Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[TopCat]

Lol, fuck no.
(though I can’t be the only person who can’t even begin to start reading about stats and graphs and projections and r numbers, you know, science, lol - it’s just so dry it’s hard to get interested in even if it’s literally a matter of life and death)

I thought you are a librarian?

 

[maomao]

I thought you are a librarian?

You just need to know the alphabet for that really. My five year old can put books in alphabetical order.

 

[two sheds]

Noooooo

you need to be able to count too for Dewey classification.

 

[maomao]

Noooooo

you need to be able to count too for Dewey classification.

That's even easier tbh.

 

[Orang Utan]

I thought you are a librarian?

Aye, how does that make me less bored by graphs?

 

[two sheds]

That's even easier tbh.

true - only 10 digits, but the 26 letters you can't count on just two hands, and not enough with toes even if you take your socks off

 

[Orang Utan]

Noooooo

you need to be able to count too for Dewey classification.

Not even that

 

[Cloo]

Telegraph is saying government death predictions to justify lockdown were overstated, but I don't actually care - you don't wait until it's untenable to lock down, you do it before then.

 

[andysays]

Test and Trace 'has made no difference to Covid spread' ( Posted at 09:18)

The NHS Test and Trace system has made no difference to the spread of coronavirus in the UK, a scientist has warned. James Naismith, professor of structural biology at Oxford University, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the system was only reaching a fraction of the people it should be.

He said: "It hasn't been effective at all. The only ways we are currently able to control infection spreading are social restrictions. "Tracking and tracing hasn't really made any difference to the spread of the epidemic."

He said the issue was that the testing system only identified just under half of those being infected. "You miss over half right at the start, and then as you walk through the various losses through the system you are actually reaching 20% of the contacts you want to reach overall."

He added: "Given where we are now in infections, it is not until we get proper mass testing that the system can really recover."

 

[Chilli.s]

costly mistake then

 

[The39thStep]

I thought you are a librarian?

Always reminds me of the time when Man Utd faced George Weah and David Beckham kept putting his finger to his lips and saying 'shush'

 

[two sheds]

Not sure what he was like as a president but Weah was a majestic footballer.

 

[Numbers]

That goal against Verona where he collected the ball in his own box. Superb.

 

[two sheds]

hadn't seen it before but

I loved the way he always seemed to run so casually

but end of digression back to diseases

 

[sojourner]

That brilliant pilot scheme that was gonna run Liverpool 'city wide' for weeks is now down to 10 fucking days with central testing stations only. Fucked if you're in St Helens with no car and can't get there in that time frame. Absolute wankers. Can fucking NOTHING get done properly?!

 

[cupid_stunt]

A mate is in town and just sent me these lockdown photos.



Main shopping street, just a few people in the distance.



Shit loads of taxis, the rank is actually much further down the road, so this is just part of the queue waiting to pull into the rank.

 

[The39thStep]

We've been here before

 

[andysays]

That brilliant pilot scheme that was gonna run Liverpool 'city wide' for weeks is now down to 10 fucking days with central testing stations only. Fucked if you're in St Helens with no car and can't get there in that time frame. Absolute wankers. Can fucking NOTHING get done properly?!

For what it's worth, according to this report they seem to be promising more test centres and an extension to the current two week period, but only time will tell

Covid: Liverpool's city-wide coronavirus testing begins

 

[cupid_stunt]

That brilliant pilot scheme that was gonna run Liverpool 'city wide' for weeks is now down to 10 fucking days with central testing stations only. Fucked if you're in St Helens with no car and can't get there in that time frame. Absolute wankers. Can fucking NOTHING get done properly?!

They've only booked 2 weeks at Pontins.

Soldiers move into Pontins as Army helps roll-out mass coronavirus testing

Soldiers are staying at the Pontins complex in Southport, Merseyside, to help make sure everybody who lives and works in Liverpool can get a coronavirus test as part of the "moonshot" programme

www.mirror.co.uk

 

[andysays]

They've only booked 2 weeks at Pontins.

Soldiers move into Pontins as Army helps roll-out mass coronavirus testing

Soldiers are staying at the Pontins complex in Southport, Merseyside, to help make sure everybody who lives and works in Liverpool can get a coronavirus test as part of the "moonshot" programme

www.mirror.co.uk

At the end of that two weeks, I would imagine even the toughest the army has to offer will be ready to go AWOL unless they are relieved...

 

[Badgers]

They've only booked 2 weeks at Pontins.

Soldiers move into Pontins as Army helps roll-out mass coronavirus testing

Soldiers are staying at the Pontins complex in Southport, Merseyside, to help make sure everybody who lives and works in Liverpool can get a coronavirus test as part of the "moonshot" programme

www.mirror.co.uk

The. Horror.

 

[sojourner]

For what it's worth, according to this report they seem to be promising more test centres and an extension to the current two week period, but only time will tell

Covid: Liverpool's city-wide coronavirus testing begins

It's all a bit vague though isn't it? We 'might' get it, might not. There's been zero info on where these mobile testing units might be and that article is the first I've heard of them. Given it is starting today, it's fucking shit information dissemination. I'm eager to participate, so I'll be seeking out info, but what about those who aren't? Set up to fucking fail.

 

[Badgers]

Since the cuts I doubt the good old British Army can't afford the crippling medical costs PTSD (Pontins Triggered Stress Disoder)

 

[Supine]

They've only booked 2 weeks at Pontins.

Soldiers move into Pontins as Army helps roll-out mass coronavirus testing

Soldiers are staying at the Pontins complex in Southport, Merseyside, to help make sure everybody who lives and works in Liverpool can get a coronavirus test as part of the "moonshot" programme

www.mirror.co.uk

Training to simulate getting captured by isis

 

[teuchter]

A mate is in town and just sent me these lockdown photos.

View attachment 237630

Main shopping street, just a few people in the distance.

View attachment 237631

Shit loads of taxis, the rank is actually much further down the road, so this is just part of the queue waiting to pull into the rank.

I'd have to say that doesn't look much out of the ordinary for a British seaside small town on a November weekday morning.

 

[cupid_stunt]

I'd have to say that doesn't look much out of the ordinary for a British seaside small town on a November weekday morning.

We've not a 'small' town, population over 110k, and the main shopping centre for a catchment area of circa. 250k+ people. The town centre tends to be busy all year round, different story on the seafront.

 

[Cid]

It's all a bit vague though isn't it? We 'might' get it, might not. There's been zero info on where these mobile testing units might be and that article is the first I've heard of them. Given it is starting today, it's fucking shit information dissemination. I'm eager to participate, so I'll be seeking out info, but what about those who aren't? Set up to fucking fail.

I wouldn’t pre-judge it too much... it is a pilot after all. And, although it aims to test everyone, the focus is on public health workers, students etc, and it may be easier to get the message out in those groups.

The country can’t handle a tti program, and at current levels it would be of little use. Brute forcing through mass testing may offer an alternative, provided the capacity is there. Not overly optimistic, but provided they’re not handing it over to serco etc, I’d like to maintain a glimmer of hope.

 

[elbows]

Grim. And NHS management failures, what a surprise, not. The single-minded emphasis on maintaining other patient care over winter but not doing the things that would make a meaningful difference to that picture are one of the reasons it has gone so horribly wrong now, including failures to implement a sufficiently robust staff and patient testing regime well before this wave kicked off. I'm sure we will read much more about that sort of thing in the years to come, because there are plenty of NHS England decisions that I expect will be condemned at a future inquiry.

NHS bosses accused of ‘putting politics before patient safety' as leading hospital struggles to cope with second wave

‘I am utterly demoralised by the catastrophic leadership failure at a national and regional level,’ says Liverpool hospital medical director

www.independent.co.uk

In the WhatsApp message to doctors, shared with The Independent by multiple sources, Dr Cope, a consultant in anaesthesia and critical care, said: “LUH is now essentially overwhelmed by the demand. We cannot maintain patient flow and usual standards of care. We have put forward a proposal to further reduce elective [planned] activity, but maintaining capacity for the most urgent cases that would suffer from a two-four week delay.

“It is a very sound plan that our divisional teams have worked up. However, NHS England are prevaricating and delaying with the usual request for more detail, more data, etc. It is clear to me that the politics is outweighing the patient safety issues of the acute crisis.

“There has been no meaningful support from the acute cell or NHS England. In fact, they are blocking us from acting in a rational way that would help us to manage the acute pressures.”

He added: “I am utterly demoralised by the catastrophic leadership failure at a national and regional level. I feel I have done everything I can in terms of escalation and lobbying for some courageous and meaningful action, but apparently to no avail, at least so far. Not sure what else I can do.

At the moment I feel that I have lost all confidence in, and respect for, the regional NHS England team. We have quite literally been abandoned by them and then criticised for failure to cope with unprecedented circumstances. It is a desperately poor show.

 

[elbows]

Latest ONS infection survey results show the same sort of thing we've heard from other studies recently.

UK coronavirus infections may be 'stabilising'

Although the number of new cases continues to rise, the growth rate is slowing, latest data show.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[elbows]

The latest data/presentation fuckup makes absolutely no difference to my understanding of this wave, but they deserve criticism for undermining their own credibility. It makes no difference to me because models are just a curiosity at this point, the real data about whats already happened tells its own story.

I do roll my eyes at the particular way sections of the media crying about it though, because normally they pay fuck all attention to the ranges offered, ignoring interquartile ranges in favour of single numbers. But when there is an anti-lockdown agenda to serve, then they pay attention. I speak mostly of the Telegraph who thought it was worthy of being their front page story.

Covid: Johnson says Covid statistics 'irrefutable' amid new row

The PM insists the "upward curve" in deaths is "unmistakeable" after government charts had to be revised.

www.bbc.co.uk