Coronavirus outbreak

[SpokeyDokey]

Germany reported 1.3m tests done by 8 April. Their first case was 4 days ahead of the UK's but somehow we're 4 weeks behind. https://www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ...chte/2020-04-08-de.pdf?__blob=publicationFile

Apart from the inevitable inquest a couple of years down track what is the point in looking back right now? I just don't see the point of this constant negative posting tbh.

From what I see I think the people involved (Gov', NHS, Scientists etc) in the high level decision making process re this situation are doing a decent job in difficult circumstances. For sure mistakes will be made and lessons will hopefully be learnt for the future but I can't recall any major event in my lifetime which has been managed anywhere near 100% mistake free.

Whilst we shouldn't ever shy away from the truth I find it quite debilitating that the media (inc' social media) continue to focus on negatives as opposed to the positives. I'm pretty sure that focussing on the darker side of events at the expense of a more balanced viewpoint is not helping the many people who are feeling genuinely fearful & depressed about the crisis and the current effect on them as well as their future.

I'm not suggesting that we ought to live in a sugar coated world but just sometimes why don't we laud the positives without the buts?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Quite something if true, and can be rolled out quickly. But you’d need to test every day for it to be effective.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...tes-test-for-pre-infectious-covid-19-carriers

 

[mjr]

I'm not suggesting that we ought to live in a sugar coated world but just sometimes why don't we laud the positives without the buts?

Because if you only celebrate the train's arrival without mentioning its lateness, it creates a false impression and reduces the incentive to avoid similar delays to tomorrow's train - or, in this case, to avoid unnecessary deaths in the future waves.

Shouldn't Great Britain be a country that celebrates Greatness like Colonel Tom? Or has it become Mediocre Britain?

 

[tom73]

WHO are being very selective on mask use.
They recommend public use for Flu pandemics given this virus is even more contagious.
It hard to know what the real problem is.

 

[winjim]

Ha. I've not looked at this thread for a while, just opened it up and look what the first unread post was.

How close are we to 100,000 tests a day promised and when was that supposed to happen? Are the media going to hold them to account for this?

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Because if you only celebrate the train's arrival without mentioning its lateness, it creates a false impression and reduces the incentive to avoid similar delays to tomorrow's train - or, in this case, to avoid unnecessary deaths in the future waves.

Shouldn't Great Britain be a country that celebrates Greatness like Colonel Tom? Or has it become Mediocre Britain?

Perhaps we live at opposite ends of the fabled beer glass.

I have no problem with recognising the realities of situations, it's the reflexive 'buts' that irk me - especially those that are politically motivated as displayed so often in the British press. They serve little value in my opinion. They remind of the predictable 'Pearl Crushers' in business meetings where every new suggestion is damned a nanosecond after the last full stop.

Anyway, I don't want to take the thread way off-track or else I'll have to throw myself in the Sin Bin.

 

[winjim]

A test is more than a kit in an envelope. And a kit in an envelope is not a test done. They shouldn't be counted as tests until the results have been communicated to Public Health England.

As you probably know I work in a hospital lab. I promise you that is not how we count tests. The clock starts at the point the sample arrives in the lab and is timestamped, it stops at the point we issue a report. But that's just our little chemistry lab, maybe they count differently in virology.

 

[PK99]

Apart from the inevitable inquest a couple of years down track what is the point in looking back right now? I just don't see the point of this constant negative posting tbh.

From what I see I think the people involved (Gov', NHS, Scientists etc) in the high level decision making process re this situation are doing a decent job in difficult circumstances. For sure mistakes will be made and lessons will hopefully be learnt for the future but I can't recall any major event in my lifetime which has been managed anywhere near 100% mistake free.

Whilst we shouldn't ever shy away from the truth I find it quite debilitating that the media (inc' social media) continue to focus on negatives as opposed to the positives. I'm pretty sure that focussing on the darker side of events at the expense of a more balanced viewpoint is not helping the many people who are feeling genuinely fearful & depressed about the crisis and the current effect on them as well as their future.

I'm not suggesting that we ought to live in a sugar coated world but just sometimes why don't we laud the positives without the buts?

Well said!

A goodly number of folks I know have switched off from most media - for exactly the reason you cite: an overly negative focus.

An example;
Headline to a Times article yesterday:
"Scientists say virus as deadly as Ebola for hospital victims"

Not till well into the article does it become clear that the death rate from Ebola is 25-90% depending on the oubreak you look at, with an average of 50% but the "overall death rate from Covid -19 is thought to be less than 1%" and that the median age for the patients studied was 72 and of those who died was 80, the proportion dying was 35 to 40%.

The science being reported on is good science: the reporting and in particular the headline is sensationalist scaremongering.

 

[newfhouse]

Good news about the test numbers, I guess. What happens if someone tests positive? How much work is done to trace, inform and test contacts? Do we yet have a cadre of trained people capable of following up?

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

As you probably know I work in a hospital lab. I promise you that is not how we count tests. The clock starts at the point the sample arrives in the lab and is timestamped, it stops at the point we issue a report. But that's just our little chemistry lab, maybe they count differently in virology.

But you certainly don't date stamp them before the test has been done. 39,000 test subjects haven't even had a chance to create a sample

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

It still needs to be verified but it looks like there is some positive news coming from South Korea: No Evidence of Coronavirus Reinfection, South Korean Officials Say

"South Korean officials stated that there’s no evidence currently that the virus is reinfecting people in the country, and the test results that suggested reinfection were likely false positives finding dead virus particles."

 

[screenman]

Germany reported 1.3m tests done by 8 April. Their first case was 4 days ahead of the UK's but somehow we're 4 weeks behind. https://www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ...chte/2020-04-08-de.pdf?__blob=publicationFile

That is because we are nearly out of the EU.

 

[winjim]

But you certainly don't date stamp them before the test has been done. 39,000 test subjects haven't even had a chance to create a sample

Of course. The date stamping machine is on a bench in the laboratory.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Interesting article on vaccine candidates by Bill Gates (the real one not Himalayan salt cure one)

https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/What-you-need-to-know-about-the-COVID-19-vaccine

 

[randynewmanscat]

Well said!

A goodly number of folks I know have switched off from most media - for exactly the reason you cite: an overly negative focus.

An example;
Headline to a Times article yesterday:
"Scientists say virus as deadly as Ebola for hospital victims"

Not till well into the article does it become clear that the death rate from Ebola is 25-90% depending on the oubreak you look at, with an average of 50% but the "overall death rate from Covid -19 is thought to be less than 1%" and that the median age for the patients studied was 72 and of those who died was 80, the proportion dying was 35 to 40%.

The science being reported on is good science: the reporting and in particular the headline is sensationalist scaremongering.

I saw the movie trailer for "Leaving Las Vegas" days after I had seen the film and did not recognise it as the film I had watched. The trailer pitched it as a hilarious comedy, it wasn't, not for me or most people who watched it.
Out of context is a scourge that must have been around since we have.