Coronavirus - and all manner of weird things evolving from it

I would just like to add that whatever claims are made by public health authorities and the like the major reason for a dramatic reduction in infectious disease in this country was the introduction of public sanitation measures. Such as clean water supplies, proper sewage disposal and an understanding of the importance of hygiene in obstetrics leading to a dramatic fall in mother and infant mortality.

One could postulate that when third-world type conditions are introduced into a first-world economy there is a regression in terms of disease.

A theory only, as always!

A bit of light relief.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/coronavirus-man-dressed-plague-doctor-21728571

Just thought I had better check in and make sure everybody is still OK as I know the membership here tend towards the older end of the spectrum (Freedom, 105, really....)

I might finally get my McCann treatise finished if I am to be confined to home base for the next six months.

A little secret - I'm not quite as old as that! I did however have a milestone birthday on 3rd March! No, not 100.

I'm trying just to take each day as it comes and not worry too much but it's not easy, is it?

I'll don my pit helmet and say that in my opinion the 'sheeple' are paying the price for years of corruption and sleaze in Government. This is probably the reason Italy is hit so badly. Public money has been squandered and there has been a lack of effective planning and resources for something which has been predicted for years. There's also been a cut back on social care over recent years and this won't have helped as those people living in crowded conditions will find the 'self-isolating' and 'social distance' stuff nigh on impossible. It's much easier if you've got money because you have more space, more resources, more options and are probably in better all-round health as well!

Our most basic freedoms are being withdrawn from us - such as not seeing family, for instance. My 91 year old relative just today received a letter telling him to stay at home for 12 weeks. Given that we were told not to see our mothers on mothers day, this presumably means that family should not visit. Can those who thought up this scheme explain how this will work? No members of family visit him for 12 weeks? Who helps with meals? Who helps with care? Who drives him to hospital appointments? Uh????

How come the Government is now coming up with a raft of financial proposals to ease the burden when it was only a year or so back that Teresa May was sneering that 'we can't shake the money tree'. She also once said that people treat a visit to hospital as a 'day out' as they pack their own sandwiches and drinks.

No, you silly spoilt entitled cow with your hugely wealthy husband, the reason people take sandwiches to hospital appointments is because it can take four hours to be seen and people get hungry and resent paying inflated prices for the crappy retail food outlets at hospitals which are designed to make a profit which I doubt goes back into the NHS. Mrs May clearly had private healthcare but it showed how out of touch she was and just plain contemptuous of people not in her financial bracket.

I resent my basic freedoms being taken away when I've been a pretty decent citizen and not ever a burden on the state.

I think the 'sheeple' are being treated like naughty schoolchildren. The headlines today were ridiculous. People have had their lives turned literally upside down in the space of a few days and we are being hectored, patronized, bullied and treated with contempt. In general, I think the public behaviour has been amazing, which is a lot more than can be said for the behaviour of some politicians and those that jump into bed with them (metaphorically speaking) such as press barons and their ilk over the past few years.

Politicians are elected to serve their people, not the other way round.

Freedom wrote:https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-pm-tells-britons-to-stay-at-home-non-essential-shops-are-going-to-shut-11962600

Brave New World, here we come!! This is so Orwellian it is scarcely believable.

Freedom wrote:A little secret - I'm not quite as old as that! I did however have a milestone birthday on 3rd March! No, not 100.

I'm trying just to take each day as it comes and not worry too much but it's not easy, is it?

To be honest I never really worry about anything and am not planning to start now.

Might as well make use of the time and go over some old ground on here that I've been meaning to get back into for ages now.

May I ask what your job is? I take it that you have or will be laid off.

I'm one of the lucky ones - I retired 10 years ago.

Freedom wrote:May I ask what your job is? I take it that you have or will be laid off.

I'm one of the lucky ones - I retired 10 years ago.

Oh, it's far too dull to go into.

I actually have a few different things on the go, none of which are particularly earth shattering, and all of which I've had to reign in. I don't think I'll starve just yet though.

Some posts relating to bonkers stories mentioning the McCanns have been transferred to the tabloid trash topic.

I hope it won't be long before we can look back at all this and say thank goodness it's over.

The battle fields of Europe are graced with the graveyards of those that gave their all so that we may have tomorrow,wonder what they would make of a brit PM putting us virtually on house arrest.In reality it's because the f***ed up health service can't cope.

Yes, it would have been better to pour money into the NHS.

Some useful information here as to what businesses can stay open. Thank goodness for launderettes!

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/coroanvirus-lockdown-full-list-essential-21742757#source=push

Heisenburg wrote:The battle fields of Europe are graced with the graveyards of those that gave their all so that we may have tomorrow,wonder what they would make of a brit PM putting us virtually on house arrest.In reality it's because the f***ed up health service can't cope.

Well said. The NHS has become over-politicized and the scaremongering over infectious disease is unnecessary, imo. It would be far better to emphasise staying fit and healthy, both mentally and physically. Rather than whipping the population into a frenzy of anxiety, taking away basic liberties etc, the emphasis I think should be on emphasising the importance of exercise, unadulterated food, fresh air and a positive mental attitude.

But of course that doesn't sell newspapers, doesn't lead to an unhealthy population on pharmaceutical drugs and doesn't make money. Follow the money folks.

ETA: I'm not minimizing the impact of the virus. But I think we should have been better prepared and should have had a slick operation that swung into practise to protect those who are most at risk. Testing those who come into contact with vulnerable people should be a priority. NHS workers in hospitals are STILL not being tested but by now I would have thought quite a few would already have caught the virus and would be immune. It would be good to know who those people are as they would be safe around the vulnerable sections of society.

IMO.

Freedom wrote:Yes, it would have been better to pour money into the NHS.

Some useful information here as to what businesses can stay open. Thank goodness for launderettes!

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/coroanvirus-lockdown-full-list-essential-21742757#source=push

Good that launderettes and laundry services are being kept open! We want everything that goes in to come out squeaky clean.

Allegedly, there are those who haven't contributed much to the NHS, or indeed other public services in various countires, who are bunkered down in second (or third, fourth, fifth) homes enjoying refreshing breezes and rum punches while the sheeple are under virtual house arrest.

Imagine how many hospitals could have been built, with the necessary ventilators, testing kits, isolation wards etc if the super-rich, including massive and not so massive companies, had paid tax?


https://www.nycaribnews.com/articles/several-caribbean-nations-as-major-money-laundering-centers/

https://www.globalwitness.org/en/archive/28-countries-accused-facilitating-money-laundering--key-offenders-missing/

I take it everybody who matters is still alive and well?

If not, please report your demise here!

We are a very small but select band these days. It will be nice to hear from some absent friends again to let us know how things are in your home country.

I'm here and lurking :-)
We're doing ok on the west coast of Canada. People here have been paying attention to the advice from our Public Health people. We've been distancing and staying home. Our hospitals are about 2/3 full and we have (relatively speaking) few deaths overall, and a not-overwhelming number of confirmed cases, people in hospital and people in intensive care. Most of our shops are closed - essential ones only are open - and everything else has been cancelled. People are obeying the distancing rule. Our public health people have been following the "epidemiology" playbook to the "t" and have been providing calm and extremely informative updates every day on tv for the past few weeks.

As for me, I retired from my full time work last fall and I've been happily working from home on my other career (writing) since then. I'm still lurking here :-)

Hello to everyone :-)

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11261870/madeleine-mccann-mum-coronavirus-prayer/

Our Kate's one for the obscure and pseudonym'd poets, isn't she?

I wouldn't class that as a prayer, either.


I have taken to drinking Corona beer during this crisis.

Aargh - nauseating articles about or by the McCanns are the final straw. Stop the world, I want to get off!

My son drinks Corona beer too at the moment.

Just saying Hi.
Life not much different for me. I'm an unsociable person to start with and only go out to walk Girlie and haven't been arrested by any him toting troops.
No signs of the virus where I live as yet.
I don't want to hear from virtue signallers like KM or from Meghan Markle telling me to wash my hands - oh I didn't know that!

Same here, Mimi - my sister said to me that it can't be making too much difference to my life as I'm a hermit anyway!

Boris has tested positive.....

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/breaking-prime-minister-boris-johnson-21765296#source=push

On dear, his girlfriend is pregnant.

I'm still confused about all this. So you can have the virus but not be ill enough to go to hospital - you can just stay at home until it's gone?

Freedom wrote:I'm still confused about all this. So you can have the virus but not be ill enough to go to hospital - you can just stay at home until it's gone?

Yes that's it exactly. You can have the virus but it may not get worse. You can therefore self-isolate at home and stay at home and that way you won't spread it to anyone else. You self-monitor. Two things can happen. You may recover on your own. Or the symptoms may get worse, in which case you require hospitalization. The people who are being hospitalized are those with symptoms that can't be managed at home. Those in ICU (intensive care) are those with symptoms that require intensive medical intervention.