Generic Virus Thread

[markavfc40]

2 hours ago, MCU said:

Fantastically handled by this government. I dread to think what sort of financial mess we'd be in had the Lord Saviour Corbyn been in charge. Think they've quite easily secured their position for the very, long, foreseeable future after all of this concludes. Not to mention the chancellor Rishi, future PM for sure.

I find it incredibly sad that amongst this pandemic the public are still out for the politicians. Whether you like it or not they are doing the best they can, and no doubt will have the experts in their ear 24/7 on what to advise. They will look at the countries around us, and try and find tune it. Mistakes are going to happen, late decisions, you name it.

As an example, I saw the socials pouring with absolute hatred last week that France had poured £300B or so into their economy, and low and behold the warriors of keyboard land were questioning why we weren't doing it. We announce it but it's not good enough. I roll this onto the schools, pubs, restaurants etc. Sure you all could do a better job 

I have no problem with the reaction. That doesn't wipe away that 10 years of Tory rule has left our NHS way worse prepared than what it could have been. It runs at pretty much max capacity as it is. Has way less ICU beds than many other European countries, has older people blocking beds due to the decimation of adult social care. That is before we get into the public community services that we'll desperately need now that no longer exist.

Sorry but I am not lauding this Government for doing things that in many cases simply address what should have been in place already.

Edited March 20, 2020 by markavfc40

[wazzap24]

16 minutes ago, Jareth said:

The single biggest test of the current leaders will be if we avoid doing an Italy. If we don't, all pats on backs will be replaced with charges of gross incompetence. 

I pretty sure it’s already too late for that. We’ll be in the same boat in the next 7-10 days I think. 
 

It’s now down to how quickly they can source the equipment & people needed (PPE, Ventilators and returning staff), and get the testing ramped up for key workers and general population. Only those things will limit the damage now, along with hopefully slowing it down from here on in. 

I’m praying these drug trials work and if they do, that we can manufacturer enough supply of them. We’re in trouble if not. 

 

 

Edited March 20, 2020 by wazzap24

[mjmooney]

The modelling originally projected that if the UK did nothing, 81% of people would be infected and 510,000 would die from coronavirus by August.

The mitigation strategy is supposedly better, but would still result in about 250,000 deaths and completely overwhelm intensive care in the NHS. 

To put this into perpective, these are the figures for WWII: 

 

[bickster]

17 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

 

These are two big holes in the announcement. I definitely agree with those saying this is much much better - they're most of the way there now - but there are three big holes remaining IMO, which are ESA, self-employed workers and renters. They clearly aren't going to do a rent holiday, however much I think it would be the right thing to do, but they still might do something on the others. ESA should just be doubled or something for the duration. Self-employed are a bit harder, but one idea I have seen floated around is to repay them all the tax they paid last year as a starting point.

If people are still getting paid, a rent holiday isn't required. People getting paid to sit at home will possibly actually be better off

Self-Employed is the BIG hole right now, I suspect its rather a more difficult problem to solve so may come next week

It also depends what kind of work they were in. Taxi drivers for example might be getting all kinds of work they don't normally get. Who knows what wil need ferrying between hospitals for example. Our company already has these contracts anyway, but you imagine restrictions will be lifted on spending so that work may increase. But its a precarious thing.

Bar workers on the other hand are fubarred as are musicians, DJ's etc

There isn't a one solution fits all for the self-employed, it's going to take some thought, so might come next week (you'd hope)

[tonyh29]

20 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

Sorry but I am not lauding this Government for doing things that in many cases simply address what should have been in place already

Isn’t that like blaming Smith for mistakes Sherwood made ( whilst acknowledging the fact that Johnson was part of Sherwood back room staff )

he was culpable previously for sure , but he’s got the Gullet with “gaffer” written on it now and the team selection and tactics are all his 

[jackbauer24]

There is talk of an exit strategy, or more precisely what that exit strategy would look like.

We are now in a position where we largely know how this virus works, we just can't stop it. We can also largely control it if we have access to appropriate resources/medical equipment in good time. Those two factors seem to suggest the route out of it, on the scale of all this, is relatively simple.

With companies building ventilators or boffins extending the use of single machines to cater for multiple patients then all we need to do is close the gap between the expected number needing ICUs and the number of beds currently available. Set up hotels to create the beds, get all focus on the right equipment and then lift the closures and deal with the influx. With greater knowledge to spot signs of early symptoms the numbers would surely plummet.

This ignores herd immunity which might have some effect, possible medicinal breakthroughs or vaccines. How long would it take to close that gap? It seems that largely it is the severity of numbers rather than the severity of virus itself.

Or is that an overly simple view point? I can't remember where I read it, but I think it said we need 20k more ventilators. How long would that take?

[tonyh29]

7 minutes ago, bickster said:

 People getting paid to sit at home will possibly actually be better off

Stereotype alert

It would be like we are all on benefits except we can’t go down the pub and squander our money 

 

8 minutes ago, bickster said:

There isn't a one solution fits all for the self-employed, it's going to take some thought, so might come next week (you'd hope)

There was talk about taking average earnings over past 2 years and paying people  based on that , but yep let’s see what they come up with for the gig workers etc 

[djdabush]

Does anyone know what the situation is if you find temporary employment elsewhere? My wife is going to help out for a few weeks at my workplace but obviously makes no sense to lose the protection of receiving 80% of her wages from her full time job when this is just for a few weeks.

[snowychap]

4 minutes ago, djdabush said:

Does anyone know what the situation is if you find temporary employment elsewhere? My wife is going to help out for a few weeks at my workplace but obviously makes no sense to lose the protection of receiving 80% of her wages from her full time job when this is just for a few weeks.

It looks as though the further details haven't been published yet on the Gov's website.

There's some more info in this Faisal Islam twitter thread - general stuff but not an answer to your question.

 

[markavfc40]

25 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

Isn’t that like blaming Smith for mistakes Sherwood made ( whilst acknowledging the fact that Johnson was part of Sherwood back room staff )

he was culpable previously for sure , but he’s got the Gullet with “gaffer” written on it now and the team selection and tactics are all his 

That is true in fairness but we can't seriously say that this Tory Government has no association with Mays Government or Camerons one. I can't be asked as it is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things but I'd guess the make up of this government in terms of MP's will still contain 80%+ of those MP's that put through the measures that now leave us with the NHS and public services, or lack of, we have as a starting point to help get us through this.

Edited March 20, 2020 by markavfc40

[Genie]

I’d love it if this guy was on to talk about hoarding 

[bickster]

19 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

Stereotype alert

Hardly, these people want to work. My point was, they won't be going out, they won't be travelling to work, They'll be getting paid and their expenses will be less. That's important because when this is all over, everyone will be able to have a big blow out to stimulate the economy

[bickster]

23 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

There was talk about taking average earnings over past 2 years and paying people  based on that , but yep let’s see what they come up with for the gig workers etc 

Thats not going to work to be honest, plenty of people in thes roles only do it for six months between jobs etc

[Kingman]

1 hour ago, HanoiVillan said:

These are two big holes in the announcement. I definitely agree with those saying this is much much better - they're most of the way there now - but there are three big holes remaining IMO, which are ESA, self-employed workers and renters. They clearly aren't going to do a rent holiday, however much I think it would be the right thing to do, but they still might do something on the others. ESA should just be doubled or something for the duration. Self-employed are a bit harder, but one idea I have seen floated around is to repay them all the tax they paid last year as a starting point.

So up to 2.5k a month if your Employed, PAYE/Umbrella and no need to pay back!..

SSP and deferred tax/vat (loan) for Ltd, CIS, Sole Traders!..

Now It All makes sense why they paused IR35 for 12 months!. 

[Brumerican]

 

[chrisp65]

1 hour ago, MCU said:

Fantastically handled by this government. I dread to think what sort of financial mess we'd be in had the Lord Saviour Corbyn been in charge. Think they've quite easily secured their position for the very, long, foreseeable future after all of this concludes. Not to mention the chancellor Rishi, future PM for sure.

I find it incredibly sad that amongst this pandemic the public are still out for the politicians. Whether you like it or not they are doing the best they can, and no doubt will have the experts in their ear 24/7 on what to advise. They will look at the countries around us, and try and find tune it. Mistakes are going to happen, late decisions, you name it.

As an example, I saw the socials pouring with absolute hatred last week that France had poured £300B or so into their economy, and low and behold the warriors of keyboard land were questioning why we weren't doing it. We announce it but it's not good enough. I roll this onto the schools, pubs, restaurants etc. Sure you all could do a better job 

Johnson is an 11 year old from a 1952 Blyton story that ends up in the Gypsy fortune teller’s tent at the fair and wishes to be big.

It was on twitter and is the truest thing you’ll read all day.

[PieFacE]

Supposed to be giving blood to the NHS on Monday. Not sure whether to go or not.  I guess if there's ever a time to do it, it's now..

[Awol]

1 hour ago, Jareth said:

The single biggest test of the current leaders will be if we avoid doing an Italy. If we don't, all pats on backs will be replaced with charges of gross incompetence. 

UK mortality rate is actually on a higher trajectory than Italy.
 

Said this a few days ago/last week (it’s all a bit blurred now) but absolutely meant it: in six months our ICU nurses will be spoken about by the population in the same tones as the Spitfire pilots of 1940. I wouldn’t swap jobs with them for all the tea in China, but they have my unconditional respect.

[Tayls]

Edit: tried to post a video but the damn thing didn’t embed due to an error. Sad face....

 

 

Here’s the link to it anyway, it’s Russel Brands view on what the coronavirus has revealed to us all...

 

[trekka]

I'll be busying myself on Sunday attempting to pull together small "care packages" to send to my team (22 of them - all working from home now until the foreseeable future).  I'm a civil servant (so they aren't my employees) but I feel like I have a duty of care to continue to re-assure them that they are all thought of.  Small packets of dried fruit, a few drops of chocolate, a few random funnies, a small piece of loo roll () and a note of thanks for being awesome.