I've been trying not to talk too much about anything related to Brexit. However, for what it's worth there's a decent chance that this crisis will destroy the EU. It's going to severely distress all of the member state economies, but Italy and Spain are now holed below the water line and poor bloody Greece has had its chips. The flaws in the structure of the Eurozone have never been corrected; the creditor states and their electorates have neither sufficient money nor the necessary willpower to bail their neighbours; the chief creditor is, in any event, in a state of political paralysis and led by a lame duck; and neither the almighty refugee crisis nor the arguments about creeping authoritarianism in key central European states have gone away. The edifice is well ablaze, and even if the firefighters had the will to tackle it they've got no engine, no hoses and no hydrants. Just a bucket with a hole in the bottom.
Never mind the fact that this all-devouring Coronavirus monster leaves little time to think about the new trading relationship. There might be no entity with which to negotiate such a thing anyway.
Or perhaps this crisis will demonstrate the inadequacy of the nation state in tackling global issues and thus reinforce the value of the EU.
Obviously I am anti-EU but I don't think this crisis has so far shown the EU in their finest clothes. Certainly Lagarde has been very poor as head of the ECB and they were slow to deal with issues such as flight slots. So far all the heavy lifting has been done by the nation states.
The EU has been disastrously poor on things like airplane slots, where their actions worsen the crisis.
But I'm less critical of Legarde than you. I think she's made the decision that the ECB will continue to buy all the bonds Eurozone countries wish to issue, which is probably the right call right now.
As you've said before, that's the easiest path for her to take. The high-risk thing for her to do would be turn round and say, "nope, stuff you indebted southerners, not gonna let you try your stimulus to protect your economies and populations right now, COVID-19 be damned". Not only would the havoc it unleashed be unthinkable (how many northern Eurozone leaders, no matter how bailout-averse, want to be negotiating the breakup of the currency area while simultaneously dealing with the effects of a pandemic?) but it would surely be career-ending for her.
Just remembered: today's Bog Roll Watch. The other Mr Rook was in town this morning, none available anywhere (Tesco Express, Morrisons or Savers.) Also, a notice on the door of Savers to the effect that they've already had to call out the local constabulary twice to break up fights between irate customers, and will not hesitate to do so again.
If the supply of Andrex isn't normalized again by the end of the week I fear that anarchy may ensue. And I say that only half-jokingly.
I wonder if the behavioural insight team successfully modelled it would be bog roll that people went mental over, rather than feeding yourself for 3 months, having drugs to manage flu like symptoms or perhaps not going to locations where you were most likely to catch it.
What I want to know is if you aren't eating anything, what are you going to be wiping?
Its just mad. When I prepped my parents, yes we got toilet rolls, hand wash etc, but the real focus was on getting two freezers worth of frozen fruit, veg and meat.
I think my parents are set. Whenever I go home there are always cupboards stocked to the brim with tinned food and other non-perishables, and a chest freezer full of the frozen stuff. I think they took protect and survive to heart.
To be perfectly honest, if I had space to seriously hoard food I would be getting very tempted by now. But we live in a one bedroom flat so, unless one were to construct a model of the Leaning Tower of Pisa out of a stack of tins in the corner of the living room, I can't.
I reckon there's about enough in here to keep us going for about a fortnight were we to be locked in, provided that we were disciplined and didn't resort to boredom-induced snacking. That will have to suffice.
Likewise, not much storage space but enough for about two weeks if it hits the fan. I even broke and got some UHT milk so I could keep enjoying cereal.
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
1. He said it is bollocks that only old people get really ill and die. He said in his old football academy in Milan he knew four people with corona, one of which had died, and two were still very ill. They are/were in thei r30s like him. Super fit athletic types. Quite a few young people get this as well and sometimes they get it very very bad. And even die.
No kids tho, thank fuck.
2. He described the experience of a cousin in a small town. Let's call him X. This guy X is early 40s, unmarried, was living with his two elderly parents. First X's dad got coronavirus, badly, and when the ambulance drivers came and saw how bad X's dad was, they said to X: Say goodbye now, he'd not going to survive, he won't even be treated.
So they took X's dad away and sure enough he died three days later.
Then X's mum got ill, and the exact same thing happened: the medics came and shook their heads and said Say goodbye now, she's going, you won't see her again. So X - this time emotionally prepared - told the locals to come round and wave through the window to his mum, because she was about to go to hospital and she wasn't coming back. The neighbourhood came and waved goodbye.
A few days later X's mum died.
X then rang and asked about the bodies and he was told "Your mum and dad and have been taking to Special Crematorium XP4 (or whatever) they where have been burned with many other bodies. We cannot bury people as the virus lives on in corpses."
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
This is faulty thinking eadric. We know the age adjusted mortality rates give or take. There is no point chucking that knowledge away based on a chat with a cab driver, with all due respect to him.
Even allowing for the pillockish recent behaviour of Sinn Fein, every time Arlene Foster opens her mouth I have every sympathy with their refusal to work with her.
She’s a stupider version of Leo Varadkar.
Maybe but she is a member of Cobra and is no doubt expressing Cobra opinion
Just remembered: today's Bog Roll Watch. The other Mr Rook was in town this morning, none available anywhere (Tesco Express, Morrisons or Savers.) Also, a notice on the door of Savers to the effect that they've already had to call out the local constabulary twice to break up fights between irate customers, and will not hesitate to do so again.
If the supply of Andrex isn't normalized again by the end of the week I fear that anarchy may ensue. And I say that only half-jokingly.
I wonder if the behavioural insight team successfully modelled it would be bog roll that people went mental over, rather than feeding yourself for 3 months, having drugs to manage flu like symptoms or perhaps not going to locations where you were most likely to catch it.
What I want to know is if you aren't eating anything, what are you going to be wiping?
Its just mad. When I prepped my parents, yes we got toilet rolls, hand wash etc, but the real focus was on getting two freezers worth of frozen fruit, veg and meat.
I think my parents are set. Whenever I go home there are always cupboards stocked to the brim with tinned food and other non-perishables, and a chest freezer full of the frozen stuff. I think they took protect and survive to heart.
To be perfectly honest, if I had space to seriously hoard food I would be getting very tempted by now. But we live in a one bedroom flat so, unless one were to construct a model of the Leaning Tower of Pisa out of a stack of tins in the corner of the living room, I can't.
I reckon there's about enough in here to keep us going for about a fortnight were we to be locked in, provided that we were disciplined and didn't resort to boredom-induced snacking. That will have to suffice.
I do wonder how many of these new hoarders are going to end up simply consuming way more food.
As a student, I used to have a Macro card and I remember taking a friend there, who couldn't believe you could buy mega packs of 48 Twixs etc. The silly idiot went and bought all these sweets and then spent the next month eating 4 Candy Bars a day and having giant bowls of cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I understand there being upset with the strategy based on its pros and cons but it's pretty gross just seeing partisan politics at this time. Disgusting in fact.
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
1. He said it is bollocks that only old people get really ill and die. He said in his old football academy in Milan he knew four people with corona, one of which had died, and two were still very ill. They are/were in thei r30s like him. Super fit athletic types. Quite a few young people get this as well and sometimes they get it very very bad. And even die.
No kids tho, thank fuck.
2. He described the experience of a cousin in a small town. Let's call him X. This guy X is early 40s, unmarried, was living with his two elderly parents. First X's dad got coronavirus, badly, and when the ambulance drivers came and saw how bad X's dad was, they said to X: Say goodbye now, he'd not going to survive, he won't even be treated.
So they took X's dad away and sure enough he died three days later.
Then X's mum got ill, and the exact same thing happened: the medics came and shook their heads and said Say goodbye now, she's going, you won't see her again. So X - this time emotionally prepared - told the locals to come round and wave through the window to his mum, because she was about to go to hospital and she wasn't coming back. The neighbourhood came and waved goodbye.
A few days later X's mum died.
X then rang and asked about the bodies and he was told "Your mum and dad and have been taking to Special Crematorium XP4 (or whatever) they where have been burned with many other bodies. We cannot bury people as the virus lives on in corpses."
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
Fuck me, if I were him, armed with all that info, I'd be very choosy as to who I picked up in my cab!
He is. He told me that he disinfects his cab - handles, doors, seats, etc - whenever someone visibly "dodgy" uses it - ie someone coughing and sneezing. Then he disinfects it again at night.
It was actually quite reassuring.
It occurs to me there is going to be a big market for Guaranteed Germ Free Travel.
Of course the problem is not so much the ones hacking their lungs up, but the ones who aren't but could still be infected.
I understand there being upset with the strategy based on its pros and cons but it's pretty gross just seeing partisan politics at this time. Disgusting in fact.
Just remembered: today's Bog Roll Watch. The other Mr Rook was in town this morning, none available anywhere (Tesco Express, Morrisons or Savers.) Also, a notice on the door of Savers to the effect that they've already had to call out the local constabulary twice to break up fights between irate customers, and will not hesitate to do so again.
If the supply of Andrex isn't normalized again by the end of the week I fear that anarchy may ensue. And I say that only half-jokingly.
This is a betting site. What are the odds that bog roll availability will revert to normal within 10 days?
I reckon the supermarket aisles will be blocked by the stocks of bog roll before too long.
I understand there being upset with the strategy based on its pros and cons but it's pretty gross just seeing partisan politics at this time. Disgusting in fact.
If twitter was around at the times of the WWII, I wonder if we would have the same armchair general claiming Churchill was deliberately trying to kill everybody?
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
1. He said it is bollocks that only old people get really ill and die. He said in his old football academy in Milan he knew four people with corona, one of which had died, and two were still very ill. They are/were in thei r30s like him. Super fit athletic types. Quite a few young people get this as well and sometimes they get it very very bad. And even die.
No kids tho, thank fuck.
2. He described the experience of a cousin in a small town. Let's call him X. This guy X is early 40s, unmarried, was living with his two elderly parents. First X's dad got coronavirus, badly, and when the ambulance drivers came and saw how bad X's dad was, they said to X: Say goodbye now, he'd not going to survive, he won't even be treated.
So they took X's dad away and sure enough he died three days later.
Then X's mum got ill, and the exact same thing happened: the medics came and shook their heads and said Say goodbye now, she's going, you won't see her again. So X - this time emotionally prepared - told the locals to come round and wave through the window to his mum, because she was about to go to hospital and she wasn't coming back. The neighbourhood came and waved goodbye.
A few days later X's mum died.
X then rang and asked about the bodies and he was told "Your mum and dad and have been taking to Special Crematorium XP4 (or whatever) they where have been burned with many other bodies. We cannot bury people as the virus lives on in corpses."
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
I agree, I dont think it was the cab driver making all this up either.
Oh F off. Why would I lie about this? What's the point? Some kind of evil glee in frightening people?
This is what he said. He was very well informed about the virus, he knew all about containment and delay, and "flattening the curve". He was frightened for his young family, but he was smart, calm and articulate, and, I believe, telling the truth as he had perceived it.
You are either letting fear take you over to an unacceptable degree or yes you are enjoying trying to frighten people with the gloom.
Sorry, but your posts are unrelentingly apocalyptic and shrill and often insinuate that this is much worse than it actually is or what we are being told. We know enough facts about this virus now to rebut or at least cast some doubt on these anecdotes. If you are genuinely worried I am really sorry that you are feeling this way and I would suggest staying off the internet to stop it frightening you, this will not be helping.
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
1. He said it is bollocks that only old people get really ill and die. He said in his old football academy in Milan he knew four people with corona, one of which had died, and two were still very ill. They are/were in thei r30s like him. Super fit athletic types. Quite a few young people get this as well and sometimes they get it very very bad. And even die.
No kids tho, thank fuck.
2. He described the experience of a cousin in a small town. Let's call him X. This guy X is early 40s, unmarried, was living with his two elderly parents. First X's dad got coronavirus, badly, and when the ambulance drivers came and saw how bad X's dad was, they said to X: Say goodbye now, he'd not going to survive, he won't even be treated.
So they took X's dad away and sure enough he died three days later.
Then X's mum got ill, and the exact same thing happened: the medics came and shook their heads and said Say goodbye now, she's going, you won't see her again. So X - this time emotionally prepared - told the locals to come round and wave through the window to his mum, because she was about to go to hospital and she wasn't coming back. The neighbourhood came and waved goodbye.
A few days later X's mum died.
X then rang and asked about the bodies and he was told "Your mum and dad and have been taking to Special Crematorium XP4 (or whatever) they where have been burned with many other bodies. We cannot bury people as the virus lives on in corpses."
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
Fuck me, if I were him, armed with all that info, I'd be very choosy as to who I picked up in my cab!
He is. He told me that he disinfects his cab - handles, doors, seats, etc - whenever someone visibly "dodgy" uses it - ie someone coughing and sneezing. Then he disinfects it again at night.
It was actually quite reassuring.
It occurs to me there is going to be a big market for Guaranteed Germ Free Travel.
Of course the problem is not so much the ones hacking their lungs up, but the ones who aren't but could still be infected.
The most likely infectious customer, surely? If you are coughing you are probably less likely to be out anyway.
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
1. He said it is bollocks that only old people get really ill and die. He said in his old football academy in Milan he knew four people with corona, one of which had died, and two were still very ill. They are/were in thei r30s like him. Super fit athletic types. Quite a few young people get this as well and sometimes they get it very very bad. And even die.
No kids tho, thank fuck.
2. He described the experience of a cousin in a small town. Let's call him X. This guy X is early 40s, unmarried, was living with his two elderly parents. First X's dad got coronavirus, badly, and when the ambulance drivers came and saw how bad X's dad was, they said to X: Say goodbye now, he'd not going to survive, he won't even be treated.
So they took X's dad away and sure enough he died three days later.
Then X's mum got ill, and the exact same thing happened: the medics came and shook their heads and said Say goodbye now, she's going, you won't see her again. So X - this time emotionally prepared - told the locals to come round and wave through the window to his mum, because she was about to go to hospital and she wasn't coming back. The neighbourhood came and waved goodbye.
A few days later X's mum died.
X then rang and asked about the bodies and he was told "Your mum and dad and have been taking to Special Crematorium XP4 (or whatever) they where have been burned with many other bodies. We cannot bury people as the virus lives on in corpses."
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
1. He said it is bollocks that only old people get really ill and die. He said in his old football academy in Milan he knew four people with corona, one of which had died, and two were still very ill. They are/were in thei r30s like him. Super fit athletic types. Quite a few young people get this as well and sometimes they get it very very bad. And even die.
No kids tho, thank fuck.
2. He described the experience of a cousin in a small town. Let's call him X. This guy X is early 40s, unmarried, was living with his two elderly parents. First X's dad got coronavirus, badly, and when the ambulance drivers came and saw how bad X's dad was, they said to X: Say goodbye now, he'd not going to survive, he won't even be treated.
So they took X's dad away and sure enough he died three days later.
Then X's mum got ill, and the exact same thing happened: the medics came and shook their heads and said Say goodbye now, she's going, you won't see her again. So X - this time emotionally prepared - told the locals to come round and wave through the window to his mum, because she was about to go to hospital and she wasn't coming back. The neighbourhood came and waved goodbye.
A few days later X's mum died.
X then rang and asked about the bodies and he was told "Your mum and dad and have been taking to Special Crematorium XP4 (or whatever) they where have been burned with many other bodies. We cannot bury people as the virus lives on in corpses."
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
This is faulty thinking eadric. We know the age adjusted mortality rates give or take. There is no point chucking that knowledge away based on a chat with a cab driver, with all due respect to him.
Just remembered: today's Bog Roll Watch. The other Mr Rook was in town this morning, none available anywhere (Tesco Express, Morrisons or Savers.) Also, a notice on the door of Savers to the effect that they've already had to call out the local constabulary twice to break up fights between irate customers, and will not hesitate to do so again.
If the supply of Andrex isn't normalized again by the end of the week I fear that anarchy may ensue. And I say that only half-jokingly.
This is a betting site. What are the odds that bog roll availability will revert to normal within 10 days?
I reckon the supermarket aisles will be blocked by the stocks of bog roll before too long.
They might end up giving out a-levels based on coursework, teacher views, and mock exams I guess. If the exam boards take the decision it makes life easier for Unis, and there are precedents for awarding in that way for sick kids etc.
Only six A-levels still have coursework. What about the others?
Mocks are a very poor substitute - it’s not as though all schools even do them any more.
The projected peak of the epidemic is late May/early June. Might it be the case that, even if the Government has to relent and close the schools over this period, the examinations might be rescheduled for July?
If grades can be awarded by early August then university places can still be allocated for September. It'll be a tight call and total pandaemonium but we are in an emergency situation here.
Of course, if the exams can't be held at all and mocks and coursework aren't available then the students will have to be awarded grades based entirely on the teachers' predictions. In extremis, year 13 has to be emptied and the first year intake of the universities filled, regardless of how unsatisfactory the means used to allocate the students to the places.
I would argue with the way you phrased this.
The Government has already said it sees school closures as being part of the plan as we approach the peak of the epidemic. Claiming this is 'relenting' or implying this would be a change of plan is simply dishonest.
On the subject of exams, when I did my A levels back in the early 80s we were warned not to treat our Mocks, which were held in January, as anything other than the real thing. The reasons given was that if for some reason we could not take our exams as planned then the Mocks could be used, along with other factors such as reports from the schools and interviews, as an alternative entry scheme for university.
On the use of the word "relent", I retract the statement. It was poorly phrased. I should've said something to the effect of "if and when" the schools are closed for a time. I'm reasonably sure that I remember it being stated that closures during the peak of infections were likely at one of the Boris-and-his-advisors press conferences. The other Mr Rook also informs me that powers to order schools to close on a national or regional basis may be included in emergency legislation to be tabled soon, although that's just based on his reading of journalists' speculation at this stage.
I honestly can't remember what advice we were given about our mock A-levels back in the 90s, only that my mock and actual grades tallied precisely, so I must've been taking them reasonably seriously.
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
1. He said it is bollocks that only old people get really ill and die. He said in his old football academy in Milan he knew four people with corona, one of which had died, and two were still very ill. They are/were in thei r30s like him. Super fit athletic types. Quite a few young people get this as well and sometimes they get it very very bad. And even die.
No kids tho, thank fuck.
2. He described the experience of a cousin in a small town. Let's call him X. This guy X is early 40s, unmarried, was living with his two elderly parents. First X's dad got coronavirus, badly, and when the ambulance drivers came and saw how bad X's dad was, they said to X: Say goodbye now, he'd not going to survive, he won't even be treated.
So they took X's dad away and sure enough he died three days later.
Then X's mum got ill, and the exact same thing happened: the medics came and shook their heads and said Say goodbye now, she's going, you won't see her again. So X - this time emotionally prepared - told the locals to come round and wave through the window to his mum, because she was about to go to hospital and she wasn't coming back. The neighbourhood came and waved goodbye.
A few days later X's mum died.
X then rang and asked about the bodies and he was told "Your mum and dad and have been taking to Special Crematorium XP4 (or whatever) they where have been burned with many other bodies. We cannot bury people as the virus lives on in corpses."
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
I agree, I dont think it was the cab driver making all this up either.
Oh F off. Why would I lie about this? What's the point? Some kind of evil glee in frightening people?
This is what he said. He was very well informed about the virus, he knew all about containment and delay, and "flattening the curve". He was frightened for his young family, but he was smart, calm and articulate, and, I believe, telling the truth as he had perceived it.
I spoke to a young couple out with their dog in the park earlier. They didn’t know anyone who has been ill. They aren’t worried about the virus. They don’t have any cousins whose parents have been left to die at home.
Just remembered: today's Bog Roll Watch. The other Mr Rook was in town this morning, none available anywhere (Tesco Express, Morrisons or Savers.) Also, a notice on the door of Savers to the effect that they've already had to call out the local constabulary twice to break up fights between irate customers, and will not hesitate to do so again.
If the supply of Andrex isn't normalized again by the end of the week I fear that anarchy may ensue. And I say that only half-jokingly.
This is a betting site. What are the odds that bog roll availability will revert to normal within 10 days?
I reckon the supermarket aisles will be blocked by the stocks of bog roll before too long.
In about ten days whatever happens they will be deserted. Everyone will be either hiding from all contact or living off their supplies.
I know we keep hearing how much better Japan is doing than the UK - but this is the bit I do not get:
Cases/Deaths: UK: 1,149 / 21 Japan: 788 / 22
Yes, Japan is "older" than the UK - but that much older?
Sample size is so small at the moment. Even among the single large dataset from China, the experts don't know what the real rates are, just that as age increases you are your chances go south very quickly.
Also the Cases column is simply meaningless if the CMO is right. It's like trying to estimate the population of blackbirds in the UK by only looking out your kitchen windows. Two. The UK population of blackbirds is two. Oh hold it a sec, it's just shot up by 50%, there are now three blackbirds in the UK.
1,140 coronavirus cases have now been confirmed in the UK, according to Public Health England.
42% increase day on day increase.
We are definitely now tracking Italy, Germany etc, in terms of raw numbers. I don't see how we are 3 weeks behind Italy.
And now we have a policy of not even testing most people with symptoms.
Why should we though? The best thing is for those people to stay at home. Most will recover. Sending out someone to test them diverts resources from those whose lives are in danger.
Then we may as well just give up announcing the number of new cases because the numbers are pure fiction. They have already told us a couple of days ago that there were at least 10,000 cases when only a few hundred were confirmed. Is it just a PR exercise to make us believe er=we don't have too many cases?
The statistic to watch would be number of beds available in the NHS, if that is available and updated periodically.
It's available, but it's not updated that often or quickly.
If the government would say how many cases were currently hospitalised, and how many of those were in intensive care, then that would be a big increase in information.
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
1. He said it is bollocks that only old people get really ill and die. He said in his old football academy in Milan he knew four people with corona, one of which had died, and two were still very ill. They are/were in thei r30s like him. Super fit athletic types. Quite a few young people get this as well and sometimes they get it very very bad. And even die.
No kids tho, thank fuck.
2. He described the experience of a cousin in a small town. Let's call him X. This guy X is early 40s, unmarried, was living with his two elderly parents. First X's dad got coronavirus, badly, and when the ambulance drivers came and saw how bad X's dad was, they said to X: Say goodbye now, he'd not going to survive, he won't even be treated.
So they took X's dad away and sure enough he died three days later.
Then X's mum got ill, and the exact same thing happened: the medics came and shook their heads and said Say goodbye now, she's going, you won't see her again. So X - this time emotionally prepared - told the locals to come round and wave through the window to his mum, because she was about to go to hospital and she wasn't coming back. The neighbourhood came and waved goodbye.
A few days later X's mum died.
X then rang and asked about the bodies and he was told "Your mum and dad and have been taking to Special Crematorium XP4 (or whatever) they where have been burned with many other bodies. We cannot bury people as the virus lives on in corpses."
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
I agree, I dont think it was the cab driver making all this up either.
Oh F off. Why would I lie about this? What's the point? Some kind of evil glee in frightening people?
This is what he said. He was very well informed about the virus, he knew all about containment and delay, and "flattening the curve". He was frightened for his young family, but he was smart, calm and articulate, and, I believe, telling the truth as he had perceived it.
You are either letting fear take you over to an unacceptable degree or yes you are enjoying trying to frighten people with the gloom.
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
1. He said it is bollocks that only old people get really ill and die. He said in his old football academy in Milan he knew four people with corona, one of which had died, and two were still very ill. They are/were in thei r30s like him. Super fit athletic types. Quite a few young people get this as well and sometimes they get it very very bad. And even die.
No kids tho, thank fuck.
2. He described the experience of a cousin in a small town. Let's call him X. This guy X is early 40s, unmarried, was living with his two elderly parents. First X's dad got coronavirus, badly, and when the ambulance drivers came and saw how bad X's dad was, they said to X: Say goodbye now, he'd not going to survive, he won't even be treated.
So they took X's dad away and sure enough he died three days later.
Then X's mum got ill, and the exact same thing happened: the medics came and shook their heads and said Say goodbye now, she's going, you won't see her again. So X - this time emotionally prepared - told the locals to come round and wave through the window to his mum, because she was about to go to hospital and she wasn't coming back. The neighbourhood came and waved goodbye.
A few days later X's mum died.
X then rang and asked about the bodies and he was told "Your mum and dad and have been taking to Special Crematorium XP4 (or whatever) they where have been burned with many other bodies. We cannot bury people as the virus lives on in corpses."
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
This is faulty thinking eadric. We know the age adjusted mortality rates give or take. There is no point chucking that knowledge away based on a chat with a cab driver, with all due respect to him.
We know the mortality in thirty somethings is about 0.2%. There are about 120 000 thirty somethings in Liecester and Leics. If 60% get it ("herd immunity" levels) then 72 000 will get it and 144 will die of it in my County alone. Nowhere near the mortality in other age ranges, but not insignificant.
Even allowing for the pillockish recent behaviour of Sinn Fein, every time Arlene Foster opens her mouth I have every sympathy with their refusal to work with her.
She’s a stupider version of Leo Varadkar.
Maybe but she is a member of Cobra and is no doubt expressing Cobra opinion
Is she? That comes as a surprise.
Yes alongside Sturgeon and Drakeford
It is not widely known that all parts of the UK are on Cobra and in agreement on school closures but Sturgeon jumped the gun on announcing the 500 limit on public gatherings
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
This is faulty thinking eadric. We know the age adjusted mortality rates give or take. There is no point chucking that knowledge away based on a chat with a cab driver, with all due respect to him.
I'm not basing my personal coronavirus strategy on the anecdotes of a cab driver! I am just passing on information, for people to absorb or deflect, as they wish.
On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence that my cabbie might be right about young people. See this report from ITV, from three days ago (since when it has worsened considerably)
"He added: "You have no idea how many young people are here, I mean even 20-year-olds with no underlying conditions, in need of assisted breathing because of horrible pneumonia.
"There aren’t the resources to screen doctors for Covid-19 anymore - they’re just telling them 'stay home if you have symptoms, otherwise come to work'."
He continued: "Non-specialised medical graduates are being brought in.
"At Milan’s Policlinico hospital they are dealing with 50 new pneumonia cases every day""
Read my post below, the author of the study which is quoted about the 80% with "mild symptoms" says he regrets the use of that term.
Even allowing for the pillockish recent behaviour of Sinn Fein, every time Arlene Foster opens her mouth I have every sympathy with their refusal to work with her.
She’s a stupider version of Leo Varadkar.
Maybe but she is a member of Cobra and is no doubt expressing Cobra opinion
Is she? That comes as a surprise.
Yes alongside Sturgeon and Drakeford
It is not widely known that all parts of the UK are on Cobra and in agreement on school closures but Sturgeon jumped the gun on announcing the 500 limit on public gatherings
The fact that school closures, home isolation etc would be for protracted periods, not a couple of weeks has been specifically spelled out by the CSA and CMO.
Just remembered: today's Bog Roll Watch. The other Mr Rook was in town this morning, none available anywhere (Tesco Express, Morrisons or Savers.) Also, a notice on the door of Savers to the effect that they've already had to call out the local constabulary twice to break up fights between irate customers, and will not hesitate to do so again.
If the supply of Andrex isn't normalized again by the end of the week I fear that anarchy may ensue. And I say that only half-jokingly.
I wonder if the behavioural insight team successfully modelled it would be bog roll that people went mental over, rather than feeding yourself for 3 months, having drugs to manage flu like symptoms or perhaps not going to locations where you were most likely to catch it.
What I want to know is if you aren't eating anything, what are you going to be wiping?
Its just mad. When I prepped my parents, yes we got toilet rolls, hand wash etc, but the real focus was on getting two freezers worth of frozen fruit, veg and meat.
I think my parents are set. Whenever I go home there are always cupboards stocked to the brim with tinned food and other non-perishables, and a chest freezer full of the frozen stuff. I think they took protect and survive to heart.
To be perfectly honest, if I had space to seriously hoard food I would be getting very tempted by now. But we live in a one bedroom flat so, unless one were to construct a model of the Leaning Tower of Pisa out of a stack of tins in the corner of the living room, I can't.
I reckon there's about enough in here to keep us going for about a fortnight were we to be locked in, provided that we were disciplined and didn't resort to boredom-induced snacking. That will have to suffice.
I do wonder how many of these new hoarders are going to end up simply consuming way more food.
As a student, I used to have a Macro card and I remember taking a friend there, who couldn't believe you could buy mega packs of 48 Twixs etc. The silly idiot went and bought all these sweets and then spent the next month eating 4 Candy Bars a day and having giant bowls of cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Perhaps. More likely much of the surplus will end up sitting in the back of a cupboard for several years and then being discarded with the rest of the rubbish.
If anyone keeps detailed annual statistics on food wastage then they may see a visible Covid-related spike in 2022.
Had the election been delayed until March, how different would the result have been? I doubt that 'Getting Brexit done' would have had anything like the same resonance as was the case in December. The NHS would surely have been much more central to the campaign - and surely to Labour's advantage. Would the Red Wall have crumbled anything like as dramatically?
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
1. He said it is bollocks that only old people get really ill and die. He said in his old football academy in Milan he knew four people with corona, one of which had died, and two were still very ill. They are/were in thei r30s like him. Super fit athletic types. Quite a few young people get this as well and sometimes they get it very very bad. And even die.
No kids tho, thank fuck.
2. He described the experience of a cousin in a small town. Let's call him X. This guy X is early 40s, unmarried, was living with his two elderly parents. First X's dad got coronavirus, badly, and when the ambulance drivers came and saw how bad X's dad was, they said to X: Say goodbye now, he'd not going to survive, he won't even be treated.
So they took X's dad away and sure enough he died three days later.
Then X's mum got ill, and the exact same thing happened: the medics came and shook their heads and said Say goodbye now, she's going, you won't see her again. So X - this time emotionally prepared - told the locals to come round and wave through the window to his mum, because she was about to go to hospital and she wasn't coming back. The neighbourhood came and waved goodbye.
A few days later X's mum died.
X then rang and asked about the bodies and he was told "Your mum and dad and have been taking to Special Crematorium XP4 (or whatever) they where have been burned with many other bodies. We cannot bury people as the virus lives on in corpses."
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
I agree, I dont think it was the cab driver making all this up either.
Oh F off. Why would I lie about this? What's the point? Some kind of evil glee in frightening people?
This is what he said. He was very well informed about the virus, he knew all about containment and delay, and "flattening the curve". He was frightened for his young family, but he was smart, calm and articulate, and, I believe, telling the truth as he had perceived it.
You are either letting fear take you over to an unacceptable degree or yes you are enjoying trying to frighten people with the gloom.
Sorry, but your posts are unrelentingly apocalyptic and shrill and often insinuate that this is much worse than it actually is or what we are being told. We know enough facts about this virus now to rebut or at least cast some doubt on these anecdotes. If you are genuinely worried I am really sorry that you are feeling this way and I would suggest staying off the internet to stop it frightening you, this will not be helping.
lol. Who is not "genuinely worried" by a lethal and global pandemic? Twit.
I am worried. I have elderly parents and I worry for them. I do not want them to get this. I am not playing down what is a deeply troubling and sad state of affairs. This is not about worry. This is about extreme fearmongering bordering on the fanatical.
I wonder if the behavioural insight team successfully modelled it would be bog roll that people went mental over, rather than feeding yourself for 3 months, having drugs to manage flu like symptoms or perhaps not going to locations where you were most likely to catch it.
Bog roll is a rational thing to pragmatically stock up on, aka panic-buy. Few substitutes (bidets rare in the UK - wonder if COVID-19 might have an unexpected change in our bathroom design habits!), so almost everyone will therefore want one. It's an absolutely horrible feeling if you run out and doubly so if you found it difficult or impossible to get any in, so you want to guard against that. And its very well designed for stockpiling - long life, stacks well, bathrooms often have plenty of space free because most people don't store their clutter in them. So if we ever were to get into that vicious cycle of needing to buy something in out of fear of others buying it in first, loo roll was always going to be a prime candidate - many people are buying because of the fear of shortages caused by other panic-buyers (the idea is pretty much the same as how a bank-run works) not just because they're adapting their inventory in case of a self-isolation period, so they may not have felt the need to stock food up at the same time.
And food products generally have more substitutes, different people have different tastes so less likely to grab the same item, less intense fear of running out, less shelf-life and less free kitchen storage space. So a lot of the ingredients that might lead to either stockpiling or buying-from-rational-fear-that-the-panic-buyers-get-there-first-thereby-making-you-not-a-panic-buyer-at-all-no-sirree are absent.
So perhaps it was predictable. But I can't put my hand up and claim that I did!
shopping report - no toilet or kitchen roll - or bin bags strangely enough
That’s rubbish.
Enough trash talking...
After work I popped into town on a few errands. Perhaps a little quieter than normal, but not by much. Cafes and shops all busy, and plenty of stock, apart from Boots being out of own brand paracetamol.
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
1. He said it is bollocks that only old people get really ill and die. He said in his old football academy in Milan he knew four people with corona, one of which had died, and two were still very ill. They are/were in thei r30s like him. Super fit athletic types. Quite a few young people get this as well and sometimes they get it very very bad. And even die.
No kids tho, thank fuck.
2. He described the experience of a cousin in a small town. Let's call him X. This guy X is early 40s, unmarried, was living with his two elderly parents. First X's dad got coronavirus, badly, and when the ambulance drivers came and saw how bad X's dad was, they said to X: Say goodbye now, he'd not going to survive, he won't even be treated.
So they took X's dad away and sure enough he died three days later.
Then X's mum got ill, and the exact same thing happened: the medics came and shook their heads and said Say goodbye now, she's going, you won't see her again. So X - this time emotionally prepared - told the locals to come round and wave through the window to his mum, because she was about to go to hospital and she wasn't coming back. The neighbourhood came and waved goodbye.
A few days later X's mum died.
X then rang and asked about the bodies and he was told "Your mum and dad and have been taking to Special Crematorium XP4 (or whatever) they where have been burned with many other bodies. We cannot bury people as the virus lives on in corpses."
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
I agree, I dont think it was the cab driver making all this up either.
Oh F off. Why would I lie about this? What's the point? Some kind of evil glee in frightening people?
This is what he said. He was very well informed about the virus, he knew all about containment and delay, and "flattening the curve". He was frightened for his young family, but he was smart, calm and articulate, and, I believe, telling the truth as he had perceived it.
I spoke to a young couple out with their dog in the park earlier. They didn’t know anyone who has been ill. They aren’t worried about the virus. They don’t have any cousins whose parents have been left to die at home.
Are you any the wiser from reading my anecdote?
No.
I stayed in last night, just spoke to a mate who went out.. the pub was rammed, couldn't get to the bar, and there was only one table free in the curry house after. I had genuinely expected him to say it was like a ghost town!
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
1. He said it is bollocks that only old people get really ill and die. He said in his old football academy in Milan he knew four people with corona, one of which had died, and two were still very ill. They are/were in thei r30s like him. Super fit athletic types. Quite a few young people get this as well and sometimes they get it very very bad. And even die.
No kids tho, thank fuck.
2. He described the experience of a cousin in a small town. Let's call him X. This guy X is early 40s, unmarried, was living with his two elderly parents. First X's dad got coronavirus, badly, and when the ambulance drivers came and saw how bad X's dad was, they said to X: Say goodbye now, he'd not going to survive, he won't even be treated.
So they took X's dad away and sure enough he died three days later.
Then X's mum got ill, and the exact same thing happened: the medics came and shook their heads and said Say goodbye now, she's going, you won't see her again. So X - this time emotionally prepared - told the locals to come round and wave through the window to his mum, because she was about to go to hospital and she wasn't coming back. The neighbourhood came and waved goodbye.
A few days later X's mum died.
X then rang and asked about the bodies and he was told "Your mum and dad and have been taking to Special Crematorium XP4 (or whatever) they where have been burned with many other bodies. We cannot bury people as the virus lives on in corpses."
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
I agree, I dont think it was the cab driver making all this up either.
Oh F off. Why would I lie about this? What's the point? Some kind of evil glee in frightening people?
This is what he said. He was very well informed about the virus, he knew all about containment and delay, and "flattening the curve". He was frightened for his young family, but he was smart, calm and articulate, and, I believe, telling the truth as he had perceived it.
I spoke to a young couple out with their dog in the park earlier. They didn’t know anyone who has been ill. They aren’t worried about the virus. They don’t have any cousins whose parents have been left to die at home.
Are you any the wiser from reading my anecdote?
No.
Yes, I am wiser. I now know that you speak to random morons.
Well, you knew that already, as he engages with you.
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
1. He said it is bollocks that only old people get really ill and die. He said in his old football academy in Milan he knew four people with corona, one of which had died, and two were still very ill. They are/were in thei r30s like him. Super fit athletic types. Quite a few young people get this as well and sometimes they get it very very bad. And even die.
No kids tho, thank fuck.
2. He described the experience of a cousin in a small town. Let's call him X. This guy X is early 40s, unmarried, was living with his two elderly parents. First X's dad got coronavirus, badly, and when the ambulance drivers came and saw how bad X's dad was, they said to X: Say goodbye now, he'd not going to survive, he won't even be treated.
So they took X's dad away and sure enough he died three days later.
Then X's mum got ill, and the exact same thing happened: the medics came and shook their heads and said Say goodbye now, she's going, you won't see her again. So X - this time emotionally prepared - told the locals to come round and wave through the window to his mum, because she was about to go to hospital and she wasn't coming back. The neighbourhood came and waved goodbye.
A few days later X's mum died.
X then rang and asked about the bodies and he was told "Your mum and dad and have been taking to Special Crematorium XP4 (or whatever) they where have been burned with many other bodies. We cannot bury people as the virus lives on in corpses."
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
So in which country/region did these deaths occur? I strongly suspect that if bulk cremation was the practice in Italy we would have heard about it from other sources by now. And the reported Albanian fatalities are nowhere near enough to justify the sort of measures alleged.
I understand there being upset with the strategy based on its pros and cons but it's pretty gross just seeing partisan politics at this time. Disgusting in fact.
If twitter was around at the times of the WWII, I wonder if we would have the same armchair general claiming Churchill was deliberately trying to kill everybody?
There would be people claiming that most of the bombs were shells from our anti-aircraft defences.
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
1. He said it is bollocks that only old people get really ill and die. He said in his old football academy in Milan he knew four people with corona, one of which had died, and two were still very ill. They are/were in thei r30s like him. Super fit athletic types. Quite a few young people get this as well and sometimes they get it very very bad. And even die.
No kids tho, thank fuck.
2. He described the experience of a cousin in a small town. Let's call him X. This guy X is early 40s, unmarried, was living with his two elderly parents. First X's dad got coronavirus, badly, and when the ambulance drivers came and saw how bad X's dad was, they said to X: Say goodbye now, he'd not going to survive, he won't even be treated.
So they took X's dad away and sure enough he died three days later.
Then X's mum got ill, and the exact same thing happened: the medics came and shook their heads and said Say goodbye now, she's going, you won't see her again. So X - this time emotionally prepared - told the locals to come round and wave through the window to his mum, because she was about to go to hospital and she wasn't coming back. The neighbourhood came and waved goodbye.
A few days later X's mum died.
X then rang and asked about the bodies and he was told "Your mum and dad and have been taking to Special Crematorium XP4 (or whatever) they where have been burned with many other bodies. We cannot bury people as the virus lives on in corpses."
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
I agree, I dont think it was the cab driver making all this up either.
Oh F off. Why would I lie about this? What's the point? Some kind of evil glee in frightening people?
This is what he said. He was very well informed about the virus, he knew all about containment and delay, and "flattening the curve". He was frightened for his young family, but he was smart, calm and articulate, and, I believe, telling the truth as he had perceived it.
I spoke to a young couple out with their dog in the park earlier. They didn’t know anyone who has been ill. They aren’t worried about the virus. They don’t have any cousins whose parents have been left to die at home.
Are you any the wiser from reading my anecdote?
No.
Yes, I am wiser. I now know that you speak to random morons. This does not surprise me, as you have so much in common with them.
Why do you insult posters in this way
You are not wiser and any idea you are is just arrogant
Many on here do not agree with you and they are entitled to their view
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
1. He said it is bollocks that only old people get really ill and die. He said in his old football academy in Milan he knew four people with corona, one of which had died, and two were still very ill. They are/were in thei r30s like him. Super fit athletic types. Quite a few young people get this as well and sometimes they get it very very bad. And even die.
No kids tho, thank fuck.
2. He described the experience of a cousin in a small town. Let's call him X. This guy X is early 40s, unmarried, was living with his two elderly parents. First X's dad got coronavirus, badly, and when the ambulance drivers came and saw how bad X's dad was, they said to X: Say goodbye now, he'd not going to survive, he won't even be treated.
So they took X's dad away and sure enough he died three days later.
Then X's mum got ill, and the exact same thing happened: the medics came and shook their heads and said Say goodbye now, she's going, you won't see her again. So X - this time emotionally prepared - told the locals to come round and wave through the window to his mum, because she was about to go to hospital and she wasn't coming back. The neighbourhood came and waved goodbye.
A few days later X's mum died.
X then rang and asked about the bodies and he was told "Your mum and dad and have been taking to Special Crematorium XP4 (or whatever) they where have been burned with many other bodies. We cannot bury people as the virus lives on in corpses."
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
I agree, I dont think it was the cab driver making all this up either.
Oh F off. Why would I lie about this? What's the point? Some kind of evil glee in frightening people?
This is what he said. He was very well informed about the virus, he knew all about containment and delay, and "flattening the curve". He was frightened for his young family, but he was smart, calm and articulate, and, I believe, telling the truth as he had perceived it.
I spoke to a young couple out with their dog in the park earlier. They didn’t know anyone who has been ill. They aren’t worried about the virus. They don’t have any cousins whose parents have been left to die at home.
Are you any the wiser from reading my anecdote?
No.
I stayed in last night, just spoke to a mate who went out.. the pub was rammed, couldn't get to the bar, and there was only one table free in the curry house after. I had genuinely expected him to say it was like a ghost town!
Enjoy it while it lasts would be my take on that.
Pubs would do a roaring trade if an asteroid was on its way.
Its just mad. When I prepped my parents, yes we got some toilet rolls, hand wash etc, but the real focus was on getting two freezers worth of frozen fruit, veg and meat.
Bog roll mania seems to have become a Thing. It's really taken off. It could be that there is in each of us a deep-seated fear of what running out of it could lead us to resort to, but I'm not so sure it's that. I sense many - perhaps most - people are joining in simply because this is what you do when something becomes a Thing. It's a way of bonding. And in times such as these, we do need to bond - if free of the virus, obviously, otherwise it's the very opposite.
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
1. He said it is bollocks that only old people get really ill and die. He said in his old football academy in Milan he knew four people with corona, one of which had died, and two were still very ill. They are/were in thei r30s like him. Super fit athletic types. Quite a few young people get this as well and sometimes they get it very very bad. And even die.
No kids tho, thank fuck.
2. He described the experience of a cousin in a small town. Let's call him X. This guy X is early 40s, unmarried, was living with his two elderly parents. First X's dad got coronavirus, badly, and when the ambulance drivers came and saw how bad X's dad was, they said to X: Say goodbye now, he'd not going to survive, he won't even be treated.
So they took X's dad away and sure enough he died three days later.
Then X's mum got ill, and the exact same thing happened: the medics came and shook their heads and said Say goodbye now, she's going, you won't see her again. So X - this time emotionally prepared - told the locals to come round and wave through the window to his mum, because she was about to go to hospital and she wasn't coming back. The neighbourhood came and waved goodbye.
A few days later X's mum died.
X then rang and asked about the bodies and he was told "Your mum and dad and have been taking to Special Crematorium XP4 (or whatever) they where have been burned with many other bodies. We cannot bury people as the virus lives on in corpses."
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
I agree, I dont think it was the cab driver making all this up either.
Oh F off. Why would I lie about this? What's the point? Some kind of evil glee in frightening people?
This is what he said. He was very well informed about the virus, he knew all about containment and delay, and "flattening the curve". He was frightened for his young family, but he was smart, calm and articulate, and, I believe, telling the truth as he had perceived it.
I spoke to a young couple out with their dog in the park earlier. They didn’t know anyone who has been ill. They aren’t worried about the virus. They don’t have any cousins whose parents have been left to die at home.
Are you any the wiser from reading my anecdote?
No.
I stayed in last night, just spoke to a mate who went out.. the pub was rammed, couldn't get to the bar, and there was only one table free in the curry house after. I had genuinely expected him to say it was like a ghost town!
I understand there being upset with the strategy based on its pros and cons but it's pretty gross just seeing partisan politics at this time. Disgusting in fact.
If twitter was around at the times of the WWII, I wonder if we would have the same armchair general claiming Churchill was deliberately trying to kill everybody?
There would be people claiming that most of the bombs were shells from our anti-aircraft defences.
Read Orwell - the tankie left spent the whole war claiming/dreaming that defeat was just round the corner. He commented in particular on the depression that El Alemein induced.
I've been trying not to talk too much about anything related to Brexit. However, for what it's worth there's a decent chance that this crisis will destroy the EU. It's going to severely distress all of the member state economies, but Italy and Spain are now holed below the water line and poor bloody Greece has had its chips. The flaws in the structure of the Eurozone have never been corrected; the creditor states and their electorates have neither sufficient money nor the necessary willpower to bail their neighbours; the chief creditor is, in any event, in a state of political paralysis and led by a lame duck; and neither the almighty refugee crisis nor the arguments about creeping authoritarianism in key central European states have gone away. The edifice is well ablaze, and even if the firefighters had the will to tackle it they've got no engine, no hoses and no hydrants. Just a bucket with a hole in the bottom.
Never mind the fact that this all-devouring Coronavirus monster leaves little time to think about the new trading relationship. There might be no entity with which to negotiate such a thing anyway.
Or perhaps this crisis will demonstrate the inadequacy of the nation state in tackling global issues and thus reinforce the value of the EU.
The United States of America ain't looking like a great argument for the United States of Europe right now....
In general, the further removed the rulers are from the people, the worse the governance.
A man after my own heart. Have you read Reinventing Organizations? I think you'll like it.
Even allowing for the pillockish recent behaviour of Sinn Fein, every time Arlene Foster opens her mouth I have every sympathy with their refusal to work with her.
She’s a stupider version of Leo Varadkar.
Maybe but she is a member of Cobra and is no doubt expressing Cobra opinion
Is she? That comes as a surprise.
Yes alongside Sturgeon and Drakeford
It is not widely known that all parts of the UK are on Cobra and in agreement on school closures but Sturgeon jumped the gun on announcing the 500 limit on public gatherings
The fact that school closures, home isolation etc would be for protracted periods, not a couple of weeks has been specifically spelled out by the CSA and CMO.
BTW, one of the things that's been notable about the UK Government approach over recent weeks is the buy-in from the devolved administrations. Insofar as I'm aware there's been no dissent at all from the first ministers, save for the one instance of Sturgeon going early on the mass gatherings prohibition (which she also made clear she was doing because of concerns related to the workload of the emergency services, rather than a disagreement with the PM's scientific advisers.)
Consequently, anybody peddling laughable theories about Boris Johnson wanting to commit a genocide of the elderly also has to explain why, in that case, his political arch-enemy in Edinburgh is planning a MacGranny Holocaust in lockstep with him.
Neither Sturgeon, nor Drakeford, nor Foster have any good reason not to attack the Prime Minister if they believe his strategy to be a disaster. Consequently, I find that the distinct lack of noises off provides some limited reassurance.
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
1. He said it is bollocks that only old people get really ill and die. He said in his old football academy in Milan he knew four people with corona, one of which had died, and two were still very ill. They are/were in thei r30s like him. Super fit athletic types. Quite a few young people get this as well and sometimes they get it very very bad. And even die.
No kids tho, thank fuck.
2. He described the experience of a cousin in a small town. Let's call him X. This guy X is early 40s, unmarried, was living with his two elderly parents. First X's dad got coronavirus, badly, and when the ambulance drivers came and saw how bad X's dad was, they said to X: Say goodbye now, he'd not going to survive, he won't even be treated.
So they took X's dad away and sure enough he died three days later.
Then X's mum got ill, and the exact same thing happened: the medics came and shook their heads and said Say goodbye now, she's going, you won't see her again. So X - this time emotionally prepared - told the locals to come round and wave through the window to his mum, because she was about to go to hospital and she wasn't coming back. The neighbourhood came and waved goodbye.
A few days later X's mum died.
X then rang and asked about the bodies and he was told "Your mum and dad and have been taking to Special Crematorium XP4 (or whatever) they where have been burned with many other bodies. We cannot bury people as the virus lives on in corpses."
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
I agree, I dont think it was the cab driver making all this up either.
Oh F off. Why would I lie about this? What's the point? Some kind of evil glee in frightening people?
This is what he said. He was very well informed about the virus, he knew all about containment and delay, and "flattening the curve". He was frightened for his young family, but he was smart, calm and articulate, and, I believe, telling the truth as he had perceived it.
I spoke to a young couple out with their dog in the park earlier. They didn’t know anyone who has been ill. They aren’t worried about the virus. They don’t have any cousins whose parents have been left to die at home.
Are you any the wiser from reading my anecdote?
No.
I stayed in last night, just spoke to a mate who went out.. the pub was rammed, couldn't get to the bar, and there was only one table free in the curry house after. I had genuinely expected him to say it was like a ghost town!
Give it a couple of weeks.
I would probably go t a quiet pub on a non weekend night, but a Friday or Saturday when they are heaving is a no no for me now
Had the election been delayed until March, how different would the result have been? I doubt that 'Getting Brexit done' would have had anything like the same resonance as was the case in December. The NHS would surely have been much more central to the campaign - and surely to Labour's advantage. Would the Red Wall have crumbled anything like as dramatically?
I can say with confidence that Labour would have lost many more seats. The reason: Jeremy Corbyn
Just had a fairly terrifying black cab ride across London (I'm now taking black cabs because they are bigger and there is a divide between you and the driver - better than Uber (one of a trillion unexpected ramifications of the Virus))
The driver was a very smart Albanian guy, late 30s, who previously lived in Milan for 18 years, where he was a semi pro football player. All we did - he and me - was talk corona, it is all that anyone talks about, now.
He had a few startling anecdotes.
1. He said it is bollocks that only old people get really ill and die. He said in his old football academy in Milan he knew four people with corona, one of which had died, and two were still very ill. They are/were in thei r30s like him. Super fit athletic types. Quite a few young people get this as well and sometimes they get it very very bad. And even die.
No kids tho, thank fuck.
2. He described the experience of a cousin in a small town. Let's call him X. This guy X is early 40s, unmarried, was living with his two elderly parents. First X's dad got coronavirus, badly, and when the ambulance drivers came and saw how bad X's dad was, they said to X: Say goodbye now, he'd not going to survive, he won't even be treated.
So they took X's dad away and sure enough he died three days later.
Then X's mum got ill, and the exact same thing happened: the medics came and shook their heads and said Say goodbye now, she's going, you won't see her again. So X - this time emotionally prepared - told the locals to come round and wave through the window to his mum, because she was about to go to hospital and she wasn't coming back. The neighbourhood came and waved goodbye.
A few days later X's mum died.
X then rang and asked about the bodies and he was told "Your mum and dad and have been taking to Special Crematorium XP4 (or whatever) they where have been burned with many other bodies. We cannot bury people as the virus lives on in corpses."
Now, the cab driver might have been making all this up. I do not believe he was.
This is faulty thinking eadric. We know the age adjusted mortality rates give or take. There is no point chucking that knowledge away based on a chat with a cab driver, with all due respect to him.
LOL @eadric's latest report from the front line proving too much for at least one of his fellow preppers.
Anybody who bought in the idea that Trump was actually acting and it was a genius strategy of appealing to a particular demographic in normal times...probably the same kind of people who believe this is just like flu.
Comments
Edit: enjoy may be a strong word with UHT milk.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/us/politics/election-postponed-canceled.html?action=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage
As a student, I used to have a Macro card and I remember taking a friend there, who couldn't believe you could buy mega packs of 48 Twixs etc. The silly idiot went and bought all these sweets and then spent the next month eating 4 Candy Bars a day and having giant bowls of cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Very limited soap, pain killers and rice
Everything else ok
Sorry, but your posts are unrelentingly apocalyptic and shrill and often insinuate that this is much worse than it actually is or what we are being told. We know enough facts about this virus now to rebut or at least cast some doubt on these anecdotes. If you are genuinely worried I am really sorry that you are feeling this way and I would suggest staying off the internet to stop it frightening you, this will not be helping.
I honestly can't remember what advice we were given about our mock A-levels back in the 90s, only that my mock and actual grades tallied precisely, so I must've been taking them reasonably seriously.
Are you any the wiser from reading my anecdote?
No.
If the government would say how many cases were currently hospitalised, and how many of those were in intensive care, then that would be a big increase in information.
It is not widely known that all parts of the UK are on Cobra and in agreement on school closures but Sturgeon jumped the gun on announcing the 500 limit on public gatherings
But to be fair, that’s true of whatever he wears because he is a twat.
Clark Griswold versus Covid-19.
Complete with USA hat
If anyone keeps detailed annual statistics on food wastage then they may see a visible Covid-related spike in 2022.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/live/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wh
And food products generally have more substitutes, different people have different tastes so less likely to grab the same item, less intense fear of running out, less shelf-life and less free kitchen storage space. So a lot of the ingredients that might lead to either stockpiling or buying-from-rational-fear-that-the-panic-buyers-get-there-first-thereby-making-you-not-a-panic-buyer-at-all-no-sirree are absent.
So perhaps it was predictable. But I can't put my hand up and claim that I did!
Very rash returning to that as the measure of his success.
After work I popped into town on a few errands. Perhaps a little quieter than normal, but not by much. Cafes and shops all busy, and plenty of stock, apart from Boots being out of own brand paracetamol.
*Grabs tinfoil hat and ducks*
Fortunately, I like to cook, and have reasonably well stocked cupboards, so mostly my children will be having to deal with my new culinary adventures.
I strongly suspect that if bulk cremation was the practice in Italy we would have heard about it from other sources by now.
And the reported Albanian fatalities are nowhere near enough to justify the sort of measures alleged.
You are not wiser and any idea you are is just arrogant
Many on here do not agree with you and they are entitled to their view
Pubs would do a roaring trade if an asteroid was on its way.
Oh man he is back onto flu numbers vs coronavirus....
Consequently, anybody peddling laughable theories about Boris Johnson wanting to commit a genocide of the elderly also has to explain why, in that case, his political arch-enemy in Edinburgh is planning a MacGranny Holocaust in lockstep with him.
Neither Sturgeon, nor Drakeford, nor Foster have any good reason not to attack the Prime Minister if they believe his strategy to be a disaster. Consequently, I find that the distinct lack of noises off provides some limited reassurance.