Latest Chinese export - coronavirus COVID-19

[cromwell]

Spot on.  Same in Italy, I think.

What are you on about Italy's health service is better than ours.

[Scott777]

 is to my belief, that of not so much a public health crisis, but of a public health service crisis Certainly for the UK

Spot on.  Same in Italy, I think.

[Sampanviking]

Sorry mate, don't mean to bring you down, but its not good is it? The papers are full of it today, but it doesn't need a rocket scientist to work it out. Its now "lockdown until June", social distancing until October and "nothing will ever be the same again". What will it be next? Plague and pestilence? We aren't being governed by rational politicians anymore, we are being governed by contestants in a popularity contest, being advised by "experts" who one minute suggest half a million may die, then revise it to 20,000 the next. Everyone in a university has a "study" or a "model" to tell us about predicting everything from bubonic plague levels of death to the end of civilisation as we know it, Jim. The Police are urging us to sprag on our neighbours if they step outside the front door, and Boris thinks hes on reality tv, not in isolation in the flat above 10 Downing St. The figures don't add up, more people died yesterday than are even listed as being in critical condition? How the feck did that happen? At best we aren't being given any meaningful information, and at worst the press are filling in every space with rampant speculation, bullshit and plain lies. Fear sells, mate, and that's a fact.



https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/">https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/



The people "running" our country (and most of the Western world it now seems) have lost the plot. How many noughts they put after any particular forecast or amount of money has lost all meaning now. Just make any old figure up. 1.3 zillion. That will do. Talking about shutting down society for months on end, evermore draconian measures of lockdown, ratting on neighbours, following dog walkers with fecking drones, this isn't a rational country anymore. Meanwhile, various social commentators believe we'll come out of this as "better people". They forgot to add that vary many of us might also come out of it jobless and facing eviction too. How many will die from suicide, drink and substance abuse, lack of care or social services, poor health and housing conditions that deep recessions always bring on? No one wants to think about that now, because its not scary "news" yet.



I really am sorry, I don't know the answer anymore than you do, but I do know this farce isn't it. The "cure" is going to do greater damage than the disease ever will.

The not so subtle difference between fact and hype, is to my belief, that of not so much a public health crisis, but of a public health service crisis Certainly for the UK

The NHS is more than a National Health Service, it is the very symbol of the establishments legitimacy. If the NHS should crumble under the weight, so does that legitimacy. It is themselves and the status quo, first and foremost, that the authorities are protecting.

[Barry]

44 - 51% of cases are asymptomatic.

https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/RRA-sixth-update-Outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-disease-2019-COVID-19.pdf">//https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/RRA-sixth-update-Outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-disease-2019-COVID-19.pdf

Page 4

[Barry]

France had 1,355 deaths today. The first country to have more than 1,000 in a day.  

[Scott777]

Can we save both people and the economy? I don't think so. The Government has chosen their path and right or wrong we are going to struggle to make any kind of turn. I can't see the exit strategy.

Testing is the exit strategy.

[papasmurf]

They had a shut down initially and now there is a rota. If your name starts a-k then you can work and shop etc while others stay locked down and then they switch. That's ok in a small island I guess. Is there a country that has won the battle and returned to normal anywhere in the world?

Similar system in South Korea.

[T00ts]

Can we save both people and the economy? I don't think so. The Government has chosen their path and right or wrong we are going to struggle to make any kind of turn. I can't see the exit strategy. We seem to have been led by the science as BJ loves to tell us, down a cul-de-sac, and I can't help but wonder if we are being used as a huge experiment to prove a theory close to a scientist's heart. I have said before that I will lose if I get it and my decision has been made for some time. I don't expect any spectacular treatment. I am taking as much care as I can but am I prepared to spend the rest of my natural this way?



I was talking to my accountant yesterday who has a daughter in the Cayman Islands. He was telling me that they have the virus there from someone who came from a cruise with a severe heart problem. It was too late before they realised he also had the virus and it infected the hospital. They had a shut down initially and now there is a rota. If your name starts a-k then you can work and shop etc while others stay locked down and then they switch. That's ok in a small island I guess. Is there a country that has won the battle and returned to normal anywhere in the world?

[cromwell]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52114414">https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52114414







I spoke to a guy today whose business has been trading for over 50 years. It was healthy until a few weeks ago. He reckons he has 7 days left to save his business. I felt empty after listening to him describe the nonsense he has had to face trying to get help. Many of the governments promises of support, aid packages and loans are rapidly failing to do any such thing. Suffocated by officiousness, a banking system that's insulated itself from the rest of us, and a kind of "everything will be ok mentality". I find myself asking where was the officiousness when the fecking banks were bailed out 12 years ago, and I'm sure I'm not alone.



Meanwhile, the "coronavirus testing" fiasco gets more farcical every day. I've been driving to work and back for the last 15 days, slowly watching the amount of traffic decrease, until coming home tonight, I passed maybe a dozen cars and 4 trucks on an 11 mile journey. Tomorrow it will be worse. Its like watching a country slowly commit suicide.



I'd say wake up and smell the coffee again, but what's the point. Like I said, I'll have to let history be the judge.

Well your point on the banks I agree and hope the guy and so many others do survive,as for the approach to this we disagree profoundly I guess,and yes history will be the judge and we will get to dissect it in detail.

[DeppityDawg]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52114414">https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52114414

Nearly a fifth of all small and medium-sized businesses in the UK are unlikely to get the cash they need to survive the next four weeks, in spite of unprecedented government support.

I spoke to a guy today whose business has been trading for over 50 years. It was healthy until a few weeks ago. He reckons he has 7 days left to save his business. I felt empty after listening to him describe the nonsense he has had to face trying to get help. Many of the governments promises of support, aid packages and loans are rapidly failing to do any such thing. Suffocated by officiousness, a banking system that's insulated itself from the rest of us, and a kind of "everything will be ok mentality". I find myself asking where was the officiousness when the fecking banks were bailed out 12 years ago, and I'm sure I'm not alone.



Meanwhile, the "coronavirus testing" fiasco gets more farcical every day. I've been driving to work and back for the last 15 days, slowly watching the amount of traffic decrease, until coming home tonight, I passed maybe a dozen cars and 4 trucks on an 11 mile journey. Tomorrow it will be worse. Its like watching a country slowly commit suicide.



I'd say wake up and smell the coffee again, but what's the point. Like I said, I'll have to let history be the judge.

[cromwell]

I've said my bit, we'll let time be the judge. As for pissing hedgehogs, we were always told pretty much the same thing, which is why OOBs were dished out on any pub, club, bar or knocking shop that the Army deemed we would be better off not going to, or just as often, to protect those establishments from us. Still, OOBs had the same effect on squaddies as ultra violet lights do on flies, so it was well known that the best place to look for them was exactly where they weren't supposed to be.



Anyway, one side effect of this lockdown is that driving has suddenly become enjoyable again. Not that I'm...ahem...that old, but its like driving must have been in the 1950s. There's virtually nothing on the road. Ask Cromwell. He can probably remember  ::

And I do,when I was kid there were about 3 cars in the whole estate and 2 were usually broken down,buses were the main traffic and the odd goods vehicle BR scammels 3 wheelers like a giant reliant.



If you wanted to get anywhere it was bus,train,pushbike or walk the latter two being  the usual which is why fatties were few and far between. ::



https://ibb.co/KjXxh7z">

[DeppityDawg]

You are right Deppity, but to be fair to the powers that be, there is not a lot they can do. I don't know what it was like in the army, but when I was in the navy we no sooner dropped anchor than some dreary bastard was telling us that if we went to certain places then we would end up feeling as though we were pissing hedgehogs backwards.



Some of us did, but it never stopped us. Being virtuous is all very well, but it is also arse numbingly dull.

I've said my bit, we'll let time be the judge. As for pissing hedgehogs, we were always told pretty much the same thing, which is why OOBs were dished out on any pub, club, bar or knocking shop that the Army deemed we would be better off not going to, or just as often, to protect those establishments from us. Still, OOBs had the same effect on squaddies as ultra violet lights do on flies, so it was well known that the best place to look for them was exactly where they weren't supposed to be.



Anyway, one side effect of this lockdown is that driving has suddenly become enjoyable again. Not that I'm...ahem...that old, but its like driving must have been in the 1950s. There's virtually nothing on the road. Ask Cromwell. He can probably remember  ::

[DeppityDawg]

It's not that this isn't a rational country any more.  It's that coronavirus has forced a new rationality on us. This has changed social, economic and, of course, medical priorities. which is how it has to be.

Given your theatrical performances on other subjects, forgive me if I spare us both wasting our time by not responding.

[Borchester]

Sorry mate, don't mean to bring you down, but its not good is it? The papers are full of it today, but it doesn't need a rocket scientist to work it out. Its now "lockdown until June", social distancing until October and "nothing will ever be the same again". What will it be next? Plague and pestilence? We aren't being governed by rational politicians anymore, we are being governed by contestants in a popularity contest, being advised by "experts" who one minute suggest half a million may die, then revise it to 20,000 the next. Everyone in a university has a "study" or a "model" to tell us about predicting everything from bubonic plague levels of death to the end of civilisation as we know it, Jim. The Police are urging us to sprag on our neighbours if they step outside the front door, and Boris thinks hes on reality tv, not in isolation in the flat above 10 Downing St. The figures don't add up, more people died yesterday than are even listed as being in critical condition? How the feck did that happen? At best we aren't being given any meaningful information, and at worst the press are filling in every space with rampant speculation, bullshit and plain lies. Fear sells, mate, and that's a fact.



https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/">https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/



The people "running" our country (and most of the Western world it now seems) have lost the plot. How many noughts they put after any particular forecast or amount of money has lost all meaning now. Just make any old figure up. 1.3 zillion. That will do. Talking about shutting down society for months on end, evermore draconian measures of lockdown, ratting on neighbours, following dog walkers with fecking drones, this isn't a rational country anymore. Meanwhile, various social commentators believe we'll come out of this as "better people". They forgot to add that vary many of us might also come out of it jobless and facing eviction too. How many will die from suicide, drink and substance abuse, lack of care or social services, poor health and housing conditions that deep recessions always bring on? No one wants to think about that now, because its not scary "news" yet.



I really am sorry, I don't know the answer anymore than you do, but I do know this farce isn't it. The "cure" is going to do greater damage than the disease ever will.

You are right Deppity, but to be fair to the powers that be, there is not a lot they can do. I don't know what it was like in the army, but when I was in the navy we no sooner dropped anchor than some dreary bastard was telling us that if we went to certain places then we would end up feeling as though we were pissing hedgehogs backwards.



Some of us did, but it never stopped us. Being virtuous is all very well, but it is also arse numbingly dull.

[papasmurf]

Should please Smurfy no end,reported Dominic Cummings thinks he's got it.

Best news for weeks.