Viking Supporters Co-operative
Viking Chat => Off Topic => Topic started by: BillyStubbsTears on March 15, 2020, 12:21:03 pm
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...for party politicking.
But it is perfectly reasonable to.list questions that will need to be addressed afterwards.
The Public Health England planning document on infectious disease planning strategy for 2020-2025 was published in September last year.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phe-infectious-diseases-strategy&ved=2ahUKEwjY2qiUupzoAhWXEMAKHQD7DfgQFjABegQIBhAC&usg=AOvVaw3zyIUepp5z2AaKGJ2H4GGp
On page 13 of that document, Influenza-type pandemic is identified as "the highest scoring risk on the National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies"
The Health Secretary has been on the BBC today, admitting that we do not have anywhere near enough respirators for the people who are going to need them. And respirators are vital in saving lives. He's urged a "wartime effort" from everyone from car manufacturers to bomb makers to change their production lines to make respirators.
Which raises 2 questions.
1) Why was this shortfall not addressed months and years ago?
2) Why the hell was it not dealt with as an emergency 4 weeks ago, when the very real threat of this going epidemic was clear?
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And I stress. This is not party politics. This is about the competence of the people charged with governing us.
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The answer to 1.) underfunding the NHS and a lack of foresight and to some extend it couldn't be helped. I don't think anyone was seeing something quite like this on the horizon.
The answer to 2.) is complacency and incompetence.
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And reactive government. And I'm not aiming at any specific party there. It seems to me we are increasingly living in an age of government by reaction. Overt leadership is on the wane whilst covert manipulation doubles and redoubles. And that leads to government by reaction since anything else would require funds that policy make impossible to budget - for except in extremis.
BobG
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Add to the list the hollowing out of civil service expertise
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1) As RD has said deliberate underfunding of the NHS over the past 10 years - probably also linked to the people making those decisions linked to private health care/insurance companies as to the direction in which they intended to take the country
2) Statistical modelling. The government (Cummings) has looked at the rate of infection in other countries, such as Italy and judged that by taking the measures they have done (telling people to wash their hands) they can 'control' it.
We currently have the same rate of infection as Italy.
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Wilts.
That last sentence is categorically wrong.
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Apologies Billy, I just presumed that when the lines on the graph are going in the same direction that means they are the same.
https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/1239165350064861185
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The "rate of infection" is the percentage of the population that have or have had the virus.
The slope of the graph is the "rate of increase in the rate of infection".
Those graphs show that our reported case rate of increase is following broadly the same trend that Italy's was 2 weeks ago.
We are on the same track as Italy. We're not currently in the same place. But we are going there rapidly.
Sorry if I sounded hectoring. It's just important to be clear on this.
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...for party politicking.
But it is perfectly reasonable to.list questions that will need to be addressed afterwards.
The Public Health England planning document on infectious disease planning strategy for 2020-2025 was published in September last year.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phe-infectious-diseases-strategy&ved=2ahUKEwjY2qiUupzoAhWXEMAKHQD7DfgQFjABegQIBhAC&usg=AOvVaw3zyIUepp5z2AaKGJ2H4GGp
On page 13 of that document, Influenza-type pandemic is identified as "the highest scoring risk on the National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies"
The Health Secretary has been on the BBC today, admitting that we do not have anywhere near enough respirators for the people who are going to need them. And respirators are vital in saving lives. He's urged a "wartime effort" from everyone from car manufacturers to bomb makers to change their production lines to make respirators.
Which raises 2 questions.
1) Why was this shortfall not addressed months and years ago?
2) Why the hell was it not dealt with as an emergency 4 weeks ago, when the very real threat of this going epidemic was clear?
I wonder whether the Australian public are lambasting their government who haven’t got enough Covid19 testing kits.
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I hear Yankee airports are in chaos too...
BobG
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Bob, they bare bothered one iota how long you wait to get into the States, just if you should be there, and in this case whether you are fit enough to be there.
How long it takes is irrelevant.
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Bob, they bare bothered one iota how long you wait to get into the States, just if you should be there, and in this case whether you are fit enough to be there.
How long it takes is irrelevant.
Yeah. Cos, like. They've REALLY got there own cases under control, haven't they?
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It's not politicking, but the current state of affairs is a sad reflection on our political class generally.
I'm talking about the career politicians across the spectrum who have 'forgotten' the imperative of government (i.e. to govern in the interests of the population) and who have instead indulged in playing silly games around ideology and tribalism.
Where you end up is with a group of people who have never had any experience of serious decision-making or running anything of any great scale, let alone something successfully (or even competently!), having to make decisions that affect lives. Scary.
If I were Johnson I would be seriously thinking about a Government of National Unity (as has been suggested in other posts) for no better reason than it would enable him to spread the blame for the chaos across the whole political spectrum.
In the meantime I suppose we should be grateful that we don't have the likes of Grayling, Duncan Smith, McDonnell, Corbyn, Swinson or Farage anywhere near the decision making.
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Billy, how the States look after themselves has nothing to do with us at all, although if a queue in a US airport upsets you so you can have a pop at their government so be it, if that gives you a lift well done.
If the Democrats were in power, no doubt you would be holding them up as saints, and comparing it with our lax entry programme run by Boris and holding their draconian system as the way we should be acting, instead of people breezing into this country without checks and still getting criticism.
In this country we have tested 40, 274 people, no doubt the people who thought they had the symptoms of the virus, 1372 a rise in a day from yesterdays figure of 232 have tested positive, with 35 deaths a just over 2.5% death rate of positive patients tested, and 0.0869% of the total people tested not great figures with 3.406% of those tested being found to have the virus.
Just as a side discussion, do France, Italy, Germany etc. have like us a Flu jab and pneumonia jab programme like we do on the national health free, people keep saying we are a fortnight behind Italy etc, are we really?or could our immunisation programme free of charge for older people be a reason for slightly different results, not a pop a genuine question.
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Billy, how the States look after themselves has nothing to do with us at all, although if a queue in a US airport upsets you so you can have a pop at their government so be it, if that gives you a lift well done.
If the Democrats were in power, no doubt you would be holding them up as saints, and comparing it with our lax entry programme run by Boris and holding their draconian system as the way we should be acting, instead of people breezing into this country without checks and still getting criticism.
In this country we have tested 40, 274 people, no doubt the people who thought they had the symptoms of the virus, 1372 a rise in a day from yesterdays figure of 232 have tested positive, with 35 deaths a just over 2.5% death rate of positive patients tested, and 0.0869% of the total people tested not great figures with 3.406% of those tested being found to have the virus.
Just as a side discussion, do France, Italy, Germany etc. have like us a Flu jab and pneumonia jab programme like we do on the national health free, people keep saying we are a fortnight behind Italy etc, are we really?or could our immunisation programme free of charge for older people be a reason for slightly different results, not a pop a genuine question.
1. There is no vaccine at present that can deal with this.
2. That rate of 2.5% you mention? The mortality rate is generally thought to be c1%. That means that if 35 people have died then there are c3,500 cases out there. However, we've only identified 1,372. That means there are c2,100 people with the virus out there passing it on. Some won't even know they've got it. The Chief Scientific Advisor thought on Friday that there could be c5-10,000 people with it.
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Big H.
Agreed on the vaccine. Anyone who has been vaccinated against usual flu will get zero benefit against C-19. It's a different virus.
Unfortunately, your assessment on the number of cases (better than most as it is) is almost certainly a huge underestimate. That's because the people dying today didn't catch the disease today. They caught it probably 5-14 days ago. So if there's a 1% death rate, it means we had 3,500 cases 1-2 weeks ago. And ulif the number of cases are doubling every 5 days as the epidemiologists think, we've currently got 10-25,000 cases.
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On the vaccine, it was reported yesterday that vaccines developed in London and the Netherlands had had very good results on mice,and the next stages were Monkeys and then humans with June/July the earliest for distribution.
My thoughts were could it be trialled on people who were very poorly with little hope now to speed it up.
Desperate times mean desperate measures surely.
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I believe they would have to do such early testing with extreme caution Selby.
There is a danger they could accidently release a monster that is worse than the one we are facing. That's one why reason testing has to be so thorough.
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TBF....... if I was at death's door and someone had an experimental vaccine there - I would say crack on....
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The "rate of infection" is the percentage of the population that have or have had the virus.
The slope of the graph is the "rate of increase in the rate of infection".
Those graphs show that our reported case rate of increase is following broadly the same trend that Italy's was 2 weeks ago.
We are on the same track as Italy. We're not currently in the same place. But we are going there rapidly.
Sorry if I sounded hectoring. It's just important to be clear on this.
Yes agreed and again apologies that I was not clear enough.
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MM,RD, I accept both your views, with a tendency to lean towards MM and crack on, as far as the vaccination programmes done free of charge here compared with other countries has anybody got any Information?
The figures I quoted were as on the BBC about an hour ago, so will be fairly factual, projections Billy are an educated guess admittedly, by much more educated people than I, but have been miles out on subjects in the past, and i hope they are again.
Our vaccination programme could be one reason why, if other countries do not follow suit.
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Big H.
Agreed on the vaccine. Anyone who has been vaccinated against usual flu will get zero benefit against C-19. It's a different virus.
Unfortunately, your assessment on the number of cases (better than most as it is) is almost certainly a huge underestimate. That's because the people dying today didn't catch the disease today. They caught it probably 5-14 days ago. So if there's a 1% death rate, it means we had 3,500 cases 1-2 weeks ago. And ulif the number of cases are doubling every 5 days as the epidemiologists think, we've currently got 10-25,000 cases.
Yep, agree.
Last week I wondered what trajectory the virus was on in the UK. Hoping against hope that it would be like South Korea, fearing that it might be like Italy or Spain.
I'm now starting to think it's the latter. If by this time next week there have been 400 deaths announced then that'll bear it out.
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Really good piece here explaining how the search for a vaccine is being conducted - and why it is impossible for one to be widely available this year (basically they won't know if it has any side effects for a number of months)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/15/when-will-a-coronavirus-vaccine-be-ready-human-trials-global-immunisation
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...for party politicking.
But it is perfectly reasonable to.list questions that will need to be addressed afterwards.
The Public Health England planning document on infectious disease planning strategy for 2020-2025 was published in September last year.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phe-infectious-diseases-strategy&ved=2ahUKEwjY2qiUupzoAhWXEMAKHQD7DfgQFjABegQIBhAC&usg=AOvVaw3zyIUepp5z2AaKGJ2H4GGp
On page 13 of that document, Influenza-type pandemic is identified as "the highest scoring risk on the National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies"
The Health Secretary has been on the BBC today, admitting that we do not have anywhere near enough respirators for the people who are going to need them. And respirators are vital in saving lives. He's urged a "wartime effort" from everyone from car manufacturers to bomb makers to change their production lines to make respirators.
Which raises 2 questions.
1) Why was this shortfall not addressed months and years ago?
2) Why the hell was it not dealt with as an emergency 4 weeks ago, when the very real threat of this going epidemic was clear?
I wonder whether the Australian public are lambasting their government who haven’t got enough Covid19 testing kits.
The Australian people haven't quite finished kicking the government in the balls over the total f**k up they made over the recent bushfires and are now seeing what an incoherent mess our ex-marketing PM is making over this, hound
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Well Syd, it looks like your wish for the oldies to pop off could be about to come back and bite people like you in the arse buddy.
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Well Syd, it looks like your wish for the oldies to pop off could be about to come back and bite people like you in the arse buddy.
I have asked you quite politely in the past not to put words in my mouth you stupid old ****
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Stay well young un
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truce?
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Yep buddy all the best except in test matches
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Some say you're a gentleman :) by the way ask an Australian how long he would need to live in the UK before he starts barracking for England?
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I would hope it would never Happen, couldn't see any Rovers fan actually cheering the convicts on. it would be like changing horses and becoming a Barnsley or Rotherham fan.
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Got to say, the quality of the message the Govt is giving to the public is f**king dreadful.
Government advice clearly says that when you are self isolating, you do not go out for a walk.
Grant Shapps was on the radio this morning saying it's fine to take the dog for a walk.
It's not f**king hard is it? If you are going on the radio to tell people what Govt advice is in a massive national crisis, read the f**king advice first.
But this is what happens when you elevate this quality of person to the Cabinet. He's a barrowboy with a string of dodgy cases behind him. Including one where he ran a get-rich-quick scam under a false name, while he was a Minister, then threatened to sue a constituent who called him out.
This is not the quality of person we want guiding the country through an emergency like this.
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I have to say I'm fast losing confidence with the Govt approach.
The press conference tonight was a car crash.
1) "Advising" people not to go to pubs and restaurants. That cuts off businesses from claiming on insurance.
2) Asked about fiscal stimulus to the economy, Johnson talked about "liquidity" which is a totally different thing.
3) No word at all on sick pay for people who don't currently qualify. Or the fact that people being expected to drop from a decent wage to £94/week SSP for an extended period of time will tip some families over the edge.
Hancock then goes to the Commons and announces the wrong number of deaths.
And now THIS comes out.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/health/2020/03/government-documents-show-no-planning-ventilators-event-pandemic
That New Statesman article is appalling if true.
As I keep saying. This is NOT party political. It is about competence in the face of the worst crisis for 80 years.
It's worth remembering that the men who were PM at the start of WWI and II were got rid of when they turned out to not be up to the job.
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Compare and contrast what ANYBODY currently in government has had to say on the covid-19 outbreak with the South Korean ambassador on Marr yesterday.
Dodgy, evasive, uninformative, ignoring questions and passing off theory as facts with someone who was measured informative and could evidence every answer to every question they were asked.
Johnson needs to shape up very, very quickly.
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The more I think about it, this lack of ventilators is horrific.
Estimates are we might have 2-300,000 cases needing ventilators at the peak.
We have 5000.
We knew this was a critical shortage 4 years ago.
We knew a respiratory pandemic was a nailed on certainty to happen sometime.
We could have stockpiled 100,000 for £2billion. Half of what we spent preparing for a No Deal Brexit.
Instead we have done f**k all.
We had the first case of C-19 in the UK 6 weeks ago. By that time, China was in full on crisis.
We still did nothing about this lack of ventilators until Hancock went in the TV yesterday, asking JC-f**king-B to see if they could make them.
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The Health Minister, Helen Whately on Newsnight:
Mark Urban (Presenter): 'If I'm planning a wedding in 3 weeks' time is it off?'
Whately: 'The overall guidance I think is pretty clear as announced today is that people should be reducing unnecessary social contact...!
Urban: 'A wedding might be something people have yearned for...'
Whately: 'It's going to be really, really tough. I mean I'm not going to go through the specifics of scenarios like that, I mean we're being asked to work from home if we can, avoid public transport particularly at busy times, avoid unnecessary socialising, that means going to the pub...
Urban: 'Just to be clear, the wedding is off, in that sense...'
Whately: 'I would think that's pretty hard to say that's (err) necessary socialising but, can I honestly, I don't want to pre-empt what will be in the detailed, err, full guidance...'
And that's from the HEALTH MINISTER!
FFS
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The presenter sounds like the idiot there BigH.
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The presenter sounds like the idiot there BigH.
Not his best work I grant you.
However, let's not beat about the bush. A 'yes' or 'quite probably' would have been the right response from a Minister.
But, of course, that wouldn't be 'on message' would it.
My point, I guess, is that this now transcends politics.
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It's quite amazing that amongst all these restrictions on theatres, pubs etc... Nobody in government has yet said worshiping at churches, temples and mosques is not recommended.
To my knowledge only the Pope has said don't do it, and if you must pray, go at a quiet time to an empty church.
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Is it necessary to go to Church to pray?
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The government has advised to avoid non essential travel and gatherings etc. If people see going to churches etc as non essential then they won’t go. However there will be many folks for whom their religion is the most essential thing outside family..
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Big test for the Govt today. They are announcing emergency measures to protect the economy.
This HAS to include, as a minimum.
1) Guarantee if a fund to support companies through this, so no company goes bust through no fault of its own. If we have mass bankruptcy of companies, where do people work once we are through this?
2) Increase in sick pay to at least living wage level, and guarantee that anyone who is self isolating can get it.
3) Funding for massive increase in social care emergency squads. People to take food to old folk who we are asking to stay indoors for the next 6 months. Help them with washing and cleaning. And not in 15 minute blitzes. Sit down and talk with them.
All that costs money. The Govt debt will go through the roof. But this is about societal survival. We didn't worry about debt in WWII. We spent fifty years after the war paying it off. If we have to spend the next 50 years doing the same, so be it.
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And if anyone tells you that's too much or can't be done, tell them to b*llocks.
France is suspending bills for rent, gas and electric. Macron has pledged that no company will go bust as a result of C-19.
It's ALL do-able. You just need the will to do it.
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I'd like to see them do more for zero hours contract workers.
My partner is working for an agency at the moment, she's had two days work in three weeks. I imagine finding permanent work will be nigh on impossible now, it's looking bleak. Luckily she has plenty of savings , though I suppose that means she won't be entitled to owt. but for others...
So, I suppose she'll be pushed towards universal credit, which by the look of it takes weeks to come through.
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Actually RD, I can see this being the spur for Universal Basic Income.
There are all sorts of reasons why we should have this, but it's never been prioritised.
It's a big priority now.
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On the point of jobs...I'm half way through my notice period at my current place and supposed to be starting a new job on 6/4. Hope they've got a contingency in place for on-boarding me in the event of a lockdown otherwise I'm well-f**ked. Fortunately my job itself can be done remotely as long as they can get me into their system and get me some kit to work with.
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Im 47 and have had a doddle of a life all things considered, as in general has anyone born since the 50s.
This the first time we have been in a real full weight crisis and its already showing what the lack of investment and quality government over the years has left us with.
Unless people feel they have a supportive competent government ( of any denomination) who can really deal with the issues at hand , im genuinly concerned for what will be left behind .
When the water supply in Thorne was contaminated a few years ago ( as close to an issue as has ever affected me) police had to be deployed to stop horders and speculators taking all the supplies Yorkshire water were providing . That was a localised issue only for drinking water and we still nearly went feral inside a week.
How are people going to cope when like now shops are stripped bare even before the illness side of it kicks in for weeks at a time ?
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I’ve heard of folks panic buying petrol now. Crazy..
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I’ve heard of folks panic buying petrol now. Crazy..
..........and bread.......loads of it to shove in their freezers.
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At least Morrison's have shown some initiative. Apparently, everything is rationed now to just 2 of any item; and the self service machines have been modified accordingly.
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2 of nothing is still nowt though.!
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So let’s look at the snippets we are afforded then:
Huge amounts of Air time regarding global warming pretty much rammed down our gobs for the last year ...
( I guess we’ve cured that one because it’s just become un newsworthy)
Some mysterious outbreak in a town in China and a town in Italy suddenly manifests itself...
It supposedly kills the old, the vulnerable ....and those with “ UNDERLYING HEALTH PROBLEMS” .... very limiting information at best...and old age is subjective ... I don’t know anyone who knows anyone who’s had it or got it? ( ex serviceman with muckers all over the UK)
It has symptoms similar to many illnesses we know, yet no medications are prescribed?
It’s all very strange ...the language being used is almost hypnotic, delivered with so much authority yet little substance?
Do this , do that, don’t do this , don’t do that! .... Peter says “all stay at home and worry” .......and we shall call that “ SELF MEDICATING” ....seriously???
I am going to follow all the rules with a sceptics grace....but if something doesn’t add up...it doesn’t add up!
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My two girls off school 9yrs old from Wednesday last week 14yr old from today. Sore throat, 24hrs seams to get better for 6hrs then temperature and barking cough. 2of them and not a tissue in sight!!!! Sent home from work yesterday morning half hr after arrival. I'm good as is the missus but we're both sure we had this mid December?!?!
Either way it's real. We're in Cornwall so don't panic!! (never thought it would make it down here! Although our lass was in sheffield 2 wkends ago!?!? Doh that's how it get into the Dutchy
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My two girls off school 9yrs old from Wednesday last week 14yr old from today. Sore throat, 24hrs seams to get better for 6hrs then temperature and barking cough. 2of them and not a tissue in sight!!!! Sent home from work yesterday morning half hr after arrival. I'm good as is the missus but we're both sure we had this mid December?!?!
Either way it's real. We're in Cornwall so don't panic!! (never thought it would make it down here! Although our lass was in sheffield 2 wkends ago!?!? Doh that's how it get into the Dutchy
You may have a point there Auckley. None of us know exactly how long it's been in this country. I had a nasty dose of flu-like symptons about a month ago that put me on my back for two days.
It may have been something else, but we don't know for sure.
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My two girls off school 9yrs old from Wednesday last week 14yr old from today. Sore throat, 24hrs seams to get better for 6hrs then temperature and barking cough. 2of them and not a tissue in sight!!!! Sent home from work yesterday morning half hr after arrival. I'm good as is the missus but we're both sure we had this mid December?!?!
Either way it's real. We're in Cornwall so don't panic!! (never thought it would make it down here! Although our lass was in sheffield 2 wkends ago!?!? Doh that's how it get into the Dutchy
Pre christmas for my wife and myself but can't have been Covid 19 because China didn't announce until 2020 !!!! I don't believe for 1 minute that it only started when China chose to announce it to the world then. JMHO
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My two girls off school 9yrs old from Wednesday last week 14yr old from today. Sore throat, 24hrs seams to get better for 6hrs then temperature and barking cough. 2of them and not a tissue in sight!!!! Sent home from work yesterday morning half hr after arrival. I'm good as is the missus but we're both sure we had this mid December?!?!
Either way it's real. We're in Cornwall so don't panic!! (never thought it would make it down here! Although our lass was in sheffield 2 wkends ago!?!? Doh that's how it get into the Dutchy
Pre christmas for my wife and myself but can't have been Covid 19 because China didn't announce until 2020 !!!! I don't believe for 1 minute that it only started when China chose to announce it to the world then. JMHO
I think that the first case of Coronavirus in China was mid November last year.
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My two girls off school 9yrs old from Wednesday last week 14yr old from today. Sore throat, 24hrs seams to get better for 6hrs then temperature and barking cough. 2of them and not a tissue in sight!!!! Sent home from work yesterday morning half hr after arrival. I'm good as is the missus but we're both sure we had this mid December?!?!
Either way it's real. We're in Cornwall so don't panic!! (never thought it would make it down here! Although our lass was in sheffield 2 wkends ago!?!? Doh that's how it get into the Dutchy
Pre christmas for my wife and myself but can't have been Covid 19 because China didn't announce until 2020 !!!! I don't believe for 1 minute that it only started when China chose to announce it to the world then. JMHO
I think that the first case of Coronavirus in China was mid November last year.
Hadn't picked up on that Hound, goes a little way to verify my point
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So let’s look at the snippets we are afforded then:
Huge amounts of Air time regarding global warming pretty much rammed down our gobs for the last year ...
( I guess we’ve cured that one because it’s just become un newsworthy)
Some mysterious outbreak in a town in China and a town in Italy suddenly manifests itself...
It supposedly kills the old, the vulnerable ....and those with “ UNDERLYING HEALTH PROBLEMS” .... very limiting information at best...and old age is subjective ... I don’t know anyone who knows anyone who’s had it or got it? ( ex serviceman with muckers all over the UK)
It has symptoms similar to many illnesses we know, yet no medications are prescribed?
It’s all very strange ...the language being used is almost hypnotic, delivered with so much authority yet little substance?
Do this , do that, don’t do this , don’t do that! .... Peter says “all stay at home and worry” .......and we shall call that “ SELF MEDICATING” ....seriously???
I am going to follow all the rules with a sceptics grace....but if something doesn’t add up...it doesn’t add up!
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-whats-coming-is-extremely-big-uk-consultant-says-outbreak-could-be-worse-than-in-italy-11960994
Shaggy, very soon it'll add up.
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Thank you BigH. It's what happens when you say there is no such thing as society, promote rampant individualism, free market ideology, deregulation, privatisation and undermining of public services collective responsibility and accountability whilst pursuing national, political and economic self interest.
BobG
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This may be the single most hypocritical thing I have ever seen.
https://mobile.twitter.com/aljwhite/status/1241991593806217216
In case you don't know who this Kitson is, it's Steve Hilton. He was Cameron's version of Dominic Cummings. He was the adviser to the PM as Austerity was being planned, refined and implemented.
How do people like this look at themselves in the mirror?
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Oh but they do, time after time, after time.
Cameron’s autobiography was a best seller.
Tony Blair, as recently as 3/4 years ago ‘commanded’ £250,000 for an evening of ‘Why, where, who & if only’s’.
Sickens to the stomach.
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Gordon Brown?
He was ridiculed at the time, but my God, THERE was a leader and a man of integrity. As far as I can see,he hasn't made a penny from his role as PM.
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I was listening to Brown on the radio recently and I thought, f**king hell, we didn't realise how good we had it with him. Socially awkward, yes. Bit of a knob, most likely. But he was on top of the detail, was calm, was reassuring, was hopeful. Proper leadership. Compare it to the shite we were served up for years after him and it's night and day.
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Back in early 2010, when Brown had shown the entire world the correct path out of the GFC, but he'd been ridiculed by a bunch of wittier, more photogenic Flash Harry types, and when it was obvious that he was going to be hammered in the upcoming election, the Times (the TIMES think on...that socialist rag) did a big piece on him. A senior journalist shadowed him for a week. Interviewed him. Listened to him dealing with issues.
The journalist finished off the piece with a comment that has stuck with me. She said (I can't recall the exact words of the first sentence but feeling is right: the second sentence is word for word right) "Brown is a serious, grown-up politician in an era where image and hype dominate. Maybe we as a country don't deserve to re-elect him."
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Here's another question to be asked when this is over.
The Govt was told in late January, unequivocally by the Chief Scientific Advisor, that if CV-19 got out of China, it would explode everywhere.
Wouldn't you think a responsible Govt would start emergency planning IMMEDIATELY?
Look at this.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Peston/status/1242353335220539392
An e-mail asking for companies to give up testing devices was sent...on Sunday.
What the actual f**k has been going on this past 2 months?
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Here's another question to be asked when this is over.
The Govt was told in late March, unequivocally by the Chief Scientific Advisor, that if CV-19 got out of China, it would explode everywhere.
Wouldn't you think a responsible Govt would start emergency planning IMMEDIATELY?
Look at this.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Peston/status/1242353335220539392
An e-mail asking for companies to give up testing devices was sent...on Sunday.
What the actual f**k has been going on this past 2 months?
Late March ?
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Sorry. January. I'll correct the post.