Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion
- Thread starter Sasaferrato
- Start date
Cid
Proper break this time
I went for a bike ride... had a quick swing by nearby park, just to be nosey. Quiet. Sheffield central ish, gets joggers from universities, and a more w/c element from some tower blocks/area around them. All seemed well. Did a little time on the river path to meadowhell, again not too bad. 95% of people out being respectful, keeping distance. Actually decent feeling of solidarity.
Which makes me somewhat more fucked off about people posting those extreme telephoto tabloid pics designed to make people look clustered. And still more fucked off about the papers themselves. Playing out their pissy little antagonisms, deliberately trying to set people against each other. Digging up dirt. In the middle of this fucking crisis.
I hasten to add I don’t mean people having a moan about ‘I saw x today’, do that myself. Just actively trying to stir up shit on a national level.
Which makes me somewhat more fucked off about people posting those extreme telephoto tabloid pics designed to make people look clustered. And still more fucked off about the papers themselves. Playing out their pissy little antagonisms, deliberately trying to set people against each other. Digging up dirt. In the middle of this fucking crisis.
I hasten to add I don’t mean people having a moan about ‘I saw x today’, do that myself. Just actively trying to stir up shit on a national level.
Cid
Proper break this time
danny la rouge
More like *fanny* la rouge!
I mean, at some level, don’t we all?
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
He said hasten, not hypnotize.
prunus
Tick tock.
Raheem
Well-Known Member
Well, perhaps. But it's a bit of a thing to admit to in the current climate.
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
Yes, I cycled into the centre yesterday just to see it and the Strand was particularly striking - usually one of the worst streets to cycle in the whole of London. I wish the cars could be prevented from returning.
danny la rouge
More like *fanny* la rouge!
Look, those amphibious little fucking animated coin purses should get a cunting move on!
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
Can't see if anyone's posted this To help stop coronavirus, everyone should be wearing face masks. The science is clear | Jeremy Howard
What do people think of it? Should the government mandate wearing masks to protect people from asymptomatic carriers?
What do people think of it? Should the government mandate wearing masks to protect people from asymptomatic carriers?
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
It did strike me that the City - abnormally empty and spooky on Sundays generally - must be completely 28 Days Later now. Maybe next weekend I'll take a trip down there if I can not fall off my scooter.
Hollis
bloody furious
Interesting article on tensions within the scientific community...
Coronavirus: tensions rise over scientists at heart of lockdown policy
Coronavirus: tensions rise over scientists at heart of lockdown policy
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
I've seen a few videos on Twitter which have really pissed me off - designed to exaggerate how close people are in parks, shot with a long lens (which always constricts distance) from a straight angle and usually parallel to the direction that people are walking, so it makes a dozen people on a path look like a close-packed crowd. This isn't accidental, they aren't phone shots, they're taken with proper cameras and put out on major media channels - there is definitely editorialising going on.
chilango
Hypothetical Wanker
It's not gonna be "a couple of weeks" though is it?
The wearing of masks was downgraded when it became obvious that none were to be had. As soon as a supply appears, profiteering can be ramped up and yep, suddenly, 'the science' will say we should all be wearing them.
One thing has become crystal clear for me - the objective, impartial, politically neutral scientist or indeed, scientific method, is a comforting myth. Science has been as deeply corrupted as any other activity which is predicated on neo-liberal doctrine. There is no profit in curing people...just maintaining chronic conditions in a state of permanent medication.
By the way, I spent several hours on a totally empty allotment plot today...because I understand the difference between my individual rights versus the collective good. A nuanced argument which is not developed by being hectored by the privileged...but emerges from a deep sense of community and responsibility. And most people appear to be operating on remarkably similar principles. So when there are the usual selfish arse wipes around, I find it is generally more effective to have a reasoned discussion rather than saying 'i hope you die'. I couldn't give a single flying fuck about wankers on TV, snotty journos or our mendacious rulers and lawgivers... but do care quite a lot for my friends, neighbours and especially those who have not been offered any sort of choice whatsoever, whether they are allowed to stay safe at home. Priorities right...and we do what we have always done, at least on the left, which is to know where our loyalties lie and understand what we mean by solidarity (and, in these times, empathy and kindness)..
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ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
One of my favourite things used to be a job around Croydon or through london on Christmas morning. Nobody out at all. Haven't been home for Christmas for four years now though. Lovely and spooky. My parents village was oddly aways disappointingly busy though. Last three years have been in borovits where they don't really do Christmas at all. I'd like to take a cycle ride or jog now, but I'm on the danger list so can't really go out.
bimble
floofy
Just watched this one - apparently of Richmond riverside yesterday afternoon - and thought it might be fake (from some other day I mean) until the old bloke at the end walks past in a facemask.
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
Whilst I have some sympathy with this view, it's worth remembering that doctors and scientists and researchers are not the ones running pharmaceutical companies. There are a lot, a lot of very clever people working very hard and in good faith for the general good of humankind, neo-liberal doctrine or no.
elbows
Well-Known Member
Thanks, that was interesting. We've discussed several of the Imperial papers here, and the Oxford one when the press seized on it, but it sounds like there are other models and estimates out there that I havent heard much about.
I am uneasy about reliance on one model, and I wish we had a bunch of better, somewhat tested ones ready before this virus emerged on the human scene. Well really I wish we had a massive existing routine surveillance systems so that we could rely on data more than models from the start, or at least models that had better quality of assumptions and data fed into them to increase their chances of being right.
This stuff is one of the reasons I dont have much to say about the medium to long term yet, and why I wont yet spend too much time considering what the exit strategies will consist of, I just dont know enough facts. And its one of the reasons I am glued to the actual daily data even though we know about various lags and flaws in the data.
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FridgeMagnet
Administrator
Just watched this one - apparently of Richmond riverside yesterday afternoon - and thought it might be fake (from some other day I mean) until the old bloke at the end walks past in a facemask.
That was one of them. It's not "fake" as such but it's massively deceptive - it makes everyone look far closer than they are. The shots which aren't taken in the direction of travel, you can see that people are generally a few metres away from each other unless they are together, and you're allowed to be close to people you live with. If I was going to make a video deliberately to distort the situation I would do it like that. (I might actually try - I have the equipment.)
Athos
Well-Known Member
It could be, if we can get a lid on things, and then releasing controls gradually - with limited exercise being an obvious contender for early relaxation.
LDC
On est tous des pangolins
Some of those points are fair, but there's still loads of people lying in the sun and sitting down, etc. And from friends I know in London they are almost all meeting up with people outside their household for a walk or cycle and justifying it with some spurious self-interested reasoning.
Comes down to the individual versus corporate power though, doesn't it. We have been lilled with the concept of peer reviews, academic freedom etc etc when corporate pharma, R&D, just about all funding for anything at all, is utterly tainted by capitalism...so yep, individual scientists are not really where I am directing my ire...but the over-arching principles which dictate profit above all and any considerations. From the top.
gentlegreen
I hummus, therefore I am ...
From Bristol Police via local councillor :-
Meet London's new emergency services — The Standard
When this is over, London will owe a debt to its frontline services so vast we’ll probably have to bake them that massive Wembley lasagne just to say thank you. They are some of the important key workers keeping the city moving — as are a new emergency service: the delivery drivers. From taxi...
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