Coronavirus

[RamNut]

1 hour ago, G STAR RAM said:

Figures released today.

And I'm happy to back down from my previous stance that the numbers were being overstated, if anything it would look to be the opposite.

For the week ended 03/04/2020, deaths were circa 6000 up on the 5 year average. This is 850 a day and at a time where only 300 to 400 deaths a day from Covid 19 were being reported in the news.

Think it's safe to say that when the true figures are finally released we are going to be up there with Italy, Spain and France in terms of the death toll.

The increase appears to be only in the age categories of 45+.

16,387

up 6k should finally prove it to anyone who was sceptical.

Truly awful

 

 

 

[G STAR RAM]

3 minutes ago, RamNut said:

16,387

up 6k should finally prove it to anyone who was sceptical.

Truly awful

Deaths up over 6,082 but Covid 19 only mentioned on 3,475 is equally worrying.

[GboroRam]

20 minutes ago, i-Ram said:

I am missing Schtive too. Perhaps he has set-up a care facility for verbally abused Chinese students, but it would be nice for him to check in to.

You must in particular be missing him and 86. With only Riot from the Red Army posting regularly you must be feeling a bit lonely. If you need anything let me know. I am happy to move ever so slightly to the left for you.

#bekind/GboroRam

I tried moving to the right but even that didn't work. 

[Highgate]

Obviously Covid 19 is killing people directly but there is also an indirect effect.  With health services all over the world stretched to and beyond their limits as they focus on the Covid-19 patients, people with all sort of other life threatening conditions are surely sometimes missing out on treatment and care that they need. This would, you'd expect, cause an increase in the death rate during this crisis beyond that which is directly attributable to the virus itself.  Tragic times.

[Eddie]

17 minutes ago, GboroRam said:

I tried moving to the right but even that didn't work. 

I just killed an ant. Does that count?

[RamNut]

19 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

Deaths up over 6,082 but Covid 19 only mentioned on 3,475 is equally worrying.

This is the first undeniable first sight of the tsunami. The proof that it is killing people who would not otherwise have died.

the scary thing is we are probably all going to get it sooner or later. Perhaps we will see some experimental vaccines rushed out at risk, but the science is complex and vaccines can have unpredictable consequences. I think we are just going to have to take some risks, and not play a blame game.

if it wasn’t for viruses we would never have evolved an immune system in the first place. Viruses have been around for longer than we have. But science is still our best hope. 
 

[Stive Pesley]

2 hours ago, GboroRam said:

Not heard from @SchtivePesley either, no posts for a week. I'm sure plenty of people will take solace in that bit ? but come back soon both of you.

I'm fine - just been weirdly busy with work and had some time off over easter

I've also found the current situation seems to make political debate a secondary concern. Make no mistake though - when this is over, I hope that there is an enquiry into the mishandling of the whole thing by our leaders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ariotofmyown]

17 minutes ago, SchtivePesley said:

I'm fine - just been weirdly busy with work and had some time off over easter

I've also found the current situation seems to make political debate a secondary concern. Make no mistake though - when this is over, I hope that there is an enquiry into the mishandling of the whole thing by our leaders.

 

"In South Korea, officials deployed a “test, trace, isolate” programme to contain the spread of the virus, involving testing tens of thousands of people a day, while placing the sick and those they had come into contact with into strict quarantine.

The country – which has not imposed a lockdown on citizens – has so far reported 222 deaths."

How were they so well prepared vs the likes of uk, spain, italy and US?

[Gaspode]

2 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

.....How were they so well prepared vs the likes of uk, spain, italy and US?

well they do live next door to a country that would have few qualms about throwing chemical/biological weapons in their general direction.....

[King Kevin]

38 minutes ago, RamNut said:

This is the first undeniable first sight of the tsunami. The proof that it is killing people who would not otherwise have died.

the scary thing is we are probably all going to get it sooner or later. Perhaps we will see some experimental vaccines rushed out at risk, but the science is complex and vaccines can have unpredictable consequences. I think we are just going to have to take some risks, and not play a blame game.

if it wasn’t for viruses we would never have evolved an immune system in the first place. Viruses have been around for longer than we have. But science is still our best hope. 
 

I've thought about this quite a lot ,I've never had a flu jab and I've never had flu either .I don't do drugs if possible i.e on the rare occasion I get a headache I'll take one and a half paracetamol not two.

Not had a cold for 2-3 years and I don't do doctors ,if a vaccine came out I'd probably swerve it . I do know I'm a lucky man and I am truly grateful.

[ramesses]

29 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

"In South Korea, officials deployed a “test, trace, isolate” programme to contain the spread of the virus, involving testing tens of thousands of people a day, while placing the sick and those they had come into contact with into strict quarantine.

The country – which has not imposed a lockdown on citizens – has so far reported 222 deaths."

How were they so well prepared vs the likes of uk, spain, italy and US?

Governments like South Korea had far less advance notice of what was to arrive from China than most other governments. However they dealt with (and are dealing with) the problem better than most other governments.

One reason for this is due to the hard lessons that South Korea (and Japan) learned from their experience with SARS and so they were quick to introduce the only clear, science based, plan of action that’s available (mass testing, contact tracing, and isolating) and they used mobile apps and other electronic tracking to make it all work as comprehensively and efficiently as they could.

As I said in a previous post, the lessons from the SARS outbreak that South Korea (and other countries like Japan and Germany) took on board were very well known to all governments. The question is why the UK and some other governments decided to choose a different tack.

[G STAR RAM]

1 hour ago, ariotofmyown said:

"In South Korea, officials deployed a “test, trace, isolate” programme to contain the spread of the virus, involving testing tens of thousands of people a day, while placing the sick and those they had come into contact with into strict quarantine.

The country – which has not imposed a lockdown on citizens – has so far reported 222 deaths."

How were they so well prepared vs the likes of uk, spain, italy and US?

Moved on to South Korea after your praise of the EU was shot down?

Thought you would have put up more of a defence of them first!

[ariotofmyown]

40 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

Moved on to South Korea after your praise of the EU was shot down?

Thought you would have put up more of a defence of them first!

Sorry bit busy today!

Lol at 'shot down'

[ariotofmyown]

19 hours ago, G STAR RAM said:

Just a few things to note from the article.

1 - The PPE that the EU have procured may not be delivered until 2 weeks time. So after the peaks have been hit in Spain, Italy, France and the UK. Doesnt sound any more efficient than what we are doing already does it?

2 - The article states "The EU procurement scheme has not been entirely successful, however. While deliveries of masks, gowns and gloves will be made in tranches over the next two to 18 weeks, the procurement of ventilators will be slow, according to a leaked EU document.

“Companies indicated long delivery times, from 10 to 52 weeks,” the commission warned member states of the £690m purchase."

Was this an 'all or nothing' scheme? Could the UK have decided against it because they thought getting ventilators quickly was of higher importance?

3 - The article states that the EU will have a surplus of some items, surely, unless they are being spiteful, there is the opportunity for us to buy the surplus equipment?

So you are happy with the EU getting in there first, sorting out all their needs, then letting us buy any surplus? How many doctors would catch it whilst we waited the extra time?

And wouldn't they just then sell it to the highest bidder? What if our best friend Trump decides to offer 10x more than us? I assume you would have no issue with that?

My actual point, which you obviously ignored was...

"Hopefully just incompetence, but if anyone ignored this procurement due to their anti-EU ideological reasons, they deserve stringing up."

Are you suggesting that the British government didn't liaise with our European friends as they didn't think it would be procured quick enough? Or they didn't liaise through incompetence/nationalism, but that's ok because the EU's process isn't 100% optimal? 

[Coneheadjohn]

Been driving round South Sheffield around the City Centre and the roads are pretty quiet but there are a lot of people about,I think our lockdown is very mild compared to the rest of Europe.

No idea if this is the right approach,I don’t suppose we’ll fully know till it’s over.

[G STAR RAM]

11 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

So you are happy with the EU getting in there first, sorting out all their needs, then letting us buy any surplus? How many doctors would catch it whilst we waited the extra time?

And wouldn't they just then sell it to the highest bidder? What if our best friend Trump decides to offer 10x more than us? I assume you would have no issue with that?

My actual point, which you obviously ignored was...

"Hopefully just incompetence, but if anyone ignored this procurement due to their anti-EU ideological reasons, they deserve stringing up."

Are you suggesting that the British government didn't liaise with our European friends as they didn't think it would be procured quick enough? Or they didn't liaise through incompetence/nationalism, but that's ok because the EU's process isn't 100% optimal? 

EU sorting out all of their needs?

They are going to be distributing the PPE 2 or 3 weeks after the peaks in France, Spain and Italy where there were in excess of 20 thousand deaths...yet we applaud them and bash our Government. Absolutely unbelievable. 

I've heard 3 years of how we should continue to do everything to continue good relations with the EU and then the moment that we would want that reciprocated that notion goes out of the window. What a surprise!

I'm not suggesting anything. I dont know the reasons but was putting suggestions forward. You also dont know the reasons but reached your conclusion without knowing any facts anyway. 

Right about now it sounds like Holland and Belgium could do with help from the EU...just hope they dont mind waiting a couple of weeks...

[GboroRam]

1 minute ago, G STAR RAM said:

I've heard 3 years of how we should continue to do everything to continue good relations with the EU and then the moment that we would want that reciprocated that notion goes out of the window. What a surprise!

How is choosing not to participate in a group procurement exercise, then expecting to benefit from it, in any way continuing good relations with the EU?

[ariotofmyown]

1 minute ago, G STAR RAM said:

EU sorting out all of their needs?

They are going to be distributing the PPE 2 or 3 weeks after the peaks in France, Spain and Italy where there were in excess of 20 thousand deaths...yet we applaud them and bash our Government. Absolutely unbelievable. 

I've heard 3 years of how we should continue to do everything to continue good relations with the EU and then the moment that we would want that reciprocated that notion goes out of the window. What a surprise!

I'm not suggesting anything. I dont know the reasons but was putting suggestions forward. You also dont know the reasons but reached your conclusion without knowing any facts anyway. 

Right about now it sounds like Holland and Belgium could do with help from the EU...just hope they dont mind waiting a couple of weeks...

Still, was probably worth speaking to them though. We might have even been able to help them out as well as them helping us.

[G STAR RAM]

30 minutes ago, Van Cone De Head said:

Been driving round South Sheffield around the City Centre and the roads are pretty quiet but there are a lot of people about,I think our lockdown is very mild compared to the rest of Europe.

No idea if this is the right approach,I don’t suppose we’ll fully know till it’s over.

Sweden's measures much more mild than ours, not reflected in the figures.

[G STAR RAM]

12 minutes ago, GboroRam said:

How is choosing not to participate in a group procurement exercise, then expecting to benefit from it, in any way continuing good relations with the EU?

Why would we benefit from it?

They have surplus PPE and can sell it to us for whatever they want to...well in 2 or 3 weeks time.