COVID-19 — Coronavirus

[grunge]

First case in Europe was reported at the end of January.

I’ve been watching this since mid Jan and it’s been blindly obvious it was coming.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

First case reported in Europe at the end of January.

We were short on ventilators even before the crisis. And we had to wait for the first European case before we realise it’s our problem too? Are you in the government by any chance?

 

[BobKowalski]

It’s not behind a paywall.

It is wrong in general to be releasing it via just one paper though. Very wrong. Ditto leaking things via Peston.

It isn’t now but it was originally. Pressure has obviously been applied. Agree about one paper and anonymous briefings to journos like Peston.

 

[Cheesy]

They only identified it in China at the end of December. The doctor is using hindsight and being disingenuous.

Whether she's right or wrong on this you only need to check out her Twitter page to see where she's coming from.

No matter what the Government was doing she would be slating their actions.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

Some people high up need to be chopped for this. They would have been advised how bad this illness months ago, but sat on there hands doing absolute fuck all.

The doctor was genuinely close to tears saying “I’m not pleading with the government any more, I’m screaming at them”.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

NHS doctor on Sky News now slating Hancock for not realising the shortage of ventilators 2 months ago, especially considering she had highlighted the shortage in December even before this crisis. And people want us to have faith in the government?

I caught a bit of Hancock on Marr this morning, and I would say he did 'okay'. I thought he also said herd immunity wasn't the plan, which was confusing in light of the press conference last week.

I'm not sure how well set up car companies are to make ventilators, but it suggests that there is some interesting thinking going on, although it feels like playing catch-up.

 

[Manchester_lalala]

They only identified it in China at the end of December. The doctor is using hindsight and being disingenuous.

When it become apparent it was bad in China in early January, I’ve got high doubts that our government was expecting it to make it here. You may say I’m naive, but even after the first case here last month, they described it as low threat. Low threat?!

 

[George Hannah]

To be fair I think the message the professor wanted to spread was the opposite. Many younger people seem not to care about the virus or its risk for the elderly just because it doesn't affect them personally, so highlighting that statistic could make them realise that this situation concerns everyone and could have them take the advice given by authorities more seriously.

In which case I did him a disservice and maybe the NYT as well but I can't access their article. Not so for those using the stat on here to try to undermine our own govt analysis and advice.

 

[Cheesy]

The doctor was genuinely close to tears saying “I’m not pleading with the government any more, I’m screaming at them”.

That doctor in particular would be screaming at the Government no matter what they were doing.

 

[Manc in London]

Out with the dog (and literally all this is the first thing people are talking about) and this came up on a twitter feed (quite an informed, civilised one I’d add).
Anyone heard of this:

Read about this a couple of days ago. It's a drug used to deal with malaria

 

[kevin horlocks wand]

Have you even bothered to look at the list of who they are?

one of them is a lecturer in employment law !!!!!

 

[SWP's back]

Was due to take the family to London next weekend (planned on taking my lad to Chelsea away before it got rearranged/cancelled) but not sure if it's a good idea now. Can't get refunds for the train or hotel (or theatre tickets for the Sat night) so it'd leave me out of pocket but don't know if we want to be travelling around on the tube, in a busy theatre etc. Or is that an over the top reaction - should we just carry on as planned?

I personally wouldn’t. Not because of the effects of getting sick for you or your young family, but because of what it could mean for elderly relatives and having to avoid contact for a period of weeks with them.

 

[Withnail]

NHS doctor on Sky News now slating Hancock for not realising the shortage of ventilators 2 months ago, especially considering she had highlighted the shortage in December even before this crisis. And people want us to have faith in the government?

Quite distressing watching it with the Doctor quite visibly upset. NHS is on its knees already and will not be able to cope.

 

[flook]

getting a lot and I mean a lot of emails from ticketbastard pushing tickets for major events over the next few weeks, why would they do this? why?

 

[mcfc1632]

can people stop fucking bickering, every fucking thread its the same.

anyway on to my point,i work at the airport,as the days go on more and more flights are getting cancelled,if this carries on and we all get "layed off" will we be paid , or is it just tough shit?

Yep - I commented some days ago how this thread has been really quite informative and helped me in making some decisions

Increasingly though - and especially the last 24 hours or so - we have the same old attitude where some of the posters are getting bolshie using the thread as a platform. Even for a subject of this importance it seems some people cannot stop themselves

I have gone from reading the thread throughout to just skimming to see if there is any sign of something that might prove useful.

Anyway, I went into Morrisons at 1010 - so only just opened - had to park at the far end of the overflow car park and could not believe the sight when I got inside - absolutely mobbed

I guess that the period of people not panic buying has come to an end!!

I was OK - I just got more Strongbow, Stella, wine and Vodka - as I did my stocking up some time ago

 

[Bald fraud]

*ring ring ring ring*
”Ahoyhoy!”
“Hi, it’s Dan from BBC Breakfast.”
“Hello...”
“Yes, we believe your Dad croaked it from Hong Kong fluey?”
“Yeah”
“Well we were wondering if you’d like to come on the sofa tomorrow and tell us all about it?”
“Yeah I’ll pointlessly come on tele and make a tit of myself, crying in front of the nation, tell everyone what a great Dad and Grandad he was”
“Great, get down to Salford for 5:30 am tomorrow, bye!”
“Good bye!”

You answer the phone with ahoyhoy???

 

[BobKowalski]

To any of you on here who think the government has a coherent, well-thought out and lowest risk plan, and that it is sticking to this plan, please can you tell me why TODAY, weeks after we saw this coming, Matt Hancock is on national television appealing to any and every manufacturer of ventilators, to ramp up production, prioritise product and to supply as many as they possibly can "No number is too high, we will buy all of them".

Today.

Does that sound even vaguely like everything is under control??? Why has that call not been made weeks or even MONTHS ago. If no-nothings like me could spot this Tsunami coming weeks ago, what on earth has the government been playing at. Germany have 4x the numbers of ICU beds we have, and have already been trying to get thousands more.

I despair I am afraid, I really do. It is clear that the government took an enormous gamble and the penny has dropped that it has failed.

In a word no. Why is any minister appealing on TV? Just contact the makers directly and get them to ramp up production. Contact manufacturers to see if their production lines can be repurposed for manufacturing components. This could have been done weeks ago. They are the Government not Joe Public going on telly to make an appeal.

 

[George Hannah]

All countries will have a protocol in place. The protocol will be based on WHO advice and their own medical and scientific advice. The protocol will be activated once the emergency hits. No country is sitting around thinking ‘you know what those Brits may be onto something let’s give that a stab’ and basing their strategy off a couple of TV interviews by our CMO and an article in the Telegraph. And given Hancock is rowing back on the ‘herd’ game plan and now floating quarantining over 70’s for several months I wouldn’t get too invested in anything the Govt is saying because their strategy is flip flopping all over the place.

I agree with you until, as usual, the peroration flourish. All the UK Gov press conferences and published advice have always stressed their measures would be a graded response in line with what is required by the epidemic. No flipping or flopping about that - you can argue we should have done this or that sooner but they have made the call based on the best scientific advice.

 

[skivitheblue9320]

my 2p worth is decent medical care, which is proven to help.

plus rapid growth in the last 10 days. This thing tends to do most damage in 2nd 3rd week.


https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/germany/

Also Germany according to a news report yesterday evening ordered I believe around 10,000 specialist respirators a few months back. Now that's protecting and caring for your people.

 

[Lancet Fluke]

So as we can’t be trusted to follow best advice the Govt decided not to bother? Since when did we become so stupid as a nation? More to the point a lot of the nation has turned to social distancing, working from home etc so we seem to have adopted best advice without the Govt telling us to anyway. Businesses have also acted contrary to Govt advice.

The big problem is that much of the country does not trust Johnson. It is essential in a crisis that a population trusts its government and believes what they are telling it, otherwise everything is likely to breakdown as people just fuck it off and take their own action. The issue we have is that everybody knows Johnson is a liar, and I don't accept the "all politicians lie" bollocks, it's false equivalence, everyone knows Johnson is dishonest way beyond any norm. Even the people who voted for him know he's a liar, it's just that they liked that he was lying 6 months ago because his lies and cheating suited them at that point. Well it's fucked now because we can't believe a word he says when we need to. Granted, we couldn't have predicted a consequence as grave as this but it was easily predictable that people applauding, enabling and voting for overt dishonesty would bite even those applauding it on the arse at some point. People don't seem to like any political point being made over this but it is entirely relevant to the situation we find ourselves in.