Don't you feel nostalgic for the days when we could find Trump's idiocy and hypocrisy faintly amusing occasionally? Now it's mostly frightening.

Yes it's like a satirical dystopian Hollywood movie starring unbelievably unrealistic extreme characters that would have to be made up. Only it's worse than that.

 

If anyone is not angry enough about the way our beloved government has handled this crisis I suggest they read this abbreviated timeline:

 

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1249979116302012418.html

 

which is a cut-down version of this more in-depth referenced article:

 

https://bylinetimes.com/2020/04/11/a-nation...navirus-crisis/

 

and then post your thoughts after reading.

 

My initial thought was, "how many people in hospital did Boris Johnson personally kill by insisting on shaking hands with everyone?"

 

We know he came close to successfully killing himself and making his pregnant wife ill, so chances are he killed a hell of a lot of others too. Actual killer of sick people who knew the risks and ignored the advice of experts.

So, the UK reported 4617 new infections and 861 deaths due to Covid 19 in the last 24 hours. I think it's pretty clear it's way too early to talk about any plans of re-opening in public right now. You need to flatten the curve and then bend it. It will be a while before you get the virus under control.

So, the UK reported 4617 new infections and 861 deaths due to Covid 19 in the last 24 hours. I think it's pretty clear it's way too early to talk about any plans of re-opening in public right now. You need to flatten the curve and then bend it. It will be a while before you get the virus under control.

Nobody is asking for a plan with specific dates attached. All we are suggesting is that there should be a rough outline of the order in which things will happen and a rough timescale. A summary of what needs to happen before the first restrictions are lifted would also be helpful.

Nobody is asking for a plan with specific dates attached. All we are suggesting is that there should be a rough outline of the order in which things will happen and a rough timescale. A summary of what needs to happen before the first restrictions are lifted would also be helpful.

 

This. Even the most simple outline can help businesses and let people understand and plan their finances better. I'm sure there is a mental health benefit too with having something to work towards.

 

@1250817681940525057

 

The least surprising news of the week.

 

 

 

Nobody is asking for a plan with specific dates attached. All we are suggesting is that there should be a rough outline of the order in which things will happen and a rough timescale. A summary of what needs to happen before the first restrictions are lifted would also be helpful.

 

But I still don't see what this achieves right now at this moment in time. What might be good news for some it might be bad news for others. While I totally agree there should be a detailed plan in place that is clear and transparent, that should be in 2 weeks time if we see a pattern of improvement. All you have to see from the news conference today is journalists hammered home the exact same question multiple times. People want to know when we are coming out of it when we haven't even fully stopped transmission yet!

 

I hate this government, the cabinet are complete morons but for once I actually totally agree with the strategy of communication they are taking. I'll trust that they have a plan in place, because if they don't they're more idiotic than I thought! Can't see that happening after the complete failure at the start. And at least we got a summary today of what needs to happen, which sounded well thought-out even if the delivery was not great from Raab.

Medway Maritime Hospital have announced today 154 people have recovered from Coronavirus. (Medway, Kent, my hometown)

 

https://www.kentlive.news/

On the one hand Trump is right I think in saying the WHO was wrong in not advising ceasing flights from China earlier, I certainly think if flights would have been stopped from the big three sources at the start, China, Iran and Italy, the case numbers and death rate would have been lower, I mean it wouldn't have stopped it completely from reaching the UK and US but it would have delayed it.

 

However unfortunately Trump and/or his medical advisors did not take it seriously enough at the start in America, comparing it with the flu.

On the one hand Trump is right I think in saying the WHO was wrong in not advising ceasing flights from China earlier, I certainly think if flights would have been stopped from the big three sources at the start, China, Iran and Italy, the case numbers and death rate would have been lower, I mean it wouldn't have stopped it completely from reaching the UK and US but it would have delayed it.

 

However unfortunately Trump and/or his medical advisors did not take it seriously enough at the start in America, comparing it with the flu.

Trump even accused the WHO of scaremongering when they started issuing warnings in January. Therefore, it is safe to assume that he would have ignored any advice about banning flights. I suspect the virus had already reached the UK by then but would agree that banning flights would almost certainly have reduced the number of cases. Banning the racing at Cheltenham would have helped too.

Trump even accused the WHO of scaremongering when they started issuing warnings in January. Therefore, it is safe to assume that he would have ignored any advice about banning flights.

 

Yep I agree, he may not have followed the advice, it may have depended on what the US government medical experts I assume he was getting advice from would have advised him if the WHO had of taken a more hardline approach to banning flights early.

All nations had access to the same information - whatever China had decided to tell in the early stages. Given they have belatedly just officially doubled the number of reported deaths, it's fairly safe to say they weren't open and honest with themsleves, never mind the rest of the world. Given there is chitchat in Italy of the spread being at least partly due to the numbers of Chinese people flying back from Wuhan after abandoned plans from New Year (China, of course, has fingers in businesses worldwide, in Northern Italy the fashion/clothes trade) it kind of underlines the importance of not allowing foreign investors to buy up local businesses when the nation they come from can't be trusted to be open and transparent enough to the extent that hundreds of thousands of people die as a result of their denials and unhelpfulness. It took a bunch of doctors in China to publish vital information in late January in The Lancet. Had we known the full facts there would have been a total ban of flights from the affected areas earlier in most countries with a sensible government.

 

Trump and Johnson may well have just ignored the information anyway, given both are total suck-ups to Chinese buy-outs and contracts due to their own biased self-interest: one cos he and his family has huge money interests in China, the other because he politically boxed himself into an anti-EU pro-China/USA flag-waver.

On the one hand Trump is right I think in saying the WHO was wrong in not advising ceasing flights from China earlier, I certainly think if flights would have been stopped from the big three sources at the start, China, Iran and Italy, the case numbers and death rate would have been lower, I mean it wouldn't have stopped it completely from reaching the UK and US but it would have delayed it.

 

However unfortunately Trump and/or his medical advisors did not take it seriously enough at the start in America, comparing it with the flu.

 

Flights were ceased first in Italy, on 31st January. It made zero difference.

 

Germany at no point banned flights from China and yet appears to have this crisis under control, certainly much more under control than the UK which has a smaller population and around 3 times the total deaths (reported in hospitals) and therefore around 4 times as many per capita. When the UK government decided to cease community testing on 12th March they made it a lot harder for us to come out of lockdown unlike our European neighbours who are already starting to relax measures (having acted much sooner also).

Helps that testing here is 350k per week, which is more than the UK has done total. Presser today with health minister and RKI confirmed they’re making steps to double testing to 700k per week.

 

Replication is down to 0,7 in Germany which is where it needs to stay to remain manageable. Focus here is now on controlling that rate to ensure it remains under 1 for as long as there is no vaccination or treatment. Hopefully the UK can get it’s testing act together so they can move in the same direction. It seems to me that without an effective test/track/trace set up there can be no effective and sustainable route out of lockdown.

Flights were ceased first in Italy, on 31st January. It made zero difference.

Nobody knows if it'd have made a difference. As far as we know many more infections clusters could've broken out had flights not been seized. The south and Rome have been relatively safe, but trust and believe had the flights remained incoming there'd have been more clusters.

Helps that testing here is 350k per week, which is more than the UK has done total. Presser today with health minister and RKI confirmed they’re making steps to double testing to 700k per week.

 

Replication is down to 0,7 in Germany which is where it needs to stay to remain manageable. Focus here is now on controlling that rate to ensure it remains under 1 for as long as there is no vaccination or treatment. Hopefully the UK can get it’s testing act together so they can move in the same direction. It seems to me that without an effective test/track/trace set up there can be no effective and sustainable route out of lockdown.

 

There needs to be thorough testing as it does appear the best way to control any second major outbreak is to contain through testing/tracing. Only problem is I'm not sure we will have all the infastructure in place in 3 weeks time..! But the big thing is the reliability of the anti-body tests and even tests in general. Heard stories where people are getting tested 2-3 times before it's showing as positive for Covid. Also it does appear that a lot of people are asymptomatic for whatever reason, from some of the articles I've read.

 

I wonder what the total Chinese figure will get to? :unsure: Clear as mud any figures they report back should be in all probability be disregarded.

Yes, some people are being tested more than once. The number of people tested seems to be about 70% of the number of tests. All I have read is that there are “clinical reasons” but I haven’t seen any attempt to explain what those reasons are or whether there is any prospect of a better test that doesn’t require as much repetition.

Yeah I’ve also seen those stories. I understand someone being retested to establish if the virus has left their system but it’s really worrying that there is a lot of false negative cases and talks of antibody tests that are useless.

 

It’s quite concerning that a lot of rigour has been abandoned in favour of speed. There’s no point in having the first antibody test in the world if a) it’s not effective and b) there’s no documented evidence that antibodies are detectable after infection.

 

 

 

The fact that there’s a lot of contradictions in the scientific community about how long immunity lasts or even if there is immunity is extremely concerning. Until we know more I don’t think we’re going to get an effective antibody test or an effective vaccination. So social distancing and on/off lockdowns will be reality for a while yet.

The last figures I saw (a couple days ago) showed that the current antibody tests were a very long way from being accurate enough. The very best tests had a failure rate of around 30% which renders them utterly useless. Of course, that could change fairly rapidly.

 

There does indeed seem to be a lot of uncertainty over how long immunity lasts. However, as this virus has only existed for a few months, I suppose that is to be expected. In the absence of a vaccine (probably at least a year away before you even begin to think about how to deploy it effectively), the emphasis has to be on slowing its spread and how to do that without causing such catastrophic damage to the economy that people wonder whether it was worth it.

Nobody knows if it'd have made a difference. As far as we know many more infections clusters could've broken out had flights not been seized. The south and Rome have been relatively safe, but trust and believe had the flights remained incoming there'd have been more clusters.

 

We do- the UK has kept flights coming in and has fewer cases than Italy.

 

The US banned flights in early February and has many more cases (per capita). Once the virus was in the community it was able to spread quite easily with the most and only effective strategy for slowing the spread being social distancing.

This isn't about party politics but I don't get how the government's approval ratings are so high? 66% in a poll a few days ago. Anyone can see that they closed the schools and put us in lockdown way too late and that combined with the damage done the health service, lack of testing, Priti hopeless etc why are people so supportive? What will it take for people not to support these people.