Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[JimmyJeffers]

Interesting chat with my Da this morning who works for a company that maintains a lot of Unilever buildings across the globe. Apparently Unilever have said that this has shown them that home working is far more viable than thought, likely will reduce size of buildings and also conduct more meetings via electronic methods going forward. If it’s a trend that continues and spreads the value of commercial properties could massively shrink over the next few years, as well as travel between sites.

I think this has been a trend anyways but this will just dramatically accelerate things. Can see several organisations using the same office space on different days of the week. I also imagine that housing in rural areas will become more sought after with people needing to commute less.
You would think that disused office space could be altered to be used for housing.
My work has said for years it’s impossible to work from home, then this happens and we’re all suddenly able to do so.

 

[zzr45]

I think this has been a trend anyways but this will just dramatically accelerate things. Can see several organisations using the same office space on different days of the week. I also imagine that housing in rural areas will become more sought after with people needing to commute less.
You would think that disused office space could be altered to be used for housing.
My work has said for years it’s impossible to work from home, then this happens and we’re all suddenly able to do so.

As you say it’s been a trend for a while, perhaps not exploited to the fullest because there’s always been an air of uncertainty about it. There could be potential for massive de-centralisation of populations away from cities, whether that is good or bad remains to be seen.

 

[Billy Dean]

I think this has been a trend anyways but this will just dramatically accelerate things. Can see several organisations using the same office space on different days of the week. I also imagine that housing in rural areas will become more sought after with people needing to commute less.
You would think that disused office space could be altered to be used for housing.
My work has said for years it’s impossible to work from home, then this happens and we’re all suddenly able to do so.

Same as my place. The people at the top have always been dead against it and only put in place a teleworking policy reluctantly and it was quite restrictive. Now we're all at home and things are ticking over pretty well.

 

[spectateur]

Coronavirus: are we underestimating how many people have had it? Sweden thinks so

Swedish authorities claim the country is rapidly approaching herd immunity.

theconversation.com

Well they would claim that, wouldn't they?

 

[jamieni]

As you say it’s been a trend for a while, perhaps not exploited to the fullest because there’s always been an air of uncertainty about it. There could be potential for massive de-centralisation of populations away from cities, whether that is good or bad remains to be seen.

A friend of mine works for BT and has been doing a lot of work on setting up remote working facilities for corporate customers. As he says, “the genie is out of the bottle” now.

 

[BlueToff]

I would it seems more hopeful than much else, their approach depends on painting that picture

While that point is a good one mate, it's also obvious that a lot of people have had this thing already.

Of the now 9 people I know/know of who have shown symptoms, only one of them has been tested.

But all of them have had the exact symptoms - to varying degrees of severity (thankfully none of them worse than a bad 48-hour thing).

That's just one example and you can be sure to multiply that across the population, can't you.

 

[BlueToff]

Well they would claim that, wouldn't they?

But it is true.

There's no chance the mortality rate of this thing is actually 15%, mate, when there's evidence between 70% and 80% of people don't show symptoms.

Not saying we've all had it and you're absolutely right, but at the same time it'd be really daft to think there's not millions more people who have had this than the figures show.

 

[JimmyJeffers]

As you say it’s been a trend for a while, perhaps not exploited to the fullest because there’s always been an air of uncertainty about it. There could be potential for massive de-centralisation of populations away from cities, whether that is good or bad remains to be seen.

Yeah this could be a huge problem. Could possibly see urban areas become undesirable places to live. Going to be the biggest social changes seen in the last 30 years.

 

[JimmyJeffers]

Same as my place. The people at the top have always been dead against it and only put in place a teleworking policy reluctantly and it was quite restrictive. Now we're all at home and things are ticking over pretty well.

The office is an archaic concept. Been saying this a few years now cos I’m very clever.

 

[Walken]

While that point is a good one mate, it's also obvious that a lot of people have had this thing already.

Of the now 9 people I know/know of who have shown symptoms, only one of them has been tested.

But all of them have had the exact symptoms - to varying degrees of severity (thankfully none of them worse than a bad 48-hour thing).

That's just one example and you can be sure to multiply that across the population, can't you.

I sincerely hope they are right, but I find all the anecdotal stuff about everyone having something a little different than the flu a bit hard to correlate to hospital admission data etc. I'm sure there are asymptomatic cases and very mild cases but I would need to see some more conclusive evidence before I believe it's anything near the percentages needed for herd immunity. Even the countries that aren't as appallingly woeful as the UK when it comes to testing don't represent that it has been near those figures, an efficient antibody testing system might show different but right now people remembering things according to their respective bias is just specualtion and no reason to change current SD methods.

 

[COYBL25]

I think this has been a trend anyways but this will just dramatically accelerate things. Can see several organisations using the same office space on different days of the week. I also imagine that housing in rural areas will become more sought after with people needing to commute less.
You would think that disused office space could be altered to be used for housing.
My work has said for years it’s impossible to work from home, then this happens and we’re all suddenly able to do so.

A lot of places and the upper echelons don`t trust their staff to work from home, it`s as simple as that.

They have this image of someone lounging around in their pyjamas all day and doing next to nothing.

When I worked from home, I found that I got much more done, but my working day was spread out due to the flexibility it afforded.

After over three years of it, the lack of interaction with people started to drive me mad though.

It`s got many good points, but ultimately it can become very lonely.

You`re heating bills go up massively in the Winter too.

 

[Neiler]

If NI figures are representative of the rest of the UK, then 60% of RIPs are happening in hospital, 35% in Residential Care, 5% in the community.

Third of all Covid-19 deaths in NI in care homes

New Figures released by the Northern Ireland Statistical Agency show a third of all coronavirus deaths there happened in care homes.

www.rte.ie

Pretty much, if not just short of European averages in settings.

 

[BlueToff]

I sincerely hope they are right, but I find all the anecdotal stuff about everyone having something a little different than the flu a bit hard to correlate to hospital admission data etc. I'm sure there are asymptomatic cases and very mild cases but I would need to see some more conclusive evidence before I believe it's anything near the percentages needed for herd immunity. Even the countries that aren't as appallingly woeful as the UK when it comes to testing don't represent that it has been near those figures, an efficient antibody testing system might show different but right now people remembering things according to their respective bias is just specualtion and no reason to change current SD methods.

70-80% of people who have it could be asymptomatic according to some studies mate - but ones governments have quoted.

That's a lot of people.

Again not saying everyone has had it and it could be the flu, mate. Well aware and we cannot be making assumptions.

But it's clearly key to have these (reliable) anti-body tests too isn't it. So we can tell.

 

[ForeverBlue92]

While that point is a good one mate, it's also obvious that a lot of people have had this thing already.

Of the now 9 people I know/know of who have shown symptoms, only one of them has been tested.

But all of them have had the exact symptoms - to varying degrees of severity (thankfully none of them worse than a bad 48-hour thing).

That's just one example and you can be sure to multiply that across the population, can't you.

Its absolutely daft - I've had a cough for 5 days and slight breathlessness / headache for 4 yet will never likely find out if I have it or just a chest infection or something.

The fact im typically very healthy and have never had a chest infection or rarely get a cold that lasts more than 2-3 days makes me think I have it but Hancock is more bothered moaning about no one wanting a test despite him not offering me one lol

 

[JimmyJeffers]

They have this image of someone lounging around in their pyjamas all day and doing next to nothing.