bobmac
Major Champion
You think so?
Bearing in mind Spain and Italy are on full lockdown and have been for a month and we are still partying with our mates
Coronavirus - how is it/has it affected you?
- Thread starter drdel
- Start date
You think so?
Bearing in mind Spain and Italy are on full lockdown and have been for a month and we are still partying with our mates
Well, feel a lot better today, only mild symptoms are sore throat, tiredness, dry cough and nose like a tap.
Im hoping the runny nose and clear mucus when coughing is the virus leaving the body.
Test is on Wednesday afternoon.
Another 7 boys from rig tested yesterday, so awaiting there results also.
Im hoping the runny nose and clear mucus when coughing is the virus leaving the body.
Test is on Wednesday afternoon.
Another 7 boys from rig tested yesterday, so awaiting there results also.
bobmac
Major Champion
Get well soon Brian
Captainron
Big Hitting, South African Sweary Person
So the initial 21 day lockdown finishes tonight.
I think there will be a further 21 days added and there will be a full lockdown on exercise etc. Only way to leave your home is to go shopping for food or medical needs.
Best way to give us a chance in this.
I think there will be a further 21 days added and there will be a full lockdown on exercise etc. Only way to leave your home is to go shopping for food or medical needs.
Best way to give us a chance in this.
Ross61
Challenge Tour Pro
You are not seeing the reality, I have been out working (key worker) there may be a few idiots out there but the roads are relatively empty. I travel down the M1 in beds/herts there is quite a lot of lorries and vans but non that many cars. The towns are also virtually void of pedestrians. The pictures you see of lots of people are the media making a story much worse that reality. Watch any sport such as a marathon, Tour de France or an F1 race with the camera in front of the leader and it looks like everyone is grouped up, go the the overheads and they are spread 10’s of yards or more apart.
I agree. We don’t see full press/media coverage of events in Italy, Spain and France, but sure as night follows day there will be breaches of their lockdowns, just the same as we have here. And I also absolutely agree that the press are going to focus on the house parties, the street drinkers and so on. A photo of a virtually deserted motorway or city street doesn’t work as click bait, does it?
There are any number of reasons we cannot compare countries closely, not least the family demographic in countries like Italy, where close family ties and regular gatherings are far more of a way of life than in the UK. The rates of transmission are likely to be very different country to country.
The next week will tell us if the experts have got this right. I for one am happy to place my trust in them.
Beezerk
Money List Winner
Our football league officially cancelled, absolutely gutted.
Crazyface
Tour Winner
We have no choice. I think they have under cooked it and should have been more severe and earlier, and so do most people. I hope that we will learn from this and the next time anything is reported we shut down port and airports immediately in incoming from the effected country.
I don’t disagree we should have perhaps acted earlier in many respects. Tighter border controls are perhaps the best example.
But we have the benefit of hindsight. The Government are having to make daily decisions, based on data and scientific evidence from multiple sources, much of it reliable, some of it less so. The experts can only do so much, and they can’t second guess a virus which is unprecedented.
We have absolutely no choice but to trust them, I agree. I don’t want to lose my faith in them, because it’s that faith which is helping me keep perspective.
bobmac
Major Champion
Dated 9 April
Coronavirus: Greater Manchester Police warning after 660 parties shut down
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-52221688
To try and add some perspective, GMP do police a population in the region of three million people.
Too many are flouting the lockdown, and this is replicated across the UK. But I’m sure it’s also replicated across Europe, so don’t be fooled into believing the Italians and Spanish are paragons of virtue, because I’m quite sure they aren’t.
Ross61
Challenge Tour Pro
Do you not think the same headline would have happened with a stricter lockdown?
PNWokingham
Journeyman Pro
i think this article sums up the best plan
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...edicted-european-epidemic-calls-end-lockdown/
A leading German epidemiologist who predicted the coronavirus crisis in Europe is now calling for governments to end the lockdown.
Prof Alexander Kekulé warned the virus was about to engulf Europe and publicly urged Angela Merkel’s government to start screening international travellers as early as January.
But he now believes the lockdown is in danger of going on too long and causing more damage than the virus, and has drawn up a plan for how it can be safely lifted.
“It’s impossible to wait for a vaccine,” Prof Kekulé told The Telegraph. “The quickest we could have a vaccine ready is in six months. Based on experience, I’d say the reality is closer to a year. We can’t stay under lockdown for six months to a year. If we did that our society and our culture would be ruined.”
Prof Kekulé, the head of microbiology at Halle University, has been the Cassandra of Germany’s coronavirus crisis. As early as January 22, he called for travellers to be tested for the virus at airports and borders. He appeared on national television, but his warnings fell on deaf ears. Now the world is in the grip of a widespread pandemic:
“If we had started testing and following the chains of infection in January, we could have contained the epidemic here without resorting to a lockdown,” he says. “If you can get to people by the time they’ve infected 20 people you can stop it. But by the time it’s 400, there’s no chance.”
By March, when the virus had Germany in its grip, he was calling for the border to be closed and schools to shut down.
“At that stage a lockdown was the only option to slow the spread and prevent hospitals being overwhelmed,” he says. “But now we have to consider the possibility that a long lockdown may end up doing more harm than the virus.”
Angela Merkel has dampened hopes of restrictions ending any time soon, telling Germans this week: “We must not be reckless now. We could very quickly destroy what we have achieved.”
Not for the first time in this crisis, Prof Kekulé finds himself on the opposite side of the argument from Mrs Merkel. When he urged her government to do more about the virus in January, she chose to wait and see. Now he says the lockdown can be safely lifted by following a simple three-point plan.
First, he says, the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions who are most vulnerable to the virus must remain in isolation.
“We have to persuade them to stay at home, and that means we have to find ways of making it bearable for them, such as apps that will allow them to order their shopping or continue their social life,” he says.
“If they are determined to go out, fine — but they have to wear full FFP medical standard masks.”
That brings us to the second point in Prof Kekulé’s plan: a move from social distancing to what he calls “smart distancing”.
“We need to adapt distancing to the situation. A cashier at a supermarket check-out, for instance, is going to be exposed to infection all day. He needs to wear a mask, he needs proper hygiene measures. A taxi driver needs to learn not to touch his face after handling money.”
Basically, we all need to get used to wearing facemasks, Prof Kekulé says. “If you look at Hong Kong, they managed to avoid a major outbreak there and they’re very close to Guangdong in mainland China, which was badly affected. One of the key differences was they started wearing facemasks early in Hong Kong.”
Wedding dress and evening wear designer Friederike Jorzig adjusts a mannequin wearing a wedding dress with matching protective mask in her store Chiton in Berlin on March 31, 2020 as the Germany continue to battle the Covid-19 corona virus pandemic
A German designer is offering wedding dresses with matching facemasks CREDIT: ODD ANDERSEN/AFP
An ordinary surgical mask is sufficient for those who are not especially vulnerable, he says, and there’s no need to wear one while going for a walk. “In an open air setting a mask isn’t that effective. But in any indoors setting when others are there, we should all be wearing them.”
He’s even come up with a slogan to convince people, “Kein Held ohne Maske”, and an English version: “Be a masked superhero”.
Thirdly, and most controversially, Prof Kekulé says we have to let the young get the virus.
“People under 50 are very, very unlikely to die or get seriously ill from the coronavirus,” he says. “We have to let them get infected so they can develop immunity.”
Essentially, this is a return to the herd immunity plan once backed by the UK and widely seen as discredited. But Prof Kekulé argues that once the outbreak is under control and hospitals are not overwhelmed, there is a place for it.
Children are least at risk so the lockdown should be lifted at schools and kindergartens first, he says — a plan already adopted by Denmark, which plans to reopen schools after Easter.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...edicted-european-epidemic-calls-end-lockdown/
A leading German epidemiologist who predicted the coronavirus crisis in Europe is now calling for governments to end the lockdown.
Prof Alexander Kekulé warned the virus was about to engulf Europe and publicly urged Angela Merkel’s government to start screening international travellers as early as January.
But he now believes the lockdown is in danger of going on too long and causing more damage than the virus, and has drawn up a plan for how it can be safely lifted.
“It’s impossible to wait for a vaccine,” Prof Kekulé told The Telegraph. “The quickest we could have a vaccine ready is in six months. Based on experience, I’d say the reality is closer to a year. We can’t stay under lockdown for six months to a year. If we did that our society and our culture would be ruined.”
Prof Kekulé, the head of microbiology at Halle University, has been the Cassandra of Germany’s coronavirus crisis. As early as January 22, he called for travellers to be tested for the virus at airports and borders. He appeared on national television, but his warnings fell on deaf ears. Now the world is in the grip of a widespread pandemic:
“If we had started testing and following the chains of infection in January, we could have contained the epidemic here without resorting to a lockdown,” he says. “If you can get to people by the time they’ve infected 20 people you can stop it. But by the time it’s 400, there’s no chance.”
By March, when the virus had Germany in its grip, he was calling for the border to be closed and schools to shut down.
“At that stage a lockdown was the only option to slow the spread and prevent hospitals being overwhelmed,” he says. “But now we have to consider the possibility that a long lockdown may end up doing more harm than the virus.”
Angela Merkel has dampened hopes of restrictions ending any time soon, telling Germans this week: “We must not be reckless now. We could very quickly destroy what we have achieved.”
Not for the first time in this crisis, Prof Kekulé finds himself on the opposite side of the argument from Mrs Merkel. When he urged her government to do more about the virus in January, she chose to wait and see. Now he says the lockdown can be safely lifted by following a simple three-point plan.
First, he says, the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions who are most vulnerable to the virus must remain in isolation.
“We have to persuade them to stay at home, and that means we have to find ways of making it bearable for them, such as apps that will allow them to order their shopping or continue their social life,” he says.
“If they are determined to go out, fine — but they have to wear full FFP medical standard masks.”
That brings us to the second point in Prof Kekulé’s plan: a move from social distancing to what he calls “smart distancing”.
“We need to adapt distancing to the situation. A cashier at a supermarket check-out, for instance, is going to be exposed to infection all day. He needs to wear a mask, he needs proper hygiene measures. A taxi driver needs to learn not to touch his face after handling money.”
Basically, we all need to get used to wearing facemasks, Prof Kekulé says. “If you look at Hong Kong, they managed to avoid a major outbreak there and they’re very close to Guangdong in mainland China, which was badly affected. One of the key differences was they started wearing facemasks early in Hong Kong.”
Wedding dress and evening wear designer Friederike Jorzig adjusts a mannequin wearing a wedding dress with matching protective mask in her store Chiton in Berlin on March 31, 2020 as the Germany continue to battle the Covid-19 corona virus pandemic
A German designer is offering wedding dresses with matching facemasks CREDIT: ODD ANDERSEN/AFP
An ordinary surgical mask is sufficient for those who are not especially vulnerable, he says, and there’s no need to wear one while going for a walk. “In an open air setting a mask isn’t that effective. But in any indoors setting when others are there, we should all be wearing them.”
He’s even come up with a slogan to convince people, “Kein Held ohne Maske”, and an English version: “Be a masked superhero”.
Thirdly, and most controversially, Prof Kekulé says we have to let the young get the virus.
“People under 50 are very, very unlikely to die or get seriously ill from the coronavirus,” he says. “We have to let them get infected so they can develop immunity.”
Essentially, this is a return to the herd immunity plan once backed by the UK and widely seen as discredited. But Prof Kekulé argues that once the outbreak is under control and hospitals are not overwhelmed, there is a place for it.
Children are least at risk so the lockdown should be lifted at schools and kindergartens first, he says — a plan already adopted by Denmark, which plans to reopen schools after Easter.
Mudball
Assistant Pro
saw on the web today... was posted by someone who is a Labour baiter.. so makes it more funny
Absolutely.
bluewolf
Money List Winner
I’m a very long way away from the esteemed Professors credentials. However, this mirrors what I’ve been thinking for the last few weeks. Our global economic model does not allow for an extended lockdown. Our only real way forward is to relax the lockdown whilst making every effort practicable to restrict the spread.
It won’t be a popular plan, but a global economic meltdown would be even less popular. Like I said on a previous post. Someone is going to have to make a very difficult decision. Knowing that people will die. Knowing that history may not be kind to them. I wouldn’t swap places with them.
Bunkermagnet
Journeyman Pro
Problem is though that unless every country does exactly the same at more or less the same time, you see things like whats happening in China where the return of people has brought new cases back into the country and spread it again.
At what point do we have to accept that perhaps the only way to get through this is to let it run riot through our country and take whatevers coming. Can we hide from it forever?
Over 60,000 fines in Spain, and that doesn't include all the 'chats' that the police have had. Different areas of Spain have been better at it than others, which in itself may prove to be a blessing and a curse. The area I live is reputed to be in the top 3 for no infections - there's been 5 across 6 towns. But what happens to those towns when the lockdown is lifted?
Kellfire
Blackballed
Well on my two week holiday from the forum the Tories have gone from actually handling the situation quite well in my eyes to handling it quite well but also doing everything they can to blame us for their failings. What a government.
Beezerk
Money List Winner
?