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Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

I've not passed posts later that 4pm today but Wilf - how is your mum? She shouldn't be left with a broken hip, let alone in pain, as much as I appreciate the fear care homes must have around getting treatments for residents right now, alongside what sounds like panicked 111 advice, too. I am not a fucking doctor etc, obvs - but love sent, fwiw.
 
One of the things that has really stood out to me, particularly in the BBC's coronavirus coverage, is the phenomenal over-representation of ethnic minorities in the medical professions in the UK. It sometimes seems as if literally the only people saving lives in this country are immigrants (or the children or grandchildren of immigrants). I wonder if it will have any effect on the anti-immigration crowd.
 
Buddy Bradley said:
One of the things that has really stood out to me, particularly in the BBC's coronavirus coverage, is the phenomenal over-representation of ethnic minorities in the medical professions in the UK. It sometimes seems as if literally the only people saving lives in this country are immigrants (or the children or grandchildren of immigrants). I wonder if it will have any effect on the anti-immigration crowd.
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Let's hope so, a proper reality check.
 
Azrael what's your current job and background in this area if you don't mind saying?

Given the certainty of position and massive amounts of knowledge about this subject that you think you have I'd give Downing Street a quick call first thing Monday and tell them you'll have the CMO job. Maybe you could do head of PHE in the evenings too?

Let us know how it goes.
 
Let's hope we never hear the lie that the virus is indiscriminate in its effects again (it got to Boris and Charles!): covid-19-deaths-twice-as-high-in-poorest-areas-in-england-and-wales

Also anybody advocating an early easing of the lock down on the basis that we need to take risks to get the economy going (as the Telegraph does today...sorry no link), should step back from their keyboard, should bite their tongue, should shut the f up and think about who is actually taking the risks.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice
 
Louis MacNeice said:
Let's hope we never hear the lie that the virus is indiscriminate in its effects again (it got to Boris and Charles!): covid-19-deaths-twice-as-high-in-poorest-areas-in-england-and-wales

Also anybody advocating an early easing of the lock down on the basis that we need to take risks to get the economy going (as the Telegraph does today...sorry no link), should step back from their keyboard, should bite their tongue, should shut the f up and think about who is actually taking the risks.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice
Click to expand...

There was a good bit on the radio about that last night looking at what the factors were for this. and saying it should be looked at and taken into account when thinking of the measures and easing them or not.
 
Buddy Bradley said:
What were the factors they talked about?
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Key workers being paid less, so they live where it's cheaper. Cheaper areas have denser housing, fewer green spaces, worse public transport so that they're reliable on that as they have a lower level of car ownership, which means need to shop more, which brings them into more contact with other people, and their jobs make contact more likely as well, and they're less able to work from home, etc.

They said health inequalities are known about but the CV rates of death massively exceeds all those previous metrics.

Air pollution, diet, and smoking weren't iirc mentioned surprisingly, it was much more focused on the clearer structural stuff which was good.
 
Last edited:
LynnDoyleCooper said:
Key workers being paid less, so they live where it's cheaper. Cheaper areas have denser housing, fewer green spaces, worse public transport so that they're reliable on that as they have a lower level of car ownership, which means need to shop more, which brings them into more contact with other people, and their jobs make contact more likely as well, and they're less able to work from home, etc.

They said health inequalities are known about but the CV rates of death massively exceeds all those previous metrics.

Air pollution, diet, and smoking weren't iirc mentioned surprisingly, it was much more focused on the clearer structural stuff which was good.
Click to expand...

Yep. The phrase 'the virus does discriminate' actually peeves me a bit because it's attributing something to the virus itself when what we are really talking about are societies basic inequalities and injustice.
 
planetgeli said:
Yep. The phrase 'the virus does discriminate' actually peeves me a bit because it's attributing something to the virus itself when what we are really talking about are societies basic inequalities and injustice.
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And potentially genetic differences...
 
Supine said:
And potentially genetic differences...
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There may be genetic differences*, but I think the differences in death rates can be explained quite sufficiently without them.

* I haven't seen any evidence for this, though it's obviously early days and such differences may indeed be demonstrated in time
 
Louis MacNeice said:
Let's hope we never hear the lie that the virus is indiscriminate in its effects again (it got to Boris and Charles!): covid-19-deaths-twice-as-high-in-poorest-areas-in-england-and-wales

Also anybody advocating an early easing of the lock down on the basis that we need to take risks to get the economy going (as the Telegraph does today...sorry no link), should step back from their keyboard, should bite their tongue, should shut the f up and think about who is actually taking the risks.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice
Click to expand...
Deprivation ratings not in the formula for the Govts support to Councils apparantly
 
I think they are, just that they're rated negatively because deprived areas mainly Labour councils who have been starved of funds.
 
I wasl all set to rant about the misleading version of history in this article about testing:

In the early days of the pandemic, the government was quick to boast about its testing capacity. The ability to carry out 1,000 tests was quickly increased to 3,000.

But as the outbreak spread, it quickly became clear the testing system was going to be overwhelmed.
Click to expand...

But then it actually got somewhat closer to the truth, so I wont rant:

Part of the problem was that the official approach until the middle of March was to let the virus spread in a controlled way.

That meant there was little incentive to expand testing much beyond hospital patients.

Containing local outbreaks, the reasoning behind the World Health Organization's "test, test, test" mantra, did not seem a top priority.
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It wasnt even a low priority.

www.bbc.co.uk

Coronavirus: Why biggest challenge is yet to come on testing

The 100,000-a-day target may have been met, but there are still lots of questions about the strategy.
www.bbc.co.uk
 
bimble said:
Ffs. This is a fundraiser set up by a multi millionaire living in Monaco who want to sue the uk gov to end lockdown. Some people are just shit.
www.crowdjustice.com

Join the Legal Challenge to the UK Govt Lockdown

UK Entrepreneur fed up with the increasing Govt control being exerted.
www.crowdjustice.com www.crowdjustice.com
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Tbf, it's a pretty artful con. Rope in an actual lawyer (if you even need to) and you can knock up 30k worth of work in an afternoon. Plus the marks are all cunts, so no harm done.
 
from 02/05/2020 Thousands signal interest in Covid-19 plasma trial
More than 6,500 people have signed up for a trial to see if blood plasma from Covid-19 survivors can treat hospital patients who are ill with the virus.

It is hoped transfusing seriously ill patients with so-called convalescent blood plasma will give their struggling immune systems a helping hand.
Click to expand...
The plasma, the liquid portion of the blood, contains coronavirus antibodies.

Antibodies are proteins made by the immune system which can target the virus and neutralise it.

They build up over about a month after contracting Covid-19.
Click to expand...
Last week, NHS Blood and Transplant began collecting blood from survivors. So far in England 148 people have donated their plasma.
Click to expand...
 
teqniq said:
If true this is a fucking disgrace:

bylinetimes.com

The Government is Giving Away Your Money to the Mail and the Sun

The stench of corruption could hardly be stronger, says Brian Cathcart, on the bung Boris Johnson's Government is giving to his employers in the British press.
bylinetimes.com bylinetimes.com
Click to expand...

Not sure why it's a disgrace, the government often spends money on advertising campaigns across all media platforms, as they are with C-19 information, in most newspapers, on most radio stations & TV channels, and also online.
 
Chilli.s said:
Looking at all those graphs and numbers, I can't see any peak, all I see is more and more.
Click to expand...

The peak is really quite clear, especially in hospital admission and death data. And broader ONS data hasnt contradicted it, although I will save talking further about that until the next ONS report on Tuesday. The peak was also long enough ago that we can have increased confidence in it being true rather than a data anomaly.

eg stuff quite well presented on this site, which is a few days out of date now but still useful:

COVID-19: Death Data in England – Update 30th April | The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine

www.cebm.net www.cebm.net

Screenshot 2020-05-02 at 13.28.46.png
Screenshot 2020-05-02 at 13.28.59.png
 
cupid_stunt said:
Interesting map from the ONS, you can select your local authority area, and see the total number of deaths occurring between 1 March and 17 April 2020, and how many C-19 deaths.

Click to expand...

There is another visualisation from the same set that goes even more local!

https://ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsinvolvingcovid19bylocalareasanddeprivation/deathsoccurringbetween1marchand17april#middle-layer-super-output-areas…
 
cupid_stunt said:
Not sure why it's a disgrace, the government often spends money on advertising campaigns across all media platforms, as they are with C-19 information, in most newspapers, on most radio stations & TV channels, and also online.
Click to expand...
It would appear from the article that most of the money is going to big outfits mostly symapthetic to the tories, whilst smaller outlets are missing out.
 
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