No-one knows how long this situation will last, but underneath the BBC’s negativity, I sense a spirit of togetherness. It seems unhelpful to focus on finding fault with the government’s handling of the emergency. We need reassurance and encouragement.
Walking in the lovely chilly sunshine while it’s still allowed. This wonderful place is called Upton Towans. Not many people around and plenty of space to social-distance.
Stay well.
I really could do without Laura’s virus analysis and opinions every bulletin. It’s just verbal diarrhoea. If you have nothing to say just keep your mouth shut.
ReplyDelete10pm News: Beeb's man in Italy praises the Italians who have,for the most part, refrained fom panic-buying ... yes, well, maybe their national broadcaster hasn't spent the last ten days deliberately sowing the seeds of said panic.
ReplyDeleteH/T to Terminal Moraine over on Biased BBC...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_AyuhbnPOI
I think this video encapsulates some of my fears, that we have talked ourselves into doing ourselves serious economic damage for something that is probably not that dangerous.
I've come to that view because when we look at the TOTAL death toll in China "from" coronavirus Covid 19, it amounts to 3,300 (after three months)which on a pro rata basis would be about 165 in the UK. 165 when we sometimes have 15,000 to 20,000 deaths from non seasonal flu in the UK in one year.
As the good doctor says, we don't really know how many deaths are actually from Covid 19. When people get towards the end of life, their weakened body tends to get taken over by several viruses. Who's to say which virus actually "killed" them. Covid 19 might just be one more straw to break the camel's back but not necessarily any more potent than any of the other viruses attacking the respitory system.
As the good doctor also says, this could be a case of the Emperor with no clothes...now everyone - politicians, media and health professionals - are heavily invested in saying the Emperor's clothes look lovely.
After having destroyed our economy, made millions sad and suicidal and saddled us with debt on the scale of WW2, they will no doubt declare it a triumph of good governance than only a few thousand died and we narrowly averted catastrophe.
Of course I don't know if this guy is right but the low number of deaths in China is (paradoxically) v. troubling to me.
People ask rightly: why did hospitals in China and Italy become overwhelmed if this is a fairly normal sort of virus? That's a good question. It might be partly a result of a kind of hysteria. In the case of China, if you start checking everyone for a fever in the middle of winter and sending them off to be checked, presumably you will find tens of thousands of people with a high temperature and if you send them all off to hospital to be checked out and held under observation, you are going to overwhelm your health services. People with asthma will become fearful of catching the disease and may start exhibiting asthmatic symptoms. They too will add to the hospital load. Then you will not want to release anyone for a long time because in the early stages you don't know the incubation period.
(...continued)
With Italy, something else might be going as we now have tests for the disease. The suggestion is that testing shows up the coronavirus and those people are then sent for isolation in hospital. Yes they may be ill, but they may be ready to die in any case. If you didn't have the tests, they might have been sent home with antibiotics.
ReplyDeleteIn Italy, about 600,000 people die every year. Probably a large proportion will be old people with respitory disease, most obviously pneumonia caused by viral and bacterial infection. So we might just have a weird phenomenon here where we have created an insane environment where we take old people who are close to death and concentrate them in hospitals where cross contaminatino with a load of other viruses takes place, so hastening their death. Their deaths may also be hastened by being taking away from familiar surroundings, placed in a frightening environment with medics in weird looking outfits and denied contact with relatives.
As I say, I'm no medical expert so don't know but the very low death toll "from" coronavirus (but in reality probably from a combination of viruses) in China should make us pause.
We should certainly be thinking in terms of winding down the panic and trying to undo some of the awful self-inflicted damage done to our economies.
One good way of reducing the panic would be for Government to start referring to excess mortality.
So far, the excess mortality attributable to coronavirus (as opposed to people throwing themselves off bridges because their lives have gone into economic meltdown) must be something like 0.05% annual equivalent (or one in 2000) since the start of the year in the UK. Remember though that Covid 19 is being "blamed" for deaths which have "co-conspirators" - other viruses, which might well have done the job by themselves given a few more weeks.
If the figure for coronavirus deaths in people without underlying health conditions was to be published, it might well support your argument MB.
DeleteOT, where are the XR vandals? They have been gifted some of their demands - those to do with aircraft pollution. Therefore, what's next XR? Where are the plans for the new Utopia ?
Arthur - a few days ago they rebooted as a cross between the Cybermen and a toilet roll, as something like 'Pause for Fraught'. Sadly the initial gush from the MSM at the next exciting protest fizzled when an actual reporter found out who they were and made them and, crucially, most MSM editors, look even more idiotic than usual. No word yet on whether Greta will be self-isolating or sailing up the Thames to W1A for her big show. Given her addiction to the spotlight, lack of it as events elsewhere dominate may take a toll, so it is to be hoped her minders are aware.
DeleteThrough Greta, the BBC and the Church of England amongst others have invested in XR's aims. Now they have in part their wish with regard to air travel, they should be telling us what the next steps are to be.
DeleteIt is fairly clear none of them have a single coherent, positive notion in their empty skulls. All they know how to do is make demands and kick off. Try and pin any down on logistical consequences, or costs and they have a tantrum. That they are even given the time or day or, in the case of the BBC, a £5B platform is beyond comprehension.
DeleteYes, after People's Vote, and XR's obstruction of a law-abiding way of life, these same metro-lib professional protestors must wait for the next bandwagon to come along.
DeleteIt occurred to me that we are pretty much living in an XR World now: no air travel, no car travel soon, banks closing, manufacturing being cut back, no meat on sale, schools closing down for good, old people dying ...Everything Greta ever wanted!
DeleteArthur - Apart from the Chinese doctor who died, I have not heard of anyone without an underlying health condition dying.
Of course, not suggesting we throw such people to the wolves, but the previous strategy of shielding them in various ways was much better than a general lockdown, in my view.
Claims are made that young healthy people in Italy are dying - but I have not seen any evidence.
MB, Covid-19 did cut a swathe through predominantly young people in that 'church' in South Korea. We were not told how many of the young died, if any, because open, enquiring minds, disappeared long ago from the BBC to be replaced with their own 'Cult Mind' (or that of others) and the desire to bash a Conservative Government.
DeleteSorry, MB, I don't buy it. As you have said before, the word of the Chinese goverment is not to be trusted - like all dictatorships, they regard disasters, even natural ones (which this is not), as a loss of face, to be hushed up. So, initially, the World heard nothing until the outbreak was well-established. The same has happened in Iran, and doubtless other dictatorships we have yet to hear from. In short, the Chinese figures are not to be trusted. Incidentally, would they - a secretive bunch, have shared the virus's genetic code with the rest of the world if they didn't KNOW they had unleashed something very nasty? Surely, if it were comparable to flu, they would be using their headstart to develop a vaccine & sell it to the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteOne other point, you feel that another virus, or a combination of viruses may merely be 'seeing off' people whose time had, in any case, come. If that is the case, how have scientists managed to calculate that the disease is three times as lethal as flu?
So, I don't trust the Chinese figures and ours are yet to peak.
My last sentence not where I intended!
DeleteIt's true we can't truly rely on figures from Communist China, but we certainly can rely on figures for S Korea, Taiwan and Singapore which have also shown a speedy levelling off.
DeleteI'd like to put an alternative hypothesis about China's behaviour: at a time when they were locked into a trade war with the USA, they knew that if there was any mass outbreak of a SARS type virus, that Trump might use it as a valid excuse to close down trade with China. The central Communist administration sent out the message to all its medical arms to be extra-vigilant about the potential for such outbreaks.
Then, as the guy in the video says, the Wuhan lab identified this new coronavirus. At the time of doing so they had no idea how dangerous (a lot or no more than any other coronavirus) it might be to human health because there was no epidemiology at that stage, but they contacted WHO and made a big show of containing the outbreak. Anyone they found with a high temperature (not unusual in winter with all the viruses around) was carted off to be isolated. The actions of long isolation of individuals, putting very old people in hospital and so on all had a tendency to overload hosptial facilities.
People with severe asthma or other respitory problems naturally become very anxious when told 24/7 there is a dangerous respitory virus on the loose and that in itself can trigger attacks.
The more old people you put in hospital, the greater the chances of cross contamination with all sorts of bugs and it's a very demoralising experience for them, especially if they are near the end of life and denied access to loved ones.
I remember when my late mother went into hospital all the family were concerned that she was being neglected by staff, not eating properly and going into a rapid decline.
Remember, this is v. important: when old people die with respitory disease they usually have a range of viruses attacking their lungs. Covid 19 may simply be one of them.
The real test of all this is, is there excess mortality? Remember, 600,000 people die every year in the UK. I see the figures for Jan in 2020 had an excess mortality of 2000 over the previous year - way before any cases of Covid 19 had been identified in this country...2000! Did the media care? No, because you get these significant variations, up and down, every year.
Economically, the least worst outcome would have been to carry on as normal, let it multiply and burn itself out.
ReplyDeleteHotels would have to be temp hospitals and morgues and we would see horrors of bodies and people and the suffering plastered across the MSM for months.
With 250000 deaths and many more hospitalised with no capacity to look after them all - no person or party associated with it could survive the political fallout - hence the decision for economic armageddon instead by our government and most liberal democracies.
It's definitely looking that way: far better than economic self-immolation.
DeleteThe main problem appears to be our poor preparedness for excess respitory hospital admissions.
250,000 deaths? The issue is whether this modelling from Imperial College is in any way accurate. Or is this a case of "all the glaciers in the Himalayas will melt by 2030" type of modelling?
Let's look at the evidence: after 3 months since the virus was identified in China, their number of deaths is 3300, the equivalent of 165 in the UK. The Imperial College modelling was suggesting a minimum of 100,000 deaths in the UK. How is it possible to square the model with the reality?
If you don't believe Communist China's figures (not unreasonably) then here are UK equivalents for two other Far East countries:
S Korea: 110
Japan: 21
Even if you say we are on the same trajectory as Italy, that might mean an annualised number of deaths around 20,000 out of a total of 600,000. But of course most of the people dying in Italy are very old already; Covid 19 is not the only virus in their lungs (so why say it's Covid 19 that has "caused" their death); and probably a large proportion of that 20,000 would have died within the next 12 months in any case if there was no Covid 19 around.
Charlie "Hotels would have to be temp hospitals and morgues and we would see horrors of bodies and people and the suffering plastered across the MSM for months" is not carrying on as normal.
DeleteCharlie - That's how I see it, too.
ReplyDeleteBeeb reports that there are no new cases in China - has the disease succumbed to their isolation measures? Are they lying? Or have they developed a vaccine?
I suspect they have stopped it due to isolation, the problem is the minute they lift the measures it may come back with a vengeance. If the figures are to be believed with Wuhan’s popoulation of 11 million, there are plenty of people who haven’t caught it.
DeleteChina’s culture may mean they can continue to test and isolate all contacts and lift measures slowly with that mitigation regime in place.
Or are they moving out of the seasonal flu season?
DeleteI just checked the temperature in Wuhan -it's a balmy high of 23 degrees Celsius today!
So they aren't getting the seasonal flu cases now and so aren't having to check people for Covid 19...and so aren't blaming deaths on Covid 19.
It took me a while to become a Eurosceptic. It's taken me a while to become a Coronasceptic. But I am there now.
ReplyDeleteThe available facts have changed. The virus might be "new", it might have a marginal increasing effect on death rates but it's not the bubonic plague and the vast majority of the people who died would have died in any cases if not this month, then next month, with or without the Coronavirus, however one responds.
We have reached a point where the "cure" is most definitely worse than the "death". We've destroyed our economy, plunged millions into personal crisis, saddled ourselves with wartime levels of debt and truncated the education of millions of children. All for what?
In future we need to:
1. Put in place proper emergency preparations for excess cases of viral respitory disease. We need to have warehoused respirators, PPE, oxygen supply and all the rest. Doesn't matter if it costs £10 billion. We've seen what not being prepared costs.
2. Establish a Civil Support Agency of trained volunteers who can work as medical aides and support
anyone who has to self-isolate.
We also need a thorough review of what went on re China, WHO, Imperial College, and our scientific and medical advisors.
I had rather admired WHO previously. Now, I am not so sure. They seem to have ramped this up unnecessarily.
Just found out my bank branch has been closed as a "precautionary measure". They've got my number - they could have texted me...but that would be like they care about their customers! Of course they are always keen to text you about this and that...but not to tell you they are shutting all branches!
ReplyDeleteWhat better way to sow further panic! The cash machines will start going next.
Bank workers are far better protected than supermarket workers, sitting behind plastic screens and it will be much easier for them to sanitise their hands at regular intervals.
Has the Government sanctioned these closures?
My visit to a couple of big supermarkets revealed all food items - fresh, chilled and frozen - cleared out. I don't blame people. The government is promoting a message of panic and that's what happens when you promote panic.
Whilst I am mobile and able to shop around, I am very concerned about older and more vulnerable people who maybe rely on one of those big supermarkets and who maybe only have a small fridge.
There's going to be a serious risk of malnutrition, even starvation arising.
Has the government put anything in place for such people? No. They've created the panic but they haven't planned for the panic.
Very good points MB. Compare and contrast with the reaction of the landlord of our favourite pub-restaurant, who is determined to keep his business going: two days after the government's advice re:pubs,restaurants and discos etc he had set up a drive-in takeaway outlet at his pub - free delivery also possible. Mrs Sis & I think going out to collect the occasional meal might just stop us going stir-crazy - the difficult part is going to be resisting temptation to pop in for a pint at the same time!
DeleteThere were printed notices up on the bank branch's door - obviously printed several days in advance, so no excuse not to get a text ready at the same time. In more rural areas, people might have travelled many miles to get to their branch.
DeleteI hope your pub-restaurant survives!
Thanks, MB! Hope you manage to find a bank that does, too.
DeleteSisyphus, are you watching The One Show? Inane chat on the couch with nonentities whilst telling us about feelgood coronavirus stories in a false empathetic tone. Interspersed by reading the latest advice and announcements in a jolly manner spoken in gutteral estuary english.
ReplyDeleteNo, I decided to stay sane! :)
ReplyDelete"Gutteral estuary English," - was that Amol Rajan?
Worse than Amol . Matt Allwright and someone called Joe in sports shorts.
DeleteAmol Rajan - single-handedly ran one of our top broadsheets into the ground as editor...immediately picked up by the BBC of course - they can tell talent! His self-regarding homilies to the mike are very annoying.
DeleteAh, but he ticks a box!
DeleteLots of boxes! Hence apart from being Media Editor he stands in for The One Show, Zoe Ball, Jeremy Vine and not forgetting his role as restaurant critic for Masterchef.
DeleteHe must be rolling in it.
I'm confused - until very recently we were supposed to be living in "an increasingly divided country" with "hate crime on the rise" and an "appalling lack of diversity" in all areas of life. (I can hear Kirsty Wark using all those phrases!).
ReplyDeleteDid something happen?
We now seem to be expected to concur that we are all "pulling together as one", "united in our determination to defeat the virus" and all engaged in "mutual aid" being delivered on a selfless basis.
It's like Alice in Wonderland isn't it? One bottle makes you taller, one makes you smaller.
I completely agree. But this is only a temporary respite from the political and social ambitions of the BBC. They have been put aside whilst we defeat the common enemy. Once slain, it will be back to business as usual.
DeleteIn fact I suspect the BBC will spot an opportunity in the fallout to push their agenda harder than ever by using social cohesion and national interests to lurch further to the liberal left.
Yes, I suspect they'll discover an urgent need to cancel Brexit, in the alleged interests of the economy.
Delete"The New European" Remainer-Rejoiner rag sounded positively ecstatic about this cataclysmic virus outbreak. "Things will never ever be the same again" (rough translation: we're getting rid of all those old b*stards who voted for Brexit - and, just you wait and see, we will stop this Brexit thing).
DeleteFor a Brexiter like me, I am not downhearted. The pandemic is enforcing a sense of proportion. Remainiac claims that we won't be able to buy a sandwich after Brexit sound laughable now. As do their claims of societal breakdown.
Generally speaking, the ' old b*stards who voted for Brexit' have more self-discipline, live in less crowded places, and take the threat of this virus more seriously than the young arrogant metro-lib Remainer might. I've no doubt the senior BBC staff will be off to stay in their 'little place by the sea' second homes to self isolate - well away from London. In the meantime, London with its overcrowding and high-occupancy housing looks rife to foster transmission of the virus.
DeleteItaly has crowded accommodation. IIRC they have the least habitable space per person in the EU. Young Italians tend to live with their parents longer (as is now happening in the UK)...so might be ideal for spreading the virus around.
DeleteSo Chinese work gangs from the Wuhan district plus crowded accommodation, and young people living in same accommodation as older people, plus double kissing greetings all the time...could be the perfect storm which might be why their numbers have been so high...we shall see how things develop. But remarkable that Wuhan , a city of 11 million records no deaths, since we keep being told no one has immunity to this new virus.
Just saw the sickening sight of Mark Easton running around central London without a mask and with a Mic on a stick. He was interviewing people to find out what they were doing still walking around London.
DeleteHe isn’t the only one, we still have the sight of BBC reporters around the world reporting lockdowns, distancing advice and restrictions but completely ignoring it themselves.
You could have put the full stop after "Easton".
DeleteLol, very good - yes. : )
Delete"Here in central London, reputedly one of the most densely populated cities in the world, there isn't a soul to be seen, and yet, some say that our country is full and that we should put a stop to all immigration.
DeleteThe Romans probably saw similar scenes and experienced the same resentment, yet went on to make Britain the place it is today, built by immigrants, run by immigrants and populated by immigrants."
Huw Edwards intones gravely "That was a report from Mark Easton, our Pull The Wool Over Your Eyes Editor, reporting on a very sombre* day in central London. Mark can also be heard of course on the Frog-Boiler Podcast."
Delete* Pronounced som-bar, Huw doing that thing where he suddenly switches in appropriately to an upbeat jolly tone for some reason...
Shall we see a refund to our TV Licence fee as the hundreds of BBC reporters that are unable to go to Glastonbury, Wimbledon (possibly), Augusta, RHS Chelsea, Olympic Games (possibly), Euros, Six Nations, FA Cup games, etc etc count their toes? Or, will the hundreds of idle BBC reporters be paid to sit around? I suspect that when they report upon the hardships suffered by the population as a whole due to anti virus measures, and press on with stories about acts of kindness, they will in fact lack any empathy. I shall interpret their concern as cynicism.
ReplyDeleteIf they are abandoning filming of various dramas and soaps like Eastenders they will be saving huge amounts of money. So, yes, we are due a rebate.
DeleteI cancelled my Sky Sport package yesterday because there isn't much live sport to watch. It's a pity we can't do the same with the BBC.
DeleteI've been wondering about the impact on Sky. I am sure lots of people will be doing what you are doing. On the other hand, lots of parents will find they have the money to buy the Sky movies package or buy individual Sky movie items to keep the kids amused. Then all their travel advertising is going to dry up. But on the other hand, lots of ads from online retailers...And their viewing figures must be through the roof, so they can charge more for ad space they can sell.
DeleteSwings and roundabouts for them!
Midlands Today Who have form over their attention to far right groups reported tonight that a local man had been convicted of being a member of National Action. They went on to name him as Garry Jack and gave out his full address. xxxxxxx Avenue, Shard End, Birmingham. (I’ve censored it)
ReplyDeleteI’m not sure I’ve ever heard a full address being broadcast before. I wonder why the BBC would do that in culturally diverse Birmingham.?
Local newspapers sometimes do but, as you say, I've never heard that being done on the mainstream TV channels.
DeleteI feel like I'm in one of those old Hollywood movies...I'm the neurotic convict going stir crazy, or the rooky GI fighting the Japs in the jungle for the first time, the guy who starts screaming hysterically: "I can't take it!! I can't take it, I tell you...!!!"
ReplyDeleteIn my case it will be "I can't take it!! I can't take it, I tell you...!!! All this virtue-signalling, day in, day out...Victoria Derbyshire, press conferences, Labour MPs who can barely string a sentence together, that Idiot Nihal on Radio 5 Live, Egregious Emma, attention-seekers on phone-in programmes...they're just driving me crazy..."
If anyone wants to take the role of James Cagney and slap me across the chops, shouting "Why, you yellow-bellied coward, get up off the floor and do what you know you've got to do!! Use the off switch, you dirty low-down rat!" feel free! :)
:::NEWSCAST WATCH:::
ReplyDeleteTheir intro sequence seems out of kilter with the times now - Greta doing her emo-teen thing about us oldies destroying her childhood...just sounds incredibly self-indulgent now.
Interesting thought experiment: what if Boris Johnson announced "The scientific advice is that we can defeat this virus, but it will require us to temporarily double our carbon emissions."
How would the public react? I'd say 99% would be in favour of doubling our carbon emissions.
Does the Beeb do irony? QT tonight is largely about coronavirus and the pressures facing the NHS; step forward one Andy Burnham! Do they think we have no memory, or are they so far up their own fundament that they simply don't care?
ReplyDeleteThe BBC producers are probably straight out of college and have no idea about the scandals, lack of oversight and cover ups during his time as health minister.
DeleteCoronavirus worldwide deaths total = 10,000
ReplyDeleteFlu pandemic of 2009,worldwide deaths total = 600,000
I think therefore for the BBC, ITV and Sky to keep referring to the crisis as "unprecedented" is irresponsible, not that irresponsibility on their part is unprecedented.
Yes, but the fat lady ain't singin' yet!
DeleteTrue, but she better raise her game if she wants to beat that total from 2009 (which I doubt more than 1 in 100 can remember as a pandemic year).
DeleteI confess I couldn't!
DeleteNo sooner had the government just said they were going to pay 80% of wages for everyone not working due to coronavirus than Simon Jack was on saying one million hospitality jobs had already gone and the access to that money wasn’t quick enough.
ReplyDeleteI always get the feeling that whatever the government do it will never be enough for the BBC hacks who will always say ‘yes but’ rather than applaud the initiative.
This is from one of the multitude of BBC reporters who have no concept of not receiving their full salary and bonuses.
DeleteAgreed Charlie. There was a good example this evening from the Midlands News anchor, Mary Rhodes: interviewing Andy Street, the West Mids Mayor, she couldn't resist saying, (I paraphrase) some people are saying that pubs etc should have been closed earlier.
DeleteOn the subject of the Midlands News, one odd thing has been going on this week - for years, any item from a school has begun with an establishing shot of black or asian children and the first interview has been with such a child; suddenly, they have begun to visit schools carering for predominantly white, articulate, children. What goes on? Have they finally made the connection between letters of complaint and dwindling viewing figures?
Athur, good point! Most of them could drop down to 80% of salary and not even feel it.
'carering'= catering!
DeleteMoving on, Mr Alexander then asked: “What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?”
ReplyDeleteMr Trump responded: “I say that you’re a terrible reporter, that's what I say.
"I think it’s a very nasty question and I think it’s a very bad signal that you’re putting out to the American people
“The American people are looking for answers and they’re looking for hope and you’re doing sensationalism.”
I just wish Boris responded this way to stupid questions from our reporters. Peston has it coming as does Kuenssberg. And whoever asked the Mother’s Day question today.
Great response! Here's the video:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5NQdmHzBTY
BBC's Katty Kay may not be able to go down the gym during the current crisis but she can still engage in her favourite sport: Trump Bashing.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Katty, in dealing with Coronavirus, the USA has already "failed miserably. Miserably".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51981627?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world&link_location=live-reporting-correspondent
Let's do a Reality Check on that:
In terms of cases per million the USA is 46th in the world.
In terms of death rates per identified cases, the figures for the main countries affected by CV:
Italy - 8.58%
Iran - 7.26%
Spain - 5.15%
UK - 4.44%
China - 4.01%
France - 3.57%
Neth's - 3.54%
USA - 1.26%
Swiss - 1.00%
S Korea - 0.95%
Germany - 0.34%
So the USA is in the same ball park as S Korea, Germany and Switzerland - hardly a "miserable" performance.
In terms of deaths per million population, the death rate in a selection of countries:
Italy : 66.59
France : 6.72
UK: 2.66
China: 2.31
USA: 0.72
So the USA's death rate is much, much lower than other major countries.
So miserable? Hardly...of course things can change but I think I'd like Trump in charge of my Coronavirus campaign. He understands what needs to be done.
Italy's death rate per million, is - as you can see - off the scale, which really does beg the question: why?
Recent events are a conspiracy theorists wet dream, but I think I’m coming down on the side of the virus being more deadly than we are being told.
ReplyDeleteI fear that the death rate in Italy is nearer to the truth, and we and the USA are just earlier on the curve. The Chinese numbers have been suppressed. Why else did they feel the need to build massive hospitals and shut down a city?!
Somethings got every government in the West spooked, I can’t believe we would be doing so much self harm economically if there wasn’t something more to fear.
Well yes we are all agreed we can't believe the Chinese figures...they might be true but they might equally be false as directed by the Communist Party.
DeleteBut what about S Korea, Singapore and Japan? I think their figures are reliable and Japan didn't have a particularly strong lockdown policy as far as I know. But their death rates are all very low. Even Hong Kong's death rate is very low.
Of course pathogens can affect different population groups in different ways. The flu pandemic of 1918 killed about 75% of Samoans.
So that could be an explanation for higher figures in Northern Italy - genetic susceptibility.
However, I think it is more likely associated with the high level of Chinese gang workers from the Wuhan area in Lombardy and the dangerous policy of concentrating victims in hospitals (leading to cross contamination of viruses). There are cultural factors as well: Italians tend to live in cramped accommodation with old and young in the same household. They have the double kiss greeting. They also have a lot of commuting between rural and urban areas.
Spain also has a lot of Chinese gang workers and has a high rate of infection.
"Something's got every government in the West spooked, I can’t believe we would be doing so much self harm economically if there wasn’t something more to fear."
Well yes, but what? The 2009 flu pandemic killed 600,000 globally. There was no lockdown anywhere.
I think politicians have been seduced into thinking they can manage the crisis via lockdown. Another motive is trying to cover for their complete failure to plan for such emergencies. Also, modelling is at fault I think. Imperial College is greatly to blame with its fake "250,000 will die" report. I am not sure we've ever had 250,000 die here from any sort of pandemic in the last 200 years - and for most of that time we didn't have a modern health service.
Remember, this is important: most old people who die of respritory disease have a virus load in their lungs involving several different viruses. There is no particular reason to ascribe the death of an 85 year old to the Coronavirus if there are several other viruses that have been reducing their lung function as well.
Hysteria is always dangerous. It can be particularly dangerous in this sort of situation.
By destroying our economy we are destroying the one thing that has taken most of us from what we would now consider abject poverty (with all the attendant ill health) to relative prosperity. We are also sending all our civil liberties down the toilet pan.
Is that really a good price to pay for giving a few thousand of our fellow citizens in the 80 plus range a few more months of low quality life?
Time to get real folks! What is really of value in our life? Is it extending low quality life by a few months or experiencing life to the full - through work, family interaction, art, culture, sport and all the rest?
MB: Ask me again on my 80th birthday - my answer may have changed!
DeleteTommy takes on youths deliberately coughing in old people's faces during this Coronavirus crisis and who also assaulted an old woman, giving her a black eye...so obviously the Police take their side against Tommy.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJp7jLRGOqY&t=334s
Absolutely appalling! We are now paying the price of having Chief Constables appointed under Blair, Cameron, Brown & May. Boris is quite busy at the moment (!) but once that's sorted out, he needs to back Priti to sweep out the PC deadwood - starting with Ms Dick.
DeleteAs for the creatures shown in the video, it should be a case of arrest-prosecute-deport and, if the law doesn't allow that, change the law.
Got to say, I am puzzled by the difference between Italy and Greece:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Greece's death toll from Covid19 is 10 while Italy's is a huge, huge 4032.
Even more surprising when you think Greece's health service is less effective than North Italy's.
Both Greece and Italy are big tourist centres of course. although Greece I guess is less so in winter than Northern Italy.
I believe, they both have that culture of old and young living under the same roof and mixing regularly at meal times.
But I think Greece does not have the Chinese migrant work gangs that North Italy does in the many tens of thousands - possibly over 100,000.
H/T to Celtic Mist. Even in the midst of a crisis, they can't resist Trump bashing.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/51980731
They try and claim Trump had stated that chloroquinine had been fully approved for adminstering to patients with Covid19. That's not how I read his words in context. He was clearly indicating that the FDA had approved it for a trial.
What liars the BBC are! Even in their article they have to admit: "the FDA does say that studies are under way to see if chloroquine can be effective in the treatment of Covid-19. It also says it has been directed by Mr Trump to set up a large clinical trial to investigate the drug."
The guy who wrote this, Jack Goodman, has form. His twitter timeline is full of anti-Trump RTs. He has also been putting out lots of false info while claiming to be exposing Fake News e.g. querying garlic's anti-microbial properties when they are clearly well established.
Gabriel Gatehouse wants to make babies with Marina Hyde...either that or he just loves her hypocritically hate-filled sermonising in the Guardian:
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/ggatehouse/status/1241020650292228096
H/T to Guest Who.
Can anyone explain what "Farrow" and "Ballsh*t" refers to...? Is he referencing Farage and Banks? Can anyone enlighten me?
MB - She's quite a piece of work, isn't she? I wonder how she came to have so many chips on her shoulder. I just took the Farrow & Ball bit at face value: they make the hideously expensive paint (in a refined palette of colours) favoured by members of the privileged social class to which Boris belongs - just the thing for restoring a Georgian mansion.
DeleteDon't thing much of GG's writing: paint is not veneer!
One thing that strikes me about Marina Hyde's piece is the sheer venom, even hatred, that spurts from her pen. There lies the essential difference between Left and Right, Remainiacs and Brexiters, the intolerant and the tolerant: the former hate the latter, who merely despise them in return.
DeleteThanks for explaining that Sis...now you remind me, I have seen it in shops...Yes - that'll be £5000 for one wall, thank you!
DeleteThere's often a hidden element of class resentment. Marina went to a very good private school and is the daughter of a Baronet:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dudley-Williams_baronets
There is a strong element of class disdain for people like Mark Francois from the lower middle classes or Tommy Robinson from the working class and also metropolitan dislike of the provinces.
The class disdain is shared by many Guardian writers who come from similarly privileged backgrounds and motivates a lot of the venom.
“The UK government is under pressure to support self-employed” Is the theme today from the BBC.
ReplyDeleteSomeone or something being under pressure is a daily occurrence with BBC news.
Who is applying the pressure? The main agitator is often the BBC themselves because they are a pressure group with political objectives and agendas.
Yes,and now they have protected status
Delete"Lockdown" = total destruction of the economy.
ReplyDelete"All pull together" = you stay at home in your cramped flat, we're off to our second home cottage down in Dorset. Oh yeah - good luck with trying to find anything on the supermarket shelves...
"Unprecedented" = far fewer deaths than we experienced in previous pandemics, which are of course precedents for the current alarm.
"After careful consideration" = After panicking because we'd made virtually no preparations for such an obvious emergency and had failed to ensure we had a sufficient warehouse stock of mechanical ventilators...
C112b BBC directive to all creative staff 20.03.20
DeleteThe phrase ‘coming together’ and ‘pulling together’ should be used wherever possible to support social cohesion in this time of crisis.
Acts of kindness however small should feature prominently to balance stories of selfishness such as stockpiling. Videos and stills that support these stories should reflect our culturally diverse nation.
Avoid references to World Wars, wartime spirit and other conflicts to prevent alienating the young and those who do not share or are upset by such references.
As an inclusive broadcaster for all of the United Kingdom we need to be mindful of language that can be interpreted as divisive.
Anyone told the Newsnight or BBC North America (views their own) teams?
DeleteOh dear! Somebody must have forgotten to tell the BBC2 continuity announcer, too: first they showed "In Which We Serve," then she said words to the effect of, 'Now, in keeping with the war-time spirit, here's an episode of Dad's Army.'
Delete'Avoid upsetting the young snowflakes, it may give them nightmares!' - utterly pathetic!
just to be clear - I made the BBC directive up - I was trying to be amusing but perhaps it was too close for comfort.
DeleteEgg on face time for me, then! It did cross my mind that it might have been a tease, but I thought, 'Nah, it's too good!' :)
DeleteThe BBC are beyond parody and yet you managed to parody them to the nth degree Charlie!
DeleteApologies both.
DeleteNoel Coward - Captain of HMS Torrin said;
A very happy and a very efficient ship. Some of you might think I'm being a bit ambitious wanting both but in my experience you can't have one without the other. A ship can't be happy unless she's efficient and she certainly won't be efficient unless she's happy.
Great film with some nice lines. The shaking hands ending always brings a tear to my eyes.
Also somewhat apt on this blog that the Ministry of Information was heavily involved in the production and offered advice on what would make good propaganda
None needed Charlie - I'm still chuckling! You should have saved it for April 1st!
DeleteI only caught a few minutes' worth of the film this time - is it the one in which a shell-shocked old chap is wandering around the ruins of the East End, endlessly repeating, "They got the Rose and Crown!"? Anyway, after four publess days, I know exactly how he feels! - except that, this time, they've got all the ****ing pubs!
I sometimes wonder if i contacted the BBC and said: "I'm a Marxist, Muslim, pansexual, i am growing marrows for the local community in my garden, during this trying time" And left some shop-bought marrows in the dirt in my garden, how long before i was in prime position on the front-page of their website.
DeleteLess than 2 days i reckon.
It's a fallacy to compare arrangements to counter this virus with that of a war footing. Growing up with parents' accounts of how the country came together, I realise that there were unlimited ways in which to help the war effort, and that everyone could contribute. The difference now is that the population have become in the main by-standers. Most people can't 'sleep on the factory floor' (as Donald Trump said in his comparison to WWII) in order to help a united effort of resistance. MB suggested that a civil defence organisation be established. With unlimited labour available, surely a huge effort could be made to kill off the virus on every surface. There is a pent-up energy to 'do something'. If this isn't vented into some helpful activity, it will build up instead a resentment, looking to attach blame somehow. With a poisonous BBC and MSM only too willing to tap these sentiments, we should all beware.
ReplyDeleteYes, volunteers could be tested to see if they have had the virus. If they have, then they could work safely.
DeleteA gaggle of bbc reporters were broadcasting by standing outside in Britain’s towns and cities tonight to show how empty they were.
ReplyDeleteI just can’t see how this is setting a good example when their message to the viewer is to stay inside wherever possible.
There is no justification in them being outside.
Things you won't hear on the BBC:
ReplyDeleteThe daily death toll from Covid19 has gone DOWN two days running in the USA.
H/T to Guest Who:
ReplyDeleteKatya Adler gets all Mamamerkelly again...
https://twitter.com/BBCkatyaadler/status/1241405514191450113
Imagine if Boris engaged in a similar PR exercise in the UK (BTW does Katya really believe Merkel pops to the supermarket on a regular basis?)! The Beeboids would be outraged:
"Boris Johnson has been accused by the National Union of Gripers of engaging in a 'tawdry public relations exercise'. The President of the National Gripers Union Micky Taker said: 'It's all very well the Prime Minister engaging in a well rehearsed photo-opportunity but what about NHS workers who are dying of starvation on our streets because of his Government's incompetence'.
Meanwhile the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, launched a stinging attack on what she called the Prime Minister's 'distasteful courting of publicity at a time of grave danger to public health'. Norman Smith analyses the fall out from the Prime Minister's latest gaffe..."
MISSING CRAIG
ReplyDeleteIn the absence of the usual review of the Sunday newspapers by Craig, can I please suggest a Money and Investments special as an alternative?
Two weeks ago people were advised to buy gold.
One week ago the advice was to purchase shares in Andrex.
The Sunday Times has, on its front page, an expose on a London doctor who got £2.5m in a week from selling 'virus tests'.
My prediction for future good buys:- this week is jigsaw puzzles, followed by cots, prams and baby-wear later in the year.
My suggested investment opportunities:
Delete- Kids' trampoline manufacturers (saw one desperate Dad clutching one triumphantly in the supermarket a few days ago).
- Remote marriage guidance counselling sessions.
Investing in coffin manufacturers seems a safe bet.
ReplyDeleteAlso in the Sunday Times (back page of the money section) Angus Deyton talking about his time on HIGNFY (which ended for him in 2002) says that all those years ago he, Paul Merton and Ian Hislop were each paid £50,000 per episode.
ReplyDelete"Atop a mountain of gold,
DeleteI saw my soul was sold"
Regarding war analogies, Blitz spirit and all that. This is actually like an occupation by a particularly unpleasant enemy: curfews, lockdowns, privations, hostages taken and killed, an atmosphere of fear, normal life suspended...Occupations are always demoralising and divisive.
ReplyDeleteI feel a rant coming on thanks to the misfortune of hearing the opening of a news bulletin on the News channel today. (I usually take care to avoid BBC television news.)
ReplyDeleteStarting off with a greeting welcoming viewers in Britain and around the world - really, must you, BBC? - it then opened the first news item with 'The British Prime Minister...'
It's bad enough with the 'World Service' doing this kind of thing. Now the grandiose BBC - that's B for British, by the way, BBC - seems to be spreading the practice of grandiosity across the other manifestations of its would-be empire.
If you are a foreign broadcaster, say German or French, you say 'The British Prime Minister...' If you are British, you obviously don't; you say 'The Prime Minister'. It's not obvious to the BBC how wrong and bizarre it is for our publicly funded broadcaster to pretend it isn't British or isn't broadcasting to us. If other people tune in, fine, let them but your remit is to us; it's in the Charter which you never stop going on about when it comes to justifying your existence. If you prefer to pretend you're not British, stop using us to fund you and get your money from the listening-in non-payers you are so keen to defer to. Then you can address them all day long and I'll happily continue to avoid tuning in.
Started with Peter Snow referring to "the British forces" when giving away the possible landing sites to the Argentine embassy on Newsnight nearly 40 years ago!
DeleteThats a very interesting observation Anon. I think you are on to something there. With the BBC it is never by chance, it is always carefully thought through.
ReplyDeleteOn hot news topics, I've also noticed that they are increasingly giving four views - the government view followed the Scottish, Welsh and NI take.
I wonder if it is all part of the same master plan to give the BBC a degree of separation from the four UK nations and their politicians.
Yes, this 'the British' nonsense was infuriating at the time of the Falklands and it is again now.
DeletePerhaps the 'B(not very)BC' is seeking to reaffirm its pro-European credentials; perhaps it's seeking to strengthen the idea among the Scots, Welsh and N Irish that they do not belong in the UK - I'm sure nothing would give them greater pleasure than to break up the country into separate countries, two of which would want to remain in Europe.
I commented a few days ago that the BBC poster person Leo Varadkar featured on the NI page of the BBC News website. It's a way of voicing the pro EU message.
DeleteCountryfile had a theme running through their entire programme tonight. Chlorinated chicken and the US trade deal. The aim was to portray the deal as bad for the UK because we would have to accept their lower standards along with the chemically washed chicken.
ReplyDeleteThey may be absolutely correct but it wasn't presented on Countryfile in an even handed way.
News, Drama, Countryfile and Soaps, Radio, just about everything they do has a political purpose.
I don't know about you but I'm fed up with the BBC being agenda driven partisans on everything.
That's exactly how everyone I know feels, Charlie!
DeleteCharlie, you could have added Sport, Religion, Education, Pop Music, Classical Music and Arts coverage to your list...all deeply steeped in politics now.
DeleteSince the turn of the century, just in these last few years, we seem to have had a lot of respritory disease pandemics: MERS, SARS, H1N1 and now Coronavirus.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering whether the flu vaccine has helped create this situation. The lungs of older people and people with weakened immune systems, are inviting environments for pathogens...they can make a good living there! Using flu vaccine to wipe out a whole "chain of pathogens" might be the equivalent of wiping out a "chain of supermarkets": other supermarkets will move in to take up the "business".
Have we created a situation where novel pathogens (the Lidls and Aldis, if you like) can get a grip on people's lungs whereas before they would be "crowded out" by the well estbalished flu pathogens?
You might think I have no business as an unqualified lay person engaging in such speculation but there is this I found online:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2850385/
That suggests that medical scientists have had similar thoughts...
Of course, we have so little free speech on vaccination now (it is a kind of religious belief like climate change) that I am sure any discussion of this will be suppressed.
Sorry, I keep misspelling respiratory...
DeleteMB - Do you, or is it that you mis-typed it once & your spell-checker 'learned' it and has been imposing it on you ever since? I ask because that's what has been happening to me over the last few weeks. The checker seems to be becoming increasingly meddlesome and assertive.
DeleteA bit like Newsnight presenters then?
DeleteExactly! :)
DeleteFrom what I've read, this thing that is causing COVID-19, IS another SARS.
DeleteI haven't agreed with Matthew Parris much in recent years, but he is at last, once again, talking common sense:
ReplyDeleteCrashing the economy will cost lives. It would make more sense to simply lock down the elderly (and one might add, anyone with vulnerable health status).
That way we protect the vulnerable without destroying our economy.
Just ask yourself the question: what if another pathogen mutation emerges next winter? Are we going to re-crash our economy a second time? Of course not, it's just not possible. If we won't do it next time, why do it now?
China had a reason for lockdown - essentially to prevent Trump having a valid reason to cease all economic contact with China. We don't have any valid reason and our economy is much more vulnerable than China's.
It will take decades to recover from this self-inflicted wound, coming after the deep cut of the 2008 recession.
We cannot go on like this!
Faiza Shaheen was talking on Sky News tonight as if money has no relation to anything else...Money relates to production and economic activity - goods, food, services...If there are no goods, food or services, then money is worthless. The only reason Sunak has been able to keep the economic balls in the air so far is because the lockdown is expected to be shortlived - maybe two months. Any longer and we will be looking at hyperinflation, societal breakdown and pauperisation of the masses. We could be losing anything between 10% and 40% of our economic ouput as a result of this Government policy and it is a Government policy - a Conservative Government policy - no one else owns it. It's not a sustainable policy. Boris and Co. need to get in place the emergency measures - extra ventilators, extra hospital beds, social isolation measures for the elderly and vulnerable and then they need to return us to normality with all due speed. If Macron threatens us with a closed border, tell him "fine" - we will look to our future with the USA.
Here's a link to the Parris article - behind a paywall so I don't have access to it but I agree with the headline sentiment.
Deletehttps://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/crashing-the-economy-will-also-cost-lives-l9kz50dqb
Welcome to Greta's world:
ReplyDelete1. Hardly any aeroplanes flying (though still a few private jets for the super-rich).
2. Hardly anyone travelling in their cars anywhere.
3. Reduced meat rations for most people.
4. Schools shut down.
5. Old people being killed off.
Lovely world isn't it, Greta?
Heard on BBC World Service this morning...the BBC told the inspiring story of a man apprehended by Taiwanese Police at a night club at 2 am who was there in contravention of an isolation order (having previously come into contact with Coronavirus). The anti-British BBC were at pains to remind us that Taiwan had been praised for its effective response to the pandemic...
ReplyDeleteIt took me a couple of seconds before I did a double-take...a night club?!? They allow night clubs to stay open in Taiwan and it passes without comment on the BBC or is seen as part of an effective strategy!
It seems to me we have all gone more than a little mad to put up with this nonsense.
Trying to escape Radio 5 Live's "positivity" session, which I knew would be a bilious experience, I tried my luck with LBC, hoping that James O'Brien might be self-isolating in Benbecula. No such luck...he was ensconced in the studio giving us the benefit of the weird vibrations going in between his ears (I won't call them thoughts).
ReplyDeleteApparently the pandemic was caused by Brexiteers ignoring expert advice that Brexit would be a disaster. This might be news to the Chinese or indeed the other 5 billion people on the planet who have never even heard of Brexit.
Not only wsa O'Brien spouting the most absurd trash,he was doing so hypocritical since, despite not working in an essential job, had commuted to work to do address the nation from the cosy confines of his studio.
This is total lunacy.
ReplyDeleteSo far, after 4 monhts. Covid19 is stated to have killed about 15,000 people globally - compared with between 150,000 and 600,000 (depending whose estimate you take) for the 2009 flu pandemic.
Many more than that will die around world as a result of the border closures and travel restrictions, social isolation, lack of regular exercise and failure to spot diseases like cancer at an early stage (think of all those tens of thousands of people now ignoring worrying symptoms because they don't want to bother the GP or be ar risk of catching the virus).
And of course, what we are being told about the deaths is strictly limited. Experienced doctors and epidemiologists have made the point that many of the people being delivered the coup de grace by Covid19 had already nearly arrived at the end of life. If they didn't succumbe to Covid19 this month they would be carried off by some other pathogen next week. So we mustn't think that these general restrictions are "saving lives" - that is just ridiculous.
We need to relax the restrictions and return to normality with all due speed - as soon as we have the ability to cope with the emergency in terms of ventilators, PPE equipment and designated additional hospital beds.
It is vital we return to normal, before lasting and irreversible damage is done to our economy, our democracy and our society.
Yes, Tommy Robinson is now officially a non-person at the BBC. Non-personing was a technique invented by the Soviet Union. The "passer-by" referenced in the following article was Tommy Robinson. If they want to call him Stephen Yaxley Lennon, fine, but FFS, what a world has been created around us!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-52003543
That is a really disgraceful show of journalism.
DeleteI sometimes wonder how many people are aware of what is actually going on (with all sorts of subjects).
I wonder how deep the pit is that the BBC is digging for itself. I'm sure the management know themselves, and it probably isn't that all that deep, unfortunately.
In the last 20 years I've gone from distrusting the BBC to now thinking of it as a deeply pernicious influence.
I suspect that the BBC will use the coronavirus to tighten its grip upon what information we are allowed to hear from them. The most sickening in my mind is Mr fact-checker - this seedy persona was telling us about some ridiculous myths that had 'sprung up' (by that I take it to mean myths that the BBC can assemble) including the use of cow urine - some people in India thought it had remedial properties, apparently. By seeming to be certain of exposing ridiculous myths like this, we are expected to trust the BBC fact-checker.
DeleteI agree with you both - the BBC must feel emboldened by the virus crisis and have spotted a timely opportunity to secure their grip on the licence fee. I think any reformation on the BBC will be a very low priority for the government now. I expect the BBC to double down on their version of the truth, bias methods, fact checking and partisan broadcasting.
DeleteYes, the immediate post-election pressure on the BBC both over their political bias and the licence fee have been lifted, and don't they just know it.
DeleteIf Boris & Cummings were watching the News Channel, 5pm edition, their determination to 'do something' about the BBC will have been strengthened - Alistair Campbell was given a lengthy slot in which to criticise Boris's handling of the crisis. Fairly subtly done, so that he couldn't be criticised himself for not making a show of unity in this time of crisis!
DeleteI saw that, I was shocked - he was given such a free reign. I’m sure I heard the presenter continually agreeing with him in the background.
DeleteBefore I go off for some outdoor exercise either in defiance of common sense or compliance with the Chief Medical Officer's advice (not clear which is the case, according to our government), I was going to expand on my previous analogy between our current plight and a wartime occupation by an unpleasant enemy. Of course in such circumstances, there are always those Quislings who positively welcome the new order...I can't help noticing that people like Joan Bakewell, Ash Sarkar, John McDonnell, Jeremy Corbyn, Emma Barnett and James O'Brien are not just meekly accepting the restrictions but positively welcoming them, relishing them, wallowing in them. They hate individual liberty, free thought, free action and so love this current lockdown, putting the whole population under house arrest, together with the grim uniformity of media coverage - an added bonus as far as they are concerned.
ReplyDeleteI have this horrible feeling that more state intervention is here to stay. That’s why the socialists and Illiberal liberals are happy. It’s exactly the type of state that they desire.
DeleteMeddling with peoples lives for the greater good, big state spending through higher taxation, less freedom and increased benign (?) authoritarianism.
Yes, and if state intervention stayed how much better we would fit back into the EU when the Remainiacs finally get back into power.
DeleteWill the measures be only temporary? Well, Boris seems genuinely reluctant to introduce them, so maybe they will - on the other hand, income tax was introduced as a temporary measure...
'get' = 'got'!
DeleteThere's a big dividing line for me between state intervention that can be said to be empowering - free schooling and the health service - and state intervention that interferes with our liberty or makes us creatures of the state (welfare dependency or encroachments on free speech). We are on very dangerous ground here.
ReplyDeleteWhere will this lead? Are people who refuse the flu vaccine going to be imprisoned at home? Once we have the technology to identify people who have the flu, will they be arrested and remove from public areas?
If you accept all the moral arguments being bandied about now, that is the logical next step. You have the flu; you have no right to put the lives of others in danger - you must be subjected to house arrest. Your name and address will be instantly known via facial recognition surveillance. So a Court order will be automatically applied. The Police will serve the court order on you and you will be confined at home until the order is lifted by the authorities.
Brave New World eh?
Last week we had Dr Sarah Jarvis telling Jeremy Vine that perhaps we should be challenging 78 year-olds in supermarkets because if they got ill they might overload the NHS.
DeleteIn happier times would she dare challenge a fat-gut in Wetherspoons knocking back a super-sized meal surrounded by a ring of empty tankards?
MB: It's Karl Popper's paradox of freedom: in this instance, your freedom to go where you want deprives me of my freedom not to be infected with a virus which is very likely to kill me. As far as I am concerned, in this case, the end does justify the means - it's regrettable that the state has had to intervene but the time limit on the new powers makes them tolerable.
DeleteSis, I completely disagree.
DeleteIf a normal everyday virus such as Covid19 is going to kill you, you ought to stay at home until the community has acquired herd immunity which will offer you some protection. As long as you socially isolate, you will be fine. But remember: you will still be under threat after three weeks. No one is saying deaths won't occur after three weeks, they just won't occur in such concentrated fashion, the authorities hope. But because everyone will have stayed at home, no herd immunity will have been acquired yet.
You shouldn't deprive children of their education, people of their liberty, fit people of their exercise, or the young of their enjoyment. That is completely selfish. How long are we to be put under house arrest for? Three weeks, three months, three years? Why is three weeks' imprisonment reasonable?
We have never, ever had a national lockdown to control a virus before now. It is entirely unprecedented. Our sturdier forebears lived with the threat to their health such as it was, and got on with their lives.
There are loads of things which threaten one's freedom to live; people's freedom to use cars for example, causes umpteen cases of illness and deaths from breathing in toxic emissions and from driving while drunk or too fast/ badly; freedom for criminals, ex-criminals means some people will die as they will attack and kill again; failing to control illegal immigration or deport offenders, the same thing.
DeleteEven with this particular panic, people are free to fly into the UK from infected areas without checks or quarantine on arrival -Iran for instance - some of whom may be carrying and likely to cause others to die. Are we insane? Looks like it, what with the Fred Karno's circus that is the government and those mad shoppers. These locking-up measures are more to do with trying to make up for / cover up for almighty mismanagement and incompetence by a complacent inept PM and government, NHS managers, leaders and yet another man of straw SoS for Health, new boy wonder, Hancock.
When does the BBC look sympathetically on ordinary people calling for the death penalty for child murderers? I can hear your surprised..."Sympathetically? The BBC? Surely not! Someone phone the Howard League for Penal Reform!! The world really has gone mad!!!"
ReplyDeleteWell you see all becomes clear when you hear the answer: when it's in South Africa, that's when...and when it's not white South Africans calling for the death penalty:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-51875424
You can tell the BBC is looking kindly on these people, because leaders of the protest are referred to as "activists". Activists are nearly always good people in BBC-speak.
From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction - you must stay at home,"
ReplyDeleteIn the first 20 minutes of subsequent analysis, we saw BBC reporters totally ignoring this advice - speaking in the middle of a street - rather than reporting from a studio.
Vicki Young in London
Sarah Corker in Manchester
Jon Kay in Bristol
Emma Simpson at KIngs Cross station
Alexander Mackenzie in Glasgow
Is this going to continue I wonder? If so, for what purpose. We are journalists, we are the BBC, we are exempt, we have the power and authority to do what the rest of you cannot. We can, so we will.
Arthur, MB, John Coldwell et al: Remember we had a jokey exchange about my suggestion that James Dyson might be just the chap to manufacture ventilators in a hurry? Well, tonight, the Midlands News featured the owner of G-Tech of Worcester, the renowned vacuum cleaner manufacturer. He has produced a prototype and is ready to go into production!
ReplyDeleteHere it is - all the details , the build and a video!
DeleteGood old John Grey at G-Tech
https://www.gtech.co.uk/ventilators
Both G-Tech and Dyson appear to be up for the challenge. G-Tech are evidently ahead in the race, but Dyson has a huge R&D set-up in Malmsbury, which could be put to use and which I imagine can carry out reasonable production runs of a new product. I'd like to see more can-do stories like this instead of the relentless 'communities coming together' that fill our screens. Respirators are much more useful than group hugs - though these should by now be banned.
DeleteWonder if Boris reads this blog! :)
DeleteYes I saw an item on that a couple of days - well done Sis, you were ahead of the game!
DeleteIt looked impressive though I suspect medical machinery operates to very high quality parameters.
I did see a guy involved in the manufacture desribe the complexity of the machines and indicate after 30 years in the trade he was still learning every day. It didn't look like the G Tech guys had yet built the monitoring screens and computers...have they? Did I miss something...I'll take a look at the link...
I still don't know why the Government just didn't bribe existing manufacturers to come to the UK to set up a production line with guaranteed sales at guaranteed prices...perhaps they did try!
:::NEWSNIGHT WATCH:::
ReplyDeleteLa Pasionara, Maitlis asks Red Rowan, who was smirking behind his beard, "What would you say to all those people whose families have been ravaged by this disease..."
OK, China: One death in 428,000 people - one in nearly half a million! That ain't "ravaged".
Even Italy, curious Italy with its off the scale total, is only 1 in 10,000. That ain't "ravaged".
Huge numbers more are killed by common cancers and heart disease.
And remember, these were (98%) people with pre-existing health conditions, half with three or more. Families would have been worried about them already. They would not have lived much longer in most cases and in many cases Covid19 will be misascribed as the cause of death when it could be other viruses flourishing in their lungs.
To use the word "ravaged" as though we were experiencing the Black Death, or the Bubonic Plague or the Spanish Flu of 1918 is absurd, sick and disgusting.
Civilisation itself will become impossible if we are going to be turned into freedomless automatons by such facile pushing of emotional buttons.
I can add Rowan Williams to the "relish pile". He is clearly loving this opportunity for him to urge us to "reflect in a very deep and meaningful sense upon the State's responsibilities"...or some such guff.
The glee he was taking in all this was readily apparent in his body language which he could not restrain.
Emily was trying for gravitas but had one of her fishwife moments at one point.
Nick Watt now does this annoying bit of virtue signalling where he indicates how terribly distressing it is that we have to discuss the body count, before discussing it. FFS - that's what everyone including government is looking at, so give us the facts and save us the fake hand-wringing.
I have a question for people...if it is necessary to dispense with democracy altogether in order to get a grip on this disease, is that a price worth paying. I truly believe we have reached that point where most politicians will now not answer instinctively "NO".
Very dangerous times we are living in and I don't mean the virus. The PC ideology seems to have eaten into our vitals and weakened all our life-giving functions.
One thing that emerged from the programme (confirmed by Alan Johnson) was that, as you might expect, all governments for some time have had a Pandemic Plan.
So it make you wonder, what was in the most recent plan. Presumably it had:
1. Don't stockpile any mechanical ventilators.
2. Don't warehouse sufficient quantities of PPE for emergency use.
3. Don't have a Public Information Campaign.
4. Don't erect any emergency hospital facilities.
Even now, even after the Government has put the whole population into virtual house arrest, there hasn't been - as far as I know - a single emergency field hospital set up by the army or indeed any other emergency hospital facility established. Why? If it's such an effing end-of-the-world scenario, why on earth not?
Shami Chakrabati was on - also seemed to be enjoying the crisis and our deprivation of liberty (despite having once led the crypto-Communist outfit called "Liberty"). However she had one good point - why are construction sites being allowed to continue? This makes no sense at all if all the government says is true. There's no way construction workers can maintain social distancing and they need to commute like everyone else.
They did have piles of masks and protective gear in warehouses - just not the wit to know to distribute it to the staff who needed it. There was no system in place to get it out of the warehouse. Makes you wonder what goes on in the NHS in the name of Management.
DeleteNot really of the meme generation but this meme is so funny - and true!
ReplyDeletehttps://funvizeo.com/6541936c908e7e40/people-during-a-coronavirus-quarantine-meme
People who want to take your liberty away always claim the reason is an emergency. That's what Mussolini claimed as his justification for seizing power. Likewise Hitler in 1933. Similarly, Trotsky - dissolving the Constituent Assembly - he declared an urgent need to protect the Soviets from bourgeois plotting. Indira Ghandi in India used emergency powers to suspend democracy.
ReplyDeleteNever give up liberty lightly.
Governmental incompetence, as displayed by Boris's administration in spades so far (this virus has been known about for three months and they only now ensure PPE equipment is in hospitals in sufficient quantities!!!) is no good reason to give up our ancient rights.
Boris knows it in his heart. He is being driven to this. We have had news reports of "Cabinet revolts" forcing him into increasingly draconian action.
This has been a catastrophic start to the post Brexit government...it's clear that the Remainiacs have piled in to make life difficult for Boris. There are a lot of people, many of them still within the Conservative government, who don't want Boris's populist agenda to succeed.
People should not be bamboozled by politicians' soothing pseudo-patriotic words - even in the midst of a pandemic they are calibrating political advantage every millimetre of the way.
There is an anti-populist coalition - incorporating Conservatives like David Lidington, Lib Dems, Greens, celtic nationalists and Labour...plus virtually the whole of the media of course - who will exploit this medical emergency to the nth degree, with no conscience at all.
Whilst I'm quite relaxed about the current restrictions, as long as they are regularly reviewed, there are a number of other unwelcome consequences from the current situation which we should beware of;
ReplyDeleteThe NHS - People who work in the NHS are doing their jobs, mostly very well, however they should not be elevated to deities or "superheros" otherwise the NHS will continue to become an inefficient money pit.
The BBC - Is squarely positioning itself as the invaluable "worth every penny" public service provider and guardian of the nation (most or all BBC workers are designated key workers) this may prevent the clear out of the corporation which is due.
Brexit - There will be growing calls to postpone, or abandon or even repeat the call for a second referendum on EU membership. The BBC and remainers will soon be telling us how the current privations will become an everyday fact of life after Brexit.
Things to keep an eye out for in current monnths.
BBC totally out of control last night and this morning. Listening to the late, midnight news, Laura Kuenssberg was her usual sanctimonious self, implying that Government's actions had been too little too late and that there will a day of reckoning when action & inaction will be tallied alongside the death toll. The conclusion was that the Government will be overthrown once the public realises the extent of the death toll. Outrageously partisan and totally designed to underline faith in the current Government.
ReplyDeleteWorse still, Nick Robinson in a discussion with Kuenssberg at about 8.20 on the Today programme, asked if somewhere in Downing Street they would be making decisions on keeping the economy going over the death toll. He was, of course, referencing the furore over Dominic Cummings alleged remarks on Coronavirus. Give Kuenssberg her due, she played Robinson's nasty suggestion down but it left a really horrible taste 'those vicious Torres happy to sacrifice people for the economy'.
So much, for pulling the country together in times of crisis, the BBC is determined to divide us even more and even, in Kuenssberg's case, presage the overthrow of the Government.
The soft left-liberal culture at the BBC means they will always attack Boris and the Tories whatever they do. They also instinctively know that this crisis represents a great opportunity to push their agenda. As marianne says earlier engineering their own survival is a priority.
DeleteWell Cummings is right and the rest of our political elite are wrong.
DeleteAre we going to crash our economy every time a virus threatens to carry off a few thousand elderly people a little earlier than would otherwise be the case? We will be paying for this needless crisis for decades. It won't be possible to attempt this twice. So why do it this first time and set an awful precedent?
The only possible reason for this being necessary is Governmental, NHS and Civil Service incompetence, so that although we have had three months to prepare, we are still short of mechanical ventilators and PPE...and there isn't even a single field hospital in place.
The coronavirus has acquired thought processes and organisational skills according to the BBC's Ben Hunte LGBT correspondent:
ReplyDelete... 'Coronavirus postpones London Pride.' ...
At least the cars with mental health issues can't attack if it's cancelled.
DeleteThis morning I had an unsolicited text from "UK Gov"...I expected to read some Chinese-style exhortation to "learn well from the the example of Lin Zao Tu who stayed at home in his peasant village, sitting still on the toilet for three months n ot moving a millimetre.".
ReplyDeleteI wasn't far wrong.
Apparently it is now my civic and patriotic duty to "protect the NHS". Thanks Chairman Bo.
I agree with your sentiments. Doubtless the fools, of which there are many, will criticise the government for not spending enough on the NHS. Those of a more objective bent will treat with withering scorn any statements about our 'wonderful NHS' in the light of the criminal lack of preparation for a pandemic by the bunch of clueless pen pushers running the NHS aided and abetted by the self seeking British Mafia Association. It certainly doesn't help our country that the NHS has been 'weaponised' by generations of corrupt politicians, particularly Liebour, whose actions have prevented a proper discussion of this most useless organisation.
DeletePoliticians don't stop being politicians just because there is a crisis. There are dark forces at work. Assassin Gove may be at work again. We hear there was a "Cabinet revolt" forcing Boris into the latest draconian measures.
ReplyDelete"Too little, too late" is one of the most used phrases in politics...I found online the following:
ReplyDelete"This saying appears to have originated in the USA in 1935 and is attributed to historian Allan Nevins (1890-1971) who wrote in the May 1935 issue of Current History,
"The former allies have blundered in the past by offering Germany too little, and offering that too late, until finally Nazi Germany had become a menace to all mankind."
English Statesman David Lloyd George (1863-1945) is also known to have expressed a similar sentiment: "It is always too late, or to little, or both," but it's not clear whether this was before or after Nevins."
I expect the Welsh Wizard got there first with the thought. Anyway, if you could patent political phrases one of them and their heirs would have become very, very wealthy!
Anyway, it's not surprising that it emerged as a phrase used by appeasers, urging us to "give more at every turn".
The Welsh Wizard also said he wanted to "squeeze Germany until the pips squeak."
DeleteAh yes...he also said, in 1936: "“Germany does not want war. Hitler does not want war. He is a most remarkable personality, one of the greatest I have ever met in the whole of my life, and I have met some very great men."
DeleteThere has been a rumour about a tussle between Gove and Hancock as to who should take the lead if Boris got the virus, apparently resolved by landing on the Foreign Sec. What use is Raab? Out of the three, Gove would be my clear preference. At least he has some intelligence and practicality about him.
ReplyDeleteI've never forgiven Gove for his donning of the assassin's cloak and allowing in Theresa May, followed by three years of disastrous dither and delay. His love of learning is a redeeming feature but his absurd commitment to teaching grammar by rote (as opposed to good example) shows he isn't quite attached to the real world.
DeleteWell he thought Johnson wasn't fit and he was probably right about that, notwithstanding that he's popular and did win the election, without which there'd be no leaving the EU, so I have mixed feelings about both Johnson and Gove. And I am bitter about the hell we were put through for over three years after the referendum by most politicians, the BBC and other media and busybodies like Campbell, Blair, Major, Adonis and a long list of like loons. As if he hadn't suffered enough from that delay and dither, now we've got this to endure and all its dire consequences for the economy, society and politics.
DeleteNow we have an inkling of how they felt in the 1920s: four years of the Great War dovetailing with Bolshevik revolution, the Spanish Flu and a deep eonomic depression!
DeleteYou can see why TS Eliot wrote "The Wasteland".
DeleteI wonder if in a hundred years from now, anyone will be mentioning this virus as we do the 1918 one. Gloomy Eliot was going through his own depression, he and his wife having a most miserable, suffering life of unhappiness and ill health, as detailed in Peter Ackroyd's biography. I never really read much of the poetry apart from The Hollow Men and The Journey of the Magi which we did in school. I caught a good programme on BBC 4 a while back by A N Wilson, explaining the life and influences on Eliot's poetry. I wish the BBC would do more of that kind of thing.
DeleteHas 'Politics Live' succumbed to the virus? It wasn't on yesterday as far as I can tell and no sign of it in the listings for today.
ReplyDeleteIs this the Coburnavirus you're talking about?
DeleteHa! why didn't I think of that?
DeleteI think I saw it somewhere else to be honest but you set it up nicely for the punchline there!
DeleteThe Coburnavirus is one of the nastier pathogens circulating in the BBC's bloodstream. It can continually replicate Guardian talking points at an exponential rate while simultaneously deploying Izindatracist co-hosts that disable any healthy antibodies in the targeted Member (normally of the genus toryineffectualis) .
two things i noticed recently:
ReplyDelete"the prime minister made a rare statement..."
is the "rare" really necessary??
"The govt had to work with network providers to deliver the text as it failed to put in place a different system 7 years ago"
So what! We still got the text message didn't we!
Any. Opportunity. At all.
Actually, this spin about the text system is in full force on the website. The spin on this article is beyond satire:
DeleteFor the first time, all the UK's mobile networks are sending out a government message to their customers with details of the new shutdown measures.
The text reads:
GOV.UK CORONAVIRUS ALERT. New rules in force now: you must stay at home. More info and exemptions at gov.uk/coronavirus Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.
Some customers have already received the message, while others are set to get it later in the day.
The government has had to work with the operators to get the message sent because an emergency alert system, trialled seven years ago, was never put into practice.
If it had been, the government could have bypassed the operators and sent messages directly to phone users, as has happened in countries such as South Korea and the Netherlands.
Such a service would have allowed the government to bypass the mobile networks and send messages directly to all of the UK's mobile phones.
The trials run by the Cabinet Office in 2014 were apparently successful, with three mobile operators testing the broadcast of text messages in a defined area.
The final report on the trials said the idea had proved popular with focus groups and other members of the public surveyed about it.
It concluded that "the system would be an effective way of getting people to take specific protective action during an emergency".
The report also suggested it would be possible to send alerts to the public within 15 minutes of making a decision.
It is not clear why the system was not then put into practice, although one operator told the BBC that cost might have been an issue.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52017451
Some of that reads more like commentary than message - not clear by whom. Where does the actual text message begin and end?
Deleteeverything after 1st para is copy and paste from the article linked at the end
DeleteI've given up trying to open links from here. For some reason they usually don't work. That's why I wasn't clear what was what.
DeleteI’m a bit late posting but did anyone see Easton with his mic on a stick last night. He jumped out in front of a startled Chinese man in a Central London street.
ReplyDelete‘What are you doing out here?‘ he asked.
‘I’m filming for a YouTube channel’ replied the man
‘Do you really think you should be out here?’ blurted Easton incredulously.
The Chinese man was properly masked up.
Easton had no protection other than his stick as he jumped around in excitement and got in the mans face.
The irony of the question was lost on Easton as he hopped away.
Loving the image of Easton as some sort of weird Dickensian figure hopping and springing about the mostly deserted streets looking for an unwary citizen to waylay.
DeleteForget the ensian bit and you’ve got the correct description.
DeleteHe sounds more like a late incarnation of the haunted looking Crick when he was at the BBC, forever chasing unwary citizens in the streets.
ReplyDeleteTaiwan was offered up today on the BBC News channel as a model for defeating the coronavirus. How did they succeed? By spraying everywhere the virus might have lodged - planes, pavements, luggage etc.
ReplyDeleteQ. Why haven't we seen sprayers in the streets to any effective extent?
A. Because chemical spraying is highly regulated and can only be done by qualified people - mostly in the agri sector.
Q. And why is that?
A. Mostly because of EU regulation relating to chemicals, disposal of empty containers, maintenance of spray equipment etc etc.
Most spraying courses are held at Agricultural Colleges.
"In Taiwan, most residents carry on as normal, with offices and schools open. Many restaurants, gyms, and cafes in the capital, Taipei, are still bustling, although most premises will take temperatures and spray hands with sanitiser before allowing customers in."
Deletehttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/13/how-taiwan-is-containing-coronavirus-despite-diplomatic-isolation-by-china
Taiwan brought in aggressive border controls immediately.
BTW Cheating China insists that WHO have nothing to do with Taiwan, despite the obvious risk to the whole of the world in that boycott policy.
Individually and as a nation we don’t seem to have the discipline and ability to organise to control, test, contact trace or sanitise anything or anybody with the necessary rigour as they do in the Far East.
DeleteArthur & Charlie: life is cheap in the Middle and Far East. About 30 years ago, my wife and I met a Dutch pilot in a restaurant in Casablanca. We were the only people there and he asked if he might join us.
DeleteIt turned out that he was one of a number of crop-spraying pilots employed by the Moroccan Government to halt the advance of an invasion of locusts. The insects were at the crawling stage, so the planes had to be flown very low.
The pilots were under strict instructions to spray the insects, even if they were near,or even in, a village. The long-term effects of the insecticide were pretty horrific and his reaction, on the first occasion, was to refuse, but it was pointed out to him that if he didn't spray, many more people would die of starvation than the population of a single village. So he sprayed. He told us that he had had to fly so low that he could see the faces of the individual children whose lives he was about to ruin - he was still having nightmares.
The point of the above is that, in the developing world, governments take a pragmatic view - things like human rights are mere frills, so that, if they have to break down a few doors or rough up a few people to trace the source of an infection, in their eyes that's fine - but I don't think we should beat ourselves up about not doing as well as Middle or Far Eastern countries.
Taiwan isn't a developing nation! lol It's much wealthier than we are in the UK, per capita.
DeleteOK MB - Touché! ;)
DeleteSome of the worst examples of people not obeying social distancing has been on the London Underground. The pics are all over social and MSM ...with the exception of the BBC. They seem to reluctant to criticise. Is it because London based BBC staff all come to work on the tube and don’t want them shut or is it that they don’t like criticising the London Mayor?
ReplyDeleteNo, the BBC ones travel in taxis, paid for by you and me, if they're considered important enough. It's because the useless mayor has made things worse by rushing to shut down much of the tube before ever workplaces and business were all ordered to shut.
Delete5pm News Channel: Anybody got a bucket? I've just watched Shami Chakrabarti 'doing' fake concern for the self-employed, whose plight has not been recognised by the (uncaring) government. Utterly nauseating - she'd clearly been practising in front of the mirror.
ReplyDeleteAs with Alistair Campbell yesterday, the interviewee was given a long slot for government-bashing and a free run, by her namesake, Reeta. I suspect the daily carping-slot, with no opportunity for the government to respond, will become a regular feature.
I’m not surprised. Over on BBC 6pm news. Laura Is spitting venom at Matt Hancock. Mark Easton shouting across the street at people ‘Do you think the new rules are clear enough?’
Delete‘No’ comes the predictable reply.
as I’ve mentioned before, BBC reporters like Easton out the streets every day does seem uneccessary and hypocritical.
More generally, the BBC seem happier in his crisis when they are criticising, reporting confusion and questioning every word of every decision.
Makes a change from Chakribatty's usual demeanour of sulky claims and demands of 'rights' of one sort or another.
Deletei have seen that woman in 4 different slots in the last 3 days.
DeleteWhat exactly is she famous for?? And that hair... if you don't have a comb at least use your fingers!
According to the Daily Mail:
ReplyDelete'A family-run engineering company in Wales developed a special ventilator to help tackle coronavirus in just three days - and are now manufacturing a 100 a day.
The Covid Emergency Ventilator was devised with the help of a senior NHS consultant and has already successfully treated a coronavirus patient.
Engineers CR Clarke - who usually design plastic fabrication equipment for industry - were approached by Dr Rhys Thomas who was concerned at the lack of intensive care unit ventilators.
It took just three days to build the device on a small industrial park in Ammanford, south Wales.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8147119/Family-run-engineering-company-develop-ventilator-just-THREE-days-treat-coronavirus-patients.html
Well done them if the report's correct.
Great stuff! Should be just in time for the big spike!
DeleteThat's very impressive. Sounds like my initial scepticism about getting non-medical companies involved in their manufacture was ill-judged.
DeleteIf the quality of the product meets the standards, I hope the Government places an order for 100,000. We need to have a huge warehouse stock. And we need to train up 50,000 people to be able to work with them - they can receive some regular payment and be tested on their knowledge via online examination.
Never again can we be put in this position of having to take down our whole economy owing to the negligence of the NHS, Government and Civil Service. This is similar to Grenfell - the London Fire Service were fully aware of the possibility of a out of control cladding fires on London tower blocks but had neither the equipment nor the procedures to deal with it. Likewise in this case, the NHS, Government and Civil Service were fully aware of the possiblity of a serious pandemic.
I would guess that a 'proper' ventilator is the product of 'specification creep' and probably costs more than the annual salary of a nursing sister.
DeleteThe G-tech one seems to use stock disposable items and is powered by the feed oxygen supply, whereas the Clarke model is electrically powered and supplies filtered ambient air.
Once upon a time 'hospital radio' consisted of a few radios and amplifiers, a multi-core cable, a selector switch and a jack socket. Now hospitals provide integrated TV, internet and telephone services that few patients use because it costs so much. I wonder how much else is over-engineered to cost a hundred times more?
Very interesting anonymous.
DeleteProbably a number of factors come into play with ventilators including sophitication of monitoring and compactness whereas in an emergency a bit bulky thing might do.
Our friends at BBBC are off line this morning. I hope that's not for long.
ReplyDeleteSo many coronavirus stories circulating, difficult to keep up with it all:
ReplyDelete1. Very important Oxford Uni study suggests virus has been here in UK since mid Jan and could already have infected half the population. This seems quite plausible to me given all we know about how infectious it is. Interesting that ONS figures for Jan 2020 show excess mortality of 2000 over same month in 2019.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8148529/Coronavirus-infected-half-British-population-say-Oxford-University-experts.html
This accords with my hunch about what is going on...and adds to my scepticism about the efficacy of a general lockdown.
2. Researchers in Iceland claim to have found 40 mutations of the virus, while other researchers say the virus mutates slowly, so that a vaccine could be effective for a year...not mutually exclusive propositions I guess.
On your first point MB, isn't the %age of infected people needed to confer herd immunity reckoned to be between 60% & 90%, depending on how infectious the virus is? If that's the case, it may be that herd immunity has almost been attained. Given that some people will ignore the lockdown, the number infected is bound to creep up, but gradually - which is what we need!
DeleteRe: your second point, mutations usually weaken a virus, so maybe the Icelandic info.is less devastating than at first appears. Presumably, once a vaccine is developed it'll be possible to modify it annually, as happens with flu vaccines.
Khan's TfL refuse to help Londoners by running more trains.
ReplyDeleteIf the BBC were not creatures of the Left they would ask him: "Will you let retired drivers and army personnel train to take over the trains?"
We know what his answer would be (I mean after all the waffle).
If he refuses, the Government should nationalise TfL forthwith and take over its running.
Agreed but I suspect the BBC are on the side of Sadiq in his spat with Government on this.
DeleteOr, ìndeed, on anything!
DeleteThe BBC are reporting prominently that the UK broke the law when dealing with four British IS members who be beheaded or killed 27 people.
ReplyDeleteI object to the BBC naming them ‘the Beatles’ which gives them a sort of folklore legitimacy like those in the Wild West.
I also note that the BBC report dispassionately as if these people are deserving of justice more those those tortured and murdered.
My feeling is that most people will be pleased we passed on info to the US and couldn’t care less about their fate.
These articles always focus on those who do wrong and skip past those who have been wronged. As usual the BBC are more concerned with justice for the attacker rather than the victim.
Spot-on: Britain's enemy is the BBC's friend!
Delete