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

Don't think that map tells the full story, I've been trying to book a test all week since daughter picked up a flu and met with 'service currently busy' or you get right to the end of the form and 'no test sites found' tried at all times throughout the day and even in the middle of the night, countless times. NW London postcode. Got offered a postal test once but couldn't verify ID online and offered another drive in test over 1 hour away 5 mins before the appointment time of the test.

I can’t understand how they keep dropping the ball with their message crafting, and especially their slogans. The Government developed an entire team of expert sociologists and psychologists dedicated to optimising public messaging impact (Behavioural Insights Team, hence privatised but still providing training to government), and I know firsthand how effective and proficient they can be at crafting these types of messages. How do they continue to get it wrong?

Because Cummings has editorial control? Or more probably: the wider government is stocked with incompetents who over-rule the sort of person you are talking abouts work.

I guess it’s something to do with the need to get people back to work.

Most of that was guff or only worked on trivial things. Actual urgent serious things need an entirely different approach.

Can’t comment on how much of it was guff, but they definitely had effective lessons to share. Without doxxing myself, for several years my job overseas saw me participating in crafting urgent messages to the public and national governments in response to major crisis scenarios. One can never get it 100% right 100% of the time, especially under pressure, but getting the priorities wrong in a 3 word message? Abysmal.

Edit to add %

Because they don't believe in experts and they think they know better than public health officials, despite various elements of similiar crisis having played out multiple times around the world in the past and lessons learnt, they think they can war game it with litte knowledge and come up with better solutions, it's arrogance and self belief out of control

Watching the social dilemma, I’m not surprise by this in the slightest.

Anyone tried to read any of the guidance on "what to do"?
A fucking flow chart would just be rad.

Especially as a flow chart probably sits behind it and is the "algorithm" used.

You’d think those infoviz nerds would be all over this shit

Negative for Mrs upsidedown. Had 2/3 symptoms but mostly over it now so back to work on Monday I suppose.

I had a test yesterday, no symptoms so unsurprised it was negative. Worst part was sitting at my designated plastic table and chair in HK airport for best part of 9 hours waiting for the results before they let me through passport control.

Listening to a Dutch Comedy/News show: So Netherlands has a lot of smaller local test labs (good) BUT they are refusing to call in the big commercial labs even though the small ones cannot cope anymore. This seems to be due to the smaller labs influencing decisions, argh people, NOW IS NOT THE TIME.

So a local test and trace system cannot cope, they don't want to get central big labs. Funny the UK is the other way around...

And then somebody in government said "Most people getting tested have no symptoms..."

Oh, boy. Idiots everywhere.

We (China) have been told that a second wave is coming, and one of the western provinces is "on a war footing". Just in time for a week long public holiday! My company has told us we all have to take our laptops on holiday with us in case we aren't allowed to return to Shanghai. At least we are learning lessons from the last time we had a week long public holiday and got stranded all over the place.
If we do have a second wave, it's going to make that national day of celebration for defeating (LOL) the virus we had back in April seem a bit daft.

Wrong time for me to be trying to get a working visa and flights for Shanghai then... was just about to message you and ask funnily enough

The second wave could be all talk, obvs the government hasn't announced it but I've heard it from a few people, including people who have access to some amounts of information. I'm very sceptical of it having gone away at all here, based on a number of things including a refusal to test anyone with symptoms.
If you need to visit then this is actually one of the best times, although it's pretty tough to get in. Getting a visa is hard (need a letter of invitation), then you need a negative test result issued within 72 hours of your flight, then when you arrive you will be tested again and then spend 14 days in quarantine, and I don't mean UK-style quarantine... it's full on locked-in-your-hotel-room quarantine with temp checks twice a day, plus at least 2 more covid tests. On the plus side, flights aren't GBP 1500 (one way) anymore.

Hadn't logged on to the NHS London COVID dashboards for two weeks whilst on leave; popped back on during the the Vallance/Whitty show and yeah, it's happening.

is this solid gold, alarmist bullshit because it sure smells like solid gold alarmist bullshit.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54234084

what about it do you think is bullshit?

It is a worse case scenario:

"Speaking alongside the government's chief medical adviser, Prof Chris Whitty, Sir Patrick stressed the figures given were not a prediction, but added: "At the moment we think the epidemic is doubling roughly every seven days.

"If, and that's quite a big if, but if that continues unabated, and this grows, doubling every seven days... if that continued you would end up with something like 50,000 cases in the middle of October per day."

If that is alarmist, cha... I don't know what you should say instead, as I've no idea about what the best approach is to get people to wise up. And it seems previous messages have been ineffective / not correct.

Patients in hospital in London with a positive text have doubled since 01/09, that's still only less than 200 and we peaked at nearly 5000 back in April but the trend had been down continuously since then

Yeah. Numbers in lambeth a day are about 20.

"busy week this week"

Hospitalization is still relatively low, but the increase is now mostly among younger people. [well derr with schools/unis back]

It was really in carehome settings that the virus killed many people earlier in the year. I don't know if that means we don't need to be as worried/lockdown as hard.