The Coronavirus Thread

[Hermit]

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.

[Hermit]

Ceterum censeo usam esse delendam.

That makes no sense. Did you perhaps mean to say something like "Ceterum autem censeo Civitates Foederatae Americae esse delendam."?

[NineBerry]

Right wing parliamentarian who caused ruckus in parliament for wearing a mask with holes is in hospital now with Covid-19.

Damn. He made it out alive. After four weeks in ICU, he still claims there is no pandemic and all restrictions should be removed while still occupying a hospital bed and already booked for several weeks of physical rehab.

[Seabass]

After four weeks in ICU, he still claims there is no pandemic and all restrictions should be removed while still occupying a hospital bed and already booked for several weeks of physical rehab.

The next Republican president of the United States...

[JimC]

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

[Joe]

After four weeks in ICU, he still claims there is no pandemic and all restrictions should be removed while still occupying a hospital bed and already booked for several weeks of physical rehab.

The next Republican president of the United States...

Please tell me he wasn't born here.

[NineBerry]

Flashback to 2009

[Svartalf]

Must be the Kool-Aide.

Man, who would not love a drink that makes something as brittle as a glass jug able to just run through brick walls.

[Cunt]

It's hard to believe someone would value freedom over their own life. What a RUBE. Probably uses plastic straws for his IV, too.

[Scot Dutchy]

UK Covid deaths pass 80,000 and confirmed cases top 3 million

A further 1,035 deaths are reported on Saturday, taking the official total to 80,868

More than 80,000 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test, official figures show.

The total number of lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK has now also exceeded 3 million, according to the government’s dashboard, though the true figure of people who have been infected is likely to be much higher.

The 3 million figure has been passed just three weeks after cases passed 2 million on 19 December.

The 1 million lab-confirmed case mark was reached on 31 October, although the government did not start mass testing until May and there were lengthy issues following this.

The NHS doctor and campaigner Dr Phil Hammond tweeted: “My lesson of the year is that we were very ill-prepared to manage the pandemic, and to mitigate the harms of our pandemic management. That’s because we are a hugely unequal society where the poorest die a decade sooner, and suffer 20 more years of disease. And that was before Covid.”

And all those masks. The UK has lost it.

[JimC]

Their various lockdowns were weak, far too brief, and the mask wearing was very spotty indeed.

The same is true all over Europe. All the various measures only work if they are rigorously enforced, draconian in comparison to your pretend lockdowns, and of sufficient length.

Just like we did here.

[pErvinalia]

UK Covid deaths pass 80,000 and confirmed cases top 3 million

A further 1,035 deaths are reported on Saturday, taking the official total to 80,868

More than 80,000 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test, official figures show.

The total number of lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK has now also exceeded 3 million, according to the government’s dashboard, though the true figure of people who have been infected is likely to be much higher.

The 3 million figure has been passed just three weeks after cases passed 2 million on 19 December.

The 1 million lab-confirmed case mark was reached on 31 October, although the government did not start mass testing until May and there were lengthy issues following this.

The NHS doctor and campaigner Dr Phil Hammond tweeted: “My lesson of the year is that we were very ill-prepared to manage the pandemic, and to mitigate the harms of our pandemic management. That’s because we are a hugely unequal society where the poorest die a decade sooner, and suffer 20 more years of disease. And that was before Covid.”

And all those masks. The UK has lost it.

Fairy data.

[Brian Peacock]

UK Covid deaths pass 80,000 and confirmed cases top 3 million

A further 1,035 deaths are reported on Saturday, taking the official total to 80,868

More than 80,000 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test, official figures show.

The total number of lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK has now also exceeded 3 million, according to the government’s dashboard, though the true figure of people who have been infected is likely to be much higher.

The 3 million figure has been passed just three weeks after cases passed 2 million on 19 December.

The 1 million lab-confirmed case mark was reached on 31 October, although the government did not start mass testing until May and there were lengthy issues following this.

The NHS doctor and campaigner Dr Phil Hammond tweeted: “My lesson of the year is that we were very ill-prepared to manage the pandemic, and to mitigate the harms of our pandemic management. That’s because we are a hugely unequal society where the poorest die a decade sooner, and suffer 20 more years of disease. And that was before Covid.”

And all those masks. The UK has lost it.

'The UK' eh? Who is that exactly?

I hope that we're coming round to understanding, tragically, and belatedly, that putting the economy before the welfare of the citizenry is counterproductive. I think the Tories, and conservatives around the world, know this, but they're locked into a kind of fugue state where they reflexively lurch to secure private profits at almost any costs before even thinking about the consequences. In fact, I think many of them believe that as long as there is a market in something then they don't have to really take an interest in it other than the profits. The Austerity after the crash is a case in point. The parlous state of public services, the housing crisis, job insecurity, wage deflation, and the less than resilient state of the economy is a direct result of 12 years of robbing Peter to pay Paul - when Paul was already doing very well thankyouverymuch. All The Austerity did was shift the crisis from one place to another, and in a way that ordinary people have literally paid the cost of boosting profits and inflating asset prices. The 2007/8 didn't go away - we're still trapped on its event horizon.

Germany has over 20 ICU beds per 100,000 citizens but after years of NHS cuts and sell-offs the UK has 5 per 100,000. There's over 100,000 vacancies in nursing, 20,000 of those in midwifery and obstetrics. Perversely the NHS has been obliged to rely on agency staff, often drafted in from abroad, at a far higher cost than simply training/employing new staff and/or retaining existing staff and/or paying a true market primium to cover a skills shortfall - and those foreign staff the NHS relies on have to pay £3000 pa per family member to get access to the very national health services they're working in and for. Health administration has been outsourced to the private sector for a fee and cut to the bone, often seeing those with the longest service, most experience, and consequently further up the pay scale, let go or forced to reapply for the job they were already doing on worse term, fewer hours, and/or lower pay. For the last 8 years the NHS has been losing more people than it employs, many of them highly qualified and competent professionals with a personal commitment to public health and a society-encompassing national health service.

Education and social services have been subject to the exact same pressures with the exact same effects - poorer staff working harder for and with less, high burn out, high staff sickness, and low retention. Local councils, who provide and pay for things like social care services, child protection, domestic abuse, environmental health and sanitation, emergency services, school meals, libraries and community projects etc, have had their budgets cut by c.50% in real terms since the crash.

Add these pre-existing-conditions to a pandemic and a conservative mindset instinctively thinks The Market is the answer to all questions, while our conservative govt attempts to hurriedly create and slackly regulate so-called 'market solutions' which ensure profit as the expense of quality and delivery. All-in-all, taking such things into account one might say that we're getting off lightly with only 80,000 Covid-19 deaths at this point. That's certainly the message the govt is pushing at the moment anyway...

[Scot Dutchy]

[rainbow]

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.

Ingens habet clunes mihi uxorem.

Bigus Dickus.