Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[lefteri]

75 years ago - all those who were there are high risk so will not be 'let out'...and why would we wish to celebrate 'winning' a war at this at the current time? It's like Fogle's happy birthday singing idea, totally irrelevant.

we would be celebrating fogle’s stringing up day in years to come if there was any justice

 

[chainsawjob]

A couple of things I picked up on today wrt Covid-19:

Men are much more likely to die than women.

And BAME people are also more likely to die.

But so far no one knows why.

With regards to the higher number of BAME people dying of Covid-19, I thought this letter in the Guardian about the role of vitamin D was interesting:

I am not alone in being alarmed at the preponderance of deaths from Covid-19 among those with dark skin (UK government urged to investigate coronavirus deaths of BAME doctors, 10 April). While Covid-19 is likely to magnify the effect of social deprivation, I don’t think this is the whole story.

Vitamin D is needed for many reasons, including correct functioning of the immune system. It is converted to its active form by the action of sunlight on the skin. This is impeded by having dark skin and leads to low levels of vitamin D. Supplementing with vitamin D3 at 5000iu daily corrects this deficiency, and it is now an urgent need for all people with dark skin (and most with white). There is a reasonable chance that vitamin D replacement could help reduce the risk we are seeing playing out so tragically in the BAME community.

I am convinced that the damage to health of an unhealthy lifestyle is being magnified by the pandemic. Healthy vitamin D levels might well make a difference. It might be useful if this, and other lifestyle advice, was given more prominence in the daily press briefings.
Dr Colin Bannon

Vitamin D deficiency could have role in Covid risk to BAME community | Letter

Letter: Vitamin D is needed for many reasons, including correct functioning of the immune system, writes Dr Colin Bannon

www.theguardian.com

 

[brogdale]

Am I missing something here?
WTAF...a gathering from the people that brought you Don’t sit on the park bench Grandad.

 

[two sheds]

Am I missing something here?
WTAF...a gathering from the people that brought you Don’t sit on the park bench Grandad.

Good comments by Damir Rafi.

 

[zahir]

Twitter thread on care homes and testing.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Am I missing something here?
WTAF...a gathering from the people that brought you Don’t sit on the park bench Grandad.

Last week all the local filth parked up outside the main hospital and set off all their sirens at once. They posted a video of it, it was the most appalling din. I seriously doubt that either the staff or the patients would have enjoyed the experience. People with sensory issues would most likely have suffered considerable distress. And yeah, none of them were keeping their distance, just stood there in a big crowd like the shit-eating halfwits they are.

 

[Supine]

As a kid I was once given a placebo asthma inhaler. Had an attack, the inhaler didn't work. Read the ingredients on the canister and it said "aqua." I guess my shithead doctor thought a nine-year-old was too thick to know what aqua meant, and presumably he was one of those rare doctors who thinks asthma is all psychosomatic. That's one of the dangers with allowing doctors to prescribe placebos - some of them will take it too far.

Placebo have no identifying markings and are only used in clinical trials. You could not be prescribed it by a doctor without informed consent.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

With regards to the higher number of BAME people dying of Covid-19, I thought this letter in the Guardian about the role of vitamin D was interesting:

If that is a factor, then more sunbathing is needed. And the darker your skin, the longer you need to do it to produce the vitamin D. Shame there are no outdoor spaces where you can safely do it away from other people...

Let the sunshine in: We need Vitamin D more than ever

 

[scifisam]

Placebo have no identifying markings and are only used in clinical trials. You could not be prescribed it by a doctor without informed consent.

OK, but an asthma inhaler with the only ingredient being "aqua" is clearly a placebo. Placebos aren't only used in clinical trials anyway, hence people getting homeopathy on the NHS until that was stopped.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Surely if you tell someone it's a placebo, you ruin the placebo effect. Whole point is that they think it's going to do them good. In that sense, the deceitful (and fucking shocking) way the doc did it for sam was the right way to do it.

 

[two sheds]

Can we stop derailing this important thread with the fucking placebo effect?

What idiot started it anyway??

 

[Smangus]

What idiot started it anyway??

You'll never know , it was a blind trial. One real idiot and a placebo.

 

[scifisam]

Surely if you tell someone it's a placebo, you ruin the placebo effect. Whole point is that they think it's going to do them good. In that sense, the deceitful (and fucking shocking) way the doc did it for sam was the right way to do it.

Some studies say the placebo effect works even when people know it's a placebo. There are complicated reasons for this, and I don't think there's any consensus on how it works; increased attention from doctors is part of it, and that's put down to less stress, but I've never seen anything where they separated out the increased attention from doctors meaning that they reported symptoms sooner, too.

FWIW I'm absolutely certain in my memory of this "aqua" inhaler. I was really angry. But there's not a lot you can do about that when you're nine.

I participated in a clinical trial regarding the link between asthma and eczema at around the same time (yes, as a child) so maybe this was part of it - too long ago for me to remember the timelines (and even if they were at somewhat different times, the same consent might have applied - not that it would have been me giving the "informed consent"). The rest of the trial was pissing in a pot every day, getting extra blood tests and pinprick tests and keeping a diary. I don't think they were connected, because I didn't get given inhalers at the hospital and I picked up my own prescriptions at the chemist, but possibly they were.

Still, giving someone a fake asthma inhaler is a very dangerous thing to do, not something that should ever be part of a clinical trial outside a hospital in-patient unit. And it's the sort of thing a very small but very dangerous number of doctors would do if encouraged to prescribe placebos outside clinical trials. Which is what we were talking about.

 

[Grace Johnson]

So, this post has been kicking about on local Facebook pages for a week or so now. Seems like the catering for the nightingale hospital in Manchester has been contracted out. Which to be expected obviously. But appears the company that has been contracted is trying to recruit people to work for free under the guise of volunteering for the NHS. They are posting on the local covid support groups asking for help and volunteers. They are a large private company. This is minging. Does anyone know if there's anything I can do about it because this doesn't seem right to me and would hope this is at least illegal enough that someone proper can have a word with them

 

[chainsawjob]

If that is a factor, then more sunbathing is needed. And the darker your skin, the longer you need to do it to produce the vitamin D. Shame there are no outdoor spaces where you can safely do it away from other people...

Let the sunshine in: We need Vitamin D more than ever

Are you able to quote the article please, it's paywalled? The start is interesting.

 

[little_legs]

Yeah im not saying its a bad thing or i cant understand why anybody gets anything good out of it - i guess it just reinforces that everything is different. Hearing people cheering every thursday at a set time just makes everything much weirder to me. Its become a ritual i suppose, every Thursday night we go and bang things and shout. This has been going on long enough that we now have rituals about it and that upsets me.

It's virtue signalling bullshit. If you really care about the NHS maybe stop voting for the eugenicist party that thinks healthcare workers don't deserve money or equipment.

 

[little_legs]

Likewise. Could hear a pin drop last week but this week it sounded like the whole village was out, clapping like robotic sea lions and banging pots. A few rockets went off. I suspect my name is now on some parish list.

Too late. Already reported you to the local plod, just open that door when they come for a visit.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I've got over it now, it doesn't drive me up the wall like it did the first couple of times. I didn't even shout "FUCK THE TORIES" out the window like I did before, just rolled my eyes a bit.

 

[purenarcotic]

If this is even a bit accurate its pretty amazing evidence of the lockdown's effect - this is that self report ap, and it says that there's been a 70% reduction in symptomatic cases since the end of last month(?!)
Can that be right or is it just that at the start when the ap was launched everyone was self reporting but they've all got bored of it now?

Latest Daily UK COVID-19 Data: Vaccines, Cases, Trends | ZOE

COVID infection & vaccination rates in the UK today, based on public data and reports from millions of users of the ZOE Health Study app

covid.joinzoe.com

I’ve used the app since it’s inception pretty much. It was updated maybe a week or two weeks ago to tell you how many people were contributing every day. It’s remained steadily between 2.3 - 2.5 million since they’ve introduced the number thing so I do think they’re getting good reporting figures.

 

[bimble]

When did all the staff in tescos start having to wear t shirts that say We’re All In This Together?

 

[wayward bob]

is it one really big t-shirt? with head-holes every 2m...

 

[platinumsage]

This is the biggest public gathering i've seen since the lock-down started:

 

[brogdale]

Apols if posted elsewhere...but this clip of Johnson speaking just 73 days ago is quite instructive when attempting to understand the early, recent history of the government's response to Covid-19:

 

[danny la rouge]

This is the biggest public gathering i've seen since the lock-down started:

Why aren’t those cops arresting themselves?

 

[brogdale]

Why aren’t those cops arresting themselves?

Wouldn't have been an intelligence-led operation.

 

[Brainaddict]

During the clapping last night my neighbour started chanting 'Pay nurses more, pay doctors more.' Where I am almost nobody votes Tory so I'm feeling okay with the clapping and am joining in. I think I'd find it hard to stomach in a Tory-voting suburb.

 

[scifisam]

During the clapping last night my neighbour started chanting 'Pay nurses more, pay doctors more.' Where I am almost nobody votes Tory so I'm feeling okay with the clapping and am joining in. I think I'd find it hard to stomach in a Tory-voting suburb.

Yeah, I did it for the first time last night and it was quite moving tbh, but it does help that we're a very Labour borough and pretty much everyone I saw out was youngish, so the odds of them being hypocritical Tory voters is low.

 

[tommers]

I csnt be bothered to find it but the woolwich ferry did donuts yesterday in support of the NHS.

Im going back to bed.

 

[keybored]

When did all the staff in tescos start having to wear t shirts that say We’re All In This Together?

The patent expired on Every Little Helps.

 

[spitfire]

It's all getting a bit weird(er).