Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[hk blues]

2 minutes ago, greendot said:

 

 

My point still stands Check this handsome b*****d out!

Did we have a vote on changing the rules?  I seem to have missed it. 

[HeartsOfficialMoaner]

In late February, Hokkaido became the first place in Japan to declare a state of emergency due to Covid-19. But now, just 26 days after the state of emergency was lifted, a new one has had to be imposed.

Wonder how Spain will be a month from now. 

People keep asking for an exit strategy 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-52305055

 

 

[D.A.F.C]

You cannot understand what I said so are going for repeating emotive but irrelevant arguments. 
No way to win against the angry and uninformed. 
 

Or you create an industry who can make and ramp up production when required.
We can hardly make anything, I work in manufacturing and pretty much everything is imported. No country will admit to being told they were warned and those meetings were actually classified to cover up blame.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, dorlomin said:

Big on opinion short on detail. You need to be buying stocks of protective equipment long before a pandemic emerges, because when it does everyone tries to buy it at the same time. 

You cannot understand what I said so are going for repeating emotive but irrelevant arguments. 

No way to win against the angry and uninformed. 
 

Sharpening our pitch forks as you type.

[welshbairn]

I quite like the Charity sector running parts of the Health Service, a bit removed from Government bureaucracy and with a degree of independence. I doubt the Macmillan nurses would be so effective if they were just another NHS branch, and I like the idea of Hospices not being driven by the latest Government efficiency drives.

[NotThePars]

1 hour ago, pandarilla said:

The news is covering it because folk need to feel a bit of positivity in amongst the gloom. A lot of folk still get the vast majority of their news from the traditional methods. Now that's not a healthy state of affairs in terms of media ownership in this country but to suggest it's a big plot to distract is just ludicrous. It's a positive human interest story at a time of crisis.

The Sun are in overdrive boosting stuff like this while they lead campaigns to give frontline NHS staff medals. That they spent a good part of the austerity years leading smear campaigns against that same staff for having the gall to demand better working conditions and pay while the ghouls in parliament were cheering when they voted down those same demands is just a coincidence, I'm sure.

[renton]

7 minutes ago, D.A.F.C said:

Or you create an industry who can make and ramp up production when required.
We can hardly make anything, I work in manufacturing and pretty much everything is imported. No country will admit to being told they were warned and those meetings were actually classified to cover up blame.

The Germans rely largely on the same global supply chains as everyone else.

[ICTChris]

I’ve seen a few people quoting the posts about voting against giving nurses a pay rise, Full Fact have covered this - https://fullfact.org/health/queens-speech-public-sector-pay/

There have been loads of stuff like this in recent years, people posting Facebook memes about MPs voting to kill all the puppies and when you look into it it’s actually voting against technical amendments packaged up with other commitments.

[D.A.F.C]

Sturgeon sounds like a dalek today.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

1 minute ago, ICTChris said:

I’ve seen a few people quoting the posts about voting against giving nurses a pay rise, Full Fact have covered this - https://fullfact.org/health/queens-speech-public-sector-pay/

There have been loads of stuff like this in recent years, people posting Facebook memes about MPs voting to kill all the puppies and when you look into it it’s actually voting against technical amendments packaged up with other commitments.

^^^ICTChrisChope MP

[Jacksgranda]

18 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Me too, had a call from the local surgery checking up on me yesterday and a call from the MacMillan nurses this morning confirming my chemo is still going ahead tomorrow, half way through! Bloods taken in very quiet area of RNI 5 minutes walk away. And a huge box of free food arrived yesterday, first of Scottish Government's weekly supply.

Did you get a fry pack?

[welshbairn]

5 minutes ago, Jacksgranda said:

Did you get a fry pack?

Nah, only meat was a tin of corned beef. Apples, pears and a box of Shreddies though!

P.S. And one bog roll. And loads of other stuff, it weighed a ton.

Edited April 16, 2020 by welshbairn

[Jacksgranda]

8 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

I quite like the Charity sector running parts of the Health Service, a bit removed from Government bureaucracy and with a degree of independence. I doubt the Macmillan nurses would be so effective if they were just another NHS branch, and I like the idea of Hospices not being driven by the latest Government efficiency drives.

Aye, there would be quite a big through put if the government were in charge...

[Melanius Mullarkey]

Just now, welshbairn said:

Nah, only meat was a tin of corned beef. Apples, pears and a box of Shreddies though!

 

[Jacksgranda]

2 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Nah, only meat was a tin of corned beef. Apples, pears and a box of Shreddies though!

I'd be happy with that, tbh.

We got a number to ring to get put on a list for food parcels, but I've a feeling we won't be getting anything in a hurry, after the telephone interviews.

Anyway, we're coping o.k., getting messages delivered every week and our prescriptions, too. 

Granddaughter nr 4 gives us a shout whenever she's going for stuff for her father, although I suppose she should leave it at the front door, rather than bring it into the house.

[coprolite]

3 hours ago, throbber said:

Piers Morgan is rapidly becoming the most popular and universally respected famous person in the U.K among all this. Crazy times.

 

2 hours ago, Savage Henry said:

 

Only by people who don’t watch the 5pm addresses.

 

 

I have not watched a 5 o clock briefing but still think Piers Morgan is an utter c**t without any redeeming qualities. 

 

[dorlomin]

26 minutes ago, D.A.F.C said:

Or you create an industry who can make and ramp up production when required.

Lets start with the fact that we were in the EU till a few months ago so we would have had to compete with 27other countries industries on one very niche and usually not very profitable product. 

Then ok we now have a factory that knocks out 100% of the UKs protective equipment production. The factory will not be able to achieve the economies of scale of a more specialized producer who sells to multiple countries thus has a more volume to amortize things like capital costs into. This will means the more niche bits of equipment could be much more expensive. This is why globalisation has lowered costs for most things, one factory produces niche products for a large number of consumers. We produce high end medical equipment here but we buy in the cheaper products. This is how our high skill high cost economy works. 

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/02/countries-manufacturing-trade-exports-economics/

We are the 9th largest manufacturing economy in the world by dollar value. What we do make is things like cars, aircraft engines, aircraft wings etc that are towards the very top end of the supply chain. .

Ok back to PPE Autarky: we have local factories for local facemasks but take a hit on the our health spending due to the increased  spending on the cost of our PPE.

Now we have Covid19 turns up and its not 100% of our production but we need 3-400% of our production over 3 months so either we build our factories to have enormous excess capacity that has to be paid for by every bit of kit that is bought in a normal year, you have 5-10 times as many machines to pay for. Or we run out of it anyway. 

Thats plan D.A.F.C.

Now the other idea that will pop up here is why does the UK not produce the worlds "PPE", well we would have to have illegal subsidies to make up for the high pound and high labour costs in the UK and the other countries would also have to not follow the UK pandemic plan of massive subsidized factories to produce the kit else everyone will have massive factories and few customers. 

Which is why the plan we actually had was to have warehouses full of cheap kit, the downside is we did not plan for as aggressive a virus. 

Health is a devolved issue so not only did previous Labour governments not build up enough stock neither did any of the devolved health services. 

Edited April 16, 2020 by dorlomin

[Silvio Tattiescone]

35 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

Is this care home in Greenock by any chance? I know of a care home their refusing to use the ppe and trying to pressure doctors to not write covid on death certs because they want to get more people in.

No - but it fits the pattern. He's shown me WhatsApp messages from care workers all around the West of Scotland with similar stories. One Care Home was still letting in regular visits up to Tuesday 8th April until the Police visited after one of the carers reported it (having been ignored by management)

Edited April 16, 2020 by NewBornBairn

[Granny Danger]

12 minutes ago, coprolite said:

 

 

I have not watched a 5 o clock briefing but still think Piers Morgan is an utter c**t without any redeeming qualities. 

 

Let’s put this into context.

1.  Your description of Piers Moron is apt.

2.  He has put a government minister under greater scrutiny than almost any other interviewer has.

That is an indication of where the MSM are during the biggest crisis in 70 years.

[Distant Doonhamer]

Is this care home in Greenock by any chance? I know of a care home their refusing to use the ppe and trying to pressure doctors to not write covid on death certs because they want to get more people in.

Any doctor bowing to such pressure would be breaking the law. Covid-19 is a notifiable disease and as such doctors are legally obliged to report it.