Covid-19 pandemic

[Fussbudget]

Manchester to Defcon 3

Doesn't really work because with Defcon the most severe level is 1.

[Ray de Galles]

I presume that you're aware that your household is about to move into Tier 2, (well, your neighbours too)?

Yes, found out just after I made that post. We are unique amongst Surrey boroughs in being moved up too, we're pariahs to the rest of the county!

[Patrick Thistle]

Doesn't really work because with Defcon the most severe level is 1.

Yes! God, thank you for pointing that out.

[anton pulisov]

Yet another example about how wrong the west keeps getting this disease.

Hitoshi Oshitani, a member of the National COVID-19 Cluster Taskforce at Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and a professor at Tohoku University who told me that Japan focused on the overdispersion impact from early on, likens his country’s approach to looking at a forest and trying to find the clusters, not the trees. Meanwhile, he believes, the Western world was getting distracted by the trees, and got lost among them. To fight a super-spreading disease effectively, policy makers need to figure out why super-spreading happens, and they need to understand how it affects everything, including our contact-tracing methods and our testing regimes.

[steveeeeeeeee]

Started feeling tired, tight-chested and developed a cough yesterday lunchtime. Could have been tested in the afternoon at a walk-in, but preferred to go in the car this morning. Once again, extremely well organised and door to door the whole process took less than 30 minutes. My only worry is whether I swab my tonsils adequately, I gag as soon as the swab gets near them.

Feels like flu, but the tight chest is a worry, daughter has a cough but is her usual energetic self, wife has a sore throat.

I think I've caught it from the sandpit toys I took to local playground, which get a fair bit of usage from other kids, rather than school/work.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Yes, found out just after I made that post. We are unique amongst Surrey boroughs in being moved up too, we're pariahs to the rest of the county!

I understand that residents' associations in the surrounding boroughs are already setting up road blocks.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Started feeling tired, tight-chested and developed a cough yesterday lunchtime. Could have been tested in the afternoon at a walk-in, but preferred to go in the car this morning. Once again, extremely well organised and door to door the whole process took less than 30 minutes. My only worry is whether I swab my tonsils adequately, I gag as soon as the swab gets near them.

Feels like flu, but the tight chest is a worry, daughter has a cough but is her usual energetic self, wife has a sore throat.

I think I've caught it from the sandpit toys I took to local playground, which get a fair bit of usage from other kids, rather than school/work.

Best of luck with that. There are a lot of colds and bugs around at this time of the year, so fingers crossed that it's on of those.

Tonsil-swabbing is much harder than it sounds.

[The Red Max]

1351 people test positive for Covid-19 in last 24 hours in Scotland,17.6% of those tested.
601 people in hospital with a confirmed case (+31), 51 being treated in intensive care (+2).
13 deaths recorded in the last 24 hours.

Todays numbers in the central belt -
Greater Glasgow & Clyde: 450
Lanarkshire: 374
Lothian: 161
Ayrshire and Arran: 111

I can't think of a worse time for an Old Firm derby.

[San Bernardhinault]

Yet another example about how wrong the west keeps getting this disease.

That's a fascinating article that explains its premise very well. It it's correct (and I have no reason to think it isn't), it really should inform policy-making very clearly. The pubs, concerts, churches and professional sport arenas have to remain shut, but perhaps almost everything else can re-open safely. Oh, and politicians have to stop talking and stop going out in public.

[Balderdasha]

Belarus is the 50th country to report more cases than China and has recorded 916 deaths.

[Balderdasha]

Netherlands has reported over 200,000 cases and nearly 6,700 deaths.

[Balderdasha]

Another nearly 19,000 new cases in the UK today and 138 deaths.

[Nefertiti2]

Andy Burnham

https://twitter.com/Haggis_UK/status/1316757579842936832?s=20

[Balderdasha]

111,807 new cases in the UK in the last week. 701 deaths in the last week. More deaths than Denmark or Greece have recorded all year.

[Jimski]

This must be the first time since the Act of Union that one country in the UK has closed its borders to citizens of another one.

It's not really a border issue though, is it? As I understand it (correct me if I'm wrong, Welsh viewers), areas in Wales that are under lockdown have this type of restriction already - people shouldn't leave those areas for less infected areas to help reduce spread. So quite understandably the Welsh government wants that policy extended to English areas under lockdown for the same reason.

[Jimski]

Seems as if the US has noticed the Great Barrington declaration and responded appropriately:

https://twitter.com/ashishkjha/status/1316777133616910336

and

https://twitter.com/DrTomFrieden/status/1316792808750100483

[Jimski]

One thing I always wonder about these herd immunity peddlars - I assume that they themselves would be the first to volunteer to be infected if such a policy were pursued? Take one for the herd, as it were?

[San Bernardhinault]

The Great Barrington declaration is obvious cockrot. You can start by their premise that you can keep people with comorbidities out of circulation in order to develop herd immunity elsewhere. Even if that were possible and ethical (neither is true, obviously), 70% of the US population is technically overweight and 35% is obese, so even if the remaining 30/65% all get covid and all develop perfect immunity, that's not enough for herd immunity to work. Add in the non-obese population over 65, the non-obese, under-65 population that has other comorbidities, and the fact that you can't fully cordon off the susceptible from the non-susceptible, and add in the fact that death isn't the only shitty outcome from Covid and you can see what utter wibbling nonsense the whole concept is.

The amazing thing is that they've managed to get anyone at all to sign on to it.

[Jimski]

Despite being signed by scientists, there isn't actually an ounce of scientific evidence contained within it. No surprise it was published by a right wing think tank and not a scientific journal.

It's a heady mix of right wing libertarianism and wishful thinking.

[S. aureus]

I probably should have researched this before I drove there, but it turns out that while San Mateo County has indoors dining and movie cinemas etc open, the parks are not (or at least the two I went to this morning). Which makes zero sense to me. The first one I picked because it's never been crowded when I've been there, park number 2 because it was close to park number 1. Park number 3 (now in Santa Clara county) was open, but all the parking was taken (possibly related to the other parks being closed) so we gave up and went home.

edit: also picked those three because they allow dogs.

[Balderdasha]

39 million cases worldwide. Each million is now quite consistently taking 3 days.

[elguapo4]

1205 cases in Ireland, thankfully only 3 deaths ( still 3 too many).

[Antepli Ejderha]

Hope you're OK steveeeeeeeee fingers crossed for a negative result tomorrow.

[Balderdasha]

30,000+ new cases in France today takes it to over 800,000 cases in total, the tenth country to hit that figure.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

https://www.thejournal.ie/factcheck-...34373-Oct2020/

Super bizarre ad taken out by an irish libertarian tech bro sociopath bigging up the great barrington declaration. It's full of dishonest, or twisted bollocks. Look at the first two points.