It’s because of this fear that I have been pestering my employer for a company announcement, regarding the coronavirus, and all they have come back with is a poster with the basic hand washing, coughing into your elbow etc advice. There is no mention whatsoever of the need for people, who are showing signs of a respiratory illness, to stay at home and self isolate. The selfish bastards are actually recruiting agency staff to help cope with the upsurge in sales, with figures being on a par with Christmas week sales, so they don’t want to encourage anyone to take time off. This, in turn, means that people are working even if they are ill.
Think I read about a week ago that critical care beds were around 80% full. Once that's at capacity then the death rate will increase dramatically.
No question about it. They will be choosing who not to treat and leaving them to their own devices. This is really the root of Boris's "you will lose loved ones".
Just doing a video enquiry and I was notified of this on Youtube: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/ One senses the increasing seriousness. Sound advice too.
Don't know if this will post, but it is heartwarming to see the people of Naples singing songs about their city and Italy on their balconies whilst in lockdown. Human spirit is an amazing thing. We survived war and now var, coronavirus doesn't stand a chance. EDIT: link to the whole CNN article https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/13/europe/italian-neighbors-sing-scli-intl/index.html
This shows what a government can do, when it understands the hardships that will be caused by self isolating and now the lockdown. I strongly believe that the government here should fund self isolating workers by ensuring that they receive full contract wages, otherwise they will continue to work. Yes it will be abused, but it should be a once only payment, so that those that try to fiddle it can’t then receive it if/when they DO become infected by the coronavirus.
Taking it seriously throughout Spain as well, even closing the beaches, as well as the bars and restaurants.
People will only be tested for Covid-19 in hospital, so they are treated correctly. People who self-isolate but recover will not be tested. This means that the numbers of people who contract the disease will only be a guestimate. I suppose the usefulness of the information isn't worth the cost in time and money.
How can the Italian government have the power to suspend mortgages and household bills? I can't even contemplate the figure.
Yeah, my sister emailed me with this. We hail immediately from Roccasecca, but have distant relatives in Cassino and Napoli. It's the culture. It made me smile. Italians are front-foot positive, even in adverse situations.
You put people before money and you can do such things. It'll cost later, but it eases everyone's burden in the shorter term.
IMO it is this type of action that will encourage those with financial difficulties to self isolate rather than continue working and continue to spread the virus. I don’t expect anything like this to happen here, sadly.
This is something I've cobbled together from Twitter. Apologies for any mistakes Professor Ian Donald @iandonald_psych · 17h 1. The govt strategy on #Coronavirus is more refined than those used in other countries and potentially very effective. But it is also riskier and based on a number of assumptions. They need to be correct, and the measures they introduce need to work when they are supposed to. Professor Ian Donald 2. This all assumes I'm correct in what I think the govt are doing and why. I could be wrong - and wouldn't be surprised. But it looks to me like. . . Professor Ian Donald · 3. A UK starting assumption is that a high number of the population will inevitably get infected whatever is done – up to 80%. As you can’t stop it, so it is best to manage it. There are limited health resources so the aim is to manage the flow of the seriously ill to these. Professor Ian Donald 4. The Italian model the aims to stop infection. The UKs wants infection BUT of particular categories of people. The aim of the UK is to have as many lower risk people infected as possible. Immune people cannot infect others; the more there are the lower the risk of infection Professor Ian Donald 5. That's herd immunity. Based on this idea, at the moment the govt wants people to get infected, up until hospitals begin to reach capacity. At that they want to reduce, but not stop infection rate. Ideally they balance it so the numbers entering hospital = the number leaving. Professor Ian Donald 6. That balance is the big risk. All the time people are being treated, other mildly ill people are recovering and the population grows a higher percent of immune people who can’t infect. They can also return to work and keep things going normally - and go to the pubs. Professor Ian Donald 7.The risk is being able to accurately manage infection flow relative to health case resources. Data on infection rates needs to be accurate, the measures they introduce need to work and at the time they want them to and to the degree they want, or the system is overwhelmed. Professor Ian Donald 8. Schools: Kids generally won’t get very ill, so the govt can use them as a tool to infect others when you want to increase infection. When you need to slow infection, that tap can be turned off – at that point they close the schools. Politically risky for them to say this. Professor Ian Donald 9. The same for large scale events - stop them when you want to slow infection rates; turn another tap off. This means schools etc are closed for a shorter period and disruption generally is therefore for a shorter period, AND with a growing immune population. This is sustainable Professor Ian Donald 10. After a while most of the population is immune, the seriously ill have all received treatment and the country is resistant. The more vulnerable are then less at risk. This is the end state the govt is aiming for and could achieve. Professor Ian Donald 11. BUT a key issue during this process is protection of those for whom the virus is fatal. It's not clear the full measures there are to protect those people. It assumes they can measure infection, that their behavioural expectations are met - people do what they think they will Professor Ian Donald 12. The Italian (and others) strategy is to stop as much infection as possible - or all infection. This is appealing, but then what? The restrictions are not sustainable for months. So the will need to be relaxed. But that will lead to reemergence of infections. Professor Ian Donald 13. Then rates will then start to climb again. So they will have to reintroduce the restrictions each time infection rates rise. That is not a sustainable model and takes much longer to achieve the goal of a largely immune population with low risk of infection of the vulnerable Professor Ian Donald 14. As the government tries to achieve equilibrium between hospitalisations and infections, more interventions will appear. It's perhaps why there are at the moment few public information films on staying at home. They are treading a tight path, but possibly a sensible one. 15. This is probably the best strategy, but they should explain it more clearly. It relies on a lot of assumptions, so it would be good to know what they are - especially behavioural. Most encouraging, it's way too clever for #BorisJohnson to have had any role in developing.
@ChilcoSaint Understandably people are concerned about Coronavirus but we have a number of different threads discussing it. Can I suggest that we self isolate them all into the rabbit hutch thread to make it easier to follow? Cheers
Probably better that it has its own thread rather than the general OT one. We're not going to be discussing football!
Yes, I agree with Libby. Let’s try and keep general discussion of the virus to the Coronavirus Premier League thread which I have retitled accordingly.