Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[editor]

Ah just what the situation needs: the thoughts of a rich successful artist declaring those less successful than him 'dead wood,' The twat.

Grayson Perry criticised after suggesting Covid-19 will clear arts of 'dead wood'

Comments come after the artist signed an open letter in April calling on the government to support the struggling arts sector

www.independent.co.uk

 

[xenon]

"
Aaron Angell, who runs the Troy Town Pottery in London, told The Guardian that Perry was disconnected from the reality of Covid-19’s effect.
"The people losing their jobs are not the gang of cheek-kissing curators, but the invigilators, educators and hospitality staff that exist to make the museum more accessible,” he said. “They are there to make the audience tackle work a bit more complicated than the words ‘hate speech’ written on a teapot.”

 

[elbows]

watching this live at the moment
Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance give evidence to MPs on second England lockdown – watch live

I watched up till Hunt had finished asking questions but couldnt continue because the questions from everyone were so awful I'd had enough. Much time wasted obsessing over the model that came out with the 4000 deaths figure, no real understanding of how the models work (partly due to some shit answers that wont win any plain English awards) and a complete misreading of certain graphs. Hunt appeared to be talking absolute shit about a hospital admission graph and neither Whitty or Vallance pointed that out.

 

[elbows]

This was the Hunt bit that sent me over the edge:

"slide 4, England daily hospital admissions.... that showed those hospital admissions going up - not doubling, or not tripling or not quadrupling, but going up by 25%, approximately, that was the medium term projection."

What the fuck was he talking about?



Maybe he was confused about the fact that when we talk of doubling and halving times, its relative to the current level. The projection goes up so much more than 25% higher than the most recent actual level. Is his 25% relative to the peak of the first wave instead? I aint impressed at Whitty and Vallance not drawing his attention to his mistake.

 

[Supine]

I enjoyed watching it. Very much me paraphrasing:

"Don't you think the graphs had too much information"

"We were critized for not showing enough information"

"Fair point"

 

[Teaboy]

I feeling pretty despondent with all this today.

I hope I am wrong but I can't see this month long semi lockdown having the desired outcome. The situation in the schools is crazy, my sister who is a teacher just starting her second isolation period since summer because of positive tests in the class.

I was looking at local figures of cases the other day for my area. We're a low rise low population density of London but we do have a lot of families. We had hardly any covid first time round and our numbers were barley a background whisper until the middle of September when they went bonkers and have stayed stubbornly high since. I still don't know anyone who has a positive test but my neighbours with kids can name 30 or 40.

Oh hum.

 

[LDC]

Was that Labour MP drunk on the committee today? He was completely incoherent. And the Tory one (mid/late 40s, male, glasses, bald) that was asking questions remotely to Vallance and Whitty came across as an anti-lockdown type.

 

[Steel Icarus]

I feeling pretty despondent with all this today.

I hope I am wrong but I can't see this month long semi lockdown having the desired outcome. The situation in the schools is crazy, my sister who is a teacher just starting her second isolation period since summer because of positive tests in the class.

I was looking at local figures of cases the other day for my area. We're a low rise low population density of London but we do have a lot of families. We had hardly any covid first time round and our numbers were barley a background whisper until the middle of September when they went bonkers and have stayed stubbornly high since. I still don't know anyone who has a positive test but my neighbours with kids can name 30 or 40.

Oh hum.

What's your cases per 100,000 where you are? Like you we weren't very much affected first go round but in five weeks we've gone from 10 per 100k and 300 cases to 420 per 100k and 2,340 cases

 

[cupid_stunt]

We had hardly any covid first time round...

How would you know that, there was no community testing first time around.

 

[Teaboy]

What's your cases per 100,000 where you are? Like you we weren't very much affected first go round but in five weeks we've gone from 10 per 100k and 300 cases to 420 per 100k and 2,340 cases

Looks like last week we were at 142 cases per 100k. On the plus side though our trend line is on its way back down.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Ah just what the situation needs: the thoughts of a rich successful artist declaring those less successful than him 'dead wood,' The twat.

Grayson Perry criticised after suggesting Covid-19 will clear arts of 'dead wood'

Comments come after the artist signed an open letter in April calling on the government to support the struggling arts sector

www.independent.co.uk

The Telegraph chopped up this article and then pasted the Dead Wood section out of context and front and centre to drive up clicks.

‘I think every part of life has probably got a bit of fat that needs trimming, a bit of dead wood,’ he suggests. ‘It’s awful that the culture sector has been decimated, but I think some things needed to go. Too often, the audience for culture is just the people making it – theatres with whole audiences of actors, or exhibitions only put on to impress other curators. With Covid, it’s been like turning a computer off and on again, and seeing which files reappear. Some of them we don’t really give a damn about. What’s interesting is what might not re-emerge.’

 

[Teaboy]

How would you know that, there was no community testing first time around.

I'll rephrase. Our death rate was low. Even when testing did become available (and we were one of the first places to get a drive in test centre) it remained low. It's gone mental since mid September.

 

[existentialist]

Ive been watching all this with interest. I’m also watching what is happening with regard to Brits wanting to come over here. I’m shocked that so many are finding different ways of breaking the rules both here and there. It seems to be becoming almost a matter of pride with some to find a way of coming here on holiday and flouting the closure of our internal borders, and ignoring the nothing but essential travel rules there.

There‘s a huge amount of pedantic semantics around the regulations in the U.K. and the fact that there are several days before they come into effect. People are unutterably short sighted.

I’m following the rules, as are all my Spanish friends, but Brits think they have the right to do exactly as they please. I had to go to the airport three or four weeks ago, the vast majority of people not wearing masks were almost all British. What the fuck is wrong with you people?

We elected a government of fools who treated us like bigger fools than them, and...well, give a dog a bad name...

 

[elbows]

One of the things Whitty correctly warned about today was not to get a false sense of security from case numbers that level off or fall, unless you've checked that it applies to all age groups and not just falls in the young masking other possibilities such as the older, more vulnerable groups case numbers still rising.

 

[MrSki]

Have we had today's figures or...

 

[Bingo]

Excel's crashed again. Probably that little paper clip guy with the face on it....

 

[Badgers]

Have we had today's figures or...

They are working out how to bury or fudge or manipulate bad news then?

 

[frogwoman]

Saw a proposal for week-on week-off lockdowns. Can't say im overly enthusiastic about that idea tbh

 

[Supine]

Numbers are out in about 5mins. There is a request not to refresh their website until after 19:58..

 

[weltweit]

I would love to know how many of the current infections are caused by people not following the recommended practices, mask, wash hands, social distance?

If people are doing that and still getting infected - and spreading it - then I have less hope for the future.

 

[mx wcfc]

I would love to know how many of the current infections are caused by people not following the recommended practices, mask, wash hands, social distance?

If people are doing that and still getting infected - and spreading it - then I have less hope for the future.

We've been very careful. Following all the rules. Mrs mx got a positive test result today.
In the absence of lockdown, or self isolation, I fear people will get it sooner or later.

 

[weltweit]

We've been very careful. Following all the rules. Mrs mx got a positive test result today.
In the absence of lockdown, or self isolation, I fear people will get it sooner or later.

Oh ok. Does she have any suspicions as to where she might have gotten it?

 

[LDC]

397 dead.

 

[eoin_k]

That seems quite low in terms of week on week increase.

 

[mx wcfc]

Oh ok. Does she have any suspicions as to where she might have gotten it?

She's been going to work recently. That's my guess, but no-one else has rung in. One of us could be sympton free and passed it to her.

 

[cupid_stunt]

That seems quite low in terms of week on week increase.

TBF it is, 'only' up 30 on last Tuesday.

But, a big increase in patients in hospital - 11,458, and patients in ventilator beds have gone over the 1k figure - 1,075.

 

[Mation]

We've been very careful. Following all the rules. Mrs mx got a positive test result today.
In the absence of lockdown, or self isolation, I fear people will get it sooner or later.

Hope she's not too badly affected and all are well again soon.

 

[William of Walworth]

I appreciate that the Grayson Perry issue is of less importance than the more important stuff on this thread, but .....

Ah just what the situation needs: the thoughts of a rich successful artist declaring those less successful than him 'dead wood,' The twat.


Grayson Perry criticised after suggesting Covid-19 will clear arts of 'dead wood'
Comments come after the artist signed an open letter in April calling on the government to support the struggling arts sector

www.independent.co.uk

The Telegraph chopped up this article and then pasted the Dead Wood section out of context and front and centre to drive up clicks.

I really can't wok out to make that Twitter screenshot of the piece in any way readable??

 

[killer b]

I really can't wok out to make that Twitter screenshot of the piece in any way readable??

I started reading it elsewhere and can confirm it doesn't seem as bad as the headline, but is still a bit crass and stupid. I didn't bother finishing it though, and would recommend you don't bother starting.

 

[William of Walworth]

I started reading it elsewhere and can confirm it doesn't seem as bad as the headline, but is still a bit crass and stupid. I didn't bother finishing it though, and would recommend you don't bother starting.

OK, fair enough, I'll be more busy with US Election news before long anyway!