Coronavirus

[JohnK]

In effect we have a taste for the last 4 months of what communism would be like.

Telling you who you can see, when you can work, where you can work, where you can walk, run, cycle, travel, holiday...
Snitches grassing you up to the party if someone visits your house, or you go within 2 metres of someone they think you shouldn't have.
We already had a degree of it anyway. The state has already sequestrated you. They own you, your money, your labour, your assets. They allow you to keep what they feel you need, but don't be under the illusion that you own any of it. They can take 10% more of your income in tax tomorrow. They tell you when you can be treated for an ailment, where you can be treated, which school your kids go to, when they go, what they are taught....

Freedom. About the only real freedom we have is going out for a run. As long as they allow us.

I can remember a clever bloke telling me several decades ago when I was just a spotty youth that we live in a country where the powers that be tell us (Dictate) that we live in a FREE COUNTRY and he went on to tell me that we will spend the rest of our lives being told (Dictated to) what we can and can`t do and TBH nothing has changed over the decades and that fella also pointed out that the joke is on us the ordinary citizen, how very true those words of wisdom have proved to be over the years.

[Mike T]

It looks like we might be closing pubs so that we can open schools. Yet there are so many things we can do that are effective and cost nothing - distance properly, wear a mask, face away from those nearby, avoid talking/shouting when others are near. A typical example - a long narrow path, no realistic way to step off it, retreat by either party is asking a lot as it is quite a distance - the walkers beckon me/call me forward, whilst standing still. Yet they still face me as I pass, and often say well done or something similar when I am next to them. Face away, keep quiet! I of course will be holding my breath, but that is quite hard work when moving on rough terrain. And the group on a road, asked to move to one side, move to both sides, thus halving the distance we could have kept between us. As to crowded beaches - WTF!

[Llani Boy]

My concern when the schools reopen fully is the false alarms.

Since lockdown started my son has not had a cold, cough,sore throat or sniffle. In normal times I could guarantee that he would have at least one of those shortly after the start of every half/full term.

When he goes back he, like all other children, will be picking up minor ailments and passing them on to family members.
I think that many people will naturally jump to conclusion that it is coronavirus, there will be panic measures taken, and we will be back in lockdown faster than you can say Jack Robinson!

[Muddy Retriever]

Meanwhile Public Health England continues to inflate Covid-19 deaths by including people who have tested positive sometime in the past but who have since recovered from it. You would expect deaths in hospital to be the majority of cases but they are becoming a small minority

https://twitter.com/RP131/status/128...974850/photo/1

There was supposed to be an urgent review into this when the scandal broke a few weeks ago but this all seems to have gone quiet. To begin with I assumed the inflating of covid death figures was just incompetence on the part of PHE but now I wonder if the reason is more sinister.

[Witton Park]

Meanwhile Public Health England continues to inflate Covid-19 deaths by including people who have tested positive sometime in the past but who have since recovered from it. You would expect deaths in hospital to be the majority of cases but they are becoming a small minority

https://twitter.com/RP131/status/128...974850/photo/1

There was supposed to be an urgent review into this when the scandal broke a few weeks ago but this all seems to have gone quiet. To begin with I assumed the inflating of covid death figures was just incompetence on the part of PHE but now I wonder if the reason is more sinister.

I don't know whether to be angry, appalled or bemused.

Analysis has shown that the figures used to close down thee North have been skewed by delayed test results.

Between 22/7 and 29/7 they have 659 cases to 753 - up 16.7%

But when judged by date of test taken it drops from 641 to 442, a drop of 31%.

There is also the effect of increase tests which have increased by over 10% in the last week of July.

Add in the ONS dodgy guestimate.

13/7 to 19/7 the ONS predicted that 27,700 were infected in England. That is from 45 positive tests in a sample size of 114,674
20/7 to 26/7 the ONS predicted that 35,700 were infected in England. That is from 59 positive tests in a sample size of 116,026

14 extra cases and they bring the whole north back a step. Not only that, the data they used showed the North West as being one of the lowest incidences - East Midlands and London among the highest.

Public Health England’s (PHE) own surveillance based on positive tests reported that cases in England increased from 4,062 to 4,130 in the week ending July 26 - a rise of just 1.6 per cent. According to ONS figures the rise was closer to 28 per cent.

Let's cut them some slack. Let's say through July the rate of infection had been rising. That should be coming through in to hospitals by the end of July.

In the final weeks of July the number of CV patients occupying critical care beds halved from 142 to 71.

We are living under the Blob.

[Wetherby whaler]

I want to know why hospital admissions with Covid are so low they don’t even show on the graph. Pubs have been open for a few weeks, everybody has either been marching for one thing or another, or to the beach, or celebrating religious festivals, having illegal raves, house parties, holidays. The shielders have ventured out. Why aren’t admissions going up? If loads of people get it, but don’t need to go to hospital, does it actually matter?

[Witton Park]

I want to know why hospital admissions with Covid are so low they don’t even show on the graph. Pubs have been open for a few weeks, everybody has either been marching for one thing or another, or to the beach, or celebrating religious festivals, having illegal raves, house parties, holidays. The shielders have ventured out. Why aren’t admissions going up? If loads of people get it, but don’t need to go to hospital, does it actually matter?

I heard you the first time

The latest one is that there's a likely second wave that could be more severe than the first.

Prof Stephen Holgate, a respiratory specialist from University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust, who chaired the report, said: "This is not a prediction - but it is a possibility.

Asked to model a "reasonable" worst-case scenario, they suggest a range between 24,500 and 251,000 of virus-related deaths in hospitals alone, peaking in January and February.

Neil Ferguson
News at Ten
COVID HQ - Blackburn

I'd hate to see an unreasonable worst case scenario!

[Muddy Retriever]

I want to know why hospital admissions with Covid are so low they don’t even show on the graph. Pubs have been open for a few weeks, everybody has either been marching for one thing or another, or to the beach, or celebrating religious festivals, having illegal raves, house parties, holidays. The shielders have ventured out. Why aren’t admissions going up? If loads of people get it, but don’t need to go to hospital, does it actually matter?

I think the answer to that question is that the actual incidence of Covid is not going up yet. What has gone up is the number of tests so more people are being picked up as having the virus than they were before.

https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-...ing-heres-why/

[Wetherby whaler]

Thanks all and agree with what you said, sorry for repeating myself. I just would have thought there should be increased hospitalisation by now, given all the dire warnings after VE Day etc and there aren’t and no-one in authority has explained why, even though we can all see it. If hospitals can cope, why not just let those who want to mix, mix, and those who feel a bit vulnerable and want to avoid everyone, avoid everyone? If it looks like the NHS will be stressed again then put some restrictions in. But at the moment I feel like I am having “wolf” cried at me every day and it is getting a bit old. And virtue signallers can’t wait to blame pubs.

[Muddy Retriever]

I'm all for sensible precautions. The virus has clearly not gone away as can be seen by the spikes in other countries. It may well be that we see an increase here too soon, especially in Autumn. But there seems to be a knee jerk reaction in some quarters to an apparent uptick in cases, when the evidence so far suggests that this is down to more testing, not more prevalence. If that wasn't so then we would be seeing an increase in hospital admissions right now. As shown here, they are continuing to fall.

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/healthcare