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  • tlg86 said:

    House prices may collapse, banks may get nationalised and private pensions may fold, but people will not go hungry.
    House prices will never collapse, the Tories will inflate that bubble forever
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,841
    Alistair said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Pulpstar said:



    Gorgeous area of the world once you're there though. Has anyone tried Tesla autopilot along some of the high hedge narrow roads there yet ?

    Once a sufficient number of Teslas have driven them (whether in AP or not) Tesla's Cloud/AI thing will have harvested enough data to make those roads work on AP.
    Absolutely not
    Maybe, maybe not. I'd be impressed if a Tesla AI had the wherewithal to reverse round the blind corner and push the car into the hedge (But not the stone wall) in order to let someone pass coming down the 1 in 6 mind.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,612

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Speaking of MPs from other parties, can anyone remember if Jeremy Thorpe lost the whip while on trial for attempted murder? I was at primary school at the time and not following things that closely.

    He'd lost his seat before the trial started.
    Checking Wiki he was standing as a Liberal and I assume he had been charged by then as the trial was later that month.
    There was a move to get Mrs T to stand in his place....... compare Mrs Elphicke last December....... but it came to nothing.
    I am amazed that the North Devon Liberals wanted Mrs Thatcher as their candidate. Surely she was a tad right-wing for them?
    Have you been to North Devon? Some of the locals think that fire is a dangerous innovation.
    I told everyone in the Paleoproterozoic that all this Oxygen stuff was a dangerous idea...
    Quite right. Everything's just gone more and more wrong since then.

    Should have stuck to water.
    We were happy as amoeba.....
    {stage Yorkshire accent on}

    When it was just RNA, we was happy. We died fifteen times before breakfast. And breakfast wasn't invented yet. Or death. But we was happy pre-life....
    We were happy as a pig in primordial soup, us....
    You had primordial soup?

    LUUUUUUUXURY!
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,841
    Biden is 1.04 for the Dem nomination.
    That's superb odds for something that's going to resolve in *checks calendar* 17 days time.
  • eek said:

    News from the Foodservice sector and its not good. The new normal - the CMO saying we have probably reached the limits on opening up society - is going to be terminal for so many in the sector. Restaurant footfall still just 26.7% of normal, a lot of caterers and catering establishments and restaurants etc still not trading and no demand there to make them restart.

    How are German restaurants doing? I remember hearing that reopening went well but has this continued or was there a one-off surge before falling back? Are their any lessons we can draw from across the North Sea?

    ETA of course Rishi's Eat Out to Help Out scheme begins today so perhaps that will kickstart a recovery.
    I suspect August will be bumper takings and September will be a nightmare...
    I'm not even sure that August will help. "Catering" is more than just restaurants. Its pubs, cafes, coffee shacks, corporate caterers, schools, hospitals, prisons etc. Many many outlets/wholesalers/manufacturers rely on something that is largely stone dead and showing no sign of coming back. Tourism from abroad has stopped and "staycation" (thats not what it means FFS) won't fill the hole. As for half price Big Macs to lose weight, good news potentially for some restaurants. Others still not going to bother by the look of it for various reasons.

    I'm not saying there are other solutions out there - I think Sunak did something unexpected and welcome with this scheme. But "thats it we all go back to normal" simply isn't reality.
  • tlg86 said:

    House prices may collapse, banks may get nationalised and private pensions may fold, but people will not go hungry.
    They will if we exit transition with no deal and our supply chain collapses. The run on foodstuffs we saw in March was just a dress rehearsal for the main event.
  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,092
     .. aand right on time the rain came down. Got the lawn mowed just in time.
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,722

    tlg86 said:

    House prices may collapse, banks may get nationalised and private pensions may fold, but people will not go hungry.
    They will if we exit transition with no deal and our supply chain collapses. The run on foodstuffs we saw in March was just a dress rehearsal for the main event.
    They won't
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    tlg86 said:

    House prices may collapse, banks may get nationalised and private pensions may fold, but people will not go hungry.
    and even if they do it will do wonders for the PM's anti-obesity drive, right!
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    Does Hodges read this site? this is old news on here.
  • tlg86 said:

    House prices may collapse, banks may get nationalised and private pensions may fold, but people will not go hungry.
    They will if we exit transition with no deal and our supply chain collapses. The run on foodstuffs we saw in March was just a dress rehearsal for the main event.
    They won't
    They won't exit with no deal? Lets hope not...
  • sarissasarissa Posts: 1,749
    Charles said:

    Scott_xP said:

    ydoethur said:

    How did the Times know who she was?

    They reported her story last week, before the arrest.
    Why is it right that this MP should be publicly shamed before the police have determined whether there is sufficient evidence to charge him?
    Absolutely, he can always be shamed and vilified after his acquittal, like Alex Salmond.
  • Hi All, hope you're well
  • kamskikamski Posts: 4,199
    With 3 months to go, Pennsylvania is the current tipping point state according to the 538 polling averages, where Biden is 6.6% ahead.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,673
    isam said:

    Charles said:

    Scott_xP said:

    ydoethur said:

    How did the Times know who she was?

    They reported her story last week, before the arrest.
    Why is it right that this MP should be publicly shamed before the police have determined whether there is sufficient evidence to charge him?
    God I hope whoever the MP is is found not guilty. The desire to see him named, shamed and his life possibly ruined by people who have no idea whether he is guilty or not, and would normally perform miraculous contortions to say someone obviously guilty was innocent on a technicality, is a new low
    So you are happy that if guilty he should be found not Guilty regardless, what a sicko.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,709
    RIP John Hume, he and David Trimble were the real architects of the Northern Ireland peace process though Paisley and McGuinness picked up most of the credit
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,287
    I see the Times Comment page is suggesting that the SNP might come a cropper over the Salmond affair.. So it is not just me thinking there may be problems ahead...
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,287
    geoffw said:

     .. aand right on time the rain came down. Got the lawn mowed just in time.

    you must be up North. (or in Wales). Bright sunshine and a heatwave coming in the South.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,673
    sarissa said:

    Charles said:

    Scott_xP said:

    ydoethur said:

    How did the Times know who she was?

    They reported her story last week, before the arrest.
    Why is it right that this MP should be publicly shamed before the police have determined whether there is sufficient evidence to charge him?
    Absolutely, he can always be shamed and vilified after his acquittal, like Alex Salmond.
    Alex was vilified before , after and during
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603
    Had a long chat with a cousin yesterday at a family picnic, he's a very high up at a major London trust. He basically said that the NHS is currently operating at 10-20% in London depending on the specific trust and he thinks people are going to die because the government pushed the messaging of "save the NHS" too hard early on and are still doing it which is putting people off from getting care for potentially life-threatening conditions. On the virus itself, he said his hospital and the surrounding ones haven't had a new case in about two weeks and the number of active cases are fairly small and confined to a single ward with no crossover in staffing and they are thinking of consolidating all existing London cases at a single trust and declaring the rest of the hospitals COVID-free to encourage patients to come back.

    He also said there is no sign of a second wave in terms of hospital admissions for them and they haven't picked up any additional suspected cases in their A&E. He's definitely of the opinion that the government needs to rethink the whole strategy of sacrificing all public health initiatives at the altar of the virus, especially now that we haven't got the same hospital caseload as before and there is spare capacity.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,709
    kamski said:

    With 3 months to go, Pennsylvania is the current tipping point state according to the 538 polling averages, where Biden is 6.6% ahead.

    In my view it will be Florida, as I think Trump could hold Wisconsin even if he loses Pennsylvania and Michigan
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328
    US Presidential. Interesting analysis from NPR, putting Biden even further ahead in swing states than a month ago.

    It doesn't quite ring true to me, as I feel the race has tightened significantly in the last week or so, even if Biden is still clearly out front.

    https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=897202359
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,072
    HYUFD said:

    kamski said:

    With 3 months to go, Pennsylvania is the current tipping point state according to the 538 polling averages, where Biden is 6.6% ahead.

    In my view it will be Florida, as I think Trump could hold Wisconsin even if he loses Pennsylvania and Michigan
    And what if he loses Texas?
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328
    One for contrarian - lockdown is threatening progress made against TB, malaria and HIV

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/03/health/coronavirus-tuberculosis-aids-malaria.html
  • MaxPB said:

    Had a long chat with a cousin yesterday at a family picnic, he's a very high up at a major London trust. He basically said that the NHS is currently operating at 10-20% in London depending on the specific trust and he thinks people are going to die because the government pushed the messaging of "save the NHS" too hard early on and are still doing it which is putting people off from getting care for potentially life-threatening conditions. On the virus itself, he said his hospital and the surrounding ones haven't had a new case in about two weeks and the number of active cases are fairly small and confined to a single ward with no crossover in staffing and they are thinking of consolidating all existing London cases at a single trust and declaring the rest of the hospitals COVID-free to encourage patients to come back.

    He also said there is no sign of a second wave in terms of hospital admissions for them and they haven't picked up any additional suspected cases in their A&E. He's definitely of the opinion that the government needs to rethink the whole strategy of sacrificing all public health initiatives at the altar of the virus, especially now that we haven't got the same hospital caseload as before and there is spare capacity.

    I had a course of treatment postponed by the lockdown, but they phoned my at the beginning of June to go and get it finished. The hospital seemed pretty empty, but I go in at aside entrance to get to the ward I need so it was hard to compare. I also get the impression that they are prioritising cancer treatment.
  • TheWhiteRabbitTheWhiteRabbit Posts: 12,387
    TimT said:

    US Presidential. Interesting analysis from NPR, putting Biden even further ahead in swing states than a month ago.

    It doesn't quite ring true to me, as I feel the race has tightened significantly in the last week or so, even if Biden is still clearly out front.

    https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=897202359

    I think Biden did peak a couple of weeks ago, not sure about "significantly tighter though".

    I think NPR is simply catching up - I agree with their assessment other than Georgia, which in my view leans GOP still.

    Is it you or the other Tim from Georgia? Or am I misremembering...?
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,287
    malcolmg said:

    sarissa said:

    Charles said:

    Scott_xP said:

    ydoethur said:

    How did the Times know who she was?

    They reported her story last week, before the arrest.
    Why is it right that this MP should be publicly shamed before the police have determined whether there is sufficient evidence to charge him?
    Absolutely, he can always be shamed and vilified after his acquittal, like Alex Salmond.
    Alex was vilified before , after and during
    It will not alter the fact that there will be an investigation and the shit is going to hit the fan...
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328

    TimT said:

    US Presidential. Interesting analysis from NPR, putting Biden even further ahead in swing states than a month ago.

    It doesn't quite ring true to me, as I feel the race has tightened significantly in the last week or so, even if Biden is still clearly out front.

    https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=897202359

    I think Biden did peak a couple of weeks ago, not sure about "significantly tighter though".

    I think NPR is simply catching up - I agree with their assessment other than Georgia, which in my view leans GOP still.

    Is it you or the other Tim from Georgia? Or am I misremembering...?
    Other Tim - TimB. I am in MD. No chance of that changing hands ... Although GA may well fall to Biden.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,709

    HYUFD said:

    kamski said:

    With 3 months to go, Pennsylvania is the current tipping point state according to the 538 polling averages, where Biden is 6.6% ahead.

    In my view it will be Florida, as I think Trump could hold Wisconsin even if he loses Pennsylvania and Michigan
    And what if he loses Texas?
    If he loses Texas, he will already have lost Florida and Wisconsin and it will be a Biden landslide anyway
  • Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 60,933
    Mr. T, you are not in MD. What a thing to say!
  • TimT said:

    TimT said:

    US Presidential. Interesting analysis from NPR, putting Biden even further ahead in swing states than a month ago.

    It doesn't quite ring true to me, as I feel the race has tightened significantly in the last week or so, even if Biden is still clearly out front.

    https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=897202359

    I think Biden did peak a couple of weeks ago, not sure about "significantly tighter though".

    I think NPR is simply catching up - I agree with their assessment other than Georgia, which in my view leans GOP still.

    Is it you or the other Tim from Georgia? Or am I misremembering...?
    Other Tim - TimB. I am in MD. No chance of that changing hands ... Although GA may well fall to Biden.
    For those of us not up on US state abbreviations (though I should be as they crop up in enough crossword clues) which one is MD? Middle Dakota?
  • https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1290257105283252227

    Keir's strategy taking shape. As I said, it's not through the Northern heartlands
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328

    TimT said:

    US Presidential. Interesting analysis from NPR, putting Biden even further ahead in swing states than a month ago.

    It doesn't quite ring true to me, as I feel the race has tightened significantly in the last week or so, even if Biden is still clearly out front.

    https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=897202359

    I think Biden did peak a couple of weeks ago, not sure about "significantly tighter though".

    I think NPR is simply catching up - I agree with their assessment other than Georgia, which in my view leans GOP still.

    Is it you or the other Tim from Georgia? Or am I misremembering...?
    I was thinking of significantly in terms of statistically so, rather than in a major way. 'Tightened significantly' rather than 'significantly tighter'.
  • eristdooferistdoof Posts: 4,861

    News from the Foodservice sector and its not good. The new normal - the CMO saying we have probably reached the limits on opening up society - is going to be terminal for so many in the sector. Restaurant footfall still just 26.7% of normal, a lot of caterers and catering establishments and restaurants etc still not trading and no demand there to make them restart.

    How are German restaurants doing? I remember hearing that reopening went well but has this continued or was there a one-off surge before falling back? Are their any lessons we can draw from across the North Sea?

    Having just returned from a cycling touring holiday I've been to many German restaurants over the last couple of weeks. If I had to sum it up briefly, they seem to be doing OK, but with the extra spacing between tables they will be struggling to have a bumper summer season, and I doubt that they will be making a big recovery from the losses made during lock down.

    Interestingly almost all of the bars/cafes/restaurants I visited on holiday required that each table fills out contact details with the start / finish time. In Berlin very few are requesting this.

    A reasonable chunk of the catering industry is focussed on festivals an concerts between May and September, which is completely on ice. Many of these companies will struggle to stay afloat, if that is their only source of income.

    BTW It's great to see your question "Are their any lessons we can draw from across the North Sea?" Sadly too many British people in business and politics thinks the UK is too "special" to be able to benefit from such useful information.
  • Mr. T, you are not in MD. What a thing to say!

    Wut? Can somebody contextualise?
  • Mr. T, you are not in MD. What a thing to say!

    Wut? Can somebody contextualise?
    What are @Morris_Dancer ’s initials?
  • Mr. T, you are not in MD. What a thing to say!

    Wut? Can somebody contextualise?
    What are @Morris_Dancer ’s initials?
    I'm so confused
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328

    MaxPB said:

    Had a long chat with a cousin yesterday at a family picnic, he's a very high up at a major London trust. He basically said that the NHS is currently operating at 10-20% in London depending on the specific trust and he thinks people are going to die because the government pushed the messaging of "save the NHS" too hard early on and are still doing it which is putting people off from getting care for potentially life-threatening conditions. On the virus itself, he said his hospital and the surrounding ones haven't had a new case in about two weeks and the number of active cases are fairly small and confined to a single ward with no crossover in staffing and they are thinking of consolidating all existing London cases at a single trust and declaring the rest of the hospitals COVID-free to encourage patients to come back.

    He also said there is no sign of a second wave in terms of hospital admissions for them and they haven't picked up any additional suspected cases in their A&E. He's definitely of the opinion that the government needs to rethink the whole strategy of sacrificing all public health initiatives at the altar of the virus, especially now that we haven't got the same hospital caseload as before and there is spare capacity.

    I had a course of treatment postponed by the lockdown, but they phoned my at the beginning of June to go and get it finished. The hospital seemed pretty empty, but I go in at aside entrance to get to the ward I need so it was hard to compare. I also get the impression that they are prioritising cancer treatment.
    I've had a surgeon's office call me about a small, non-urgent procedure that was postponed from March. I think in the US, surgeons are eager to get more work as patients are not so keen to go to hospitals even now elective procedures are permitted.
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,287

    https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1290257105283252227

    Keir's strategy taking shape. As I said, it's not through the Northern heartlands

    Unless Labour can win seats in Scotland. KS isn't going to be in no 10, period.
  • TheWhiteRabbitTheWhiteRabbit Posts: 12,387

    Mr. T, you are not in MD. What a thing to say!

    Wut? Can somebody contextualise?
    What are @Morris_Dancer ’s initials?
    I'm so confused
    TimT said he was in MD, meaning Maryland.

    But another meaning of MD, in relation to our other poster, would have been rather graphic...
  • Mr. T, you are not in MD. What a thing to say!

    Wut? Can somebody contextualise?
    What are @Morris_Dancer ’s initials?
    I'm so confused
    Read @TimT ’s post about where he is. Does that help?
  • TheWhiteRabbitTheWhiteRabbit Posts: 12,387
    It's Mo. and Ma. I get confused the most! (not helped by Mi.)
  • kamskikamski Posts: 4,199
    HYUFD said:

    kamski said:

    With 3 months to go, Pennsylvania is the current tipping point state according to the 538 polling averages, where Biden is 6.6% ahead.

    In my view it will be Florida, as I think Trump could hold Wisconsin even if he loses Pennsylvania and Michigan
    Possibly - there are lots of plausible combinations in a close election where whoever wins Florida wins, although Biden is currently 7% ahead in Wisconsin, and 5.9% in Florida.

    Biden is also only 6.5% ahead in Nevada, which is only 6 electoral college votes so he can sometimes afford to lose it. But it's the only Clinton '16 state (apart from Minnesota where Biden is 7.6% ahead), where Biden is currently doing worse than in the national average (Biden 8.3% ahead), and worse than some of the swing states that Trump won in '16.

    All according to current 538 polling averages, other polling averages might show something slightly different.

    In any case, the polling is consistently showing that Biden probably needs to be about 2% ahead nationally to be favourite to win the electoral college.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,738

    https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1290257105283252227

    Keir's strategy taking shape. As I said, it's not through the Northern heartlands

    Unfortunate slogan though. It makes it sound as though Labour is firing off a million applications without considering the geographical area they want to work in.
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328

    Mr. T, you are not in MD. What a thing to say!

    LOLs, Mr Dancer. This side of the pond, to answer Fysics Teacher's question, MD is the understood abbreviation for Maryland.
  • TimT said:

    MaxPB said:

    Had a long chat with a cousin yesterday at a family picnic, he's a very high up at a major London trust. He basically said that the NHS is currently operating at 10-20% in London depending on the specific trust and he thinks people are going to die because the government pushed the messaging of "save the NHS" too hard early on and are still doing it which is putting people off from getting care for potentially life-threatening conditions. On the virus itself, he said his hospital and the surrounding ones haven't had a new case in about two weeks and the number of active cases are fairly small and confined to a single ward with no crossover in staffing and they are thinking of consolidating all existing London cases at a single trust and declaring the rest of the hospitals COVID-free to encourage patients to come back.

    He also said there is no sign of a second wave in terms of hospital admissions for them and they haven't picked up any additional suspected cases in their A&E. He's definitely of the opinion that the government needs to rethink the whole strategy of sacrificing all public health initiatives at the altar of the virus, especially now that we haven't got the same hospital caseload as before and there is spare capacity.

    I had a course of treatment postponed by the lockdown, but they phoned my at the beginning of June to go and get it finished. The hospital seemed pretty empty, but I go in at aside entrance to get to the ward I need so it was hard to compare. I also get the impression that they are prioritising cancer treatment.
    I've had a surgeon's office call me about a small, non-urgent procedure that was postponed from March. I think in the US, surgeons are eager to get more work as patients are not so keen to go to hospitals even now elective procedures are permitted.
    I’ve picked up a few hospital acquired infections in my time (although usually from what I would call invasive procedures) so I can certainly understand why people are avoiding hospitals unless they absolutely have to go.
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328
    ydoethur said:

    https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1290257105283252227

    Keir's strategy taking shape. As I said, it's not through the Northern heartlands

    Unfortunate slogan though. It makes it sound as though Labour is firing off a million applications without considering the geographical area they want to work in.
    Did Starmer consult the Cornish? Last I heard, they still dislike emmets as much as ever, if not more so in a time of COVID. But, I guess, they might still want their money.
  • TimT said:

    Mr. T, you are not in MD. What a thing to say!

    LOLs, Mr Dancer. This side of the pond, to answer Fysics Teacher's question, MD is the understood abbreviation for Maryland.
    Thanks!
    TLAs would work so much better I think.
  • I wonder what proportion of the reduced attendance of hospitals is people who need to go to hospitals not going . . . and what proportion is hypochondriacs deciding they have something better to do.

    In the past when I've waited in A&E I've often felt the majority of people there didn't really need to be there.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,612

    I wonder what proportion of the reduced attendance of hospitals is people who need to go to hospitals not going . . . and what proportion is hypochondriacs deciding they have something better to do.

    In the past when I've waited in A&E I've often felt the majority of people there didn't really need to be there.

    A substantial number in A&E seemed to be using it as an out-of-hours GP service.

    Didn't someone mention that a hospital was trialling a GP style service to move such people out of the A&E queues?
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328

    TimT said:

    MaxPB said:

    Had a long chat with a cousin yesterday at a family picnic, he's a very high up at a major London trust. He basically said that the NHS is currently operating at 10-20% in London depending on the specific trust and he thinks people are going to die because the government pushed the messaging of "save the NHS" too hard early on and are still doing it which is putting people off from getting care for potentially life-threatening conditions. On the virus itself, he said his hospital and the surrounding ones haven't had a new case in about two weeks and the number of active cases are fairly small and confined to a single ward with no crossover in staffing and they are thinking of consolidating all existing London cases at a single trust and declaring the rest of the hospitals COVID-free to encourage patients to come back.

    He also said there is no sign of a second wave in terms of hospital admissions for them and they haven't picked up any additional suspected cases in their A&E. He's definitely of the opinion that the government needs to rethink the whole strategy of sacrificing all public health initiatives at the altar of the virus, especially now that we haven't got the same hospital caseload as before and there is spare capacity.

    I had a course of treatment postponed by the lockdown, but they phoned my at the beginning of June to go and get it finished. The hospital seemed pretty empty, but I go in at aside entrance to get to the ward I need so it was hard to compare. I also get the impression that they are prioritising cancer treatment.
    I've had a surgeon's office call me about a small, non-urgent procedure that was postponed from March. I think in the US, surgeons are eager to get more work as patients are not so keen to go to hospitals even now elective procedures are permitted.
    I’ve picked up a few hospital acquired infections in my time (although usually from what I would call invasive procedures) so I can certainly understand why people are avoiding hospitals unless they absolutely have to go.
    Nosocomial infections kill around 100k in the US per year ...
  • CorrectHorseBatteryCorrectHorseBattery Posts: 21,436
    edited August 2020
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truro_and_Falmouth_(UK_Parliament_constituency)

    Interesting target for Labour this one. Been trending to Labour since 2015 with a massive swing in 2017. Notably voteshare did not drop in 2019 for Labour unlike in many other seats.

    This is why Starmer was visiting this seat recently, I assume.
  • I wonder what proportion of the reduced attendance of hospitals is people who need to go to hospitals not going . . . and what proportion is hypochondriacs deciding they have something better to do.

    In the past when I've waited in A&E I've often felt the majority of people there didn't really need to be there.

    The trouble is sometimes the small, probably nothing symptom turns out to be the sign of something much more serious.
    If I had the first symptom now of what turned out to be cancer I would probably convince myself it was nothing. I nearly did at the time but a friend who is a nurse told me to go to the doctor without fail when I mentioned it to her.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,738
    edited August 2020

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truro_and_Falmouth_(UK_Parliament_constituency)

    Interesting target for Labour this one. Been trending to Labour since 2015 with a massive swing in 2017. Notably voteshare did not drop in 2019 for Labour unlike in many other seats.

    This is why Starmer was visiting this seat recently, I assume.

    It’s a university seat and the uni is expanding. Also, many public sector workers in Truro.
  • ydoethur said:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truro_and_Falmouth_(UK_Parliament_constituency)

    Interesting target for Labour this one. Been trending to Labour since 2015 with a massive swing in 2017. Notably voteshare did not drop in 2019 for Labour unlike in many other seats.

    This is why Starmer was visiting this seat recently, I assume.

    It’s a university seat and the uni is expanding.
    Makes sense.

    Although the constituency before it was also Labour until 2005.
  • I wonder what proportion of the reduced attendance of hospitals is people who need to go to hospitals not going . . . and what proportion is hypochondriacs deciding they have something better to do.

    In the past when I've waited in A&E I've often felt the majority of people there didn't really need to be there.

    The trouble is sometimes the small, probably nothing symptom turns out to be the sign of something much more serious.
    If I had the first symptom now of what turned out to be cancer I would probably convince myself it was nothing. I nearly did at the time but a friend who is a nurse told me to go to the doctor without fail when I mentioned it to her.
    Yes cancer is what worries me.

    But cancer is not A&E is it? It is A&E I feel really attracts far too many hypochondriacs or people wanting a day off work.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603

    I wonder what proportion of the reduced attendance of hospitals is people who need to go to hospitals not going . . . and what proportion is hypochondriacs deciding they have something better to do.

    In the past when I've waited in A&E I've often felt the majority of people there didn't really need to be there.

    But it's not just A&E that's running at below capacity, it's everything including oncology.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camborne_and_Redruth_(UK_Parliament_constituency)

    Massive Labour swing in 2017, poor result in 2019 though. Another for Keir's target list I assume, once a Lib Dem seat.
  • I wonder what proportion of the reduced attendance of hospitals is people who need to go to hospitals not going . . . and what proportion is hypochondriacs deciding they have something better to do.

    In the past when I've waited in A&E I've often felt the majority of people there didn't really need to be there.

    A substantial number in A&E seemed to be using it as an out-of-hours GP service.

    Didn't someone mention that a hospital was trialling a GP style service to move such people out of the A&E queues?
    A walk in service for those who struggle to get a GP appointment would be good. Having said that I’ve phoned my GP practice a couple of times since lockdown and it seems much easier to get a (phone) appointment than it was before. Usual small sample size caveats of course.
  • Truro and Falmouth is 44 on the Labour target list, swing of 3.85% required.
  • MaxPB said:

    I wonder what proportion of the reduced attendance of hospitals is people who need to go to hospitals not going . . . and what proportion is hypochondriacs deciding they have something better to do.

    In the past when I've waited in A&E I've often felt the majority of people there didn't really need to be there.

    But it's not just A&E that's running at below capacity, it's everything including oncology.
    Indeed, oncology being down is very worrying.

    I'm not suggesting that all the decrease is non-worrying, but not all of the decrease is worrying either. Some of the decrease is people being more careful (or less driving or less drunk) and fewer accidents, some of it is fewer hypochondriacs going out . . . but much of it is what should be going on like oncology.

    There should be an awareness campaign going on for cancer awareness. I think that's the biggest concern of them all.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,738

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camborne_and_Redruth_(UK_Parliament_constituency)

    Massive Labour swing in 2017, poor result in 2019 though. Another for Keir's target list I assume, once a Lib Dem seat.

    Camborne was the reason Falmouth was Labour (Truro hasn’t been for decades). It’s an ex-tin mining town with an Old Labour core. It followed the pattern of many other industrial and ex-industrial seats in 2019.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,072
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    kamski said:

    With 3 months to go, Pennsylvania is the current tipping point state according to the 538 polling averages, where Biden is 6.6% ahead.

    In my view it will be Florida, as I think Trump could hold Wisconsin even if he loses Pennsylvania and Michigan
    And what if he loses Texas?
    If he loses Texas, he will already have lost Florida and Wisconsin and it will be a Biden landslide anyway
    Assuming uniform swing, yeah.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,612

    I wonder what proportion of the reduced attendance of hospitals is people who need to go to hospitals not going . . . and what proportion is hypochondriacs deciding they have something better to do.

    In the past when I've waited in A&E I've often felt the majority of people there didn't really need to be there.

    The trouble is sometimes the small, probably nothing symptom turns out to be the sign of something much more serious.
    If I had the first symptom now of what turned out to be cancer I would probably convince myself it was nothing. I nearly did at the time but a friend who is a nurse told me to go to the doctor without fail when I mentioned it to her.
    It would be interesting to see the cost of a GP visit vs the cost of treatment for a serious illness left undiagnosed.

    My guess is that you could easily see a 1000 GP visits being cheaper for the NHS alone, compared to a single serious matter being missed and the resulting treatment.

    Quite apart from the small matter of lives saved...
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603
    Any Labour strategy that doesn't try and win back at least some of the working class seats is doomed to failure. There are too many shire Tories that will never vote for Labour and the chartering classes may be loud but it's actually a small voting bloc that won't help win elections.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,072

    Truro and Falmouth is 44 on the Labour target list, swing of 3.85% required.

    Is that all? Interesting.
  • TimT said:

    TimT said:

    MaxPB said:

    Had a long chat with a cousin yesterday at a family picnic, he's a very high up at a major London trust. He basically said that the NHS is currently operating at 10-20% in London depending on the specific trust and he thinks people are going to die because the government pushed the messaging of "save the NHS" too hard early on and are still doing it which is putting people off from getting care for potentially life-threatening conditions. On the virus itself, he said his hospital and the surrounding ones haven't had a new case in about two weeks and the number of active cases are fairly small and confined to a single ward with no crossover in staffing and they are thinking of consolidating all existing London cases at a single trust and declaring the rest of the hospitals COVID-free to encourage patients to come back.

    He also said there is no sign of a second wave in terms of hospital admissions for them and they haven't picked up any additional suspected cases in their A&E. He's definitely of the opinion that the government needs to rethink the whole strategy of sacrificing all public health initiatives at the altar of the virus, especially now that we haven't got the same hospital caseload as before and there is spare capacity.

    I had a course of treatment postponed by the lockdown, but they phoned my at the beginning of June to go and get it finished. The hospital seemed pretty empty, but I go in at aside entrance to get to the ward I need so it was hard to compare. I also get the impression that they are prioritising cancer treatment.
    I've had a surgeon's office call me about a small, non-urgent procedure that was postponed from March. I think in the US, surgeons are eager to get more work as patients are not so keen to go to hospitals even now elective procedures are permitted.
    I’ve picked up a few hospital acquired infections in my time (although usually from what I would call invasive procedures) so I can certainly understand why people are avoiding hospitals unless they absolutely have to go.
    Nosocomial infections kill around 100k in the US per year ...
    I had pneumonia last year and it was described as “community acquired”: that is they have a special category for those illnesses not picked up in hospital...
  • TimT said:

    TimT said:

    MaxPB said:

    Had a long chat with a cousin yesterday at a family picnic, he's a very high up at a major London trust. He basically said that the NHS is currently operating at 10-20% in London depending on the specific trust and he thinks people are going to die because the government pushed the messaging of "save the NHS" too hard early on and are still doing it which is putting people off from getting care for potentially life-threatening conditions. On the virus itself, he said his hospital and the surrounding ones haven't had a new case in about two weeks and the number of active cases are fairly small and confined to a single ward with no crossover in staffing and they are thinking of consolidating all existing London cases at a single trust and declaring the rest of the hospitals COVID-free to encourage patients to come back.

    He also said there is no sign of a second wave in terms of hospital admissions for them and they haven't picked up any additional suspected cases in their A&E. He's definitely of the opinion that the government needs to rethink the whole strategy of sacrificing all public health initiatives at the altar of the virus, especially now that we haven't got the same hospital caseload as before and there is spare capacity.

    I had a course of treatment postponed by the lockdown, but they phoned my at the beginning of June to go and get it finished. The hospital seemed pretty empty, but I go in at aside entrance to get to the ward I need so it was hard to compare. I also get the impression that they are prioritising cancer treatment.
    I've had a surgeon's office call me about a small, non-urgent procedure that was postponed from March. I think in the US, surgeons are eager to get more work as patients are not so keen to go to hospitals even now elective procedures are permitted.
    I’ve picked up a few hospital acquired infections in my time (although usually from what I would call invasive procedures) so I can certainly understand why people are avoiding hospitals unless they absolutely have to go.
    Nosocomial infections kill around 100k in the US per year ...
    That is a good word - I didn't know that one. Thank you.
  • A triage by phone system has been set up for A&E in South Wales. No admittance to A&E on walk-up unless you've been instructed to come in by the triage nurse.

    An excellent innovation which means a lot of the time wasters who clogged A&E habitually won't be there wasting resources.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,612

    TimT said:

    TimT said:

    MaxPB said:

    Had a long chat with a cousin yesterday at a family picnic, he's a very high up at a major London trust. He basically said that the NHS is currently operating at 10-20% in London depending on the specific trust and he thinks people are going to die because the government pushed the messaging of "save the NHS" too hard early on and are still doing it which is putting people off from getting care for potentially life-threatening conditions. On the virus itself, he said his hospital and the surrounding ones haven't had a new case in about two weeks and the number of active cases are fairly small and confined to a single ward with no crossover in staffing and they are thinking of consolidating all existing London cases at a single trust and declaring the rest of the hospitals COVID-free to encourage patients to come back.

    He also said there is no sign of a second wave in terms of hospital admissions for them and they haven't picked up any additional suspected cases in their A&E. He's definitely of the opinion that the government needs to rethink the whole strategy of sacrificing all public health initiatives at the altar of the virus, especially now that we haven't got the same hospital caseload as before and there is spare capacity.

    I had a course of treatment postponed by the lockdown, but they phoned my at the beginning of June to go and get it finished. The hospital seemed pretty empty, but I go in at aside entrance to get to the ward I need so it was hard to compare. I also get the impression that they are prioritising cancer treatment.
    I've had a surgeon's office call me about a small, non-urgent procedure that was postponed from March. I think in the US, surgeons are eager to get more work as patients are not so keen to go to hospitals even now elective procedures are permitted.
    I’ve picked up a few hospital acquired infections in my time (although usually from what I would call invasive procedures) so I can certainly understand why people are avoiding hospitals unless they absolutely have to go.
    Nosocomial infections kill around 100k in the US per year ...
    I had pneumonia last year and it was described as “community acquired”: that is they have a special category for those illnesses not picked up in hospital...
    I was told by one senior medical type, that a major reason behind the modern emphasis on getting people out of hospital quickly, is the risk of picking up infections.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603

    MaxPB said:

    I wonder what proportion of the reduced attendance of hospitals is people who need to go to hospitals not going . . . and what proportion is hypochondriacs deciding they have something better to do.

    In the past when I've waited in A&E I've often felt the majority of people there didn't really need to be there.

    But it's not just A&E that's running at below capacity, it's everything including oncology.
    Indeed, oncology being down is very worrying.

    I'm not suggesting that all the decrease is non-worrying, but not all of the decrease is worrying either. Some of the decrease is people being more careful (or less driving or less drunk) and fewer accidents, some of it is fewer hypochondriacs going out . . . but much of it is what should be going on like oncology.

    There should be an awareness campaign going on for cancer awareness. I think that's the biggest concern of them all.
    It's not just cancer though, there's a whole host of routine procedures that are being put off or going undiagnosed because people don't want to go to hospital. The person with undiagnosed high cholesterol is at risk of a stroke, that's as serious as it gets.
  • ydoethur said:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camborne_and_Redruth_(UK_Parliament_constituency)

    Massive Labour swing in 2017, poor result in 2019 though. Another for Keir's target list I assume, once a Lib Dem seat.

    Camborne was the reason Falmouth was Labour (Truro hasn’t been for decades). It’s an ex-tin mining town with an Old Labour core. It followed the pattern of many other industrial and ex-industrial seats in 2019.
    What's the seat like compared to the lost seats in the North? Are there overlaps, you mentioned an Old Labour core.

    Your knowledge exceeds mine.

    Camborne and Redruth is 103 on the Labour target list, 9% swing required. Would put Keir in Number 10, seems unlikely a swing that large is to happen though.
  • https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1290257105283252227

    Keir's strategy taking shape. As I said, it's not through the Northern heartlands

    Unless Labour can win seats in Scotland. KS isn't going to be in no 10, period.
    Truro and Falmouth will probably go Labour in 2024 even if the Tories have a smallish overall majority because it was the only seat in Cornwall to vote remain and has a decent LD vote to squeeze with favourable pro Labour demographics in Falmouth/Penryn and to a lesser extent Truro.

    To deny the the Tories a majority in 2024 Labour will still have to win back some more brexity urban seats in the North and Midands such as Birmingham Northfield, West Bromwich East, Stoke Central, Burnley, Wakefield, Darlington etc.



  • A triage by phone system has been set up for A&E in South Wales. No admittance to A&E on walk-up unless you've been instructed to come in by the triage nurse.

    An excellent innovation which means a lot of the time wasters who clogged A&E habitually won't be there wasting resources.

    I hope some of these innovations are kept post-COVID.
  • CorrectHorseBatteryCorrectHorseBattery Posts: 21,436
    edited August 2020

    https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1290257105283252227

    Keir's strategy taking shape. As I said, it's not through the Northern heartlands

    Unless Labour can win seats in Scotland. KS isn't going to be in no 10, period.
    Truro and Falmouth will probably go Labour in 2024 even if the Tories have a smallish overall majority because it was the only seat in Cornwall to vote remain and has a decent LD vote to squeeze with favourable pro Labour demographics in Falmouth/Penryn and to a lesser extent Truro.

    To deny the the Tories a majority in 2024 Labour will still have to win back some more brexity urban seats in the North and Midands such as Birmingham Northfield, West Bromwich East, Stoke Central, Burnley, Wakefield, Darlington etc.



    Birmingham Northfield requires a swing of less than 2%, it must be high on Labour's list, as despite everything it was only narrowly lost in 2019.

    West Bromwich East 2.21% swing, 1.04% swing.

    These are very narrow Tory wins, Stoke-on-Trent Central despite Brexit. Keir would have to have a terrible performance to not win these back, surely.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camborne_and_Redruth_(UK_Parliament_constituency)

    Massive Labour swing in 2017, poor result in 2019 though. Another for Keir's target list I assume, once a Lib Dem seat.

    In the South West it is traditionally a battle between Liberal and Tory. It’s like the twentieth century was something that happened to other people...

    There are some significant exceptions of course, like David Owen (pre SDP) and Ben Bradshaw.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,841
    Biden winning Texas would be like Obama winning Indiana in 2008. It's a "wow" moment, but he's won by that point already.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950

    I wonder what proportion of the reduced attendance of hospitals is people who need to go to hospitals not going . . . and what proportion is hypochondriacs deciding they have something better to do.

    In the past when I've waited in A&E I've often felt the majority of people there didn't really need to be there.

    They were looking at you thinking exactly the same thing.

    "Often felt" - how many times have you been to A&E?
  • There are seats which voted Brexit which went very heavily Tory but some which were lost very narrowly, despite Corbyn, despite Labour's Brexit policy, despite wokeism, etc
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950
    Very amusing earlier also about Brexiters dismissing the idea that following a bad, or no EU deal the UK might go hungry.

    In living memory of a six-month old toddler the shelves in the UK were stripped bare. And the government is shortly to stop its distribution of food parcels. Yes, food parcels. Like they have in Africa.

    Dear god if that doesn't give the lie to the claim that "it couldn't happen here" then goodness knows what will.
  • felixfelix Posts: 15,124
    https://english.elpais.com/society/2020-08-03/why-does-italy-have-fewer-new-covid-19-cases-than-spain.html?ssm=FB_CM_EN&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2X6EIlo2L6vOf-kMpkMIOMK60Rd8EV854MU5RM6p_ksmBcoFKE56PrfdQ#Echobox=1596451698

    Why does Italy have fewer new Covid-19 cases than Spain?
    Since the Italian government eased lockdown restrictions, the country has been reporting an average of 200 daily infections, while Spanish authorities are recording more than 1,500

    We have a large outbreak in the tourist town near me - all located at 3 discos where the social distancing was inadequate. The authorities have no clue what to do and display extraordinary ignorance when trying to reassure people:
    ' no transmission from staff to clients' - 24 hours after recording 31 positives and while testing is still ongoing!

    More than ever convinced the UK action last week was spot on. My only caveat being there should have been no non-essential foreign travel at all this year. Total hostage to fortune.
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328
    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    I wonder what proportion of the reduced attendance of hospitals is people who need to go to hospitals not going . . . and what proportion is hypochondriacs deciding they have something better to do.

    In the past when I've waited in A&E I've often felt the majority of people there didn't really need to be there.

    But it's not just A&E that's running at below capacity, it's everything including oncology.
    Indeed, oncology being down is very worrying.

    I'm not suggesting that all the decrease is non-worrying, but not all of the decrease is worrying either. Some of the decrease is people being more careful (or less driving or less drunk) and fewer accidents, some of it is fewer hypochondriacs going out . . . but much of it is what should be going on like oncology.

    There should be an awareness campaign going on for cancer awareness. I think that's the biggest concern of them all.
    It's not just cancer though, there's a whole host of routine procedures that are being put off or going undiagnosed because people don't want to go to hospital. The person with undiagnosed high cholesterol is at risk of a stroke, that's as serious as it gets.
    Or even a stomach ulcer that goes untreated too long.
  • CorrectHorseBatteryCorrectHorseBattery Posts: 21,436
    edited August 2020
    Bury North: Leave

    Kensington: Remain

    Bury South: Leave

    Bolton North East: Leave

    Swing of 0.43% required to win all of these. Despite the most unpopular Labour leader in history and Brexit, they only lost narrowly.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950
    edited August 2020
    Oh and the govt's eat out to help out initiative coming at exactly the same time as its let's all lose weight initiative is vying with we have a 5-point scale and we're on 3.5 as the most totally moronic and risible thing it's done and it's a low bar.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,738
    edited August 2020

    ydoethur said:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camborne_and_Redruth_(UK_Parliament_constituency)

    Massive Labour swing in 2017, poor result in 2019 though. Another for Keir's target list I assume, once a Lib Dem seat.

    Camborne was the reason Falmouth was Labour (Truro hasn’t been for decades). It’s an ex-tin mining town with an Old Labour core. It followed the pattern of many other industrial and ex-industrial seats in 2019.
    What's the seat like compared to the lost seats in the North? Are there overlaps, you mentioned an Old Labour core.

    Your knowledge exceeds mine.

    Camborne and Redruth is 103 on the Labour target list, 9% swing required. Would put Keir in Number 10, seems unlikely a swing that large is to happen though.
    I don’t know. It’s years since I was in the area and I never knew it well.

    What should concern Labour strategists is this. They hold all three seats in Bristol proper, one in Plymouth, one in Exeter and they don’t hold a single additional seat in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. In 1997 they held 15 and in 2005 10.

    OK, it’s not Scotland. But it’s still not great. There are places, like Camborne, Stroud, Gloucester, Swindon, Plymouth Moor View and others where Labour should be competitive. And yet outside Stroud and Plymouth, they’re not, really. That Truro is 44th on their target list says a lot.

    Edit - I just checked the figures for Plymouth. That’ll teach me to make assumptions!
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603
    TimT said:

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    I wonder what proportion of the reduced attendance of hospitals is people who need to go to hospitals not going . . . and what proportion is hypochondriacs deciding they have something better to do.

    In the past when I've waited in A&E I've often felt the majority of people there didn't really need to be there.

    But it's not just A&E that's running at below capacity, it's everything including oncology.
    Indeed, oncology being down is very worrying.

    I'm not suggesting that all the decrease is non-worrying, but not all of the decrease is worrying either. Some of the decrease is people being more careful (or less driving or less drunk) and fewer accidents, some of it is fewer hypochondriacs going out . . . but much of it is what should be going on like oncology.

    There should be an awareness campaign going on for cancer awareness. I think that's the biggest concern of them all.
    It's not just cancer though, there's a whole host of routine procedures that are being put off or going undiagnosed because people don't want to go to hospital. The person with undiagnosed high cholesterol is at risk of a stroke, that's as serious as it gets.
    Or even a stomach ulcer that goes untreated too long.
    Exactly, cancer is just one of the serious health conditions currently going untreated or undetected because the government has sacrificed all other public health priorities for the virus. It's going to end very badly unless there is a serious rethink of policy.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,612
    NHS Hospital numbers out

    Headline - 5
    7 days - 5
    Yesterday - 2

    NOTE : All daily reported data is subject to reporting days. This means the last 3-5 days (for the UK) is provisional and subject to increase. Anyone who doesn't understand this and attempts use the last 3-5 days to prove something is scientifically known as "ignorant". The last 5 days are included for completeness.

    image
    image
    image
    image
  • TimT said:

    TimT said:

    MaxPB said:

    Had a long chat with a cousin yesterday at a family picnic, he's a very high up at a major London trust. He basically said that the NHS is currently operating at 10-20% in London depending on the specific trust and he thinks people are going to die because the government pushed the messaging of "save the NHS" too hard early on and are still doing it which is putting people off from getting care for potentially life-threatening conditions. On the virus itself, he said his hospital and the surrounding ones haven't had a new case in about two weeks and the number of active cases are fairly small and confined to a single ward with no crossover in staffing and they are thinking of consolidating all existing London cases at a single trust and declaring the rest of the hospitals COVID-free to encourage patients to come back.

    He also said there is no sign of a second wave in terms of hospital admissions for them and they haven't picked up any additional suspected cases in their A&E. He's definitely of the opinion that the government needs to rethink the whole strategy of sacrificing all public health initiatives at the altar of the virus, especially now that we haven't got the same hospital caseload as before and there is spare capacity.

    I had a course of treatment postponed by the lockdown, but they phoned my at the beginning of June to go and get it finished. The hospital seemed pretty empty, but I go in at aside entrance to get to the ward I need so it was hard to compare. I also get the impression that they are prioritising cancer treatment.
    I've had a surgeon's office call me about a small, non-urgent procedure that was postponed from March. I think in the US, surgeons are eager to get more work as patients are not so keen to go to hospitals even now elective procedures are permitted.
    I’ve picked up a few hospital acquired infections in my time (although usually from what I would call invasive procedures) so I can certainly understand why people are avoiding hospitals unless they absolutely have to go.
    Nosocomial infections kill around 100k in the US per year ...
    I had pneumonia last year and it was described as “community acquired”: that is they have a special category for those illnesses not picked up in hospital...
    I was told by one senior medical type, that a major reason behind the modern emphasis on getting people out of hospital quickly, is the risk of picking up infections.
    Operations are now often done as day cases. I have spent fewer nights in hospital than I have had general anaesthetics.
  • Interesting: looks like Maine and Nebraska split their EC vote rather than being winner takes all.
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328

    TimT said:

    TimT said:

    MaxPB said:

    Had a long chat with a cousin yesterday at a family picnic, he's a very high up at a major London trust. He basically said that the NHS is currently operating at 10-20% in London depending on the specific trust and he thinks people are going to die because the government pushed the messaging of "save the NHS" too hard early on and are still doing it which is putting people off from getting care for potentially life-threatening conditions. On the virus itself, he said his hospital and the surrounding ones haven't had a new case in about two weeks and the number of active cases are fairly small and confined to a single ward with no crossover in staffing and they are thinking of consolidating all existing London cases at a single trust and declaring the rest of the hospitals COVID-free to encourage patients to come back.

    He also said there is no sign of a second wave in terms of hospital admissions for them and they haven't picked up any additional suspected cases in their A&E. He's definitely of the opinion that the government needs to rethink the whole strategy of sacrificing all public health initiatives at the altar of the virus, especially now that we haven't got the same hospital caseload as before and there is spare capacity.

    I had a course of treatment postponed by the lockdown, but they phoned my at the beginning of June to go and get it finished. The hospital seemed pretty empty, but I go in at aside entrance to get to the ward I need so it was hard to compare. I also get the impression that they are prioritising cancer treatment.
    I've had a surgeon's office call me about a small, non-urgent procedure that was postponed from March. I think in the US, surgeons are eager to get more work as patients are not so keen to go to hospitals even now elective procedures are permitted.
    I’ve picked up a few hospital acquired infections in my time (although usually from what I would call invasive procedures) so I can certainly understand why people are avoiding hospitals unless they absolutely have to go.
    Nosocomial infections kill around 100k in the US per year ...
    I had pneumonia last year and it was described as “community acquired”: that is they have a special category for those illnesses not picked up in hospital...
    I was told by one senior medical type, that a major reason behind the modern emphasis on getting people out of hospital quickly, is the risk of picking up infections.
    Operations are now often done as day cases. I have spent fewer nights in hospital than I have had general anaesthetics.
    In the US, many (most?) operations are not done in hospitals, but in surgery centres - so walk in, walk out same day.
  • @ydoethur http://www.electionpolling.co.uk/constituencies/uk-parliament/plymouth-moor-view interesting.

    Trending away since 2015, when the majority was only 1026. What has happened there?
  • TheWhiteRabbitTheWhiteRabbit Posts: 12,387

    Interesting: looks like Maine and Nebraska split their EC vote rather than being winner takes all.
    Yes, it's a combination of "at large" and congressional districts (it's actually a reminder of how the numbers for the electoral college - 538 - come about, being Senators + Representatives for each state.
  • MaxPB said:

    TimT said:

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    I wonder what proportion of the reduced attendance of hospitals is people who need to go to hospitals not going . . . and what proportion is hypochondriacs deciding they have something better to do.

    In the past when I've waited in A&E I've often felt the majority of people there didn't really need to be there.

    But it's not just A&E that's running at below capacity, it's everything including oncology.
    Indeed, oncology being down is very worrying.

    I'm not suggesting that all the decrease is non-worrying, but not all of the decrease is worrying either. Some of the decrease is people being more careful (or less driving or less drunk) and fewer accidents, some of it is fewer hypochondriacs going out . . . but much of it is what should be going on like oncology.

    There should be an awareness campaign going on for cancer awareness. I think that's the biggest concern of them all.
    It's not just cancer though, there's a whole host of routine procedures that are being put off or going undiagnosed because people don't want to go to hospital. The person with undiagnosed high cholesterol is at risk of a stroke, that's as serious as it gets.
    Or even a stomach ulcer that goes untreated too long.
    Exactly, cancer is just one of the serious health conditions currently going untreated or undetected because the government has sacrificed all other public health priorities for the virus. It's going to end very badly unless there is a serious rethink of policy.
    Question for PB's Foreign Correspondents; how are other (dare one say, better run) health systems responding to this question? Unfortunately, I can see a chain which goes UK running Covid control relatively hot --> a bit less general medical capacity and a bit more fear --> other illnesses bubbling up as well.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,841
    TOPPING said:

    Oh and the govt's eat out to help out initiative coming at exactly the same time as its let's all lose weight initiative is vying with we have a 5-point scale and we're on 3.5 as the most totally moronic and risible thing it's done and it's a low bar.

    Let them eat cake.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,072
    TimT said:

    TimT said:

    TimT said:

    MaxPB said:

    Had a long chat with a cousin yesterday at a family picnic, he's a very high up at a major London trust. He basically said that the NHS is currently operating at 10-20% in London depending on the specific trust and he thinks people are going to die because the government pushed the messaging of "save the NHS" too hard early on and are still doing it which is putting people off from getting care for potentially life-threatening conditions. On the virus itself, he said his hospital and the surrounding ones haven't had a new case in about two weeks and the number of active cases are fairly small and confined to a single ward with no crossover in staffing and they are thinking of consolidating all existing London cases at a single trust and declaring the rest of the hospitals COVID-free to encourage patients to come back.

    He also said there is no sign of a second wave in terms of hospital admissions for them and they haven't picked up any additional suspected cases in their A&E. He's definitely of the opinion that the government needs to rethink the whole strategy of sacrificing all public health initiatives at the altar of the virus, especially now that we haven't got the same hospital caseload as before and there is spare capacity.

    I had a course of treatment postponed by the lockdown, but they phoned my at the beginning of June to go and get it finished. The hospital seemed pretty empty, but I go in at aside entrance to get to the ward I need so it was hard to compare. I also get the impression that they are prioritising cancer treatment.
    I've had a surgeon's office call me about a small, non-urgent procedure that was postponed from March. I think in the US, surgeons are eager to get more work as patients are not so keen to go to hospitals even now elective procedures are permitted.
    I’ve picked up a few hospital acquired infections in my time (although usually from what I would call invasive procedures) so I can certainly understand why people are avoiding hospitals unless they absolutely have to go.
    Nosocomial infections kill around 100k in the US per year ...
    I had pneumonia last year and it was described as “community acquired”: that is they have a special category for those illnesses not picked up in hospital...
    I was told by one senior medical type, that a major reason behind the modern emphasis on getting people out of hospital quickly, is the risk of picking up infections.
    Operations are now often done as day cases. I have spent fewer nights in hospital than I have had general anaesthetics.
    In the US, many (most?) operations are not done in hospitals, but in surgery centres - so walk in, walk out same day.
    The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead has a surgery centre.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950
    Pulpstar said:

    TOPPING said:

    Oh and the govt's eat out to help out initiative coming at exactly the same time as its let's all lose weight initiative is vying with we have a 5-point scale and we're on 3.5 as the most totally moronic and risible thing it's done and it's a low bar.

    Let them eat cake.
    Gluten-free?
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