SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)

It's worth noting just how many children will be born in December btw. We can name them the 'Covid Colony'.
 
It's worth noting just how many children will be born in December btw. We can name them the 'Covid Colony'.

All the kids missing out on half a year or more of schooling. They might be known as generation covid.
 
feck me. I have a cousin who has asthma. I have another cousin who has lung problems since he was 15 years old.

Hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people in U.K have Asthma... I think the role of Asthma in this (and the number of people who have it) has gone under the radar really.

This virus immediately targets the lungs.

Many PL footballers have Asthma!
 
This really is full of stereotypes. We have never been 'mass testing'. In fact Germany is much more reactive than proactive compared to other european countries.

And our population is anything but disciplined. Just yesterday - in Cologne a City where gatheringsare forbidden, the police had to call off a 600(!!!) people gathering at the Rhine.

Mass testing in comparison to many other countries where very few test kits are available. My son is in California and 5 people he knows were exposed to someone with Covid and then went back to Uni, felt unwell and they could only find 1 test kit (so they tested the most sick one) and that was in Santa Barbara where there were zero cases at the time.

And idiots are everywhere but I read a report that social distancing is working much better in Germany that many other places, not as well as Hong Kong but still better than most. You have closed lots of things including schools as well.
 
Hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people in U.K have Asthma... I think the role of Asthma in this (and the number of people who have it) has gone under the radar really.

This virus immediately targets the lungs.

Many PL footballers have Asthma!

That's true. Even the GOAT

paul-scholes-barcelona.jpg
 
day 10 of isolation and I’m spiraling truth be told. Moved to this country ten months ago so don’t have a lot of close friends here, so already had a bit of loneliness kicking in.
I have ps4/Netflix/books/work from home. But I’m crumbling here. I won’t go out with friends and put others at risk - following the gov advice here, but I’m spiraling
Are you quarantining due to precaution or have you had symptoms? Are there any local facebook support groups or anything like that?
 
I don't know, during the blitz the UK had people walking through streets physically enforcing window blackouts. When it's a case of survival, we'll listen to any type of authority.

There was a clear enemy during the blitz - the nazi's, where as covid 19 is a virus, peoples anger can't be directed at a invisible virus, the anger is most likely to be directed at the responds to it. It's also a virus that doesn't effect everyone in the same way, at it's worse(I think this is right) it could cause under a million deaths in Britain which would be huge but thats nothing compare to what would have happened if Nazi Germany invaded and took over Britain and Britain had a war time economy, people had jobs building war equipment or going off to fight an actual war, the longer this crisis goes on the worse off the economy is, there could mass levels of unemployment. We've also made massive gains since the 1940's both in individual rights and advices in tech.Plus there was a ton of awful shit during the blitz and the changes after the WW2 where pretty huge.

Now having said all of that, you could be easily right. If there is one country in Europe where people will accept such huge government over slight it would be Britain. Who's cultural authoritarian norms run quite deep but also I think this is only partly true for the older generations(Over 40's).
 
Without drastic measures, it is. Imperial College study forecasted the number of deaths to 90m if the virus is left alone.

The economy is going to be totally mauled.
Think the change in thread title was precisely because of posts like this.
 
Think the change in thread title was precisely because of posts like this.
I am hardly saying any bullshit. It is the most detailed study we have had so far, which forecasts 2.1m Americans dying if we only mitigate the problem, and 4m if we do nothing and leave it as the flu. Interpolate the numbers for the world, and you get what I am saying.

It also is conservative in many cases, using a significantly lower fatality rate than the one given from WHO. It is also precisely the study that the UK government is using to make their policy (thus while they gave up on herd immunity).

The silliness was more from 'this is just the flu' brigade who thankfully seem to have disappeared in the last week.
 
Without drastic measures, it is. Imperial College study forecasted the number of deaths to 90m if the virus is left alone.

The economy is going to be totally mauled.

I think they modeled that doing little (mild suppression measures) would result in 2.2 million deaths rising to nearly 4 million if we really did feck all (treat it like the flu). Some bloke then extrapolated this to the worlds population and came up with 90 million deaths. The maths is correct but it wasn't meant to be a prediction of what will happen, just of what could happen if we did nothing. And we are doing things. They also said with the correct measures the death toll could be reduced to thousands.

Still very fecking scary mind.
 
Last edited:
I know the plan one Health Trust in NI is putting into place to deal with what they're projecting to happen. Let's just say it's grim.
 
I am hardly saying any bullshit. It is the most detailed study we have had so far, which forecasts 2.1m Americans dying if we only mitigate the problem, and 4m if we do nothing and leave it as the flu. Interpolate the numbers for the world, and you get what I am saying.
Over what timescale?
 
Exactly. I've been mentioning this to friends for a week or two, people losing their mind over 2000 cases or so in the UK. I would imagine that number is closer to 100,000, it's just not causing them any problems. Re-iterates the need for social distancing and protecting those that are vulnerable.

Some people in here and others on Facebook who can't tear themselves away from their precious pint in the local should take heed. It's not all about you.

Isn't this a really good thing?

Serious cases that end up in hospital are being tested, but if there's a substantial number of people who have got it/have it who simply have slipped under the radar (an absolute certainty in the UK at least) then does it not suggest that the virus is significantly less deadly than feared?
 
I think they modeled that doing nothing (treating it like the flu) would result in 2.2 million deaths rising to nearly 4 million if we really did feck all. Some bloke then extrapolated this to the worlds population and came up with 90 million deaths. The maths is correct but it wasn't meant to be a prediction of what will happen, just of what could happen if we did nothing. And we are doing things.

Still very fecking scary mind.
I said that left alone will reach those numbers. Yes, their numbers for UK and US very much matched, so you can extrapolate for the entire world (with some degree).

Obviously we are doing something, but it is still scary. For example, mitigation only reduced the number of deaths at a quarter (so 1m in US, 260k in UK), and suppression with then total removal of restriction was the same as doing nothing.

The current strategy most states are doing lowers it to a few thousands for US/UK (I think that is extremely optimistic as we see from Italy, so it is gonna be few tens of thousands), but that requires a lot of restrictions to stay in place until the vaccine comes.
 
I think they modeled that doing nothing (treating it like the flu) would result in 2.2 million deaths rising to nearly 4 million if we really did feck all. Some bloke then extrapolated this to the worlds population and came up with 90 million deaths. The maths is correct but it wasn't meant to be a prediction of what will happen, just of what could happen if we did nothing. And we are doing things.

Still very fecking scary mind.

Wasn't that also them just extrapolating the mortality rates to apply to the global population? Large portions of the world won't have access to anything like the resources and treatment available to the richest parts of the world.

Or am I missing something?
 
I said that left alone will reach those numbers. Yes, their numbers for UK and US very much matched, so you can extrapolate for the entire world (with some degree).

Obviously we are doing something, but it is still scary. For example, mitigation only reduced the number of deaths at a quarter (so 1m in US, 260k in UK), and suppression with then total removal of restriction was the same as doing nothing.

The current strategy most states are doing lowers it to a few thousands for US/UK (I think that is extremely optimistic as we see from Italy, so it is gonna be few tens of thousands), but that requires a lot of restrictions to stay in place until the vaccine comes.

I read a summary of the Imperial report on Twitter. I recall there being 3 scenarios - doing nothing, mitigation, and outright surpression.

I'm not sure which category the United Kingdom comes under - (mitigation I guess?) - because we only have government advice and no complete ban on leaving the home. People are still going to bars/cafes/restaurants.
 
I read a summary of the Imperial report on Twitter. I recall there being 3 scenarios - doing nothing, mitigation, and outright surpression.

I'm not sure which category the United Kingdom comes under - (mitigation I guess?) - because we only have government advice and no complete ban on leaving the home. People are still going to bars/cafes/restaurants.
They were supposed to do mitigation (herd immunity) but when the study was completed the number of deaths was too high to accept it, so switched to suppression. Supression does not necessarily mean full lockdown.
 
Wasn't that also them just extrapolating the mortality rates to apply to the global population? Large portions of the world won't have access to anything like the resources and treatment available to the richest parts of the world.

Or am I missing something?

90 million is extrapolating the very worst cases in the US to the rest of the world. That worst case won't happen because steps are already well above the level of treating it like the flu.

Still scary but it almost certainly won't be that bad - will almost certainly involve significant deaths of course.
 
I am hardly saying any bullshit. It is the most detailed study we have had so far, which forecasts 2.1m Americans dying if we only mitigate the problem, and 4m if we do nothing and leave it as the flu. Interpolate the numbers for the world, and you get what I am saying.

It also is conservative in many cases, using a significantly lower fatality rate than the one given from WHO. It is also precisely the study that the UK government is using to make their policy (thus while they gave up on herd immunity).

The silliness was more from 'this is just the flu' brigade who thankfully seem to have disappeared in the last week.

I dunno, I’ve kept an eye on this thread and to be honest I think you’re taking too much in and unleashing it. Like I get it’s bad but anytime I see a comment that I think “steady on” it inevitably comes from you. I get you’re trying to be informative but I can’t imagine constantly looking up and reading statistics about how many dead people there is and there’s gonna be is healthy. I mean just today you’ve killed off football as an entire sport and then killed off 90 million people. Just chill....
 
Interesting.

A couple of things from my point of view:

1. They've stated R0 to be 2.4. It's not actually known what the COVID R0 number is and this can fall with measures that are put in place. It has been estimated it may be as low as 1.5, but it's obviously a fairly significant variable.

Overall, our results suggest that population-wide social distancing applied to the population as a whole would have the largest impact; and in combination with other interventions – notably home isolation of cases and school and university closure – has the potential to suppress transmission below the threshold of R=1 required to rapidly reduce case incidence

2. The numbers you've quoted correlate to doing nothing, as I've quoted above, the measures we've put in place now may have the biggest impact. I'm not refuting the fact that millions could die if we did nothing, but the fact is that we are doing something, therefore statements such as '2.2m could die' are unhelpful in the long run as it doesn't correlate with the current scenario.
 
Good thread from a Virologist about the future Covid vaccine

 
Isn't this a really good thing?

Serious cases that end up in hospital are being tested, but if there's a substantial number of people who have got it/have it who simply have slipped under the radar (an absolute certainty in the UK at least) then does it not suggest that the virus is significantly less deadly than feared?
That is certainly a way of looking at it, yes. Which is why I've always taken the death rate with a pinch of salt. Personally, as a person who as asthma and often gets pretty wheezy with seasonal flu-like infections I'm a bit uneasy.

Have I had it and been ok? Maybe. Have I not had it? Maybe. I'll be on higher alert/vigilant until I get my vaccine. I just feel if I let my guard down it could get me in some bother. Statistics are on my side, however, being 30, but...you know...
 
To me, that’s the only thing that explains the death rate in Germany. They’re considering the death as from a pre-existing condition rather than from the virus that exacerbated it.
They have denied that explicitly.
My sister works in a hospital near Cologne. So far they are coping well, they still have enough capacity to deal with the Corona patients.

day 10 of isolation and I’m spiraling truth be told. Moved to this country ten months ago so don’t have a lot of close friends here, so already had a bit of loneliness kicking in.
I have ps4/Netflix/books/work from home. But I’m crumbling here. I won’t go out with friends and put others at risk - following the gov advice here, but I’m spiraling
Which country?
 
Pit stop.



Putting this here if anyone is nearly burnt out from this macabre thread. I sometimes just watch this for 10-15 minutes, cheers me right up, heading over Spain/northern Africa currently going into daylight.
 
  • Like
Reactions: oneniltothearsenal
It's not 2). We are basically not testing at all.

Our 3 year old daughter with 39,3 fever and dry cough was not able to get tested - and we live in the middle of Cologne, one of the hardest hit cities in Germany.


I personally think our gov is hiding stuff.

The normal numbers show that we test a lot.

Germany tested 100,000 people last week, 35,000 the week before. They might not have tested everybody that wanted a test... and especially in the first weeks when test kits were more difficult to get.

Small kids with usual cold signs and normal fever for sure are not the first to get tested...

There is enough understandable reasons why we are not on Italy's ot Spain's track.
 
I mean... yeah. They’re not gonna say “ahhhh ya got me!” if somebody asks.
Yeah... but this is not China. There would be leaks and a huge public outrage. And, it would be difficult to orchestrate because it‘s not controlled by a central structure. Every county reports the numbers independently.
 
To me, that’s the only thing that explains the death rate in Germany. They’re considering the death as from a pre-existing condition rather than from the virus that exacerbated it.

In the death cases that I know more of (regional newspapers) that was just not the case. And despite some users who like conspiracy theories that does just not match to the usual German overly correct prussian character.

In Germany the first cases from January were pretty well tracked. The second wave came with travellers, from skiing hotspots in Austria etc. Mainly with young people!



ES1wYWLWsAMvU57


That was after the first 648 cases about ten days ago. If you take some days between discovery and death...

All of e.g. Bavarias 15 or 18 death cases were between 67 and 99.

I actually expect Germany to cope better with the virus then most of the other countries because of the organisation, social structure, discpline and health system.

And yes, there is always some people that do not catch the seriousness of the situation.
 
Last edited:
In the death cases that I know more of (regional newspapers) that was just not the case. And despite some users who like conspiracy theories that does just not match to the usual German overly correct prussian character.

In Germany the first cases from January were pretty well tracked. The second wave came with travellers, from skiing hotspots in Austria etc. Mainly with young people!



ES1wYWLWsAMvU57


That was after the first 648 cases about ten days ago. If you take some days between discovery and death...

All of e.g. Bavarias 15 or 18 death cases were between 67 and 99.

I actually expect Germany to cope better with the virus then most of the other countries because of the organisation, social structure, discpline and health system.

And yes, there is always some people that do not catch the seriousness of the situation.
If anything, that chart indicates you test a lot more than Italy so your ratios should be more accurate.

Have a similar issue here with people constantly lambasting the government for having almost the same number of cases as Argentina despite their population being 13 times ours. They overlook Argentina has 2 deaths already while we have none and our ICUs are empty.
 
In a lighter side, we should probably arrange more forum games on redcafe since there would be many people on lockdowns.

Wolves? Any other forum games that's interesting? Perhaps a gaming session?
Werewolf is far too apt. Villagers are blind as bats, have no clue what's going on and who is evil (infected) as they keep themselves hidden (asymptomatic).

Everyone banging on about collaborating and fighting for the greater good despite (again) not having the faintest idea how to go about it.

There's a chap running around with a limited stock of test kits trying to hit the jackpot with his one daily seer check.

Worst of all, most players end up dead.
 
Werewolf is far too apt. Villagers are blind as bats, have no clue what's going on and who is evil (infected) as they keep themselves hidden (asymptomatic).

Everyone banging on about collaborating and fighting for the greater good despite (again) not having the faintest idea how to go about it.

There's a chap running around with a limited stock of test kits trying to hit the jackpot with his one daily seer check.

Worst of all, most players end up dead.
So a covid themed game then? :lol: