Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[davek]

152 deaths reported by the NHS, up 29 on yesterday’s figure, 143 were from England, up 35, with 112 coming from the past 10 days

The latest ONS report has gone only counting deaths that occurred up to 22nd May but many registered to Saturday gone

In civilised European nations those figures will be under or just over 10 deaths anounced today.

 

[davek]

An absolute disgrace. We cannot bring back the dead, nor heal those who may have problems for life, but we should definitely give them the world bill for having to deal with it. If the West let’s them off the hook for this then we deserve everything that will come in the future.......

The UK Government was given a 2 month start on the severity of Covid19 and still failed to protect their own people.

Forget the Chinese and WHO, this catastrophe was made by the Tory Party.

They will be in the dock.

 

[peteblue]

I think we can all agree, they need to open the barbers.

A barbers in Nelson got raided for still being open ‘by appointment’......

 

[COYBL25]

A barbers in Nelson got raided for still being open ‘by appointment’......

There’s one by me that’s never shut.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

But isn’t that a point that every other Medic and Scientist is saying anyway....Whitty puts a caveat on the release from lockdown every time he speaks......

And yet we're going ahead anyway.

 

[YoboCopter]

There’s one by me that’s never shut.

Haha boss

 

[COYBL25]

The UK Government was given a 2 month start on the severity of Covid19 and still failed to protect their own people.

Forget the Chinese and WHO, this catastrophe was made by the Tory Party.

They will be in the dock.

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/coro...na-delayed-rel-important-information-11999027

Imagine my shock

So the Great Bunch of Lads conceal the truth, then lie about it and the rest of the world gives them a walk ?

lol

 

[Catfish Blues]

Hes also communicated that he expects us to be available and active in the day we're unemployed.

If he's expecting you to work when furloughed that'd be illegal over here in the UK and presumably is where you are too. If he's been stupid enough to put that into an email I'd have no hesitation in grassing the [Poor language removed] up.

 

[Disgruntledgoat]

If he's expecting you to work when furloughed that'd be illegal over here in the UK and presumably is where you are too. If he's been stupid enough to put that into an email I'd have no hesitation in grassing the [Poor language removed] up.

As ever in corporate hell the word "flexible" covers a multitude of sins.

 

[BlueStevie35]

324 is the overall figure for the day, doesn’t appear that there’s any backdated additional from pillar two like yesterday

The figure is 232 lower than the revised figure of 24 hours ago, but 288 higher than last Tuesday owing to the Bank Holiday

The 7 day rolling averages sit at 167.29 for hospitals and 285.14 in all settings, the latter having rose back over 300 yesterday due to the pillar 2 additions

 

[COYBL25]

I understand that completely. My rant was not raised in specific to sports reporters or any parts that aren't the venom spitting, destructive nature that paper tries to feed (Which I guess most of these would be freelancers anyhow and not DM staff). But I would say if you sell your soul to the devil and write things that you don't agree with then they are in the wrong job and everyone has a choice at the end of the day to do something different, difficult though it may be.

I agree to a point mate, but with print media slowly dying a death, I don’t think many old skool journos really have much of a choice.

If it comes to keeping a roof over your families head, I’d say that most would sacrifice their principles.

 

[Barnfred 55]

The lad over the road from me is a footy journo for a broadsheet ( @Connor ) knows who he is.

He`s a top lad and in the past he was one of the lead sports writers for a very unsavoury paper, for which he took a lot of abuse.

He once told me that nearly all journalists don`t have the luxury of picking and choosing employers and quite simply have to go where the work is.

He never worked for the Echo? No wonder he binned them

 

[Barnfred 55]

Rt Hon Dear Secretary of State,

Thank you for your letter of 27 May, in which you described some welcome, though limited, additions to the official data on COVID-19 tests, including a proposed note on methods (not yet published at the time of writing). I am afraid though that the figures are still far from complete and comprehensible.

Statistics on testing perhaps serve two main purposes.

The first is to help us understand the epidemic, alongside the ONS survey, showing us how many people are infected, or not, and their relevant characteristics.

The second purpose is to help manage the test programme, to ensure there are enough tests, that they are carried out or sent where they are needed and that they are being used as effectively as possible. The data should tell the public how effectively the testing programme is being managed.

The way the data are analysed and presented currently gives them limited value for the first purpose. The aim seems to be to show the largest possible number of tests, even at the expense of understanding. It is also hard to believe the statistics work to support the testing programme itself. The statistics and analysis serve neither purpose well.

To mention just a few issues in relation to the data as currently presented:

the headline total of tests adds together tests carried out with tests posted out. This distinction is too often elided during the presentation at the daily press conference, where the relevant figure may misleadingly be described simply as the number of tests carried out. There are no data on how many of the tests posted out are in fact then successfully completed. The slides used in the daily press conference do not show the date when the tests were carried out;
the notes to the daily slides rightly say that some people may be tested more than once and it has been widely reported that swabs carried out simultaneously on a single patient are counted as multiple tests. But it is not clear from the published data how often that is the case. Figures for the overall number of people being tested have previously been published but are not available in the published time series;
the top summary presents the number of positive results from diagnostic tests (pillars 1 and 2) alongside the total number of tests across all pillars. This presentation gives an artificially low impression of the proportion of tests returning a positive diagnosis;
more generally the testing figures are presented in a way that is difficult to understand. Many of the key numbers make little sense without recourse to the technical notes which are themselves sometimes hard to follow. This includes the supporting spreadsheets, which, while welcome, make it difficult to extract even basic trends.
With regard to new data that are not currently made available:

test results should include for example key types of employment (e.g. medical staff, care staff), age, sex and location (by geography and place, such as care homes). How many people in what circumstances are infected? Where do they live?
for Test and Trace it is important that a statement of the key metrics to measure its success should be developed systematically, and published, to avoid the situation that has arisen in relation to the testing programme. The statistics will need to be capable of being related to the wider testing data and readily understood by the public, through for example population adjusted maps of hotspots.
I warmly welcome of course your support for the Code of Practice for Statistics. But the testing statistics still fall well short of its expectations. It is not surprising that given their inadequacy data on testing are so widely criticised and often mistrusted.

I also welcome the Department’s willingness to work with colleagues from the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) and I know they have been in touch to discuss how the data and their presentation could be improved and gaps addressed. OSR will be happy to help further in any way they can.

It would be useful to develop a published timetable for the changes that need to be made and for the development of the metrics for the vital new programme of Test and Trace.

I do understand the pressures that those concerned have faced and still face. But I am sure you would agree that good evidence, trusted by the public, is essential to success in containing the virus.

Yours sincerely,

Sir David Norgrove

You're a sly one orchard. I never had you down as being Sir David Norgrove

 

[Barnfred 55]

Because he's paying you a wage? I'd have suspended you on the spot if you'd have said that to me.

Glad I don't work for you mate.

 

[COYBL25]

He never worked for the Echo? No wonder he binned them

He has worked for them, Fat Raffa saw him off.

Taps nose