Chat about Novel Coronavirus - 2019-nCoV - COVID-19

Yeah, the big supermarkets are definitely best avoided if you can. I went for the first time in weeks on Friday. It was horrible. Sticking to small local shops from now on...

Problem with small shops is that it's still relatively bad and you have to go more often.

I've been done one mega shop that'll last us 10-14 days or so, and then top up on perishables (bread, veg, fruit, milk) after 5-7 days.

Still can't get Strong White Flour or Fast Acting Yeast for love nor money, but plenty of chopped toms in the supermarket today.

my local Coop looked like they were upping their game from the manager standing doing one-in-one-out whilst coughing everywhere, to briefly having a couple of staff wearing masks/gloves, but they seemingly dgaf anymore and it's resumed it's free-for-all dynamic so it doesn't seem to make much odds other than being a bit quieter if you choose your moment.

The structured queueing outside then going into the shop and abandoning all caution is just weird to me-if the Swedish model is trusting their citizens to do the right thing then the UK definitely can't do it without tasering a huge percentage of people repeatedly in the bollocks.

I always have my face covered and today some daft bint did that 'half-smile-oops-I'll-just-squeeze-by' thing then started coughing and I had to refrain myself from chucking her in the fucking freezer cabinet and jamming the door shut. Have some hypothermia with yer Covid, cow...

I think we have fucked it and lockdown has failed to get numbers down to a manageable level

The data suggest that the lockdown has worked, the problem is it was introduced way too late.

Especially in London.

Bristol’s Nightingale hospital was opened today.

Had the hospitalisation count kept climbing it would have been finished too late to be most useful. Did we dodge a bullet?

Waitrose mate. My local one is highly organised. Everything is wiped. Hardly Singapore but less of a death trap than my local Tesco.

I think Waitrose clientele mostly got C19 early (from their kids going on school ski trips). Now their guilt, as vectors for a pandemic, manifests in respect for personal space, some masks and general good manners.

There are also a some amazing deals on Italian wines right now.

No Waitrose in a five mile radius of me... Coop with a great(?) deal on 24 packs of Tennents or Lidl with some disappointing cut price Barolo but a free spurt of hand sanitizer at the door?

Sounds like I should shuffle off over to the nice side of town and luxuriate in the virus free civility of Waitrose next time!

Watched the C4 programme with Dr Xand about ending lockdown:-

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/when-will-lockdown-end

Had the hospitalisation count kept climbing it would have been finished too late to be most useful. Did we dodge a bullet?

It's almost certainly going to be required in the future unfortunately. We've probably dealt with less than 10% of the problem so far, and we've just scraped by with ~20k deaths in hospitals (and many more outside hospitals).

The major point of the programme above was that you have to choose one of:-
a) sit in lockdown until a vaccine or cure arrives, millions will die due to secondary effects of the economy crashing
b) ease lockdown somehow and deal with it until a vaccine or cure arrives
c) completely lift lockdown and watch hundreds of thousands die as the virus runs riot again and the NHS is completely swamped

(b) is the obvious choice but it's not clear at all what the exact details of "ease lockdown somehow" are. Too slowly or cautiously and there are more deaths from choice (a). Too quickly or widely and more deaths from choice (c).

There are also questions about whether the immunity that some people may have gained would help them in the future. The immunity an individual has gained may be too weak and so they just get infected again (and again) and possibly more seriously - just because someone was asymptomatic first time round doesn't guarantee anything in the future. Any immunity may not last long enough and so people just get it again 12-24 months down the line.

It's definitely the elephant in the room at the moment. I think that in general the public
often expect simple answers to complex problems. Currently this manifests it's self as fighting a known enemy called corona virus rather than an unpredictable one (deaths resulting from a lower gdp), where cracks will appear in unexpected places.

I really need proper Chef's (cause I don't have enough), but if anyone just wants to help out for a bit, they would be more than welcome.

@rj trump made the same point in his briefing last night

The fucking state of this

1 Attachment

Bristol’s Nightingale hospital was opened today.

Are these big 'field' hospitals full or close to capacity? I've not followed but I read a while back that the London one couldn't even be staffed fully as there's not enough (EU?) nurses.

@rakesmith
Saw exactly the same thing shared by a family member, it was posted by turning point UK on Facebook. Right wing BASTARDS!

Unbelievable - as much as I'd like to come up with some form of response to it I think Nick Srnicek has prettt much nailed it, 'rainy fascist island, where 40,000+ dead isn't sufficient reason to criticise the government'

Weighing up Morgan vs Sugar.

Can't decide.

Britain is very far from fascist, thankfully. You would think an academic in political philosophy might know that.

it pains me to say this...since Piers has somehow become the most prolific and effective critic of the government, directly challenging them on air etc, I think I'll chose him at the moment (yikes!)

Lol, how so?

Nope, nowhere near. I think the london one has treated circa 50 people*. I think the plan now (and they may claim the plan all along) is that eventually all CV cases will be dealt with in the field hospitals, eventually allowing normal hospitals to get back to business as usual.

• 51 according to here
  

How so, what?

How is Britain 'very far' from fascism?

What do you think fascism is?

Nicely avoided! Well i shall leave you to clap for your NHS tonight that was underfunded by a government voted in by those knowing it would get underfunded - for ten years now!. The very same government that have lied throughout this whole ordeal and whose supporters are now demanding that the government be beyond critique.

(b) is the obvious choice but it's not clear at all what the exact details of "ease lockdown somehow" are. Too slowly or cautiously and there are more deaths from choice (a). Too quickly or widely and more deaths from choice (c).

It will be interesting to see how countries like New Zealand, on the one hand, and Italy, on the other, manage with the easing of lockdown. Given what has happened throughout the world it seems optimistic that there won't be further outbreaks once restrictions are lifted. I guess it is then down to how quickly and effectively they are tracked and isolated.