The Corona Virus

[wanderlust]

The NHS is the most sacred of all sacred cows lusty. One million people are employed within this behemoth.

I am amazed the Tories have not already carved it up and sold it off piecemeal to their chums.

One million votes might just be the reason.

Yes it's right up there with Income Tax hikes in the vote losing charts but I suspect both sacred cows will be slaughtered in the next ten years the way it's going.
The Tories have already introduced over 1000 "stealth taxes" but they only target small sections of society so don't bring in the big bucks and something will eventually have to be done about the massive debt they've run up and the fact that our infrastructure, pensions, transport system, healthcare and other services have slipped well below our european neighbours' standards - but the neighbours happily pay up to 30% income tax to cover the cost.
Can you imagine the Tories pitching that in an election? I can't, but it may get railroaded through.
Maybe they'll just let it go to **** and leave the mess for someone else to try to sort out.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics...past-10-years/

[sinkov]

I remain bemused at the awe in which 'our' NHS is held by the public, as lusty says it's a sacred cow, cannot be touched, it's worshipped like a religion. In reality, it's not that good at what it does, other countries have better health services, no other country, as far as I'm aware, uses a similar funding method, and it's most certainly not free, we all pay for it one way or another. But the myth persists and it's untouchable, any attempt at reform or improvement is treated with suspicion at best, scepticism or outright derision from the Left.

And so it will bumble on, staggering from crisis to crisis, the only solution being to chuck ever more money at it, until one day it won't be able to cope at all. What then ?

[The Bedlington Terrier]

I remain bemused at the awe in which 'our' NHS is held by the public, as lusty says it's a sacred cow, cannot be touched, it's worshipped like a religion. In reality, it's not that good at what it does, other countries have better health services, no other country, as far as I'm aware, uses a similar funding method, and it's most certainly not free, we all pay for it one way or another. But the myth persists and it's untouchable, any attempt at reform or improvement is treated with suspicion at best, scepticism or outright derision from the Left.

And so it will bumble on, staggering from crisis to crisis, the only solution being to chuck ever more money at it, until one day it won't be able to cope at all. What then ?

I'm opening a thread to run hopefully for a while just on how my fellow Madders perceive the NHS.

[wanderlust]

Another staggeringly bemusing U-turn from Boris.
Concerned about voters complaining about the number of people getting pinged they've reduced the threshhold - only people who come into contact with someone who has it in the previous two days will be pinged (previously it was five days)
So can someone explain to me why the self isolation period is 10 days then?
If they can spread it for 10 days why only ping people who have come into contact with them in the last two?
Am I getting the wrong end of the stick here or is the government really stupid?

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Another staggeringly bemusing U-turn from Boris.
Concerned about voters complaining about the number of people getting pinged they've reduced the threshhold - only people who come into contact with someone who has it in the previous two days will be pinged (previously it was five days)
So can someone explain to me why the self isolation period is 10 days then?
If they can spread it for 10 days why only ping people who have come into contact with them in the last two?
Am I getting the wrong end of the stick here or is the government really stupid?

The government is really stupid.

[sinkov]

The government is really stupid.

Impossible to come to any other conclusion isn't it, but it's a conclusion many reached on here a long time ago.

[wanderlust]

Impossible to come to any other conclusion isn't it, but it's a conclusion many reached on here a long time ago.

Another thing that's bugging me is their decisions on "travel traffic lights" which seems to be politically driven rather than bearing any relevance to the facts. I want to go to Portugal to visit some folks I know and sort out some stuff I need to do in a rural area, but the Government seem to want to punish them for some reason.
Last time I went over it was green - until the third day of our fortnight when it was inexplicably put on the amber list despite having bugger all cases to speak of and none whatsoever in the area I was in. I have to confess I came down from the hills to visit Taylor's in Porto but their Covid measures were incredible compared to ours including having to spend a minute in an antivirus mist booth before being allowed in fully masked up - and that was over a year ago.
It's still on the amber list and as of Sunday they had 2300 new cases and just 9 deaths - a fraction of what we have. I've heard folk question their reporting but given that their healthcare system is so much better run than ours I reckon that's just xenophobic bull.
Annoys me that the facts are ignored.

[sinkov]

"Some 46% of people have cut back on social contact to avoid being pinged, according to Times polling."

Am I missing something here, or are 46% of people really stupid. If you don't want to be pinged, no need to cut back on social contact, just get that bloody app off your phone.

[Norder]

Another staggeringly bemusing U-turn from Boris.
Concerned about voters complaining about the number of people getting pinged they've reduced the threshhold - only people who come into contact with someone who has it in the previous two days will be pinged (previously it was five days)
So can someone explain to me why the self isolation period is 10 days then?
If they can spread it for 10 days why only ping people who have come into contact with them in the last two?
Am I getting the wrong end of the stick here or is the government really stupid?

first thought - with bucket loads of Cases but very few actual Patients....they're concerned about folk questioning that they're being "pinged" with absolutly zero sign of an illness - and what does that reveal - exactly what they dont want to reveal / or become obvious....its all about the False Positive rate (FPR = Uninfected) vs the False Negative rate (FNR = Infected)....and so, if prevelance is low - they can't escape it....False Positive it is, hence the loosening of the chains.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

first thought - with bucket loads of Cases but very few actual Patients....they're concerned about folk questioning that they're being "pinged" with absolutly zero sign of an illness - and what does that reveal - exactly what they dont want to reveal / or become obvious....its all about the False Positive rate (FPR = Uninfected) vs the False Negative rate (FNR = Infected)....and so, if prevelance is low - they can't escape it....False Positive it is, hence the loosening of the chains.

Where are the bodies?