Honey Honey

As someone wrote on twitter, the lesson is there is no such thing as centralised expertise. SAGE provided the information that gave confidence to the governments earlier approach. The public inquiry after will be damning.

Is there actually any hard evidence that was true? We know the guy is a bumbling buffoon at times so you're going off his odd words about it. We know he shook hands with the staff, medical staff who at that point have no excuse about why they were shaking people's hands, but it was denied by no.10 that he shook hands with patients. This was also over 3 weeks ago so he hasn't got it from that. Remember when you say "they" in this matter you're really talking about SAGE. The scientists, academics and experts that are advising the government. Some of whom with the highest level of education possible and decades of experience. SAGE was very split on what to do. The government backed one of the viewpoints from SAGE. Yes they have a final say and someone else may have backed another, but it's way to easy to pretend what happened here as all down to political clowns who didn't take it seriously.

I dunno. Governance was never going to isolate and work from home using Microsoft Teams conference calling. No political leader in times of fear was going to deliver a press conference to the nation via webcam in their pyjama's. If emergency services carry on politicians will as well. It's part of the job. Rather than interpreting it as an example of some incompetence it should be an example of what happens when you carry on with life. If outbreak areas are anything to go by then this is going to spread among those who can't isolate. Key services. There's no choice there. Everyone else needs to lock away to give them a better chance.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has coronavirus now as well. Not surprising. The government aren't exactly staying at home in isolation and no doubt advisors meet with people who've been on the front line.

Nadine Dorries came back to parliament 2 days ago. Two weeks after being diagnosed. Coincidence? Also his gf is pregnant.

DWP isn't going to be able to process all UC claims overnight. There are 500k applicants and they've processed 100k in a day. They're reallocating 10,000 staff and hiring a further 1500 but that will take time. The queue probably doesn't really matter anyhow. You won't be paid for 5 weeks from the date you ask the claim period to start from so it doesn't matter if you get through now or in 1 week. Those on SA whose work has dried up are entitled up to £2500 a month for the next 3 months. The caveat is that it will be paid in a lump sum in June/July. Those who don't have rainy day funds will need UC and overdrafts to get to that date.

We don't seem to be getting any hospitalised or critical cases data in the UK. Must be sizeable for 115 to die in one day. US have similar deaths today, though the day isn't over for them, with over 2000 in intensive care. I suppose we must presume the same.

Spain death toll over 4000 now. Emergency state extended two weeks. They bought hundreds of thousands of test kits from China which have a reported 80% error rate according to Czechs.

China probably. Wuhan locked down a lot earlier and more efficiently than Lombardy and Madrid. They also built an entire hospital to cope with capacity issues. If I recall correctly Wuhan locked down at under 100 deaths. Spain locked down the day they surpassed 350.

A Madrid, Wuhan or Lombardy style outbreak would be economic hell under free market conditions that would have severe knock on effects for banking. State intervention would become necessary when an outbreak collapses the way of life. The choice can simply be put as state control now to mitigate chaos or state response to chaos itself. Based on those mentioned outbreak areas it would be a hell of a gamble to go with the latter and such a decision should be made under the false guise that keeping surf shops lights on would better mitigate chaos. Some European governments are state control protecting now. The US on the other hand is looking like already leaning towards state response to chaos itself in the name of the free market by ramping up unemployed benefits rather than guaranteeing jobs for a couple of months.

Lockdown with some strong degree of job guarantees and business assistance, as per most countries, likely means quicker return to economic normality than the turmoil of having businesses readjust to volatile demand levels and the long term unemployement that creates. With the right measures what might be a depression in terms of transaction falls will actually be a pause. Whereas having the virus tear through the economy would cause a real recession or depression.

What was that all aboot

I'd be surprised if they didn't put something in place. You don't need someone on the end of the phone so that should be straight forward button pressing. Nudge probably knows best but I believe tests usually look for what is least likely to mutate. Something like that. No real idea though

Not sure on manufacturer but it is finger prick blood test which checks for a particular antibody I believe. Probably be relying on you telling them online or over the phone.

Good news in UK. Mass home test kits that will tell you in 15 minutes if you have it or have had it could be a week or two away. Amazon will deliver kits and chemists will sell them. Crucial to coming out of lockdown.

7 people in Iceland who have the virus have 1 common theme... they all attended the same football game in England

How come there are cases in my area and I can barely get 3G

Wouldn't you? If this ripped through the population panic would ensue, mass varied behavioural changes would emerge causing wild negative economic outcomes. Likely to lead to economic turmoil that lasts years not months. Businesses would be destroyed with the absence of government support. Unemployment would last longer. Tourism would end for 2 years, which on its own probably accounts for enough lost transactions to constitute depression. Exports may collapse as buying nations would stop dealing with a country out of control due to risks. Just one large pariah state threatens the whole world. Lives versus economy is a false choice.

I believe Trump said they should never need "foreign" equipment then on the same day they put a request in to European countries for help with providing equipment The only hope they've got at the minute is that most cases are the young. In countries like Italy and Spain the young have strong relationships with the elders in the family. More regular contact than in most other countries. Leading to an outbreak among the older demographics. As the US plays catch up with testing their case trajectory as of this morning is the worst in the west. But this chart is distorted by bad testers like the US and UK.

Trump is having an absolute shocker in the last week. He's pivoting toward opening the country back up in 2 weeks against all evidence. He's regularly contradicting Dr Fauci. His propaganda arm are putting out ideas about letting the virus do what it wants and that it's not that big a deal. He's going around playing political games against the Governor of New York, a Democrat of course. He's blaming China to divert attention from himself. He was tweeting about how strong the stock market was because of him, it then fell to an 11 year low when the algorithms cottoned on to what is actually going on. Places like New York only really started shutting down properly earlier this week after cases rocketed. That had to be initiated by the Governor not the President. New York has a big outbreak among the young because life just went on. The price may be heavy.

Wet markets with animals like bats and rats started in the 1970s.

Tell your auntie that the Chinese government has banned the eating of wild animals in the last month. So in that area they now have higher standards than us

Profit over people. Psychopath.

Snap poll finds 93% support the lockdown. 3% don't know. 4% against.