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Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

Public health expert, Professor John Asworth has just savaged the Govt response on Newsnight, pointing out 3000 italian football fans are in liverpool tonight, despite the whole of their country in lock down, he says there will certainly be carriers amongst them

geeting more worried at the govt approach , it is based on economic concerns.
Who were these Italian football fans in Liverpool supporting - Liverpool or Athletico Madrid?
 
Public health expert, Professor John Asworth has just savaged the Govt response on Newsnight, pointing out 3000 italian football fans are in liverpool tonight, despite the whole of their country in lock down, he says there will certainly be carriers amongst them

geeting more worried at the govt approach , it is based on economic concerns.

Of course it is - this has the potential of scuppering Boris's premiership before it even gets going...forget levelling up, the money will be spent on bail out and hopefully health care.

Denmark is advising that all gatherings of 100+ should be postponed - meanwhile there are 50,000+ at Anfield including Italians masquerading as Spanish it seems...
 
Then again we have eugenicists in Downing Street. I can imagine them being quite keen to bump off some more economically underproductive citizen-consumers
to prove my point this happened (in case anyone missed it)
ES14fo7WAAIO3ot
 
So, there's an emerging consensus that widespread testing and decisive measures are the only way to go - and the UK is just singing happy birthday. It's looking bad for the old, the sick and the poor, even if we've no real way of knowing how bad. FFS, even if you are too shit scared to close places of work at least do something to limit the spread. Shouldn't be too difficult to suggest people don't visit care homes for the next month or to shut down large sporting events/entertainments. And of course a lot of other things.

One thing does strike me, what about Chris Whitty? He was the voice of level headed seriousness a week ago and even on here some people were reassured that policy was being run off 'the science'. But increasingly he's looking out of step with other scientific voices.
 
One thing does strike me, what about Chris Whitty? He was the voice of level headed seriousness a week ago and even on here some people were reassured that policy was being run off 'the science'. But increasingly he's looking out of step with other scientific voices.

He was and is coherent, and there was logic to his explanations. And people also liked some of the things he said because he was prepared to talk about certain things the government would probably do in future.

But many rational and coherent positions can be suggested in science, without necessarily being correct. Scientific understanding isnt monolithic and rigid, and genuine scientific consensus can be elusive. And you can get the theory right but still fail if you get certain parameters wrong, such as the timing.

Also, he could carry on talking a lot of sense, even if the actions the government were actually taking on a particular day were not a perfect fit with what he would choose to do or what the ultimate logic of their stance would really dictate should be done. After all he goes on about balancing things quite a lot, which means political and economic considerations. And we know that one of the sciences they are using is behavioural science.

There are various complaints about the government I could make that I'm saving for now, at least until I see how far they are actually prepared to go with measures during the 'delay phase' which appears to be rather imminent.

It is tempting to say they are politically doomed even if their approach leads to the results they are hoping for. Because I'm not sure even a 'successful' outcome will resemble anything people will really think of as a success. And they have really nailed themselves to the mast in terms of going for what now resembles their own distinctive strategy. They can try to hide behind words like science, and point to WHO declaring a pandemic and suggest their own timing was in step with WHO, but I dont really think the way they've gone about things so far genuinely gives them that cover. Not judging by what the press, parliament and people more broadly have started saying this week. Mind you, maybe still too early to tell, unclear what sort of politics and criticism will be considered appropriate during the darkest weeks of the first epidemic wave.
 
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Being a sort of masochist i check the dm comments section now and then on any big story to see how those people are thinking and today under their main virus article all of the top rated comments are calling for top down decrees to enforce social distancing .

The one with the most upvotes of all says 'It's time our government took their thumb out of their a@se and protected our people'.
So if gov wanted for various reasons to wait until people are ready for their personal freedom to be curtailed before announcing measures i think we are there?
 
to prove my point this happened (in case anyone missed it)
ES14fo7WAAIO3ot

Before it even gets as bad as it probably will...there are some, who, as they are sadistically prone, stepping back from the fact they are also human and speculatively measure this as a capital positive/profit-making opportunity.. I wonder if they all have copies of William Rees-Mogg's books. :facepalm:
 
Yep. I've also seen a fair bit of "read between the lines, we'll be shutting completely" planning for the coming weeks.
But for Universities the scope for “lockdowns” is inevitably limited as they are also ‘home’ to so many foreign students who will, by that stage, likely have no chance of travelling anywhere.
 
If the UK gets locked down, what are the chances of me (British citizen currently in Turkey) being allowed back in? I can imagine lots of flights being cancelled :( I’m preparing to move back as there is no work here and my visa has expired but struggling to find any work in the UK 😢

I think that repatriating citizens despite travel bans is standard and you shouldn't worry about that. Sorry sounds really stressful for you anyway right now. :(
 
I think that repatriating citizens despite travel bans is standard and you shouldn't worry about that. Sorry sounds really stressful for you anyway right now. :(

Hope so but those sort of things seem to apply to holiday makers rather than people who’ve been gone for years. Anyway just trying to take it day by day and not get too down. It’s a frightening time and as always, not knowing is the worst part.
 
Being a sort of masochist i check the dm comments section now and then on any big story to see how those people are thinking and today under their main virus article all of the top rated comments are calling for top down decrees to enforce social distancing .

The one with the most upvotes of all says 'It's time our government took their thumb out of their a@se and protected our people'.
So if gov wanted for various reasons to wait until people are ready for their personal freedom to be curtailed before announcing measures i think we are there?

One should be wary of conflating 'people' with 'DM comment thread gobshites'. Probably half of them are Putinbots trying to sabotage our economy.
 
Ministers will hold cross-party talks with Labour on Thursday about the emergency legislation required to implement and enforce some of these measures. Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said the government hoped to pass the legislation next week.
 
People in London have already started to avoid things like fitness classes, for example. Last night my teacher was telling us he was lucky he was still teaching, and a lot of the other classes at the places he teaches had no students at all, most of them, in fact. So this means teachers hiring rooms and losing money. Considering that exercise is actually great for the immune system, it seems counter productive.

I am still going to keep going as long as there are classes but I have stopped shaking hands and hugging (since last week). Last night this caused amusement, offence and agreement in equal measure... I did a foot bump with my training partner for the night.
 
I don't understand the curfew thing at all. Do people think viruses only travel at night?

Forcing people to do everything they need to do outdoors in the same window of time is just going to make everything more crowded and increase the risk of transmission. You'd think better advice would be if there's something you need to do and you can do it at 4am instead of 4pm, do so.
 
But for Universities the scope for “lockdowns” is inevitably limited as they are also ‘home’ to so many foreign students who will, by that stage, likely have no chance of travelling anywhere.

True. But as much of the accomodation is outsourced to private companies there is an element of "not our problem" in the thinking.

As many UG courses are now finishing up for the term there's a "get them done, get them off campus" rationale that would see much smaller numbers to manage on campus over the coming weeks.

We'll see of course. I'm astonished there hasn't been a more major outbreak at a University thus far.
 
If someone has already posted about this on other threads then apologies, but why wait till the rates of infection are high before lockdown? Would imposing a lockdown when just a few people were sick not have been better as it would have reduced the level of spread significantly? I am guessing the answer is to do with levels of preparedness?
 
We have been told we all might have to work from home if there is a lockdown. I already work 2 days from home (for mental health reasons) but there is no way i can afford to have the heating on every day and my house is freezing cold. and i'm too poor to stockpile anything. i went to buy rice for my tea and the shelves were empty and that'll get worse won't it? I don't have anyone to bring me supplies if I get isolation. I help look after my mam, who will visit her if I'm isolated? I'm not scared of the virus but what I am really worried about is the measures to be taken.
 
Hope so but those sort of things seem to apply to holiday makers rather than people who’ve been gone for years. Anyway just trying to take it day by day and not get too down. It’s a frightening time and as always, not knowing is the worst part.

Certainly some of the people repatriated during the initial outbreak were longer-term residents, with families in China etc...
 
You don't happen to have a source for that?

His use of, not where I can get some.

It's all rumours, hearsay, and speculation, but there's been a lot of it going back decades - allegedly Adderall was his drug of choice during his Celebrity Apprentice days, but he's now using phentermine.

From a 1993 Trump biography:

The diet drugs, which [Trump] took in pill form, not only curbed his appetite but gave him a feeling of euphoria and unlimited energy. The medical literature warned that some potentially dangerous side effects could result from long-term usage; they included anxiety, insomnia, and delusions of grandeur. According to several Trump Organization insiders, Donald exhibited all these ominous symptoms of diet drug usage, and then some.

 
Chatting at work today and with my partner. Im in London.

The City is emptier than usual. Have friend who is a Personal Trainer in a City gym and less people are coming.

I think a lot of City people are working from home. If you have job in financial sector you can still do a lot on internet at home.

For a lot of us who do manual work of one kind or another working from home is not an option. Staying at home isn't an option either.

Bills have to be paid.

Met a lorry driver from Italy today. He said the same. Can't just stay in Italy earning no money. I totally sympathise with him.

An enforced lockdown will affect the less well off. I dont see how it can work for people like me and my workmates.
If I work from home I don't get paid, and I'm self-employed so no sick pay. I hope as many office workers etc as possible start working from home for at least some of the time. Makes public transport and other public areas less crowded, which makes transmission to those of us who can't stay at home less likely.
 
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