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General Coronavirus (COVID-19) chat

Has anyone actually got through to the Sainsburys hotline for elderly & vulnerable? My dad is in his late 70s but wasn't included on their list so has been trying all yesterday and this morning to get through but no luck so far.
 
brix_kitty said:
Has anyone actually got through to the Sainsburys hotline for elderly & vulnerable? My dad is in his late 70s but wasn't included on their list so has been trying all yesterday and this morning to get through but no luck so far.
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No, nor the Morrisons one either. And the online system for Ocado said there were 50,000 people in the queue.
 
I see Morrisons now deliver a meat box and veg box, each £35. You get what you are given. The logistics of this for them must be a lot simpler thus making the boxes easier to get hold of?
Drove Mrs T to supermarket and back earlier. There was controlled entry to shop, there was most things on the shelves. Much more controlled and orderly. There was a queuing system for tills, with marked out personal space. Each till was operated by two people, one to ring through, the other to wipe down conveyor belt and key pad after each use. :thumbs:
 
hash tag said:
I see Morrisons now deliver a meat box and veg box, each £35. You get what you are given. The logistics of this for them must be a lot simpler thus making the boxes easier to get hold of?
Drove Mrs T to supermarket and back earlier. There was controlled entry to shop, there was most things on the shelves. Much more controlled and orderly. There was a queuing system for tills, with marked out personal space. Each till was operated by two people, one to ring through, the other to wipe down conveyor belt and key pad after each use. :thumbs:
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I just had a look at the veggie one, I feel the risk of getting a vegan tuna substitute is too high 🤮 - why put meat/fish substitutes in at all? A lot of vegetarians don't eat them. Just include more eggs, cheese, veg, pulses, and grains...
 
hash tag said:
Drove Mrs T to supermarket and back earlier. There was controlled entry to shop, there was most things on the shelves. Much more controlled and orderly. There was a queuing system for tills, with marked out personal space. Each till was operated by two people, one to ring through, the other to wipe down conveyor belt and key pad after each use. :thumbs:
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Which Supermarket company?

Our stocks are dwindling and I'll need to give one a go again by the end of the week. I'm dreading it.
 
I went to the supermarket mid-afternoon when I thought it would be pretty quiet. It wasn't as quiet as I'd hoped but most people were clearly keeping their distance from each other.

I dug out an ancient pack of decorator's face masks to wear; I was the only person wearing one. That made me feel kind of smug.

The smugness lasted for all of two minutes when, with a faint twang, the aged elastic of the face mask snapped and shot across the aisle.

:facepalm: (non face-touching face-palm)
 
Not long returned from a stroll in the country park with gf - hardly anyone there and those out and about in full compliance with social distancing advice.
 
No doubt discussed elsewhere on the boards, so apologies, but the story "Coronavirus may have infected half of UK population — Oxford study" <if true, wouldnt it be coming up in testing? Or is the study saying we might have it AND it doesnt show up on tests? I know we're not testing much here in the UK, but presumably its simliar in other countries where testing is wider.
 
treelover said:
not exactly good value, though there may be more than is in the photo

great to hear about S/M, Lidl are doing all this as well
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MeatBox@x2.d1c7b4dd.jpg


Not really a 'meat' box is it?
Am assuming that is just for illustration purposes as there is barely £10 worth of food there :hmm:

A typical box may include:
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Canned baked beans, soup and pasta sauce
Milk
Dairy products such as butter and cheese
Bread
Rice and pasta
Meat products, such as sausage, bacon and cooked meat
Vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots and onions
Fresh meat such as chicken or beef
Essential household items
Click to expand...

Fair play to them for doing this, even if (as the picture suggests) it is only really their own brand stuff :hmm:
 
elbows said:
It is not a 3 week lockdown!

He mentioned reviewing it in 3 weeks. Probably because thats the sort of time you need to see quite how well the measures are working (although there should be some indicators that start earlier than that too, but maybe only weak signals). Nobody should automatically expect that it will end in 3 weeks.
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I think that was a careful managing of expectations. I can't imagine that anyone with any degree of knowledge of this expects it to be done and dusted in 3 weeks. But, in 3 weeks, people will be more used to the lockdown routine, and the resistance to saying "Ah. Erm. Three months" will be much less than if they dropped the whole lot on us at once.
 
ska invita said:
No doubt discussed elsewhere on the boards, so apologies, but the story "Coronavirus may have infected half of UK population — Oxford study" <if true, wouldnt it be coming up in testing? Or is the study saying we might have it AND it doesnt show up on tests? I know we're not testing much here in the UK, but presumably its simliar in other countries where testing is wider.
Click to expand...
Claiming no expertise/knowledge here...but...AFAIA the only testing undertaken in the UK is for the presence of the live virus in those already hospitalised presenting with symptoms (plural). So, if people have been exposed, but their immune system has killed the viral infection, then they'd presumably test negative.

Seems like the only way of resolving the varying academic schools is widespread testing for antibodies, and that's not available yet.
 
brogdale said:
Claiming no expertise/knowledge here...but...AFAIA the only testing undertaken in the UK is for the presence of the live virus in those already hospitalised presenting with symptoms (plural). So, if people have been exposed, but their immune system has killed the viral infection, then they'd presumably test negative.

Seems like the only way of resolving the varying academic schools is widespread testing for antibodies, and that's not available yet.
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but if its spread as widely as 50% it would also be doing so in other countries, and where they are testing widely wouldn't they be finding much higher infection rates in poeple showing no/little symptoms but without the virus killed off totally yet IYSWIM.

Im sure Oxford bods have an answer to this, im just curious what it is

Im also curious on a personal level. I feel fine, but keep having occasional unusual experiences. Last night for example by 10pm felt very week, crashed out hard, feverish dreams for what felt like 8 hours straight, yet feel fine now and felt fine at 9pm last night. And keep having similiar little spells like that on and off, especially in the evenings (though last night particularly intense)
 
a_chap said:
I went to the supermarket mid-afternoon when I thought it would be pretty quiet. It wasn't as quiet as I'd hoped but most people were clearly keeping their distance from each other.

I dug out an ancient pack of decorator's face masks to wear; I was the only person wearing one. That made me feel kind of smug.

The smugness lasted for all of two minutes when, with a faint twang, the aged elastic of the face mask snapped and shot across the aisle.

:facepalm: (non face-touching face-palm)
Click to expand...


A doctor chap answering questions on Radio 4 yesterday explained why ordinary facemasks actually increase risk:

If you touch the outside of the mask with contaminated hands, the virus is now on the face mask, close to transmission zones, making it far easier to accidentally transmit the virus from the mask to your nose or eyes. If the virus lands on the mask by any means at all, either from your own hands or from somone coughing or sneezing in your immediate vicinity, the mask is now contaminated. The moisture from your breathing will then dampen the mask, giving the virus the environment it likes, and making it possible for it to be drawn through the relatively huge pores of the mask directly into your own mouth and nose.

Don’t use any masks that aren’t designed to keep pathogens out.
 
ska invita said:
but if its spread as widely as 50% it would also be doing so in other countries, and where they are testing widely wouldn't they be finding much higher infection rates in poeple showing no/little symptoms but without the virus killed off totally yet IYSWIM.

Im sure Oxford bods have an answer to this, im just curious what it is

Im also curious on a personal level. I feel fine, but keep having occasional unusual experiences. Last night for example by 10pm felt very week, crashed out hard, feverish dreams for what felt like 8 hours straight, yet feel fine now and felt fine at 9pm last night. And keep having similiar little spells like that on and off, especially in the evenings (though last night particularly intense)
Click to expand...


A lot of people are reporting intermittent symptomology. Don’t assume you’re not contagious if you’re cycling between poorly and fine.
 
ska invita said:
but if its spread as widely as 50% it would also be doing so in other countries, and where they are testing widely wouldn't they be finding much higher infection rates in poeple showing no/little symptoms but without the virus killed off totally yet IYSWIM.

Im sure Oxford bods have an answer to this, im just curious what it is

Im also curious on a personal level. I feel fine, but keep having occasional unusual experiences. Last night for example by 10pm felt very week, crashed out hard, feverish dreams for what felt like 8 hours straight, yet feel fine now and felt fine at 9pm last night. And keep having similiar little spells like that on and off, especially in the evenings (though last night particularly intense)
Click to expand...
Yes, I do SWYM, but many of us are probably operating well beyond the bounds of our knowledge.

I suppose what slightly alarms me about the Oxford theorising is that it will help to substantiate the views of many of us that we've had contact with the virus already and reinforce in some the (probably false) notion that they're now immune, not shedding virus and can get back out there a la Nadine Dorries.
 
ska invita said:
but if its spread as widely as 50% it would also be doing so in other countries, and where they are testing widely wouldn't they be finding much higher infection rates in poeple showing no/little symptoms but without the virus killed off totally yet IYSWIM.

Im sure Oxford bods have an answer to this, im just curious what it is

Im also curious on a personal level. I feel fine, but keep having occasional unusual experiences. Last night for example by 10pm felt very week, crashed out hard, feverish dreams for what felt like 8 hours straight, yet feel fine now and felt fine at 9pm last night. And keep having similiar little spells like that on and off, especially in the evenings (though last night particularly intense)
Click to expand...

There’s a bit of discussion over on the UK thread. It’s very hard to tell, but yeah, there do seem to be issues. There were some more knowledgeable people on a related twitter thread pointing out several flaws; that it doesn’t stack up well when compared to areas with known high infection rates (bergamo, the diamond princess), that they haven’t given their confidence levels, that their code isn’t published.

And yeah, think you’re right that it would be showing in SK, Germany etc. Even in the UK a quick look indicates we’ve done 80k tests to about 8k confirmed cases... and presumably, given our testing regime, those are on the most at risk people. Dunno how long testing is viable after recovery mind you... but it does seem inconsistent with what we know.
 
SheilaNaGig said:
A lot of people are reporting intermittent symptomology. Don’t assume you’re not contagious if you’re cycling between poorly and fine.
Click to expand...
The most recent research has observed that infected and then 'recovered' people continue to shed viral genetic material for weeks afterwards.
 
Cunt

www.ok.co.uk

Kirstie Allsopp slammed for taking infected family to second home in Devon

Location, Location, Location star Kirstie Allsopp has come under fire by the public for self-isolating in her luxurious second home in Devon with her family after believing she had contracted the coronavirus.
www.ok.co.uk www.ok.co.uk

Wonder what the police can do about this :hmm: sadly not much I guess.
Sending caravan/campervan cunts is one thing but cunts with second homes is trickier to deal with.
 
I'm not sure where best to post this, but Richard Seymour's latest mailout had some interesting passages about 'panic buying' - thought some of you might find them useful.

There has been a lot of talk about panic buying and selfish hoarders. This talk has superficial plausibility. It is morally intuitive, concrete, resonates with bits of experience, and touches on everyday social resentments. We've all seen people behave selfishly, stupidly. We've all seen the empty shelves glaring back at us like the abyss. Blaming consumers is more satisfying, somehow, than blaming supply chains.

As Greg Callus of the Financial Times points out, the actual increase in demand is overall quite modest. The supermarkets say it's equivalent to a pre-Christmas shopping season: except they haven't had months to prepare for it. And the rationale for people stocking up on versatile foods and staples is sound, given that people are preparing for social distancing, possible quarantine and lockdown. As food experts at City University explain, scapegoating consumer behaviour elides the government's responsibility. They predicated their strategy on manipulating consumer behaviour while leaving market provision in place. Forced to look after themselves, people "cannot be blamed for acting within their viable realm of influence". The result, however, is to aggravate "existing problems" such as the "more than 8.4 million people in the UK" who are food-insecure. The issue here is that the chronic inadequacies of market mechanisms have suddenly become acute.

Most informed analysts will tell you, the supply chain is the problem. There is not actually a shortage of toilet roll and pasta. Rather, the problem arises from how supply chains have been rationalised in recent years. In distribution, there is a well-known problem called the "bullwhip effect". Small changes in consumer demand at one end of a supply chain can be felt as big disruptions at the other end. The bullwhip effect can be totally eliminated, in principle, if orders precisely match purchases in a given period of time. There are two good ways to cope with this issue. One is to collapse the supply chain, so that - even as it spans the globe - it has as few steps as possible. The other is to maximise transparency of distribution, using big data, so that stores can optimise their inventories and minimise costly surpluses.

That's the issue with British supermarkets, perhaps more than others. Tesco and Sainsbury's, for example, have been under a lot of competitive pressure from Aldi and Lidl over the last decade. Profit margins have been cut from 6.4 to 2.7 percent. This has led to rationalisation of inventories and staffing. Their distribution is optimised, during 'normal' periods, for lots of small, regular purchases of the staples that are now being bought in bulk. That has only become the 'norm' fairly recently; the so-called 'panic buying' we're now seeing is a mild version of the big weekly or fortnightly shop that households used to do all the time. But the effect is that during a period like this, which is akin to holiday season without the advantage of several months of preparation, both inventories and staffing become a problem. Demand routinely outstrips supply, even where there is no shortage. The worry now is that staff absences are likely to reach 5-10 percent, causing chaos.
 
Totally - the narrative that it was selfish hoarders snatching the last bag of penne from exhausted NHS workers was ludicrous - what else are people going to do under these circumstances than do a big shop, and also maybe get an extra bag or two of things that they know are short when they see them?
 
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