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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » That Boris could be so afflicted brings home in a powerful way

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  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    Nice words from Sturgeon for Boris as start of her statement. Respect for that.
  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    TOPPING said:

    There seems to be an unwelcome virus fascism settling in on PB, where any piece of potential good news is derided, those offering more positive interpretations of the data are attacked, and positions other than extreme extended lockdowns are castigated as irresponsible.

    If people are overwhelmed by events out of their control and are fearful, a natural instinct is to go for the most controlled scenario they can think of.
    Which of course was the thinking behind Project Fear.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    edited April 2020
    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    I do wonder about who is advising them, although perhaps they aren't taking any notice. I can't believe any PR expert would be suggesting this is a good idea at the moment.
    And that name is Consignia level bad. Unpronounceable and overtones of arch, hell and chew (18th century synonym for a blowjob according to William Golding).
    That middle "e" is going to irritate me every time I see it. Which won't be that often, I hope.
    The aim “to do something that matters” makes it sound like a spoof. Or the 21st century version of those 18th century bubble companies: “For carrying-on an undertaking of great advantage but no-one to know what it is”.
    Sounds like a bad pitch to potential clients in The Apprentice

    “Before SussexRoyal, came the idea of Arche – the Greek word meaning source of action. We connected to this concept for the charitable organisation we hoped to build one day, and it became the inspiration for our son’s name. To do something of meaning, to do something that matters.
    “Archewell is a name that combines an ancient word for strength and action, and another that evokes the deep resources we each must draw upon. We look forward to launching Archewell when the time is right.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/apr/07/harry-and-meghan-to-launch-new-charitable-outfit
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,486
    RobD said:

    RobD said:

    Who cares about Harry and Meg’s charity name? What a trivial thing to get in a lather about.

    They don't care about the name.
    I refer you to MattW's post at 1233hrs BST B)
    Poorly timed. :D

    I had honestly thought the complaint was over the timing. Like you said, the name really doesn't matter.
    Ha, no worries sir :)
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,225

    TOPPING said:

    Charles said:

    TOPPING said:

    Charles said:

    TOPPING said:

    Charles said:

    Nigelb said:

    My biggest gripe with personal space are runners. They seem to come charging up far too close and, of course, panting volumes of breath into one's vicinity.

    And cyclists.
    And dog walkers, who allow their foul mutt to run around and impede others or dopey pedestrians listening to music oblivious to everyone else.

    I am a runner, cyclist and walker. All groups are equally to blame.
    No, you are wrong. Cyclists and runners need to take special measures to prevent contact with walkers. The hierarchy is as simple as that.

    Sorry, I flagged you as off topic, it's very small on my phone, and don't seem to be able to unflag it.
    But surely a runner is a pedestrian and has equal priority with a walker.
    Personally, I have been trying to run against the flow of traffic so I can more safely step into the road.
    Most people are very good but you get offenders of all types. Including couples and family groups of walkers who insist on taking the whole pavement, and runners and cyclists who will not adjust their line or slow down (or cycle on the pavement). It's a bit like driving on a narrow country lane: you need to have a passing strategy and plan passing places ahead
    Runners and cyclists are both moving faster, and more likely to be panting (& therefore far more likely to be generating aerosol), so they ought to bear a greater responsibility.
    True, although I don't normally run fast enough to pant. But if you are running along a pavement next to a busy road and the pedestrians are bimbling around in a bunch, it cuts down your options. What's wrong with walking line astern? (And why are you exercising with family members anyway? You are banged up with them 24/7, surely you need time to yourself?)
    The latest fashion appears to be walking along, talking to someone next to you, about a metre apart. Not actually social distancing, but nicely blocking the pavement.

    I've tried locally suggesting that people walking west go on the north side of the road, east on the south etc.
    An off-topic flashback to my schooldays, and one teacher helping to manage staircase congestion with her cry of, "up on the left; down on the right". :)
    Going up on the left means your sword arm is free to engage
    That would mean you were the attacker. I always note when spiral staircases are round the wrong way, giving the attacker the advantage.
    I assumed the attacker starts at the bottom. It’s only Errol Flynn who does it the other way round 😆
    Yes he does. But if you're the defender, you will have built your castle so that you gain the upper, ie free hand as you descend to protect your domain from intruders thus putting the attacker at a disadvantage (cf spiral staircases also as @Morris has also noted).

    Have at thee!
    ("Upper hand" comes from sword fighting - if your sword is on top our your opponent's it's easier to disarm them)

    But the design of the spiral staircase is to allow the defenders to use the central pillar to protect the left side of the body thereby allow them to be more aggressive while exposing the attacker's left flank as they climb the stairs.
    We are agreeing.
    For lols I once insisted on trying some fencing up and down a (partially) spiral staircase. The lower position has an advantage in many ways - you are stretching up and away from your body, while the defender above is reaching down past their own legs. If hits to the legs count, you would be in big trouble...
    And everyone knows that defenders don't like it up 'em.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318
    It is a sunny day here. The magnolia tree is almost in full flower. The sky is blue with scarcely a cloud in it. Birds are singing all around. Bees are buzzing. It is the absolute epitome of a beautiful spring day. It is very hard to imagine that anything bad is going on right now.

    I am counting my blessings.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,153
    MaxPB said:

    There seems to be an unwelcome virus fascism settling in on PB, where any piece of potential good news is derided, those offering more positive interpretations of the data are attacked, and positions other than extreme extended lockdowns are castigated as irresponsible.

    Yes, completely agree. We've become doom mongers.
    Become?
  • Beibheirli_CBeibheirli_C Posts: 8,163
    ydoethur said:

    algarkirk said:

    ydoethur said:

    Cyclefree said:

    @AlastairMeeks - yes, the same poem has been ringing in my ears for the last 24 hours. When my colleagues adopted an "I'm alright, Jack" attitude, it was the first thing I thought.

    What's so frustrating is how powerless we are. I'm not physically able to volunteer to help others, so the best thing I can do is stay at home and not be a drain on hospital resources. It feels cowardly, yet it's the only course of action.

    --AS

    They also serve who only stand and wait.

    I’d quote the whole thing, but out of deference to @Casino_Royale I'll go light on the poetry.
    Poetry is one of my consolations. I am going to do something I have not done for a long time which is to learn poems off by heart and recite them. There is no-one to hear them apart from my daughter (and she is well used to my eccentricities), the horse in the next field and the cats.

    At my primary school the nuns made us learn a poem every week and on Tuesday morning before classes started someone would be picked to recite it. It was a marvellous way of improving memory and above all giving us an ear for the sheer beauty and musicality of the English language. And I did lots of poetry reading when I studied drama. At one point we also did poems in Latin and, somewhere in the attic, is my certificate for 1st place in a Latin poetry reciting competition. Now is the time to revive such skills.

    I used to recite poems to my children at bed-time: nonsense rhymes and the rest but The Owl and the Pussycat was a particular favourite.

    Occasionally I have been known to put obscure references to snatches of poems in my headers. Not that anyone notices ........ :(
    Perhaps that’s why TSE doesn’t do subtlety.
    Wordsworth, greatest of all Cumbrians, born 250 years ago today. April 7th 1770.

    The greatest master of the English language was born on this day.

    And so was Wordsworth...
    SeanT?

    :D:D
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,992

    ydoethur said:

    algarkirk said:

    ydoethur said:

    Cyclefree said:

    @AlastairMeeks - yes, the same poem has been ringing in my ears for the last 24 hours. When my colleagues adopted an "I'm alright, Jack" attitude, it was the first thing I thought.

    What's so frustrating is how powerless we are. I'm not physically able to volunteer to help others, so the best thing I can do is stay at home and not be a drain on hospital resources. It feels cowardly, yet it's the only course of action.

    --AS

    They also serve who only stand and wait.

    I’d quote the whole thing, but out of deference to @Casino_Royale I'll go light on the poetry.
    Poetry is one of my consolations. I am going to do something I have not done for a long time which is to learn poems off by heart and recite them. There is no-one to hear them apart from my daughter (and she is well used to my eccentricities), the horse in the next field and the cats.

    At my primary school the nuns made us learn a poem every week and on Tuesday morning before classes started someone would be picked to recite it. It was a marvellous way of improving memory and above all giving us an ear for the sheer beauty and musicality of the English language. And I did lots of poetry reading when I studied drama. At one point we also did poems in Latin and, somewhere in the attic, is my certificate for 1st place in a Latin poetry reciting competition. Now is the time to revive such skills.

    I used to recite poems to my children at bed-time: nonsense rhymes and the rest but The Owl and the Pussycat was a particular favourite.

    Occasionally I have been known to put obscure references to snatches of poems in my headers. Not that anyone notices ........ :(
    Perhaps that’s why TSE doesn’t do subtlety.
    Wordsworth, greatest of all Cumbrians, born 250 years ago today. April 7th 1770.

    The greatest master of the English language was born on this day.

    And so was Wordsworth...
    SeanT?

    :D:D
    No. @Mysticrose, by their own admission.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,767
    Cyclefree said:

    It is a sunny day here. The magnolia tree is almost in full flower. The sky is blue with scarcely a cloud in it. Birds are singing all around. Bees are buzzing. It is the absolute epitome of a beautiful spring day. It is very hard to imagine that anything bad is going on right now.

    I am counting my blessings.

    Is it me or is the sky bluer?
  • Richard_NabaviRichard_Nabavi Posts: 30,821
    Cyclefree said:

    It is a sunny day here. The magnolia tree is almost in full flower. The sky is blue with scarcely a cloud in it. Birds are singing all around. Bees are buzzing. It is the absolute epitome of a beautiful spring day. It is very hard to imagine that anything bad is going on right now.

    I am counting my blessings.

    Yes, the contrast between what I am seeing out of my window and the dreadful news from all over the UK and the world is quite surreal.

    Our fritillaries this year are stunning. They've been multiplying steadily each year, but this year they are particularly special and abundant.
  • OllyTOllyT Posts: 5,006
    edited April 2020

    OllyT said:

    I wonder if the 1600 deaths on the 27/3/2020 recorded as having something to do with Covid-19 were all actually tested as these would make up a very large proportion of the positive tests.

    No, they've recorded them even if COVID is suspected - but we know most suspected tests are negative, so quite possibly many of those were not COVID deaths.
    Good to see Liverpool FC have finally been shamed into doing the right thing and carry on paying their non-playing staff. Now if only they could retrospectively change the decision to have gone ahead with the Madrid game in the middle of last month.
    They were going to pay their non-playing staff either way. And it wasn't for Liverpool to stop tourists coming from Spain, that is and remains the government's responsibility.
    And as I have said before Liverpool could have requested a cancellation or to play behind closed doors if they had wanted to put public health ahead of their own financial interests,

    Re paying the staff, As the Spirit of Shankly supporters group and Carragher said, their decision was doing the club huge reputational damage. You obviously didn't agree.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    Eh? PM lies in ICU, yet FTSE up 2%.

    Following the Dow Jones, and with sterling falling the FTSE, which makes most of its money outside the Uk, pretty much automatically rises.

    NB:

    https://twitter.com/eddyelfenbein/status/1247325085507215361?s=21
    Long may it continue
    Perception across the world covid 19 has peaked
    Wave 1 might have done... Unless it's 100% stabbed out (and it won't be) future waves are inevitable.
    Evidence?
    Well, it might be pointed out that the Black Death continued to come in waves in Europe for over 350 years, with the last major outbreak occurring in Marseilles in 1720.

    Then there were significant outbreaks in Asia, particularly China, in the late nineteenth century and carried on the trade routes there were major outbreaks in California as late as 1924.

    Since that time bubonic plague has declined across the globe for some reason. Nobody seems to know why.

    Hopefully it won’t take 500 years this time.
    That’s not evidence, next.
    You are the one positing a miracle, because for every infectious disease ever documented bar about 2, once it's there it is there to stay. I am pretty certain people will still be getting flu, colds and chicken pox in 2030. So the burden of proof is with you.
    I’m not positing anything of the sort. I don’t know. I merely asked for evidence, which I have yet to receive.
    You are asking for evidence that "there will be future waves of" an infectious disease - that is, that it will behave like all other infectious diseases in history, ever,in a way which is inherent in the meaning of "infectious." When offered evidence, you reject it as "not evidence." Inductive reasoning has its limitations, but I get on fairly well with assuming that the sun will rise tomorrow, because it always has in the past. If you want to claim that that's not evidence, fair enough.
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 22,838
    Charles said:

    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    Whatever your views of China (vile regime we shouldn't do business with/vile regime we have little option but to do some business with...), this is a very interesting article:

    How Chinese Apps Handled Covid-19
    http://dangrover.com/blog/2020/04/05/covid-in-ui.html
    ...The point of these “fever clinics” (发热门诊), as distinguished from ordinary hospitals, was to give anyone who thought they might be even a little sick a way to get tested and, more importantly, control the spread by isolating even asymptomatic carriers away from their family and co-workers and give them a place to wait it out. Some of these had been established for this reason on a permanent basis during the SARS outbreak in 2003, while others were established only recently.

    As the country mobilized, all of the major apps promoted features that clearly listed the hospitals that were handling Coronavirus. This included all the fever clinics that had sprung up as well as normal, pre-existing hospitals with ICUs that had been specially designated for handling serious cases of coronavirus (定点收治医院):

    The other aspect Aylward mentions is the use of online consultations. Changes in regulations in the past few years have resulted in an explosion of telemedicine apps in China with plays by tech companies like Tencent and Alibaba, traditional companies like Ping An, and existing online medical information resource sites like Dingxiang.

    These apps combine a bunch of things: simple ecommerce (for medicine and medical devices), lead generation/vertical search for specialists offline, and online consultations with doctors at top hospitals. Doctors giving online consultations can write prescriptions which can then be filled in the app. The consultations can be paid for a-la-carte or with an annual plan and are sometimes a loss-leader for their online pharmacy business...

    We used to do that here. In 1893 the The Fountain Hospital in Tooting was built in a few weeks as a fever hospital.

    http://www.workhouses.org.uk/MAB-Fountain/

    It is now St George's Hospital in Tooting, old St George's on Hyde Park Corner closed in 1981, now the Lanesborough Hotel.
    It's amazing what you can do when you don't give a fig for workers rights or conditions.

    We also used to fund things through philanthropy - Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, for example, was privately funded as was the University of Westminster.
    On a global scale Bill Gates certainly seems to be doing his bit for philanthropy.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,225
    Foxy said:

    Dr. Anthony Cardillo said he has seen very promising results when prescribing hydroxychloroquine in combination with zinc for the most severely-ill COVID-19 patients.

    "Every patient I've prescribed it to has been very, very ill and within 8 to 12 hours, they were basically symptom-free," Cardillo told Eyewitness News. "So clinically I am seeing a resolution."

    He said he has found it only works if combined with zinc. The drug, he said, opens a channel for the zinc to enter the cell and block virus replication.

    https://abc7.com/coronavirus-drug-covid-19-malaria-hydroxychloroquine/6079864/

    To be published in The Journal of Anecdotal Medicine?
    Have these people not heard of controlled clinical trials ?
    Or are such things just unnecessary bureaucracy ...
  • timmotimmo Posts: 1,469

    malcolmg said:

    Eh? PM lies in ICU, yet FTSE up 2%.

    Following the Dow Jones, and with sterling falling the FTSE, which makes most of its money outside the Uk, pretty much automatically rises.

    NB:

    https://twitter.com/eddyelfenbein/status/1247325085507215361?s=21
    Long may it continue
    Perception across the world covid 19 has peaked
    Perception may be wrong. I’m sticking with my position: overweight on gold.
    Buy the rumour sell the fact
  • I've just had a phone call from an 086 number. It was a recorded message in what sounded like Chinese with stirring music in the back ground. Bizarre!
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,153
    kinabalu said:

    TOPPING said:

    There is this fantasy on all sides of the political debate that people who reach high office either in government or opposition are thick as two short planks.

    Clue: they are not. They are very very smart and moreso diligent. Look at Raab or Lammy's CV. Outstanding.

    Problem is they have to deal with, appeal to, and somehow try to satisfy us lot, the public, and we are thick as fuck.

    Fully behind your general point, which is more than reasonably solid, it's undeniably true. Almost every top politician is cleverer than most of the people who comment adversely on the intelligence of politicians. There are exceptions, however, e.g. Priti Patel. My genuine sense of her intellect is that it's not materially above average.
    I've no idea, but I think part of the issue is simply that politicians have to comment on loads of things they may no little about but are responsible for deciding so can misstep without being dumb, and every brain fart moment is so prominent and taken as reflective of overall intellect.
    Some might not be generally dumb but can be very dumb on certain matters of course.

    But I've little doubt many MPs are genuinely impressive face to face.

  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    edited April 2020
    OllyT said:

    OllyT said:

    I wonder if the 1600 deaths on the 27/3/2020 recorded as having something to do with Covid-19 were all actually tested as these would make up a very large proportion of the positive tests.

    No, they've recorded them even if COVID is suspected - but we know most suspected tests are negative, so quite possibly many of those were not COVID deaths.
    Good to see Liverpool FC have finally been shamed into doing the right thing and carry on paying their non-playing staff. Now if only they could retrospectively change the decision to have gone ahead with the Madrid game in the middle of last month.
    They were going to pay their non-playing staff either way. And it wasn't for Liverpool to stop tourists coming from Spain, that is and remains the government's responsibility.
    And as I have said before Liverpool could have requested a cancellation or to play behind closed doors if they had wanted to put public health ahead of their own financial interests,
    And as I have said it is not on football clubs to second-guess the experts on public health when the experts are telling them to go ahead.

    If the experts had said to cancel the game and Liverpool had ignored them and gone ahead then that would be a disgrace. They didn't.
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 9,167
    edited April 2020

    I've just had a phone call from an 086 number. It was a recorded message in what sounded like Chinese with stirring music in the back ground. Bizarre!

    The Chinese government's new global, "learn about our culture", advertising and PR campaign ?
  • EndillionEndillion Posts: 4,976
    He chased Clinton all the way to the convention, and he clearly has no interest in party unity (since it's not actually his party), so I'm not remotely surprised.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    Eh? PM lies in ICU, yet FTSE up 2%.

    Following the Dow Jones, and with sterling falling the FTSE, which makes most of its money outside the Uk, pretty much automatically rises.

    NB:

    https://twitter.com/eddyelfenbein/status/1247325085507215361?s=21
    Long may it continue
    Perception across the world covid 19 has peaked
    Wave 1 might have done... Unless it's 100% stabbed out (and it won't be) future waves are inevitable.
    Evidence?
    Well, it might be pointed out that the Black Death continued to come in waves in Europe for over 350 years, with the last major outbreak occurring in Marseilles in 1720.

    Then there were significant outbreaks in Asia, particularly China, in the late nineteenth century and carried on the trade routes there were major outbreaks in California as late as 1924.

    Since that time bubonic plague has declined across the globe for some reason. Nobody seems to know why.

    Hopefully it won’t take 500 years this time.
    Antibiotics...

  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,119
    Endillion said:

    He chased Clinton all the way to the convention, and he clearly has no interest in party unity (since it's not actually his party), so I'm not remotely surprised.
    I always find that weird that you can run for the nomination of a party which you aren't a member of.
  • Beibheirli_CBeibheirli_C Posts: 8,163
    Charles said:

    ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    Eh? PM lies in ICU, yet FTSE up 2%.

    Following the Dow Jones, and with sterling falling the FTSE, which makes most of its money outside the Uk, pretty much automatically rises.

    NB:

    https://twitter.com/eddyelfenbein/status/1247325085507215361?s=21
    Long may it continue
    Perception across the world covid 19 has peaked
    Wave 1 might have done... Unless it's 100% stabbed out (and it won't be) future waves are inevitable.
    Evidence?
    Well, it might be pointed out that the Black Death continued to come in waves in Europe for over 350 years, with the last major outbreak occurring in Marseilles in 1720.

    Then there were significant outbreaks in Asia, particularly China, in the late nineteenth century and carried on the trade routes there were major outbreaks in California as late as 1924.

    Since that time bubonic plague has declined across the globe for some reason. Nobody seems to know why.

    Hopefully it won’t take 500 years this time.
    Antibiotics...

    Improved hygiene and pest control. Few people these days have fleas and lice.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,424
    Charles said:

    ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    Eh? PM lies in ICU, yet FTSE up 2%.

    Following the Dow Jones, and with sterling falling the FTSE, which makes most of its money outside the Uk, pretty much automatically rises.

    NB:

    https://twitter.com/eddyelfenbein/status/1247325085507215361?s=21
    Long may it continue
    Perception across the world covid 19 has peaked
    Wave 1 might have done... Unless it's 100% stabbed out (and it won't be) future waves are inevitable.
    Evidence?
    Well, it might be pointed out that the Black Death continued to come in waves in Europe for over 350 years, with the last major outbreak occurring in Marseilles in 1720.

    Then there were significant outbreaks in Asia, particularly China, in the late nineteenth century and carried on the trade routes there were major outbreaks in California as late as 1924.

    Since that time bubonic plague has declined across the globe for some reason. Nobody seems to know why.

    Hopefully it won’t take 500 years this time.
    Antibiotics...

    Didn’t come in for another 22 years.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    TOPPING said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    I do wonder about who is advising them, although perhaps they aren't taking any notice. I can't believe any PR expert would be suggesting this is a good idea at the moment.
    And that name is Consignia level bad. Unpronounceable and overtones of arch, hell and chew (18th century synonym for a blowjob according to William Golding).
    That middle "e" is going to irritate me every time I see it. Which won't be that often, I hope.
    Makes it sounds like "Archie"

    Geddit?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,424

    ydoethur said:

    algarkirk said:

    ydoethur said:

    Cyclefree said:

    @AlastairMeeks - yes, the same poem has been ringing in my ears for the last 24 hours. When my colleagues adopted an "I'm alright, Jack" attitude, it was the first thing I thought.

    What's so frustrating is how powerless we are. I'm not physically able to volunteer to help others, so the best thing I can do is stay at home and not be a drain on hospital resources. It feels cowardly, yet it's the only course of action.

    --AS

    They also serve who only stand and wait.

    I’d quote the whole thing, but out of deference to @Casino_Royale I'll go light on the poetry.
    Poetry is one of my consolations. I am going to do something I have not done for a long time which is to learn poems off by heart and recite them. There is no-one to hear them apart from my daughter (and she is well used to my eccentricities), the horse in the next field and the cats.

    At my primary school the nuns made us learn a poem every week and on Tuesday morning before classes started someone would be picked to recite it. It was a marvellous way of improving memory and above all giving us an ear for the sheer beauty and musicality of the English language. And I did lots of poetry reading when I studied drama. At one point we also did poems in Latin and, somewhere in the attic, is my certificate for 1st place in a Latin poetry reciting competition. Now is the time to revive such skills.

    I used to recite poems to my children at bed-time: nonsense rhymes and the rest but The Owl and the Pussycat was a particular favourite.

    Occasionally I have been known to put obscure references to snatches of poems in my headers. Not that anyone notices ........ :(
    Perhaps that’s why TSE doesn’t do subtlety.
    Wordsworth, greatest of all Cumbrians, born 250 years ago today. April 7th 1770.

    The greatest master of the English language was born on this day.

    And so was Wordsworth...
    SeanT?

    :D:D
    I’ll rephrase:

    ‘The greatest master of the English language, who uses his brilliance to pun with unmatched flair, was born on this day.’
  • FossFoss Posts: 1,019

    I've just had a phone call from an 086 number. It was a recorded message in what sounded like Chinese with stirring music in the back ground. Bizarre!

    I've had a couple of these from various numbers over the past few weeks. I'm kinda worried that I'm about to be activated like some kind of Manchurian Candidate.
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,729
    Stocky said:

    ydoethur said:

    Chris said:

    MaxPB said:

    Just saw the Harry and Meghan stuff. What a pair of tits.

    Is that kind of comment really necessary? ;-)
    I think it was just a boob.
    Well - the ex-royal couple certainly aren`t without their knockers.
    They have to keep abreast of events.
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207
    Missed the start of the Scottish press conference - do those 74 new deaths include care homes?
  • OllyTOllyT Posts: 5,006
    edited April 2020
    kle4 said:

    OllyT said:

    Jesus F##king Christ, Fat Head is now speculating on a mechanisms and timing of a Tory party leadership election...

    I think you may be at the wrong website?
    Somebody save us from Patel!!!!!

    I can't help thinking both Patel and Raab are in such high offices to please the Brexiteers rather than actually being the best people for the job.
    Probably, but are people ever in high offices purely by being the best people for the job? If it were possible to objectively assess the merits of all MPs and put those best placed in the most appropriate positions I imagine government and opposition alike would look very different.
    To an extent perhaps but Patel and Raab occupy two of the 3 major offices primarily by dint of being hardline Brexiteers and one has accidentally now become de facto PM. We will see the wisdom of those choices over the coming months.
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207

    I've just had a phone call from an 086 number. It was a recorded message in what sounded like Chinese with stirring music in the back ground. Bizarre!

    The Chinese government's new global, "learn about our culture", advertising and PR campaign ?
    subliminal message to eat bats?
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,119
    Boris Johnson does not have pneumonia, Downing Street has said. Until now ministers and No 10 have refused to give a clear answer to this question. But asked if the PM has been diagnosed with pneumonia, the spokesman said: “That is not the case, no.”
  • Beibheirli_CBeibheirli_C Posts: 8,163

    Cyclefree said:

    It is a sunny day here. The magnolia tree is almost in full flower. The sky is blue with scarcely a cloud in it. Birds are singing all around. Bees are buzzing. It is the absolute epitome of a beautiful spring day. It is very hard to imagine that anything bad is going on right now.

    I am counting my blessings.

    Is it me or is the sky bluer?
    It probably is bluer. Lack of high-level contrails. They are white and spread out thus diluting the blueness. It was noted during 9/11 that the lack of contrails (and thus high-level water vapour) caused noticeable changes to weather etc.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,148
    BBC says Boris breathing with standard oxygen assistance but does not require mechanical ventilation
  • EndillionEndillion Posts: 4,976
    edited April 2020
    IshmaelZ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    Eh? PM lies in ICU, yet FTSE up 2%.

    Following the Dow Jones, and with sterling falling the FTSE, which makes most of its money outside the Uk, pretty much automatically rises.

    NB:

    https://twitter.com/eddyelfenbein/status/1247325085507215361?s=21
    Long may it continue
    Perception across the world covid 19 has peaked
    Wave 1 might have done... Unless it's 100% stabbed out (and it won't be) future waves are inevitable.
    Evidence?
    Well, it might be pointed out that the Black Death continued to come in waves in Europe for over 350 years, with the last major outbreak occurring in Marseilles in 1720.

    Then there were significant outbreaks in Asia, particularly China, in the late nineteenth century and carried on the trade routes there were major outbreaks in California as late as 1924.

    Since that time bubonic plague has declined across the globe for some reason. Nobody seems to know why.

    Hopefully it won’t take 500 years this time.
    That’s not evidence, next.
    You are the one positing a miracle, because for every infectious disease ever documented bar about 2, once it's there it is there to stay. I am pretty certain people will still be getting flu, colds and chicken pox in 2030. So the burden of proof is with you.
    I’m not positing anything of the sort. I don’t know. I merely asked for evidence, which I have yet to receive.
    You are asking for evidence that "there will be future waves of" an infectious disease - that is, that it will behave like all other infectious diseases in history, ever,in a way which is inherent in the meaning of "infectious." When offered evidence, you reject it as "not evidence." Inductive reasoning has its limitations, but I get on fairly well with assuming that the sun will rise tomorrow, because it always has in the past. If you want to claim that that's not evidence, fair enough.
    Spanish flu, Asian flu, Hong Kong flu, SARS, swine flu, avian flu, MERS...

    Any of the above still around? Or did they ultimately fizzle out once enough people had immunity, or they mutated (as they must do to keep finding new hosts) and settled into less harmful forms? I'd say recent history suggests that the jury is still very much out on whether this particular virus will stick around or not.

    I'm sure there are complicated reasons why (say) bubonic plague has been around for hundreds of years in what I assume is an unchanged or mostly unchanged form, while flu bugs change every year, but I suggest that no-one on here actually knows very much about them.

    Edit: bubonic plague is obviously caused by bacteria, not a virus, so I'll need a better example. HIV?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,374
    OllyT said:


    kle4 said:

    OllyT said:

    Jesus F##king Christ, Fat Head is now speculating on a mechanisms and timing of a Tory party leadership election...

    I think you may be at the wrong website?
    Somebody save us from Patel!!!!!

    I can't help thinking both Patel and Raab are in such high offices to please the Brexiteers rather than actually being the best people for the job.
    Probably, but are people ever in high offices purely by being the best people for the job? If it were possible to objectively assess the merits of all MPs and put those best placed in the most appropriate positions I imagine government and opposition alike would look very different.
    To an extent perhaps but Patel and Raab occupy two of the 3 major offices primarily by dint of being hardline Brexiteers and one has accidentally now become de facto PM. We will see the wisdom of those choices over the coming months.
    It is quite remarkable how, in democracies, the people in government seem (at least on occasion) to be appointed so as to appeal to the voters.

    Something! Must! Be! Done!
  • Beibheirli_CBeibheirli_C Posts: 8,163
    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    algarkirk said:

    ydoethur said:

    Cyclefree said:

    @AlastairMeeks - yes, the same poem has been ringing in my ears for the last 24 hours. When my colleagues adopted an "I'm alright, Jack" attitude, it was the first thing I thought.

    What's so frustrating is how powerless we are. I'm not physically able to volunteer to help others, so the best thing I can do is stay at home and not be a drain on hospital resources. It feels cowardly, yet it's the only course of action.

    --AS

    They also serve who only stand and wait.

    I’d quote the whole thing, but out of deference to @Casino_Royale I'll go light on the poetry.
    Poetry is one of my consolations. I am going to do something I have not done for a long time which is to learn poems off by heart and recite them. There is no-one to hear them apart from my daughter (and she is well used to my eccentricities), the horse in the next field and the cats.

    At my primary school the nuns made us learn a poem every week and on Tuesday morning before classes started someone would be picked to recite it. It was a marvellous way of improving memory and above all giving us an ear for the sheer beauty and musicality of the English language. And I did lots of poetry reading when I studied drama. At one point we also did poems in Latin and, somewhere in the attic, is my certificate for 1st place in a Latin poetry reciting competition. Now is the time to revive such skills.

    I used to recite poems to my children at bed-time: nonsense rhymes and the rest but The Owl and the Pussycat was a particular favourite.

    Occasionally I have been known to put obscure references to snatches of poems in my headers. Not that anyone notices ........ :(
    Perhaps that’s why TSE doesn’t do subtlety.
    Wordsworth, greatest of all Cumbrians, born 250 years ago today. April 7th 1770.

    The greatest master of the English language was born on this day.

    And so was Wordsworth...
    SeanT?

    :D:D
    I’ll rephrase:

    ‘The greatest master of the English language, who uses his brilliance to pun with unmatched flair, was born on this day.’
    I thought you were Welsh....
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,119
    Scott_xP said:
    I take it Raab hasn't had it yet then, despite him appearing to be the first member of the cabinet to display the symptoms of the plague.
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207
    Floater said:

    Missed the start of the Scottish press conference - do those 74 new deaths include care homes?

    found this

    The number of people who have died in Scotland after contracting Covid-19 is 296, a rise of 74 from 222 on Monday, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

    The figure is "relatively large", she said because the National Records of Scotland is moving to recording deaths seven days a week, having recorded just four deaths over the weekend, which she had said would be "artificially low".

    In total, 4,229 people have tested positive across the country and the number of patients being treated in hospital for Covid-19 is 1,751 including 199 in intensive care.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,148
    isam said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    I do wonder about who is advising them, although perhaps they aren't taking any notice. I can't believe any PR expert would be suggesting this is a good idea at the moment.
    And that name is Consignia level bad. Unpronounceable and overtones of arch, hell and chew (18th century synonym for a blowjob according to William Golding).
    That middle "e" is going to irritate me every time I see it. Which won't be that often, I hope.
    The aim “to do something that matters” makes it sound like a spoof. Or the 21st century version of those 18th century bubble companies: “For carrying-on an undertaking of great advantage but no-one to know what it is”.
    Sounds like a bad pitch to potential clients in The Apprentice

    “Before SussexRoyal, came the idea of Arche – the Greek word meaning source of action. We connected to this concept for the charitable organisation we hoped to build one day, and it became the inspiration for our son’s name. To do something of meaning, to do something that matters.
    “Archewell is a name that combines an ancient word for strength and action, and another that evokes the deep resources we each must draw upon. We look forward to launching Archewell when the time is right.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/apr/07/harry-and-meghan-to-launch-new-charitable-outfit
    Nice place to run a charity from
    https://twitter.com/DailyMailUK/status/1246348474670604288?s=20
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    Endillion said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    Eh? PM lies in ICU, yet FTSE up 2%.

    Following the Dow Jones, and with sterling falling the FTSE, which makes most of its money outside the Uk, pretty much automatically rises.

    NB:

    https://twitter.com/eddyelfenbein/status/1247325085507215361?s=21
    Long may it continue
    Perception across the world covid 19 has peaked
    Wave 1 might have done... Unless it's 100% stabbed out (and it won't be) future waves are inevitable.
    Evidence?
    Well, it might be pointed out that the Black Death continued to come in waves in Europe for over 350 years, with the last major outbreak occurring in Marseilles in 1720.

    Then there were significant outbreaks in Asia, particularly China, in the late nineteenth century and carried on the trade routes there were major outbreaks in California as late as 1924.

    Since that time bubonic plague has declined across the globe for some reason. Nobody seems to know why.

    Hopefully it won’t take 500 years this time.
    That’s not evidence, next.
    You are the one positing a miracle, because for every infectious disease ever documented bar about 2, once it's there it is there to stay. I am pretty certain people will still be getting flu, colds and chicken pox in 2030. So the burden of proof is with you.
    I’m not positing anything of the sort. I don’t know. I merely asked for evidence, which I have yet to receive.
    You are asking for evidence that "there will be future waves of" an infectious disease - that is, that it will behave like all other infectious diseases in history, ever,in a way which is inherent in the meaning of "infectious." When offered evidence, you reject it as "not evidence." Inductive reasoning has its limitations, but I get on fairly well with assuming that the sun will rise tomorrow, because it always has in the past. If you want to claim that that's not evidence, fair enough.
    Spanish flu, Asian flu, Hong Kong flu, SARS, swine flu, avian flu, MERS...

    Any of the above still around? Or did they ultimately fizzle out once enough people had immunity, or they mutated (as they must do to keep finding new hosts) and settled into less harmful forms? I'd say recent history suggests that the jury is still very much out on whether this particular virus will stick around or not.

    I'm sure there are complicated reasons why (say) bubonic plague has been around for hundreds of years in what I assume is an unchanged or mostly unchanged form, while flu bugs change every year, but I suggest that no-one on here actually knows very much about them.
    Yes many of them are still around, while others are in the flu vaccine.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,424

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    algarkirk said:

    ydoethur said:

    Cyclefree said:

    @AlastairMeeks - yes, the same poem has been ringing in my ears for the last 24 hours. When my colleagues adopted an "I'm alright, Jack" attitude, it was the first thing I thought.

    What's so frustrating is how powerless we are. I'm not physically able to volunteer to help others, so the best thing I can do is stay at home and not be a drain on hospital resources. It feels cowardly, yet it's the only course of action.

    --AS

    They also serve who only stand and wait.

    I’d quote the whole thing, but out of deference to @Casino_Royale I'll go light on the poetry.
    Poetry is one of my consolations. I am going to do something I have not done for a long time which is to learn poems off by heart and recite them. There is no-one to hear them apart from my daughter (and she is well used to my eccentricities), the horse in the next field and the cats.

    At my primary school the nuns made us learn a poem every week and on Tuesday morning before classes started someone would be picked to recite it. It was a marvellous way of improving memory and above all giving us an ear for the sheer beauty and musicality of the English language. And I did lots of poetry reading when I studied drama. At one point we also did poems in Latin and, somewhere in the attic, is my certificate for 1st place in a Latin poetry reciting competition. Now is the time to revive such skills.

    I used to recite poems to my children at bed-time: nonsense rhymes and the rest but The Owl and the Pussycat was a particular favourite.

    Occasionally I have been known to put obscure references to snatches of poems in my headers. Not that anyone notices ........ :(
    Perhaps that’s why TSE doesn’t do subtlety.
    Wordsworth, greatest of all Cumbrians, born 250 years ago today. April 7th 1770.

    The greatest master of the English language was born on this day.

    And so was Wordsworth...
    SeanT?

    :D:D
    I’ll rephrase:

    ‘The greatest master of the English language, who uses his brilliance to pun with unmatched flair, was born on this day.’
    I thought you were Welsh....
    Doesn’t mean I can’t speak English!
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,729

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    algarkirk said:

    ydoethur said:

    Cyclefree said:

    @AlastairMeeks - yes, the same poem has been ringing in my ears for the last 24 hours. When my colleagues adopted an "I'm alright, Jack" attitude, it was the first thing I thought.

    What's so frustrating is how powerless we are. I'm not physically able to volunteer to help others, so the best thing I can do is stay at home and not be a drain on hospital resources. It feels cowardly, yet it's the only course of action.

    --AS

    They also serve who only stand and wait.

    I’d quote the whole thing, but out of deference to @Casino_Royale I'll go light on the poetry.
    Poetry is one of my consolations. I am going to do something I have not done for a long time which is to learn poems off by heart and recite them. There is no-one to hear them apart from my daughter (and she is well used to my eccentricities), the horse in the next field and the cats.

    At my primary school the nuns made us learn a poem every week and on Tuesday morning before classes started someone would be picked to recite it. It was a marvellous way of improving memory and above all giving us an ear for the sheer beauty and musicality of the English language. And I did lots of poetry reading when I studied drama. At one point we also did poems in Latin and, somewhere in the attic, is my certificate for 1st place in a Latin poetry reciting competition. Now is the time to revive such skills.

    I used to recite poems to my children at bed-time: nonsense rhymes and the rest but The Owl and the Pussycat was a particular favourite.

    Occasionally I have been known to put obscure references to snatches of poems in my headers. Not that anyone notices ........ :(
    Perhaps that’s why TSE doesn’t do subtlety.
    Wordsworth, greatest of all Cumbrians, born 250 years ago today. April 7th 1770.

    The greatest master of the English language was born on this day.

    And so was Wordsworth...
    SeanT?

    :D:D
    I’ll rephrase:

    ‘The greatest master of the English language, who uses his brilliance to pun with unmatched flair, was born on this day.’
    I thought you were Welsh....
    I thought Shakespeare was born on April Foold day...
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    I do wonder about who is advising them, although perhaps they aren't taking any notice. I can't believe any PR expert would be suggesting this is a good idea at the moment.
    And that name is Consignia level bad. Unpronounceable and overtones of arch, hell and chew (18th century synonym for a blowjob according to William Golding).
    That middle "e" is going to irritate me every time I see it. Which won't be that often, I hope.
    The aim “to do something that matters” makes it sound like a spoof. Or the 21st century version of those 18th century bubble companies: “For carrying-on an undertaking of great advantage but no-one to know what it is”.
    Where can I invest? I only have some tulip bulbs - perhaps we can do a swap for some shares?
    The South Sea Company was an extremely profitable investment, thank you very much
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,424

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    algarkirk said:

    ydoethur said:

    Cyclefree said:

    @AlastairMeeks - yes, the same poem has been ringing in my ears for the last 24 hours. When my colleagues adopted an "I'm alright, Jack" attitude, it was the first thing I thought.

    What's so frustrating is how powerless we are. I'm not physically able to volunteer to help others, so the best thing I can do is stay at home and not be a drain on hospital resources. It feels cowardly, yet it's the only course of action.

    --AS

    They also serve who only stand and wait.

    I’d quote the whole thing, but out of deference to @Casino_Royale I'll go light on the poetry.
    Poetry is one of my consolations. I am going to do something I have not done for a long time which is to learn poems off by heart and recite them. There is no-one to hear them apart from my daughter (and she is well used to my eccentricities), the horse in the next field and the cats.

    At my primary school the nuns made us learn a poem every week and on Tuesday morning before classes started someone would be picked to recite it. It was a marvellous way of improving memory and above all giving us an ear for the sheer beauty and musicality of the English language. And I did lots of poetry reading when I studied drama. At one point we also did poems in Latin and, somewhere in the attic, is my certificate for 1st place in a Latin poetry reciting competition. Now is the time to revive such skills.

    I used to recite poems to my children at bed-time: nonsense rhymes and the rest but The Owl and the Pussycat was a particular favourite.

    Occasionally I have been known to put obscure references to snatches of poems in my headers. Not that anyone notices ........ :(
    Perhaps that’s why TSE doesn’t do subtlety.
    Wordsworth, greatest of all Cumbrians, born 250 years ago today. April 7th 1770.

    The greatest master of the English language was born on this day.

    And so was Wordsworth...
    SeanT?

    :D:D
    I’ll rephrase:

    ‘The greatest master of the English language, who uses his brilliance to pun with unmatched flair, was born on this day.’
    I thought you were Welsh....
    I thought Shakespeare was born on April Foold day...
    He was baptised on the 26th. His exact DoB is uncertain.
  • TGOHF666TGOHF666 Posts: 2,052

    There seems to be an unwelcome virus fascism settling in on PB, where any piece of potential good news is derided, those offering more positive interpretations of the data are attacked, and positions other than extreme extended lockdowns are castigated as irresponsible.

    Indeed - for some the lockdown must remain in place until we have had 3 months of no new cases and 6 months of no deaths.

    Extreme binary thinking.

    Austria and Germany are putting in place a flexible relaxation system. In a week or so the Uk will likely do the same - and thank god.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    Missed the start of the Scottish press conference - do those 74 new deaths include care homes?

    found this

    The number of people who have died in Scotland after contracting Covid-19 is 296, a rise of 74 from 222 on Monday, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

    The figure is "relatively large", she said because the National Records of Scotland is moving to recording deaths seven days a week, having recorded just four deaths over the weekend, which she had said would be "artificially low".

    In total, 4,229 people have tested positive across the country and the number of patients being treated in hospital for Covid-19 is 1,751 including 199 in intensive care.
    So the decline in UK deaths in recent days might just be a weekend effect, certainly was in Scotland.

    I wonder whether the weekend effect applies to England, Wales and NI too or if its just Scotland?
  • ukpaulukpaul Posts: 649
    eristdoof said:

    There seems to be an unwelcome virus fascism settling in on PB, where any piece of potential good news is derided, those offering more positive interpretations of the data are attacked, and positions other than extreme extended lockdowns are castigated as irresponsible.

    Or providing misinformation
    I welcome good news. I do not welcome clutching at straws being passed off as good news, e.g. the number of deaths on one day being lower than on the previous day. Unfounded optimism can also kill if it leads to people getting the wrong message.

    Being a pessimist in normal times is to be thought of as a Cassandra, in present times it is more akin to being seen as a prophet. Society needs both optimists and pessimists. In normal times the optimists have the upper hand so it must be terrible being an optimist when reality is so shudderingly awful, a real challenge to core beliefs.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,225

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    algarkirk said:

    ydoethur said:

    Cyclefree said:

    @AlastairMeeks - yes, the same poem has been ringing in my ears for the last 24 hours. When my colleagues adopted an "I'm alright, Jack" attitude, it was the first thing I thought.

    What's so frustrating is how powerless we are. I'm not physically able to volunteer to help others, so the best thing I can do is stay at home and not be a drain on hospital resources. It feels cowardly, yet it's the only course of action.

    --AS

    They also serve who only stand and wait.

    I’d quote the whole thing, but out of deference to @Casino_Royale I'll go light on the poetry.
    Poetry is one of my consolations. I am going to do something I have not done for a long time which is to learn poems off by heart and recite them. There is no-one to hear them apart from my daughter (and she is well used to my eccentricities), the horse in the next field and the cats.

    At my primary school the nuns made us learn a poem every week and on Tuesday morning before classes started someone would be picked to recite it. It was a marvellous way of improving memory and above all giving us an ear for the sheer beauty and musicality of the English language. And I did lots of poetry reading when I studied drama. At one point we also did poems in Latin and, somewhere in the attic, is my certificate for 1st place in a Latin poetry reciting competition. Now is the time to revive such skills.

    I used to recite poems to my children at bed-time: nonsense rhymes and the rest but The Owl and the Pussycat was a particular favourite.

    Occasionally I have been known to put obscure references to snatches of poems in my headers. Not that anyone notices ........ :(
    Perhaps that’s why TSE doesn’t do subtlety.
    Wordsworth, greatest of all Cumbrians, born 250 years ago today. April 7th 1770.

    The greatest master of the English language was born on this day.

    And so was Wordsworth...
    SeanT?

    :D:D
    I’ll rephrase:

    ‘The greatest master of the English language, who uses his brilliance to pun with unmatched flair, was born on this day.’
    I thought you were Welsh....
    Fellow daffodil fancier.
  • EndillionEndillion Posts: 4,976

    Cyclefree said:

    It is a sunny day here. The magnolia tree is almost in full flower. The sky is blue with scarcely a cloud in it. Birds are singing all around. Bees are buzzing. It is the absolute epitome of a beautiful spring day. It is very hard to imagine that anything bad is going on right now.

    I am counting my blessings.

    Is it me or is the sky bluer?
    It probably is bluer. Lack of high-level contrails. They are white and spread out thus diluting the blueness. It was noted during 9/11 that the lack of contrails (and thus high-level water vapour) caused noticeable changes to weather etc.
    Wait, so the CIA-sponsored mind control drugs they spew out are about to wear off?

    Does this explain why the US still needs to have so many internal flights running?
  • Richard_TyndallRichard_Tyndall Posts: 32,570
    Endillion said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    Eh? PM lies in ICU, yet FTSE up 2%.

    Following the Dow Jones, and with sterling falling the FTSE, which makes most of its money outside the Uk, pretty much automatically rises.

    NB:

    https://twitter.com/eddyelfenbein/status/1247325085507215361?s=21
    Long may it continue
    Perception across the world covid 19 has peaked
    Wave 1 might have done... Unless it's 100% stabbed out (and it won't be) future waves are inevitable.
    Evidence?
    Well, it might be pointed out that the Black Death continued to come in waves in Europe for over 350 years, with the last major outbreak occurring in Marseilles in 1720.

    Then there were significant outbreaks in Asia, particularly China, in the late nineteenth century and carried on the trade routes there were major outbreaks in California as late as 1924.

    Since that time bubonic plague has declined across the globe for some reason. Nobody seems to know why.

    Hopefully it won’t take 500 years this time.
    That’s not evidence, next.
    You are the one positing a miracle, because for every infectious disease ever documented bar about 2, once it's there it is there to stay. I am pretty certain people will still be getting flu, colds and chicken pox in 2030. So the burden of proof is with you.
    I’m not positing anything of the sort. I don’t know. I merely asked for evidence, which I have yet to receive.
    You are asking for evidence that "there will be future waves of" an infectious disease - that is, that it will behave like all other infectious diseases in history, ever,in a way which is inherent in the meaning of "infectious." When offered evidence, you reject it as "not evidence." Inductive reasoning has its limitations, but I get on fairly well with assuming that the sun will rise tomorrow, because it always has in the past. If you want to claim that that's not evidence, fair enough.
    Spanish flu, Asian flu, Hong Kong flu, SARS, swine flu, avian flu, MERS...

    Any of the above still around? Or did they ultimately fizzle out once enough people had immunity, or they mutated (as they must do to keep finding new hosts) and settled into less harmful forms? I'd say recent history suggests that the jury is still very much out on whether this particular virus will stick around or not.

    I'm sure there are complicated reasons why (say) bubonic plague has been around for hundreds of years in what I assume is an unchanged or mostly unchanged form, while flu bugs change every year, but I suggest that no-one on here actually knows very much about them.

    Edit: bubonic plague is obviously caused by bacteria, not a virus, so I'll need a better example. HIV?
    Both SARS and MERS are still around.MERS has a 33% death rate but thankfully is confined almost entirely to the Arabian Peninsular and is not easy to catch.

    They are really the only two that matter as they are Coronaviruses like Covid-19. The rest are very different and appear to have much higher mutation rates which is why they don't reappear in the same form year after year.
  • Beibheirli_CBeibheirli_C Posts: 8,163
    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    algarkirk said:

    ydoethur said:

    Cyclefree said:

    @AlastairMeeks - yes, the same poem has been ringing in my ears for the last 24 hours. When my colleagues adopted an "I'm alright, Jack" attitude, it was the first thing I thought.

    What's so frustrating is how powerless we are. I'm not physically able to volunteer to help others, so the best thing I can do is stay at home and not be a drain on hospital resources. It feels cowardly, yet it's the only course of action.

    --AS

    They also serve who only stand and wait.

    I’d quote the whole thing, but out of deference to @Casino_Royale I'll go light on the poetry.
    Poetry is one of my consolations. I am going to do something I have not done for a long time which is to learn poems off by heart and recite them. There is no-one to hear them apart from my daughter (and she is well used to my eccentricities), the horse in the next field and the cats.

    At my primary school the nuns made us learn a poem every week and on Tuesday morning before classes started someone would be picked to recite it. It was a marvellous way of improving memory and above all giving us an ear for the sheer beauty and musicality of the English language. And I did lots of poetry reading when I studied drama. At one point we also did poems in Latin and, somewhere in the attic, is my certificate for 1st place in a Latin poetry reciting competition. Now is the time to revive such skills.

    I used to recite poems to my children at bed-time: nonsense rhymes and the rest but The Owl and the Pussycat was a particular favourite.

    Occasionally I have been known to put obscure references to snatches of poems in my headers. Not that anyone notices ........ :(
    Perhaps that’s why TSE doesn’t do subtlety.
    Wordsworth, greatest of all Cumbrians, born 250 years ago today. April 7th 1770.

    The greatest master of the English language was born on this day.

    And so was Wordsworth...
    SeanT?

    :D:D
    I’ll rephrase:

    ‘The greatest master of the English language, who uses his brilliance to pun with unmatched flair, was born on this day.’
    I thought you were Welsh....
    Fellow daffodil fancier.
    I like daffodils - nice and bright and cheerful and harbingers of warmer weather and sunny days.

    Anyway, time to do stuff....

    Later peeps... ;)
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,374
    Charles said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    I do wonder about who is advising them, although perhaps they aren't taking any notice. I can't believe any PR expert would be suggesting this is a good idea at the moment.
    And that name is Consignia level bad. Unpronounceable and overtones of arch, hell and chew (18th century synonym for a blowjob according to William Golding).
    That middle "e" is going to irritate me every time I see it. Which won't be that often, I hope.
    The aim “to do something that matters” makes it sound like a spoof. Or the 21st century version of those 18th century bubble companies: “For carrying-on an undertaking of great advantage but no-one to know what it is”.
    Where can I invest? I only have some tulip bulbs - perhaps we can do a swap for some shares?
    The South Sea Company was an extremely profitable investment, thank you very much
    A couple of people found investing with Madoff excellent - they left shortly before the end.

    Investing is somewhat like social gatherings. The arrival is nowhere near as important as timing the exit.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,225
    The PM sounds in slightly better condition than rumoured.

    ..Boris Johnson does not have pneumonia, Downing Street has said. Until now ministers and No 10 have refused to give a clear answer to this question. But asked if the PM has been diagnosed with pneumonia, the spokesman said: “That is not the case, no.”
    The spokesman said that Johnson was “stable” overnight and “remains in good spirits”. In a statement about his condition in intensive care, the prime minister’s spokesman said:
    The prime minister has been stable overnight and remains in good spirits. He is receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any other assistance. He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support.
  • EndillionEndillion Posts: 4,976

    Endillion said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    Eh? PM lies in ICU, yet FTSE up 2%.

    Following the Dow Jones, and with sterling falling the FTSE, which makes most of its money outside the Uk, pretty much automatically rises.

    NB:

    https://twitter.com/eddyelfenbein/status/1247325085507215361?s=21
    Long may it continue
    Perception across the world covid 19 has peaked
    Wave 1 might have done... Unless it's 100% stabbed out (and it won't be) future waves are inevitable.
    Evidence?
    Well, it might be pointed out that the Black Death continued to come in waves in Europe for over 350 years, with the last major outbreak occurring in Marseilles in 1720.

    Then there were significant outbreaks in Asia, particularly China, in the late nineteenth century and carried on the trade routes there were major outbreaks in California as late as 1924.

    Since that time bubonic plague has declined across the globe for some reason. Nobody seems to know why.

    Hopefully it won’t take 500 years this time.
    That’s not evidence, next.
    You are the one positing a miracle, because for every infectious disease ever documented bar about 2, once it's there it is there to stay. I am pretty certain people will still be getting flu, colds and chicken pox in 2030. So the burden of proof is with you.
    I’m not positing anything of the sort. I don’t know. I merely asked for evidence, which I have yet to receive.
    You are asking for evidence that "there will be future waves of" an infectious disease - that is, that it will behave like all other infectious diseases in history, ever,in a way which is inherent in the meaning of "infectious." When offered evidence, you reject it as "not evidence." Inductive reasoning has its limitations, but I get on fairly well with assuming that the sun will rise tomorrow, because it always has in the past. If you want to claim that that's not evidence, fair enough.
    Spanish flu, Asian flu, Hong Kong flu, SARS, swine flu, avian flu, MERS...

    Any of the above still around? Or did they ultimately fizzle out once enough people had immunity, or they mutated (as they must do to keep finding new hosts) and settled into less harmful forms? I'd say recent history suggests that the jury is still very much out on whether this particular virus will stick around or not.

    I'm sure there are complicated reasons why (say) bubonic plague has been around for hundreds of years in what I assume is an unchanged or mostly unchanged form, while flu bugs change every year, but I suggest that no-one on here actually knows very much about them.
    Yes many of them are still around, while others are in the flu vaccine.
    Yes, but they're unstable, and mutate a lot. A lot of the mutated forms are harmless, and every once in a while (~20 years) we get a bad version that kills people. Which is what I would guess (based on ignorance plus lots of time on wikipedia) is what will ultimately happen to this outbreak, once the initial wave is beaten back.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,226
    edited April 2020
    TOPPING said:

    She was clever enough to understand what she wanted and then to know how to go out and achieve it. By convincing people like me and you to vote for her and convincing her peers that she was able to handle high office.

    By definition she is indeed clever enough to have risen to where she is because she has risen to where she is. But I would stake big money on her score in any IQ test being significantly below any other Home Secretary since records began - barring some long ago outlier whose existence @ydoethur will no doubt inform us off. And point of order - "people like me and you" might have voted for her but the one that IS me definitely never would. Bet you wouldn't have done either if you lived in Witham. Bet you'd have voted for the Liberal Democrat.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,225
    edited April 2020
    Charles said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    I do wonder about who is advising them, although perhaps they aren't taking any notice. I can't believe any PR expert would be suggesting this is a good idea at the moment.
    And that name is Consignia level bad. Unpronounceable and overtones of arch, hell and chew (18th century synonym for a blowjob according to William Golding).
    That middle "e" is going to irritate me every time I see it. Which won't be that often, I hope.
    The aim “to do something that matters” makes it sound like a spoof. Or the 21st century version of those 18th century bubble companies: “For carrying-on an undertaking of great advantage but no-one to know what it is”.
    Where can I invest? I only have some tulip bulbs - perhaps we can do a swap for some shares?
    The South Sea Company was an extremely profitable investment, thank you very much
    Has investment banking changed at all since then ? :smile:
  • Andy_CookeAndy_Cooke Posts: 5,005

    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    Eh? PM lies in ICU, yet FTSE up 2%.

    Following the Dow Jones, and with sterling falling the FTSE, which makes most of its money outside the Uk, pretty much automatically rises.

    NB:

    https://twitter.com/eddyelfenbein/status/1247325085507215361?s=21
    Long may it continue
    Perception across the world covid 19 has peaked
    Wave 1 might have done... Unless it's 100% stabbed out (and it won't be) future waves are inevitable.
    Evidence?
    Well, it might be pointed out that the Black Death continued to come in waves in Europe for over 350 years, with the last major outbreak occurring in Marseilles in 1720.

    Then there were significant outbreaks in Asia, particularly China, in the late nineteenth century and carried on the trade routes there were major outbreaks in California as late as 1924.

    Since that time bubonic plague has declined across the globe for some reason. Nobody seems to know why.

    Hopefully it won’t take 500 years this time.
    That’s not evidence, next.
    You are the one positing a miracle, because for every infectious disease ever documented bar about 2, once it's there it is there to stay. I am pretty certain people will still be getting flu, colds and chicken pox in 2030. So the burden of proof is with you.
    I’m not positing anything of the sort. I don’t know. I merely asked for evidence, which I have yet to receive.
    Well, epidemiologists tell us that when a disease becomes epidemic, you get it in repeated waves until herd immunity builds up (or it is immunised against). They have pointed to repeated epidemics throughout history.

    It may be that this will, almost uniquely, not do so, but I think that if it is expected to be exceptional, we'd need to hear evidence as to why it should be such an exception.

    Believe me, I'd love to believe that, but I haven't seen any reason to do so.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    ukpaul said:

    eristdoof said:

    There seems to be an unwelcome virus fascism settling in on PB, where any piece of potential good news is derided, those offering more positive interpretations of the data are attacked, and positions other than extreme extended lockdowns are castigated as irresponsible.

    Or providing misinformation
    I welcome good news. I do not welcome clutching at straws being passed off as good news, e.g. the number of deaths on one day being lower than on the previous day. Unfounded optimism can also kill if it leads to people getting the wrong message.

    Being a pessimist in normal times is to be thought of as a Cassandra, in present times it is more akin to being seen as a prophet. Society needs both optimists and pessimists. In normal times the optimists have the upper hand so it must be terrible being an optimist when reality is so shudderingly awful, a real challenge to core beliefs.
    Cassandra was a prophet, which kinda undermines your antithesis.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 59,935
    Nigelb said:

    The PM sounds in slightly better condition than rumoured.

    ..Boris Johnson does not have pneumonia, Downing Street has said. Until now ministers and No 10 have refused to give a clear answer to this question. But asked if the PM has been diagnosed with pneumonia, the spokesman said: “That is not the case, no.”
    The spokesman said that Johnson was “stable” overnight and “remains in good spirits”. In a statement about his condition in intensive care, the prime minister’s spokesman said:
    The prime minister has been stable overnight and remains in good spirits. He is receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any other assistance. He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support.

    The enforced resting is probably doing wonders.
  • EndillionEndillion Posts: 4,976
    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    algarkirk said:

    ydoethur said:

    Cyclefree said:

    @AlastairMeeks - yes, the same poem has been ringing in my ears for the last 24 hours. When my colleagues adopted an "I'm alright, Jack" attitude, it was the first thing I thought.

    What's so frustrating is how powerless we are. I'm not physically able to volunteer to help others, so the best thing I can do is stay at home and not be a drain on hospital resources. It feels cowardly, yet it's the only course of action.

    --AS

    They also serve who only stand and wait.

    I’d quote the whole thing, but out of deference to @Casino_Royale I'll go light on the poetry.
    Poetry is one of my consolations. I am going to do something I have not done for a long time which is to learn poems off by heart and recite them. There is no-one to hear them apart from my daughter (and she is well used to my eccentricities), the horse in the next field and the cats.

    At my primary school the nuns made us learn a poem every week and on Tuesday morning before classes started someone would be picked to recite it. It was a marvellous way of improving memory and above all giving us an ear for the sheer beauty and musicality of the English language. And I did lots of poetry reading when I studied drama. At one point we also did poems in Latin and, somewhere in the attic, is my certificate for 1st place in a Latin poetry reciting competition. Now is the time to revive such skills.

    I used to recite poems to my children at bed-time: nonsense rhymes and the rest but The Owl and the Pussycat was a particular favourite.

    Occasionally I have been known to put obscure references to snatches of poems in my headers. Not that anyone notices ........ :(
    Perhaps that’s why TSE doesn’t do subtlety.
    Wordsworth, greatest of all Cumbrians, born 250 years ago today. April 7th 1770.

    The greatest master of the English language was born on this day.

    And so was Wordsworth...
    SeanT?

    :D:D
    I’ll rephrase:

    ‘The greatest master of the English language, who uses his brilliance to pun with unmatched flair, was born on this day.’
    I thought you were Welsh....
    Doesn’t mean I can’t speak English!
    Pen-blwydd Hapus.

    I think.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,225
    LOL
    Downing Street has signalled that it does not want to take up Donald Trump’s offer of experimental coronavirus drugs for Boris Johnson. ...
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,374
    edited April 2020
    Nigelb said:

    Charles said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    I do wonder about who is advising them, although perhaps they aren't taking any notice. I can't believe any PR expert would be suggesting this is a good idea at the moment.
    And that name is Consignia level bad. Unpronounceable and overtones of arch, hell and chew (18th century synonym for a blowjob according to William Golding).
    That middle "e" is going to irritate me every time I see it. Which won't be that often, I hope.
    The aim “to do something that matters” makes it sound like a spoof. Or the 21st century version of those 18th century bubble companies: “For carrying-on an undertaking of great advantage but no-one to know what it is”.
    Where can I invest? I only have some tulip bulbs - perhaps we can do a swap for some shares?
    The South Sea Company was an extremely profitable investment, thank you very much
    Has investment banking changed at all since then ? :smile:
    It has become overrun with rapacious rogues formed, chiefly, from small consciences and vast greed.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,153
    Charles said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    I do wonder about who is advising them, although perhaps they aren't taking any notice. I can't believe any PR expert would be suggesting this is a good idea at the moment.
    And that name is Consignia level bad. Unpronounceable and overtones of arch, hell and chew (18th century synonym for a blowjob according to William Golding).
    That middle "e" is going to irritate me every time I see it. Which won't be that often, I hope.
    The aim “to do something that matters” makes it sound like a spoof. Or the 21st century version of those 18th century bubble companies: “For carrying-on an undertaking of great advantage but no-one to know what it is”.
    Where can I invest? I only have some tulip bulbs - perhaps we can do a swap for some shares?
    The South Sea Company was an extremely profitable investment, thank you very much
    Any ancestors caught up in it? :)
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,225

    Nigelb said:

    Charles said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    I do wonder about who is advising them, although perhaps they aren't taking any notice. I can't believe any PR expert would be suggesting this is a good idea at the moment.
    And that name is Consignia level bad. Unpronounceable and overtones of arch, hell and chew (18th century synonym for a blowjob according to William Golding).
    That middle "e" is going to irritate me every time I see it. Which won't be that often, I hope.
    The aim “to do something that matters” makes it sound like a spoof. Or the 21st century version of those 18th century bubble companies: “For carrying-on an undertaking of great advantage but no-one to know what it is”.
    Where can I invest? I only have some tulip bulbs - perhaps we can do a swap for some shares?
    The South Sea Company was an extremely profitable investment, thank you very much
    Has investment banking changed at all since then ? :smile:
    It has become overrun with rapacious rogues formed from small conciences and vast greed.
    Yes, but has it changed ?
  • felixfelix Posts: 15,164
    HYUFD said:
    I have no reason to doubt the words but let's be clear that there will need to be expulsions from the party if the words are to have meaning - at all levels.
  • TGOHF666TGOHF666 Posts: 2,052

    Floater said:

    Floater said:

    Missed the start of the Scottish press conference - do those 74 new deaths include care homes?

    found this

    The number of people who have died in Scotland after contracting Covid-19 is 296, a rise of 74 from 222 on Monday, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

    The figure is "relatively large", she said because the National Records of Scotland is moving to recording deaths seven days a week, having recorded just four deaths over the weekend, which she had said would be "artificially low".

    In total, 4,229 people have tested positive across the country and the number of patients being treated in hospital for Covid-19 is 1,751 including 199 in intensive care.
    So the decline in UK deaths in recent days might just be a weekend effect, certainly was in Scotland.

    I wonder whether the weekend effect applies to England, Wales and NI too or if its just Scotland?
    Weekend effect has shown itself for the last 2 weekends.

    Hence why 7 day rolling average is a better measure.
  • Richard_TyndallRichard_Tyndall Posts: 32,570

    Cyclefree said:

    It is a sunny day here. The magnolia tree is almost in full flower. The sky is blue with scarcely a cloud in it. Birds are singing all around. Bees are buzzing. It is the absolute epitome of a beautiful spring day. It is very hard to imagine that anything bad is going on right now.

    I am counting my blessings.

    Is it me or is the sky bluer?
    It probably is bluer. Lack of high-level contrails. They are white and spread out thus diluting the blueness. It was noted during 9/11 that the lack of contrails (and thus high-level water vapour) caused noticeable changes to weather etc.
    I have certainly noticed the stars appear brighter at present. Like the Incans I use the Pleaides as a judge of how clear the sky is.
  • rural_voterrural_voter Posts: 2,038

    ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    Eh? PM lies in ICU, yet FTSE up 2%.

    Following the Dow Jones, and with sterling falling the FTSE, which makes most of its money outside the Uk, pretty much automatically rises.

    NB:

    https://twitter.com/eddyelfenbein/status/1247325085507215361?s=21
    Long may it continue
    Perception across the world covid 19 has peaked
    Wave 1 might have done... Unless it's 100% stabbed out (and it won't be) future waves are inevitable.
    Evidence?
    Well, it might be pointed out that the Black Death continued to come in waves in Europe for over 350 years, with the last major outbreak occurring in Marseilles in 1720.

    Then there were significant outbreaks in Asia, particularly China, in the late nineteenth century and carried on the trade routes there were major outbreaks in California as late as 1924.

    Since that time bubonic plague has declined across the globe for some reason. Nobody seems to know why.

    Hopefully it won’t take 500 years this time.
    That’s not evidence, next.
    Yes it is. The only disease I can think of that has been completely stamped out is smallpox and that only after mass vaccinations.
    Did SARS-COV-1 die out? The outbreak seems to have been stamped out fairly effectively by authorities in the Far East, Canada and any other places where it spread.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,226
    MattW said:

    I have The Tao of Pooh arriving later from Amazon.

    That sounds scary. I wouldn't let him in if I were you.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,374
    kinabalu said:

    MattW said:

    I have The Tao of Pooh arriving later from Amazon.

    That sounds scary. I wouldn't let him in if I were you.
    Search him for bats
  • ukpaulukpaul Posts: 649
    IshmaelZ said:

    ukpaul said:

    eristdoof said:

    There seems to be an unwelcome virus fascism settling in on PB, where any piece of potential good news is derided, those offering more positive interpretations of the data are attacked, and positions other than extreme extended lockdowns are castigated as irresponsible.

    Or providing misinformation
    I welcome good news. I do not welcome clutching at straws being passed off as good news, e.g. the number of deaths on one day being lower than on the previous day. Unfounded optimism can also kill if it leads to people getting the wrong message.

    Being a pessimist in normal times is to be thought of as a Cassandra, in present times it is more akin to being seen as a prophet. Society needs both optimists and pessimists. In normal times the optimists have the upper hand so it must be terrible being an optimist when reality is so shudderingly awful, a real challenge to core beliefs.
    Cassandra was a prophet, which kinda undermines your antithesis.
    Ah, but Cassandra was not ‘seen as a prophet’. It’s the perception that creates the difference.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,153
    eadric said:

    Cyclefree said:

    It is a sunny day here. The magnolia tree is almost in full flower. The sky is blue with scarcely a cloud in it. Birds are singing all around. Bees are buzzing. It is the absolute epitome of a beautiful spring day. It is very hard to imagine that anything bad is going on right now.

    I am counting my blessings.

    Is it me or is the sky bluer?
    Definitely bluer.

    And the birds are louder in voice, and the bees are buzzier, and the blossom is thick as cream.

    It’s like Nature is already starting to replace us, and forget us.
    Made me laugh.

    Though it does remind me of This Other Eden by Ben Elton when most of humanity (the richer bits anyway) lock themselves away from perceived environmental catastrophe and not only does the earth improve quicker than expected, those in poorer nations hardly noticed except that their lives got a little better.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,374
    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    Charles said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    I do wonder about who is advising them, although perhaps they aren't taking any notice. I can't believe any PR expert would be suggesting this is a good idea at the moment.
    And that name is Consignia level bad. Unpronounceable and overtones of arch, hell and chew (18th century synonym for a blowjob according to William Golding).
    That middle "e" is going to irritate me every time I see it. Which won't be that often, I hope.
    The aim “to do something that matters” makes it sound like a spoof. Or the 21st century version of those 18th century bubble companies: “For carrying-on an undertaking of great advantage but no-one to know what it is”.
    Where can I invest? I only have some tulip bulbs - perhaps we can do a swap for some shares?
    The South Sea Company was an extremely profitable investment, thank you very much
    Has investment banking changed at all since then ? :smile:
    It has become overrun with rapacious rogues formed from small conciences and vast greed.
    Yes, but has it changed ?
    Faith, my fellow - have I not answered thee?

    Not in the slightest.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Nigelb said:

    Foxy said:

    Dr. Anthony Cardillo said he has seen very promising results when prescribing hydroxychloroquine in combination with zinc for the most severely-ill COVID-19 patients.

    "Every patient I've prescribed it to has been very, very ill and within 8 to 12 hours, they were basically symptom-free," Cardillo told Eyewitness News. "So clinically I am seeing a resolution."

    He said he has found it only works if combined with zinc. The drug, he said, opens a channel for the zinc to enter the cell and block virus replication.

    https://abc7.com/coronavirus-drug-covid-19-malaria-hydroxychloroquine/6079864/

    To be published in The Journal of Anecdotal Medicine?
    Have these people not heard of controlled clinical trials ?
    Or are such things just unnecessary bureaucracy ...
    Controlled clinical trials are excellent things, but they don't invalidate case histories and observation (without which you'd be pushed to find things to have trials of). Penicillin went into full production and use without a single controlled or blinded trial being carried out on it. For that matter, the inventor of ibuprofen said last year that he knew it worked because he took some for a hangover, and the hangover went away.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,359
    timmo said:

    malcolmg said:

    Eh? PM lies in ICU, yet FTSE up 2%.

    Following the Dow Jones, and with sterling falling the FTSE, which makes most of its money outside the Uk, pretty much automatically rises.

    NB:

    https://twitter.com/eddyelfenbein/status/1247325085507215361?s=21
    Long may it continue
    Perception across the world covid 19 has peaked
    Perception may be wrong. I’m sticking with my position: overweight on gold.
    Buy the rumour sell the fact
    Gold tends to go nowhere
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,225
    Endillion said:

    Endillion said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    malcolmg said:

    Eh? PM lies in ICU, yet FTSE up 2%.

    Following the Dow Jones, and with sterling falling the FTSE, which makes most of its money outside the Uk, pretty much automatically rises.

    NB:

    https://twitter.com/eddyelfenbein/status/1247325085507215361?s=21
    Long may it continue
    Perception across the world covid 19 has peaked
    Wave 1 might have done... Unless it's 100% stabbed out (and it won't be) future waves are inevitable.
    Evidence?
    Well, it might be pointed out that the Black Death continued to come in waves in Europe for over 350 years, with the last major outbreak occurring in Marseilles in 1720.

    Then there were significant outbreaks in Asia, particularly China, in the late nineteenth century and carried on the trade routes there were major outbreaks in California as late as 1924.

    Since that time bubonic plague has declined across the globe for some reason. Nobody seems to know why.

    Hopefully it won’t take 500 years this time.
    That’s not evidence, next.
    You are the one positing a miracle, because for every infectious disease ever documented bar about 2, once it's there it is there to stay. I am pretty certain people will still be getting flu, colds and chicken pox in 2030. So the burden of proof is with you.
    I’m not positing anything of the sort. I don’t know. I merely asked for evidence, which I have yet to receive.
    You are asking for evidence that "there will be future waves of" an infectious disease - that is, that it will behave like all other infectious diseases in history, ever,in a way which is inherent in the meaning of "infectious." When offered evidence, you reject it as "not evidence." Inductive reasoning has its limitations, but I get on fairly well with assuming that the sun will rise tomorrow, because it always has in the past. If you want to claim that that's not evidence, fair enough.
    Spanish flu, Asian flu, Hong Kong flu, SARS, swine flu, avian flu, MERS...

    Any of the above still around? Or did they ultimately fizzle out once enough people had immunity, or they mutated (as they must do to keep finding new hosts) and settled into less harmful forms? I'd say recent history suggests that the jury is still very much out on whether this particular virus will stick around or not.

    I'm sure there are complicated reasons why (say) bubonic plague has been around for hundreds of years in what I assume is an unchanged or mostly unchanged form, while flu bugs change every year, but I suggest that no-one on here actually knows very much about them.
    Yes many of them are still around, while others are in the flu vaccine.
    Yes, but they're unstable, and mutate a lot. A lot of the mutated forms are harmless, and every once in a while (~20 years) we get a bad version that kills people. Which is what I would guess (based on ignorance plus lots of time on wikipedia) is what will ultimately happen to this outbreak, once the initial wave is beaten back.
    There's very little evidence for that happening any time soon.
    It doesn't mutate 'a lot' - the RNA code includes an error correction mechanism, so it's relatively stable. And given how good it seems to be at passing itself on to the next host, there isn't an obvious evolutionary forcing away from virulence.

    Over time, very probably; over the next year or so, probably not.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,205
    RobD said:

    Nigelb said:

    The PM sounds in slightly better condition than rumoured.

    ..Boris Johnson does not have pneumonia, Downing Street has said. Until now ministers and No 10 have refused to give a clear answer to this question. But asked if the PM has been diagnosed with pneumonia, the spokesman said: “That is not the case, no.”
    The spokesman said that Johnson was “stable” overnight and “remains in good spirits”. In a statement about his condition in intensive care, the prime minister’s spokesman said:
    The prime minister has been stable overnight and remains in good spirits. He is receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any other assistance. He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support.

    The enforced resting is probably doing wonders.
    The best thing you can do if you get the virus is simply sleep. A lot.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    Charles said:

    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    Whatever your views of China (vile regime we shouldn't do business with/vile regime we have little option but to do some business with...), this is a very interesting article:

    How Chinese Apps Handled Covid-19
    http://dangrover.com/blog/2020/04/05/covid-in-ui.html
    ...The point of these “fever clinics” (发热门诊), as distinguished from ordinary hospitals, was to give anyone who thought they might be even a little sick a way to get tested and, more importantly, control the spread by isolating even asymptomatic carriers away from their family and co-workers and give them a place to wait it out. Some of these had been established for this reason on a permanent basis during the SARS outbreak in 2003, while others were established only recently.

    As the country mobilized, all of the major apps promoted features that clearly listed the hospitals that were handling Coronavirus. This included all the fever clinics that had sprung up as well as normal, pre-existing hospitals with ICUs that had been specially designated for handling serious cases of coronavirus (定点收治医院):

    The other aspect Aylward mentions is the use of online consultations. Changes in regulations in the past few years have resulted in an explosion of telemedicine apps in China with plays by tech companies like Tencent and Alibaba, traditional companies like Ping An, and existing online medical information resource sites like Dingxiang.

    These apps combine a bunch of things: simple ecommerce (for medicine and medical devices), lead generation/vertical search for specialists offline, and online consultations with doctors at top hospitals. Doctors giving online consultations can write prescriptions which can then be filled in the app. The consultations can be paid for a-la-carte or with an annual plan and are sometimes a loss-leader for their online pharmacy business...

    We used to do that here. In 1893 the The Fountain Hospital in Tooting was built in a few weeks as a fever hospital.

    http://www.workhouses.org.uk/MAB-Fountain/

    It is now St George's Hospital in Tooting, old St George's on Hyde Park Corner closed in 1981, now the Lanesborough Hotel.
    It's amazing what you can do when you don't give a fig for workers rights or conditions.

    We also used to fund things through philanthropy - Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, for example, was privately funded as was the University of Westminster.
    On a global scale Bill Gates certainly seems to be doing his bit for philanthropy.
    Yes. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is truly impressive.

    I was more thinking about the UK - there are relatively few really serious philanthropic trusts any more - Weston, Wolfson, TCF are the ones that come to mind. Even things like Esme Fairburn have become far more institutional than they used to be,
  • maaarshmaaarsh Posts: 3,590
    felix said:

    HYUFD said:
    I have no reason to doubt the words but let's be clear that there will need to be expulsions from the party if the words are to have meaning - at all levels.
    Should Jeremy be on the lookout for a letter?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,374
    IshmaelZ said:

    Nigelb said:

    Foxy said:

    Dr. Anthony Cardillo said he has seen very promising results when prescribing hydroxychloroquine in combination with zinc for the most severely-ill COVID-19 patients.

    "Every patient I've prescribed it to has been very, very ill and within 8 to 12 hours, they were basically symptom-free," Cardillo told Eyewitness News. "So clinically I am seeing a resolution."

    He said he has found it only works if combined with zinc. The drug, he said, opens a channel for the zinc to enter the cell and block virus replication.

    https://abc7.com/coronavirus-drug-covid-19-malaria-hydroxychloroquine/6079864/

    To be published in The Journal of Anecdotal Medicine?
    Have these people not heard of controlled clinical trials ?
    Or are such things just unnecessary bureaucracy ...
    Controlled clinical trials are excellent things, but they don't invalidate case histories and observation (without which you'd be pushed to find things to have trials of). Penicillin went into full production and use without a single controlled or blinded trial being carried out on it. For that matter, the inventor of ibuprofen said last year that he knew it worked because he took some for a hangover, and the hangover went away.
    Controlled clinical trials are excellent for avoiding things like manslaughter charges. People and their pesky rights, eh?
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,226

    I see lots of twitter are finding reasons why they possibly couldn't possibly clap for Boris. Insert your ist of choice.

    It's totally inappropriate to have an organized "clap for Boris" as he lies ill in hospital. Whoever is suggesting it is doing so for reasons that are not benign.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,359
    Nigelb said:

    The PM sounds in slightly better condition than rumoured.

    ..Boris Johnson does not have pneumonia, Downing Street has said. Until now ministers and No 10 have refused to give a clear answer to this question. But asked if the PM has been diagnosed with pneumonia, the spokesman said: “That is not the case, no.”
    The spokesman said that Johnson was “stable” overnight and “remains in good spirits”. In a statement about his condition in intensive care, the prime minister’s spokesman said:
    The prime minister has been stable overnight and remains in good spirits. He is receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any other assistance. He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support.

    Hopefully everybody with a sniffle will get put in ICU as a precaution going forward.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,153
    edited April 2020
    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Nigelb said:

    The PM sounds in slightly better condition than rumoured.

    ..Boris Johnson does not have pneumonia, Downing Street has said. Until now ministers and No 10 have refused to give a clear answer to this question. But asked if the PM has been diagnosed with pneumonia, the spokesman said: “That is not the case, no.”
    The spokesman said that Johnson was “stable” overnight and “remains in good spirits”. In a statement about his condition in intensive care, the prime minister’s spokesman said:
    The prime minister has been stable overnight and remains in good spirits. He is receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any other assistance. He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support.

    The enforced resting is probably doing wonders.
    The best thing you can do if you get the virus is simply sleep. A lot.
    Unfortunately thinking about how vital it is for health to get plenty of sleep is one of things that can keep one up at night.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,374
    malcolmg said:

    Nigelb said:

    The PM sounds in slightly better condition than rumoured.

    ..Boris Johnson does not have pneumonia, Downing Street has said. Until now ministers and No 10 have refused to give a clear answer to this question. But asked if the PM has been diagnosed with pneumonia, the spokesman said: “That is not the case, no.”
    The spokesman said that Johnson was “stable” overnight and “remains in good spirits”. In a statement about his condition in intensive care, the prime minister’s spokesman said:
    The prime minister has been stable overnight and remains in good spirits. He is receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any other assistance. He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support.

    Hopefully everybody with a sniffle will get put in ICU as a precaution going forward.
    Did you watch the BBC reports from inside actual ICUs? Not everyone in ICU is a deaths door.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 59,935
    .
    malcolmg said:

    Nigelb said:

    The PM sounds in slightly better condition than rumoured.

    ..Boris Johnson does not have pneumonia, Downing Street has said. Until now ministers and No 10 have refused to give a clear answer to this question. But asked if the PM has been diagnosed with pneumonia, the spokesman said: “That is not the case, no.”
    The spokesman said that Johnson was “stable” overnight and “remains in good spirits”. In a statement about his condition in intensive care, the prime minister’s spokesman said:
    The prime minister has been stable overnight and remains in good spirits. He is receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any other assistance. He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support.

    Hopefully everybody with a sniffle will get put in ICU as a precaution going forward.
    You think he should have stayed at No 10?
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    HYUFD said:

    isam said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    I do wonder about who is advising them, although perhaps they aren't taking any notice. I can't believe any PR expert would be suggesting this is a good idea at the moment.
    And that name is Consignia level bad. Unpronounceable and overtones of arch, hell and chew (18th century synonym for a blowjob according to William Golding).
    That middle "e" is going to irritate me every time I see it. Which won't be that often, I hope.
    The aim “to do something that matters” makes it sound like a spoof. Or the 21st century version of those 18th century bubble companies: “For carrying-on an undertaking of great advantage but no-one to know what it is”.
    Sounds like a bad pitch to potential clients in The Apprentice

    “Before SussexRoyal, came the idea of Arche – the Greek word meaning source of action. We connected to this concept for the charitable organisation we hoped to build one day, and it became the inspiration for our son’s name. To do something of meaning, to do something that matters.
    “Archewell is a name that combines an ancient word for strength and action, and another that evokes the deep resources we each must draw upon. We look forward to launching Archewell when the time is right.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/apr/07/harry-and-meghan-to-launch-new-charitable-outfit
    Nice place to run a charity from
    https://twitter.com/DailyMailUK/status/1246348474670604288?s=20
    Malibu is a shithole.

    PCH is between most nice houses and the beach
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,359
    HYUFD said:

    isam said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    I do wonder about who is advising them, although perhaps they aren't taking any notice. I can't believe any PR expert would be suggesting this is a good idea at the moment.
    And that name is Consignia level bad. Unpronounceable and overtones of arch, hell and chew (18th century synonym for a blowjob according to William Golding).
    That middle "e" is going to irritate me every time I see it. Which won't be that often, I hope.
    The aim “to do something that matters” makes it sound like a spoof. Or the 21st century version of those 18th century bubble companies: “For carrying-on an undertaking of great advantage but no-one to know what it is”.
    Sounds like a bad pitch to potential clients in The Apprentice

    “Before SussexRoyal, came the idea of Arche – the Greek word meaning source of action. We connected to this concept for the charitable organisation we hoped to build one day, and it became the inspiration for our son’s name. To do something of meaning, to do something that matters.
    “Archewell is a name that combines an ancient word for strength and action, and another that evokes the deep resources we each must draw upon. We look forward to launching Archewell when the time is right.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/apr/07/harry-and-meghan-to-launch-new-charitable-outfit
    Nice place to run a charity from
    https://twitter.com/DailyMailUK/status/1246348474670604288?s=20
    They are only interested in one charity and that is themselves.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,148
    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Nigelb said:

    The PM sounds in slightly better condition than rumoured.

    ..Boris Johnson does not have pneumonia, Downing Street has said. Until now ministers and No 10 have refused to give a clear answer to this question. But asked if the PM has been diagnosed with pneumonia, the spokesman said: “That is not the case, no.”
    The spokesman said that Johnson was “stable” overnight and “remains in good spirits”. In a statement about his condition in intensive care, the prime minister’s spokesman said:
    The prime minister has been stable overnight and remains in good spirits. He is receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any other assistance. He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support.

    The enforced resting is probably doing wonders.
    The best thing you can do if you get the virus is simply sleep. A lot.
    Hot broth, then lots of sleep yes
This discussion has been closed.