Off Topic SARS-CoV-2 Covid-19

Six feet under more like.

 

Just put a new picture on me tinder
Me surrounded by bog roll
Women are lapping it up
Literally
Get in

 

The lyrics are rather appropriate at the mo!!!!

 

Been told that from tomorrow, it's probably best not to come in as there's no ****er else around.


At least I'm still getting paid.

 

I’m not an expert in any of this.....just seen this & thought I’d share


“Bottom line up front: As an epidemiologist, I support the UK government's response to the coronavirus outbreak as proportionate, measured, targeted, nuanced, and sustainable. It is science-led, and I believe that the current choice of action is best for protecting the country.

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Have read a lot of people writing – "I'm not an epidemiologist, but...". Well, I am an epidemiologist, so while infectious diseases aren't usually my thing, I do have a professional opinion on the current situation, and it is an informed one, so thought I'd share it.

An epidemic is like a forest fire. We are the trees, and the disease is the fire. The initial response is to find the trees on fire and try to isolate them – to create fire-breaks, and hope that the fire dies out. Despite the best efforts of the countries where the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) first broke out, this stage has past – there are far too many infections in the population to isolate the virus. We have to face the reality that a substantial portion of the UK population will encounter the virus.

We are now in the holding phase – there are small fires going on, and we are trying to manage them. With the 1918 Spanish flu, while the peak of the outbreak has long passed, the virus never fully went away – it is still burning to this day. Several strains of modern flu are descended from that century-old virus mutation. The ideal future situation is that this novel virus strain (COVID-19) becomes something that we treat similarly to other viruses that cause colds and flu – we take precautions against it, it makes us sick, and occasionally it is serious or even fatal, but it doesn’t drastically change how we live our lives. The end goal with the current outbreak is to get to that stage in a way that is slow, controlled, and not geographically isolated – so as not to put too much strain on the health service at any one time. The worst case scenario is what we see in Northen Italy – a fierce localized blazing fire. But having no burn at all means that the whole population is susceptible – the forest is a tinderbox waiting to ignite. We want a slow burn.

Here are four reasons for not taking more drastic action at the moment: waiting for the peak, ensuring the action is effective, avoiding unintended consequences, and the impact of action on society.

First, we are not close to the peak of the outbreak. Imagine that you are holding a "Close schools for a week" card, which reduces the infection rate by 20% for that week. If you play that card now for one week, you will delay the outbreak by a few days. But the peak of the outbreak will be unchanged – it'll be a few days later, but it'll be just as peaky. The correct time to play the card is a couple of weeks before the peak – not to stretch out the low-risk period, but to stretch out the critical period.

Secondly, if you play too many "Close schools for a week" cards, they will become less effective. It's reasonable to ask people to stay at home for a few days. It's not reasonable to ask people to stay at home indefinitely. If you close schools for several weeks, you won't get a sustained 20% reduction in infection rate – and so you won’t get as much of a reduction when you need it.

Thirdly, if you play the "Close schools for a week" card, what happens instead? Where do the children go? What consequences could result from such a decision? Again, it’s a reasonable request to ask parents to keep children isolated for a week or so. But if there is a long disruption, it could mean children end up spending more time with grandparents, who are more vulnerable to infection. It would likely result in the virus spreading more unpredictably and maybe even more quickly.

Fourthly, drastic action is disruptive. While "health takes priority over wealth" is a reasonable statement when the choice is whether to miss a week's wages versus exposing yourself to a high risk of serious illness (although for some people, even losing a week's wages would be a major set-back). But when the choice means that people go bankrupt and businesses fail, we have to think more carefully. Financial security has a major impact on personal well-being as well as on health itself. To say that the economy shouldn't be a factor in decision-making is naive and shortsighted.

By not taking drastic action at the moment, it means the government has some control over the speed of the fire. There will likely be a future day when schools will close, but we want that decision to be made when it would have the most impact in slowing the spread of the virus – too soon would mean that the action is less effective, and could lead to unintended consequences.

The situation is complicated, and it is constantly evolving. As the number of infections rises, we will need to slow the spread of the virus. But for now, keeping proper hygiene and isolating those who are infectious as well as those who are vulnerable means that the burn will mostly be in healthy individuals – this is the safest way to proceed for everyone. Personally, at the moment, I'm not travelling internationally, but I'm not socially isolating either – I am trying to avoid large crowds, but I am still attending work and social gatherings. The current government advice is reasonable and sustainable for the current situation – until this changes, this is what I am being guided by.”

 

I declare this ridiculous situation as ‘utterly ridiculous’.

FFS

Hopefully it kills everyone in the media and parliament. The guy fawkes virus.

 

That said, I’m hoping the country goes into shut down next week. Can get all my urgent jobs done this week and self isolate in north wales or the lakes for a couple of weeks.

 

I think this is the most important bit of the whole problem, Small and medium businesses are going to be hit and hit hard. I see the airlines are already holding their hands out for a bailout. The government has promised sick pay help for two weeks so workers can self isolate, but what if after everyone goes back to work 1 worker starts showing signs of the virus? And then there are those businesses who have bought seasonal stock that needs to be paid for, plus rent and rates on their premises. Its hard to pay the bills when your not selling owt.

 

I don’t really know your business, but I assume you sell your clobber on line? Will on line sales help clear some surplus?

 

I know a lot of my mates with small businesses are having a similar problem. This could be catastrophic financially for some of them.

 

Both my wife and myself are self employed, we took a hit last week and that's just people (public) panicking now. This is going to have a huge impact on the economy, the virus will kill a lot of the older generation, the effects, measures and panic will take its toll even greater. Job losses, homelessness, anxiety, depression, crime I even read that its having a huge effect on those who suffer from OCD and Autism. I hope it works out okay for you and your business but I am feeling the same pain too and I don't see how the government are going to be able to help us.

 

I think the government could start to encourage the financial institutions to take a supportive attitude towards overdrafts, loans, mortgage payments etc, this might help.

Good luck going forward.

 

Hopefully businesses can find short term entrepreneurial solutions to overcome shortfalls.

These are unprecedented times.

Good luck with your business.

 

Sounds like another Not606 Special Offer maybe in the offing?