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Off Topic Coronavirus - 606 tales from the Inquiry

Discussion in 'Charlton' started by lardiman, Feb 25, 2020.

  1. Smudger603

    Smudger603 Well-Known Member

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    Our local medical practice is looking at upgrading the drive through Covid testing station in preparation for the winter months- this pandemic isn’t over
     
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  2. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    And Cancer / Coronary deaths are just going to keep rising.
    I've heard people on TV saying the NHS is still open for business, and perhaps they believe what they are saying.
    But I know two people personally who have found that this is not actually the case.
     
    #1082
  3. Smudger603

    Smudger603 Well-Known Member

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    Likewise lardy I know two people that have had operations cancelled , I really don’t think we’re being told the full story and it’s all about money not lives
     
    #1083
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  4. Ken Shabby

    Ken Shabby Well-Known Member

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    This is where the current government seem to part ways with reality. The last couple of months they have worked through televoting, so why is there this sudden rush to get back to normal, when the infection rate isn't at the level to suggest this. Once again, science doesn't seem to be getting anything more tan lip service, and the phrase more haste, less speed is likely to be indicative of the cost. I genuinely cannot remember a cabinet with more incompetents in it, and I'd tend to blame Johnson, who through his own incompetence, chose to remove anyone who disagreed with him. A another time this would be a problema, but with a global pandemic it's dangerous.
     
    #1084
  5. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    Grant Shapps has just suggested on TV that no MP's will have to self-isolate if Mr Sharma tests positive for COVID19.
    Even though many were in Parliament with him all day.
    Mr Shapps said this was because all MP's had kept 2m away from Mr Sharma at all times.

    Let's put aside the minor detail that Grant Shapps is factually wrong about that.

    He has just presented all of us with a Get Out of Jail Free card, should we choose to use it.

    If you are contacted on your smartphone and instructed that you must self-isolate for 14 days because you have been in close proximity to somebody who has tested positive for Coronavirus, all you have to do is assure any interested parties that you definitely kept 2m away from the person concerned.
    So - no isolation needed.

    If it's good enough for Members of Parliament (many of whom spent a lot longer than 15 minutes in the company of Mr Sharma) then it's good enough for you and me.

    Unless Mr Shapps is going to say that there is one rule for MP's and one rule for the rest of us.
    Surely he would never do that <whistle>
     
    #1085
  6. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    Face coverings will be compulsory on all public transport in England from June 15th.

    Masks 01.png

    If this is now the law then so be it.

    Personally Mr Shapps, I will not do what you describe so self-assuredly as "the right thing".
    "The right thing" was staying at home - until suddenly we were told driving the length of the country and visiting beauty spots actually was "the right thing" all along.
    But that's not my only reason.

    I won't wear a face covering, so I won't be using public transport until this law is repealed.
    Fortunately I only use it rarely anyway, so this will be a minor inconvenience to me only.
    Anybody who does have to use public transport every day, I feel for you.

    Face coverings will have only the most marginal positive effect on your safety.
    But they will give the Government an excuse to look the other way while passengers are packed ever more tightly into buses and tubes and trains.
    You can forget 2m distancing now, or any kind of distancing.
    But you'll get no help if you're not comfortable with that, because you've been told to cover your face.
     
    #1086
  7. deleted.....

    deleted..... Well-Known Member

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    please log in to view this image
     
    #1087
  8. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    There have been lies told during the pandemic and the lockdown that we have had little choice but to suck up;
    • PPE
    • Protection of care homes
    • Rules apply to everybody
    Now there is another lie, one that will cause infections and cost lives.
    • Public transport is safe to use.
    Grant Shapps denies that there is any overcrowding on London's tubes, or that there will be. That is a plain and simple denial of reality.
    Making face coverings compulsory on public transport is a cheap and easy gesture, to make the Government look like it is acting to protect people.

    The reality is that there will be crowded tubes, trains and buses more and more often as people gradually go back to work.
    Social distancing will be impossible.
    So in its place, the Government tells people to cover their faces.

    Stopping infections and saving lives was only the Government's highest priority while the NHS was in real danger of being overwhelmed.
    Now the first wave peak has been passed, the NHS is safe in the short term.

    Stopping infections and saving lives is now less important to the Government than getting the economy going again.
    As far as the Prime Minister and the Cabinet is concerned, the health and lives of workers who have to use public transport (and the health & lives of their families) are a price worth paying to get UK PLC making money again.

    As long as the NHS is not in danger of being overwhelmed, frankly they don't care how many people get infected, or how many eventually die.

    COVID19 infection rates stopped falling in the 3rd week of May (I will post the numbers in the Information thread shortly).
    That means R (rate of infection) is 1.
    Not 0.7 or 0.9 or any of that rubbish.

    Roughly 2,000 new infections every day indefinitely is considered acceptable by the Government.
    Yes, death rates are falling.
    That is welcome of course, but it is due to a number of factors - and decreasing infection rates is NOT one of them.

    When the Government changed it's "STAY HOME - PROTECT THE NHS - SAVE LIVES" slogan, a lot of commentators criticized the new "STAY ALERT" phrase.
    But the most telling part of the new slogan Dominic Cummings came up with was actually "CONTROL THE VIRUS".

    Not defeat it, or beat it, or stamp it out, but control it.
    "Control" being defined as stop it threatening the NHS anymore.

    Now the Government considers Coronavirus "under control" enough to get the shops open and encourage people to go back to work.
    2,000 new infections per day is well within their definition of "under control".
    Cold-blooded though this is, it might even be accepted by many if the Prime Minister would be honest and open about it.

    But in other European Countries infections and deaths are falling faster than they are here.
    And our fatalities in the UK have risen far above those of Italy, Spain, France...
    As for Germany? God alone knows how they view the mess we are in here.

    The relentlessly positive messages from the lectern at 5pm are ringing more and more hollow.
    The scientists have already more or less disowned them.
     
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    Last edited: Jun 5, 2020
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  9. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    Matt Hancock appeared alone at the lectern today.
    The first time that has happened since the daily briefings began.

    Is the Government now unwilling to give scientists and health experts a place where they can answer questions on live TV?
    I'm afraid it looks that way.
    Scientific / expert opinion is now on a different track from political opinion in the Cabinet.
    And only 'on-message' statistics are being emphasised now.

    And I understand there will be no weekend briefings from now on.
    The thousands of new infections and hundreds of new fatalities are now not worth mentioning between Fridays and Mondays. People just shouldn't think about it, or let it spoil their weekends.


    Yesterday, the UK suffered over half the Coronavirus deaths in Europe.
    More than Italy, France, Belgium and Germany combined.
    For every 10 fatalities in all those countries yesterday, just over 5 were here in Britain.

    Yesterday, the UK suffered just under half the new Coronavirus infections in Europe.
    Just under those in Italy, Spain, France, Belgium and Germany combined.
    For every 10 new cases in all those countries yesterday, just under 5 were here in Britain.
     
    #1089
    Last edited: Jun 5, 2020
  10. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    All night raves going on in West London.
    The organisers say these are exercise sessions to music, and that social distancing is being observed.
    The Police have attended, but no arrests have been made and no event has been broken up.

    Monkey see, monkey do - right Mr Cummings?
     
    #1090

  11. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    More new rules announced today.

    1. Face masks will be compulsory for all hospital staff, and face coverings compulsory for all patients, from June 15th.
    Must admit I'm a bit surprised that is not already the case.

    2. Landlords will be unable to evict tenants who are struggling to pay their rent until 23rd August now.
    Good news for many in the private rented sector who may be losing their jobs.
    A breathing space at least.
     
    #1091
  12. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    Apparently new WHO advice is for everybody to wear face coverings in all public places.
    I really hope the Government does not adopt this position.

    As I've mentioned before, this is one step I'm not willing to take.
    If we now live in a world which is so dirty and infected we cannot go outdoors without covering our noses and mouths, I wouldn't want to be a part of it anymore.
    Telling every human being on the planet that they must not breathe fresh air except through a mask?
    Life won't be worth living.
     
    #1092
  13. The Elfsborg Sparrow

    The Elfsborg Sparrow Well-Known Member

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    I'd fine HEAVILY the organisers.
     
    #1093
  14. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    Sadly, the virus is no respecter of racial equality.
    Only of behaviour.

    Thousands and thousands of people have massed in protest events today. Maybe as many as those who flocked to the beaches and beauty spots last weekend. It doesn't matter how selfless or how selfish your motivation for gathering. All that matters is that you gather.

    The Cheltenham Festival and Liverpool v Atletico Madrid have just been recreated, in terms of people gathering together.
    The authorities should have called those events off back in March. This time they warned us, but many people chose not to listen. They followed their instincts, some perhaps because they have lost their trust.
     
    #1094
    Last edited: Jun 6, 2020
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  15. The Elfsborg Sparrow

    The Elfsborg Sparrow Well-Known Member

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    I imagine we can all give stories of (non)lockdown recently.

    Suffice to say it has finished. Too many of us trying to adhere to things but to be squashed by ignorant pigs.
     
    #1095
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  16. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    Yes, I agree the lockdown is over now.

    Shops opening in a few days, talk of pubs and cafes & restaurants opening in early July.
    Movement outside the home is no longer restricted to shopping and work. People can go to the beach, go to beauty spots, visit their folks. Anywhere is OK now really.
    The advice to wash hands and social distance is still going out, along with more and more about face coverings.
    But the mood music is now that the emergency is over.
    The new normal now applies until there is a vaccine widely available. And that could be a year or more away.

    People will be distracted by TV sport, all faked up to feel like the real thing. And they will be discouraged from thinking too much about the recession, or the elderly folk now being 'shielded' (under permanent house arrest) or the 'background noise' of 10,000 new infections each week and a hundred or more deaths each day, on top of the hundreds of heart disease and cancer deaths.
    The daily briefings will stop in a few weeks time.

    By the autumn 60,000 people will have died from COVID19 in the UK - that's one in a thousand of the whole population.
    But the crisis - which has caused far more devastation to our economy than a no-deal Brexit would ever do - will have caused far fewer political ripples than everything that has happened since the summer of 2016.
    And for all the wild fuss over this country leaving the EU, nobody died.
     
    #1096
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  17. The Elfsborg Sparrow

    The Elfsborg Sparrow Well-Known Member

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    Mr Lardiman, the fun starts on the 15th June.:emoticon-0107-sweat
     
    #1097
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  18. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    I listened to the radio while driving to the supermarket today.
    Most of the ads on TalkSport were by bookmakers, encouraging people to bet on the football when it re-starts.
    Georgie Bingham didn't sound very well. Hope she hasn't got the virus.

    I switched over to 5Live. Not quite as good for program content usually, but at least no betting advert tsunami every 15 minutes.
     
    #1098
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  19. The Elfsborg Sparrow

    The Elfsborg Sparrow Well-Known Member

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  20. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    If I contacted a betting company and said I wanted to bet on which football team would lose a player first to a positive COVID19 test once the season restarts, I would be told that was in poor taste.
    But they'll take my money on which manager gets the sack first.
     
    #1100

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