Coronavirus

[kirky69]

Rishi Sunak has a talent.  He's a Tory who manages not to bring me out in a rash.  Not quite sure how he manages that.  He does empathy/compassion well enough that, deep down, I'm not that sure he's a proper Tory anyway.  He's been a bit evasive today, but I feel he's answered his questions a bit more directly than anyone else lately.

I agree with you. He is the only minister that comes across as even remotely genuine. Gove, Raab, Patel, Hancock, Sharma, Jenrick and Williamson have all shown themselves to be largely inept, completely lacking in integrity and empathy, unable to answer questions and  monologue in delivery. A complete dearth of talent in the cabinet and with Johnson as prime minister what a shit show of a Government we have. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Johnson resigns in the next 6 months due to personal/health reasons, with Sunak appointed as his successor.

[RobertT]

The vast majority of the world seems to have acted like the Mayor of Amityville, so I doubt very much that a different reaction would have happened under a Govt of any colour in the UK.  The basic proviso of the plans is to treat any outbreak as if it is a worst case and then relax from there.  As soon as spread from human to human is seen, assume the worst - assume it is airborne and easily transferred.  The first case in your neck of the woods is treated as if it had the potential to have infected everyone they contacted within a few weeks - trace them down and test everyone and quarantine them.  Those that test positive, rinse and repeat.  Keep this population away from the rest and certainly do not mix them with general hospital populations.  You won't stop it, if it truly is airborne and easily transferred, but you'll quickly freeze up the supply chain it uses to spread uncontrollably.  Best case scenario, it turns out to be hard to transfer the virus and you've over reacted.  It "seems" the countries who followed that path have had smaller outbreaks as a result, but as it has turned out to be easily transmitted from human to human, the control measures can only do so much.  Even in the best places you can't stop it completely, not without a vaccine or immunity.

This is why it is different to Flu - which we live with and accept deaths as people keep harping on about.  The difference is how it is spreading - Flu tends to sideline you, so while it can spread, it's never out of control, plus we have vaccines to cover off some level of immunity in the world.  This little fucker is like that on drugs, not least because it turns out you spread it before getting ill, or never get ill.  Imagine the worldwide case load if everyone had just treated it like the flu minus a vaccine!!

[Ardiles]

I’ve only got the chart for England, but daily corrected numbers (I.e deaths per day they happened) is showing quite a clear slowing

Thanks for posting.  All deaths are tragedies.  But even within that context, it's the most positive analysis we've seen yet.

[Richie Wellen-Dowd]

Not sure this really belongs here, however, it is a consequence. WTI under $1 a barrel 

[Bob's Orange]

I’ve been looking at the Brent oil price which is now less than a bottle of water. What does that actually mean in economic terms? And can we blame Trump for it? (Please say yes!)

[Richie Wellen-Dowd]

I’ve been looking at the Brent oil price which is now less than a bottle of water. What does that actually mean in economic terms? And can we blame Trump for it? (Please say yes!)

Brent is still $26 a barrel, WTI is effectively the price of US produced oil and is under a dollar. Most US oil producers probably break even closer to $30-40 a barrel. The price at the pump will probably come down tuppence here. Can't blame Trump (sorry!)

Edit: Down to 1c a barrel.

[Boeta]

They haven't got everything right, but this is a one in a generation event something that we have never faced before.

They have been constantly guided by scientific advice of these matters- this changes in line with when more is known about the virus and pandemic.

Many issues being faced are the same shortages elsewhere- and the WHO did not even declare a pandemic until March.

What seems to be being missed is that China blatantly lied to the world/WHO about the virus- this is who should be being questioned if anyone at the moment. No way did they only have 3k deaths- but it is odd that barely any cases in Shanghai? I wonder why....

In summary- mistakes are made and will have been made by many other countries across the world at this time- the key is learning from them for the future. This whole experience has been a horrible learning curve for us and other countries in the world.

If anyone though thinks Steptoe/Dotty Diane would have done better then they are deluded

That argument might hold up if there weren’t countries like New Zealand who acted decisively in good time to prevent the situation from escalating- they are coming out of lockdown in a weeks time with barely any deaths at all

But then they have proper leader, who puts people first (no I don't think Corbyn etc would done have any better than Boris etc but anyone who thinks that is a legitimate argument needs to open their eyes)

[Richie Wellen-Dowd]

That argument might hold up if there weren’t countries like New Zealand who acted decisively in good time to prevent the situation from escalating- they are coming out of lockdown in a weeks time with barely any deaths at all

But then they have proper leader, who puts people first (no I don't think Corbyn etc would have any better than Boris etc but anyone who thinks that is a legitimate argument needs to open their eyes)

And then you have a country like Cambodia, where leader Hun Sen refused to have any restrictions on Chinese entering the country, said he was going to fly to Wuhan to hug Cambodians stuck there, then let a cruise ship that 5 other countries refused dock in Cambodia, met people coming off personally and order other officials to not wear masks. They have just over 100 confirmed cases with no recorded deaths, and while they've probably covered up a bit and haven't tested, all things being equal their hospitals should be overflowing by now.

Can we please stop comparisons when we understand so little, and when everything can be looked at selectively to prove a point.

[brocklesby red]

yeah if you click on your profile and ignore user options you can see people who are ignoring you.

I have 3 in total including a bizarre user called eauserscout!!??!! Not sure what I did to Hobnob or Brockelsbury Red mind you

Sorry mate, I certainly didn’t mean to ignore you. I’ve gone into my profile and hopefully sorted it

[Boeta]

And then you have a country like Cambodia, where leader Hun Sen refused to have any restrictions on Chinese entering the country, said he was going to fly to Wuhan to hug Cambodians stuck there, then let a cruise ship that 5 other countries refused dock in Cambodia, met people coming off personally and order other officials to not wear masks. They have just over 100 confirmed cases with no recorded deaths, and while they've probably covered up a bit and haven't tested, all things being equal their hospitals should be overflowing by now.

Can we please stop comparisons when we understand so little, and when everything can be looked at selectively to prove a point.

Nope, Cambodia is another example of a government with more proactive leadership than ours.

—Cambodia has banned entry of foreign visitors from the six countries since mid-March and has imposed entry restrictions for all foreigners since March 30.—

[Valid Pint]

Can we please stop comparisons when we understand so little, and when everything can be looked at selectively to prove a point.

Well said. Some commentators are treating this tragic situation like some kind of sick replacement medal haul for the Olympics. It really is repugnant.

[Abrahammer]

Political point scoring is seemingly never off limits

[Richie Wellen-Dowd]

Nope, Cambodia is another example of a government with more proactive leadership than ours.

—Cambodia has banned entry of foreign visitors from the six countries since mid-March and has imposed entry restrictions for all foreigners since March 30.—

March 30th Ffs. They had flights landing from Wuhan as it headed towards the peak there. Thousands of Chinese continued to flood in and out of the country even after some European citizens were banned. There's no lockdown there, weddings and concerts are cancelled but that's about it, plus travel between provinces restricted for a few days over New year.

We could compare and say that's what we should have done, then we'd have no lockdown and zero deaths. Except that would be wrong and we would be morons.

Edit: Apologies, I should have also said that schools closed a while back too. Some businesses have shut due to lack of custom but haven't been told to. As an aside, my wife's friend is a teacher. Even though they aren't teaching they are required to go in once a week to clean up, the problem being the school is being used to quarantine people returning from Thailand. They tried to suggest this wasn't a great idea. In typical Cambodian fashion they were told it wasn't a problem.

[Bob's Orange]

Sorry mate, I certainly didn’t mean to ignore you. I’ve gone into my profile and hopefully sorted it

Hey I wasn’t bothered at all BR, however I am glad to hear that I didn’t do anything to offend. You may regret not ignoring me now

[4D]

I'm being ignored by 3