COVID-19 — Coronavirus

[purplenose]

Breast Milk anyone?

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.04.20089995v1

I do hope nobody from the Parachute regiment spots this.

 

[BigOscar]

Bollox. The press are scum. All of them. Just different levels if scuminess.

One does not preclude the other. The press are scum, but they are scum that are directly briefed by the government.

 

[BlueHammer85]

One does not preclude the other. The press are scum, but they are scum that are directly briefed by the government.

It’s also another ridiculous carpet blanking statement

 

[SilverFox2]

As I mentioned the other day, there have been 11 deaths under 20 years old. Only 169 under 40 years old.

Leave everyone else at home and send the under 40s out to get the work done and herd immunity in place. (awaits the wrath of Kaz)

As I said in a previous post as an older person I am mindful of the bad record any Government has got in protecting its older population.

Any change in policy is unlikely to improve their record so particularly now that rule relaxation is being expected my safest place will be at home until a vaccine is developed or I die.

Incidentally I still do not know if people who have recovered from CV can still pass it on to others to help the infection for the masses program?

 

[Claytop]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-52584690

I imagine this is what we’ll be told on Sunday.

 

[twosips]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-52584690

I imagine this is what we’ll be told on Sunday.

'Exercise more than once a day' will be of course the cue for many to basically just go out whenever they want. It's gonna be busy outside.

 

[blueparrot]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-52584690

I imagine this is what we’ll be told on Sunday.

Don’t know we’ve been told we only have to exercise once a day still in Scotland. Lazy twats.

 

[robbieh]

The effects of Easter very obvious now. well done jesus!

Sorry can you bring me up to speed? What happened at Easter and how has it impacted your graph?

 

[AlgarveBlu]

I think it is very interesting — on my more pessimistic days, troubling — that many are still fixated on the mortality rate (and the various ways it can be segmented) as the ultimate measure for assessment and decision-making, whilst seemingly ignoring the severe case rate, as well as the qualitative aspects of severe case recovery in the populations impacted. And not only ignoring it, but not attempting to understand or acknowledge the short- and long-term economic, social, and health implications of so many with chronic issues and/or decreased capacities, all of which will need to be managed by someone (if not the person themselves) at a cost that must also be borne by someone (again, if not only themselves).

Not to mention the obsession with Sweden’s response, not fully comprehending the inherent differences in their demographics, general health conditions, and the actual “strategy” they employed compared to most other regions. If anyone took a quick look a per capita new case rate, severe cases, and deaths they would find Sweden quite high up the rankings. And if they studied the general social, living, health, and healthcare differences between Sweden and other impacted nations (especially the UK, US, Spain, Italy), they might come to the conclusion that such a strategy would have likely been catastrophic for many other nations if implemented. Not to mention the strategy, which effectively is “Live and Let Die”, is not only dubious scientifically (as it is based on the presumption of sustained individual immunity to build “herd immunity” without vaccination) but questionable ethically/morally (“we have chosen to let people suffer and potentially die en masse to protect the economy”, which is always questionable, regardless if we have done it with other situations in the past).

But I suppose the fixations and obsessions on simple assessments and solutions to one of the most complex problems that humanity has yet faced does bring comfort and a modicum of security to the frightened masses, especially those looking for someone —anyone — to blame for their current plight. An invisible, indiscriminate, unthinking, ever-changing, essentially lifeless enemy that cannot be reasoned with, bullied, shamed, or subjugated is terrifying, after all. And scapegoating those not willing to make personal sacrifice to relieve your own suffering is the act that bonds all humans. As is sacrificing them anyway. The ends justify the means, even when you aren’t certain of the ends.

But those stating that the most horribly impacted among us “would have died anyway, so why make others sacrifice to attempt to prevent it” seem to miss that such an argument can be applied to literally everything. Everyone will die anyway. That doesn’t normally prevent us from attempting to mitigate loss, alleviate suffering, improve wellbeing, and generally stave off the inevitable. And we certainly spend quite a lot of time, effort, and money — at times to a disruptive level — to stop avoidable death (especially, and sometimes exclusively, our own). Delaying the inevitable is another way of describing healthcare. But when it comes to mass death that is generally befalling “others” we tend to suspend these normal activities for the “greater good”. Suffering and death is often suddenly considered the natural way of things when potentially preventing it requires real collective sacrifice.

In the end, I am expendable. I will die anyway. Sacrifices have to be made. I may be part of the sacrifice. I hope the gods will show you favour if I am.

Until then, stay well.

Interesting observations in there. In the early days of this thread we exchanged quite a bit on the science matters and I remember tentatively introducing the notion that this could have very serious global economic implications which was not to be written about at that stage of this story (scaremonger and 'it's just a flu' were the auto responses). It's been very interesting and educational for me to see how this thread has developed as events have moved on as I would say I have learned more about 'human behaviour' than anything else.

As posters, we generally seem to be polarised on strategies and the understanding of various topics based upon our current employment situation, political/moral leanings , source of news and most importantly in this situation how we perceive the immediate threat to ourselves and our friends and families and what's the best way to safeguard them. Existing narratives are often shoehorned into any significant statistic released or government policy announced although it's good to see some posters admit to having reassessed their stances one way or another. Personally as someone who runs businesses and have people employed I admittedly suffer from living in an echo chamber at times and relying too heavily on my own intuitions so I have appreciated the varying conclusions and observations of a wider audience on this forum as people have insight and exposure to situations I never even thought about.

I maintain to be guided by the best science available in terms of an end game to this situation and I still believe that a global and unified strategy to eliminate/mitigate cv19 is the only viable solution we have, but I have also reconciled myself to accepting this isn't going to happen unfortunately. We will eventually all stumble over the line and look back in sadness for the ones we have lost to CV and what mistakes we made, but hopefully in equal measure we will be proud that we stood, worked and helped each other with best intentions for all....Then we can all have the mother of all piss ups ;-)

 

[robbieh]

There was a bank holiday and everyone went out. 23 days later the number of daily deaths in hospitals stopped falling.

Thanks for that. Presumably if the same happens this weekend the result will be the same but at a lower level as there are presumably less infectious people about now.