Coronavirus

[bathford]

So Boris has gone to Chequers. Isn't that like going to your second home?

[pauld]

Govt's own scientific advisers are now admitting we are likely to have the worst death rate in Europe. It needn't have been like this

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/uk-coronavirus-death-toll-europe-jeremy-farrar-andrew-marr-a4412756.html

[pauld]

This is well worth a read: A/B comparison with Ireland, started from broadly the same place we did, currently doing much better, far fewer deaths per head of population, and the failure of the British media to call this out

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1249127908876128259.html

[singingiiiffy]

you can go round and round in circles as much as you want.

the uk has a higher population so of course infection will multiply quicker. the majority of deaths have been in London- a hotspot of people living on top of each other and with a huge underground system which will again be a hotspot- (see NYC, Milan, Madrid)

the whole media in this event have been a shambles and we all know how much they love to point the finger and scare monger.

if this is coming to be a continual lock down in and out and scenario its going to be impossible to contain

[Flashheart]

As much as I hold the media in contempt, how have they been scare mongering?

[pauld]

you can go round and round in circles as much as you want.

the uk has a higher population so of course infection will multiply quicker. the majority of deaths have been in London- a hotspot of people living on top of each other and with a huge underground system which will again be a hotspot- (see NYC, Milan, Madrid)

Dublin has roughly the same population density as London but nowhere near the same level of deaths. We had a 3 week warning from Italy and Spain of where we were headed and we wasted it. We now have the highest number of deaths per day in Europe and are on track to record the highest number of deaths overall in Europe (according to govt's own scientific adviser). We didn't get here by accident. Ireland shows the alternate route we could have taken and failed to.

[singingiiiffy]

As much as I hold the media in contempt, how have they been scare mongering?

its everywhere: this piece from the guardian

Half of the top 10 most shared English-language links about coronavirus on Facebook from the month of January were hyperbolic, fear-mongering and at times blatantly misleading articles from actual news outlets, according to a review of data from CrowdTangle. Among the blatantly misleading is an article by the Daily Mail suggesting that the coronavirus outbreak was caused by Chinese people eating “bat soup” that was shared more than 96,000 times on Facebook.

Disinformation experts and fact-checkers are being kept busy.

[Legends-Lounge]

So Boris has gone to Chequers. Isn't that like going to your second home?

Nope, his first home is being used by all and sundry to run the country I’d imagine.

[RobertT]

its everywhere: this piece from the guardian

Half of the top 10 most shared English-language links about coronavirus on Facebook from the month of January were hyperbolic, fear-mongering and at times blatantly misleading articles from actual news outlets, according to a review of data from CrowdTangle. Among the blatantly misleading is an article by the Daily Mail suggesting that the coronavirus outbreak was caused by Chinese people eating “bat soup” that was shared more than 96,000 times on Facebook.

Disinformation experts and fact-checkers are being kept busy.

Fox News over here spent the best part of a month telling their viewers that it wasn’t coming, or was under control, or was no worse than the flu.  CNN has spent the best part of a month trying to bash Trump for talking about a drug that might help speed recovery.

So yes, media will go to extremes, that much is certain.

However, what do you expect when a global pandemic breaks out, the sort they made movies about.  One where the best data available shows it would have ravaged people left unchecked, as being shown in the high density hot spots.  They are hardly going to pop it in the cute cat stuck up tree section.

Very few places in the world got a handle on this, that needs a critical press to investigate.  Was it by design, by negligence or because we were just not as well prepared as others?  What works, what doesn’t?  It is no different than in the past.  In 2001, the media coverage for two buildings collapsing after having planes flown into them was global and for weeks.  More people have died in the past two weeks from this in NY.

[Ardiles]

They won't even know about it. They all watch Fox News, no mention of his previous failures and his obvious lies on there, just what a great job he's doing of it sorting out a problem that doesn't exist was invented by the Democrats was caused by the Chinese/WHO. That's the great thing about being an incompetent politician in a highly divided society, no need to worry about being held to account. cf The Sun's front page today "Now that's what we call a Good Friday". At the end of a week when over 5,000 have died.

As if to prove your point, this post on Facebook comes from a distant, Trump-supporting, elderly relative in the US.  It really is a different world.

Which preacher said this? Can you guess?
 
“On Good Friday, Christians from all around the world remember the suffering and death upon the cross of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Easter Sunday, we  celebrate his glorious resurrection.”
“Though we will not be able to gather together with one another as we normally would on Easter, we can use this sacred time to focus on prayer, reflection, and growing in our personal relationship with God.”
“I ask all Americans to pray that God will heal our nation; to bring comfort to those who are grieving; to give strength to the doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers; to restore health to the sick; and to renew the hope in every person who is suffering.”
 
It wasn’t a preacher. Thank you to President Donald J. Trump for his message to our nation this Easter weekend and for Bishop Harry Jackson’s message and prayer in the Oval Office yesterday. May we as a nation turn to God and thank Him for His mercies and blessings.

[Flashheart]

They're fucking nuts. The evangelicals especially - they make scientologists look normal in comparison.

I encounter evangelicals quite often and they are creeeeepy.

[singingiiiffy]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/12/coronavirus-statistics-what-can-we-trust-and-what-should-we-ignore

an interesting article. What stats can we trust and which ones should we ignore...seems like we should ignore all of them.
Does raise the point of why the government keeps using slides of stats.

We cant use deaths as it depends on the death certificate interpretation and how delayed they are from hospitals, care homes etc. We can’t really compare these to other countries as many record different. we can’t compare new cases because it depends on testing levels and also testing accuracy. It’s also all of the above which both sides and media use to back up their arguments/ opinions.

I have always thought why not use an app and make it almost compulsory- for elderly who can’t use they could easily use other family members to register and update for them.

each day asking basic questions- have you any symptoms, have you had any, where have you been, have you self isolated etc. It would be very easy to gauge how many possible cases there have been and get a feel for what the country is looking like.

there is talk of an nhs app today, there was also one I read about ZOE covid 19 symptom tracker much like the above but it isn’t being used to provide data to nhs etc. It should be and it should be advertised everywhere and as said made almost compulsory with the incentives to beat track and  trace this virus.

[mystical_goat]

the whole media in this event have been a shambles and we all know how much they love to point the finger and scare monger.

Agree that they've been a shambles but my reason would be the opposite - that they've not pointed the finger. It's no coincidence that the press have not been critical.

[Bogus Dave]

There is an app that tracks by self reporting, and prompts you every day to update your symptoms

Can download at https://covid.joinzoe.com/ 2.3m have contributed so far. 2.5k contributors from Swindon, of which 3.29% self reporting as having symptoms

Not sure how official that is though, or what backing it has. Doesn’t ask for any identifiable data outside of postcode and age, so must be fairly altruistic

There’s an NHS online survey too, but that’s not available in app form and is a bit more of a chore to update on the regular. The join or one takes a minute or so to complete to start with, and then a few seconds each day

[@mwooly63]

There is an app that tracks by self reporting, and prompts you every day to update your symptoms

Can download at https://covid.joinzoe.com/ 2.3m have contributed so far. 2.5k contributors from Swindon, of which 3.29% self reporting as having symptoms

Not sure how official that is though, or what backing it has. Doesn’t ask for any identifiable data outside of postcode and age, so must be fairly altruistic

There’s an NHS online survey too, but that’s not available in app form and is a bit more of a chore to update on the regular. The join or one takes a minute or so to complete to start with, and then a few seconds each day

The app is used by Guys and St Thomas biomedical research.
I have been filling it in for a week or so