O/T Coronavirus Thread

[mikemiller]

Interesting article on the BBC News website - "What can the west learn from Asia's coronavirus fight". Might educate a few

[Pattylallacks2]

Doubt it

[flourbasher]

A friend of mine works for NHS Estates and they are re space planning their hospitals to install more beds. 16 hour days, seven days a week.
I sent him four texts, one email and called him once yesterday as I feared the worst but he was just too busy to respond

Space is tight but it can be done.
More beds are on the way.

A lot of people are working very long hours to manage this issue as well as the frontline medical staff

[Shark27]

What would be an interesting stat is comparing the weekly death rates over a number of years at this time of year to now.

Also, we are hearing the numbers of people dying of coronavirus but are these all the Covid 19 cases. Coronavirus has been on people's death certificates for years.

It's only out of interest. I'm not taking this virus lightly.

[WanChaiMiller]

This is how I see it.

Prior to weekend of 14/15th March, our policy appeared to be that we should allow the virus to spread through the population to create herd immunity.* This is untested policy, never attempted before outside an inoculation programme.

It was all a bit loose with no real fleshed out detail.

Over the weekend of 14/15 Imperial College released their profiling data which showed if we followed this strategy it would lead to 250,000 deaths in the UK and 1.1m in the USA.

The first inklings of a change of tack emerged in the late afternoon briefing on Monday 16th when we first started hearing of isolation programmes and lockdowns (which is more in line with the approach China took - up to then we appeared to be on a different strategy to all other countries - this is my understanding - correct it if wrong).

The late afternoon Friday 20th briefing was the first with a real clear message. The first clear consise information for me as a business owner on what I need to do to protect my employees, suppliers and customers.

The star of the show in the last few weeks has been Rishi Sunak for his excellent budget speech, his subsequent briefings culminating in the brilliant work on Friday. We may have the wrong PM!!

He and Johnson were both excellent on Friday giving clear guidence and absolute clarity in what is expected. Keep going Boris the country needs leadership you showed on Friday mixed in with some humour.

[millertop]

Government will always get abused no matter what or who it is but for me I think they’re doing ok, not sure if some things are quick enough but I think I can see what they’re trying to do and with the knowledgeable people behind them I have faith in them.

Sunak is one of the best I’ve seen tbh and I for one is glad to see him in his job, maybe yes a future PM

[KerrAvon]

What would be an interesting stat is comparing the weekly death rates over a number of years at this time of year to now.

Also, we are hearing the numbers of people dying of coronavirus but are these all the Covid 19 cases. Coronavirus has been on people's death certificates for years.

It's only out of interest. I'm not taking this virus lightly.

That is a point taken by a BBC Health Correspondent in this article:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51979654

It echoes the point that I was making earlier about the dangers of reading too much into the figures that countries are publishing. If a person with a heart condition dies of heart failure, but is found to be infected, is that a Covid-19 death or death due to the pre-existing condition? In Italy, it would be recoded as Covid-19. It's a point that irrelevant to the family and friends of the deceased, but of interest when some people weaponise the figures to try to use the crisis to score political points.

There are a large number of Coronaviruses, some of which are responsible for ‘colds’, but the point with Covid-19 is that it is a novel one, which means that there is no reservoir of immunity within the population.

[KerrAvon]

This is how I see it.

Prior to weekend of 14/15th March, our policy appeared to be that we should allow the virus to spread through the population to create herd immunity.* This is untested policy, never attempted before outside an inoculation programme.

It was all a bit loose with no real fleshed out detail.

Over the weekend of 14/15 Imperial College released their profiling data which showed if we followed this strategy it would lead to 250,000 deaths in the UK and 1.1m in the USA.

The first inklings of a change of tack emerged in the late afternoon briefing on Monday 16th when we first started hearing of isolation programmes and lockdowns (which is more in line with the approach China took - up to then we appeared to be on a different strategy to all other countries - this is my understanding - correct it if wrong).

The late afternoon Friday 20th briefing was the first with a real clear message. The first clear consise information for me as a business owner on what I need to do to protect my employees, suppliers and customers.

The star of the show in the last few weeks has been Rishi Sunak for his excellent budget speech, his subsequent briefings culminating in the brilliant work on Friday. We may have the wrong PM!!

He and Johnson were both excellent on Friday giving clear guidence and absolute clarity in what is expected. Keep going Boris the country needs leadership you showed on Friday mixed in with some humour.

Government policy has always been based upon the notion that it is impossible to stop the virus spreading through the population, but that the rate of spread needs to be controlled such as to seek to prevent the number of cases at any one time exceeding the ability of the NHS to provide critical care to those worse effected. There has never been a plan or intention to allow the disease to spread unchecked.

It was always the case that the government intended to apply more measures to put the brakes on the rate of spread as and when needed.

Imperial College has been providing the modelling for the government from the very start of the crisis.

I know that people get hysterical about the notion of herd immunity, but the reality is that it is the only realistic way that the crisis will end. It's herd immunity that prevents seasonal flu killing many millions each winter. It's great that work on vaccines is advancing, but it would be unwise to assume that effective ones can be created, tested and produced in sufficient quantities in time to address the pandemic.

[WanChaiMiller]

Government policy has always been based upon the notion that it is impossible to stop the virus spreading through the population, but that the rate of spread needs to be controlled such as to seek to prevent the number of cases at any one time exceeding the ability of the NHS to provide critical care to those worse effected. There has never been a plan or intention to allow the disease to spread unchecked.

It was always the case that the government intended to apply more measures to put the brakes on the rate of spread as and when needed.

Imperial College has been providing the modelling for the government from the very start of the crisis.

I know that people get hysterical about the notion of herd immunity, but the reality is that it is the only realistic way that the crisis will end. It's herd immunity that prevents seasonal flu killing many millions each winter. It's great that work on vaccines is advancing, but it would be unwise to assume that effective ones can be created, tested and produced in sufficient quantities in time to address the pandemic.

I never used the term uncheck. And we do understand the concept of herd immunity.

But my point is of a siesmic change of policy over the weekend of 14/15 of which you make no mention.

By the way wgat do you make of the budget. Huge increase in spending - buying northern votes maybe?

[howdydoo]

By the way what evidence do you have to prove British people are the best?

There really is no scientific or any other sort of evidence to prove any human being is superior to any other is there so pointless coming out with it really. Like it or not you are just the same as any other of the 7.5 billion humans on this planet. Sobering innit? We think we are special but we really aint...

Nighty night. See if you can put a better more sensible head on in the morning...

Quote:

‘Certainly not the best but we’re up there In most areas.’

Where did I say we are the best ?