hasn't he already ruined this country enough?
SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)
- Thread starter Don't Kill Bill
- Start date
Good luck fella, take care
If ever I wished Covid on someone full dose it’s that cnut
When I'm listening the radio and hearing people argue xyz should remain open due to mental health, I can't help but think a lot of people want us to believe we are less resilient than we are, for their own purposes (to stay open)
Is the mental health argument being used to try and save businesses that are on poor financial footing?
Is the mental health argument being used to try and save businesses that are on poor financial footing?
Thanks boss man
What businesses were they referring to in terms of keeping them open?
I think a lot of people, particularly those who live alone, really are struggling that much in a lot of cases. I'm not sure the answer is not to lockdown, in fact I'm sure it's not, but I can fully understand the worry.
I was fatigued as hell for 2 days, minor cough but spaced out felt like I had brain fog. No smell/taste issues. Then felt right as rain yesterday afternoon. Then bad night last night. Temp spiked, was confused and coughing more till I got cooled down. Feel a bit chesty today, headache and tired but nothing major.
I've listened to a few tbh, one was for hospitality, another for pubs to be allowed to sell take away pints (this was asked to Boris today at Parliament too), and gyms too.
I can see the arguments for them on both sides from a business point of view, but it keeps going back to mental health angle.
Covid really is showing how society is like a house of cards
Yeah I've seen those discussion for those venues. My take is that take away pints, just promotes drinking in the street and thus increasing contact. Struggle to see that changing. Home delivery could be an option, and that is a viable method maybe, my local bar delivers to home and works really well (cocktails, beer, casks). Some of these businesses need to become a little more dynamic to keep their business resilient.
Gym's is an interesting one, I've not seen any scientific study on the impact of people in there and transmission rates. The cynic in me thinks that these businesses wouldn't have led with a mental health argument, but it's the strongest argument they can use to remain open. If it was really about mental health, then they wouldn't mind giving their services for free.
How are hospitals in the UK coping ? Any doctors or nurses as some reports say we are in trouble where as others say it is exaggerated . Is Belgium really as bad as being reported?
Re the mental health thing, I'm not sure it should be understated how difficult it can be for people. I spent the first lockdown at home with family, working from there, and I found it fine - quite good actually. Of course by the end, I was looking forward to things opening up again, but I found the duration of it quite enjoyable. But for this coming lockdown, I'm due to be spending a good chunk of it alone, with no social events lined up. That, combined with one or two other worries I have, make it quite a bit tougher to face. And that's with me not being worried about a job or health of older relatives, so I can imagine it being even worse for others.
Having said that, I'm not a fan of how many people seem to be quite cynically using mental health concerns for their own particular interest. As if they care, they just want their life to be affected as little as possible (a desire which I can understand, but it's not helping).
Having said that, I'm not a fan of how many people seem to be quite cynically using mental health concerns for their own particular interest. As if they care, they just want their life to be affected as little as possible (a desire which I can understand, but it's not helping).
Massively significant statement made today by Starmer.
40 days ago when following SAGE advice Starmer asked for a two to three week lockdown, deaths were 11 and new cases 2000.
And Boris dithering is why we are at the current position where the pandemic is out of control.
And he is still maintaining that local measures were the right thing to do.
40 days ago when following SAGE advice Starmer asked for a two to three week lockdown, deaths were 11 and new cases 2000.
And Boris dithering is why we are at the current position where the pandemic is out of control.
And he is still maintaining that local measures were the right thing to do.
There’s also this conflict between the argument that not being able to have a normal social life is an unbearable burden for the young while simultaneously advocating that all elderly/vulnerable people should be forced to shield themselves indefinitely (an even tougher burden to bear)
Yeah I agree. I've found the attitude towards the elderly a bit depressing at times, starting with "oh they were old and had underlying issues, so let's dismiss that death" to people saying that we should have fewer restrictions on young people and just tell the elderly to stay inside. All a bit grim at times.
At least lockdowns are at least technically feasible in the modern era. Imagine trying this before we had remote working, home deliveries and free porn.
I've seen people say it in regards to gyms. I went back to the gym in September and they have been strict limiting the number of people that can attend (the gym or classes), requiring a booking before going, having to sign in, cleaning the gym thoroughly and disinfectant and hand sanitiser in the gym. I've not seen the statistics, but I've seen some mention that the number of cases that have been tracked/traced via gyms is minimal.
Not his biggest fan, not even close
I know, right? The other crazy thing to think about if this hit us 10-20 years ago is vaccines. There’s been a massive leap forward in the technology of vaccine development in the last 5-10 years. If this pandemic hit us before that we’d be looking at a minimum of several years to get a vaccine to market and whole classes of vaccine that had not yet been invented (e.g. the Oxford vaccine).
Hold up, there's free porn now?
Yep. If this hits us in 1998, I think we carry on and they basically just tell us 'wear a mask, and good luck'.
I wouldn't even go that far. I think 2010 we'd do that. I remember my firm just had a very primitive and slow remote access setup back in 2012, that very few people even had access to.
On the plus side, I think if it hit in 1998 then it would have led to a much better community effort and more sustained action by people to help decrease transmission.
Plus we wouldn't have all felt that nauseating ache in the back of our brains that we're missing out on living life to the max.
Plus we wouldn't have all felt that nauseating ache in the back of our brains that we're missing out on living life to the max.
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That sounds promising. I heard that the virus appears to be mutating only relatively slowly too.
Yes, it is atrocious. I live in the Netherlands but have friends in Belgium who I regularly meet(online for drinks and card games) and they tell me the situation is absolutely dire.
Anyone know why it is so bad in Belgium?
If its anything like NL, people dont care, no policing. Simple as that
Some good news about t-cell longevity https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...er-first-infection?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
This is the key....and I hope I don't sound insensitive, but the way we are living, spending our time and money, and how, has been changing rapidly for the past 5-6 years. Covid has just sped it along.
Re the Mental Health aspect, I do feel people are using it too frequently as it's the strongest argument they can think of. The frustration for me is that its being repeated so frequently that more and more people are beginning to think they're mentally weak, or have no resilience, and that's putting even more fear into them. I work with a suicide prevention charity and of course lots of calls mention Covid, but I've not had a single one where that was the start of their problems, it's something that has made life even more difficult.
So for me, the conversation here needs to be along the lines of, 'Right, this is going to be shit for some people, so let's help them the best we can But at the same time, more attention needs to go into the root causes so there is a lasting positive impact from this.;
Don't people get colds and flu all year round just less often? I've also always assumed that when it is summer in Europe colds and flu are holidaying in the southern hemisphere
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How is that good news? Only 6 months? So we would need 2 vacines a year.
They have only tracked them for 6 months so far so they may well last much longer. Every person was found to have t-cells even if they had low or even no symptoms. People with worse symptoms had even more and hopefully the longevity as a result of a vaccine will be as good or better than these cases. So I'd say very good news as far as it goes.
Edit: Pogue posted about this yesterday as well.
I hope so.
I always thought around 60% and you wouldn't be far off. That would be just over 35m in England.
Not to speak that travelling between countries was a fraction. visas, currency exchange no low cost air companies, etc...
The best paper I've read so far (and that isn't that many to be fair) puts the Ro at 5.7 which pushes HIT above 80%. However as young kids aren't as susceptible that will bring the HIT down a bit. The other thing is that if super spreaders are both important to the spread of covid in a way that things like flu aren't AND there is something physiological different about superspreader, which may mean they get infected first and early, that may also functionally bring the HIT down. However, there is a chance that superspreaders are random event based occurances in which it won't make much/any difference. And we (or at least parts of the community) may still behave in ways that brings R down e.g. masks, social distancing, elderly people isolating while a vaccine is rolled out - still assuming we get a vaccine (looking very likely but we still aren't there) and that it is highly effective. The less effective a vaccine is the more we have to vaccinate to get to HIT (and that may not be possible if a vaccine isn't very effective.
That all said you don't need to get to HIT to still have a huge effect. 50% of people with immunity would make a huge difference even if HIT was 85%.
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By implication, 5 or 6 lockdowns then.
Make sure you get access to support if you're feeling low mate.