People like Piers Morgan telling viewers that he's stockpiling and his programme spreading ridiculous fears about this thing are a disgrace. However, there is a balance to be struck, as many many older people are quite likely to die if the experts' predictions are correct. I suppose it's quite difficult to get the balance right. Khan is a complete twat!
You are very right Col. We need to strike a balance...85% of those infected will have mild symptoms. The other 15% will have bad to severe symptoms. The death rate is about 3%, and mostly in those with underlying disease. It will be tragic if it is someone you are close to and you could have helped stop the transmission to them...but we have all got to take collective responsibility. We all need to be sensible. Do what they say...wash our hands regularly. Get rid of tissues, self isolate if we feel ill. Dont stockpile.My huge stockpile of soap stops loads of other people washing their hands, and stops them from looking after themselves...and so looking after the rest of us. The morons who steal from hospitals, are beyond belief The morons who stockpile food, and so prevent older and poorer people from buying what they need are also so so stupid. Just collective responsibility...and don't panic And yes Col... Khan is talking complete rubbish. It is possible if an infected person was on the tube it could be transmitted, via touched surfaces or an aerosol (spit or sneeze). Does not mean stop using the tube, it just means be careful
Sporting events getting cancelled and ordered to be played behind closed doors left right and centre. Just wondering how long it will be till Championship games are affected? Have flights and a hotel booked for Charlton away and Fulham games next week. Not booking any more games after that. Have flights and hotels booked in Paris on Thursday for the cancelled Fra v Ire 6 nations game. 8 of us due to travel. As the airlines and hotels are not offering any refunds, do we risk travelling or do we just forget the 500 euros we have paid each? I saw a figure of 107 cases in the Ile de France region. All flights to and from Italy suspended till April at the earliest. The Irish government said yesterday that there is a risk that 50-60 per cent of the population will get coronavirus. Scary prediction for somebody like me with an elderly parent not in great health. Worrying times ahead.
What the Irish government is saying doesn’t tally with what the British government is saying, and this inconsistency of information from different, but supposedly authoritative, sources is a massive problem. The British ‘central’ estimate of deaths is 100,000, including 17,000 from ‘normal’ winter flu (which is very bad this year, but which is being ignored). With a 3% death rate (a massive overestimate in my view) that would give an infection number of 3.5m in the UK, about 5% of the population. A more realistic 1% death rate would mean 10 million infected, still less than 20% of the population. So where does the Irish 50-60% come from? I suspect all the stats are ****ed up on this, because we have no idea how many people are actually infected. If anywhere has accurate(ish) figures I reckon it will be South Korea, because they are on constant standby for horrible stuff to be lobbed at them from the North.
I think the figure of 50-60% is a worst case scenario Stan. They estimate the best case scenario is about 30% and the most likely scenario is about 40%. So far, only 24 cases confirmed in the Republic but they expect this figure to increase quickly. They are also calling an emergency session of parliament so they can change the law on sick pay. They are saying anybody forced to self isolate will be entitled to claim sick pay from day one at a rate of 305 euros per week, including self employed people. At least people wont starve which is good. Edit, 10 new cases confirmed in the Republic this evening making a total of 34. The North have 16 cases. Overall total for the island at 50 now.
They will here if they are zero hours and follow the self isolation guidance when it is implemented .......
May be based on scientific evidence. There's a balance between scaring people unnecessarily and getting people to focus on risk.
These figures make no sense. China claims to be over the worst, but by Merkels rationale about 900 million Chinese citizens could get the disease, not the 80,000 that have. Unless we have been lied to wildly by multiple different countries. Possible or probable? This is when the internet and multiple different channels for distributing (mis)information becomes a real problem. Too much madly contradictory stuff flying about. According to the figures Italy has a death rate of over 6%, Germany less than 0.2%. The health status of these populations is comparable, as are the health systems. There is something grievously wrong with the information collection. But I managed to buy a pack of 16 bog rolls today (we were down to our last 2, I was waking up at night sweating). Presumably these are vital to protect me from the virus, so I’ll be spending the next few hours wrapping myself up like a mummy, and expecting to be immortal as a result.
Germany's at the start of the crisis. I don't think Merkel would make such a prediction without sound expert advice, though "scare" may force people to stay at home. Personally, I think it will be bad, and here too. The big problem from my standpoint is one can infect others before symptoms show. Glad you got your bog rolls, Stan. Wrap yourself up in it, but take it off before you take the dog for a walk if you don't want to scare your neighbours ****less