New Chinese virus spreads

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  • but the government can't cover every angle.

    Oh yes they can and they have. For every positive change they have made they have a counter negative change. Basically covering their backs in all corners so if /when things do go wrong they have someone else to blame. It could even be argued that it's a form of entrapment via confusion and misunderstanding to rake in even more increased fines. It's all about money and the economy feeding back to government right now hence the estate agents. Lots of tax revenue in the housing market.

  • There's a row going on between Starmer and Johnson, it looks as if the gloves are coming off at last. Starmer questioned Johnson's comments to the House about care home residents

    "Sir Keir said the Government had been “too slow to protect people in care homes” and referred to official advice in place until March 12, which said it remained “very unlikely” that people in care homes would become infected."

    Downing St responded claiming "But Downing Street said Sir Keir omitted the preceding sentence which stated the advice was “intended for the current position in the UK where there is currently no transmission of Covid-19 in the community” and that “therefore” it was unlikely residents would be infected."

    https://uk.news.yahoo.com/no-10-accuses-…-144351768.html

    Note that Downing St thought there was no evidence of the virus in the community.. Given that they knew it was spread from personal contact what nonsense are they trying to claim

  • Oh yes they can and they have. For every positive change they have made they have a counter negative change. Basically covering their backs in all corners so if /when things do go wrong they have someone else to blame. It could even be argued that it's a form of entrapment via confusion and misunderstanding to rake in even more increased fines. It's all about money and the economy feeding back to government right now hence the estate agents. Lots of tax revenue in the housing market.

    Of course they can't cover every angle, there are a million scenarios. Do you honestly believe they are going to rake in a fortune in fines, because I would be surprised if it exceeded 4 figures. The only real mistake they have made is going into lock down, but fully understand why they did

    The intelligent are being oppressed so the stupid don't get offended

  • By the way if you think things were bad in the UK or on mainland Europe and lets face it, it has been grim but arguably could have been much worse, take a look at whats going on in Mexico. This looks like being the new hot story for a while.

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    Celebrate it, Anticipate it, Yesterday's faded, Nothing can change it, Life's what you make it

  • I know - a fact that supporters of a continuation of the lockdown should bear in mind.

    Let's face it, nearly all small businesses did not start for philanthropic reasons or to help society. It was for pounds shillings and pence, and some to avoid paying tax

    They took the gamble and if it failed like any bet - they will lose

  • That is so true. We have had it real easy compared to other countries. Even in places like Belgium it has been much worse. We have never really been in a true lockdown, beaten or shot dead.

  • By the way if you think things were bad in the UK or on mainland Europe and lets face it, it has been grim but arguably could have been much worse, take a look at whats going on in Mexico. This looks like being the new hot story for a while.

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    and there was me thinking all the Mexicans had jumped the wall and live in the U.S

    The intelligent are being oppressed so the stupid don't get offended

  • and there was me thinking all the Mexicans had jumped the wall and live in the U.S

    Its absolute carnage. We look pretty organised in comparison and that is far from reality.

    Celebrate it, Anticipate it, Yesterday's faded, Nothing can change it, Life's what you make it

  • You obviously haven't noticed, I no longer read or quote the Mail. Not by choice but by circumstances, but you never were very observant

    They wanted me to subscribe and I declined

    Why should I care what newspaper you do or did try to read in your own special little way

  • Why should I care what newspaper you do or did try to read in your own special little way

    Because you mentioned it, so you clearly care what I read. Perhaps you want to emulate me and be better informed

  • Its absolute carnage. We look pretty organised in comparison and that is far from reality.

    When you look at the number of Cov 19 deaths to date per 000 population, the US and UK are horridly ahead, Germany quite low and, so too is Mexico.

    I'd rather live in a country with fewer deaths that is badly organised in disposing of them than live in a country that has lots of deaths and is well organised in disposing of them.

    The news media are terrific at turning deaths into end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it horror stories, especially if they can show pictures.

    ***

    Extracts from various attitude surveys conducted by the media reveal that British readers or viewers are not inter­ested in road crashes unless there were at least 25 dead or it was one or two pedestrians mown down by a Tory politician driving home from a hunt ball. One person causing at least 25 deaths is especially captivating.

    In Germany, massive road crashes generate more interest if the make and model of the crashed vehicles can be listed.

    Given an equal death count, a rail crash with good photographs is far more interesting and with far more audience reader appeal if it can feature a honeymoon couple among the dead.

    A rail crash is particularly entertaining if it has broken children’s toys amidst the wreckage.


    Rail crash death rates vary in interest according to country. Thanks to British Rail, a rail crash in Britain is unsurprising and needs a 50% increase in death count to be as interesting as one which occurs in mainland Europe.

    Most respondents far prefer an air crash. There is slightly less racial discrimination than with a rail crash. 75 dead Pakistanis or Burmese is no worse than 25 dead Amer­icans. Air crashes are twice as interesting when focusing on leisure than business passengers, although one dead celebrity can improve audience interest by at least 50% and there is a further 25% increase due to schadenfreude if that celebrity is travelling first class, rising to 40% among left-wing white-collar workers.

    100 dead in an air crash is usually the minimum for a lead story. More preferred is 70 dead, with 30 survivors, especially when surviving after at least 3 nights in a dinghy or in the snow.


    Respondents are especially appreciative where tragedy is supplemented by a story about somebody quite ordinary that they can identify with who had been booked to fly aboard on a different flight but changed their mind at the last moment.

    An abandoned toy teddy bear adds 14% appeal.

    A pile of 50 bodies waiting to be buried or cremated has more horror appeal than 200 completed burials, especially if accompanied by screamingly distraught families.

    Deadly diseases are only exciting horror stories for respondents when found in pandemic numbers in Europe and the US, whereas in Africa they just a routine part of the landscape. 100-300 dying from a new disease in Britain could only be matched in interest by a massive percentage of Africa being wiped out by that same disease. In China the number of deaths needs to be even greater, not just because its population is massive but also because they look so alike and, being so short, makes them seem insignificant except en masse (like soldier ants).

  • so too is Mexico.

    Mmm. I would take Mexico's figures with a big pinch of salt:

    MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government is not reporting hundreds, possibly thousands, of deaths from the coronavirus in Mexico City, dismissing anxious officials who have tallied more than three times as many fatalities in the capital than the government publicly acknowledges, according to officials and confidential data.

    The tensions have come to a head in recent weeks, with Mexico City alerting the government to the deaths repeatedly, hoping it will come clean to the public about the true toll of the virus on the nation’s biggest city and, by extension, the country at large.

    But that has not happened. Doctors in overwhelmed hospitals in Mexico City say the reality of the epidemic is being hidden from the country. In some hospitals, patients lie on the floor, splayed on mattresses. Elderly people are propped up on metal chairs because there are not enough beds, while patients are turned away to search for space in less-prepared hospitals. Many die while searching, several doctors said.

    Our death rate figures also include data where corona was a contributory factor, possibly quite minor, rather than the sole cause of death

  • Mmm. I would take Mexico's figures with a big pinch of salt:

    Our death rate figures also include data where corona was a contributory factor, possibly quite minor, rather than the sole cause of death

    I wouldn't be at all surprised if what is being revealed in Mexico is the tip of the iceberg

    I think the data on CV19 is no exception to the deliberate or unwitting biases, concealments, incompetencies and sheer amateurism that thwart comparisons between different countries. Politicians, the media and scientists are all to blame. For politicians, their simplistic vote winning ambition has made bullshit part of their DNA. For the media too it is ultimately about career ambition, which is fuelled by winning readers/viewers, which requires eroding or suppressing truth, objectivity and perspective from their so-called profession. As for scientists, the idea that integrity of academia is impervious to the personal pursuit or preservation of fame and fortune is quite naive; the government has a near endless number of science stooges to support them (although the Government's stage management and blatant deceptions and deflections is torture-testing the moral principles of these stooge scientists, creating publicly embarrassing dissension and rebellion.

    Britain in particular needs a vaccine that can conquer its manic addiction to data collection, not least so that Government can stop using it as a displacement activity to distract or suppress making decisions.

  • When you see the medics working in hospital dressed like something out of a space movie it must make the experience even more terrifying for patients

  • Not sure if I have misread your post, but deaths per million are worst in Belguim, Spain, Italy and then UK. The US is 9th. You also have to factor what countries are including care homes.

    The intelligent are being oppressed so the stupid don't get offended

  • Not sure if I have misread your post, but deaths per million are worst in Belguim, Spain, Italy and then UK. The US is 9th. You also have to factor what countries are including care homes.

    I'm supposed to be good at this stuff but I'm losing confidence. Why do we say Britain is the worse in Europe if that isn't so? Why does the Cov 19 death percentage for the US tower horrifically above the trend lines for the other countries if the US is only 9th in cov19 deaths/m?

    My stats hero on Cov 19 is David Spiegelhalter and his article in the Guardian encourages me to pretty much give up on this Cov 19 measuring mania. Now there's a guy who says it the way it is and proof of that is that he never has been one of the 3 stooges to appear on TV's daily bullshit briefings to a disbelieving, bored or brain-deadened public.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/…other-countries

    But if you want to examine the stats for what they're worth this website seems better than most:

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

    It shows the UK cov19 death rate per million is double that of the US. But why pick on the UK? We're i n the same lousy ballpark as Spain, Italy and France. And all four of us are far worse than those efficient bastards in Germany and their cousins in Austria - and somehow Denmark and Portugal are also in that better-survival league.

    I don't know whether care homes are screwing up the statistics - and I don't much care - it's just one of a lengthy menu choice of situations by which each country can screw up. As for the faux outrage or crocodile tears about deaths in care homes, one might as well get into a tizzy if Dignitas screwed up and lost a few of its clients a few days ahead of schedule. Days, weeks, months - really, honestly, once you're in a care home or Dignitas or on Death Row in Florida, your days are numbered (actually, your days are less numbered on death row and you don't get patronised by over-weight over-sobbing over-acting over-infecting nurses) and, unless you're lucky enough to have dementia, they're not happy days and probably nor are they unhappy days. As for the loving relations who deposited their eternally-loved but rapidly-deteriorating parents in a care home that is knocking on heaven's door, they too will in about a year (on average) be relieved of their sadness, guilt and homecare fees .....which I hasten to add is entirely deserving because they have lives to live.


  • It's been my point from day one. I don't agree with care home deaths, because dying is the point when going into a care home, and covid merely accelerates the process.

    The intelligent are being oppressed so the stupid don't get offended

  • It's been my point from day one. I don't agree with care home deaths, because dying is the point when going into a care home, and covid merely accelerates the process.

    Good for you. In this touchy-feely country/world such thoughts can make one a social leper!

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