Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Covid-19 pandemic

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Originally posted by Lang Spoon View Post
    What kind of plan has schools staying open even in Level 5 as well? The wee rats will keep infecting their grannies.
    I would consider that extremely aspirational. As it is there were five teachers out awaiting tests in my neighbour's school. The thing is that if you show any one of a couple of symptoms you're supposed to get a test, and this is a) before colds etc start b) when covid isn't actually in galway in any appreciable way.

    Comment


      Current global death toll of 954,874 means that more people have now died from Covid-19 than died from HIV / AIDS in 2017.

      Comment


        13,215 new cases and 154 new deaths for France today. That is where we're heading.

        Comment


          Originally posted by Nocturnal Submission View Post
          FWIW, I spoke to a local pharmacist a few days ago re. 'flu jabs, suppressing 'flu-related demand being a key strand of the strategy to cope with predicted COVID-19 demands on the NHS. She said that they had run out of the free vaccines for the older cohort (I didn't realise that there were different ones for different age groups) but that they did have supplies of the paid-for version for younger people. She said that though the Government was planning to provide free jabs for the younger groups it wouldn't start until around November, would be a phased process and, given predicted supply issues, might not happen at all for everyone.

          In short, if you want a 'flu jab but were going to wait until you get one for free, you might want to give serious consideration for just ponying up for one now. I was quoted a price of GBP 12.99.
          Perhaps some small hope on this front: down here south of the equator, the annual influenza and cold outbreaks have barely registered this year. Distancing, increased hygiene, masks and so on have resulted in Australia recording 315 (three hundred and fifteen) influenza cases this winter, compared with 131,000 last year. In Argentina the WHO says eight people died from influenza (three of whom also had COVID-19) this winter. The figure over the previous five winters was 16 per 100,000, which given Argentina has about 41 million people means about 6,560 influenza deaths per year. New Zealand, meanwhile, hasn't had a single case of influenza this year.

          This has left me feeling a bit smug because I told my girlfriend back in April or May that I reckoned this would be one side effect.

          Comment


            315,102 new cases worldwide yesterday, a new daily high.

            Comment


              Colombia is the sixth country to report more than 750,000 cases and has recorded 23,850 deaths, giving it a death rate of 468 per million, just below France.

              Comment


                Hong Kong has only just exceeded 5,000 cases and 100 deaths, which is astonishing, given not only its porous border with China, but also its position as an air hub for the region.

                Comment


                  On September 1st, the continent of Europe reported fewer than 10,000 new cases in total. Just over two weeks later and Europe reported 51,000+ new cases yesterday.

                  Comment


                    Thinking about a few numbers. So, approximately 2% of the USA has been confirmed to have been infected with Covid-19 (20,897 confirmed cases per million population). And over 200,000 people have died there. Let's assume that the 2% is a huge underestimate due to asymptomatic people not bothering to get tests and tests sometimes being unavailable even for those who want them. So maybe 10% of the population has actually been infected so far. So, if the virus was allowed to run unchecked through the remaining 90% of the population and remained equally deadly, that could mean a total of 2 million dead by the time herd immunity is reached. I hope I'm wrong.

                    Comment


                      Doing the same thought experiment for the UK. Here, only about 0.5% of the population have been confirmed to have been infected, with 41,000+ deaths. So, let's assume actually 2.5% have been infected, leaving 97.5% who haven't been, which could mean a total of 1.64 million dead before herd immunity is reached. Terrifying.

                      Comment


                        One would like to believe that having to bring back the lockdown would be this government's Black Wednesday, from which no recovery is possible, and Johnson would become another John Major limping along as a joke PM for five years.

                        Comment


                          Sadly I doubt it. We're by far the only European country that will have to do so and it will be presented as "unpredictable but unavoidable", "how could we have known?", "We're doing all we can in difficult circumstances", "other countries caught by surprise too".

                          Comment


                            The new lockdown is meant to be scheduled at the October half term, with schools either taking their break for the last whole week of October or the end of October and the beginning of November meaning only a week of education is lost.

                            Judging from the attitude of our head this seems likely, however I doubt we can even make it to that point.

                            I also thought herd immunity had been discredited as a tactic.

                            Comment


                              Originally posted by Sam View Post

                              Perhaps some small hope on this front: down here south of the equator, the annual influenza and cold outbreaks have barely registered this year. Distancing, increased hygiene, masks and so on have resulted in Australia recording 315 (three hundred and fifteen) influenza cases this winter, compared with 131,000 last year. In Argentina the WHO says eight people died from influenza (three of whom also had COVID-19) this winter. The figure over the previous five winters was 16 per 100,000, which given Argentina has about 41 million people means about 6,560 influenza deaths per year. New Zealand, meanwhile, hasn't had a single case of influenza this year.

                              This has left me feeling a bit smug because I told my girlfriend back in April or May that I reckoned this would be one side effect.
                              Even allowing for some cases being missed, it is a remarkable result. It is (sadly) also a classic example of "good news isn't news". A politician promising to beat flu would be laughed off the stage. But it happened, and it barely matters - in headlines, if not to patients.

                              Comment


                                Originally posted by Antepli Ejderha View Post

                                I also thought herd immunity had been discredited as a tactic.
                                It's completely discredited. But I don't trust the UK government to not be secretly aiming for it anyway.

                                Comment


                                  India didn't quite hit 100,000 new cases in a day this week. It's possible the outbreak there is peaking but still too early to tell.

                                  Comment


                                    Originally posted by Sam View Post

                                    Perhaps some small hope on this front: down here south of the equator, the annual influenza and cold outbreaks have barely registered this year. Distancing, increased hygiene, masks and so on have resulted in Australia recording 315 (three hundred and fifteen) influenza cases this winter, compared with 131,000 last year. In Argentina the WHO says eight people died from influenza (three of whom also had COVID-19) this winter. The figure over the previous five winters was 16 per 100,000, which given Argentina has about 41 million people means about 6,560 influenza deaths per year. New Zealand, meanwhile, hasn't had a single case of influenza this year.

                                    This has left me feeling a bit smug because I told my girlfriend back in April or May that I reckoned this would be one side effect.

                                    That's really interesting, Sam.

                                    If the COVID-19-related distancing and hygiene protocols are being well-observed we should see lower rates of infection across a great swathe of illnesses.

                                    Comment


                                      4,422 new cases in the UK today, higher than yesterday, and another 27 new deaths.

                                      Comment


                                        Nobody has learnt the lessons from the first time. There is a 5-6 week lag time from infection to deaths. First people contract the virus, then it often takes 10-14 days for symptoms to appear and it takes 2-3 weeks from symptoms first appearing for people to get really ill and die. So even if we imposed immediate marshal law right now and stopped everyone from leaving their house tomorrow morning, we'd still see an increase in deaths in the next 3 weeks.

                                        Comment


                                          Do you mean no one in the UK?

                                          Comment


                                            Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                            Do you mean no one in the UK?
                                            Yes, should have made that clearer. Some countries have a little more sense.

                                            Comment


                                              Turkey is the 19th country to report more than 300,000 cases and has recorded 7,445 deaths.

                                              Comment


                                                Indonesia and the Philippines are both currently reporting around 4,000 new cases and 100 new deaths per day.

                                                Comment


                                                  Uzbekistan has reported over 50,000 cases and 425 deaths.

                                                  Comment


                                                    Do you mean press or government, Balders?

                                                    Comment

                                                    Working...
                                                    X