it was possible for countries like the UK and US to do a far better job of managing the pandemic than they did. Hold our own governments to account before blaming someone else’s (who have done a much better of stamping it out than we have).
SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)
- Thread starter Don't Kill Bill
- Start date
China massively down played the severity of the situation. And you even had the WHO claiming it couldn’t transfer amongst humans. How are other governments responsible when that’s the advice given to them?
No point in hurting the ordinary people. IF it can be proven without doubt then I’m sure some kind of political backlash will follow. I doubt it can ever be proven though
I think we've messed it up here, should have done loads better. And annoyingly continue to make mistakes.
I agree. Like I said there were warning signs that we had from Lancet papers with chinese authorship showcasing how nasty it was. I think they did make an effort to stop its spread locally and maybe internationally too. But not enough I think. And I'm honestly not coming at it from an anti-chinese sentiment/angle, just a personal opinion.
Has he also consistently called out those in his party? If not, he’s a hypocrite.
Dunno. But it is possible for people with whom you disagree politically, to be right occasionally. So take the win. He’s making the right arguments.
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I’m certainly not absolving China or the WHO (although nobody was clear on how it was spread at the start, so I think we should be careful about blaming people for gaps in knowledge at the beginning). But this was essentially an act of god, and our government is accountable for how well it protects us, not China’s.
The argument for lab escape is well-made but a bit contradictory. A lot is made of the fact that there has been no intermediate host determined between bat and human (section). Then, a paper from a US-China collaboration showing that bat corornaviruses do not need an intermediate host is mentioned in a different context and described as useless in its scientific impact (section)
e - thought about it a bit more, i think the article makes a few other missteps. will maybe write about it a bit more when i have time. the basic issue is that it seems to try to fit everything wrong into sars-cov-2.
so it is a result of passaging, a technique where the final product is indistinguishable from natural evolution, but also a product of site-directed mutagenesis, (the furin cleavage site). i dont think the latter fits in with the rest of the evidence, especially given that it's only a 4 amino acid site (i.e. not hard to evolve naturally). just looking at this figure from the article makes me very skeptical of human site-directed genetic changes from blue to yellow. would have been helpful if he labeled the furin and ace2 sites on that graph.
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I think China were far more open that we might have normally expected. And given that there was enough information for many countries to act I think it is obvious that incompetence and a lack of willingness to act on the science is the biggest factor in how bad it has been in places like the UK.
Thank you fellas. The well wishes are truly appreciated.Kinell. I won't be asking you to pick lottery numbers this week mate
Glad you are feeling better and fingers crossed for your folks.
Just an update: my mom seems to have a similar case to mine. She's experiencing very similar symptoms to what I had. My dad, however, is being hit much harder. He's a fighter... was captain of a football team that won 4 championships in a row, captain of a championship wrestling team, was a Chief Petty Officer in the US Navy... so he has it in him to flip a switch into the fighter mindset and go to battle, but he's older now and his body isn't as good at fighting as his mind still is. Thankfully, his blood oxygen is still between 93-95% at any given time, but he is having a very bad time with fever and nausea. When the nausea and fever finally subside and he tries to eat, his fever and nausea spike back up again, so he's feeling really weak even though he can still breathe relatively well. I dropped some Pedialyte powder off at their house today so he doesn't have to drink as much fluid to keep his electrolytes up. Hopefully that will help him some. Today is Day 10 since his symptoms began, so hopefully he only has to hang in there for a couple/few more days.
Except the Wuhan Wet Market wasn't the origin most likely but rather a site where significant human to human transmission occured. There were loads of early cases not connected to the wet market which makes it unlikely that the virus jumped species there. We know that this wasn't a genetically engineered virus and we know it is most closely related to a bat Coronavirus in another region - the one found in Wuhan is very different. That doesn't mean that it is impossible for it to have infected someone at a research lab that isn't genetically engineering viruses but it still means that the most likely explanation is zoonosis via an intermediate host as with SARS and MARS.
It would be interesting to find out more about those early cases but even if China has nothing to hide they are likely to be quite secretive given the effort being put into throwing them under the bus.
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The level of entitlement and lack of self awareness is astounding.
We have brought down the number of cases to 10k per day though on reduced testing and with 500-600 deaths per day still, but today many businesses in Poland are opening against restrictions so I expect the number to climb back up shortly. In mountain resorts most opened their doors last week so there's plenty of tourists going that direction now. Restrictions are still in place but owners think they can fight it in court and they are mostly right as they have been winning so far.
Vaccinations have been going very slowly so I do not expect things to get much better this year. Even if they were going fast we are still probably looking at 30% of population being willing to get it anyway which will slow it down but not erase the problem.
Vaccinations have been going very slowly so I do not expect things to get much better this year. Even if they were going fast we are still probably looking at 30% of population being willing to get it anyway which will slow it down but not erase the problem.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...ption-for-lockdown-fever-20210118-p56uxe.html
Djokovic: I demand ............
Dan Andrews: No
I saw some article saying some US states have opened up vaccinations to everyone and people are traveling cross states to get a jab..
Will they open up to visitors to the US as well ?
Will they open up to visitors to the US as well ?
Totally agree with this. It comes over as in very bad taste. My "favourite" quote from the linked article is "What I don't understand is that, why no-one ever told us, if one person on board is positive the whole plane need to be isolated... I would think twice before coming here." How could you possibly not understand that?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-55693223
Hope they both get well soon.
I think that it something to do with how media were portraying things and where they were looking. The medical communities were being flooded with data coming out of China as soon as it all kicked off in January.
I'm not sure we can even be 100% certain it originated in China at this stage. It was seemingly in Italy in November 19. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjd.19804
Indeed. And one of the only countries who have a booming economy.
Tensions are beginning to rise again in Italy. The government is falling apart of its own accord for unrelated reasons, but now the Lombardy region is pushing for relaxing restrictions. For context, we are one of 3/20 locked down Red Zones, despite having numerous indicators in a better shape than much of the rest of the country. The region accounts for about a quarter of the economy and people are getting frustrated at being pushed to get out working and keep the economy moving, and at the same time being locked in their houses outside work hours, all whilst the rest of the country lives pretty freely. The police here don't seem particularly interested in enforcing things anymore and lots more people are flouting the rules.
I'm about to relocate to Florence. I've been hearing that people are having a great time there.
Quote in Reuters yesterday that MPs believe this lockdown will go on until at least March.
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-...se-lockdown-from-march-minister-idUSKBN29M06H
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-...se-lockdown-from-march-minister-idUSKBN29M06H
Anyone had the vaccine yet?
My wife's getting hers tomorrow (NHS worker)
My Ma got hers last week (NHS worker), my nan got hers last week too (old and wrinkly)
Seems like the NHS are doing a sterling job with this vaccine roll out, very efficient.
My wife's getting hers tomorrow (NHS worker)
My Ma got hers last week (NHS worker), my nan got hers last week too (old and wrinkly)
Seems like the NHS are doing a sterling job with this vaccine roll out, very efficient.
My gf's best mate works for the Treasury and has said the same.
My mum gets hers on Thursday.
One thing to note, it seems like there's a massive delay in getting the second jab, we're talking march/beginning of April,
Be interesting to see if your ma has the same time scale?!
Yeah she said she's not sure when the second will be but thinks it'll be a few months.
I wouldn't doubt that, @Penna is a bit closer to Florence than me. Here at least it all feels like people need a release valve. The mountain resorts opening was supposed to be a big one but they have all been delayed until mid February.
It's been ok here in Perugia although a bit dull. I fancy somewhere a bit livelier and I think museums/galleries are about to open.
You are leading a similar phase to me, I really hope your parents recover swiftly and your wife is OK mentally too. It's not easy in ICU.
My wife is also working ICU here in London, do you mean your wife also works in ICU too? I certainly hope she's not admitted to ICU!
My parents too have covid. Thankfully my dad despite higher risk is having very mild symptoms, and my mum has zero appetite and severe exhaustion. Fortunately no cough or breathing difficulties, but it's only day 7 so few more days yet. I hope mine and your family pull through unaffected!
Oh i didn't realise you were here already
I hope you all recover swiftly and fully
be surprised if they don’t use the school holidays as a realistic time to think about relaxing anything.
Think half term in most areas is mid-February so I think they should extend the half term by another week and take this ‘lockdown’ to the very of Feb.
Yeah, my wife is a nurse in the ICU here.
Wow, our experiences are very similar, that’s wild. It’s just flipped with my dad as he is the one experiencing what your mom is. My mom said she has started improving as of yesterday.
My mum got her first jab on Saturday. Her second dose is on the 27th March. She got the AstraZeneca one.
According to this article a case was found in China though in November the 17th. I don't know if it makes any difference.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/soc...nas-first-confirmed-covid-19-case-traced-back
Since October.
That's crazy. I can empathize for sure - hope everyone pulls through just fine.
I think we probably underestimate the mental stress of working in ICU. They had 279 positive patients in the hospital from Tuesday, and to think a huge part of it is down to sheer incompetence from the Government is just frustrating.
That is quite important though. If covid 19 is indeed the result of a gof leak, I think the least is to relocate these labs away from big cities.
Thank you for sharing the article, very informative.