Generic Virus Thread

[chrisp65]

I can’t believe there are health workers still pretending there is insufficient ppe when minister after minister has told us for days its been sorted.

[markavfc40]

12 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Mrs just awake from night shift  literally front line NHS dealing with Corona patient's. She is considering bottling it now. Truth be told still no ppe just surgical masks, an now being silenced and threatened with dismissal if anyone posts on social media about the situation.  We have a 5 year old we dont want him to get it neither do I want it. Plenty are off on the sick already for no reason, other than being shit scared. Unfortunately might be our time. We cannot risk 12 hour shifts with just a surgical mask on, it's a disgrace. Mrs is going tonight and if no adequate PPE I've told her to go on the sick, it's not right, but we have no choice.

I don't know what to say when reading this mate especially when at the same time I am watching the health secretary on the telly being all positive, bigging up what they are doing, and continually saying they are doing all they can in terms of getting PPE onto the front line. The same crap he has been spouting for weeks.

What position do these people hold who are threatening your wife and others with dismissal for speaking out?

Edited April 3, 2020 by markavfc40

[leighavfc]

8 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Drive over and park your car so it's blocking the driveway but don't get out?

Truthfully it's a hard situation, I feel for you.

Problem is if i do that i genuinely wont be able to contain my anger and probably end up doing something twice as stupid to be honest. I just dont know what to do, mother in law just gives in and says i dont want to talk about it ti the Mrs who is obviously livid about it. Im hoping i can get through to the father in law whilst he is at work as he will lay down the law without me having to go anywhere near the house.....

[Enda]

I travel a lot for work, so have signed up for loyalty programs for airlines, hotels, car rentals, etc.

I'm getting emails from these companies every day. They say, in the most sincere and austere tones, that they're letting me keep my annual points for another month or two. Aer Lingus gave me 100 extra tier credits, and act like it's God's gift to humanity. Amazing that people care so much about stuff like this. Talk about priorities.

[leighavfc]

13 minutes ago, Jareth said:

Should all the in-laws 'disappear'? - well that's a question of some curiosity. 

I wish the sister in law would mate honestly... she a word removed

[chrisp65]

2 minutes ago, Enda said:

I travel a lot for work, so have signed up for loyalty programs for airlines, hotels, car rentals, etc.

I'm getting emails from these companies every day. They say, in the most sincere and austere tones, that they're letting me keep my annual points for another month or two. Aer Lingus gave me 100 extra tier credits, and act like it's God's gift to humanity. Amazing that people care so much about stuff like this. Talk about priorities.

I had an email from one lot suggesting there’s never been a better time to visit London, whilst its quiet!

[foreveryoung]

1 minute ago, Enda said:

I travel a lot for work, so have signed up for loyalty programs for airlines, hotels, car rentals, etc.

I'm getting emails from these companies every day. They say, in the most sincere and austere tones, that they're letting me keep my annual points for another month or two. Aer Lingus gave me 100 extra tier credits, and act like it's God's gift to humanity. Amazing that people care so much about stuff like this. Talk about priorities.

You go online mate and see the 10% discounts companies like pets4u, Next etc are giving NHS staff. Free marketing or are they genuinely trying to help???

[ml1dch]

2 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Free marketing or are they genuinely trying to help???

Can they not be getting the former by doing the latter?

[HanoiVillan]

8 minutes ago, leighavfc said:

Problem is if i do that i genuinely wont be able to contain my anger and probably end up doing something twice as stupid to be honest. I just dont know what to do, mother in law just gives in and says i dont want to talk about it ti the Mrs who is obviously livid about it. Im hoping i can get through to the father in law whilst he is at work as he will lay down the law without me having to go anywhere near the house.....

Best of luck!

[Jareth]

1 minute ago, HanoiVillan said:

Best of luck!

We have spent the last 2 weeks 'shielding' the father in-law. We share a house. He got bored and came in to show us a flat he might want, situated up three flights of stairs despite his lung issues, purely because he knows his wife would shit on the idea before he even uttered it - all that shielding and he turns up with a laptop and zero metre distancing. I think this virus is unstoppable. 

[DCJonah]

I wonder if any tory voters feel remorse at the moment? Or anyone who voted for them because 'Get Brexit Done' feel like it was mistake?

I can only assume those who try to make out like somehow they're doing a good job and defend their actions must be doing out of some deep lying guilt. 

How the **** are we going to let these words removed have power again after all this? 

[DCJonah]

39 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Mrs just awake from night shift  literally front line NHS dealing with Corona patient's. She is considering bottling it now. Truth be told still no ppe just surgical masks, an now being silenced and threatened with dismissal if anyone posts on social media about the situation.  We have a 5 year old we dont want him to get it neither do I want it. Plenty are off on the sick already for no reason, other than being shit scared. Unfortunately might be our time. We cannot risk 12 hour shifts with just a surgical mask on, it's a disgrace. Mrs is going tonight and if no adequate PPE I've told her to go on the sick, it's not right, but we have no choice.

Its alright though mate.

We have a little clap every Thursday.

[Awol]

14 minutes ago, Enda said:

Awol, I'm disappointed but not surprised.

"Herd immunity" is a correct answer to the wrong question. I am certain you have seen the "flatten the curve" appeals. Both curves in these appeals have the same fraction of the population catching the virus at some stage, the difference is at what time they catch it. Herd immunity over a long horizon instead of everyone catching it at once has two crucial advantages:

1. It gives the NHS a fighting chance to stay within capacity.

2. We'll have a better understanding of this beast in six days, nevermind six weeks or six months. Flattening the curve gives time for more research into how this disease spreads, which treatments work best and, one day, maybe a vaccine. If I am going to catch it, I want it when I know there's a bed in ICU and doctors have experience on how to deal with this, based on solid international evidence. That will come with time.

Everyone knows the ultimate outcome here is herd immunity. That's not the critique of HMG's response. It's the failure to control the herd immunity that people like Jareth critique.

I’m guessing you didn’t bother reading any of the preceding posts for whatever reason. In summary.. Snowy and I were discussing realism, in the theoretical IR context. 

Jareth chimed in with the following: “realists by definition believe in herd immunity”, implying there was some other solution - and totally irrelevant to that conversation about politics.

I replied: “herd immunity is the only exit strategy, either through mass infection or vaccination”.

Jareth then carried on with some irrelevant nonsense about being a fan of Cummings because I agreed herd immunity was the only exit strategy.

It continued downhill from there. 

Yes, I do understand the concept of flattening the curve, why it matters and why not having enough PPE, ICU capacity and critical care nurses is a problem. I’ve criticised the government repeatedly for it, including them suppressing the results of the pandemic exercise in 2016. 

I’ve also noticed some of the folks now incessantly criticising the people trying to manage the situation as it is, were the same ones dismissing how serious this could get before it actually did - and in much the same tones. 

If you can tell me what I’ve written above that’s wrong then fair enough. If not, you can take your disappointment elsewhere.

 

[foreveryoung]

3 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I wonder if any tory voters feel remorse at the moment? Or anyone who voted for them because 'Get Brexit Done' feel like it was mistake?

I can only assume those who try to make out like somehow they're doing a good job and defend their actions must be doing out of some deep lying guilt. 

How the **** are we going to let these words removed have power again after all this? 

Just cant be sure Labour would do it any better. I mean Corbyn should be isolating although theres plenty of recent pictures on social media of him sitting and standing within  a metre of people. 

[ml1dch]

(c/o Private Eye)

[Stevo985]

How anyone who works in the NHS or has family that works in the NHS ever votes Tory is completely beyond me. 

[DCJonah]

2 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Just cant be sure Labour would do it any better. I mean Corbyn should be isolating although theres plenty of recent pictures on social media of him sitting and standing within  a metre of people. 

At the moment maybe. Would the NHS be in a much better state after a decade under labour instead of these? I'm pretty confident they would be. 

[Awol]

2 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Just cant be sure Labour would do it any better. I mean Corbyn should be isolating although theres plenty of recent pictures on social media of him sitting and standing within  a metre of people. 

You joking? Every morning I wake up and say to the wife,  ‘what we really need now is Diane Abbott and Richard Burgon.’ 

[Seat68]

I preferred this forum when we talked about how you wipe your arse. 

[DCJonah]

1 minute ago, Stevo985 said:

How anyone who works in the NHS or has family that works in the NHS ever votes Tory is completely beyond me. 

My wife has had blazing arguments with her dad about it. It blows my mind that he votes tory when his daughter has spent the last 20 years working for the NHS. 

A friend of ours is a GP and I'm pretty sure her husband voted tory and she was contemplating it. 

Amazing. 

Edited April 3, 2020 by DCJonah