Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Wee Willie]

1 minute ago, Donathan said:

I’m arguing that even in the absence of covid they’d be dead soon enough so widespread disruption to society is pointless.

Back in the day 50 years ago if somebody said to me , "I see that so-and-so has died" my first words were usually, "How auld was he"

If the reply was, "over 70 ", then I would say, "at least he had a long life".

Now that I'm 77 I bite my tongue.

[welshbairn]

1 minute ago, Wee Willie said:

A quick shifty on Google brings up these. I reckon somebody’s telling porkies….

 

 

Vote Leave AI firm wins seven government contracts in 18 months

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/04/vote-leave-ai-firm-wins-seven-government-contracts-in-18-months

Faculty is run by Marc Warner, whose brother Ben Warner, a data scientist, was reportedly recruited to Downing Street last year by Cummings after running the data modelling for the Conservative party’s general election campaign. Ben Warner is a former senior employee at Faculty and is also said to have worked on Vote Leave….

….Faculty’s work on the coronavirus response is only the latest government project it has secured under the Conservative administration. One early contract, for £32,000, funded fellowships in 2018 to place data scientists in city governments to help solve local challenges. Faculty was at that time operating under its original name, Advanced Skills Initiative…..

….Last year Faculty was awarded a £250,000 contract from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to run a cross-government review on the adoption of artificial intelligence, announced on the same day that the company rebranded as Faculty Science…..

….In addition, Faculty has been awarded a £264,000 contract from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to monitor the impact of the coronavirus on industry…..

 

 

https://bylinetimes.com/2020/04/22/palantir-coronavirus-contract-did-not-go-to-competitive-tender/

Highly controversial contracts which allow ministers and senior health officials to mine confidential data from tens of thousands of COVID-19 hospital patients have been awarded to technology companies without being put out to competitive tender, NHS England has disclosed to Byline Times.

The system is now live and being used to inform senior health officials on the latest situation at the daily Downing Street briefings. The contracts involve five companies – Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services, Palantir Technology UK and Faculty.

 

 

According to the Guardian, Faculty – which had a pre-existing contract with other companies to help build a £250 million artificial intelligence lab for the NHSX subsidiary – took on a leading role in the data response to the pandemic. It is run by Marc Warner, whose brother, Ben, was reported by the Sunday Times to have been recruited to Downing Street by Cummings after running the Conservative Party’s private election model.

Ben Warner, who used to be a principal at his brother’s AI company, is said to have worked closely with Cummings on the modelling programme used in the Vote Leave campaign.

Faculty’s lawyers told the Guardian that “its NHS contract was the result of a tender process that was not influenced by Cummings”.

I posted that link in my last reply to you. The contract for the app didn't go to the Warner brothers or any of the companies mentioned above. It was developed by the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Medicine along with US firm VMware.

[peasy23]

Everyone (well, not quite everyone) seems to have went from stockpiling bog rolls to building new fences or decking areas. Been overwhelmed by orders for it since we started back yesterday. 

I certainly know a couple of workmates who are spending the money refunded from cancelled holidays on their gardens instead.

[Sergeant Wilson]

4 minutes ago, Donathan said:

 

 

I’m arguing that even in the absence of covid they’d be dead soon enough so widespread disruption to society is pointless.

 

 

The spread has been contained to a degree and the majority of victims have, as might be expected, in the old/vulnerable category.

if it hadn't been contained more people outwith that group would get it , in too short a period for services to cope. Therefore more would die.

I can't put it any more simply than that.

I think it might be easier to explain to the virus than it is to you.

[Wee Willie]

1 minute ago, welshbairn said:

I posted that link in my last reply to you. The contract for the app didn't go to the Warner brothers or any of the companies mentioned above. It was developed by the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Medicine along with US firm VMware.

So ye did, my apologies.

What I'm trying to show is that Marc Warner has his finger in many NHS pies.

And what that meme asked was would you trust him?

[Sergeant Wilson]

5 minutes ago, Donathan said:

Ok boomer.

Here is an amoeba, I've decided to call it Donathon.

[welshbairn]

4 minutes ago, Donathan said:

Ok boomer.

If you're right you millennials will all be topping yourselves in a week or 2 so your opinion doesn't really carry much weight.

[superbigal]

No restrictions to be lifted in Scotland on Thurssay imo NAP

On a factual note I just spoke to a large UK manufacturer of hand sanitizer the type that goes on the wall in dispensers in hospitals etc. Clearly businesses need all that gear and not shitty little bottles if they ate to reopen.
Anyway to continue said firm confirmed they would not even be reviewing returning to their previous model of supplying distributors until June at least.
All manufacturing is to NHS only.
Basically fuckk knows how any non health business will get supplies of anything needed under the new proposals is a mystery to me.

[bendan]

4 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

The spread has been contained to a degree and the majority of victims have, as might be expected, in the old/vulnerable category.

if it hadn't been contained more people outwith that group would get it , in too short a period for services to cope. Therefore more would die.

 

Wouldn't it have been a good idea to focus efforts on preventing the over 65s getting it, rather than pretending we were all equally vulnerable? Only 17 people in Scotland under 45 have died from this, but about 2000 over 65s.

[Bairnardo]

Starting to buy into the early predictions that foreign holidays are fucked for a very very long time.

[Donathan]

The spread has been contained to a degree and the majority of victims have, as might be expected, in the old/vulnerable category.
if it hadn't been contained more people outwith that group would get it , in too short a period for services to cope. Therefore more would die.
I can't put it any more simply than that.
I think it might be easier to explain to the virus than it is to you.

I wonder how many people have only survived because medical treatment was available?

2/3 of people who went into hospital have survived, I wonder if some of them would have died if the NHS was overwhelmed. Boris Johnson himself might have passed away. This is a pro-lockdown argument.

I’m not convinced that most of the people who survived under lockdown wouldn’t have survived anyway though.

[Donathan]

Starting to buy into the early predictions that foreign holidays are fucked for a very very long time.

Until there’s a widespread vaccine you reckon?

[Bairnardo]

1 minute ago, Donathan said:

Until there’s a widespread vaccine you reckon?

f**k knows. I think the damage to the aviation industry coupled with the potential for it to be until vaccines are ready before flying is widespread again, then add the requirement for people to have confidence in it again will result in inflated prices killing it. 

The airlines and holiday companies are either going to have to take huge risks, or find a way to stimulate the market again. Dont see it happening. Find it more likely that people get priced our for the coming 2 or 3 years and slip out of the habit of going abroad. 

[Wee Willie]

11 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

Here is an amoeba, I've decided to call it Donathon.

Now that's funny....I think

[Sergeant Wilson]

9 minutes ago, bendan said:

Wouldn't it have been a good idea to focus efforts on preventing the over 65s getting it, rather than pretending we were all equally vulnerable? Only 17 people in Scotland under 45 have died from this, but about 2000 over 65s.

Agreed to a point, but without lockdown for all, all the numbers would be up.

7 minutes ago, Donathan said:

 

I wonder how many people have only survived because medical treatment was available?

2/3 of people who went into hospital have survived, I wonder if some of them would have died if the NHS was overwhelmed. Boris Johnson himself might have passed away. This is a pro-lockdown argument.

I’m not convinced that most of the people who survived under lockdown wouldn’t have survived anyway though.

 

I have no idea what you're on about.

[madwullie]

7 minutes ago, Donathan said:

Until there’s a widespread vaccine you reckon?

If the whole world apart from us signs up to the same contact tracing app world travel may be available to other people long before us. Especially if those countries get a grip on their outbreaks. Loosening up any time really soon will imo lower the chance of us getting a grip on things and therefore increase the chances of no foreign holidays for a while.

[Donathan]

2 minutes ago, Snafu said:

Why wait, on you go.

 

 

The pubs are closed, the football is off and there are no flights to go on holiday. Come again.

[Sergeant Wilson]

1 minute ago, madwullie said:

If the whole world apart from us signs up to the same contact tracing app world travel may be available to other people long before us. Especially if those countries get a grip on their outbreaks. Loosening up any time really soon will imo lower the chance of us getting a grip on things and therefore increase the chances of no foreign holidays for a while.

But we wants to go out!

[D.A.F.C]

No restrictions to be lifted in Scotland on Thurssay imo NAP

On a factual note I just spoke to a large UK manufacturer of hand sanitizer the type that goes on the wall in dispensers in hospitals etc. Clearly businesses need all that gear and not shitty little bottles if they ate to reopen.
Anyway to continue said firm confirmed they would not even be reviewing returning to their previous model of supplying distributors until June at least.
All manufacturing is to NHS only.
Basically fuckk knows how any non health business will get supplies of anything needed under the new proposals is a mystery to me.

This is my issue. In parts of my job you need ppe if we are to work together. No chance of that. Hand sinister was there but limited, you can use the soap dispenser types without touching main part of hands.
Sharing tools, touching loads of surfaces.
Cant really see any way around it but long term lots of staff will remember it and companies could be liable.
We need clear black and white advice. Not companies should do because that will mean them saying well we dont have to so we wont.

[D.A.F.C]

Starting to buy into the early predictions that foreign holidays are fucked for a very very long time.

BBC confirmed that Iran's outbreak was pretty much down to one airline continuing to operate from China.

Lebanon patient zero from same airline.

 

British airways not to blame though.