Corona Virus

[Guest Harrydc]

12 minutes ago, BlueSi13 said:

The media needs to take a long hard look at itself once this is all over.  It was bad enough during Brexit, but for a lot of people the endless gotcha/dogpile/attack form of journalism has gone down like cold sick during this crisis.

There's just something about Matt Hancock that unsettles me. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something tells me not to trust him. 

[kingfox]

Thanks to Trump, some of Twitter’s top trends today.

 

Dettol

Toilet Duck
Mr Muscle

 

 

[leicsmac]

40 minutes ago, BlueSi13 said:

The media needs to take a long hard look at itself once this is all over.  It was bad enough during Brexit, but for a lot of people the endless gotcha/dogpile/attack form of journalism has gone down like cold sick during this crisis.

It's a tricky balancing act tbh. Gotcha and agenda driven journalism purely for clicks is awful, but accountability of the powerful, whether during or after a crisis, is a cornerstone of a decent society and media is a key part of that.

 

That being said, events across the pond seem to be strongly suggesting that the older forms of media can no longer do the job of holding the powerful to account anyway - mistrust of media and ineffectiveness of it a key reason the US is having all their problems with the Covid outbreak, as they are being run by a combination of the incompetent and the flat out malicious right now. I mean, can you imagine what the media and populace reaction would have been if a sitting leader a couple of decades ago had said what the current leader said today?

[RumbleFox]

I know Trump is an easy target but fvck me. X 

[davieG]

Merc

 

Officials today revealed 38 residents in care homes in Leicester have died after testing positive for coronavirus.

Leicester City Council said the fatality figure was correct up to today but more residents were currently being treated in hospital after contracting Covid-19.

[Mike Oxlong]

9 minutes ago, RumbleFox said:

I know Trump is an easy target but fvck me. X 

Don’t worry, it’s not as if he could destroy the planet at the push of a button  

 

[joachim1965]

11 minutes ago, RumbleFox said:

I know Trump is an easy target but fvck me. X 

He has to be the most incompetent world leader in the history of the world.

Absolutely brain dead.

[Izzy]

 

[Innovindil]

16 minutes ago, davieG said:

Merc

 

Officials today revealed 38 residents in care homes in Leicester have died after testing positive for coronavirus.

Leicester City Council said the fatality figure was correct up to today but more residents were currently being treated in hospital after contracting Covid-19.

4 suspected cases in my nans care home in thurmaston reported yesterday. They're all being isolated in their rooms now.

 

Still none confirmed in the one my missus works at though so at least some good news.

 

Was always gonna be a problem when people can walk around and work with this shite with zero symptoms. 

[Blarmy]

14 hours ago, Russell sprout said:

I feel I’m and maybe others in a catch 22 situation,

im currently on furlough pay till I return but my employer has emailed everyone explaining that to ‘cut costs’ on our return some staff may be laid off,

I have only been in my position since end of November and I think I’ll be laid off on my return,

i have been looking for work whilst off but everything is short term work so I’m shitting it like many others wondering how I will support my family,

some may say why do they think I’ll be laid off,

I work for a small independent company having left a national company and my role is a new role within the business,

its office based and I’m never rushed off my feet on a good day so I think they’ll let me go to ‘cut costs’ but I also don’t wanna quit my job for another job if it’s only temporary so really don’t know wot to do🤦‍♂️

If an employer is saying they’re laying people off at some point, every employee should be looking for alternative employment. You don’t have to accept a new job offer but at least you’re not at the mercy of the employer and are gaining some control of the situation. 

[Kopfkino]

4 hours ago, Desabafar said:

it is staggering what this is going to cost government, it will be a big challenge for the chancellor to work out how to pay for it afterwards because austerity won't be popular. the economy needs to restart or it is going to be even eye watering for longer

 

.

The question to ask isn't how it will be paid for, it's neither a priority nor particularly necessary, but it's how you rethink the role of government, what it spends, why it spends and how it raises its income. It doesn't really need to be paid for, certainly not via spending cuts (medium-term tax rises seem a given though), because majority of the 'problem' disappears once the economy restarts, this isn't the same as 2008. I'm not bullish about this being a simple v-shaped recovery, but neither is this likely to be a depression where the economic fundamentals turn more unfavourable for an extended period, nor is there a big new structural problem, and it isn't a financial crisis that produces long overhangs so the long-term effect isn't huge. If this goes on for a long time, then there will be problems of course but it seems unlikely.
Also the government can carry the debt for as long as needs be and the cost of it is low because interest rates are at rock bottom and that is likely for a long while yet. I also anticipate the Bank of England's balance sheet will take a lot of the strain and it's always possible we'll 'pay for it' through inflation if they were to monetise the debt. 

 

This is the frustrating thing about UK politics in recent times. Cameron and Osborne were very good at politicising things and playing politics but they didn't think strategically about the role of the state, preferring instead just to cut what was convenient in the short-term. For example, they could have reformed taxation rather than keep adding to it to make it the longest in the world. Corbyn and McDonnell came along and spurned the ideal opportunity to rethink the role of government and the structure of the economy, and around the edges there was some interesting stuff, but instead of creating a vision of that to sell, McDonnell defaulted to dogmatic Marxian thought and they produced a shopping list instead of a vision, preferring pointless nationalisations and half-baked ideas. Somewhat telling that they started with respectable economic advisors and ended up with Modern Monetary Theorist cranks. 

 

Whilst I might have a preference for the government getting out of the way (still holds) and lower day-to-day consumption spending (this crisis has probably changed that somewhat), I'd much rather a strategic vision for the state than short-term political moves. Talking about how to pay for this period isn't useful and shows how well Cameron/Osborne set the agenda that the population has an instant instinct for debtphobia. The alternative to doing this was catastrophic so in that sense it largely pays for itself anyway.

 

1 hour ago, BlueSi13 said:

The media needs to take a long hard look at itself once this is all over.  It was bad enough during Brexit, but for a lot of people the endless gotcha/dogpile/attack form of journalism has gone down like cold sick during this crisis.

 

How is the media supposed to rethink itself when it's just a giant ball of very similar people with limited experience of life outside of journalism and any outsiders that come in soon get caught up in that sort of groupthink/outlook, especially when what gets you places nowadays is content that gets people all giddy so you get good numbers, it just lends itself to gotchas. This is why some of the regional press can do better work because they tend to share experiences with their locals and don't get caught up in the journalism world. Modern journalism is self-defeating and nobody inside cares because it's now just a game like politics.

[Toddybad]

Anybody interested in what NHS organisations at the front line are doing/finding can do so here

 

https://nhsproviders.org/confronting-coronavirus-in-the-nhs

[z-layrex]

1 hour ago, Harrydc said:

There's just something about Matt Hancock that unsettles me. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something tells me not to trust him. 

Yes he's a politician.

Edited 24 April 2020 by z-layrex

[st albans fox]

Just looking through NHS england stats website and adding up the first four days reported numbers for each day, we have figures for 20th and earlier. We know that the 8th was the top of the curve. 

 

20th.    19.     18.     17.      16.      15.      14.        13.        12.     11

 

493.    464.   488.    516.    548.   594.     573.      566.     589.    637

 

its a slow decline but it’s definitively a decline ........  tomorrow will see us pass 20k 😟 and that’s without the care homes stats - just awful.......... 

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

What will kill more in the USA in the coming days:

- Covid-19?

- people panic injecting themselves with drain unblocker

 

[brucey]

1 minute ago, Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo said:

What will kill more in the USA in the coming days:

- Covid-19?

- people panic injecting themselves with drain unblocker

Or this? 

 

 

[Tuna]

2 hours ago, kingfox said:

Thanks to Trump, some of Twitter’s top trends today.

 

Dettol

Toilet Duck
Mr Muscle

 

 

and Cillit Bang.

[Ecdysiast]

10 minutes ago, brucey said:

Or this? 

 

Those nails look pretty lethal to me...

 

[kingfox]

5 minutes ago, Tuna said:

Cillit Bang.

And the virus is gone! 

[murphy]

From The Guardian:

 

Coronavirus has been detected on particles of air pollution by scientists investigating whether this could enable it to be carried over longer distances and increase the number of people infected.

The work is preliminary and it is not yet known if the virus remains viable on pollution particles and in sufficient quantity to cause disease.

The Italian scientists used standard techniques to collect outdoor air pollution samples at one urban and one industrial site in Bergamo province and identified a gene highly specific to Covid-19 in multiple samples. The detection was confirmed by blind testing at an independent laboratory.

Leonardo Setti at the University of Bologna in Italy, who led the work, said it was important to investigate if the virus could be carried more widely by air pollution.

 

[davieG]

Just back from my daily walk, traffic nearly at pre lock down levels and saw a few people playing golf including a group of 5.

 

So what lock down?

[Lionator]

29 minutes ago, murphy said:

From The Guardian:

 

Coronavirus has been detected on particles of air pollution by scientists investigating whether this could enable it to be carried over longer distances and increase the number of people infected.

The work is preliminary and it is not yet known if the virus remains viable on pollution particles and in sufficient quantity to cause disease.

The Italian scientists used standard techniques to collect outdoor air pollution samples at one urban and one industrial site in Bergamo province and identified a gene highly specific to Covid-19 in multiple samples. The detection was confirmed by blind testing at an independent laboratory.

Leonardo Setti at the University of Bologna in Italy, who led the work, said it was important to investigate if the virus could be carried more widely by air pollution.

 

The chances of getting infected this way would be slim to say the least.

[yorkie1999]

2 minutes ago, davieG said:

Just back from my daily walk, traffic nearly at pre lock down levels and saw a few people playing golf including a group of 5.

 

So what lock down?

I heard the police are no longer responding to complaints of people breaking the rules, two weeks ago the police helicopter was patrolling over Hinckley, but now that's gone. Maybe people will just end up  taking the social distancing responsibility on themselves. What do people really need to go out for if there's nowhere open and all you can do is go for a walk.

[st albans fox]

19 minutes ago, davieG said:

Just back from my daily walk, traffic nearly at pre lock down levels and saw a few people playing golf including a group of 5.

 

So what lock down?

I mean that’s not even allowed in normal times !!!!

 

i think that once lockdown is slowly released, the govt will give people advice but the underlying message will be that if you spread it back towards R=1 then you’ve only yourselves to blame for the re introduction of restrictions ..... and I suspect they could be more draconian next time to stop the arseholes who haven’t got the message this time ......

[davieG]

Just now, st albans fox said:

I mean that’s not even allowed in normal times !!!!

 

i think that once lockdown is slowly released, the govt will give people advice but the underlying message will be that if you spread it back towards R=1 then you’ve only yourselves to blame for the re introduction of restrictions ..... and I suspect they could be more draconian next time to stop the arseholes who haven’t got the message this time ......

Yeah, the golf course, Enderby is officially closed I would think so I'm sure it was a freebie.