Coronavirus General Discussion

I thought it was pretty telling, it does tell a story of why we have flatlined even after ten weeks of 'lock down'  when other European countries had shown improvement weeks before we had.

Officially over 40,000 dead - based on the numbers given to us by the government anyway. Reported deaths 357. How Matt Hancock can stand there and say those numbers without choking, I don't know. No medical or scientific officers at this briefing, either. Just Hancock on his own. What is going on?!?!

More scaremongering click-bait headlines,bengal73,sadly....today we are only the second country on the planet to pass 40,000 deaths....deadly number of 357 more tragic deaths....R number on upward trend...this morning’s Murdoch Times seriously berating the PM...track and trace not fully operational until September/October...no food vouchers for vulnerable school children in the summer holidays...Primary school pupils who returned on Monday now testing positive...any semblance of lockdown in tatters thanks to Cummings....second spike being widely touted as inevitable....leading scientists saying we went into lockdown far too late...our local food bank saying they desperately need help as shelves have been utterly decimated...Victoria’s Secret,Lookers,Frankie& Benny’s etc in big trouble,revolt over quarantine rules by travel industry such as Ryanair,British Airways well and truly pi**ed off with BJ and so on.....

Good news-it has been ‘floated’ that the building of a new multi-million pound Royal Brittanica super-yacht will raise public morale in these troubled times....has the world gone mad??

Because somebody might have asked them a question, and then they might have explained things.

Please let's not read too much into day to day figures. It's expected that the rate of change in the number of deaths will slow down, just as when the disease was spreading uncontrolled the number of new infections and deaths were generally higher by increasing amounts each day. At the moment, based on past infection numbers, it's anticipated that there'll be another 4000 to 7000 deaths over the next couple of months, and because of random variation there are going to be days when the numbers go up and days when they go down.

Hospital PPE or for a trip to the supermarket? Both?

Not sure I understand what you're asking, but as noted this is WHO guidance for the general public, many (most?) of whom have been wearing single-layer cloth face masks and often ones without any filters added. The one I wear is two layers of cloth with a pocket layer between them into which I place the HEPA filter from a vacuum bag.

I realised the other day that I actually have one. Bought a ‘pollution mask’ for my trip to India last year, which I didn’t need to use in the end, and it has languished forgotten in the front pocket of my suitcase ever since. Found it when I took my suitcase down to dust the top of the wardrobe.

Now I’m feeling guilty about having had it all this time. And worried that if I actually wear it in public I’ll get hassle from people for taking PPE from NHS workers.

Government bear a massive responsibility for this, with SAGE in conjunction. 

The idea to tell people that masks were not needed early on made a rod for their collective backs. 

The reason? They have been too wedded to the idea that only when evidence is clear should measures be brought in. Using the phrase ‘there is no evidence’ has hurt messaging in a devastating way and has led people to believe it is a settled conclusion when all that is being said is ‘we aren’t sure yet’. 

Take masks, looking at far eastern countries should have made clear their efficacy yet waiting for clinical studies where none are practicable has millions not caring about them. The time was in March, now it is going to need to fight to take hold and the most recalcitrant will just point to ‘you said there was no evidence’. Idiots, naturally, but idiots who have been given cause by government/PHE.

There are other issues coming up that will be the same. Who is at risk, for example, and the risk lists which have been absolutely shambolic. Basing them on Influenza for what is now becoming clearer as something that resolves into a cardiovascular disease has left many unwarned (in this country at least, most others are more forward thinking and less sclerotic) and some warned unnecessarily. Why? Because ‘evidence’. In a pandemic waiting for clinical trials that are slow moving or not even ethically possible is the downfall of evidence based medicine.

It is this wait for evidence mindset that also, more than anything, did for us at the start. Initially arrogant and slow moving followed by panic and mixed messaging and then complacency and confusion, Look at the countries that did well, they looked at the far east and copied, they went hard, they went early. Our ‘go late, go soft’ policy, something that was supposed to save the economy, instead making it many, many times worse. Medical leaders who were playing the wrong game that gave government libertarians the opportunity to do nothing or do too little.

This article explains looks at mask issue in greater detail.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/05/face-masks-coronavirus

Oh, forgot to say, my address was randomly selected for an antibody home testing study run by Imperial College London and Ipsos Mori.

They sent me out a home testing fingerprick test with instructions and then asked me to send the results and complete a survey as to how easy it was to use. They stressed that the test is not validated and to ignore the results as they might be wrong - they were interested in how easy it was to follow the instructions and read the results.

I guess they are sending out a couple of different designs of test.

Did feel a bit reassured that the result said negative even though it might not be accurate. I haven’t had symptoms or anything but the worry that I might have been asymptomatic and could have inadvertently infected anyone I didn’t stay far enough away from was playing on the back of my mind. There was a kid in the park the other day who obviously was too young to understand social distancing ad came right up to me!

1,000's of white people on a beach = all good

1,000's of people of colour marching for equality and change in the streets = bad

At least they're trying to do something to make the world a better place after all this.

We should've been protesting about Cummings 2 weeks ago and now as predicted it's already forgotten.

The thing is, I haven't seen any ideas as to what would be better than the current form of protest. For me, it's the other way round. Whilst I completely understand valid concerns about mass gatherings, so many people feel so angry that they have no choice but to protest.