Awol

Apparently authorities in Rhode Island are searching house-to-house for people who’ve fled from NYC to put them into 14 day quarantine. Incredible stuff.

Just saw Trump chatting to some journos about a hospital ship, then casually drops in the bomb that they’re discussing quarantining New York and New Jersey. It was like he’s musing on whether to have a BBQ this afternoon or not. Absolutely wild.

Was told earlier in the week they were shutting imminently, but obviously that hasn’t happened. Anyone still leaving on holiday has a screw loose imo, but we do still have 100,000’s citizens abroad. Suppose they are part of the argument for keeping airports open, although that might be hard to sustain when our casualties start mounting up.

Picture in China still opaque and linked NPR article is worth a read. Points to importance of having tests that actually work, not just rushing out Chinese made junk that delivers false positives/negatives.

Dubai in complete lockdown with drones cleaning the streets. AI has definitely arrived there.

That’s clearly inappropriate, death seems fully justified under the circumstances.

This is a useful review of the evidence for those (like me) who thought the government didn’t do enough, early enough. A lot hinges on the lack of openness from China about the nature of the disease. links to original docs are included:

Is he really, didn’t know that. What did he do?

Is that why you were hoping Stanley Johnson gets Coronavirus? He’s old and therefore a disgusting racist?

Yep. Quite amazing to think we’re living through an event that will change the world, probably in even more consequential ways than 9/11 and 2008. After this people won’t be looking to fix the system, they’ll be looking to replace the system.

Speaking of which, I’ll bet Boris is glad he dropped a few dress sizes recently.

Matt Hancock positive too. Edit: Meaning he has Coronavirus, not a sunny disposition.

There’s only two permanent exits: a vaccine or herd immunity. The Imperial College modelling suggested that after the initial suppression phase, we’d be doing a series of lockdowns interspersed with normalish working periods, closing down again once the NHS came under strain dealing with the increasing cases. That could be rolling on and off again for about 12 months (or however long a vaccine takes to develop).

No offence mate but I think that’s a little bit silly.

He is the Prime Minister so maybe quite important to know the answer, don’t you think?

Could be. Depends a) how long ago he got infected (up to 14 days) and when he started spreading asymptomatically vs when the Cabinet moved to more remote working. If they all start dropping the military may have to take a bigger role in operational planning. They also train for crisis on the basis that elements of the leadership are regularly taken off the field, so the organizational resilience is unsurprisingly much more developed than the political-bureaucratic machinery.

If Boris has got it then there’s a good chance the CMO and CSA have it too. This could all get quite interesting!

A failed state inside a military superpower. Some combo.

The Dutch just kicked the idea of Coronabonds/Eurobonds (mutualised EZ debt issuance) into touch. Italy, Spain and probably French banking systems will be in the hurt locker quite soon.

Fair enough, I’m not a medical professional and can only go with the evidence of my own eyes, i.e. the grass is only greener up here because of the rain. The idea that there’s a pool of untapped epidemiological talent in Scotland waiting to be unlocked by Sturgeon is arsecakes, and pure politicking on her part. I could believe almost anything about Cameron and Osborne, amoral men with self-serving intentions, encapsulated by their conduct towards China. The ‘filth’ part is a bit OTT though, I viscerally despise Corbyn/McDonnell but avoid phrases like ‘Labour filth’. Not a very reasonable way to describe people you disagree with, imo.

I’ve lived in Scotland coming on 3 years and my youngest has used the NHS extensively. During the same period my sister has been using the NHS in England. Anecdotally neither has been a good experience, and I don’t believe what you’ve written above is actually true, despite the funding for Scotland per capita being higher.

Exactly. Westminster starved the NHS in England, while Scotland’s NHS with its 58 ICU beds, was run lock stock and barrel by the SNP. The Conservatives will pay the reputational price for austerity after this, as they should. The original discussion was about Sturgeon trying to find a nationalist angle to the Coronavirus, so I’m not sure what point your trying to make?

Why would we be in an EU procurement programme when we’re not in the EU? Like saying why aren’t we in a joint programme with Russia, or Algeria. Why would we be?

The SNP has run the Scottish NHS since 2007. But Westminster.

Quite. Also the Czechs had to stop using the tests they got from China due to an 80% failure rate.