O/T Coronavirus Thread (3)

[CAMiller]

Neil Ferguson has resigned after being caught with a married left-wing activist, probably for the best, he's never been right about anything.

Good to know that in these times of crisis the Daily Telegraph (and/or other 'newspapers') still have time to have reporters 'snooping' into people's private lives. Were they camped outside his flat watching him and if so is that essential work? Or was it just nosey neighbours who reported it as they were jealous at the noises coming from his bedroom Olympics?

[animallittle3]

It would be surprising if there wasn’t some spread at Cheltenham and via the Champions League game played at Anfield . I would be surprised if the government doesn’t either agree or is forced to publish the minutes of the SAGE meetings at which decisions upon them were taken so that we can get to see the science and policy behind them.

I don’t envy the government for the task they have at the moment. The fact is that this is a new disease and we don’t know much about it. Another fact is that the government has to balance its actions on the virus against the need to keep the economy running. I know that sort of comment leads to the ‘profits not people’ drivel, that is popular from the Left on Twitter at the moment, but the fact is that people die when the economy tanks.

We heard a lot about confirmation bias on here at the weekend. Other examples of bias are hindsight bias and outcome bias.

When you analyse an event like Cheltenham it becomes even more disturbing .

What you have is thousands upon thousands of people coming in from all corners of the UK and the Irish Republic .

Thousands of whom either come for the full 4 days or do a couple but are staying in hotels within a 30 to 40 mile radius of the circuit .

I'm not much of a racing guy but even I know that .

As far as the economy goes then yes I take the point it's a difficult one and certainly not a decision I'd like to make .

My own personal view is that the economy is fecked anyway and even if this thing disappeared tonight and we all went back to work tomorrow morning we are still going to be hit with depression the size none of us have ever seen before .

A bit of this and a bit of that opening up is simply sticking plasters on a huge gaping wound , is it really worth the risk of a second wave coming and putting ourselves back to square one ? .

Even if our incomes drop by 50% or less its definitely beats death or seriously ill or even infecting someone else .

Just my opinion and people's circumstances obviously aren't the same .

[animallittle3]

Really?

Of all the things you'd be willing to defend, I'm really surprised by this revisionist history.

12 March press conference:
"Our aim is not to stop everyone getting it, you can’t do that. And it’s not desirable, because you want to get some immunity in the population. We need to have immunity to protect ourselves from this in the future."
13th March:
https://twitter.com/bbcr4today/statu...90547783528448
15 March:
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavir...unity-11956793

This was very much a serious prospect until 'new data' on 23 March showed the death rate that would result and it was finally ruled out.

Just looking furthed down the SKY NEWS link you've provided John dated March 15th .

It report's the UK have 11 deaths , what's that roughly 6 weeks ago ?

Now we are just short of 30k and we've lockdown for 5 of those weeks .

Are we seriously looking in to easing off this thing ?

Really !!!

[Geetarman]

Ain't they just

[great_fire]

Back to the virus, if obesity is a factor then how come the fast food places seem to be the only ones re-opening?

[WanChaiMiller]

This is what we look like from abroad - Sydney Morning Herald.

"Unlike Italy, the United Kingdom had time to prepare for the coronavirus tsunami. But as the death toll climbs, critics say Britain's response has suffered from a series of deadly mistakes and miscalculations"

"Says Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an adviser to the World Health Organisation: "The countries that moved fast have curtailed the epidemic. The countries that delayed have not. It's as simple as that."

Dr Richard Horton, editor in chief of The Lancet medical journal, is even more damning: "The handling of the COVID-19 crisis in the UK is the most serious science policy failure in a generation."


https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/...28-p54o2d.html

[KerrAvon]

This is what we look like from abroad - Sydney Morning Herald.

"Unlike Italy, the United Kingdom had time to prepare for the coronavirus tsunami. But as the death toll climbs, critics say Britain's response has suffered from a series of deadly mistakes and miscalculations"

"Says Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an adviser to the World Health Organisation: "The countries that moved fast have curtailed the epidemic. The countries that delayed have not. It's as simple as that."

Dr Richard Horton, editor in chief of The Lancet medical journal, is even more damning: "The handling of the COVID-19 crisis in the UK is the most serious science policy failure in a generation."


https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/...28-p54o2d.html

With all due respect to the Sydney Morning Herald, their business is selling newspapers, not scientific analysis or the difficult task of navigating through a pandemic. The experts quoted within the article are well respected and should be listened to, but they have almost certainly been ‘opinion shopped’, with journalists seeking support for the article they wish to write as opposed to embarking upon a balanced research exercise.

[the_idiotb_stardson]

[QUOTE=Geetarman;39490392]You crack me up. Your mission is to question everything that read on the BBC, and twitter. Just to 'stimulate debate'

What have you been doing during during lockdown?

Not playing air guitar with the missus

[Lasterman]

I see Professor Neil Ferguson whose report triggered the lockdown has been forced to step down from his role as government advisor because he couldn't manage to stick to the social distancing restrictions he imposed on the rest of us.

This is getting farcical now. Just about everyone telling us what to do has either contracted the virus or broken their own guidelines. Some have done both.

[WanChaiMiller]

Slighty topical on here from SMH article:

"Why the sudden change? The government had just been handed a bombshell piece of research by scientists from Imperial College London warning that taking a light-touch approach to the virus would cause 250,000 deaths in Britain and overwhelm the National Health Service (NHS). Any hope of defeating the virus by building "herd immunity" in the community was smashed. The only way to prevent 250,000 deaths was through draconian measures, the researchers concluded."