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Life imitates art. UK Medical Director Professor Paul Cosford when pressed on Breakfast TV this morning went I think off script and said transmission was "highly likely".
Has he really fucked up due to little media experience or is this an official admission that its here and we cant stop it..
?
 
This fascinates me too. capitalists bleat on about how the system benefits society as a whole, well we may see something that blows that opinion away.
Well the rhetorical trick has always been that it's the states fault when people starve to death in communist countries but it's the stupid fuckers' own faults when it happens in capitalist countries. Let's see how well that explanation holds up in a situation which requires cooperation across the whole of society. I think the cracks are going to show.
 
I'd make sure that I had a manual can opener.

During the Ice Storm of 1998, we were without electricity for weeks. People did have tinned products and an electric can opener had a hard time getting the cans open.
in addition to the usual kitchen manual opener, there's one on swiss army knife, on leatherman and gerber multitools. i think i'll be ok on that front
 
This fascinates me too. capitalists bleat on about how the system benefits society as a whole, well we may see something that blows that opinion away.

Modern China must be one of the least Communist countries in the world by this point - it's still finding innovative new ways to control its citizens though.

As China encourages people to return to work despite the coronavirus outbreak, it has begun a bold mass experiment in using data to regulate citizens’ lives — by requiring them to use software on their smartphones that dictates whether they should be quarantined or allowed into subways, malls and other public spaces ... It also appears to share information with the police, setting a template for new forms of automated social control that could persist long after the epidemic subsides.

 
Life imitates art. UK Medical Director Professor Paul Cosford when pressed on Breakfast TV this morning went I think off script and said transmission was "highly likely".
Has he really fucked up due to little media experience or is this an official admission that its here and we cant stop it..
?

I didnt see it but that does not seem much of a leap in terms of the official line - they are into a different phase of communication now, preparing people for the likely reality of the coming weeks, and the draconian measures that may be taken.
 
Oops I'm not sure as I worded that as clearly as I intended.

What I meant was is that the tone of official communications already began to change (since approx last Friday) so Cosfords comments did not surprise me. Maybe the odd word was stronger than the official line right now, but not by much.

eg compare and contrast it to what Johnson said today:

The Prime Minister said: "We have also agreed a plan so that if and when it starts to spread, as I'm afraid it looks likely it will, we are in a position to take the steps necessary to... contain the spread of the disease as far as we can, and to protect the most vulnerable.

"We will be announcing that plan not just tomorrow but in the days and weeks ahead as the thing develops."

 


Indonesia can be added to the list now, with a high likelihood of under reporting. I’d also be astonished if it’s true that none of the central Asian countries or Mongolia have cases (none reported). And Russia still being at 2 cases from 30 days ago raises an eyebrow.

e2a: just to clarify those figures aren’t off that post but off WHO daily situation reports.
 
I'm sure I could manage - could eat the tinned stuff cold, or buy a camping stove to warm things up. Most tins have the pull thing on the top, but I've got a normal manual tin opener for the old style tins.

As a classic Red Dwarf episode showed, you can eat beans and other tins cold. The smells will be incredible after a few days, but there we are.

How long before you start on the cat food?

Without a word of a lie, did a cat food stir fry when smashed in about 1998. Lesson: go for KiteKat chunks in jelly, not Whiskas with gravy.

Don’t thank me.
 
There are other reasons why I've stocked up - it's not just this thread.

You're not the only one. I keep a good supply in my house. I do it because that's how we lived when I was growing up. We were only marginally on the grid and it didn't take much for the power to go out in the middle of winter for a week or more at a time. You dealt with it by being ready when it (inevitably) happened.
 
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This fascinates me too. capitalists bleat on about how the system benefits society as a whole, well we may see something that blows that opinion away.

I think we're already seeing that. I saw a report (on Fox News of all things) recently about a company called Cabelas in western Nebraska. It was a healthy company until a hedge fund took it over. By the time it was done, 4,000 small town workers lost their jobs and all but destroyed the town. Even Fox News was wondering if this is really a good thing:

 
Fuck. In a way you kind of hope there are a lot of unconfirmed case, because 52 of 2000 would put death rate at 2.6%+.

Thats been the only significant hope I've had all the way along really, that low estimates for mild cases are way off the actual reality. Probably wont really get a sense of this till we see how big the pandemic waves are. Or, of course, if these waves somehow dont emerge quite as expected. Even then, mitigation attempts might get the credit for that, even if there is another factor that isnt understood properly. In which case only longer term serology tests will give us a real sense of how many were infected, and even these might be misleading depending on the timing and how long antibodies and immunity actually lasts.
 
Thats been the only significant hope I've had all the way along really, that low estimates for mild cases are way off the actual reality. Probably wont really get a sense of this till we see how big the pandemic waves are. Or, of course, if these waves somehow dont emerge quite as expected.

Yeah, to early to tell us much really I suppose. Especially looking at the wide variation between countries.
 
Thats been the only significant hope I've had all the way along really, that low estimates for mild cases are way off the actual reality. Probably wont really get a sense of this till we see how big the pandemic waves are. Or, of course, if these waves somehow dont emerge quite as expected. Even then, mitigation attempts might get the credit for that, even if there is another factor that isnt understood properly. In which case only longer term serology tests will give us a real sense of how many were infected, and even these might be misleading depending on the timing and how long antibodies and immunity actually lasts.
You said Pandemic. Oh my.
This is mental serious.
 
Fuck. In a way you kind of hope there are a lot of unconfirmed case, because 52 of 2000 would put death rate at 2.6%+.

I suspect there are a lot of unconfirmed cases because beyond a thousand or so you have to test aout 20,000 a day and most lab systems cannot cope.

Also there must be a lot of infected people all over Italy because travellers to places like Georgia and Iceland have come from all sorts of places in Italy

The epidemiologists who studied Iran suggested that there must have been around 18,000 cases by the time the first spread from Iran was caught in Canada.

Likewise in Britain there's probably at least several hundred infected if someone infected from Britain ends up being diagnosed after flying to Hong Kong.
 
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how does this make sense even on its own terms?
I mean if containment is to be attempted by decree shouldn't it be done now not once the thing's already on 'an epidemic scale'?:confused:

The government has a well defined plan to close the stable door which will be announced in a timely manner once the horse has bolted.
 
The first US death reported. Someone who had no obvious transmission path.

I think it will be an interesting juxtaposition between the Chinese and US responses to the outbreak.

In the red corner, the Chinese, build a multi thousand bed hospital in days.

In the blue corner, the United States, watch as they leave bodies lying in the streets (my prediction).

Think the US has the least amount of infections/deaths per capita to any other country with an outbreak.
 
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