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Off Topic Coronavirus and NOTHING to do with football thread

Discussion in 'Watford' started by andytoprankin, Mar 21, 2020.

  1. Bolton's Boots

    Bolton's Boots Well-Known Member

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    Westminster Abbey service to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain this morning, and this is what BoJo chose to read out.

    He has a complete lack of self-awareness.<doh>

    upload_2020-9-20_21-23-38.png
     
    #3201
  2. Markthehorn

    Markthehorn Well-Known Member

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  3. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    #3203
  4. Hornet-Fez

    Hornet-Fez Well-Known Member

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    He couldn't follow science if a Lab Tech shoved a test tube up his nose and dragged him around the room by it.
     
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  5. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    Sounds as if there is now documentary evidence that puts London at the centre of massive money laundering. Of course it is nothing new, Roberto Saviano even wrote a book about it four years ago showing how the money was coming from Russia and being washed through our tax havens. Both the US and EU have imposed sanctions on individuals from there, but as long as the contributions keep coming into party funds we seem to not be bothered. You might even get a seat in the Lords if you donate enough.
     
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  6. Markthehorn

    Markthehorn Well-Known Member

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    Probably just be more threats of fines and wagging fingers telling people not to go out in groups.

    But they all go to the pubs for example that have been open for months.

    Everyone I know has either been on holiday or had some sort of gathering.

    All the vulnerable people are probably trying to prorect themselves hence the reduced death numbers but others just don't care that much.
     
    #3206
  7. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    #3207
  8. Markthehorn

    Markthehorn Well-Known Member

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    Think people aren't thet bothered about the virus now unless they are vulnerable or know someone who is.

    To many suspect this is all a irrelevant irritating "flu" ( as some call it ) impacting on their work and social lives but not going to affect their health.

    If this affected kids or people generally in a more serious way think you would see a difference attitude rather than " a few old people who were going to die anyway" type view some have.

    Do many people get fined or are snopped on by others ?

    Or is that all empty threats.
     
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  9. colognehornet

    colognehornet Well-Known Member

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    I can only speak for the area where I live Mark, but most of the people I know here do not know anyone, personally, who has been killed or hospitalized by this virus. As long as that is the case then most people don't really take it seriously - many people need personal contact with something like this before it really comes home for them. For many it's like global warming - only a statistic. We are seeing a second wave in more or less every European country but this is not being accompanied by a second wave of deaths, and the rate of patients classified as serious or critical has also gone down dramatically. There are various interpretations for this - more young people are getting it (though I can't see this causing the uniform picture we have in Europe at the moment) or the viral load is less because of the precautions we are taking, or there is a time lapse between infection peaks and deaths, or whether the virus is mutating into a form which is just as infectious but less deadly. If people are believing the last scenario then it would explain the relaxed attitude many people have on this.
     
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  10. Markthehorn

    Markthehorn Well-Known Member

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    Pubs/clubs etc to close by 10 ..

    Will this change anything or people just pile into the pubs earlier and probably make it more crowded?

    Ones around here close at 11 anyway.
     
    #3210

  11. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    Maybe I have been away too long, but I am not sure why so much is made of what times pubs close. In my younger days opening hours were strictly regulated, 10.30 am - 2.30 pm then 6.00 pm - 10.30 pm. They were mainly just a place for a drink, food was not often available. Later it changed with food being the main income, as many pubs started to shunt out the regulars to make way for the dining area. However it has evolved these days I am not sure, but it seems to be desperate when government seems to see it as such an important part of the economy.
     
    #3211
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  12. Markthehorn

    Markthehorn Well-Known Member

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    Well I agree - what is an hour going to do?

    If anything you'd rather have people going into pubs over longer periods rather than rushing in all at the same time which is bound to happen.
     
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  13. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    Get back to the office and the pub. Have a cheap meal at the taxpayers expense. People need to get out and about was the message. Now work from home if you can, and don't think about staying in the pub when you could be home. This is not a "shift in emphasis" as Gove likes to put it, but a 180° U turn. Will it change the way that people act? Judging by the scenes in Blackpool at the weekend, no it won't.
     
    #3213
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  14. Markthehorn

    Markthehorn Well-Known Member

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    Only people who really care about this virus health wise are the ones who will be affected be it themselves or their family/friends.

    Everyone else is probably more concerned about their job/education and social life.
     
    #3214
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  15. colognehornet

    colognehornet Well-Known Member

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    Unfortunately there have been a large number of U turns Frenchie, together with a scattergun approach to the lockdown. We will never know which measures were effective and which were superfluous and more studies are needed on this. Research in other countries indicates that 80% of all infections take place at home - and a much larger percentage in so called indoor clusters of people. So why have they ever controlled people outside when Infections which have been contracted outdoors appear to be minimal, to say the least. We need to identify 'high risk' situations, 'low risk' ones, and 'no risk' (such as being stood alone on a mountain !). The government, and the media, will be horrified by people frollicking on the beach - yet the same government was telling people with symptoms to stay at home and not seek medical help until necessary, thus decreasing their chances of survival and increasing the viral load for those around them. The real need was for people to spend as much time outside as possible - yet they were fart arsing around controlling people in parks, and cyclists. We know that some of the measures taken were successfull in driving down numbers but we don't know which ones - how long did it take for the so called experts to decide whether masks were usefull or not, whereas common sense would have told you that even a fillet of haddock strapped over the nose and mouth would stop something, and protect others.
     
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  16. Bolton's Boots

    Bolton's Boots Well-Known Member

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    Ironically, I seem to remember that that was one of the arguments for extending opening hours...

    And you're right - the rush is bound to happen. With 10:30pm closing time, that used to be the norm on a Saturday/Friday night when the last screenings in cinemas finished around 10:20 - the mad rush to catch last orders at the nearest pub.

    Ironic too that the government have an Aussie as an adviser,Tony Abbott - yet he hasn't advised them. I'm sure he could have warned them of the folly of early closing time for pubs. Pubs in Australia used to close at 6:00pm - the hour between work ending and pubs closing was known as the six o'clock swill.They were packed solid for the entire hour + a 15 minute 'sup up' time, leading to public drunkenness, rampant domestic violence and the increasing incidence of road deaths due to drink driving.
     
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  17. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    I think that some of the things that we describe as common sense are becoming more obvious by comparisons between the measures that different countries have taken. The UK was very slow at bringing any measures in which allowed the virus to become embedded in the population. I don't know if there was some strange feeling that we are exceptional and are immune from such things, a fear of losing popularity, or the sudden realisation that the country was totally unprepared to deal with such a crisis. Other countries started to take measures two to three weeks before anything happened in the UK and as the virus was suppressed in those countries it was still growing there. Without a proper tracing system of people, something of which did already exist at a local level but was underfunded and ignored, the disaster of creating something totally new was embarked upon calling on private companies that had no experience or expertise of knowing what they were dealing with. This point has been made time and time again yet the government just doesn't see it. Johnson has said that Brits like their freedom, and suggested that those in Germany didn't so much and were therefore easier to organise into accepting rules and regulations. It is the minority who are letting the country down he says, so they must be brought into line. It is clear there is no magic bullet to get out of this, but somehow government has to rebuild trust which has been lost, otherwise the next six months will pass and we will see no great change. It does seem that the three devolved governments have maintained far more trust than the UK government in England.
     
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  18. colognehornet

    colognehornet Well-Known Member

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    I hadn't actually heard that Bojo had been playing on old worn stereotypes about the Germans <laugh> Of course the government only has to make a rule or regulation and the Germans jump to obey with a click of the heels and a 'Jawohl mein Herr' <doh> There have been massive demonstrations here against the Covid 19 regulations (far bigger than in the UK) - mostly stirred up by loony conspiracy theorists.
     
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  19. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    He brought it up when responding to a question in the Commons today.
     
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  20. colognehornet

    colognehornet Well-Known Member

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    It is par to form that he would try to appeal to the idea of the 'freedom loving Brits' in contrast to those continentals across the water <laugh> Slight diversionary tactics to cover his own incompetence. Actually he is right in a kind of way - watch a group of Germans crossing the road and they will wait until the 'walking man' tells them to go even though nothing is coming from any direction ! I could go on with a long list of things which irritate me about the Germans (despite being married to one, and having naturalized myself) but that belongs somewhere else.
     
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