aid came out


    Normalcy bias is very hard to shift. Even tho i first identified this bias here on PB, I still suffer from it. Sometimes I walk out of my door, and think, “WTF, let’s go back to London. Have a nice lunch. This is absurd.”

    But this isn’t absurd. This is a virus with the potential to collapse societies, via their health systems. Those are the cold hard facts, as we see in Wuhan, Italy and Spain.

    We cannot deny it.
    Any temptation to go out in public, I just think anybody could have this, it could be on any surface, and it can kill you in a long and horrible way....or I could stay in, do work, exercise in my garden and watch Netflix for a few weeks.
  • Options
    eggegg Posts: 1,749
    alterego said:

    egg said:

    In previous thread today we all agreed we know the mother of all austerity and tax take is coming, to payfor Promise we are all in it together

    just trying to work out what’s fair way to do it I think the consensus the discussion coming to, If there is going to be claw back cost of “whatever it takesonomics”, the tax should be targeted at gainers, and non movers, not any big losers or “were struggling already”?

    Can we pinpoint those? who is doing well and making money in this crisis.

    Supermarkets surely?
    Amazon.
    Netflix? If viewing figures up, advertising revenue up, all TV companies?
    Money not otherwise spent would be in savings accounts or investments, should we go there with tax plans?
    If offices not being used, they consumed less energy, so target the energy firms?
    People spent the time in the garden. The gardens look great. Garden tax.
    PB. Getting more posts, more hits, more revenue? Tax PB?

    This is not the time. You're showing your proclivities.
    NI could be sensible and fair, It’s the one being talked about in tomorrow’s papers.
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100
    Dadge said:

    isam said:

    I have followed the governments advice from day one, ordered my parents to stay in, clapped for the NHS at the front door at 8pm tonight, the whole shebang... but am I really the only one on here who doesn’t have nagging doubts that the 24hr news cycle, the tabloid headlines, the way of human nature to be preoccupied with catastrophe might mean we are over reacting?

    I feel slightly like one of the Peoples Temple folk who drank the pretend poison Jim Jones gave them to test their loyalty before the kool aid came out


    We are overreacting inasmuch as we could have carried on largely as normal and a couple of hundred thousand people, mainly 60+, would've died.
    You think that was an option that had traction?
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100
    egg said:

    alterego said:

    egg said:

    In previous thread today we all agreed we know the mother of all austerity and tax take is coming, to payfor Promise we are all in it together

    just trying to work out what’s fair way to do it I think the consensus the discussion coming to, If there is going to be claw back cost of “whatever it takesonomics”, the tax should be targeted at gainers, and non movers, not any big losers or “were struggling already”?

    Can we pinpoint those? who is doing well and making money in this crisis.

    Supermarkets surely?
    Amazon.
    Netflix? If viewing figures up, advertising revenue up, all TV companies?
    Money not otherwise spent would be in savings accounts or investments, should we go there with tax plans?
    If offices not being used, they consumed less energy, so target the energy firms?
    People spent the time in the garden. The gardens look great. Garden tax.
    PB. Getting more posts, more hits, more revenue? Tax PB?

    This is not the time. You're showing your proclivities.
    NI could be sensible and fair, It’s the one being talked about in tomorrow’s papers.
    I hadn't realised you work in the media.
  • Options
    Richard_TyndallRichard_Tyndall Posts: 30,942
    eadric said:

    Nigelb said:

    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Apart from anything else, it’s going to massively drive down the seasonal flu figures for the next twelve months...
    I bloody hope we adopt the Asian culture of wearing masks when you feel ill. It has to be the least you can do for everybody. When you think about it now, you really are an arsehole aren't you, sitting there on a bus coughing your guts up, spreading colds and flus everywhere.
    I find this frustrating to the point of fury. WEAR A MASK

    You don’t wear it because you will stop yourself catching it (tho it will help) you wear it because it will stop you SPREADING it. You can’t sneeze and cough so freely, through a surgical mask.

    This alone counts for the huge difference between East Asian death/infection rates, and those we are now seeing in the West.

    WEAR A MASK. ALWAYS.
    Trouble is we all know you weren't wearing one to stop spreading anything, you were wearing one because you thought it would stop you catching the thing. You said as much on here numerous times.

    Trying to pretend this was not the case now is just dishonest.
  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 40,927

    isam said:

    I have followed the governments advice from day one, ordered my parents to stay in, clapped for the NHS at the front door at 8pm tonight, the whole shebang... but am I really the only one on here who doesn’t have nagging doubts that the 24hr news cycle, the tabloid headlines, the way of human nature to be preoccupied with catastrophe might mean we are over reacting?

    I feel slightly like one of the Peoples Temple folk who drank the pretend poison Jim Jones gave them to test their loyalty before the kool aid came out


    See NYC....Mayor says they need to double the capacity of every hospital, they need 9 new field hospitals, they need as many hotel rooms as possible...and that won't be enough.

    They are already stacking the bodies in refrigerated trucks, because the hospital morgue is full.

    And this is in the most developed country in the world. The healthcare insurance system might be crap and inefficient, but they have huge capacity and the best tech in their hospitals.

    And they haven't even got near the peak yet.
    They are building a makeshift mortuary at the end of my road, in the car park of South Essex Crematorium, so obviously the authorities are preparing for some massive death spike. I don’t know, something still doesn’t feel right about it, I suppose that is just because it actually is incredible, unprecedented, it doesn’t feel real.

  • Options

    Nigelb said:

    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Apart from anything else, it’s going to massively drive down the seasonal flu figures for the next twelve months...
    I bloody hope we adopt the Asian culture of wearing masks when you feel ill. It has to be the least you can do for everybody. When you think about it now, you really are an arsehole aren't you, sitting there on a bus coughing your guts up, spreading colds and flus everywhere.
    and unwilling to cover your mouth because you need both hands to keep your phone steady while you annoyingly watch something crap on the iplayer
  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 40,927
    eadric said:

    isam said:

    I have followed the governments advice from day one, ordered my parents to stay in, clapped for the NHS at the front door at 8pm tonight, the whole shebang... but am I really the only one on here who doesn’t have nagging doubts that the 24hr news cycle, the tabloid headlines, the way of human nature to be preoccupied with catastrophe might mean we are over reacting?

    I feel slightly like one of the Peoples Temple folk who drank the pretend poison Jim Jones gave them to test their loyalty before the kool aid came out


    Normalcy bias is very hard to shift. Even tho i first identified this bias here on PB, I still suffer from it. Sometimes I walk out of my door, and think, “WTF, let’s go back to London. Have a nice lunch. This is absurd.”

    But this isn’t absurd. This is a virus with the potential to collapse societies, via their health systems. Those are the cold hard facts, as we see in Wuhan, Italy and Spain.

    We cannot deny it.
    I still say if normal flu infections and deaths were reported in the way this virus has, we would live on a similar state of panic. We hear the line that ‘flu has a vaccine’ as if that makes it harmless, but it still kills more people than this disease is likely to each year,
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285
    edited March 2020
    isam said:

    isam said:

    I have followed the governments advice from day one, ordered my parents to stay in, clapped for the NHS at the front door at 8pm tonight, the whole shebang... but am I really the only one on here who doesn’t have nagging doubts that the 24hr news cycle, the tabloid headlines, the way of human nature to be preoccupied with catastrophe might mean we are over reacting?

    I feel slightly like one of the Peoples Temple folk who drank the pretend poison Jim Jones gave them to test their loyalty before the kool aid came out


    See NYC....Mayor says they need to double the capacity of every hospital, they need 9 new field hospitals, they need as many hotel rooms as possible...and that won't be enough.

    They are already stacking the bodies in refrigerated trucks, because the hospital morgue is full.

    And this is in the most developed country in the world. The healthcare insurance system might be crap and inefficient, but they have huge capacity and the best tech in their hospitals.

    And they haven't even got near the peak yet.
    They are building a makeshift mortuary at the end of my road, in the car park of South Essex Crematorium, so obviously the authorities are preparing for some massive death spike. I don’t know, something still doesn’t feel right about it, I suppose that is just because it actually is incredible, unprecedented, it doesn’t feel real.

    I certainly agree it is strange feeling. At the moment, we are waiting for tsunami to hit, it is the silence before the storm.

    I am many miles away from any real population density so it is even stranger. I turn on the tv, see all the reports, look at the maths and see where it is predicted to go. Yet outside my door nothing looks any different from a few weeks ago.
  • Options
    egg said:


    Money not otherwise spent would be in savings accounts or investments, should we go there with tax plans?

    B of E already went there by lowering the interest rate, etc.

  • Options
    TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 40,085
    edited March 2020
    eadric said:

    Nigelb said:

    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Apart from anything else, it’s going to massively drive down the seasonal flu figures for the next twelve months...
    I bloody hope we adopt the Asian culture of wearing masks when you feel ill. It has to be the least you can do for everybody. When you think about it now, you really are an arsehole aren't you, sitting there on a bus coughing your guts up, spreading colds and flus everywhere.
    I find this frustrating to the point of fury. WEAR A MASK

    You don’t wear it because you will stop yourself catching it (tho it will help) you wear it because it will stop you SPREADING it. You can’t sneeze and cough so freely, through a surgical mask.

    This alone counts for the huge difference between East Asian death/infection rates, and those we are now seeing in the West.

    WEAR A MASK. ALWAYS.
    Hurray for the Niqaab!

    I remember a poster on here who said the sight of them made him feel sick (and not in a virusy, achy limb sorta way).
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100
    edited March 2020
    isam said:

    eadric said:

    isam said:

    I have followed the governments advice from day one, ordered my parents to stay in, clapped for the NHS at the front door at 8pm tonight, the whole shebang... but am I really the only one on here who doesn’t have nagging doubts that the 24hr news cycle, the tabloid headlines, the way of human nature to be preoccupied with catastrophe might mean we are over reacting?

    I feel slightly like one of the Peoples Temple folk who drank the pretend poison Jim Jones gave them to test their loyalty before the kool aid came out


    Normalcy bias is very hard to shift. Even tho i first identified this bias here on PB, I still suffer from it. Sometimes I walk out of my door, and think, “WTF, let’s go back to London. Have a nice lunch. This is absurd.”

    But this isn’t absurd. This is a virus with the potential to collapse societies, via their health systems. Those are the cold hard facts, as we see in Wuhan, Italy and Spain.

    We cannot deny it.
    I still say if normal flu infections and deaths were reported in the way this virus has, we would live on a similar state of panic. We hear the line that ‘flu has a vaccine’ as if that makes it harmless, but it still kills more people than this disease is likely to each year,
    Who knows? It just doesn't seem right to think it'll be alright on the night 'cos in my experience, it ain't. Maybe it's the media.
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100

    isam said:

    isam said:

    I have followed the governments advice from day one, ordered my parents to stay in, clapped for the NHS at the front door at 8pm tonight, the whole shebang... but am I really the only one on here who doesn’t have nagging doubts that the 24hr news cycle, the tabloid headlines, the way of human nature to be preoccupied with catastrophe might mean we are over reacting?

    I feel slightly like one of the Peoples Temple folk who drank the pretend poison Jim Jones gave them to test their loyalty before the kool aid came out


    See NYC....Mayor says they need to double the capacity of every hospital, they need 9 new field hospitals, they need as many hotel rooms as possible...and that won't be enough.

    They are already stacking the bodies in refrigerated trucks, because the hospital morgue is full.

    And this is in the most developed country in the world. The healthcare insurance system might be crap and inefficient, but they have huge capacity and the best tech in their hospitals.

    And they haven't even got near the peak yet.
    They are building a makeshift mortuary at the end of my road, in the car park of South Essex Crematorium, so obviously the authorities are preparing for some massive death spike. I don’t know, something still doesn’t feel right about it, I suppose that is just because it actually is incredible, unprecedented, it doesn’t feel real.

    I certainly agree it is strange feeling. At the moment, we are waiting for tsunami to hit, it is the silence before the storm.

    I am many miles away from any real population density so it is even stranger. I turn on the tv, see all the reports, look at the maths and see where it is predicted to go. Yet outside my door nothing looks any different from a few weeks ago.
    My door neither and I live in London, a suburb admittedly. You must promise not to tell.
  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 40,927
    edited March 2020
    alterego said:

    isam said:

    eadric said:

    isam said:

    I have followed the governments advice from day one, ordered my parents to stay in, clapped for the NHS at the front door at 8pm tonight, the whole shebang... but am I really the only one on here who doesn’t have nagging doubts that the 24hr news cycle, the tabloid headlines, the way of human nature to be preoccupied with catastrophe might mean we are over reacting?

    I feel slightly like one of the Peoples Temple folk who drank the pretend poison Jim Jones gave them to test their loyalty before the kool aid came out


    Normalcy bias is very hard to shift. Even tho i first identified this bias here on PB, I still suffer from it. Sometimes I walk out of my door, and think, “WTF, let’s go back to London. Have a nice lunch. This is absurd.”

    But this isn’t absurd. This is a virus with the potential to collapse societies, via their health systems. Those are the cold hard facts, as we see in Wuhan, Italy and Spain.

    We cannot deny it.
    I still say if normal flu infections and deaths were reported in the way this virus has, we would live on a similar state of panic. We hear the line that ‘flu has a vaccine’ as if that makes it harmless, but it still kills more people than this disease is likely to each year,
    Who knows? It just doesn't seem right to think it'll be alright on the night 'cos in my experience, it ain't. Maybe it's the media.
    I am not acting as if it will be alright on the night, I am going out once a day for a run or bike ride, wearing gloves in shops, not seeing family, everything! But I am happy to admit I have suspicions that we are collectively over reacting and slightly embarrassed at my willingness to accept authority advice - I think it’s a bad Precedent that a malevolent govt might take advantage of, should one take power
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100
    isam said:

    eadric said:

    isam said:

    I have followed the governments advice from day one, ordered my parents to stay in, clapped for the NHS at the front door at 8pm tonight, the whole shebang... but am I really the only one on here who doesn’t have nagging doubts that the 24hr news cycle, the tabloid headlines, the way of human nature to be preoccupied with catastrophe might mean we are over reacting?

    I feel slightly like one of the Peoples Temple folk who drank the pretend poison Jim Jones gave them to test their loyalty before the kool aid came out


    Normalcy bias is very hard to shift. Even tho i first identified this bias here on PB, I still suffer from it. Sometimes I walk out of my door, and think, “WTF, let’s go back to London. Have a nice lunch. This is absurd.”

    But this isn’t absurd. This is a virus with the potential to collapse societies, via their health systems. Those are the cold hard facts, as we see in Wuhan, Italy and Spain.

    We cannot deny it.
    I still say if normal flu infections and deaths were reported in the way this virus has, we would live on a similar state of panic. We hear the line that ‘flu has a vaccine’ as if that makes it harmless, but it still kills more people than this disease is likely to each year,
    I don't think the flu vaccine is particularly efficient.
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100

    eadric said:

    Nigelb said:

    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Apart from anything else, it’s going to massively drive down the seasonal flu figures for the next twelve months...
    I bloody hope we adopt the Asian culture of wearing masks when you feel ill. It has to be the least you can do for everybody. When you think about it now, you really are an arsehole aren't you, sitting there on a bus coughing your guts up, spreading colds and flus everywhere.
    I find this frustrating to the point of fury. WEAR A MASK

    You don’t wear it because you will stop yourself catching it (tho it will help) you wear it because it will stop you SPREADING it. You can’t sneeze and cough so freely, through a surgical mask.

    This alone counts for the huge difference between East Asian death/infection rates, and those we are now seeing in the West.

    WEAR A MASK. ALWAYS.
    Hurray for the Niqaab!

    I remember a poster on here who said the sight of them made him feel sick (and not in a virusy, achy limb sorta way).
    I believe the purpose is somewhat different, and sexist.
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100
    eadric said:

    eadric said:

    Nigelb said:

    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Apart from anything else, it’s going to massively drive down the seasonal flu figures for the next twelve months...
    I bloody hope we adopt the Asian culture of wearing masks when you feel ill. It has to be the least you can do for everybody. When you think about it now, you really are an arsehole aren't you, sitting there on a bus coughing your guts up, spreading colds and flus everywhere.
    I find this frustrating to the point of fury. WEAR A MASK

    You don’t wear it because you will stop yourself catching it (tho it will help) you wear it because it will stop you SPREADING it. You can’t sneeze and cough so freely, through a surgical mask.

    This alone counts for the huge difference between East Asian death/infection rates, and those we are now seeing in the West.

    WEAR A MASK. ALWAYS.
    Trouble is we all know you weren't wearing one to stop spreading anything, you were wearing one because you thought it would stop you catching the thing. You said as much on here numerous times.

    Trying to pretend this was not the case now is just dishonest.
    I’m not pretending anything! I readily admit to this.

    I had my mask-OMG moment only about 10 days ago, when I was reading Twitter, and someone made this really quite obvious point. By wearing a mask, you reduce the risk of you getting infected, but way more efficiently you reduce the chances of YOU spreading it,

    Wearing a mask is a social nicety in the same way you sneeze into a hand. Except it saves lives.

    It’s that simple. In times of pandemic flu, everyone should wear a mask. They cost about 2p. Just do it. And we will be more like South Korea than Italy.
    The WHO has a view on this

    https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks
  • Options
    eggegg Posts: 1,749
    alterego said:

    egg said:

    alterego said:

    egg said:

    In previous thread today we all agreed we know the mother of all austerity and tax take is coming, to payfor Promise we are all in it together

    just trying to work out what’s fair way to do it I think the consensus the discussion coming to, If there is going to be claw back cost of “whatever it takesonomics”, the tax should be targeted at gainers, and non movers, not any big losers or “were struggling already”?

    Can we pinpoint those? who is doing well and making money in this crisis.

    Supermarkets surely?
    Amazon.
    Netflix? If viewing figures up, advertising revenue up, all TV companies?
    Money not otherwise spent would be in savings accounts or investments, should we go there with tax plans?
    If offices not being used, they consumed less energy, so target the energy firms?
    People spent the time in the garden. The gardens look great. Garden tax.
    PB. Getting more posts, more hits, more revenue? Tax PB?

    This is not the time. You're showing your proclivities.
    NI could be sensible and fair, It’s the one being talked about in tomorrow’s papers.
    I hadn't realised you work in the media.
    I don’t. What’s your point sorry, don't be so vague.
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100
    isam said:

    alterego said:

    isam said:

    eadric said:

    isam said:

    I have followed the governments advice from day one, ordered my parents to stay in, clapped for the NHS at the front door at 8pm tonight, the whole shebang... but am I really the only one on here who doesn’t have nagging doubts that the 24hr news cycle, the tabloid headlines, the way of human nature to be preoccupied with catastrophe might mean we are over reacting?

    I feel slightly like one of the Peoples Temple folk who drank the pretend poison Jim Jones gave them to test their loyalty before the kool aid came out


    Normalcy bias is very hard to shift. Even tho i first identified this bias here on PB, I still suffer from it. Sometimes I walk out of my door, and think, “WTF, let’s go back to London. Have a nice lunch. This is absurd.”

    But this isn’t absurd. This is a virus with the potential to collapse societies, via their health systems. Those are the cold hard facts, as we see in Wuhan, Italy and Spain.

    We cannot deny it.
    I still say if normal flu infections and deaths were reported in the way this virus has, we would live on a similar state of panic. We hear the line that ‘flu has a vaccine’ as if that makes it harmless, but it still kills more people than this disease is likely to each year,
    Who knows? It just doesn't seem right to think it'll be alright on the night 'cos in my experience, it ain't. Maybe it's the media.
    I am not acting as if it will be alright on the night, I am going out once a day for a run or bike ride, wearing gloves in shops, not seeing family, everything! But I am happy to admit I have suspicions that we are collectively over reacting and slightly embarrassed at my willingness to accept authority advice - I think it’s a bad Precedent that a malevolent govt might take advantage of, should one take power
    I didn't say "acting", I said "thinking". I had no evidence of how you were acting.
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100
    egg said:

    alterego said:

    egg said:

    alterego said:

    egg said:

    In previous thread today we all agreed we know the mother of all austerity and tax take is coming, to payfor Promise we are all in it together

    just trying to work out what’s fair way to do it I think the consensus the discussion coming to, If there is going to be claw back cost of “whatever it takesonomics”, the tax should be targeted at gainers, and non movers, not any big losers or “were struggling already”?

    Can we pinpoint those? who is doing well and making money in this crisis.

    Supermarkets surely?
    Amazon.
    Netflix? If viewing figures up, advertising revenue up, all TV companies?
    Money not otherwise spent would be in savings accounts or investments, should we go there with tax plans?
    If offices not being used, they consumed less energy, so target the energy firms?
    People spent the time in the garden. The gardens look great. Garden tax.
    PB. Getting more posts, more hits, more revenue? Tax PB?

    This is not the time. You're showing your proclivities.
    NI could be sensible and fair, It’s the one being talked about in tomorrow’s papers.
    I hadn't realised you work in the media.
    I don’t. What’s your point sorry, don't be so vague.
    Proclivities is the point. I thought and still do think that you of anyone should be aware of your starting position. I apologise if that's a bit cryptic.
  • Options
    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,616
    This was the World Heath Organisation on 4th February:

    https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1224734993966096387
  • Options
    eggegg Posts: 1,749
    alterego said:

    egg said:

    alterego said:

    egg said:

    alterego said:

    egg said:

    In previous thread today we all agreed we know the mother of all austerity and tax take is coming, to payfor Promise we are all in it together

    just trying to work out what’s fair way to do it I think the consensus the discussion coming to, If there is going to be claw back cost of “whatever it takesonomics”, the tax should be targeted at gainers, and non movers, not any big losers or “were struggling already”?

    Can we pinpoint those? who is doing well and making money in this crisis.

    Supermarkets surely?
    Amazon.
    Netflix? If viewing figures up, advertising revenue up, all TV companies?
    Money not otherwise spent would be in savings accounts or investments, should we go there with tax plans?
    If offices not being used, they consumed less energy, so target the energy firms?
    People spent the time in the garden. The gardens look great. Garden tax.
    PB. Getting more posts, more hits, more revenue? Tax PB?

    This is not the time. You're showing your proclivities.
    NI could be sensible and fair, It’s the one being talked about in tomorrow’s papers.
    I hadn't realised you work in the media.
    I don’t. What’s your point sorry, don't be so vague.
    Proclivities is the point. I thought and still do think that you of anyone should be aware of your starting position. I apologise if that's a bit cryptic.
    Okay. I’ll spell them out. governments don’t create wealth, it cannot offset damage to everyone’s interest, it’s already picking and choosing and painting in the future with measures it chooses, to protect as much of the economy when it comes out of mothballed, and timing and cost of these measures are important to discuss I think. just as recession and unemployment will hurt the health of citizens emotionally and physically, we might end up with underinvestment in health care, social care, and welfare at same timeon the basis future growth and debt prohibits it.
    Unless you are sure “whatever it takes” will always lead to the same outcome in everybody’s hands? So it’s right questions are asked, pressure groups have clarity and put pressure on for more action. Because we cant stop either the virus, or damage to economy, nor that there will be a bill to pay, but the ideal medium is where we slow the damage, and hold politicians to their Promise we have all been in this together every step of the way during and after.

    Can we achieve the innovation and creativity needed now by closing down this and other discussion? So My proclivities are for normal politics now. For the record are you calling for normal politics and government scrutiny to be suspended?
  • Options
    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,616
  • Options
    edmundintokyoedmundintokyo Posts: 17,150
    isam said:

    eadric said:

    isam said:

    I have followed the governments advice from day one, ordered my parents to stay in, clapped for the NHS at the front door at 8pm tonight, the whole shebang... but am I really the only one on here who doesn’t have nagging doubts that the 24hr news cycle, the tabloid headlines, the way of human nature to be preoccupied with catastrophe might mean we are over reacting?

    I feel slightly like one of the Peoples Temple folk who drank the pretend poison Jim Jones gave them to test their loyalty before the kool aid came out


    Normalcy bias is very hard to shift. Even tho i first identified this bias here on PB, I still suffer from it. Sometimes I walk out of my door, and think, “WTF, let’s go back to London. Have a nice lunch. This is absurd.”

    But this isn’t absurd. This is a virus with the potential to collapse societies, via their health systems. Those are the cold hard facts, as we see in Wuhan, Italy and Spain.

    We cannot deny it.
    I still say if normal flu infections and deaths were reported in the way this virus has, we would live on a similar state of panic. We hear the line that ‘flu has a vaccine’ as if that makes it harmless, but it still kills more people than this disease is likely to each year,
    The suggestion from the bod quoted in the header is that without the special measures currently being taken covid19 would kill half a million people. This is way more than flu would normally kill.
  • Options
    fitalassfitalass Posts: 4,279
    Andy_JS said:
    To be honest, from the comments I have seen on social media it looks like the housing market had already suspended itself. Grim.
  • Options
    not sure if this has been discussed, but police all over the country are telling people they can't drive somewhere for a walk and should instead walk locally.

    this isn't what the legislation says, which is 'no person may leave the place where they are living without reasonable excuse.'
    'reasonable excuse includes the need to'
    'to take exercise either alone or with other members of their household;'

    They are saying there should be no non-essential travel. While I don't think driving 100 miles to the Lake District is reasonable, it doesn't seem that there's anything wrong with driving to some quiet woodland to walk your dog, and the police should not be gold-plating legislation.

    https://www.facebook.com/PenzancePolice/photos/a.359329124199631/1911115405687654/
  • Options
    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,121

    isam said:

    isam said:

    I have followed the governments advice from day one, ordered my parents to stay in, clapped for the NHS at the front door at 8pm tonight, the whole shebang... but am I really the only one on here who doesn’t have nagging doubts that the 24hr news cycle, the tabloid headlines, the way of human nature to be preoccupied with catastrophe might mean we are over reacting?

    I feel slightly like one of the Peoples Temple folk who drank the pretend poison Jim Jones gave them to test their loyalty before the kool aid came out


    See NYC....Mayor says they need to double the capacity of every hospital, they need 9 new field hospitals, they need as many hotel rooms as possible...and that won't be enough.

    They are already stacking the bodies in refrigerated trucks, because the hospital morgue is full.

    And this is in the most developed country in the world. The healthcare insurance system might be crap and inefficient, but they have huge capacity and the best tech in their hospitals.

    And they haven't even got near the peak yet.
    They are building a makeshift mortuary at the end of my road, in the car park of South Essex Crematorium, so obviously the authorities are preparing for some massive death spike. I don’t know, something still doesn’t feel right about it, I suppose that is just because it actually is incredible, unprecedented, it doesn’t feel real.

    I certainly agree it is strange feeling. At the moment, we are waiting for tsunami to hit, it is the silence before the storm.

    I am many miles away from any real population density so it is even stranger. I turn on the tv, see all the reports, look at the maths and see where it is predicted to go. Yet outside my door nothing looks any different from a few weeks ago.
    Even in rural Devon, it sounds different though.

    For seven years here I thought I knew what silence was, so different to the background hurly-burley of the rest of the country. But this past week has been another magnitude of silence. Maybe the infrasound has dropped away. The acceptance of a level of background noise that comes from traffic miles away. Jets 40,000 feet away. They all still caused the song of a skylark overhead to be masked.

    No longer.
  • Options
    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,121

    not sure if this has been discussed, but police all over the country are telling people they can't drive somewhere for a walk and should instead walk locally.

    this isn't what the legislation says, which is 'no person may leave the place where they are living without reasonable excuse.'
    'reasonable excuse includes the need to'
    'to take exercise either alone or with other members of their household;'

    They are saying there should be no non-essential travel. While I don't think driving 100 miles to the Lake District is reasonable, it doesn't seem that there's anything wrong with driving to some quiet woodland to walk your dog, and the police should not be gold-plating legislation.

    https://www.facebook.com/PenzancePolice/photos/a.359329124199631/1911115405687654/

    Read the comments and there's plenty of voices essentially saying "Well done. Piss off back home, you germ-laden Fulham fuckers...." This is what the police are trying to project.
  • Options
    DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 24,379
    eadric said:


    Wearing a mask is a social nicety in the same way you sneeze into a hand. Except it saves lives.

    Sneeze into a tissue; failing that elbow or upper sleeve, NOT your hand.
  • Options
    TGOHF666TGOHF666 Posts: 2,052

    isam said:

    eadric said:

    isam said:

    I have followed the governments advice from day one, ordered my parents to stay in, clapped for the NHS at the front door at 8pm tonight, the whole shebang... but am I really the only one on here who doesn’t have nagging doubts that the 24hr news cycle, the tabloid headlines, the way of human nature to be preoccupied with catastrophe might mean we are over reacting?

    I feel slightly like one of the Peoples Temple folk who drank the pretend poison Jim Jones gave them to test their loyalty before the kool aid came out


    Normalcy bias is very hard to shift. Even tho i first identified this bias here on PB, I still suffer from it. Sometimes I walk out of my door, and think, “WTF, let’s go back to London. Have a nice lunch. This is absurd.”

    But this isn’t absurd. This is a virus with the potential to collapse societies, via their health systems. Those are the cold hard facts, as we see in Wuhan, Italy and Spain.

    We cannot deny it.
    I still say if normal flu infections and deaths were reported in the way this virus has, we would live on a similar state of panic. We hear the line that ‘flu has a vaccine’ as if that makes it harmless, but it still kills more people than this disease is likely to each year,
    The suggestion from the bod quoted in the header is that without the special measures currently being taken covid19 would kill half a million people. This is way more than flu would normally kill.
    I guess we will find out in the USA.

  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,597
    fitalass said:
    Navarro, who is in charge of the supply chain, is just as bad... IMO response to questions other than “stop senationalising”, and it’s all the fault of Obama and China....
    https://thehill.com/homenews/media/489720-cnns-keilar-gets-in-testy-exchange-with-white-house-official-youre-wasting
  • Options
    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,121
    That Derbyshire drone didn't capture one incident where the risk of passing the virus increased. You can be sure they would have used it if they had.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,597
    What happened to the edit function?
  • Options
    IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    edited March 2020

    not sure if this has been discussed, but police all over the country are telling people they can't drive somewhere for a walk and should instead walk locally.

    this isn't what the legislation says, which is 'no person may leave the place where they are living without reasonable excuse.'
    'reasonable excuse includes the need to'
    'to take exercise either alone or with other members of their household;'

    They are saying there should be no non-essential travel. While I don't think driving 100 miles to the Lake District is reasonable, it doesn't seem that there's anything wrong with driving to some quiet woodland to walk your dog, and the police should not be gold-plating legislation.

    https://www.facebook.com/PenzancePolice/photos/a.359329124199631/1911115405687654/

    Shit, I have inadvertently liked that and there is no obvious way of retracting it. Three cheers for the PZ police and three times three more for their colleagues on Dartmoor.

    Edit: test.
  • Options
    IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    edited March 2020
    Nigelb said:

    What happened to the edit function?

    Works for me.

    Eta: see?
  • Options
    fox327fox327 Posts: 366
    egg said:

    In previous thread today we all agreed we know the mother of all austerity and tax take is coming, to payfor Promise we are all in it together

    just trying to work out what’s fair way to do it I think the consensus the discussion coming to, If there is going to be claw back cost of “whatever it takesonomics”, the tax should be targeted at gainers, and non movers, not any big losers or “were struggling already”?

    Can we pinpoint those? who is doing well and making money in this crisis.

    Supermarkets surely?
    Amazon.
    Netflix? If viewing figures up, advertising revenue up, all TV companies?
    Money not otherwise spent would be in savings accounts or investments, should we go there with tax plans?
    If offices not being used, they consumed less energy, so target the energy firms?
    People spent the time in the garden. The gardens look great. Garden tax.
    PB. Getting more posts, more hits, more revenue? Tax PB?

    I would think that advertising revenue would be down across all the media. There are so many things that people cannot buy now, from cruises and holidays to restaurant meals and homes. Media companies will start closing if the lockdown carries on for more than about two months, including the national newspapers and commercial television.

    As far as government finances are concerned, tax revenues will be considerably reduced: income and corporation tax, VAT and Stamp Duty, taxes on bookmakers' profits, although inheritance tax revenues might be up. Government expenditure will be much higher due to financial support schemes. I suspect that the government cannot fund it for much more than a year. If they print money, there will be inflation which will affect food prices.

    The reduction in corporate profits and asset values will hit the solvency of pension schemes, which may have to reduce their payments. Lots of people are going to get poorer and have difficulty paying their bills which will increase as time goes by.

    The lockdown will also cause serious difficulties which will be felt more slowly. The shutdown of the education system will lead to illiteracy, and a shortage of people with the educational background required to train as doctors and nurses, computer programmers and other key skills. The lockdown will lead to a reduction in the birth rate as new relationships can no longer be formed. Some countries will not have contained the virus, and in those countries after the epidemic has ended normal life will resume. There may be emigration from the UK into those countries. This is a scenario, not a prediction, however we do not have long to wait. In a few weeks' time we will know if the epidemic has been controlled, and the government will have to set out its longer term plans for the country.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,597
    alterego said:

    eadric said:

    eadric said:

    Nigelb said:

    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Apart from anything else, it’s going to massively drive down the seasonal flu figures for the next twelve months...
    I bloody hope we adopt the Asian culture of wearing masks when you feel ill. It has to be the least you can do for everybody. When you think about it now, you really are an arsehole aren't you, sitting there on a bus coughing your guts up, spreading colds and flus everywhere.
    I find this frustrating to the point of fury. WEAR A MASK

    You don’t wear it because you will stop yourself catching it (tho it will help) you wear it because it will stop you SPREADING it. You can’t sneeze and cough so freely, through a surgical mask.

    This alone counts for the huge difference between East Asian death/infection rates, and those we are now seeing in the West.

    WEAR A MASK. ALWAYS.
    Trouble is we all know you weren't wearing one to stop spreading anything, you were wearing one because you thought it would stop you catching the thing. You said as much on here numerous times.

    Trying to pretend this was not the case now is just dishonest.
    I’m not pretending anything! I readily admit to this.

    I had my mask-OMG moment only about 10 days ago, when I was reading Twitter, and someone made this really quite obvious point. By wearing a mask, you reduce the risk of you getting infected, but way more efficiently you reduce the chances of YOU spreading it,

    Wearing a mask is a social nicety in the same way you sneeze into a hand. Except it saves lives.

    It’s that simple. In times of pandemic flu, everyone should wear a mask. They cost about 2p. Just do it. And we will be more like South Korea than Italy.
    The WHO has a view on this

    https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks
    As has been pointed out, the WHO has not covered itself in glory with its advice on Coronavirus.
    And there is research which demonstrates the utility of masks in preventing the spread of viral infection. I’ll post a link to some when I’m no longer on my mobile.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,597
    IshmaelZ said:

    Nigelb said:

    What happened to the edit function?

    Works for me.

    Eta: see?
    Must be phone related.
  • Options
    TGOHF666TGOHF666 Posts: 2,052
    fox327 said:

    egg said:

    In previous thread today we all agreed we know the mother of all austerity and tax take is coming, to payfor Promise we are all in it together

    just trying to work out what’s fair way to do it I think the consensus the discussion coming to, If there is going to be claw back cost of “whatever it takesonomics”, the tax should be targeted at gainers, and non movers, not any big losers or “were struggling already”?

    Can we pinpoint those? who is doing well and making money in this crisis.

    Supermarkets surely?
    Amazon.
    Netflix? If viewing figures up, advertising revenue up, all TV companies?
    Money not otherwise spent would be in savings accounts or investments, should we go there with tax plans?
    If offices not being used, they consumed less energy, so target the energy firms?
    People spent the time in the garden. The gardens look great. Garden tax.
    PB. Getting more posts, more hits, more revenue? Tax PB?

    I would think that advertising revenue would be down across all the media. There are so many things that people cannot buy now, from cruises and holidays to restaurant meals and homes. Media companies will start closing if the lockdown carries on for more than about two months, including the national newspapers and commercial television.

    As far as government finances are concerned, tax revenues will be considerably reduced: income and corporation tax, VAT and Stamp Duty, taxes on bookmakers' profits, although inheritance tax revenues might be up. Government expenditure will be much higher due to financial support schemes. I suspect that the government cannot fund it for much more than a year. If they print money, there will be inflation which will affect food prices.

    The reduction in corporate profits and asset values will hit the solvency of pension schemes, which may have to reduce their payments. Lots of people are going to get poorer and have difficulty paying their bills which will increase as time goes by.

    The lockdown will also cause serious difficulties which will be felt more slowly. The shutdown of the education system will lead to illiteracy, and a shortage of people with the educational background required to train as doctors and nurses, computer programmers and other key skills. The lockdown will lead to a reduction in the birth rate as new relationships can no longer be formed. Some countries will not have contained the virus, and in those countries after the epidemic has ended normal life will resume. There may be emigration from the UK into those countries. This is a scenario, not a prediction, however we do not have long to wait. In a few weeks' time we will know if the epidemic has been controlled, and the government will have to set out its longer term plans for the country.
    The negative effects could be many - in the rush to repair the economy a lot of social fabric could get torn up - the independent shop bought by the big chain with stockpiles of cash, the local pub robbed of revenue turned into flats, millions of small businesses/sole traders now seeking the security of a salary.

    There needs a big push to begin to end this lock down as soon as possible to minimise permanent damage.
  • Options
    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,232
    edited March 2020
    He just can’t help himself, can he?

    Coronavirus: Jeremy Corbyn says he was proved "right" on public spending
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52048213
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,280

    That Derbyshire drone didn't capture one incident where the risk of passing the virus increased. You can be sure they would have used it if they had.
    One of those cases where if a handful of people do it, there is no problem, but it cannot be built into advice lest hundreds of others do the same.

    As a thought experiment, imagine that Corbyn had been elected PM and was enacting precisely the same measures. Somehow I think we’d be hearing more howls of concern from Tories.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,597
  • Options
    MysticroseMysticrose Posts: 4,688
    edited March 2020
    Nigelb said:

    alterego said:

    eadric said:

    eadric said:

    Nigelb said:

    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Apart from anything else, it’s going to massively drive down the seasonal flu figures for the next twelve months...
    I bloody hope we adopt the Asian culture of wearing masks when you feel ill. It has to be the least you can do for everybody. When you think about it now, you really are an arsehole aren't you, sitting there on a bus coughing your guts up, spreading colds and flus everywhere.
    I find this frustrating to the point of fury. WEAR A MASK

    You don’t wear it because you will stop yourself catching it (tho it will help) you wear it because it will stop you SPREADING it. You can’t sneeze and cough so freely, through a surgical mask.

    This alone counts for the huge difference between East Asian death/infection rates, and those we are now seeing in the West.

    WEAR A MASK. ALWAYS.
    Trouble is we all know you weren't wearing one to stop spreading anything, you were wearing one because you thought it would stop you catching the thing. You said as much on here numerous times.

    Trying to pretend this was not the case now is just dishonest.
    I’m not pretending anything! I readily admit to this.

    I had my mask-OMG moment only about 10 days ago, when I was reading Twitter, and someone made this really quite obvious point. By wearing a mask, you reduce the risk of you getting infected, but way more efficiently you reduce the chances of YOU spreading it,

    Wearing a mask is a social nicety in the same way you sneeze into a hand. Except it saves lives.

    It’s that simple. In times of pandemic flu, everyone should wear a mask. They cost about 2p. Just do it. And we will be more like South Korea than Italy.
    The WHO has a view on this

    https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks
    As has been pointed out, the WHO has not covered itself in glory with its advice on Coronavirus.
    And there is research which demonstrates the utility of masks in preventing the spread of viral infection. I’ll post a link to some when I’m no longer on my mobile.
    Yep they obviously do help.

    I have a really good mask with a high grade filtration system and replacable (washable) filters.

    I wear it everywhere.

    It also prevents me from putting my hands on my face, a point apparently lost on some.
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,280
    Over a quarter of yesterday’s new cases were in the US
  • Options
    Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    edited March 2020
    fox327 said:

    As far as government finances are concerned, tax revenues will be considerably reduced: income and corporation tax, VAT and Stamp Duty, taxes on bookmakers' profits, although inheritance tax revenues might be up. Government expenditure will be much higher due to financial support schemes. I suspect that the government cannot fund it for much more than a year. If they print money, there will be inflation which will affect food prices.

    Draconian restrictions won't last for nearly so long as a year. The Government can't afford them, the country won't stomach them. I think we can keep this going for the initial three months; what comes after that is pure speculation, but one can easily imagine most of the population being released from house arrest in phases whilst the over-70s are advised to keep staying at home for the time being, and the shielded group remain incarcerated for a great deal longer.

    It's all very well stating that health and saving lives must come before all else; in practice the state can't continue to protect everyone if the complete destruction of the economy deprives it of the funds to do so. A compromise will inevitably have to be struck.
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,280

    Nigelb said:

    alterego said:

    eadric said:

    eadric said:

    Nigelb said:

    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Apart from anything else, it’s going to massively drive down the seasonal flu figures for the next twelve months...
    I bloody hope we adopt the Asian culture of wearing masks when you feel ill. It has to be the least you can do for everybody. When you think about it now, you really are an arsehole aren't you, sitting there on a bus coughing your guts up, spreading colds and flus everywhere.
    I find this frustrating to the point of fury. WEAR A MASK

    You don’t wear it because you will stop yourself catching it (tho it will help) you wear it because it will stop you SPREADING it. You can’t sneeze and cough so freely, through a surgical mask.

    This alone counts for the huge difference between East Asian death/infection rates, and those we are now seeing in the West.

    WEAR A MASK. ALWAYS.
    Trouble is we all know you weren't wearing one to stop spreading anything, you were wearing one because you thought it would stop you catching the thing. You said as much on here numerous times.

    Trying to pretend this was not the case now is just dishonest.
    I’m not pretending anything! I readily admit to this.

    I had my mask-OMG moment only about 10 days ago, when I was reading Twitter, and someone made this really quite obvious point. By wearing a mask, you reduce the risk of you getting infected, but way more efficiently you reduce the chances of YOU spreading it,

    Wearing a mask is a social nicety in the same way you sneeze into a hand. Except it saves lives.

    It’s that simple. In times of pandemic flu, everyone should wear a mask. They cost about 2p. Just do it. And we will be more like South Korea than Italy.
    The WHO has a view on this

    https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks
    As has been pointed out, the WHO has not covered itself in glory with its advice on Coronavirus.
    And there is research which demonstrates the utility of masks in preventing the spread of viral infection. I’ll post a link to some when I’m no longer on my mobile.
    Yep they obviously do help.

    I have a really good mask with a high grade filtration system and replacable (washable) filters.

    I wear it everywhere.

    It also prevents me from putting my hands on my face, a point apparently lost on some.
    People I have seen wearing one keep touching it, adjusting it, fiddling with it. Making it a repository for germs from anything they have touched.
  • Options
    MysticroseMysticrose Posts: 4,688
    edited March 2020
    Mailonline makes grim reading on the US situation. With a reach of 200 million, surely Trump's approval rating is going to begin to slide?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html
  • Options
    IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    Nigelb said:

    alterego said:

    eadric said:

    eadric said:

    Nigelb said:

    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Apart from anything else, it’s going to massively drive down the seasonal flu figures for the next twelve months...
    I bloody hope we adopt the Asian culture of wearing masks when you feel ill. It has to be the least you can do for everybody. When you think about it now, you really are an arsehole aren't you, sitting there on a bus coughing your guts up, spreading colds and flus everywhere.
    I find this frustrating to the point of fury. WEAR A MASK

    You don’t wear it because you will stop yourself catching it (tho it will help) you wear it because it will stop you SPREADING it. You can’t sneeze and cough so freely, through a surgical mask.

    This alone counts for the huge difference between East Asian death/infection rates, and those we are now seeing in the West.

    WEAR A MASK. ALWAYS.
    Trouble is we all know you weren't wearing one to stop spreading anything, you were wearing one because you thought it would stop you catching the thing. You said as much on here numerous times.

    Trying to pretend this was not the case now is just dishonest.
    I’m not pretending anything! I readily admit to this.

    I had my mask-OMG moment only about 10 days ago, when I was reading Twitter, and someone made this really quite obvious point. By wearing a mask, you reduce the risk of you getting infected, but way more efficiently you reduce the chances of YOU spreading it,

    Wearing a mask is a social nicety in the same way you sneeze into a hand. Except it saves lives.

    It’s that simple. In times of pandemic flu, everyone should wear a mask. They cost about 2p. Just do it. And we will be more like South Korea than Italy.
    The WHO has a view on this

    https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks
    As has been pointed out, the WHO has not covered itself in glory with its advice on Coronavirus.
    And there is research which demonstrates the utility of masks in preventing the spread of viral infection. I’ll post a link to some when I’m no longer on my mobile.
    Yep they obviously do help.

    I have a really good mask with a high grade filtration system and replacable (washable) filters.

    I wear it everywhere.

    It also prevents me from putting my hands on my face, a point apparently lost on some.
    Where is "everywhere" given that you are meant to be at home all the time?

    Where did you get it?
  • Options
    Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    Nigelb said:
    Is anyone surprised? Not even an outbreak of plague can fix the structural problems of the Eurozone; the creditor states' governments won't put their taxpayers' cash on the line by pooling risk with the debtors.

    In this if in no other sense, coronavirus has changed nothing.
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,280
    Professor Barclay on Newsnight again making the point that the severity of your illness is influenced by the amount of virus you receive on first infection. She is a professor of infectious diseases so ought to know.
  • Options
    MysticroseMysticrose Posts: 4,688
    eadric said:

    isam said:

    I have followed the governments advice from day one, ordered my parents to stay in, clapped for the NHS at the front door at 8pm tonight, the whole shebang... but am I really the only one on here who doesn’t have nagging doubts that the 24hr news cycle, the tabloid headlines, the way of human nature to be preoccupied with catastrophe might mean we are over reacting?

    I feel slightly like one of the Peoples Temple folk who drank the pretend poison Jim Jones gave them to test their loyalty before the kool aid came out


    Normalcy bias is very hard to shift. Even tho i first identified this bias here on PB, I still suffer from it. Sometimes I walk out of my door, and think, “WTF, let’s go back to London. Have a nice lunch. This is absurd.”

    But this isn’t absurd. This is a virus with the potential to collapse societies, via their health systems. Those are the cold hard facts, as we see in Wuhan, Italy and Spain.

    We cannot deny it.
    Indeed.

    If anything I think a lot of people are still in denial.

    We're about to see a death surge, especially in London.

    By the way, I know a lot of people who have it, or we assume so. No testing so no proof.
  • Options
    TGOHF666TGOHF666 Posts: 2,052

    fox327 said:

    As far as government finances are concerned, tax revenues will be considerably reduced: income and corporation tax, VAT and Stamp Duty, taxes on bookmakers' profits, although inheritance tax revenues might be up. Government expenditure will be much higher due to financial support schemes. I suspect that the government cannot fund it for much more than a year. If they print money, there will be inflation which will affect food prices.

    Draconian restrictions won't last for nearly so long as a year. The Government can't afford them, the country won't stomach them. I think we can keep this going for the initial three months; what comes after that is pure speculation, but one can easily imagine most of the population being released from house arrest in phases whilst the over-70s are advised to keep staying at home for the time being, and the shielded group remain incarcerated for a great deal longer.

    It's all very well stating that health and saving lives must come before all else; in practice the state can't continue to protect everyone if the complete destruction of the economy deprives it of the funds to do so. A compromise will inevitably have to be struck.
    3 months is too long to crater the economy - the curve will be flattened - not steamrollered.

    After Easter there should be some relaxation - schools back, more types of shops opened.
  • Options
    MysticroseMysticrose Posts: 4,688
    edited March 2020
    IshmaelZ said:

    Nigelb said:

    alterego said:

    eadric said:

    eadric said:

    Nigelb said:

    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Apart from anything else, it’s going to massively drive down the seasonal flu figures for the next twelve months...
    I bloody hope we adopt the Asian culture of wearing masks when you feel ill. It has to be the least you can do for everybody. When you think about it now, you really are an arsehole aren't you, sitting there on a bus coughing your guts up, spreading colds and flus everywhere.
    I find this frustrating to the point of fury. WEAR A MASK

    You don’t wear it because you will stop yourself catching it (tho it will help) you wear it because it will stop you SPREADING it. You can’t sneeze and cough so freely, through a surgical mask.

    This alone counts for the huge difference between East Asian death/infection rates, and those we are now seeing in the West.

    WEAR A MASK. ALWAYS.
    Trouble is we all know you weren't wearing one to stop spreading anything, you were wearing one because you thought it would stop you catching the thing. You said as much on here numerous times.

    Trying to pretend this was not the case now is just dishonest.
    I’m not pretending anything! I readily admit to this.

    I had my mask-OMG moment only about 10 days ago, when I was reading Twitter, and someone made this really quite obvious point. By wearing a mask, you reduce the risk of you getting infected, but way more efficiently you reduce the chances of YOU spreading it,

    Wearing a mask is a social nicety in the same way you sneeze into a hand. Except it saves lives.

    It’s that simple. In times of pandemic flu, everyone should wear a mask. They cost about 2p. Just do it. And we will be more like South Korea than Italy.
    The WHO has a view on this

    https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks
    As has been pointed out, the WHO has not covered itself in glory with its advice on Coronavirus.
    And there is research which demonstrates the utility of masks in preventing the spread of viral infection. I’ll post a link to some when I’m no longer on my mobile.
    Yep they obviously do help.

    I have a really good mask with a high grade filtration system and replacable (washable) filters.

    I wear it everywhere.

    It also prevents me from putting my hands on my face, a point apparently lost on some.
    Where is "everywhere" given that you are meant to be at home all the time?

    Where did you get it?
    I bought it online in January in preparation for a trip to SE Asia. I had a feeling this could get bad. I also bought hand sanitisers and anti-bacterial wipes which are still going strong.

    I've had some essential work / travel but as of two days ago I've stopped that. So now I wear my mask for my 1. weekly shop and 2. daily walk. I've been wearing it in the UK for over a month. I used to get odd looks. No more.
  • Options
    Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    IanB2 said:

    Professor Barclay on Newsnight again making the point that the severity of your illness is influenced by the amount of virus you receive on first infection. She is a professor of infectious diseases so ought to know.

    Hence the worryingly high proportion of reported cases in Spain found in the medical profession.

    Now that most people are keeping their distance from each other and all the shops and workplaces that are still operational are getting better at implementing good hygiene and social distancing practices, one wonders if the proportion of very mild or asymptomatic cases might increase accordingly?

    In a best case scenario, we might find after three months that a large chunk of the country has had this illness whilst being either wholly unaware of it, or having self-isolated without being at all certain that they were suffering from it. Though this can only be determined once the testing capacity is sufficient to check a representative sample of the general population, of course.
  • Options
    MysticroseMysticrose Posts: 4,688
    IanB2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    alterego said:

    eadric said:

    eadric said:

    Nigelb said:

    glw said:

    My spirits were also raised listening to Bill Gates yesterday talk about how this necessity will drive a whole wave of innovation and should result in rapid testing and cures for a whole range of diseases.

    Well I would bloody well hope so, because as bad as things are this is NOT the doomsday virus. This is merely a preview of what can happen in our modern globalised world of free trade, open borders, and widespread air travel.
    Apart from anything else, it’s going to massively drive down the seasonal flu figures for the next twelve months...
    I bloody hope we adopt the Asian culture of wearing masks when you feel ill. It has to be the least you can do for everybody. When you think about it now, you really are an arsehole aren't you, sitting there on a bus coughing your guts up, spreading colds and flus everywhere.
    I find this frustrating to the point of fury. WEAR A MASK

    You don’t wear it because you will stop yourself catching it (tho it will help) you wear it because it will stop you SPREADING it. You can’t sneeze and cough so freely, through a surgical mask.

    This alone counts for the huge difference between East Asian death/infection rates, and those we are now seeing in the West.

    WEAR A MASK. ALWAYS.
    Trouble is we all know you weren't wearing one to stop spreading anything, you were wearing one because you thought it would stop you catching the thing. You said as much on here numerous times.

    Trying to pretend this was not the case now is just dishonest.
    I’m not pretending anything! I readily admit to this.

    I had my mask-OMG moment only about 10 days ago, when I was reading Twitter, and someone made this really quite obvious point. By wearing a mask, you reduce the risk of you getting infected, but way more efficiently you reduce the chances of YOU spreading it,

    Wearing a mask is a social nicety in the same way you sneeze into a hand. Except it saves lives.

    It’s that simple. In times of pandemic flu, everyone should wear a mask. They cost about 2p. Just do it. And we will be more like South Korea than Italy.
    The WHO has a view on this

    https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks
    As has been pointed out, the WHO has not covered itself in glory with its advice on Coronavirus.
    And there is research which demonstrates the utility of masks in preventing the spread of viral infection. I’ll post a link to some when I’m no longer on my mobile.
    Yep they obviously do help.

    I have a really good mask with a high grade filtration system and replacable (washable) filters.

    I wear it everywhere.

    It also prevents me from putting my hands on my face, a point apparently lost on some.
    People I have seen wearing one keep touching it, adjusting it, fiddling with it. Making it a repository for germs from anything they have touched.
    Well I don't but then it's a good fit: has adjustable toggles on the side and I leave it in place.

    I think it's a mindset. The moment I leave the door I view my hands as a germ vector.
  • Options
    MysticroseMysticrose Posts: 4,688
    I also have outdoor clothes that I change out of in a separate room and hang them in there. Then I thoroughly wash my hands and change into my indoor clothes in another room.

    OCD? Not under the circumstances. Still might catch the bugger but at least I'm trying my best not to.
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    MysticroseMysticrose Posts: 4,688
    edited March 2020
    And another thing, I handle any deliveries with gloves on, take them into my outdoor room, wipe down the packaging with anti-bacterials, then dispose of the packaging before stripping down and washing.

    I know. I know.
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    FeersumEnjineeyaFeersumEnjineeya Posts: 3,898
    edited March 2020
    eadric said:
    It has to be said that his opinion wasn't universally shared. I was going to join in the clapping, but my other half, who works for the NHS, said that she and most of her colleagues found such gestures condescending and shallow, and that they'd rather have a properly funded NHS. So I stayed inside and made her a cuppa.
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