O/T:- Are we over-reacting to COVD19?

[SwalePie]

There is Andrex bog roll on ebay up for £8099 31 bids. People are also selling individual rolls. Packs being sold for £100. These people should be named & shamed by ebay

The people bidding it up to those figures should be locked up for their own safety too methinks.

[navypie]

There is Andrex bog roll on ebay up for £8099 31 bids. People are also selling individual rolls. Packs being sold for £100. These people should be named & shamed by ebay

The people bidding it up to those figures should be locked up for their own safety too methinks.

I don't know why people just don't use their hand, I have for years.

[Elite_Pie]

The people bidding it up to those figures should be locked up for their own safety too methinks.

I think they are joke bids made solely to derail the auction. I hope they work.

[SwalePie]

I think they are joke bids made solely to derail the auction. I hope they work.

Likewise

[jackal2]

Err OK. You get exasperated with people too, that is good to know. And if you're communicating the fact that you're exasperated on a message board, you are by your own criteria being melodramatic too. So we're both exasperated and melodramatic. Anyway nice of you to start your post off with a few lines of inconsequential nothingness, just to set the tone.

For a few lines of 'inconsequential nothingness' see above

No. My posts do say something. They are advising people to take this virus seriously, keep your distance from other people, make changes to your lifestyle for the greater good, as I've seen how the situation can get out of hand very quickly.

People are taking the virus seriously. Vulnerable groups in particular are keeping their distance more. Most people (except ignorant ones) are washing their hands more and generally being more cautious about physical contact. But if you go into total lockdown of everyone, you only delay the spike and potentially cause an even bigger one, because a certain degree of exposure to threats is important for keeping our immune systems active, and if you go into a bubble for a long time you actually increase your vulnerability when you emerge.

Your posts so far have gone from telling people to be more worried about getting a flu jab (ill-informed and irresponsible)

No, I posted, "As one doctor on the radio put it the other day: if you're sitting there worrying about the Coronavirus, you should be more worried if you haven't had a flu jab."

[You were]Framing coronavirus as a media-driven non-event

No, I posted "I've got no problem with it being reported in a calm way, and with people taking sensible precautions as advised, but I'm cynical about the level of hype, if not panic, that the media are creating." That remains my view. The reporting by some media outlets has been sensationalist rather than helpful and informative.

[You were] Rejecting the importance of it by saying you won't die from it so whatever (I'm alright Jack)

No, I didn't say that. I made a comment in jest to BFP saying "I'll bet neither of us dies from Coronavirus but if we do, I owe you a tenner!". I think it's highly unlikely I'll die from it, but I cannot guarantee it and I don't wish such misfortune on anyone.

Trying not to die has not been 'to a certain extent beneficial', it has been the driving force behind every kind of human progress everywhere, ever. I'm quite happy for people to continue trying not to die, even if they are old or sick.

Same here. I totally support people taking sensible precautions, and those precautions should be tighter for the most vulnerable groups. This will hopefully have some positive effect, but it won't work for everyone. Vulnerability and mortality is part and parcel of human existence.

Ah ok, so you didn't tell them it's a media driven phenomenon and they should worry more about their flu jab then? Interesting. Looks like your attitude changes when you've got some skin in the game, so to speak.

I would try to answer this, but it's complete gibberish.

That also makes me doubt you would be so sanguine about mortality if you were staring down the proverbial barrel.

After a spell of quite severe health anxiety when I was younger I've become much less troubled by my own mortality in recent years and much healthier for it. Plus, when I read posts like yours, death kind of loses its sting!

The choice is not between total lockdown and carry on as normal.

I never said it was and I don't advocate either.

The earlier you act, even as a single individual, the less drastic measures you need to take in the long run.

Yes, sensible precautions, like the ones people are taking. It won't stop the contagion but it might delay and flatten it to a degree, easing the pressure a little on our health services.

Were you once interviewed on Brass Eye by any chance?

[Old_pie]

There is Andrex bog roll on ebay up for £8099 31 bids. People are also selling individual rolls. Packs being sold for £100. These people should be named & shamed by ebay

In days of old when Knights were bold
And paper hadn't been invented
They wiped their bums with their shirts
And walked away contented.

(Other variations are available.)

I'm sure many senior folk on here remember sheets of newspaper pages tied up in the bog though the modern stuff, like Izal, isn't as absorptive.

[irishpete]

I don't know why people just don't use their hand, I have for years.

Thats like the playground joke when a nipper "Which hand do you use to WIPE your arse? After a quick think "Right hand"
Urrrrgghhh "You don't use bog roll to wipe your arse"

[irishpete]

Mat Hancock just said over 70s to self isolate in the coming weeks for up to 4 months - BBC

Close the fecking borders stop people traveling might be an idea

[drillerpie]

Jackal, I've read your reply and to me it looks like you've completely dodged some of my points and used semantics to wriggle out of others, all the while falling back on advocating 'sensible precautions' without really specifying what is sensible and what isn't, while also consistently leading people to underestimate the severity of the virus, therefore increasing the probability that they won't take said sensibile precautions.

This is the your post I was referring to on the 'games off in Italy' thread. We argue about the semantics but to me the intent is clear. The deliberately misleading statistics you made up at the end are the icing on the cake.

Another massively overblown public health panic. By all means take sensible precautions like you would to avoid any infection, but also realise that this is primarily a media 'event'.

As one doctor on the radio put it the other day: if you're sitting there worrying about the Coronavirus, you should be more worried if you haven't had a flu jab. A GP friend of mine also told me the other day that for most people the effect of Coronavirus would be akin to a very mild dose of flu. The only reason for the fuss is that we haven't got a recognised antidote to Covid-19 so our only defence is our own immune system, which is the vast majority of cases is enough.

There have been just under 2450 deaths from Coronavirus in China and two in Italy. The population of China is more than 1,400,000,000 and Italy's is just over 60,000,000.

I think your overriding disdain for the media and unusual approach to mortality mean there's too much distance between us on this to make this a fruitful conversation. If you think the precautions people are currently taking (which from talking to friends in the UK and seeing what they post online amount to pretty much zilch) are 'sensible' then I truly believe you have no idea what may be around the corner.

[LaxtonLad]

My daughter works as a deputy manager in a care home. On evening she had to go to an evening meeting and was stuck for transport so I drove her there. Myself and one or two other dads were allowed to sit and wait in the reception area, as we came through the outside door we were welcomed by the manageress with a reassuring handshake, when I mentioned the virus, "we don't bother with that here" she said.