Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[LinekersLegs]

Got you, just reading it now

I still don't think a government should be fining people during a pandemic. Dunno, doesn't sit right. But none of this does, tbf.

They fine you for a broken tail light which endangers others as they can’t see you signal/brake so in concept not sure why this different. Doubt they are throwing anyone in jail in reality, just encouraging compliance and trying to avoid idiots deliberately flouting it (see Pence, Mike)

 

[ForeverBlue92]

Good news but no doubt Karen will get her hands on one before me because her fella works on the bins.

 

[Neiler]

Covid-19 vaccine by September? Oxford Group leaps ahead

Scientists at the National Institutes of Healths Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Montana last month inoculated six rhesus macaque monkeys with single doses of the Oxford vaccine. The animals were then exposed to heavy quantities of the virus that is causing the pandemic — exposure that had...

economictimes.indiatimes.com

Irish scientist leads Oxford COVID-19 vaccine

“In the worldwide race for a vaccine to stop the coronavirus, the laboratory sprinting fastest is at Oxford University.” the Times reports. Hill and Oxford researchers had already been working on coronavirus type vaccines and just very recently monkey trials showed the Oxford vaccine protected...

www.irishcentral.com

The Oxford vectored vaccine team are making promising noises usually not seen at this stage of development, these are the people who have adapted other corona virus vaccines which they developed for mers and I think the original SARS they are adapting these vaccines to try and get it to work on covid - which means they’re not starting from scratch … everything crossed!

 

[Walken]

I was just curious. Each will have an EPRR function, but they won't necessarily be responsible for PPE procurement.

It's very possible I got the wrong end of the stick with that part of the convo

 

[LinekersLegs]

It's very possible I got the wrong end of the stick with that part of the convo

Eyes glazed over when EPRR buying PPE ASAP was discussed?

 

[LinekersLegs]

Not only at the horrendous number of people dying but # tests is less than last week.

 

[Walken]

Oh good another reason to hate elon musk, utter disgrace he carries uses a genuinely great mans name

 

[Foot Long Hot Dog]

But why not exactly?

Surely part of managing a pandemic is to use actual information and not guess work?

When you run something as big as this on may be the number rather than is the number then it's false grounding. Sure there is a pandemic to manage here but how do you manage numbers like the government set out last week , if you are guessing cause of death?

Counting infection rates means nothing when you aren't testing the entire population. Counting any death and discarding the norm is just , for want of a better word , making it up. Especially when people die from these symptoms Evey single day of the year.

The figures may not vary too much , or there could be significant drops, who am I to say either side of that coin.

But in the bigger picture , if this was any other country we were talking about doing this , peoples opinions would be slightly different. So many people are quick to try and call out China for lying about their figures , what's the difference with the UK inflating theres?


I'm not denying there has been an increase significantly. Said it before a post or so up.

You are confusing questioning the numbers with denial, which is certainly not what I am doing.

You’re trying to suggest the U.K. is somehow inflating it’s number of deaths, that’s denial in my book, and extremely odd behaviour to boot.

 

[LinekersLegs]

Oh good another reason to hate elon musk, utter disgrace he carries uses a genuinely great mans name

We’ve just extended our shelter in place order in the Bay Area to end of May

Elon Musk says orders to stay home are 'fascist' in expletive-laced rant during Tesla earnings call

Tesla CEO Elon Musk lashed out at government stay at home orders as "fascist" in an expletive-laced rant on Tesla's Q1 earnings call.

www.cnbc.com

Pretty sure his “if somebody wants to stay in the house that’s great, they should be allowed to stay in the house and they should not be compelled to leave.” would not extend to his workers at his Fremont factory that iirc already had workplace safety problems.
edit

Inside Tesla’s Model 3 Factory, Where Safety Violations Keep Rising

As Tesla announces a more affordable model, its Fremont, California factory workforce had already felt heavy pressure to produce enough cars. And the strains showed: safety regulators have assessed more fines at the plant other large U.S. automotive plants, a Forbes review finds.

www.forbes.com

the factory is grappling with a more dubious claim to fame: It has been the target of more investigations into workplace safety and has incurred more fines than its rivals' main U.S. auto plants in the past half decade.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Coronavirus: survey reveals what Swedish people really think of country’s relaxed approach

Critics say older people are being put at risk by the relaxed approach to social distancing. But they seem to be the most in favour of it, according to a new survey.

theconversation.com

 

[Barnfred 55]

Good article summarizing today’s trial results

The one thing that stands out in that report LL is the low death rate, just 11% for even the people given placebos. Given that the severity of the disease in these patients were that they were hospitalised for umpteen days I'd have thought the death rate would have been much higher. Certainly that's the impression I've taken from people who have had lengthy spells in U.K. Hospitals. It doesn't help that we don't publish any accurate recovery figures.

How do these tests operate in practice? Do patients sign up for them. TBH I'm not sure how I'd feel about it if having agreed to take part I was then given a placebo rather than a potentially life saving drug.

 

[tsubaki]

But why not exactly?

Surely part of managing a pandemic is to use actual information and not guess work?

When you run something as big as this on may be the number rather than is the number then it's false grounding. Sure there is a pandemic to manage here but how do you manage numbers like the government set out last week , if you are guessing cause of death?

Counting infection rates means nothing when you aren't testing the entire population. Counting any death and discarding the norm is just , for want of a better word , making it up. Especially when people die from these symptoms Evey single day of the year.

The figures may not vary too much , or there could be significant drops, who am I to say either side of that coin.

But in the bigger picture , if this was any other country we were talking about doing this , peoples opinions would be slightly different. So many people are quick to try and call out China for lying about their figures , what's the difference with the UK inflating theres?

Because the U.K. isn’t inflating figures, if anything we are still undercounting.

To confirm someone’s cause of death requires tests and an examination - which requires time, space to store the body in and staff to carry them out. In a pandemic there are lots of bodies, not enough space and not enough staff. This means in most cases we will only know if a a death is COVID related if a person has tested positive and then died of something, though there will be people (terminal cancer patients for example) where the death is still likely to be from that rather than COVID itself.

However all these people will have tested + and will have died, which is the only relevant bit of information.

 

[Barnfred 55]

you are sick.....

Not really. It just suits his political agenda to believe that. If Corbyn won the last election he would be blaming the Chinese too.

I've not said this before but sometimes I wish that Labour had won the last election and were in charge of managing this crisis. Not because I believe they would be performing much better (they would have the same logistical problems and issues of quality of permanent government depts), but because the country would be a lot more unified behind them in tackling this monster

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Heard yesterday, in the midst of a rise in domestic violence, that social services in our borough haven't done home visits in 6 weeks due to having no ppe. Obviously social services are local council (Labour), so is it all a big horrid Labour issue sending women to be beaten by their brutish partners, or a Tory [Poor language removed] for years of austerity undercutting vital public services issue? Or just a bit of a balls up all round? I can probably guess what most people will say. Incidentally, it was the local manager who told staff not to tell people they had no ppe (no doubt under instruction from *checks notes to see who on earth the Tory [Poor language removed] in charge of this is)

 

[Barnfred 55]

The missus started of as a care worker mate, then was a social worker for many years before becoming a manager and went on to work for a few councils in that role before becoming a director. She still keeps her social worker subs paid up. She actually left a local council because they wanted her to implement stuff that went against everything she believed in and she's never lost that passion for what she does.

I think it's great that somebody is prepared to walk away from a job on principal Lou. Well done her. I never had the balls to, but in banking every company was basically the same so it would have been a frying pan/fire situation. I often regret not leaving the industry earlier. I hated my job in the end and the company I worked for.

Needless I'm thoroughly ashamed of the self serving attitude all the banks are displaying in the current crisis. Especially given the bail out they had in the last financial crisis which was largely of their own making anyway