Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[welshbairn]

53 minutes ago, peasy23 said:

And just to add to the fun, one of the people being slated to take over as Health Minister is a flat earther.

A General pal of Bolsonaro has taken over temporarily, not sure of his views on a spherical Earth.

https://catracalivre.com.br/cidadania/quem-e-o-general-pazuello-que-assume-saude-apos-saida-de-teich/

 

[Guest JTS98]

15 hours ago, Thereisalight.. said:

They/Sturgeon need to announce a lockdown exit plan and soon. At least it would give people some hope of “normality” returning and something to look forward to 

The problem with this is that as soon as the government say "Soon you will be able to do X" a lot of people hear "It's ok to now do X".

It's frustrating, but the government are probably right to say nothing and not give people an excuse to do things they're not meant to do.

Here in Malaysia our lockdown was eased completely out of the blue a good week and a half before it was even due to be reviewed. I'd imagine something similar will be done in Scotland. There's very little benefit in giving the public a heads-up.

[peasy23]

A General pal of Bolsonaro has taken over temporarily, not sure of his views on a spherical Earth.
https://catracalivre.com.br/cidadania/quem-e-o-general-pazuello-que-assume-saude-apos-saida-de-teich/
 

I had seen it in a tweet last night by a Brazilian girl I follow, she didn't say who it was though. Bolsanaro is a fucking mentalist.

[Snobot]

23 minutes ago, Lambie's Pigeon Feed said:

I see the Mayor of Liverpool has told Westminster his schools aren't going back on 1st June and the BMA have backed him. More of this please England.

Here’s a fairly searing critique from the BMJ

https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1932

 

[Distant Doonhamer]

If you apply that to Johnson’s handling of it you could say one is a tragedy whilst the other is a farce.

Boris has managed farce and tragedy simultaneously. Some boi.

[Granny Danger]

12 minutes ago, Distant Doonhamer said:

Boris has managed farce and tragedy simultaneously. Some boi.

He must be really pissed off that he finally achieved his goal only to be faced with the biggest crisis since WWII.

He is wholly unprepared and unsuitable for leading the UK at this time.

[Todd_is_God]

12 minutes ago, oaksoft said:

What "knowledge" can save lives? There is no "knowledge". 

That isn't strictly true. We know who is most at risk of death. We know who is most unlikely to suffer severely.

How to apply that knowledge to lift lockdown while keeping those at risk safe is the challenge. Not that we don't know it.

That there doesn't appear to have been much development on that front over the last eight weeks is staggering.

The approach is still blanket. Old people with severe health conditions should be absolutely nowhere near the Tube atm under any circumstances, yet the government are only telling them to avoid it unless necessary. That's scandalous.

They should probably avoid having picnics in parks and applying the rest of the looser restrictions to themselves for now as well, yet I'm not aware of the government suggesting this.

A lot of people will be unaware of the relative risk to different age groups or certain health conditions because the government aren't telling them.

It's one thing to portray the message that we are all in it together, but this is a virus which, in general, affects specific groups differently. It's not austerity measures or a war. It's a message that, because of that, is potentially dangerous and, above all, simply is not true.

Edited May 16, 2020 by Todd_is_God

[madwullie]

14 minutes ago, oaksoft said:

You reckon they are deliberately causing confusion in order to cause unnecessary deaths?

What "knowledge" can save lives? There is no "knowledge". Absolutely nobody knows for sure how to deal with this situation and get us out of lockdown. Anyone claiming they know for sure is bullshitting. As a country we're having to work it out as we go.

No I reckon they are deliberately causing confusion to shift the blame from themselves, to make them look better. Why else have they stopped showing the comparison graphs, why else was R a vital measure for approximately 24 hours, why else is Hancock suddenly announcing they ring fenced care homes with safety or whatever absolute bollocks he came out with. 

Absolutely everything they say is designed to shift the blame / make themselves look better, and the confusion and obfuscation this causes costs lives.  

[hk blues]

6 minutes ago, madwullie said:

No I reckon they are deliberately causing confusion to shift the blame from themselves, to make them look better. Why else have they stopped showing the comparison graphs, why else was R a vital measure for approximately 24 hours, why else is Hancock suddenly announcing they ring fenced care homes with safety or whatever absolute bollocks he came out with. 

Absolutely everything they say is designed to shift the blame / make themselves look better, and the confusion and obfuscation this causes costs lives.  

Why would any government wish to shift the blame to the people who decide if they should be elected?

You are confusing incompetence with something completely different.

[No_Problemo]

Why would any government wish to shift the blame to the people who decide if they should be elected?
You are confusing incompetence with something completely different.

Without having a viewpoint one way or the other -
numerous members of the public will believe this and blame everyone else bar the government.

[madwullie]

1 hour ago, welshbairn said:

They're in an awkward position, along with the WHO. If you had tens of millions trying to buy face masks it would have been impossible for front line staff who really need them to get enough, so they said they were useless which they patently aren't, though only of marginal benefit to your ordinary punter. That's why they're still saying we don't need proper face masks, a scarf will do. Maybe the better message from the start would have been to be straight up and say leave them to the frontline staff, they need them more, and shame people into not buying them all up.

While this is true, they are literally handing out face masks for free in France and Spain. How come they're able to do that if supplies are so low. 

Plus, the point is that some kind of barrier between your mouth and the air will stop the majority of droplets spraying towards another person. It doesn't need to be a medical grade mask, it can be a sock or an old t shirt. Even if the science is weak, there is no reason at all why they couldn't have recommended we all wear something. Imo

[hk blues]

Just now, No_Problemo said:

 

Without having a viewpoint one way or the other -
numerous members of the public will believe this and blame everyone else bar the government.

 

I honestly think many are overthinking this.  First of all this is a global pandemic and each and every country is responding in a different way...slightly differently or significantly differently. The UK is not being held up as an example of how NOT to manage this situation anywhere except here in the UK...and maybe only here on P&B. 

As far as the UKs public thinking is concerned, what do the opinion polls tell us? Yep, sometimes everyone else is wrong but.

For clarity...I have zero opinion on this as I don't live in the UK and I'm way more concerned about how Brexit will impact us. Unlike the virus, the fallout from Brexit is permanent. This virus has come just at the right time to divert attention away from something that is likely more impactful in the medium to long term. I wonder if Boris has any friends in a Wuhan wet market?

[welshbairn]

4 minutes ago, madwullie said:

While this is true, they are literally handing out face masks for free in France and Spain. How come they're able to do that if supplies are so low. 

Plus, the point is that some kind of barrier between your mouth and the air will stop the majority of droplets spraying towards another person. It doesn't need to be a medical grade mask, it can be a sock or an old t shirt. Even if the science is weak, there is no reason at all why they couldn't have recommended we all wear something. Imo

I think it's getting to the stage where there's enough masks for everyone apart from the specialist high grade medical ones, so hopefully they'll start being a bit more honest about it.

[welshbairn]

2 minutes ago, hk blues said:

The UK is not being held up as an example of how NOT to manage this situation anywhere except here in the UK...and maybe only here on P&B. 

I beg to differ.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/12/uk-takes-a-pasting-from-worlds-press-over-coronavirus

[hk blues]

2 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

I beg to differ.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/12/uk-takes-a-pasting-from-worlds-press-over-coronavirus

You can likely take the same article and change the UK for a significant number of other countries and read the same report.

Every government with few exceptions is under fire for their handling of this - the UK is no different.  

Have we done a poor job of managing this - yes. Are we alone in that - No.

 

 

[Granny Danger]

1 minute ago, hk blues said:

You can likely take the same article and change the UK for a significant number of other countries and read the same report.

Every government with few exceptions is under fire for their handling of this - the UK is no different.  

Have we done a poor job of managing this - yes. Are we alone in that - No.

 

 

People will draw international comparisons, that is not surprising.  In particular people will look at the countries that acted more quickly and handled it more effectively.

However I think the majority of British people who want answers* will be most interested in how the U.K. and the devolved governments dealt with it.  In particular those such people will be interested in if lives could have been saved by other actions and whether we had been sufficiently prepared.

* sadly the majority of people who want answers will not be in the majority imo.

 

[hk blues]

2 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

People will draw international comparisons, that is not surprising.  In particular people will look at the countries that acted more quickly and handled it more effectively.

However I think the majority of British people who want answers* will be most interested in how the U.K. and the devolved governments dealt with it.  In particular those such people will be interested in if lives could have been saved by other actions and whether we had been sufficiently prepared.

* sadly the majority of people who want answers will not be in the majority imo.

 

If this was a computer game and we could press reset, do things differently and compare results you may have had a point.

It's not, we can't.

This has, and will, provide political fodder for as long as people want it to. It's not a political issue, rather a global health one but carry on with your agenda.

[Granny Danger]

1 minute ago, hk blues said:

If this was a computer game and we could press reset, do things differently and compare results you may have had a point.

It's not, we can't.

This has, and will, provide political fodder for as long as people want it to. It's not a political issue, rather a global health one but carry on with your agenda.

That is nonsense.

[ICTJohnboy]

4 minutes ago, hk blues said:

If this was a computer game and we could press reset, do things differently and compare results you may have had a point.

It's not, we can't.

This has, and will, provide political fodder for as long as people want it to. It's not a political issue, rather a global health one but carry on with your agenda.

 

The Kiwis and the Aussies  certainly seem to have dealt with this a hell of a lot better than we have.

[Crùbag]

This is the 'UK'.

Meanwhile, it's telling that plebe schools in England are due back in two weeks but Eton and the posh ones can wait until Autumn.