Corona Virus

[Leicester_Loyal]

1 hour ago, Finnaldo said:

Caught a quote earlier on BBC News whilst it was on in the other room: “We shouldn’t be looking to compare ourselves to the worst hit countries, but the countries who have coped the best”. That rings true in my opinion.
 

Ultimately, the deaths are measured in different ways, ours are probably not far off if not a tad lower than reality, places like Italy and Spain might be 10k higher, Belgium have ballooned their figure by counting everyone to Bubbles the Cat in their figures. 
 

Then there’s external factors, the Italians were caught off guard as the first country hit, Spain weren’t far behind and we had a few weeks to prepare in lieu with that, Italians live with their old whilst we tend to concentrate ours (either could be worse depending on context), different cultural practices which mean more/less social contact compared to other countries, etc. etc.

I think what we need to focus on is our own tactics instead of comparing death rates. Is delaying lockdown necessarily a bad tactic? I don’t think so and a few scientists have came out to say as much. But the lack of screening at airports, failure to track and probably most blantantly, the fact massive events such as Cheltenham and Atletico vs Liverpool took place shows, in my view at least, that we clearly weren’t taking this anywhere near as seriously as we should have been doing. I think the 5 consecutive COBRA meetings the PM didn’t partake in back that, and whilst I understand it’s not necessary for him to attend each and every one, the situation was getting perilous enough in Italy by mid-February I would have expected him in at least a couple of those by the end of the month. 
 

To recap, I don’t think it’s fair to compare death stats before there’s a full picture, and I don’t think the government policy on paper was that far off, but my main criticism is that I think a level of ‘arrogance’, for want of a better word, on behalf of the government has made latter efforts a lot harder for ourselves and likely made the situation worse than it could have been. As for conduct now, I’m sure we’ll get a good idea of that in a couple month’s time when it’s reviewed and investigated. 

Very sensible post. Fair play.

[Lionator]

41 minutes ago, Webbo said:

Talking to my sister in law today. Her husband pissed off a year ago. She had some trouble with her taps so her dad went round to look at them. Her neighbour, a bloke I know and thought was alright, is straight on Facebook to s lag her off for having visitors. A load of nasty comments from people following him by people who don't even know her.

 

This lockdown is turning people into cvnts.

The sense of collectivism which we've all picked up over the past few weeks is slowly starting to stretch and it's only going to get worse with the lifting of restrictions and the shielding of certain sectors of society. There's going to be a lot of spite and jealousy. 

[Lionator]

1 hour ago, Finnaldo said:

Caught a quote earlier on BBC News whilst it was on in the other room: “We shouldn’t be looking to compare ourselves to the worst hit countries, but the countries who have coped the best”. That rings true in my opinion.
 

Ultimately, the deaths are measured in different ways, ours are probably not far off if not a tad lower than reality, places like Italy and Spain might be 10k higher, Belgium have ballooned their figure by counting everyone to Bubbles the Cat in their figures. 
 

Then there’s external factors, the Italians were caught off guard as the first country hit, Spain weren’t far behind and we had a few weeks to prepare in lieu with that, Italians live with their old whilst we tend to concentrate ours (either could be worse depending on context), different cultural practices which mean more/less social contact compared to other countries, etc. etc.

I think what we need to focus on is our own tactics instead of comparing death rates. Is delaying lockdown necessarily a bad tactic? I don’t think so and a few scientists have came out to say as much. But the lack of screening at airports, failure to track and probably most blantantly, the fact massive events such as Cheltenham and Atletico vs Liverpool took place shows, in my view at least, that we clearly weren’t taking this anywhere near as seriously as we should have been doing. I think the 5 consecutive COBRA meetings the PM didn’t partake in back that, and whilst I understand it’s not necessary for him to attend each and every one, the situation was getting perilous enough in Italy by mid-February I would have expected him in at least a couple of those by the end of the month. 
 

To recap, I don’t think it’s fair to compare death stats before there’s a full picture, and I don’t think the government policy on paper was that far off, but my main criticism is that I think a level of ‘arrogance’, for want of a better word, on behalf of the government has made latter efforts a lot harder for ourselves and likely made the situation worse than it could have been. As for conduct now, I’m sure we’ll get a good idea of that in a couple month’s time when it’s reviewed and investigated. 

I think this is a good evaluation. The whole deaths 'league table' thing is a weird, morbid way of framing things. It's not a level playing field. It'd be like saying that the Icelandic government are better at dealing with skin cancer than the Australian government because they have a lower rate of skin cancer deaths, despite the obvious sun related flaw in that argument. There's so many factors involved, it makes it completely impossible to suggest whose done better than others and is an example of the weird political echo chamber we live in currently.

 

On the contrary though, if we're comparing ourselves to those who have coped best, we're clearly lagging a long way behind the likes of South Korea, Vietnam, Germany, most of Central and Eastern Europe and Aussies and New Zealanders. I think it's correct what you say in your last paragraph that it was pure arrogance and complacency, the 'it'll never happen to us' attitude which has hampered ourselves as well as the muddled communication. Ultimately though, at least we don't live in the States.  

[Alf Bentley]

56 minutes ago, Webbo said:

Talking to my sister in law today. Her husband pissed off a year ago. She had some trouble with her taps so her dad went round to look at them. Her neighbour, a bloke I know and thought was alright, is straight on Facebook to s lag her off for having visitors. A load of nasty comments from people following him by people who don't even know her.

 

This lockdown is turning people into cvnts.

 

I wonder if that mentality has always existed and a combination of social media and the lockdown is just magnifying it?

 

My Mum worked in a social security office back in the 80s & 90s and I remember her telling me how they got an enormous number of people reporting others who they suspected of doing undeclared work.

Including not just enemies or even neighbours, but members of the same family.

[davieG]

Just now, Alf Bentley said:

 

I wonder if that mentality has always existed and a combination of social media and the lockdown is just magnifying it?

 

My Mum worked in a social security office back in the 80s & 90s and I remember her telling me how they got an enormous number of people reporting others who they suspected of doing undeclared work.

Including not just enemies or even neighbours, but members of the same family.

I'm sure the reporting existed but the mass vilification that we see I think comes from some sort of sense of being 'part of the crowd' which is much easier to achieve on the web.

 

There was a well known phase often spouted at me back in the day.

 

1 boy = 1 boy ( well behaved)

2 boys = 1/2 boy ( behaving like a prat)

3 boys = No boys (behaving like utter *****) 

 

You get strength in numbers but also common sense disintegrates.

[Webbo]

15 minutes ago, Alf Bentley said:

 

I wonder if that mentality has always existed and a combination of social media and the lockdown is just magnifying it?

 

My Mum worked in a social security office back in the 80s & 90s and I remember her telling me how they got an enormous number of people reporting others who they suspected of doing undeclared work.

Including not just enemies or even neighbours, but members of the same family.

I definitely think social media plays a part

[Leicester_Loyal]

BoJo says some lockdown measures will be eased from Monday. It'll be outlined in the Sunday statement.

 

200k tests per day the target for the end of May too.

 

EDIT: I've just read that's the capacity for 200k tests.

Edited 6 May 2020 by Leicester_Loyal

[Nod.E]

2 hours ago, Webbo said:

Talking to my sister in law today. Her husband pissed off a year ago. She had some trouble with her taps so her dad went round to look at them. Her neighbour, a bloke I know and thought was alright, is straight on Facebook to s lag her off for having visitors. A load of nasty comments from people following him by people who don't even know her.

 

This lockdown is turning people into cvnts.

People were always cvnts, they just don't have work to absorb their cvnty outbursts so we're seeing more on social media.

[StanSP]

49 minutes ago, Leicester_Loyal said:

200k tests per day the target for the end of May too.

 

EDIT: I've just read that's the capacity for 200k tests.

To take this a bit further it's mainly going to be labs process the tests that will likely have been returned from those sent in the post. So perhaps a more realistic figure with some reasoning behind it. Not just flat 100k/day before end of April with no substance! 

 

So capacity will be there but this time it goes a bit further in to why it's that high, which is good! 

 

Boris talking about easing some measures on Monday potentially but in a way that would help prevent a second wave which would be catastrophic to the economy. 

 

I hope for everyone's sake, politician or not (!), they get this next stage of the process right. It has to be. I dread the potential of a second wave or spike, let alone it actually happening!

[bovril]

1 hour ago, Alf Bentley said:

 

I wonder if that mentality has always existed and a combination of social media and the lockdown is just magnifying it?

 

My Mum worked in a social security office back in the 80s & 90s and I remember her telling me how they got an enormous number of people reporting others who they suspected of doing undeclared work.

Including not just enemies or even neighbours, but members of the same family.

It's not just the snitchiness that gets me, but the verbal abuse, which seems to have become prevalent in this country. 

[UpTheLeagueFox]

2 hours ago, Lionator said:

The sense of collectivism which we've all picked up over the past few weeks is slowly starting to stretch and it's only going to get worse with the lifting of restrictions and the shielding of certain sectors of society. There's going to be a lot of spite and jealousy. 

 

28 minutes ago, Nod.E said:

People were always cvnts, they just don't have work to absorb their cvnty outbursts so we're seeing more on social media.

Social media (and perhaps other outlets like forums) give people a louder voice.

Spending less time looking at trending topics on twitter and reading comments on there definitely helps.

Negativity, spite, jealousy, cvntishness etc creates a very toxic cesspit of views which (for me at least, certainly from a mental health perspective) is best avoided as much as possible.

The whole world is a rabid shiitshow right now. I am looking for the chinks of light and positivity and will cling on to those.

[Alf Bentley]

53 minutes ago, bovril said:

It's not just the snitchiness that gets me, but the verbal abuse, which seems to have become prevalent in this country. 

 

The verbal abuse aspect (as opposed to snitching) might be more recent and more led by social media, I think.....unless you think there's a lot more face-to-face verbal use?

I haven't seen that, but social media does seem to encourage some people to be more abusive, more judgmental and more partisan - possibly people who might be quite polite and reasonable face to face?

Partly the ability to hide behind a screen and keyboard/keypad.....though it does beg the question why such people feel so bitter in the first place. 

 

 

Edited 6 May 2020 by Alf Bentley

[Dahnsouff]

Lets not look for outliers and paint them as broadly indicative of society, the world has loads of fabulous, caring, selfless people. 

 

The vocal minority is a drag though, I will admit. 

[Lionator]

30 minutes ago, UpTheLeagueFox said:

 

Social media (and perhaps other outlets like forums) give people a louder voice.

Spending less time looking at trending topics on twitter and reading comments on there definitely helps.

Negativity, spite, jealousy, cvntishness etc creates a very toxic cesspit of views which (for me at least, certainly from a mental health perspective) is best avoided as much as possible.

The whole world is a rabid shiitshow right now. I am looking for the chinks of light and positivity and will cling on to those.

The best way to look at it is the world has always been a shiitshow, it's just now we're more exposed to it due to mass and social media. Idiots have always existed, we just have more exposure to them now.

 

It's still the safest and supposedly the happiest time in living memory. Judging on what we know now the death toll for covid-19 pretty much wont register on global population charts. This year alone already, 28 million more people have been born than who have died. We probably wont end up with a global death toll for covid-19 greater than 5 million, and even then most of that death toll will be simply a mortality displacement, so those who will have died in the next few years anyway, aka there'll be less deaths than the annual average once covid has buggered off. 

[Leicester_Loyal]

46 minutes ago, StanSP said:

To take this a bit further it's mainly going to be labs process the tests that will likely have been returned from those sent in the post. So perhaps a more realistic figure with some reasoning behind it. Not just flat 100k/day before end of April with no substance! 

 

So capacity will be there but this time it goes a bit further in to why it's that high, which is good! 

 

Boris talking about easing some measures on Monday potentially but in a way that would help prevent a second wave which would be catastrophic to the economy. 

 

I hope for everyone's sake, politician or not (!), they get this next stage of the process right. It has to be. I dread the potential of a second wave or spike, let alone it actually happening!

Honestly I think they know that unless we go back to some form of normality in the next couple of weeks then our economy will be stuffed for decades. We've built up the hospital and ICU capacity, we've learnt more about the virus, we've put the plans together and we're gonna try to protect the vulnerable.

 

I've read that they're considering the furloughed being dropped to 60% at some point, that will mean that millions will struggle, 60% is a hell of a lot less than your 100% normal wage.

[FoxesDeb]

The use of the word shitshow reminded me of this

 

https://portside.org/video/2020-03-20/technical-term-shitshow

[Strokes]

4 hours ago, Finnaldo said:

Caught a quote earlier on BBC News whilst it was on in the other room: “We shouldn’t be looking to compare ourselves to the worst hit countries, but the countries who have coped the best”. That rings true in my opinion.
 

Ultimately, the deaths are measured in different ways, ours are probably not far off if not a tad lower than reality, places like Italy and Spain might be 10k higher, Belgium have ballooned their figure by counting everyone to Bubbles the Cat in their figures. 
 

Then there’s external factors, the Italians were caught off guard as the first country hit, Spain weren’t far behind and we had a few weeks to prepare in lieu with that, Italians live with their old whilst we tend to concentrate ours (either could be worse depending on context), different cultural practices which mean more/less social contact compared to other countries, etc. etc.

I think what we need to focus on is our own tactics instead of comparing death rates. Is delaying lockdown necessarily a bad tactic? I don’t think so and a few scientists have came out to say as much. But the lack of screening at airports, failure to track and probably most blantantly, the fact massive events such as Cheltenham and Atletico vs Liverpool took place shows, in my view at least, that we clearly weren’t taking this anywhere near as seriously as we should have been doing. I think the 5 consecutive COBRA meetings the PM didn’t partake in back that, and whilst I understand it’s not necessary for him to attend each and every one, the situation was getting perilous enough in Italy by mid-February I would have expected him in at least a couple of those by the end of the month. 
 

To recap, I don’t think it’s fair to compare death stats before there’s a full picture, and I don’t think the government policy on paper was that far off, but my main criticism is that I think a level of ‘arrogance’, for want of a better word, on behalf of the government has made latter efforts a lot harder for ourselves and likely made the situation worse than it could have been. As for conduct now, I’m sure we’ll get a good idea of that in a couple month’s time when it’s reviewed and investigated. 

Yeah I agree with most of this, i think plenty of in depth reports will come out that will be a fairer way than death counts, to see how we have performed. Plenty of mistakes and a bit of credit and could have been a whole lot worse.

[nnickn]

Comparing country to country is just silly, and for the naive. There are so many different criteria between the countries.

You don't get people saying Coventry is better than City, although Coventry  have more points this season.

[Nod.E]

1 hour ago, UpTheLeagueFox said:

 

Social media (and perhaps other outlets like forums) give people a louder voice.

Spending less time looking at trending topics on twitter and reading comments on there definitely helps.

Negativity, spite, jealousy, cvntishness etc creates a very toxic cesspit of views which (for me at least, certainly from a mental health perspective) is best avoided as much as possible.

The whole world is a rabid shiitshow right now. I am looking for the chinks of light and positivity and will cling on to those.

Yep.

 

I avoid Twitter and even mainstream news and instead tend to live in my own little bubble. 

 

On the rare occasion that I do find myself reading tweets I just find myself losing my mind.

 

It's really not worth it.

 

I'll vent on here from time to time but by and large I am stunned into silence at the levels of hate, ignorance, stupidity and general overinflated sense of self which oozes from society today.

 

It's pretty sad to be honest. I used to be very ambitious but now so apathetic. Floating through life and playing golf. It's easy but I wish I didn't feel like I have to disengage with the world to such an extent.

[bmt]

18 hours ago, Kopfkino said:

 

Every time I see Priti Patel my mind quickly casts to the fact that some posters on here have her as some sort of sex icon. And every time I become increasingly desperate to stay 24 for the rest of my life so I don't have to experience these strange thoughts

I'm 28 and I wanna shag her tbf

[Ecdysiast]

10 minutes ago, bmt said:

I'm 28 and I wanna shag her tbf

 

She looks like a French Front Row ...Combine this with her unchallenged ambition, unrestrained morals and increasingly bizarre statements I'd say lock-down is getting to you...

[Innovindil]

There's a question from a member of the public who claims restarting sporting events has been "prioritised" over religious services.

 

As it should ****ing be. 

[Webbo]

The self employed can claim their govt grant from May 15th. I've just registered with the govt, takes 5-10 minutes.

[Costock_Fox]

26 minutes ago, Innovindil said:

There's a question from a member of the public who claims restarting sporting events has been "prioritised" over religious services.

 

As it should ****ing be. 

Same thing really

[Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot]

I'm really hoping from Monday we'll be able to meet close family in a socially distant way, I just don't see how letting my mum in to the back garden staying 2 metres away is going to harm anyone and would give so many people a massive lift and help them to stick to the rules.