Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[Aqui1a]

How do you know if they're going to get worse? How long does the isolation process take to have an effect on this?

Even if these new rules are followed, it's still going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

 

[Barnfred 55]

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Wait until this virus hits Africa and certain parts of Asia.

Do this little list again in 3 months and it will look very different.

 

[tsubaki]

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[Archie Knox]

So me ma was told her place of work is closing and she'll be on full pay. Was sent home this morning.

Weird though. They sent an email round (this is a farm shop / cafe) to those sent home saying they'll be paid in full but they need to sign a form and agree that, if not enough work is there for them when they re-open, they agree they can be given fewer hours or made redundant.

WTF! That's not legal.

 

[peteblue]

@Barnfred 55 re. the self-employed relief/tax returns thing - I'm in the same boat.

However, I've read that the proposal is actually:

80% of average monthly earnings (over the last 3 years)

OR

£2,971

whichever is lowest

How is it accessed ?....

 

[PhilM]

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[Barnfred 55]

@Barnfred 55 re. the self-employed relief/tax returns thing - I'm in the same boat.

However, I've read that the proposal is actually:

80% of average monthly earnings (over the last 3 years)

OR

£2,971

whichever is lowest

Are you happy with that?. I think I would be.

Somebody mentioned that it wouldn't help the people who have recently gone self employed, and there will always be exceptions whatever the govt do. But they must have a base to work from and this seems as good as any.

What people need to take into account is that this has never happened to us before. Mistakes are being made but they are trying to sort this out. I wish people would understand that.

 

[summerisle]

The new coronavirus may already have infected far more people in the UK than scientists had previously estimated — perhaps as much as half the population — according to modelling by researchers at the University of Oxford. If the results are confirmed, they imply that fewer than one in a thousand of those infected with Covid-19 become ill enough to need hospital treatment, said Sunetra Gupta, professor of theoretical epidemiology, who led the study.

The vast majority develop very mild symptoms or none at all. “We need immediately to begin large-scale serological surveys — antibody testing — to assess what stage of the epidemic we are in now,” she said. The modelling by Oxford’s Evolutionary Ecology of Infectious Disease group indicates that Covid-19 reached the UK by mid-January at the latest. Like many emerging infections, it spread invisibly for more than a month before the first transmissions within the UK were officially recorded at the end of February.

The research presents a very different view of the epidemic to the modelling at Imperial College London, which has strongly influenced government policy. “I am surprised that there has been such unqualified acceptance of the Imperial model,” said Prof Gupta. However, she was reluctant to criticise the government for shutting down the country to suppress viral spread, because the accuracy of the Oxford model has not yet been confirmed and, even if it is correct, social distancing will reduce the number of people becoming seriously ill and relieve severe pressure on the NHS during the peak of the epidemic.

The Oxford study is based on a what is known as a “susceptibility-infected-recovered model” of Covid-19, built up from case and death reports from the UK and Italy. The researchers made what they regard as the most plausible assumptions about the behaviour of the virus. The modelling brings back into focus “herd immunity”, the idea that the virus will stop spreading when enough people have become resistant to it because they have already been infected. The government abandoned its unofficial herd immunity strategy — allowing controlled spread of infection — after its scientific advisers said this would swamp the National Health Service with critically ill patients.

But the Oxford results would mean the country had already acquired substantial herd immunity through the unrecognised spread of Covid-19 over more than two months. If the findings are confirmed by testing, then the current restrictions could be removed much sooner than ministers have indicated. Although some experts have shed doubt on the strength and length of the human immune response to the virus, Prof Gupta said the emerging evidence made her confident that humanity would build up herd immunity against Covid-19.

To provide the necessary evidence, the Oxford group is working with colleagues at the Universities of Cambridge and Kent to start antibody testing on the general population as soon as possible, using specialised “neutralisation assays which provide reliable readout of protective immunity,” Prof Gupta said.They hope to start testing later this week and obtain preliminary results in days.

 

[tsubaki]

The new coronavirus may already have infected far more people in the UK than scientists had previously estimated — perhaps as much as half the population — according to modelling by researchers at the University of Oxford. If the results are confirmed, they imply that fewer than one in a thousand of those infected with Covid-19 become ill enough to need hospital treatment, said Sunetra Gupta, professor of theoretical epidemiology, who led the study.

The vast majority develop very mild symptoms or none at all. “We need immediately to begin large-scale serological surveys — antibody testing — to assess what stage of the epidemic we are in now,” she said. The modelling by Oxford’s Evolutionary Ecology of Infectious Disease group indicates that Covid-19 reached the UK by mid-January at the latest. Like many emerging infections, it spread invisibly for more than a month before the first transmissions within the UK were officially recorded at the end of February.

The research presents a very different view of the epidemic to the modelling at Imperial College London, which has strongly influenced government policy. “I am surprised that there has been such unqualified acceptance of the Imperial model,” said Prof Gupta. However, she was reluctant to criticise the government for shutting down the country to suppress viral spread, because the accuracy of the Oxford model has not yet been confirmed and, even if it is correct, social distancing will reduce the number of people becoming seriously ill and relieve severe pressure on the NHS during the peak of the epidemic.

The Oxford study is based on a what is known as a “susceptibility-infected-recovered model” of Covid-19, built up from case and death reports from the UK and Italy. The researchers made what they regard as the most plausible assumptions about the behaviour of the virus. The modelling brings back into focus “herd immunity”, the idea that the virus will stop spreading when enough people have become resistant to it because they have already been infected. The government abandoned its unofficial herd immunity strategy — allowing controlled spread of infection — after its scientific advisers said this would swamp the National Health Service with critically ill patients.

But the Oxford results would mean the country had already acquired substantial herd immunity through the unrecognised spread of Covid-19 over more than two months. If the findings are confirmed by testing, then the current restrictions could be removed much sooner than ministers have indicated. Although some experts have shed doubt on the strength and length of the human immune response to the virus, Prof Gupta said the emerging evidence made her confident that humanity would build up herd immunity against Covid-19.

To provide the necessary evidence, the Oxford group is working with colleagues at the Universities of Cambridge and Kent to start antibody testing on the general population as soon as possible, using specialised “neutralisation assays which provide reliable readout of protective immunity,” Prof Gupta said.They hope to start testing later this week and obtain preliminary results in days.

this absolutely needs to happen irrespective of whether Oxford or Imperial are right

 

[roydo]

But the Oxford results would mean the country had already acquired substantial herd immunity through the unrecognised spread of Covid-19 over more than two months.

Completely unscientific, (from me), but loads on here over the last few weeks have mentioned feeling crap since Christmas. Me included. Well, not crap like cant work, but crap that a few paracetamols or lemsips would deal with.

A bit feverish, a few aches and pains, and it lasted for ages. Hope she is right.

 

[Barnfred 55]

Just seeing news report coming out of Spain. Soldiers cleansing nursing homes are finding some places deserted with dead and dying residents.

Shocking. Me and the missus are literally sitting here sobbing

Just coming back to the above for a moment.

This was a report on the Victoria Darbyshire show on BBC 1 around 10am this morning. It had an accompanying film which looked like it had been taken on a mobile phone, possibly belonging to one of the soldiers. It was being screened as breaking news. Victoria herself was visibly shaken as she was obviously seeing the scenes for the first time herself.

This is, for me, the most shocking and awful news to come out of the whole coronavirus saga and I expected the video to replayed throughout the day on all the news channels. But I haven't seen anything at all, not even a mention of it. There has either been a complete news blackout on it or me and the missus somehow were mistaken. We'er convinced we know what we saw though. Did anybody else on here see it?

 

[Harryflashman]

Completely unscientific, (from me), but loads on here over the last few weeks have mentioned feeling crap since Christmas. Me included. Well, not crap like cant work, but crap that a few paracetamols or lemsips would deal with.

A bit feverish, a few aches and pains, and it lasted for ages. Hope she is right.

certainly in Liverpool post Christmas most people Ill than I can recall , purely anecdotal but be very interesting if it’s true

 

[DrEFC]

CORONAVIRUS ALERT New rules in force now: you must stay at home. More info & exemptions at gov.uk/coronavirus Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.

 

[evilwebby]

There's still more to this - it's just not sitting right.

Now, I'm not saying it isn't a natural disease. And this isn't a conspiracy thing or anything.

But taking everything into account, think how much the world has changed in the matter of two weeks.

We can talk about social-distancing etc. Guys, this is social-coding, now. In a matter of days you've got people actively wanting to be locked away in their own homes, or making sure they're walking two metres apart from people. Or panic-buying, or thinking they're ill and self-isolating.

It's absolutely mindblowing.

And I'd suggest, and this isn't to take away from the seriousness of this virus or what it can do to people, that people also just have a stop and think about who benefits - not from the virus itself, but from the reaction of governments across the world to the virus.

Big pharmaceutical corporations, big banks doing the lending, any big corporation with a vested interest in, oh I don't know, war (obvious I know) which is likely to break out in third-world nations already besieged by disease and fighting etc. And even who benefits from what will surely be escalating tensions between the west and China?

Look, I don't think this disease was planted. I reckon they're right in that it was natural. But the collective reactions across the globe really do leave a lot of questions.

Just all feels like one big mind f*** - and proves just how easy it is to take total control/subdue a population.

Fear is a very powerful thing. Especially when you can combine it with people shouting at each other on social media. And if the last few years has proved anything, it's that people enjoy bossing other people around on a digital platform hiding behind a keyboard.

The reaction is understandable.

People get frightened, and then they get angry and want to lash out and the conspiracy theories abound. The start acting aggressively in herd, and it can get ugly really quick.

The last 50 pages of this thread have been absolutely depressing to me to read. Recriminations are already flying all over the place. Ordinarily I'd be disgusted, but these are unordinary times, and so I cut a lot of slack.

It's OK to be scared. But if you lose your humanity then the virus has already won.

 

[summerisle]

Ouch.