SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)

JPRouve

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Are they tweeting in French? Just blows my mind that there are people out there who want to create discord and confusion during a global pandemic. That’s as evil as it gets.
No, the vast majority are in english.
 

Mr Pigeon

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That means those same staff are being rewarded for being feckless; whereas the staff that are willing to come back without complaining are being punished for doing the right thing; often earning the same net salary despite working a full week.
I'm sure that's how you'll put it to your staff who return and ask for anything remotely regarding hazard pay or improved H&S measures being implemented. Distract from the genuine concerns of your colleagues (try using that term from time to time because you're coming across as Mr Burns) by calling them unprofessional and making subtle (but not that subtle) jabs about how they'll be out of a job if they don't keep their mouths shut.

You'll put it like that but it's not the truth, is it? It's your statement to the public statement hiding what you really think of your colleagues, which is fecking frightening because even your public statement is worse than my attempts to make scones. Most people will just accept it because they find you intimidating and don't want to speak up. Personally I think you come across as a bit of a prick with those comments. It's fine. You're entitled to do whatever you want with your own business. But I hope you understand that you're one of those kinds of people who get more fear than respect. If you want that; fine. Just don't pretend you're acting like anything else other than an arsehole when you try to push that forced narrative.
 

BobbyManc

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It's kind of obvious, I have looked at how things about France where reported and many accounts use the exact same sentences, with the same false narratives.
You click on almost any tweet nowadays about politics involving a blue-tick account and the vast majority of replies appear to be from bots or fake accounts. It’s seriously disturbing and Twitter clearly could not give a feck.
 

JPRouve

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You click on almost any tweet nowadays about politics involving a blue-tick account and the vast majority of replies appear to be from bots or fake accounts. It’s seriously disturbing and Twitter clearly could not give a feck.
That's my impression too and it is now also in comments sections of newspapers. In a way it's interesting because it makes me more aware of the current narratives, the only issue being that sometimes it winds me up.
 

Hugh Jass

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Most countries aren't reporting deaths properly, their figures don't match with recorded excess deaths, take an example with Peru, they offficially have 3k covid-19 deaths but 9k excess deaths.

Here you have an older article about that subject:
Cheers thanks.
 

UnrelatedPsuedo

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I feel a bit bad for @finneh He’s getting absolutely slaughtered. He’s probably a nice guy in real life. It’s just his online persona that comes across as Alan B’stard.
He has solid foundations of sensibility. Then goes in the worst direction.

Yes there’s a problem with the safety to return vs 80% pay until October to not return. The government created that.

But being a Cnut of a boss Means he will have far more people choosing to take 80% pay for as long as possible to not work for him for as long as possible.

No sympathy. Sounds like a terrible manager.
 

FootballHQ

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Blimey everyone had given up on here watching the 5pm propaganda daily briefing after all.

They only went and let Robbie Savage ask a question today. :lol:
 

BobbyManc

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Blimey everyone had given up on here watching the 5pm propaganda daily briefing after all.

They only went and let Robbie Savage ask a question today. :lol:
Wait did that really happen? I saw people say that he asked a question and presumed they were making jokes about a lookalike.
 

Dan_F

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I feel a bit bad for @finneh He’s getting absolutely slaughtered. He’s probably a nice guy in real life. It’s just his online persona that comes across as Alan B’stard.
I’m assuming that’s the same guy who was saying his staff are less productive now, because normally they work on their commute at 5am? Or something like that.
 

Wibble

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I've heard it mentioned that you need a smaller number of immune patients to reach effective herd immunity threshold than you would for something like Measles and seen wide variations in percentages quoted but you'd need WAY more than the numbers listed above.
The higher the Ro the higher the HIT although there are other factors involved. If the Ro is as high as 5 then we need to reach a HIT of 80-85% to achieve herd immunity (in effect lowering the R below 1 without social distancing). If Ro is 3 then I think 65% is the ballpark figure.

I don't want to try for either of those without a vaccine.
 

nimic

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Seems like the Norwegian government may have been too hasty with the level of shut-down that was implemented in March. Indications are that the R was already down to 1.1 or 1.2 before the measures, simply due to social distancing. Particularly the decision to close kindergartens and schools is being examined now. Certainly it seems unlikely that the schools are going to be closed again at this point, regardless of any new wave.
 

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I’m assuming that’s the same guy who was saying his staff are less productive now, because normally they work on their commute at 5am? Or something like that.
It was the good ones were logged in from 5:30 am to 10pm as they now work when they used to be commuting but others were doing feck all.

They probably wanted Christmas day off too the slackers.
 

BobbyManc

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Seems like the Norwegian government may have been too hasty with the level of shut-down that was implemented in March. Indications are that the R was already down to 1.1 or 1.2 before the measures, simply due to social distancing. Particularly the decision to close kindergartens and schools is being examined now. Certainly it seems unlikely that the schools are going to be closed again at this point, regardless of any new wave.
Is it a bad thing when dealing with something unknown like this if you are judged to have “overreacted” in oversight? It’s inordinately challenging to time it perfectly and the alternative is far more devastating, obviously. Any sign that a government may have taken action above and beyond what we can in hindsight deem necessary still deserves praise in my book.
 

nimic

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Is it a bad thing when dealing with something unknown like this if you are judged to have “overreacted” in oversight? It’s inordinately challenging to time it perfectly and the alternative is far more devastating, obviously. Any sign that a government may have taken action above and beyond what we can in hindsight deem necessary still deserves praise in my book.
Sort of, which is why there's not exactly anyone calling a vote of no confidence or anything. But the measurements were somewhat stricter than what was recommended by Norwegian health authorities at the time (they suggested keeping schools open, for example), so it's not just hindsight.
 

Arruda

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Is it a bad thing when dealing with something unknown like this if you are judged to have “overreacted” in oversight? It’s inordinately challenging to time it perfectly and the alternative is far more devastating, obviously. Any sign that a government may have taken action above and beyond what we can in hindsight deem necessary still deserves praise in my book.
Completely agree.

Where things have turned out relatively OK due to quick and appropriate measures, the droves of idiots who think Covid is just a flu are now feeling vindicated by any positive news from anywhere, and will say they were right all along. It's insane the amount of stuff we learned on the past few months. In mid March I was putting alcohol over the fags packages I bought before opening them.
 

BobbyManc

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Sort of, which is why there's not exactly anyone calling a vote of no confidence or anything. But the measurements were somewhat stricter than what was recommended by Norwegian health authorities at the time (they suggested keeping schools open, for example), so it's not just hindsight.
True but it’s still only with hindsight that we can conclude with a degree of certainty if the decision was correct or not, so for them to have erred on the side of caution even if health authorities argued it may well not be necessary to me does not seem a problem. Maybe I’m much more forgiving as someone in the UK who has seen how an incompetent and callous government treats the pandemic instead.
 

TMDaines

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Seen this other one in the comments :houllier:

The problem is that individuals can rationalise their own decisions, but fail to understand the bigger picture. They can choose to do things that give them a lot of satisfaction at very little risk, but once you roll that aggregated risk up across thousands and millions of people, then exponential growth will begin again.

We’ve got a three-week-old baby and he’s not ever seen his grandparents — or any other family — not because of the risk to him, us or them, but because social contact like that en masse across the population will massacre more lives.
 

Arruda

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Sort of, which is why there's not exactly anyone calling a vote of no confidence or anything. But the measurements were somewhat stricter than what was recommended by Norwegian health authorities at the time (they suggested keeping schools open, for example), so it's not just hindsight.
Health authorities all over Europe were being incredibly incoherent, so I have massive respect for any government who just went along with maximum caution. At the time there wasn't much more we could do rather than look at the terror in northern Italy and pay attention to what their doctors were saying. Some people with very importante jobs were very obnoxious despite all the warnings. Look at guys such as Patrick Vallance who have contributed to thousands of deaths. In Portugal, the top advisor of our government in matters of pandemics was against any form of precaution, despite being a doctor and professer that worked his entire life in Public Health. He's still stubborn and maintains he was right. Just a demented (or dumb) old fool, whose position reflects a career prize more than actual competence. Fortunatelly he was so suspiciously dismissive that the government seeked other sources and acted just in time (our capacity was really threatened, but we managed to not reach it). Many of these people should (if there's any justice) be prosecuted for criminal negligence when the time comes.

I doubt I will ever be convinced the Swedish top health guys actually had a clue about what they were doing.
 

Withnail

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Is it a bad thing when dealing with something unknown like this if you are judged to have “overreacted” in oversight? It’s inordinately challenging to time it perfectly and the alternative is far more devastating, obviously. Any sign that a government may have taken action above and beyond what we can in hindsight deem necessary still deserves praise in my book.
Absolutely not a bad thing.

I'd much rather everyone erred on the side of caution than then other way round which likely would mean more deaths.

At the very least we know a fair bit more about that works and what doesn't.
 

sammsky1

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Health authorities all over Europe were being incredibly incoherent, so I have massive respect for any government who just went along with maximum caution. At the time there wasn't much more we could do rather than look at the terror in northern Italy and pay attention to what their doctors were saying. Some people with very importante jobs were very obnoxious despite all the warnings. Look at guys such as Patrick Vallance who have contributed to thousands of deaths. In Portugal, the top advisor of our government in matters of pandemics was against any form of precaution, despite being a doctor and professor that worked his entire life in Public Health. He's still stubborn and maintains he was right. Just a demented (or dumb) old fool, whose position reflects a career prize more than actual competence. Fortunatelly he was so suspiciously dismissive that the government seeked other sources and acted just in time (our capacity was really threatened, but we managed to not reach it). To me, some of those people should be prosecuted for criminal negligence when the time comes.
One of the most damning retrospects is that MUCH poorer countries with MUCH bigger populations than UK have had far stricter and lengthier lockdowns.
 
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BobbyManc

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One of the most damning retrospects is that MUCH poorer countries with MUCH bigger populations than UK have had far stricter and lenghier lockdowns.
Vietnam amazes me. Borders China, 95m population and not a single death, only 324 confirmed cases.
 

sglowrider

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One of the most damning retrospects is that MUCH poorer countries with MUCH bigger populations than UK have had far stricter and lenghier lockdowns.
In Kenya's case. they had a lockdown or a semi-lockdown a could of months ago when they had like 7 cases. I think they know that they don't have the resources to mitigate a community spread. The caveat is that their testing number/capita is still very low.
 

Maagge

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Seems like the Norwegian government may have been too hasty with the level of shut-down that was implemented in March. Indications are that the R was already down to 1.1 or 1.2 before the measures, simply due to social distancing. Particularly the decision to close kindergartens and schools is being examined now. Certainly it seems unlikely that the schools are going to be closed again at this point, regardless of any new wave.
I read that some of the Danish modelling had overestimated the virus by mistake resulting in us shutting down a bit too much as well. I'm happy they didn't underestimate it though.
 

Berbasbullet

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The problem is that individuals can rationalise their own decisions, but fail to understand the bigger picture. They can choose to do things that give them a lot of satisfaction at very little risk, but once you roll that aggregated risk up across thousands and millions of people, then exponential growth will begin again.

We’ve got a three-week-old baby and he’s not ever seen his grandparents — or any other family — not because of the risk to him, us or them, but because social contact like that en masse across the population will massacre more lives.
Exactly which is why the messaging of ‘stay alert’ and follow your common sense are only going to make things worse.
 

Pogue Mahone

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Seems like the Norwegian government may have been too hasty with the level of shut-down that was implemented in March. Indications are that the R was already down to 1.1 or 1.2 before the measures, simply due to social distancing. Particularly the decision to close kindergartens and schools is being examined now. Certainly it seems unlikely that the schools are going to be closed again at this point, regardless of any new wave.
Similar story in Ireland. They’re now saying that measures before full lockdown had a bigger effect than they thought. Which is great.

Mind you if R0 is >1 that’s not good enough. So social distancing alone wouldn’t have contained the virus.
 

finneh

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I'm sure that's how you'll put it to your staff who return and ask for anything remotely regarding hazard pay or improved H&S measures being implemented. Distract from the genuine concerns of your colleagues (try using that term from time to time because you're coming across as Mr Burns) by calling them unprofessional and making subtle (but not that subtle) jabs about how they'll be out of a job if they don't keep their mouths shut.

You'll put it like that but it's not the truth, is it? It's your statement to the public statement hiding what you really think of your colleagues, which is fecking frightening because even your public statement is worse than my attempts to make scones. Most people will just accept it because they find you intimidating and don't want to speak up. Personally I think you come across as a bit of a prick with those comments. It's fine. You're entitled to do whatever you want with your own business. But I hope you understand that you're one of those kinds of people who get more fear than respect. If you want that; fine. Just don't pretend you're acting like anything else other than an arsehole when you try to push that forced narrative.
The vast majority of my employee's would completely disagree. Hazard pay though... That's a good one in the current climate with my turnover dropping over 50% in April and May.

I feel a bit bad for @finneh He’s getting absolutely slaughtered. He’s probably a nice guy in real life. It’s just his online persona that comes across as Alan B’stard.
Absolutely. I'm a teddy bear in general. I could write numerous paragraphs about how phenomenal a fair portion of my staff have been or how staff have been rewarded in the past. Of our 280 staff I still get WhatsApp messages from the warehouse cleaner I managed a decade ago, likewise a fair few general operatives. I pride myself on knowing everyone's name (although a failing battle on that front as we've employed nearly 100 people in the last 4 years) and have a genuine open door policy.

I currently have staff earning more than I do because I want to protect them from any drop in salary, some have kids or vulnerable dependants for example so cancelling my Tesla :( and taking a drop in salary isn't exactly life or death. Taking a government loan would merely kick the can down the road (I pride our business on being debt free as I'd prefer to keep staff employed over paying interest to banks in hard times). Likewise I'd prefer to pay tax than interest (even though I despise double taxation).

When discussing awful government policy or the awful government reaction to the virus I tend to discuss the awful consequences of said policies. Those awful side effects don't usually involve numerous paragraphs waxing lyrical about how a large portion of my staff have effectively navigated through this shit show (which they have). It involves the issues those policies have caused which include the divide I spoke about previously. That's merely the consequence ill thought out policy.

I'll admit though I do enjoy using provocative language on this forum. Possibly because anything short of gifting my business to the proletariat and I'm Ayn Rand. Maybe I should take the Khan route and start every post with "my Grandad was a bus driver".
 

sullydnl

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Given the very limited information countries had at the time and the large margin for error, you would think that judging/timing lockdown measures perfectly would be down to luck as much as anything else. What's important is that they made sound, prudent decisions that took that lack of information and margin for error into account, leaving some space for things to turn out as they might have in a reasonable worst case scenario. Generally speaking any country that ends up having been a bit more cautious than was necessary is doing alright.
 

Pogue Mahone

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Given the very limited information countries had at the time and the large margin for error, you would think that judging/timing lockdown measures perfectly would be down to luck as much as anything else. What's important is that they made sound, prudent decisions that took that lack of information and margin for error into account, leaving some space for things to turn out as they might have in a reasonable worst case scenario. Generally speaking any country that ends up having been a bit more cautious than was necessary is doing alright.
100%. We shouldn’t forget that the benefits of shutting down slightly later, or slightly less stringently are really only a reduction in inconvenience. The economic hit would be almost identical. And inconvenience is a small price to pay to save lives.
 

Pogue Mahone

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The problem is that individuals can rationalise their own decisions, but fail to understand the bigger picture. They can choose to do things that give them a lot of satisfaction at very little risk, but once you roll that aggregated risk up across thousands and millions of people, then exponential growth will begin again.

We’ve got a three-week-old baby and he’s not ever seen his grandparents — or any other family — not because of the risk to him, us or them, but because social contact like that en masse across the population will massacre more lives.
Have to reply to this. I’m really sorry to hear about your situation. That’s shit. And I do kind of agree with your point. But public health measures are broad strokes, which don’t require 100% compliance from everyone to work. If smart people take properly thought through risks there really is no harm done. Assuming your parents are properly cocooning, there is very little potential for any harm outside your family if you were to meet up to show them your baby. And you can minimise the risks within your family by being super rigorous about avoiding outside contact for a week before meeting them, meeting them outside, physically distancing, scrupulous hand washing etc
 

arnie_ni

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Silvia and nasal tests on the one person counted as 2 tests by the UK to fudge the numbers.