Off Topic Coronavirus

Similar to who? The countries with the worst records? The fairest comparison is surely to the other Nordic countries [but please let me know if you disagree with that] and the deaths per million is very different...

 

5310 people reported dead of Covid19 to date in Sweden, 249 dead in Norway. I doubt whether many of the families and friends of the dead in either country will be impressed with Sweden's handling of Covid19 to date.

 

No plans' for Scotland to quarantine UK visitors



There are "no plans" to quarantine people who travel to Scotland from other parts of the UK, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.

But she said the country had to be "on our guard" to prevent cases of Covid-19 coming in from elsewhere.

And she said Scotland would need to "be able to consider all options" to stop a resurgence if the infection rates "diverge" in different parts of the UK.

Ms Sturgeon has said Scotland is "not far away" from eliminating the virus.

On Monday, she said no coronavirus deaths had been recorded for the fourth successive day.

There were only five new confirmed cases in Scotland, and just 10 patients are currently in intensive care wards.

 

That wasn't the comparison that I was making, as you well know.

 

No, but it demonstrates the inadequacy of the comparison you did make.

 

How so? Please explain.

 

I did in my reply above about valid comparators.

 

OK. Can’t be bothered. I leave you to it. Had a **** day, so no desire to perpetuate this.

 

Sorry to hear that - hope you have a better evening.

 

Dr Chris von Csefalvay
Have the protests proved that Covid-19 risks are being vastly exaggerated?
17 June 2020, 3:43am

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By now, we ought to be seeing some evidence of increasing Covid-19 cases from the mass protests. The fact we are not raises very serious doubts about the coronavirus lockdowns and other non-pharmaceutical interventions, many of which are still ongoing.

One explanatory hypothesis is the weather – that outdoor protests in warmish weather might have decreased the infectious potential of Sars-CoV-2. This seems highly unlikely. Even if there is such an effect, it almost definitely doesn't outweigh the close proximity of protesters to one another. Another explanatory hypothesis is that most protesters are relatively young, and therefore unlikely to fall ill but may asymptomatically transmit the virus. This could well be the case, but there is not yet enough data to support this hypothesis and I am not currently convinced this is the most compelling explanation.

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The third explanatory hypothesis is that we have vastly overestimated certain risks from Covid-19, limiting fundamental civil liberties of law-abiding citizens and getting it wrong. It finally took unsanctioned mass protests to prove this point.





At this stage, I find the third explanation the most likely hypothesis. Novel pathogens are notoriously hard to predict and it's better to be safe than sorry – so even in retrospect, a significantly different course of action from that of lockdown would have been ill-advised.

However, the current situation has unveiled an utter lack of a solid public understanding of public health policy. By necessity, public health has the power to limit fundamental civil liberties in cases of emergency – this is regardless of the merits of the subject. What is extremely dangerous is when opinions – whether correct or sincerely held – influence the application of limits to those civil liberties. Or, to put it more bluntly: if it is in the interests of public health to ban mass gatherings, then they must be banned across the board – whether it's Black Lives Matter, anti-lockdowners or the Monster Raving Loony party's annual open-air congress. A righteous cause doesn't confer anti-viral immunity.

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Photo by Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images
In this sense, we have embraced public health as a common cause just until it begins to hamper something many happen to agree with more. The disparities this creates are incredible, and it is difficult to see restrictions as unbiased public health measures now. From a purely scientific perspective, there's no difference between lockdown protesters and anti-racism protesters. Given that exposure risk increases exponentially with the number of people in a certain vicinity, the opprobrium that the anti-lockdown protests have engendered seems excessive in retrospect





What we have right now is the worst of all worlds – a justified notion that public health measures are, to paraphrase the philosopher Anacharsis, like cobwebs: strong enough to catch the weak but too weak to catch the strong. This is a dangerous trend. We have accepted public health imperatives, not as the profound truths they are but instead like a cargo cult, as a way to signal or perhaps generate some sorely missing social cohesion, but with no depth and no real understanding of what's going on.





There are no winners in this. The losers are all of us. An abundance of caution is often a good approach, but it requires honest communication of the inherent uncertainties followed by consistent execution. Public health policies did acceptably on the first – but its political executors completely failed on the second point. There will be, I'm afraid, a very, very steep bill to pay for that in years (and pandemics) to come.

 

Flu virus with 'pandemic potential' found in China

By Michelle RobertsHealth editor, BBC News online

• 29 June 2020

A new strain of flu that has the potential to become pandemic has been identified in China by scientists.

It emerged recently and is carried by pigs, but can infect humans, they say.

The researchers are concerned that it could mutate further so that it can spread easily from person to person, and trigger a global outbreak.

They say it has "all the hallmarks" of being highly adapted to infect humans - and needs close monitoring.

As it's new, people could have little or no immunity to the virus.

Pandemic threat
A bad new strain of influenza is among the top disease threats that experts are watching for, even as the world attempts to bring to an end the current coronavirus pandemic.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/health-53218704?

 

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Michael Tracey
@mtracey

Gosh, any theories for what might've caused this? I'm scratching my noggin

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4:

 

Leicester to go in to lockdown, all schools and non essential business to shut. I thought they said it was absolutely safe for kids to go back to school?

 

22 cases here now

all found during 2 w2eek compulsory quarantine for new arrivals

 

The rate of infection is slowing down here at last but still approximately 20 - 25% of those tested are positive

About to hit 100,000 cases which for a country with a population of 2.75m is pretty grim

Thankfully the death toll is very low

They will start to reopen tomorrow - too soon I feel - so just hoping there isn't a spike or increase again

I'll be stuck here til Christmas as the airport is still closed and a mandatory 14 day quarantine upon arrival in a hotel at your own expense until October

 

What tends to be stressed or not dependent on your political stance is the fact that someone, let's say children, as that was your point, is unlikely to be severely affected if they catch it could then unwittingly spread the virus to relatives and friends who will become seriously ill and in some cases die. Telling the general public to be alert on the one hand and threaten to punish them if they don't send their children to school when told to do so sends out exactly the contradictory messaging which people raise concerns about.

 

Or spread it to teachers or carers at the school or nursery. It's been a big debate on the opening up in many countries where it has looked like the kids are being used as trial guinea pigs. But I've not heard of clusters of infection actually happening from this yet. Here in Thailand schools have opened today, having been closed since March,. But school has continued on the net including exams, and parents or other carers, often other family, have had to be very busy helping the kids through that.

 

The Covid-19 hoax is currently destroying the economy (on purpose) and we have to deal with people that do believe in the criminal politicians by repeatedly showing them facts that they will never except - hopeless.

All the figures that have been shown are rigged by the poititians in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium etc. and the same will apply for the UK as well.

I will repeat what I have said before, at the end of the year the economy will have been destroyed hence the Middle Class. In Germany the unemployment rate is soaring constantly and we will see a 2nd Wave (and more) this autumn. This has been fabricated all the time and unless people realise that politians have never worked in the interest of the common people, we will lose that war.

Please read all about:

- Agenda 21
- Agenda 30
- ID2020
- The-Known-Traveller
- Event 201
- EU Vaccination pass

By the way, we will never see Football audiences without vaccination again.