Coronavirus (OLD)

[nomadking]

Plenty of current and past examples of where large concentrated gatherings are the problem, resulting in large numbers, ie not one or two, of infections. Eg If you're driving a bus and then go to a church or mosque then the bus wasn't the only potential source. The key aspect is not rich or poor, but behaviour. The claim has been made that the poor are somehow more likely to get it. It is people's behaviour that makes it more likely, not wealth.


Eg recent case of group from around the country gathering in the peak district to have a picnic and share a shisha pipe. If just one of them had the virus, then ALL of them would end up with it. They would ALL then return to their homes and most likely share a shisha pipe with others, thereby spreading it further. In that example, just one infected person could've spread it to over a 100 others. Wealth or otherwise doesn't come into it, behaviour does.

[papa smurf]

Well there's something to look forward to at the weekend,just checked local weather forecast and it looks like normality will return,to wet windy and miserable.

[downquark1]

Initially the richest were more likely to catch it because they travelled and had more "international" meetings. It's only after the quarantine begins that the essential poor workers are more likely to get it.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by downquark1

Initially the richest were more likely to catch it because they travelled and had more "international" meetings. It's only after the quarantine begins that the essential poor workers are more likely to get it.

I think this is a neat summary but suspect the essential workers would have been caught a little before the lockdown as well.

---------- Post added at 13:08 ---------- Previous post was at 13:05 ----------

Originally Posted by papa smurf

Well there's something to look forward to at the weekend,just checked local weather forecast and it looks like normality will return,to wet windy and miserable.

25 degrees and Sunny Fri/Sat in London but Sunday (showery) and Monday (12 degrees) let the side down a bit.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Mick

Yup, prime example of this stance was with John Prescott, made Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, under Tony Blair, when Labour won a landslide victory in the 1997 General Election. Prescott was also the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions until 2001 in conjunction with his DPM role.

The Deputy Prime Minister, or First Secretary of State, does not assume the duties and powers of the Prime Minister upon their absence, illness, or death.

Boris Johnson is still the Prime Minister and he has asked Dominic Raab to deputise for him. Raab cannot hire and fire people, but he will be the key person to drive home the Prime Ministers and governments agenda, the government consists of the joint Cabinet and they usually make key decisions together. Raab would also not have a weekly audience with Her Majesty, the Queen, like the Prime Minister does.

There is this current claim in the media that there is a power vacuum at Number 10, while yes, we're not quite like other nations, like the United States, having a written Constitution that outlines that if a president becomes incapacitated, it still has a functioning chief executive, Vice president assumes the presidency, under the 25th Amendment, however if both President and Vice President are incapacitated, then the line of presidential succession continues to House Speaker.

The UK has similar lines of succession in the form of Seniority of Cabinet members, should Raab become unwell and have to self isolate, then the Chancellor becomes responsible in the absence of the Prime Minister.

This is to drive home to others, in particular to adversaries, that while, yes there is a sad and emotional human element of temporarily or permanently losing a Prime Minister or President, that it is vital that a country still has a functioning chief executive and it will attack if it is provoked.

I imagine that as the Queen is elderly and has moved to Windsor Castle to try to escape the virus that this won't be happening anyway. Perhaps they're doing it by phone or over the internet? It's to be hoped that these virtual meetings are kept secure.

---------- Post added at 14:34 ---------- Previous post was at 14:31 ----------

Originally Posted by Mr K

Well said Emily:-

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ind...696.html%3famp

Black people make up 1/3 of the population of Chicago, yet for some reason make up 70% of coronavirus victims. It's similar in other places too:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52219070

The weekly audience is being held via phone - there was a photo of it a couple of weeks ago.

[jonbxx]

Let's have some positive news....

Heinsberg in western Germany got slammed a while back after the virus spread through the population attending Carnival. Things got so bad that Heinsberg was referred to as 'Europes Wuhan'.

Scientists from the University of Bonn have revisited Heinsberg and tested 1000 random people using an antibody test which shows if you had the virus or not. The preliminary results have just come out showing an infection rate of 14% which suggests that a lot of people get the virus and don't know it. This is ten times higher than was expected from the hospital cases. This also pushes the mortality down to 0.37%.

This is great news if (and it's a big if) people are immune after infection. If a significant portion of the population are already immune then the size of the expected second spike after restrictions start to be lifted may be smaller.

Obviously this is preliminary data but it does push the case for community testing

Mr B and myself are wondering if we did get a mild case a couple of weeks ago as we had tightness in our chests and felt generally run down. My youngest and I both lost our sense of taste (in our mouths, not sartorially)

[Sephiroth]

Very interesting. Well picked up.

Originally Posted by jonbxx

Let's have some positive news....

Heinsberg in western Germany got slammed a while back after the virus spread through the population attending Carnival. Things got so bad that Heinsberg was referred to as 'Europes Wuhan'.

Scientists from the University of Bonn have revisited Heinsberg and tested 1000 random people using an antibody test which shows if you had the virus or not. The preliminary results have just come out showing an infection rate of 14% which suggests that a lot of people get the virus and don't know it. This is ten times higher than was expected from the hospital cases. This also pushes the mortality down to 0.37%.

This is great news if (and it's a big if) people are immune after infection. If a significant portion of the population are already immune then the size of the expected second spike after restrictions start to be lifted may be smaller.

Obviously this is preliminary data but it does push the case for community testing

Mr B and myself are wondering if we did get a mild case a couple of weeks ago as we had tightness in our chests and felt generally run down. My youngest and I both lost our sense of taste (in our mouths, not sartorially)

And the link for this interesting news is .... (pretty please)?

[nomadking]

So somebody has found an antibody test that works reliably? That would be headline news by itself.

[cimt]

https://www.bccourier.com/these-are-...insberg-study/

This is what came up when I searched for it.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Chris

And the link for this interesting news is .... (pretty please)?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...rus-laboratory

Originally Posted by Chris

And the link for this interesting news is .... (pretty please)?

https://www.bccourier.com/these-are-...insberg-study/

https://m.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/zwi....google.com%2F

I agree

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Mr K

Which bit don't you understand? Those with low paid jobs are unlikely to be able to work from home e.g shop workers, care sector, so run a greater risk of catching the virus. Hope that explains it for you.

COVID is not a class issue or an inequality issue, no matter how much some people would like it to be.