The virus. PPE. Part 1

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cambsno said:
Would it be wrong to use this as an excuse to stock pile lenses from the classifieds???
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Don't be silly, they are not ideal for wiping your arse on, now, are they?
 
Peter10d said:
Yes very good news indeed. A while ago a virologist said that although they couldn’t know at this early stage for sure, there was a possibility the virus strain could weaken the longer it was out there.
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It might. It might not. The virus is mutating all the time (not as fast as some other RNA viruses, but faster than most other things), but whether the changes that accumulate make the virus more or less pathogenic (many will make no difference) is another matter, and it's impossible to predict the direction this virus will go in. We might generally expect mutations that make replication more efficient to be selected for, though there's an interesting counterexample in the case of this virus's cousin, the one responsible for the SARS epidemic. That virus lost part of a gene quite early in the epidemic, which made it replicate less efficiently (the same gene is intact in the current virus). But pathogenicity isn't the same thing as replication efficiency, and the virus need not care if the host eventually dies, provided it lives long enough to infect other hosts. A recovered, immune host is dead to it anyway. Some viruses, like smallpox, have had a very long and thoroughly nasty history of infecting humans, often lethally. Others cause mostly minor illnesses today, but might have been worse at some point in the past. Perhaps the four other coronaviruses that are endemic in humans, and generally only cause common cold symptoms, were once a great deal nastier (we'd have no way of knowing, since they've been with us for a long time). Since children generally seem to have mild symptoms, perhaps (even without changing significantly) the new virus will eventually become the agent of a common minor childhood illness that confers enough lifelong immunity to at least avert severe disease later in life, even if re-infection is possible.
Peter10d said:
Can’t help wondering why China hasn’t seen a huge increase in figures given their population and the close proximity of people. Remember the whole country did not lockdown so it should have spread much more based on the predictions. The total recorded infections in China is a tiny percentage of the population.
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It's probably nothing to do with the virus evolving (there was a paper claiming there were already more and less virulent strains, but this has been shot down by other virologists). But the high-profile lockdowns are only part of the Chinese response. They are also continuing to conduct an aggressive symptom-driven campaign of testing, contact tracing and isolation throughout China (something the UK is more or less giving up on, except for hospitalised cases and the direct contacts of known cases).
 
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KitsuneAndy said:
Would I have any other choice?
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I really feel for you guys. I think wedding/event togs will get hit pretty hard in the coming months. Already crowded events are being cancelled. Won't be too long before weddings get postponed/cancelled. Is there a point without guests? I'm sure *some* will go ahead with severely reduced guest lists, but it's likely the industry will take a hit. It would be good to think that these people will still get married and post-crisis, your calendars will be booked solid, but that doesn't help in the here & now.

I can only hope the govt will step in to help people who get hit the hardest (financially or otherwise) and I'd be happy to pay extra tax to make that happen.

Tough times ahead.
 
Retune said:
.....They are also continuing to conduct an aggressive symptom-driven campaign of testing, contact tracing and isolation throughout China (something the UK is more or less giving up on, except for hospitalised cases and the direct contacts of known case).
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If thats proving to be so effective then why haven't the government implemented that type of response here?
 
We've just had another televised address to the nation here in France....the PM this time, not the president.

All restaurants, cafes, bars, discos and cinemas to close from midnight tonight. All non-essential shops to close from Monday... the exceptions seem to be food stores, pharmacies, banks and newsagents (interpretation of this still being discussed).
 
Retune said:
something the UK is more or less giving up on, except for hospitalised cases and the direct contacts of known case
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I know. There was an earlier poster who mentioned not being able to get tested because it "wasn't being done". The WHO have advised that governments continue to test and contact trace. The UK govt apparently knows better. Whether that's because of resource availability, arrogance, or some other factor is sadly unclear.
 
Harlequin565 said:
UK govt apparently knows better. Whether that's because of resource availability, arrogance, or some other factor is sadly unclear.
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There was discussion on the radio not so long back, TBH I couldn't believe what I was hearing, some cabinet medical adviser, was wriggle like a sack of ferrets, every time he was asked a sensible question, or for clarification on certain points regarding testing.

Listening to him you would think there was no problem and the rest of Europe are just panicking ...
Stiff upper lip and all that. Pip pip ;)
 
Where I lived in Spain the people are being asked to go to their windows, balconies, terraces at 10pm to applaud all the health workers. Nice touch.
 
simon ess said:
I suspect the government advisors are drawn from wider fields than just epidemiologists and medical experts. There may well be economists, social psychologists and others involved.

At least I hope so.
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Probably asking for advice A&E doctors groups on Facebook if they are following the lead of Trumps Chief Adviser Jared Kuschner who he has appointed to research action on COVID. According to what I read on Politico.
 
Known infections in Italy have risen by 20% today. That is horrendous.
 
Spanish government are now applying a national lockdown from midnight for a minimum of 12 days.
 
Harlequin565 said:
I know. There was an earlier poster who mentioned not being able to get tested because it "wasn't being done". The WHO have advised that governments continue to test and contact trace. The UK govt apparently knows better. Whether that's because of resource availability, arrogance, or some other factor is sadly unclear.
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Think yourself lucky; if the GE had gone the other way we could have ended up with this person counting: :exit:

full
 
Ricardodaforce said:
Spanish government are now applying a national lockdown from midnight for a minimum of 12 days.
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I'll be surprised if it does not go on longer than that.

Is there much people movement between Spain and Portugaul ?
 
Peter10d said:
Poland is closing pubs and clubs. Can you imagine if that was announced in the UK[emoji51]
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My mam would have to invite her mates round for their usual Bingo vodka and punch up evening instead of it taking place in The Legion.
 
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BBC says France is closing any minute.

It'll happen here. Experts have written to the government saying they're not doing enough and doubtless social media will have a melt down so regardless of the advice the government has been following to date I fully expect them to fold under pressure and close everything.

We're living in interesting times.
 
Yup.

Twitter rules.

In the future there will be no governments, just social media. Trends will be gathered and collated by AI and automatically introduced.

We ain't seen nothin yet. B-B-B-Baby we just ain't seen nothin yet.

We will never know what the correct thing to do is/was as we can't go back and do it all again. All we'll be able to do is count the cost in casualties and the impact on society and argue if Boris or Jeremy would have done it better.
 
woof woof said:
Yup.

Twitter rules.

In the future there will be no governments, just social media. Trends will be gathered and collated by AI and automatically introduced.

We ain't seen nothin yet. B-B-B-Baby we just ain't seen nothin yet.

We will never know what the correct thing to do is/was as we can't go back and do it all again. All we'll be able to do is count the cost in casualties and the impact on society and argue if Boris or Jeremy would have done it better.
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How weird, only playing that album (Not Fragile) yesterday, some really heavy tracks on it
Sledgehammer and Secondhand are my favourites, title track is very good too.
 
cambsno said:
Why would they be prepared for this?
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If you mean COVID-19 then they were slow to get started and not enough testing etc of inbound travellers was done.
If you mean generally then they should have been planning for this for years because it was inevitable that it would happen with globalisation etc, and there were relatively recent examples SARS etc.. the run down of the NHS, police, army, council services have all meant the country was less well prepared the it should have been. Failure to install good broadband services, enabling more home working, while concentrating on marginal vanity projects like HS2 and so on and on.
 


,,,,,,,,,,,,,and the relevance/point of this post?

It doesn't even say who the group of scientist are!

Do you think the Government should go against it's advisers?
 
sphexx said:
If you mean COVID-19 then they were slow to get started and not enough testing etc of inbound travellers was done.
If you mean generally then they should have been planning for this for years because it was inevitable that it would happen with globalisation etc, and there were relatively recent examples SARS etc.. the run down of the NHS, police, army, council services have all meant the country was less well prepared the it should have been. Failure to install good broadband services, enabling more home working, while concentrating on marginal vanity projects like HS2 and so on and on.
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Give it a rest! (In the words of @Marc ) - Bashing the Government over this is ridiculous; impossible to prepare for something like this - you could equally say that the Open Border Policy of the EU has caused it to become the epicentre of the virus>
 
DK602 said:
,,,,,,,,,,,,,and the relevance/point of this post?
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Er, it's a tweet by Sky News regarding Covid-19, I think it's pretty relevant to this thread.

DK602 said:
It doesn't even say who the group of scientist are!
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More here from the Sky News website https://news.sky.com/story/coronavi...-of-risking-lives-over-covid-19-plan-11957715

DK602 said:
Do you think the Government should go against it's advisers?
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It would depend on the vadvice being given but I expect the government to do what's right for the people of this country.
 
DK602 said:
,,,,,,,,,,,,,and the relevance/point of this post?

It doesn't even say who the group of scientist are!

Do you think the Government should go against it's advisers?
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Ah but Twitter...

Expert Advisor or Twitter? Hmmmm...
 
woof woof said:
We will never know what the correct thing to do is/was as we can't go back and do it all again.
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We will, however, be able to compare how the pandemic develops in countries that adopt markedly different policies to tackle it - e.g. the UK approach vs the South Korean strategy, which seems closer to what the WHO recommends:

View: https://BANNED/DrTedros/status/1238744998432161792
 
DK602 said:
,,,,,,,,,,,,,and the relevance/point of this post?

It doesn't even say who the group of scientist are!

Do you think the Government should go against it's advisers?
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Depends exactly who the advisers are.
 
Retune said:
We will, however, be able to compare how the pandemic develops in countries that adopt markedly different policies to tackle it - e.g. the UK approach vs the South Korean strategy, which seems closer to what the WHO recommends:

View: https://BANNED/DrTedros/status/1238744998432161792
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Time will tell but I think the arguments and recriminations will go on until the next election and then whoever is in No.10 may one day regret winning.
 
Marc said:
Sorry, but what exactly is your point?
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That what governments do these days may be more about what happens on social media / on more conventional media and wider public opinion than what may be thought to be objectively the right thing to do according to their experts.

IMO we're already seeing that.
 
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woof woof said:
That what governments do these days may be more about what happens on social media / on more conventional media and wider public opinion that what may be thought to be objectively the right thing to do according to their experts.

IMO we're already seeing that.
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If that's really true, and it might be to some extent, we really are f***ed.
 
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