Coronavirus Pandemic

[KlaxonCow]

Any other day he would have headed straight to a private BUPA hospital I bet.

Indeed. But he can't say "protect the NHS" one day and then nip off to a BUPA hospital the next. It just wouldn't remotely look good, would it?

But, no matter, as he's the Prime Minister, then they'll give him BUPA-top-tier-equivalent preferential treatment anyway - but just do it inside an NHS hospital, so he can give a cheery wave of thanks to the NHS nurses as he moves ward and we get our "feel good" PR message of the day. Yay!

[Ollie]

Incidentally, regarding the "herd immunity" strategy that they're supposedly no longer pursuing: https://bylinetimes.com/2020/04/09/leak ... 19-anyway/

Comes as no surprise really that the strategy still appears to be to allow 80% of us to get it, just to spread it out enough that the NHS can cope with as little increased resources as they can get away with.

[Harlequin]

Incidentally, regarding the "herd immunity" strategy that they're supposedly no longer pursuing: https://bylinetimes.com/2020/04/09/leak ... 19-anyway/
Comes as no surprise really that the strategy still appears to be to allow 80% of us to get it, just to spread it out enough that the NHS can cope with as little increased resources as they can get away with.

That might possibly explain this, which I linked in another place (after wondering if singing, "You're so Priti, Oh so Priti, Ahhh. You're ...," would be considered misogynistic in the U.S.):

Priti Patel accused of avoiding MPs’ scrutiny during national crisis

Home secretary failed to reply to repeated requests to give evidence amid Covid-19 crisis
…
[Chair of the home affairs select committee, Yvette] Cooper wrote on Wednesday: “Delaying until the end of the month would clearly be inappropriate given the urgency of the public information and answers that are needed.”

The letters reveal Patel has been pressing for “private briefings” instead of appearing in public but the committee declined as it believed this was “not sufficient”.

On 7 April, Patel wrote to Cooper defending the proposal, which she argued “strikes an important balance between ensuring the department receives that vital scrutiny, while ensuring the committee can receive operationally sensitive, and sometimes classified, updates at this time of national emergency.
…
Last week, Cooper wrote to Patel emphasising that the home secretary had been sent four previous requests to give evidence on 27 March, 20 March, 6 March and 29 January. “No response has yet been forthcoming,” Cooper wrote.

Before the lockdown, Cooper wrote to Patel on 20 March, stating: “In the light of the escalating coronavirus crisis, we believe it is urgent and essential that we hear from you.”

[snaff]

Perhaps.

Certainly *rapidly* killing the host can be an evolutionary dead-end. However, killing the host once you've had time to spread isn't necessarily; it reduces the number of immune individuals in the population, thus increasing the chance of hitting infectable hosts. But as with other evolutionary factors, it's statistical, over a huge population, and vying with other factors which might or might not favour infection. So, in short, "who the fuck knows"

Particularly if, like coronavirus, it's zoonotic and different species have different responses. It doesn't stunt your progress much if you're fatal to one pool of infection as long as others exist.

Squirrels all have leprosy and it doesn't bother them.

[Little stoned kiwi]

Google mobility data shows NZ’s lockdown behaviour
Also Explore the full global mobility data set here

Thought some might find it of interest. No one tell Alex Jones.

[Foozwah]

You are free not to have a phone.

Exactly.

Or... and I realise that this is a completely insane idea, one that Alex Jones and those uncritically amplifying his latest paranoid bullshit seem incapable of grasping, but it is actually possible to own a smartphone and...not take it absolutely everywhere you go, 24/7.

Crazy, I know...

[tufty]

[ realise that this is a completely insane idea, one that Alex Jones and those uncritically amplifying his latest paranoid bullshit seem incapable of grasping, but it is actually possible to own a smartphone and...not take it absolutely everywhere you go, 24/7.

Sure, but if you're really paranoid, you'd need someone or something to make it move around a bit in the house when you're not there. Otherwise "they" will know you're cheating.

Maybe tape it to a roomba :)

[gilesgoat]

You are free not to have a phone.

Exactly.

Or... and I realise that this is a completely insane idea, one that Alex Jones and those uncritically amplifying his latest paranoid bullshit seem incapable of grasping, but it is actually possible to own a smartphone and...not take it absolutely everywhere you go, 24/7.

Crazy, I know...

Until you'll be obliged to have one and carry it with you if you want to go anywhere.

Look it's already like that in Italy, with papers in the place of the phone, YOU CAN NOT LITERALLY TAKE A WALK OUT <WHATEVER> WITHOUT CARRYING A JUSTIFICATION/AUTHORIZATION PAPER AND POLICE IS STOPPING/FINING PEOPLE ALL OVER THE PLACES !

The step to "carry papers" to "obliged to have the phone with you" could be very minimal.

Read the news there was that guy in South Korea that was Coronavirus positive, was forced of the phone and stay home, he forgot one night to charge it the phone went offline, 6AM in the morning he had a SWAT team breaking into his house questioning him wtf he's done and reminding him it was HIS obligation to keep it ALWAYS working.

The Roomba is lightly pointless I think the 'resolution' of a phone is the GSM "cell" you are in which anyway it's a sufficiently detailed resolution, fact is you cell needs to be pinging a phone tower or you'd be without carrier, that's how they target you, plus there's GPS in basically every phone, they can get your GPS coords all time.

The thing is all this exists already inside your phone without the need of any app being installed, it would be sufficient for google/GSM providers to pass those infos to whoever they want.

[tufty]

Giles, you're getting (more) paranoid.

In Italy (and France, and maybe other places), you have to carry papers saying where you're going, why, and when you left because the government are trying to control a lockdown situation. You were already required to carry your identification papers in any case. This does not equate to the government wanting to know where you are all the time, nor does it mean that they will require you to justify every journey once the covid situation is eventually over.

The mobile phone tracking data thing is to allow contact tracking in a situation where an agressive regime of test-isolate-trace is a thing, like in South Korea, where they are ahead of the curve and want to stay there. It would be nonsensical to try ti implement this in Italy, or France, or the UK, because we are already a million miles behind the curve. WE don't know who is infected, who isn't, and of those, who's had the disease and who hasn't. They are allegedly tracking phones in areas like where I am to pick up people who are taking the piss with the confinement measures. But I've only heard that from one source, and my wife didn't get picked up when she was taking the piss yesterday, so take with as large a pinch of salt as claims that COVID was deliberately released from a weapons research facility because <reasons>.

As for cell tracking being enough, is it fuck. Come out here where one cell covers 3 villages. You'd need GPS data, and GPS is receive only unless your device is explicitly sending that received data back. Hence the need for an app.

Stop listening to that Jones twat. His show causes cancer.

[gilesgoat]

Giles, you're getting (more) paranoid.

*SNIP*

This does not equate to the government wanting to know where you are all the time, nor does it mean that they will require you to justify every journey once the covid situation is eventually over.

*SNIP*

YOU say that NOW, we'll talk again in a couple of years.

Do I trust the governments/politcians ? NO, never, ever !

[Deckard]

Has any tin hat conspiracy plot ever been proved ? Kennedy ? 911 ? Diana ? Moon Landings ? Seems to be a pattern here....

[gilesgoat]

Que ne pienso del governo ?

[tufty]

Has any tin hat conspiracy plot ever been proved ? Kennedy ? 911 ? Diana ? Moon Landings ? Seems to be a pattern here....

The only one I can think of was the automatic scanning of emails, which was pooh-poohed for decades as being far too greedy of resources before the Snowden revelations.

Well, that and the world being flat.

And the lizard people.

Who are, just by pure coincidence, all Jewish.

[F-ZeroOne]

Has any tin hat conspiracy plot ever been proved ? Kennedy ? 911 ? Diana ? Moon Landings ? Seems to be a pattern here....

The only example I can think of is the existence of "Black Helicopters"; mysterious aircraft that were claimed to roam around the US doing unspeakable things to cows. It turned out when they killed Osama bin Laden, Black Helicopters actually existed. I just very much doubt the US Special Forces train by mutilating cows from them though. And, of course, its a coincidence.

[F-ZeroOne]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4 ... up-with-it

This is being reported as Trump doesn't know the difference between a bacteria and a virus (including the above link) and why antibiotics don't work on them. However - and I say this as someone who is no fan of Trump at all - if you listen carefully to the actual clip, I don't think hes actually claiming that; I think hes speaking a bit more generally than rather specifically about the virus. I am saying this only to be absolutely fair. I really, really do not like him.

Edit: he does say "The germ has gotten so brilliant... the antibiotic can't keep up with it" but the statement is so vague he may not be specifically referring to COVID-19. Just possibly.