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

Dr. Dwayne

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In the interest of research I had a quick look. It seems they've just opportunistically given normal porn stuff corona themed names- eg 'old guy and young lass in corona lockdown action' or the like. Disappointing, although not sure what I was expecting tbh. Also, dunno if it was my wfi or loads of people are on it, but it was running really slowly- couldn't actually watch vids.
I was hoping for money shots on N95 masks.
 

arnie_ni

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Ikea are closing their shops at 6pm today - I've just had the email.
They say they'll reopen when they can.
Youll see alot more business do this now the 80 percent wage help has been brought in along with rates and debt holidays. That has to be the majority of fixed costs covered by the government
 

Foxbatt

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Now the Lancet medical journal is saying the Chinese doctors and scientists did inform them and even wrote in the journal about this new virus in January this year. At that time they only knew how serious it was and what was the symptoms and how they are trying to isolate it. This was given to the British government by the Journal yet the government did not seem fit to act. In fact the government's policy was to get as many people infected and have a herd mentality. The Chinese and later the Italians were saying this is the wrong approach. The WHO asked for 675M USD to declare a pandemic and was refused.
The whole World has failed and not just China. Others are more culpable because from what happened in China they were able to see beforehand exactly what was going to happen 3 months in advance and yet they did nothing to stop it or to save the lives of so many people.
At least the Chinese are helping other nations to combat this virus. UK government is not doing enough to combat this virus even in the UK. The same in the USA too.
 

Pexbo

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What's your opinion on Sunak? The guy seems pretty on the ball, unlike Johnson.
I know virtually nothing about him previous to this so I can’t give an opinion on him as a politician or his views, I’m sure he is just another conservative at the end of the day but I’ve been impressed with how he has been managing this situation.

He’s a stark contrast to Matt Hancock as Health Secretary. While Rishi is clear and straightforward in his responses and talks with knowledge and authority, Hancock is consistently obtuse and says so much without saying anything at all. He was on bbc breakfast this morning and I tried to construct what he actually said after every answer and it was absolutely zero in substance. He’s in perhaps the most crucial role in the country right now and he’s winging it.
 

Amar__

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I’m starting to think the 6-8 months estimations might be optimistic. This could easily last a few years. We will have to basically rebuild economy after it’s done. I can’t wrap my head around what is happening.
No way it can last few years. I mean, the virus can last even more but this closedown will not last more than few months at maximum. I guess we will know more in few weeks, but I doubt everything can stop for more than few months.
 

Mr Pigeon

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I know virtually nothing about him previous to this so I can’t give an opinion on him as a politician or his views, I’m sure he is just another conservative at the end of the day but I’ve been impressed with how he has been managing this situation.

He’s a stark contrast to Matt Hancock as Health Secretary. While Rishi is clear and straightforward in his responses and talks with knowledge and authority, Hancock is consistently obtuse and says so much without saying anything at all. He was on bbc breakfast this morning and I tried to construct what he actually said after every answer and it was absolutely zero in substance. He’s in perhaps the most crucial role in the country right now and he’s winging it.
I like to think that Rishi, unlike Javid, is more of a "let the rich get rich and leave them be" Tory instead of the "let the rich get rich and leave them be, and also feck the poor because it's funny" Tory.

Then you had George Osborne who was a "I have no idea what I'm doing but let's kill the poor and steal their clothes" Tory.
 

spiriticon

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I know virtually nothing about him previous to this so I can’t give an opinion on him as a politician or his views, I’m sure he is just another conservative at the end of the day but I’ve been impressed with how he has been managing this situation.

He’s a stark contrast to Matt Hancock as Health Secretary. While Rishi is clear and straightforward in his responses and talks with knowledge and authority, Hancock is consistently obtuse and says so much without saying anything at all. He was on bbc breakfast this morning and I tried to construct what he actually said after every answer and it was absolutely zero in substance. He’s in perhaps the most crucial role in the country right now and he’s winging it.
Totally agree. He is definitely making it up as we go along.
 

2cents

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Less than yesterday:

 

Damien

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I know virtually nothing about him previous to this so I can’t give an opinion on him as a politician or his views, I’m sure he is just another conservative at the end of the day but I’ve been impressed with how he has been managing this situation.

He’s a stark contrast to Matt Hancock as Health Secretary. While Rishi is clear and straightforward in his responses and talks with knowledge and authority, Hancock is consistently obtuse and says so much without saying anything at all. He was on bbc breakfast this morning and I tried to construct what he actually said after every answer and it was absolutely zero in substance. He’s in perhaps the most crucial role in the country right now and he’s winging it.
Nuts that for the past eight years we've had Jeremy Hunt followed by Matt Hancock in charge of such an important institution.
 

FlawlessThaw

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I like to think that Rishi, unlike Javid, is more of a "let the rich get rich and leave them be" Tory instead of the "let the rich get rich and leave them be, and also feck the poor because it's funny" Tory.
Probably wouldn't have said this 10 weeks ago but we are far luckier that Sunak is the Chancellor as opposed to Javid. 10 weeks ago I would have said they are just two Tory cnuts.
 

Virgil

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No, but there are thickos who need to be told. Not everybody watches the news and keeps up with all this. A 10 second soundbite from Boris that rams home the essential point is as good as they might get.
Surely the point is that they are being ‘told’ and are ignoring. Same with supermarket shopping ....thus my question as to whether the only way to get us to obey is to actually force us.
 
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Feels like the pub, cafe etc. closure statement only happened because of what Tim Martin said on Sky News. Good that action has been taken but should have happened sooner. Feels like the government is being reactive rather than proactive. Was someone on Sky News earlier saying that the UK is days or so behind other countries in terms of infection rate etc so don't need to take action like lockdowns to try and forcibly reduce the spread but that attitude just means that we will get worse sooner rather than later, and by the time lockdowns are in place it'll be almost too late.
hAve to disagree. The intervention the government have made is astonishing. You wouldn’t be able to have got to this position in one announcement, it needed to be gradual so the country gets used to what’s happening and is able to digest what’s happening.
 

Beans

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Looks like supermarkets and Amazon are going to be the only companies left operating in the world and everyone will work for them eventually.
Bezos buys the entire stock market on the dip, declares himself emperor from his New Zealand bunker.
 

Sweet Square

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Probably wouldn't have said this 10 weeks ago but we are far luckier that Sunak is the Chancellor as opposed to Javid. 10 weeks ago I would have said they are just two Tory cnuts.
Didn't Javid get fired for some bizarre personal reasons ? Anyways he would have put forward the same policy as Sunak did today as anything else is suicide for the country and the government.


hAve to disagree. The intervention the government have made is astonishing. You wouldn’t be able to have got to this position in one announcement, it needed to be gradual so the country gets used to what’s happening and is able to digest what’s happening.
This sort of policy happened in Denmark nearly 2 weeks ago(Fyi Denmark policy is still better). The tories are very late to the party.
 
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Camilo

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hAve to disagree. The intervention the government have made is astonishing. You wouldn’t be able to have got to this position in one announcement, it needed to be gradual so the country gets used to what’s happening and is able to digest what’s happening.
I completely agree. And it has actually been pretty fast in the grand scheme of things anyway.

The fact is we need people to catch it. There was no point is shutting everything down with only a handful of cases..
 

JP77

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Only the small shops have stuff thought, it seems. Even after restocking overnight and the supposed "pensioners and vulnerable only" my local Asda had feck all at 9:10 this morning. Went in with a trolley and came out with three Mother's Day cards.
Yeah the vulnerable only fro 6-9 wasn't actually true when it came to Asda. They let the vulnerable and elderly in at 6 when I was there this morning and gave them 5 or so minutes before opening it up to absolutely everybody. A staff member then explained to an elderly person that what had apparently been advertised wasn't correct. Basically if you are old or vulnerable and got there at 6:10 you would have seen zero benefit what so ever. Madness.
 

arnie_ni

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2 absolute bell ends on sky news. One guy in a pub blaming boris for only recommending staying away from pubs for his being there
 

FrankDrebin

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Looks like supermarkets and Amazon are going to be the only companies left operating in the world and everyone will work for them eventually.
Delivery companies are going to be hiring alot of people soon, methinks.
 

Damien

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I completely agree. And it has actually been pretty fast in the grand scheme of things anyway.

The fact is we need people to catch it. There was no point is shutting everything down with only a handful of cases..
Hospitals are already struggling with the intake though. For me it is reckless to want it spread quickly for herd immunity when our hospitals aren't equipped for the numbers.
 

Pexbo

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Nuts that for the past eight years we've had Jeremy Hunt followed by Matt Hancock in charge of such an important institution.
I don’t think Hancock will last this. Like Hunt, his task was to continue the stealthy dismantling and privatisation of the NHS, he’s completely out of his depth for this scenario. I think it’s only a matter of time before he’s replaced with someone who genuinely has the intelligence and skill set to lead this situation.
 
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Didn't Javid get fired for some bizarre personal reasons ? Anyways he would have put forward the same policy as Sunak did today as anything else is suicide for the country and the government.



This sort of policy happened in Denmark nearly 2 weeks ago. The tories are very late to the party.
each country is different. We will only know for certainty whether the actions of the government were correct and at the right time in retrospect is 12-18-24 months time.

I think they have been very clear about what has needed to happen. And like @Camilo says, the science doesn’t say you suddenly go into lockdown at day zero. Take appropriate action dependent on the situation.
 

F-Red

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So.

Its good for employees, although I think many businesses will struggle to make up the lost 20% of wages long term if they have no income, especially smaller ones, so thats a 20% drop in income f or a huge number of households I would imagine.

Its terrible for anyone self employed, essentially you get a tax deferment plus £94 a week to live on. That's a ticking timebomb of problems and the government will have to provide more support, very soon.

Its even worse for the zero hours people, neither johnson or sunak had any answer at all about them, they've just been ignored.

Sunak had good delivery, calm and authoritative. Johnson is at this point just a waste of time.
There's a VAT deferment for 3 months, so the 20% can be made up through other means.
 

Smores

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Looks like supermarkets and Amazon are going to be the only companies left operating in the world and everyone will work for them eventually.
We'll all get paid in amazon credit and when be builds his spaceship relocate to the moon. All hail Bezos, all hail prime!
 

Sweet Square

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each country is different. We will only know for certainty whether the actions of the government were correct and at the right time in retrospect is 12-18-24 months time.

I think they have been very clear about what has needed to happen. And like @Camilo says, the science doesn’t say you suddenly go into lockdown at day zero. Take appropriate action dependent on the situation.
I genuinely feel sorry for people like you.
 

arnie_ni

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Why couldn't the self employed get 80% of their last yearly income? We pay tax like everybody else. We've been absolutely fecked over.
They'll do something next week im sure. They can't expect you to live on 94 per week. Its just harder to settle on a figure.

It also couldnt be income, it would be of net profit id imagine
 

Grinner

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Did anyone see that fat cow on BBC News just now moaning about only having a few days food left? She probably means that she actually has enough for a family of four for a week.
 

Brwned

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This to me is a concern, it’s something still a bit taboo at the moment but at the moment most people are scared and are listening and so the social distancing is working. But once people understand and figure out that the probability of them getting ill from the virus is actually extremely low, coupled with not working, Not socialising, no income etc the tide will turn without question.
It’s a rubbish situation and despite what the experts on here say (a lot seem to be missing the long term mental health ramifications of what measures they want) there is literally no right or wrong way to do this. Because whatever happens people are going to suffer one way or another.
The "experts" on here are mostly amplifying what the expert consensus across the globe is. Are you seriously saying you think their best judgment about the health, economic and social outcomes is not worth following? No-one knows precisely what's going to happen, so it's all opinions at the end of the day, and your opinion counts as much as anyone else's?
 

FlawlessThaw

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I'd be more concerned about gig economy workers than the self-employed. But the income protection is a very good start.
 

jojojo

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Feels like the pub, cafe etc. closure statement only happened because of what Tim Martin said on Sky News. Good that action has been taken but should have happened sooner. Feels like the government is being reactive rather than proactive. Was someone on Sky News earlier saying that the UK is days or so behind other countries in terms of infection rate etc so don't need to take action like lockdowns to try and forcibly reduce the spread but that attitude just means that we will get worse sooner rather than later, and by the time lockdowns are in place it'll be almost too late.
I think they were trying get through Mother's Day - now they've realised that was too huge a gamble. Closing the pubs at this stage is another "take it seriously" warning.
 

ivaldo

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Feels like the pub, cafe etc. closure statement only happened because of what Tim Martin said on Sky News. Good that action has been taken but should have happened sooner. Feels like the government is being reactive rather than proactive. Was someone on Sky News earlier saying that the UK is days or so behind other countries in terms of infection rate etc so don't need to take action like lockdowns to try and forcibly reduce the spread but that attitude just means that we will get worse sooner rather than later, and by the time lockdowns are in place it'll be almost too late.
I don't think that's necessarily the case. To me it seems pretty obvious this was going to be a progressive shutdown. I had no doubt whatsoever pubs, clubs etc. would be forced to close at some point. A large portion of the general public are thick as two planks however, so to outline this would've caused more of a meltdown than we have already seen.
 

F-Red

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Why couldn't the self employed get 80% of their last yearly income? We pay tax like everybody else. We've been absolutely fecked over.
All depends on how much they truly declare in terms of what comes back. I wouldn't worry, there will be some announcements next week once they work out how to deliver this. The fact they've delivered 80% protection of salaries already would suggest they will do something similar for self employed, the difficult is working out the best and fairest mechanic to do this.
 

Infra-red

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The fact is we need people to catch it. There was no point is shutting everything down with only a handful of cases..
It's exactly the opposite. We needed to defer the point at which people got it until much later, to buy us some time to expand our critical care capacity.

The government's laissez-faire approach to this outbreak will, in the weeks ahead, prove to have been a complete disaster. What we are witnessing here, is a slow motion car crash.
 

Mr Pigeon

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Yeah the vulnerable only fro 6-9 wasn't actually true when it came to Asda. They let the vulnerable and elderly in at 6 when I was there this morning and gave them 5 or so minutes before opening it up to absolutely everybody. A staff member then explained to an elderly person that what had apparently been advertised wasn't correct. Basically if you are old or vulnerable and got there at 6:10 you would have seen zero benefit what so ever. Madness.
That explains it. It's also fecked up.
 

JTW95

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I'm no expert on politics how are the government going to fund paying those wages? Does it mean borrowing and another recession?