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

BootsyCollins said:
Was it not a ebola outbreak in february even? Seems to remember the WHO talked about it in the early corona updates.
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The main outbreak kicked off in the latter half of 2018, however the response was very urgent across the continent, so it for the most part was confined to Eastern Congo and surrounding areas.

There have been a few hot spots where it's re-emerged, but nothing that hasn't been contained to date. Think that has been dealt with successfully.
 
Not satisfied with failing at their first and second targets they've now thought it wise to quadruple it to 100k. It's as if they're hoping a quick newsheadline will confuse people.
 
Irwin99 said:
I'm completely illiterate when it comes to economics and have no illusions on that front but how is the UK government finding this money to wipe off the NHS debt AND pay for the massive increase in Universal credit? Genuine question. For years I've been hearing that there is no magic money tree and that austerity is necessary etc. What happens when this is hopefully all over in 6-12 months time and the debt has gone up massively?
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Every employed person will be paying an extra £100 a month to cover this.
 
Watching these government press conferences, does anyone really get the impression that they are finding time in their excessively busy days to fit in a press conference?
To me, this feels like the main event. This is what they are working towards. To be able to diffuse the blame and shift responsibility.
 
ThatsGreat said:
This is a once in 10 years event, most governments budget for this with the assumption that they'll have another 10 years to prepare for the next event. Now if another novel virus were to hit next year, then we'd be in trouble.
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no-one budgeted for this.
 
Virgil said:
Thats the really frightening thing. If current thinking is right and it’s all down to testing and social distancing then with such limited resources god help Africa if it takes hold because from what we have seen so far all nations have been very insular In their approach.
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North Korea as well... Dread to think what's actually going on there

Think they have said they have no cases

Also think they said they had developed a cure

Rocket man's probably trying to weaponise it
 
Flying high said:
Watching these government press conferences, does anyone really get the impression that they are finding time in their excessively busy days to fit in a press conference?
To me, this feels like the main event. This is what they are working towards. To be able to diffuse the blame and shift responsibility.
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When you see that Johnson has rehired his campaign team from the last Election to run the Coronavirus messaging, it gives you a sad indication of what the priorities with these press conferences are.
 
yumtum said:
Every employed person will be paying an extra £100 a month to cover this.
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I think they will be looking to hit companies hard initially... Saying the government bailed out business now business has to repay the country

And self employed will probably see taxes brought more in line with paye

Almost certainly some increase in vat or income tax as well I guess but as I say I think they will look to business first
 
vodrake said:
When you see that Johnson has rehired his campaign team from the last Election to run the Coronavirus messaging, it gives you a sad indication of what the priorities with these press conferences are.
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I didn't know that, but it sums up this government well.
 
Irwin99 said:
I'm completely illiterate when it comes to economics and have no illusions on that front but how is the UK government finding this money to wipe off the NHS debt AND pay for the massive increase in Universal credit? Genuine question. For years I've been hearing that there is no magic money tree and that austerity is necessary etc. What happens when this is hopefully all over in 6-12 months time and the debt has gone up massively?
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We’ll all be paying for it once this is all over.
Paye and NI deductions will go through the roof. A few have said it in this thread but the financial catastrophe that will follow this will be massive.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Not to mention, as @africanspur keeps saying, there’s a huge potential for unseen mortality as this distracts attention/resources from the usual, more mundane causes of death. Which could see their mortality increasing significantly while COVID hits its peak.
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There is no doubt of this. Most surgeries post-poned, programmed consultations cancelled, in some of my islands Primary Care centers have completely shut down. Social workers are not visiting children at risk and many elderly have been somewhat abandoned. Domestic violence and suicide is also a serious concern.

I think the worst of all in terms of mid-term mortality will be the capacity of providing decent care for oncologic patients. We didn't exactly stopped our cancer hospitals, but, with all the precautions that must be taken, everything happens a lot slower and eventually a lot of professionals will have to go through quarantines due to the immunocompromised nature of most of their patients. The capacity for response of these hospitals will undoubtedly be reduced.

At the end of the day, they may not technically be Covid-19 deaths and not enter the statistics, but in practical terms they are victims of this pandemic. The fact they will not be included in Covid-19 lethality rates provides little comfort even if you just want to know how many people are dying of Covid-19.
 
WHO's advice on masks must be seen with a grain of salt (as anything they say, but in this case for a very specific reason).

There are not enough stocks of masks around, specially in countries that do not have the habit of using them. So, a generalized advice to wear masks would not be implementable, and could even be counter-productive, as then there wouldn't be enough for the more specific high-risk situations.

This applies to national health authorities too, I'm almost sure that's the reason they are not recommended in Portugal. They are just being pragmatic about it.
 
@TheReligion @jojojo We have the first the figures in France for care homes, at least 884 people died, these figures are from 7400 out of 10600 care homes so the figures will be higher.
 
Skills said:
A friend of mine once said to me that you can bullshit your way through your entire life with a posh British accent.

It has an innate ability to polish a turd.
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Roll it in glitter more like.

And then convince people that foreigners are after their glittery turds.
 
Arruda said:
WHO's advice on masks must be seen with a grain of salt (as anything they say, but in this case for a very specific reason).

There are not enough stocks of masks around, specially in countries that do not have the habit of using them. So, a generalized advice to wear masks would not be implementable, and could even be counter-productive, as then there wouldn't be enough for the more specific high-risk situations.

This applies to national health authorities too, I'm almost sure that's the reason they are not recommended in Portugal. They are just being pragmatic about it.
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Would those neck gaiters that you can wear over your face help any?
 
Arruda said:
This applies to national health authorities too, I'm almost sure that's the reason they are not recommended in Portugal. They are just being pragmatic about it.
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Maybe.

One of the top medics over here mentioned yesterday that there's some evidence that improper and prolonged use can causes the virus to grow inside the masks and cause all sorts of issues.

Whether or not that's bollocks, I have zero idea.
 
TMDaines said:


Magic: The Gathering have had an unfortunately named card in the printers and were unable to stop it in time. This is going to fetch big bucks.
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This is stupid, the word is thousands of years old. I hope Corona beer don't change their name because people think it's associated with the virus.
 
Fully Fledged said:
I hope I'm one of them.
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I see what you did there! I'm not against it, I do feel sorry for the key workers that have to work through this and then have to pay extra tax.

I'm a little over minimum wage so hopefully I wont be seeing a total of £100 taken out of my pay (I'm a mechanic, and seen as a key worker, even though no one can come to the garage...) and as @sun_rightly said, I think business will be paying for a lot of this too, my guess is vat will be set to 25 or 30% - and I doubt the government will reduce it after the pandemic bill clears.
 
yumtum said:
Every employed person will be paying an extra £100 a month to cover this.
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Leroy The Red said:
We’ll all be paying for it once this is all over.
Paye and NI deductions will go through the roof. A few have said it in this thread but the financial catastrophe that will follow this will be massive.
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And the poorest people in society that can’t afford to pay anymore than what they were? Are we going to have another Cameron/IDS style attack on ‘benefit thieves’ and more bedroom tax type nonsense? I get the impression that they were lucky people were stupid enough to fall for it the first time. Not sure how they can sell another round of austerity so soon after the last.

I’m not political point scoring I’m genuinely struggling to see how the impact of another economic crash can be spread out evenly. Tensions have been near at breaking point before this happened (riots in France, blaming EU/immigration, the situation in America).
 
horsechoker said:
This is stupid, the word is thousands of years old. I hope Corona beer don't change their name because people think it's associated with the virus.
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I quite like corona beer and even though I know I am being stupid I have avoided it since this whole thing kicked off. If others are the same they may well feel the pinch
 
adexkola said:
Bit simplistic IMO. Some countries are behind the curve regarding testing. Others moved more aggressively to stop international flights and domestic travel and are seeing the impact of that.

Africa is not a country of course, but I'm choosing to believe that countries that managed the Ebola outbreak impressively haven't lost all that learning in the space of 9 months.
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South Africa climbed exponentially after the 100th case. We're on 1300. There have been 30 odd new cases over the last 5 days.

Lack of testing.

SA doesn't represent the whole continent of course. But in SA - lack of testing.

Go check SA for a shock.

http://91-divoc.com/pages/covid-visualization/
 
Jippy said:
Potentially dumb questions. If suddenly masks are deemed to help prevent the virus spreading, why they are considered so poor at preventing the healthy from getting infected?

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/start-wearing-face-masks-britain-urged-mzg9g27zc
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Because people mainly get infected from touching an infected surface... A mask does not stop you touching an Infected surface then your own face

A mask does stop an infected person coughing onto a surface or onto their hands and can prevent the surface becoming infected in the first place

Or at least that's my guess?
 
Irwin99 said:
I'm completely illiterate when it comes to economics and have no illusions on that front but how is the UK government finding this money to wipe off the NHS debt AND pay for the massive increase in Universal credit? Genuine question. For years I've been hearing that there is no magic money tree and that austerity is necessary etc. What happens when this is hopefully all over in 6-12 months time and the debt has gone up massively?
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Austerity was always political. As per QE we're in a different world now with the central banks the money makers when needed, in this case they're turning on the taps and they have a lot of room to carry on doing so if needed.

The tax payers will only have to pay if we run out of fiscal room due to inflation going through the roof which seems unlikely. In any case it won't be this generation coughing up.

The Tories and Daily Mail will probably pitch back to household budgets though despite these concepts never actually applying. It's a great tool to rebalance wealth upwards.
 
sun_tzu said:
Because people mainly get infected from touching an infected surface... A mask does not stop you touching an Infected surface then your own face

A mask does stop an infected person coughing onto a surface or onto their hands and can prevent the surface becoming infected in the first place

Or at least that's my guess?
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It's just the fact the mask blocks it on the way out supposedly, if you cough, but not on the way in if someone coughs on you cos the tiny particle goes through the mask.
 
Organic Potatoes said:
Would those neck gaiters that you can wear over your face help any?
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If you cover your mouth and nose with anything, it may help if someone coughs or sneezes near you (but wash it when you get home). I think that those of us who are re-using masks over and over again might as well just use a scarf, quite honestly.
 
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