Covid 19

pwhole

pwhole

Well-known member
This book sounds less funny than the cartoon but probably more important in the long run. I may actually buy this one, though the current climate suggests a collective amnesia descending once again - and that it may need extending next year with further self-inflicted disaster. And they'll probably get away with it again. I'm not sure how I should consider the status of a prime minister who is so inferior to me in every single way I can think of, and I don't even want to be famous. Can't someone just tell him to f*** off to his face? On TV?

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/11/failures-of-state-review-never-forget-the-johnson-governments-covid-disasters

The authors have little patience for Johnson?s defence that any failings are only visible now with the benefit of what the PM likes to call the ?retrospectoscope?. By way of rebuttal, they reproduce the warnings scientists were giving back in January 2020, spelling out the dangers and urging swift action. Two are quoted, accusing Downing Street of twisting their words to suggest that it was they, the experts, who had underestimated the severity of the threat, a move Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet, calls a ?Kremlinesque? attempt at ?government disinformation?. As Horton puts it: ?They really are scared that the verdict of history is going to condemn them for contributing to the deaths of tens of thousands of British citizens ? They are desperately trying to rewrite the timeline of what happened. And we must not let them do that.?
 
S

Speleofish

Active member
I think it's a little early to judge who did what, when and better than someone else. No sensible person would say the government did well. However, no other political party came up with a constructive plan that might have been better (whether in England or anywhere else in the UK). Nor did the Department of Health. Senior management in many hospital trusts performed poorly. We were fortunate: in my hospital, management were (very) unimpressive but we largely ignored them and presented them with a series of faits accompli. As a result, very few people died in ICU and our overall mortality was among the best in the UK.

Looking across Europe, a number of countries 'similar' to the UK have experienced similarly bad results. Belgium has a worse death rate; France, Spain and Italy are broadly similar (there is sufficient variation in the way deaths are reported and recorded to  group them all together). Eastern Europe is significantly worse than anywhere in the West. Until the third wave plays out, we won't know who is really worst and who is merely pretty bad. Does it matter? A lot of European countries have similar, awful death rates. None should be proud and none should be allowed to use the fact that someone else did a little bit worse to justify their decisions.

In about a year's time, it will be possible to look back objectively. Until then, I think we should lament those who have died, celebrate the survivors and hope to enjoy the sunshine.
 
pwhole

pwhole

Well-known member
This was one of my local parks yesterday - I've been avoiding this particular location for weeks as it's been rammed with young families already, but this has just made the BBC News - other parks nearby were less busy (less posh and less students), but Crookes Valley park near the Uni, which is much smaller, was similarly rammed. And has far less visits from the Parks teams, so if it's been trashed as bad as Endcliffe, god help us. None of these people have been vaccinated yet - I was only done on Monday and I'm (ahem) old enough to be their dad.

https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/crime/ive-never-seen-it-this-bad-huge-piles-of-rubbish-left-at-endcliffe-park-after-thousands-gathered-to-enjoy-sheffield-sunshine-3184380
 
tomferry

tomferry

Well-known member
pwhole said:
This was one of my local parks yesterday - I've been avoiding this particular location for weeks as it's been rammed with young families already, but this has just made the BBC News - other parks nearby were less busy (less posh and less students), but Crookes Valley park near the Uni, which is much smaller, was similarly rammed. And has far less visits from the Parks teams, so if it's been trashed as bad as Endcliffe, god help us. None of these people have been vaccinated yet - I was only done on Monday and I'm (ahem) old enough to be their dad.

https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/crime/ive-never-seen-it-this-bad-huge-piles-of-rubbish-left-at-endcliffe-park-after-thousands-gathered-to-enjoy-sheffield-sunshine-3184380
Click to expand...

That?s absolutely disgusting behaviour and will cause people to die , the rubbish just tips it off I hope they find receipts and the people who?s rubbish it was  loose a weeks wage each !
 
droid

droid

Active member
Down and beyond said:
hope they find receipts and the people who?s rubbish it was  loose a weeks wage each !
Click to expand...

Most of the miscreants will have been students or 'unwaged' so I doubt that'd work...
 
pwhole

pwhole

Well-known member
Yep, they're all students. The unwaged are shooting smack on my street - my back yard to be precise occasionally. Ironically there are miles of beautiful river-based woodland leaving that park and going all the way into the Peak District, but they could only manage a few hundred metres, the poor darlings. At least they can leave their shit where it can be easily picked up, and thank god they didn't find the beautiful river-based woodland in that context, but I hope they've closed it down today so someone can pick it all up. I doubt it will be them doing it though as they'll be in another park, strenuously relaxing.
 
ZombieCake

ZombieCake

Well-known member
Well, thanks to covid I'm at a very loose end employment wise.  Spent the last month learning the alphabet, which was nice (do we get a diploma, or does that make us over qualified as a caver?).  Although things are potentially looking up, the free time one has available to do stuff is ruined as can't investigate stuff that needs investigating as can't leave the South East.
I'm now quite getting used to not having a Forrest Gump Marine Corp haircut.  Just finished a video call, on well, video production, and being bit scruffy seems OK.
 
oldfart

oldfart

Member
Vaccinations may offer protection for 2 years or more, Israeli expert says. Professor Michal Linial says past reports of swift antibody decline were ?much ado about nothing?; Health Ministry chief hopes to begin vaccinating Israeli teens in May. An inoculation expert said Friday that protection offered by vaccines could be long-lasting, and could be good for two years or more.

Michal Linial, a professor of molecular biology and bioinformatics at Hebrew University who is studying the coronavirus, told Army Radio that it appeared some previous reports of a rapid decline in vaccine efficiency over time were ?mistaken and much ado about nothing.?

?They saw a drop in the number of antibodies, but when you look closely you see it?s a drop among two people out of 2,000,? Linial said.



https://www.timesofisrael.com/health-ministry-chief-hopes-to-begin-vaccinating-israeli-teens-in-may/
 
pwhole

pwhole

Well-known member
I think generally the human body is pretty good at fighting off infections, once it's had time to learn the new code. We suffer remarkably few contagions these days, thanks to improvements in everything - and a very adaptable immune system. Trouble is a wealthier lifestyle seems to create an unhealthier one at the same time, and an over-relaxed attitude to hygiene where it is necessary and an over-stressed attitude where it isn't. As in, spending a fortune on shower and skincare products but not washing your hands in a pub toilet. If we can re-balance those two situations a little, and spend more time thinking out our impact on other people's health, we'll probably be in a much better place.

Nobody's talking about sex though, no matter what programme you watch, at whatever time, with whoever is talking. Nothing. Or in the papers, or on their websites. Isn't that odd. Given the human race sort of depends on it - and we're all supposed to be obsessed with it? Not just for babies but for fun. But mainly for babies - we're currently in deficit by about 127,000.
 
S

Speleofish

Active member
Um. I think pwhole may be a little optimistic. We're good at fighting infections with which our immune systems are familiar, not those that are new. As Covid, SARS, MERS and some African haemorrhagic fevers show, we don't do well when we interact too closely with wild animals. Pandemic 'flu remains a real worry (whether avian or swine-derived). And, of course, malaria continues to kill people in very large numbers and is increasingly resistant to the drugs we have available.

Just to be really, really cheery, there's a paper just out suggesting the Astra Zeneca vaccine has very little effect on the South African variant... Numbers are far too small to draw firm conclusions about the implications for mortality, but it's not a happy read.
 
pwhole

pwhole

Well-known member
I'm generally optimistic. Part of the problem is that many of those diseases emerge from societies where poverty is also endemic - I know malaria thrives where it's hot, but it also thrives when healthcare and quality of life is rubbish - and interacting closely with wild animals tends to increase when poverty is greater. The biggest project facing humanity as I see it is levelling-up, as the imbalance of incomes means an imbalance on healthcare, and the sick will always prevent success. If we always have large chunks of the world that are poor and ill, and they have more babies than they can feed to make up for it, we're never going to get out of this situation. And we need to have far more babies than we are doing presently or there won't be enough young people to look after all the old people. Hmm, I don't sound so optimistic now ;)
 
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