The UK response to Covid-19 [MOD WARNING 1ST POST]

Beasty

Harry Palmr wrote: »

One can only wonder if Jeremy Hunt being in government would have meant a much more urgent response by the UK government.

Think there may be a few within the Tories that could be said about. Although late to the party they do seem to have started getting their act together now though

Suddenly my family in England seem to think this is a big deal.
Even though we have been trying to tell them for the last 2 weeks.
I was so worried about my older aunts & uncles because of how they were(not) dealing with this over there.
I think it was too late.

One of my intelligent sensible cousins posted on twitter a photo of their local pub, on their last night before they closed. Full of people 'supporting ' their local pub before closing.
Everyone with their arms around each other...............
Jesus, their government really let them down.

katiek102010

3 days ago I was sat here crying about my family over, they were laughing and joking and saying what a huge over reaction ireland was having

Overnight it changed. They are now scared.

My friends husband is truck driver. Today he picked up 10000 body bags. In his load there was a batch of body bags for children.

It hit him then

McGiver

Jayzee. wrote:

Off the top of my head, I would describe them as insular rather than selfish

And generally arrogant, increases in southern direction...

McGiver

OK lads, back to the topic, here are some numbers.

RoI - population 4.9M, 1329 cases, 7 deaths

NI - population 1.9M, 209 cases, 7 deaths

Discuss. Predictions?

LuckyLloyd

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/25/london-woman-36-dies-of-suspected-covid-19-after-being-told-she-is-not-priority?

Just another poor person falling afoul of a Tory government. What is coming for London is terrifying. Officially though - they’ll chalk the above death up to something else, Don’t test for Covid - 19; don’t hospitalise people dying of Covid - 19; can’t have bad Covid - 19 death stats. Genius!

Jayzee.

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/25/london-woman-36-dies-of-suspected-covid-19-after-being-told-she-is-not-priority?

Just another poor person falling afoul of a Tory government. What is coming for London is terrifying.

Not confirmed

LuckyLloyd

Jayzee. wrote: »

Not confirmed

What isn’t confirmed?

Peregrinus

McGiver wrote: »

OK lads, back to the topic, here are some numbers.

RoI - population 4.9M, 1329 cases, 7 deaths

NI - population 1.9M, 209 cases, 7 deaths

Discuss. Predictions?

While each death is a tragedy, the absolutely numbers - 7 in RoI and 7 in NI - are too small to be of any use in identifying trends or making meaningful comparisons. There will be more deaths in both places; I don't think at this stage we can say more than that.

The number of cases relative to population probably says more about testing rates and testing policies in both places than it does about infection rates.

Pete_Cavan

Peregrinus wrote: »

While each death is a tragedy, the absolutely numbers - 7 in RoI and 7 in NI - are too small to be of any use in identifying trends or making meaningful comparisons. There will be more deaths in both places; I don't think at this stage we can say more than that.

The number of cases relative to population probably says more about testing rates and testing policies in both places than it does about infection rates.

Isn't that the point of this thread though, that it is rampant in the UK because they don't impose necessary restrictions until it was too late? That's what was being pointed out with comparing the populations and deaths here and in NI. It arrived in both at the same time, yet the early restrictions here have helped control the spread.

RobMc59

Hopefully now Gtech and Dyson are on board with their innovative design and engineering skills Britain can give the NHS all the ventilators required asap.

robinph

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

Isn't that the point of this thread though, that it is rampant in the UK because they don't impose necessary restrictions until it was too late? That's what was being pointed out with comparing the populations and deaths here and in NI. It arrived in both at the same time, yet the early restrictions here have helped control the spread.

Don't think that 7 deaths could be classed as rampant in either a population of 2 million or of 4 million. Either of those numbers could be doubled by this time tomorrow, but it still wouldn't say a whole lot about either at the moment.

Wibbs

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

What isn’t confirmed?

That she actually died from this virus I think? We have to be careful with unconfirmed cases, especially when mixed into politics, as political angles may be taken with it. After the initial panic there will be many who will be using this tragedy for political point scoring.

RobMc59 wrote: »

Hopefully now Gtech and Dyson are on board with their innovative design and engineering skills Britain can give the NHS all the ventilators required asap.

Hopefully, though it'll be months away I fear. IIRC Dyson had outsourced its manufacturing to China? That said when they do come on stream it'll mean more coverage for medical equipment in the future, which is a major positive as humanity has been caught out with this. If this does become an endemic seasonal virus, we'll definitely need it. As it stands current production being upped is what will save lives in the near future.

bob mcbob

Outside of London the highest concentration of cases now seems to be in South Wales. I wonder if the last minute cancellation of Six Nations game with Scotland had anything to do with it. This was 2 weeks ago and a lot of people travelled in the expectation it was going ahead.

robinph

bob mcbob wrote: »

Outside of London the highest concentration of cases now seems to be in South Wales. I wonder if the last minute cancellation of Six Nations game with Scotland had anything to do with it. This was 2 weeks ago and a lot of people travelled in the expectation it was going ahead.

Potentially, and the cancellation could have caused more problems than if the game went ahead as the crowds would then have been hanging out in bars in close proximity facing each other rather than looking at the back of each others hats in a stadium.

Obviously as it was already diagnosed in the Scotland camp (?) at that point it had to be called off from the players perspective, but the crowds mingling in a different way than they would have in the stadium could make transmissions end up being worse than they would have been.

4068ac1elhodqr

UK overtakes S.Korea, and moves to 9th place (from 10) on the global rank of 1/2 million confirmed cases.

There is some backlash after the the aging Charlie chap (71) was tested very quickly up in Scotland, while many others are waiting including NHS staff.
He's O- RhNeg, and is only displaying mild symptons, usual considering likely hypertension, age and flushed complexion/poor circulaiton.

On lighter news, Dyson (the folks that moved their uk factory out to Singapore), have been given an order to build +10,000 machines,
they wil however need approval from regulators, and have only been working on designs for about 10 days.

North Yorkshire Police said it will use checkpoints to stop vehicles and ask drivers if their journey is essential, expect to see more clamping/crushed cars.

Elsewhere, likely Italy will overtake Chinas total in just a matter of days, the US also, within 1 week.
NYC seems to be having a very, very bad time of it.

lainey_d_123

Darc19 wrote: »

Sad to see that they "hope" to keep the death toll to under 20,000 people.

I've friends there and they are genuinely terrified


Put this another way, if the UK lottery announced that there would be 20,000 £1m prizes given out in the next 4 weeks, EVERYONE would play thinking that they would have a good chance to win.

Unfortunately in this lottery, they lose.

It is terrifying. This has been so catastrophically mismanaged. I have been working here in London and we were told to keep going to the office, even while the infections and deaths were racking up in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Spain. Of course it was already running rampant in the UK by then. People kept bringing up 'low' numbers of cases as if that had anything to do with anything, given the incubation period for this illness.

A lot of the people on ventilators and in body bags now were travelling to work 3 weeks ago on packed tubes, buses and trains. Sitting ducks, just waiting to be infected, spreading infections around offices, hairdressers, nail salons, GP waiting rooms.

I can't see any reason whatsoever why they had to wait so long to take any action. If they had acted just a few weeks earlier, we'd be approached the peak in infections around now, or very soon, with far fewer people already having gotten sick because it would have had far less opportunity to take hold.

What on earth were they thinking??!

PopePalpatine

I'm just waiting to see if Dyson's ventilators have half an hour of battery life.

RobMc59

Catalina Inexpensive Piano wrote: »

UK overtakes S.Korea, and moves to 9th place (from 10) on the global rank of 1/2 million confirmed cases.

There is some backlash after the the aging Charlie chap (71) was tested very quickly up in Scotland, while many others are waiting including NHS staff.
He's O- RhNeg, and is only displaying mild symptons, usual considering likely hypertension, age and flushed complexion/poor circulaiton.

On lighter news, Dyson (the folks that moved their uk factory out to Singapore), have been given an order to build +10,000 machines,
they wil however need approval from regulators, and have only been working on designs for about 10 days.

North Yorkshire Police said it will use checkpoints to stop vehicles and ask drivers if their journey is essential, expect to see more clamping/crushed cars.

Elsewhere, likely Italy will overtake Chinas total in just a matter of days, the US also, within 1 week.
NYC seems to be having a very, very bad time of it.

Already seeing police checkpoints here in Birkenhead and Wallasey,with a few fines dished out for none compliance,this alone has caused quite a stir locally which is a good thing as it shows the police mean business.

Jizique

Are the British changing the way the number of deaths are reported?
There was a sharp fall in daily deaths yesterday, and of course, if you don't report the numbers, nobody knows what is happening.

PommieBast

Wibbs wrote: »

Hopefully, though it'll be months away I fear. IIRC Dyson had outsourced its manufacturing to China?

They built a factory in eastern Europe using an EU grant and then at the earliest opportunity relocated production to Malaysia.

LuckyLloyd

Wibbs wrote: »

That she actually died from this virus I think? We have to be careful with unconfirmed cases, especially when mixed into politics, as political angles may be taken with it. After the initial panic there will be many who will be using this tragedy for political point scoring.

Well if they're not going to hospitalise severely ill patients and let them die at home they're not going to confirm they died of covid 19. Don't test; assign deaths to underlying conditions where possible; boom! No political problem!

I'm hearing from doctors working in London that it's getting really bad. We will start seeing more anecdotal stories like the one I linked, particularly from the London area.

Smegging hell

'The death toll has risen from 475 to 578, health officials have confirmed'. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-52056534

paleoperson

Catalina Inexpensive Piano wrote: »

There is some backlash after the the aging Charlie chap (71) was tested very quickly up in Scotland, while many others are waiting including NHS staff.

To be honest I don't understand what the commotion is about that. He's the future king, of course he's going to be tested fast. It's not really fair but it's always been the case that royalty receives better health treatment - why don't they always complain about it?

What about all the sports players and celebrities able to get tested fast?

Donald Trump

paleoperson wrote: »

To be honest I don't understand what the commotion is about that. He's the future king, of course he's going to be tested fast. It's not really fair but it's always been the case that royalty receives better health treatment - why don't they always complain about it?

What about all the sports players and celebrities able to get tested fast?

Royals vs sports players? The latter don't have any real influence to change policy.

If a player for Manchester United had come out 2 weeks ago urging the UK government to take things more seriously, it might have gotten a small column on the inside pages of a newspaper.

Had Charlie come out and said they needed to do it, it would have been on the front page.

Plus, the footballers somewhat "earned" their privilege. Charlie, not so much

paleoperson

Donald Trump wrote: »

Royals vs sports players? The latter don't have any real influence to change policy.

If a player for Manchester United had come out 2 weeks ago urging the UK government to take things more seriously, it might have gotten a small column on the inside pages of a newspaper.

Had Charlie come out and said they needed to do it, it would have been on the front page.

Before I read your last sentence, I honestly thought you were talking in favour of the fast-tracking for him here. It's mind-boggling that you would think of this as an argument saying that sports stars should be given precedence.

Charlie is a known environmentalist who has consistently been helpful to society. Since he doesn't know that much about issues like this he was going by the medical advice that the government were listening to and parading only.

It's not his obligation to come up with theories and guidance better than the entire government is convening towards on every single issue and frankly it could get annoying very quickly if he did.

Donald Trump wrote: »

Plus, the footballers somewhat "earned" their privilege. Charlie, not so much

They didn't earn anything. Going around doing what every single one of us would do for free if we could? Not in the slightest.

Donald Trump

paleoperson wrote: »

Before I read your last sentence, I honestly thought you were talking in favour of the fast-tracking for him here. It's mind-boggling that you would think of this as an argument saying that sports stars should be given precedence.

Charlie is a known environmentalist who has consistently been helpful to society. Since he doesn't know that much about issues like this he was going by the medical advice that the government were listening to and parading only.

It's not his obligation to come up with theories and guidance better than the entire government is convening towards on every single issue and frankly it could get annoying very quickly if he did.



They didn't earn anything. Going around doing what every single one of us would do for free if we could? Not in the slightest.

Not sure what you read into that. But I think it was what you wanted to read into it.

Was simply explaining why people might be less pissed off that a premiership footballer or celebrity got tested first. Not that they would not be pissed off at all



BTW, sports people "earn" their money. If you don't like how much they earn, then that is a different conversation

paleoperson

Donald Trump wrote: »

BTW, sports people "earn" their money. If you don't like how much they earn, then that is a different conversation

Depends how you're using the word "earn".

Timberrrrrrrr

paleoperson wrote: »

To be honest I don't understand what the commotion is about that. He's the future king, of course he's going to be tested fast. It's not really fair but it's always been the case that royalty receives better health treatment - why don't they always complain about it?

What about all the sports players and celebrities able to get tested fast?

In the 90's (I think it was) he broke his arm.l playing polo. Was taken to the local hospital and insisted he wasnt treated any different, refused to skip the queue and waited several hours until it was his turn to get treated.

Donald Trump

paleoperson wrote: »

Depends how you're using the word "earn".

They have a skill and apply that skill. Obviously you would have had multiple Olypmic medals there yourself only for the fact that you considered it beneath you and not worthy of your time by virtue of being so easy.

You are free to have the opinion that the fact that one of your ancestors managed to ride someone in line to the throne as a greater skill if you want. I can disagree with you

As for the saving the environment, the original Greta Thurnberg he ain't. Captain Planet