Coronavirus

[pauld]

And on the subject of enforced returns to work for the sake of political expediency, the FT is reporting today that senior Tories want all MPs back in the Commons so that Johnson can shelter behind a braying mob because Starmer's making him look like an ill-prepared incompetent twat at PMQs

https://www.ft.com/content/9ed7a217-1462-4fba-9329-880dc76a3793

[horlock07]

And on the subject of enforced returns to work for the sake of political expediency, the FT is reporting today that senior Tories want all MPs back in the Commons so that Johnson can shelter behind a braying mob because Starmer's making him look like an ill-prepared incompetent twat at PMQs

https://www.ft.com/content/9ed7a217-1462-4fba-9329-880dc76a3793

Story similarly sheltering behind a paywall.

Not sure how much that will actually help Johnson in reality, as with Starmer staying cold and calculating when delivering the questions its just going to make the Tories look like the posh boys they really are if they start baying at Johnsons show boating. The one quality Starmer has is to tailor his follow up questions to reveal the bollocks from Johnson.

Perhaps worth Labour putting out a request to all the opposition benches for them to remain quiet and business like and let the baying blue ranks look like twats.

[pauld]

Story similarly sheltering behind a paywall.

Not sure how much that will actually help Johnson in reality, as with Starmer staying cold and calculating when delivering the questions its just going to make the Tories look like the posh boys they really are if they start baying at Johnsons show boating. The one quality Starmer has is to tailor his follow up questions to reveal the bollocks from Johnson.

I have read somewhere that the Speaker is going to tell Rees-Mogg to do one anyway, so expect to see the Mail dusting off their Bercow smear stories to use against Hoyle. The point was not so much whether it would work but just how low a priority this government places on health concerns.

[horlock07]

I have read somewhere that the Speaker is going to tell Rees-Mogg to do one anyway, so expect to see the Mail dusting off their Bercow smear stories to use against Hoyle. The point was not so much whether it would work but just how low a priority this government places on health concerns.

I won't hold my breath, Hoyle appears to just want a quiet life so I would be surprised to see him stand up to government this early. You look at his parliamentary career and its very uninspiring and middle of the road being careful not to antagonise anyone, its like he has been aiming for the Speaker role since 1997.

TBH its looking a bit rich them asking us all to go back to work then saying it isn't safe for them to.

[Nemo]

My previous company laid off my entire former team today. I'm absolutely horrified and gutted for them, but it feels like a lot more of this is coming. For all that we understand job losses and downturns in the abstract, they're so much worse in practice when it's people you know and like and know do such a good job.

I'm not am end the lockdown hawk by any means, but people need to realise that economic collapse is not an abstract thing that affects stock markets and GDP figures alone. Jobs, incomes, livelihoods, if this stuff all goes to fuck then then people will die too. Poverty kills, loneliness kills. I don't think the government are doing an especially great job but fuck knows I wouldn't want to be in their position. A rock and a hard place.

[pauld]

This shouldn't be any suprise to anyone after the "Freedom Monday" bullshit No 10 was briefing, but the R number which measures the infection rate has gone up again over the last week. Classic Dom.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-r-infection-number-as-high-as-1-after-rising-over-past-week-sage-says-11988983

[STFC_Manc]

This shouldn't be any suprise to anyone after the "Freedom Monday" bullshit No 10 was briefing, but the R number which measures the infection rate has gone up again over the last week. Classic Dom.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-r-infection-number-as-high-as-1-after-rising-over-past-week-sage-says-11988983

I've just read in the bbc article (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52677194), it states that the rise is from about 3 weeks ago, so has nothing to do with "Freedom Monday" but it doesn't bode well.

[pauld]

I've just read in the bbc article (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52677194), it states that the rise is from about 3 weeks ago, so has nothing to do with "Freedom Monday" but it doesn't bode well.

Yes my error, sorry, didn't read the article properly. The rise is from when they started including care homes in testing apparently, so the good news is we are *starting* to get a more accurate picture of the scale of the problem. But as you say, doesn't bode well. Certainly shouldn't be looking at more expansive easing of lockdown any time soon

[horlock07]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/brazil-nelson-teich-resigns-coronavirus-bolsonaro-latest-a9517246.html

[Batch]

if the entire world could stay indoors for a month, strictly, would the virus disappear?

I know it's impossible. But in theory.

[Valid Pint]

Yes my error, sorry, didn't read the article properly

[Bogus Dave]

Probably not a month - person a could infect person b after a few weeks, then they could infect person c after another few weeks

I don’t see why a longer period, say 4-5 months, wouldn’t work theoretically tho

[pauld]

if the entire world could stay indoors for a month, strictly, would the virus disappear?

I know it's impossible. But in theory.

The point of the lockdown is twofold:
1) to buy time to put in place the infrastructure for testing and tracing new infections so we can implement Test Trace and Isolate for any new cases
2) to drive down the infection rate to a level that the TTI system isn't swamped

Which is why it's extremely disappointing so little progress has been made toward achieving 1) and why it's important not to start reopening things before 2). Because if you start to reopen too soon, you never reach 2). And then you're back to "herd immunity without a vaccine" (i.e. deaths in the hundreds of thousands)

[BambooToTheFuture]

The figure is £360m...a long jump from £36bn.

[Batch]

that wasn't really the question I asked.

yes Dave, I take your point on serial infection