COVID-19 — Coronavirus

[wattle]

That may be brought forward now it's been upped to a pandemic, I mean what does shutting it next Friday two weeks early achieve, they'll still be in school all this week and next week.

Tbh I guess it's a big decision, my daughter has her Sats coming up which I guess will be effected. I'll gladly sacrifice that atm just to try and keep a lid on this virus.

Yeh just heard that. It’s been decided though that kids will get their predicted grades in gcse and A levels if they are cancelled so I suppose it’ll be the same for sats. I only work in key stage 4 so not 100% certain of that

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

What an opening statement:

WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the number of cases outside China had increased 13-fold over the past two weeks.

He said he was "deeply concerned" by "alarming levels of inaction" over the virus.

And as far as I can tell, no major European nation is taking less action than us.

Yes I reckon his comment was aimed at the UK. It does feel that we are taking a big gamble when you look at sporting events like Cheltenham going ahead. I just don't believe our government has enough information to make calls like that. We should be taking a cautious approach until we know the full situation. We will know in the next two weeks whether we have got our policy right or whether our politicians have made a huge blunder which has cost a lot of people's lives. I hate to be overly negative because no one really knows what will happen next but I just find it impossible to believe any of our leading political figures (of all persuasions). They have a track record of getting things wrong.

 

[hilts]

Perhaps the guy at the WHO should be more specific, and if as you have to suspect he is refering to the UK, he should perhaps say so and call our government out. Maybe shame them into taking action.

All this does have to call into question the governments trusted scientific advisors. It seems to me that what they are saying is almost polar opposite to the opinions of the WHO.

Who are we to believe, let me think about that for 2 seconds.

More like the govt is listening to the advisors and not fully incorporating their recommendations. I think we will see more action over the next few days. Wash your hands and don’t go to work if you’re bleeding through your eyes doesn’t seem like much action so far.

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

The Worldometer site is picking up data from official and unofficial sources it seems and this makes it tricky for some analysis. I'm going into the sources of their data and avoiding media websites for the tracking I am casually doing.

There's some good reading on this site which explains a lot about the dangers of reading too much into some of the patterns.

Now that is worth reading. Cheers.
Some of that research suggests that China only managed to identify 5% of cases. If true, that brings the mortality rate right down to flu levels, which is encouraging.

 

[Rammy Blue]

I might get round to the 1300 unread emails...

11871 unread on mine, lol.

 

[Manchester_lalala]

Think I’ve just seen on Twitter that’s a 31% rise in deaths in 24 hours. We need a world wide lock down, that’s not even an over reaction.

 

[mackenzie]

My biggest concern with this is the sheer numbers who haven’t or are unwilling to be tested. So many who have symptoms are just putting it down to a bit of cold or flu.
I fear the numbers would be much higher otherwise.

That's me. Have had runny nose and cough since last Friday. Headache too at the beginning but that's better too now. Haven't been out of the country recently etc etc so I've just gone to work. I think it's just a cold, but who knows??

 

[Rammy Blue]

Now that is worth reading. Cheers.
Some of that research suggests that China only managed to identify 5% of cases. If true, that brings the mortality rate right down to flu levels, which is encouraging.

Yes, but China will have fucking thousands of dead people who are still welded inside their apartment blocks....

 

[I'm With Stupid]

the irony is, on the index of “best equipped to handle a pandemic” by the WHO we are second. USA were top!

That's probably accurate. But they also come top of a list of governments run by vested interests who are more interested in the effects on profits.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Now that is worth reading. Cheers.
Some of that research suggests that China only managed to identify 5% of cases. If true, that brings the mortality rate right down to flu levels, which is encouraging.

Isn't it generally the case that the lower the mortality rate, the higher the total number of deaths though? As long as most people with the virus can go about their normal business, they'll be more likely to spread it to the vulnerable.