Coronavirus

[SydneyRover]

You certainly do move in circles Sydney, I agree.

Hey you made a joke hound 

[DonnyOsmond]

German Army sending 60 ventilators to help UK with our shortage. Must be true as its in Der Spiegel

https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/corona-krise-bundeswehr-liefert-beatmungsgeraete-nach-grossbritannien-a-9d27f9c9-0ff7-4ef6-b851-f7caad959f7b

Tell them to piss off. We don't need those shitty EU ventilators. Brexit means Brexit.

[ian1980]

Reported deaths in last 24hrs

866 = England
48 = Scotland
29 = Wales
10 = NI

Although it’s not jumping up as much, these are still big numbers coming day after day now

[idler]

Big numbers but if it had been doubling at previous rates we would be in serious trouble very quickly.
The trend now will hopefully drop down at a decent rate.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Big numbers but if it had been doubling at previous rates we would be in serious trouble very quickly.
The trend now will hopefully drop down at a decent rate.

That's the good news.

The bad news is, it's looking more and more likely that we are going to have had the worst outcome of any European country.

That's despite us being one of the last countries to have the outbreak.

There are some extremely serious question to answer over how we have dealt with this.

Germany's outbreak started around the same time as ours. My guess would be that they will end up with fewer than half the deaths that we have.

[selby]

  Billy, it may be not that easy. I have just listened to a virologist from Cambridge University.  They have found out that the virus has mutated into A,B, and C types with different forms of the virus in different countries.
  Not enough experiments and records have been looked at to nail it down, but the most virulent strain is present in Europe and America, but not in China, the third one is mostly in Australia.
  The professor said that they at the moment do not know if the same strain is present in Germany as Italy and Spain.   

[drfchound]

I’m just waiting for someone to discredit that post selby and ask you the name of the virologist.

[bpoolrover]

I’m just waiting for someon3 to discredit that post selby and ask you the name of the virologist.
[/.    It won’t take long but who will be first?

[selby]

I am sure you are right Hound, it is just a matter of what time it is in Spain, Australia, and Sheffield or Wiltshire

[Sprotyrover]

We are all waiting who will break first....?

[selby]

  It was on the Ian Collins show on talkradio from 1pm which they can re listen to if you log on, sorry not the BBC.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I just cannot get my head round how fundamentally f**king thick some people are.

Just been shopping at the big Tesco in Sheffield for the first time since the lockdown.

They've done a brilliant job of organising the place. Sensible one way system all clearly marked. Up one aisle. Down the next. Tape markets showing the 2m gap.

Nearly everybody observing it.

Apart from the lobotomized 10%. Wandering where the f**k they want with that "away with the f**king fairies" air about them.

Totally destroys the whole purpose of the distancing. f**king idiots like that WILL be directly responsible for people dying.

[selby]

  Just the same in Goole Billy according to my daughter who was shopping for us.

[auckleyflyer]

Can see both sides as it's scary, I'm shopping every other day, for five +  couple next door who are mid and late 70s.
The cue to get in is long enough, and following each other makes you jumpy and pressured, as you only got one time per isle if you dwell (you feel the collective eyes rolling and intake of breaths). I miss things pick up the wrong things ect. Luckily the neighbours and the missus completely understand.
Just saying it's hard but 90% are doing their best

[drfchound]

Auckley, I went to the Edenthorpe Tesco this week.
If you miss something on the aisle you just have to go down the next one then retrace your steps up the one you missed the item from.
It happened to me and that is what the staff advised me to do.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Can see both sides as it's scary, I'm shopping every other day, for five +  couple next door who are mid and late 70s.
The cue to get in is long enough, and following each other makes you jumpy and pressured, as you only got one time per isle if you dwell (you feel the collective eyes rolling and intake of breaths). I miss things pick up the wrong things ect. Luckily the neighbours and the missus completely understand.
Just saying it's hard but 90% are doing their best

I get that but that absolutely wasn't what it was today. It was people just simply disengaging their brains and wandering wherever they wanted. The vast majority weren't retracing their steps to look for something specific.

I pointed out to two people the one-way arrows and they looked at me like I was speaking Swahili.

[wilts rover]

Correct, Hound, although I believe his house is in Somerset. Maybe Wilts will inform us of the truth.

I believe the farm crosses the Somerset/Devon border BB - you can find out where it is if you google it, I wouldn't be so foolish as to publish someones home address on here. Very nice part of the world tho.

He was in London on 17th March as he was in a tv studio saying he would keep going to the pub. This of course being the day after his son has said not to go to the pub and not to travel unless it was essential.

When asked he refused to say when exactly he traveled to Exmoor.

[wilts rover]

So second day this week that UK death toll has been greater than on any day in either Italy or Spain.

Good job some people are finding the situation funny though.

[Nudga]

I just cannot get my head round how fundamentally f**king thick some people are.

Just been shopping at the big Tesco in Sheffield for the first time since the lockdown.

They've done a brilliant job of organising the place. Sensible one way system all clearly marked. Up one aisle. Down the next. Tape markets showing the 2m gap.

Nearly everybody observing it.

Apart from the lobotomized 10%. Wandering where the f**k they want with that "away with the f**king fairies" air about them.

Totally destroys the whole purpose of the distancing. f**king idiots like that WILL be directly responsible for people dying.

It's a shame these places can't organise something properly for their staff.

[BillyStubbsTears]

So second day this week that UK death toll has been greater than on any day in either Italy or Spain.

That was inevitably going to happen. Their outbreaks started earlier than ours. They are over their peaks of deaths. We are at or approaching ours.

[Bentley Bullet]

Is it a possibility that the greater density of population in the UK than Italy and Spain is a contributory factor?

[BillyStubbsTears]

I wouldn't have thought the headline population density is that important BB.

Doesn't really matter if you've got lots of empty land like rural Spain or Italy. What really will matter is what the density is like in the areas where most people live.

One measure of that is the percentage of the population who live in urban areas.

On that score, we are a bit higher than Italy. About the same as Spain, France and Germany. A bit lower than Denmark and Norway who seems to have weathered this first wave much better than we have.

Of course, a more useful measure would be how dense the population is in the urban areas, but that's much harder to collate. Maybe you could have a look?

I suspect that the fact that London has been hit much harder than anywhere else in the country may well be due to the number of people using the Tube before the lockdown. It would be interesting to see if other cities with crowded metros have been hit disproportionately hard. New York certainly has.

[drfchound]

I was speaking with a doctor today and he says that the use of the tube in London is certainly a big contributor to the number of cases there.
Interestingly he also said that Sheffield has a higher rate of cases in South Yorkshire than other towns and cities is because of the high number of people who were/are using the tram network.

[Filo]

Not sure how the chief nursing officer has managed to get her hair cut during lockdown and social distancing

[NewDonny]

I wouldn't have thought the headline population density is that important BB.

Doesn't really matter if you've got lots of empty land like rural Spain or Italy. What really will matter is what the density is like in the areas where most people live.

One measure of that is the percentage of the population who live in urban areas.

On that score, we are a bit higher than Italy. About the same as Spain, France and Germany. A bit lower than Denmark and Norway who seems to have weathered this first wave much better than we have.

Of course, a more useful measure would be how dense the population is in the urban areas, but that's much harder to collate. Maybe you could have a look?

I suspect that the fact that London has been hit much harder than anywhere else in the country may well be due to the number of people using the Tube before the lockdown. It would be interesting to see if other cities with crowded metros have been hit disproportionately hard. New York certainly has.

It's a combination of things that have contributed to London taking the biggest hit. For a start there are 7.6m people living in London, that's almost 7 million more than the second largest city in the UK which is Birmingham with just 984,000 people. That in itself tells you a lot. Add to that then the people that are still travelling in each day to work, in order to clean, drive trains, buses, man the checkouts in the shops that are still open, then the nurses, doctors coming into their day jobs at the various large London based hospitals, the list goes on of all the people that don't live in London but travel in.

Then of course you have all the high rise apartments in London, take it from me there are tens of thousands of them which in themselves make it very difficult for people to observe the social distancing rules but above all avoid contracting the virus in everything they touch.

The only way to get around London is Bus or tube unless you get a black cab or an Uber and there are none of this on the roads of London at the moment so for those living and travelling into London for work they have to use the tubes and buses, cycle or walk.

[BillyStubbsTears]

This is a very informative article.

https://www.thearticle.com/media-questions-at-no10-briefings-are-woeful-here-are-20-they-should-ask

Before folk on both sides of the political divide throw their hands up and dismiss it because they hate Alastair Campbell, just consider two things.

1) How crucial it is that Govt actions in this crisis be held to account. If serious mistakes are made, this is not the time for "meh". They need to be identified and have a spotlight shone on them.

2) There are very few people around who know more about how Govt will try to avoid the media spotlight than Campbell. This is certainly a time where we need to listen to experts and he is a classic poacher turned gatekeeper here.


There is a big worry that our current generation of journalists is a poor crop. Used to simply propagating titbits thrown at them by spin doctors, and useless at actually investigating.

That article should make very uncomfortable reading for those journalists and hopefully will make some of them up their bleeding game. The nation needs it.

[Metalmicky]

This is a very informative article.

https://www.thearticle.com/media-questions-at-no10-briefings-are-woeful-here-are-20-they-should-ask

Before folk on both sides of the political divide throw their hands up and dismiss it because they hate Alastair Campbell, just consider two things.

1) How crucial it is that Govt actions in this crisis be held to account. If serious mistakes are made, this is not the time for "meh". They need to be identified and have a spotlight shone on them.

2) There are very few people around who know more about how Govt will try to avoid the media spotlight than Campbell. This is certainly a time where we need to listen to experts and he is a classic poacher turned gatekeeper here.


There is a big worry that our current generation of journalists is a poor crop. Used to simply propagating titbits thrown at them by spin doctors, and useless at actually investigating.

That article should make very uncomfortable reading for those journalists and hopefully will make some of them up their bleeding game. The nation needs it.

I generally agree with what you say about the government being accountable.... however, my shoulder monkey asks me if you would have quite so many questions if Corbyn and co were running the show.?  After consideration, I've decided that I am sure you're political persuasions wouldn't influence you so...

[BillyStubbsTears]

You clearly haven't been following what I've said about Corbyn for the past 4 years .

And frankly, if, with no evidence whatsoever, you think that's how I would act in a national emergency, then you can go and do one. And have a think where your own standards come from that you would leap to that conclusion.

Utterly risible. 

[Metalmicky]

You clearly haven't been following what I've said about Corbyn for the past 4 years .

And frankly, if, with no evidence whatsoever, you think that's how I would act in a national emergency, then you can go and do one. And have a think where your own standards come from that you would leap to that conclusion.

Utterly risible. 

I didn't say anything - it was monkey....

[BillyStubbsTears]

Well he can do one then.