Generic Virus Thread

[markavfc40]

35 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

At one point in mid-March, we were tracking Austria's numbers quite closely as I recall. Now they have 12,058 cases, while we have 48,451, almost exactly four times as many.

You can't really go off the number of cases data as countries are all testing at different rates. You can guarantee we have at least 10x the amount of people who have/have had coronavirus as the confirmed cases figures show.

Deaths is probably a better way to see how each country is doing. We have had almost 5000, Austria have had 220. As Tony says though our population is 7 times theirs which obviously needs to be factored in.

Edited April 6, 2020 by markavfc40

[HanoiVillan]

FAO anybody who thinks that Covid-19 is largely only killing those who would've died anyway within a year or so (quoting the whole thread as it's important):

 

[tonyh29]

3 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

None of that tells me if a toaster is a flimsy bit of crap with buttons that’ll last a week.

The "made in China " label on it tells you that

Edited April 6, 2020 by tonyh29

[HanoiVillan]

2 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

You can't really go off the number of cases data as countries are all testing at different rates. You can guarantee we have at lease 10x the amount of people who have/have had coronavirus as the confirmed cases figures show.

Deaths is probably a better way to see how each country is doing. We have had almost 5000, Austria have had 220. As Tony says though our population is 7 times theirs which obviously needs to be factored in.

See my post on the previous page on this. Austria's population is absolutely large enough that they *could* have accelerated at the same speed and to the same extent we have. The fact is, for whatever reason, that hasn't happened.

[Genie]

2 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

The "made in China " label on it tells you that

I know you're joking, but I hate that myth that if its made in China then its cheap tat. Yes, they do churn out a lot of cheap tat, but they also make a lot oh high end, high tech quality made products that we all use and depend on.

[LondonLax]

18 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

they have a population of circa 9 million .. we have a population of circa 66 million  , so I still don't think its a valid comparison tool tbh

 

A more interesting comparison is how they compare to Sweden which has not yet used a lockdown.

[tonyh29]

2 minutes ago, Genie said:

I know you're joking, but I hate that myth that if its made in China then its cheap tat. Yes, they do churn out a lot of cheap tat, but they also make a lot oh high end, high tech quality made products that we all use and depend on.

they make some great 5G technology apparently

I agree ,I went with China as it was topical what with the failed testing kits mentioned a few pages before

[Awol]

2 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

See my post on the previous page on this. Austria's population is absolutely large enough that they *could* have accelerated at the same speed and to the same extent we have. The fact is, for whatever reason, that hasn't happened.

Going from memory here but didn’t they close their border with Italy In early March? Pretty sure that was applied to trains and flights too. Germany then closed its border to Austria a few days later, plus France and Switzerland. 

Perhaps limiting free movement of people into a country once a pandemic breaks out is helpful in controlling the spread?

[HanoiVillan]

2 minutes ago, Awol said:

Going from memory here but didn’t they close their border with Italy In early March? Pretty sure that was applied to trains and flights too. Germany then closed its border to Austria a few days later, plus France and Switzerland. 

Perhaps limiting free movement of people into a country once a pandemic breaks out is helpful in controlling the spread?

It's at least worth considering, isn't it?

[tonyh29]

2 minutes ago, LondonLax said:

A more interesting comparison is how they compare to Sweden which has not yet used a lockdown.

I think even that is tricky  ... go back a few weeks and it was why can't we be like Japan and South Korea .... Japan is now at the brink of declaring a state emergency

could be months \ years before we find out if Sweden was right or wrong

[foreveryoung]

Still shocking to me how quickly it spread. From a few cases in China 3 months ago to the world. Conspiracy theorists dream. 

[Awol]

7 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

It's at least worth considering, isn't it?

I did think allowing 17 flights from northern Italy to land in UK on the day they locked down - with no checks at UK end - was a bit complacent..

Much of that failure to act on restricting travel seemed to come from a political fear of being labelled racist little Englanders - there was a government and media effort at the time to squash some genuine (if very limited) anti-Chinese racism that was  springing up. 

A case of putting ideology before public health, perhaps? One for the inquiry anyway. 

[wazzap24]

Don’t think it’s been posted. Made me chuckle 

Wake Up Sheeple 

 

[bickster]

29 minutes ago, Awol said:

Going from memory here but didn’t they close their border with Italy In early March? Pretty sure that was applied to trains and flights too. Germany then closed its border to Austria a few days later, plus France and Switzerland. 

Perhaps limiting free movement of people into a country once a pandemic breaks out is helpful in controlling the spread?

Meanwhile we had 2000 people flying in from China and the govt didn't have an igloo where they were!

[Awol]

26 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

I think even that is tricky  ... go back a few weeks and it was why can't we be like Japan and South Korea .... Japan is now at the brink of declaring a state emergency

could be months \ years before we find out if Sweden was right or wrong

Singapore too. That’s 2 of the 3 early poster boys for Covid response going backwards quickly, which may support the UK scientific analysis that it wasn’t containable in the short-medium term? 

[chrisp65]

A friend got one of the flights back from Australia. Landed at Heathrow middle of last week, nothing, not even the usual immigration checks. Just walked on through and out the other side. Clearly Heathrow personnel didn’t want to go anywhere near them in case they had something icky.

But yeah, don’t go to the beach.

 

[LondonLax]

35 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

I think even that is tricky  ... go back a few weeks and it was why can't we be like Japan and South Korea .... Japan is now at the brink of declaring a state emergency

could be months \ years before we find out if Sweden was right or wrong

Oh definitely, it’s only going to be after the fact before we will know what the best way to deal this is. 

[HanoiVillan]

11 minutes ago, Awol said:

I did think allowing 17 flights from northern Italy to land in UK on the day they locked down - with no checks at UK end - was a bit complacent..

Much of that failure to act on restricting travel seemed to come from a political fear of being labelled racist little Englanders - there was a government and media effort at the time to squash some genuine (if very limited) anti-Chinese racism that was  springing up. 

A case of putting ideology before public health, perhaps? One for the inquiry anyway. 

 

3 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

A friend got one of the flights back from Australia. Landed at Heathrow middle of last week, nothing, not even the usual immigration checks. Just walked on through and out the other side. Clearly Heathrow personnel didn’t want to go anywhere near them in case they had something icky.

But yeah, don’t go to the beach.

 

I don't know to what extent it was 'fear of being seen as racist' vs 'complete disorganisation' vs 'not taking it seriously enough' or indeed something else, but as you say, it's one for the inevitable public inquiry.

[tonyh29]

1 minute ago, chrisp65 said:

A friend got one of the flights back from Australia. Landed at Heathrow middle of last week, nothing, not even the usual immigration checks. Just walked on through and out the other side. Clearly Heathrow personnel didn’t want to go anywhere near them in case they had something icky.

But yeah, don’t go to the beach.

 

They used an E gate surely  ?  , I can't see them letting people just walk straight in the country  with open  turnstiles ?

[Jareth]

I get the feeling we'll be locking down again come the autumn in anticipation of a second wave, there doesn't appear to be much of an exit strategy short of bringing the numbers down, enabling the NHS to cope, and then probably partial easing of the lock-down after that. And on we go until treatments or vaccines are developed.