RandoEFC

Deaths rise from 11 to 21 in the UK overnight.

This is the best explanation I've read yet on the government's approach in the UK. Full thread.

I think he was just being honest on this occasion. No problem with what he said. I've seen a theory floated that I quite like about the government's behavioural science strategy pointing them in this direction. Underreact to the problem, prompting people to take it seriously and take action into their own hands. Rather than try and implement a bunch of serious measures and get kick back from the nay sayers who are still clinging to the 10000 die of flu every year line.

But this comes barely 24 hours after they stood there and said the science says there's no reason to stop large gatherings of people. I swear they said something about it not getting passed on that much in large crowds as well.

The theme of Western governments being like "let's not get carried away, this isn't necessary yet" turning into "okay actually we definitely need to do that" in the space of about 24 hours continues. I still think we should jump forward a few steps instead of waiting for things to get as bad as Italy and Spain before we put into place the same measures as Italy and Spain.

Not at all. I'm trying to trust the government because this goes way above trying to score points against Johnson. Look at it objectively, there are loads of experts out there saying conflicting things. The head of the WHO today called our approach wrong and dangerous. Partisan would be automatically assuming that the guys employed by our government are the experts that are right, or assuming that the ones who disagree with them are the ones that are right. I think at the moment theres enough doubt on both sides, I'm leaning towards disagreeing with our approach at the moment but obviously I hope I'm wrong. Some of their reasoning has been debunked, but they might be right. There's no precedent for this, we won't know what was the right or wrong move until weeks and months down the line.

We should do a sweep stake to replace all of the prediction leagues.

The Premier League were advised by the government yesterday along with the rest of us that there was no reason to cancel fixtures. Now they are set to anyway, taking more responsibility than the government again. Man City and Arsenal already postponed their game, as have Arsenal and Brighton this weekend, which the Premier League has to agree to as well.

The behavioural science thing apparently suggests that pulling the plug on schools and major events too early will lead to fatigue and people not taking it seriously enough to do it for as long as is necessary. I could accept that a few days ago, but I think it's becoming obvious now that people are getting scared and will stay at home if they're advised to. If money-grabbing sporting institutions like the Premier League and the FIA are sacrificing millions for the sake of playing ball on coronavirus then it's got to be the right thing to do.

I hate this but I also find it incredibly hard not to believe that that's their view on it. I've tried three times to try and formulate the right words to express how appalling it is that a country with our resources, technology and economy probably would see a decimation of people that it's their job as the government to help as a preferable method of balancing the books rather than taxing their billionaire friends a tiny bit more money but the last thing I want is to turn this into a partisan political debate.

Oh dear, this must be a big one if the name is being kept under wraps. Someone noted that Raab was coughing a lot at PMQs today but theres no benefit in speculating. Apparently the UK will enter the Delay phase tomorrow. Cobra meeting around lunchtime.

It seems pretty reckless to me given that Madrid is a massive problem area in Spain. Other countries would be quarantining a family of four landing off a flight from Madrid and we've got 3000 of them presumably unchecked into an enclosed area near thousands of English people? Hopefully they know better than we do.

WHO has declared a global pandemic now.

I've seen a few people saying this. Is it based on anything besides "this is what happened with the Spanish flu"? I also saw on Reddit that a scientific model predicted that the peak of the disease will come next winter. Surely not? Surely we would go down the very extreme but successful Chinese route of doing a proper "you're allowed to leave your house for supplies once a week" lockdown instead of letting it rumble on for the best part of a year.

What is it you do mate, if you don't mind me asking? Most experts seem to think we'll be following Italy's example in a couple of weeks. If there's a mass closure of schools for long enough in the UK then exams will start being affected from my point of view at work.

Volta is awful. Played it once on install when they make you play it and it wasn't even fun for the novelty. Played Ultimate Team this year until around Christmas then had a party with my house mates of all selling our players for minimum price and discarding all untradeables including a few icons and special cards. Used the coins to open a few packs then sold everything in them. Most fun I've had on this FIFA, especially when one of my house mates sent a video of him discarding his untradeable Eusebio to a couple of our other mates who are still proper obsessed with Ultimate Team and they lost their minds over it. Uninstalled the game start of January as career mode doesn't appeal to me. Rather play Football Manager if I'm going to get stuck into a long haul game of developing a club. FIFA's career mode just doesn't have the same immersion and it's way too easy after a while. I tried one on the last FIFA as Sandefjord. The first season was fun but after a season of training and using the broken transfer market I was top of the league in my second season which was just daft. Not sure whether I'll get the next one.

Some twats are unfortunately, not even just in private but on social media.

First British MP diagnosed with Coronavirus. In the nicest way possible, hopefully this hurries the government into action a bit sooner.

Well there's Eugene's radio buddy and wherever she's from that they could explore next, and the possibility of us finding out more about the community Maggie went off to join.

Fucking hell.

This shouldn't be a surprise. Over 10,000 people cases over there now. About 1,000 have recovered, so 168 deaths out of the 9,000 others who are still currently infected is still less than 2%. Apparently people can suffer the symptoms for anything between 2 and 6 weeks so the deaths may not slow down until at least a couple of weeks after the actual new diagnoses slow down.

Have they sorted the statutory sick pay situation yet? I know a lot of people on zero hour contracts were worried that if they self-isolated and didn't work for two weeks or longer then they simply wouldn't be able to afford to live. I know there was talk of anybody self-isolating to get £90 a week or something but is that put in place yet? Last thing you need is people convincing themselves it's just a runny nose and a bad night's sleep when the real reason they've come to that conclusion is to reject the choice of staying off work because they can't afford to.

We frequently have to helicopter people over to Liverpool for certain types of intensive care under normal circumstances. We simply don't have the facilities over here to handle an outbreak of any magnitude and I can't see that sending people to Merseyside is going to be much of an option if their ICUs get anything like as bad from local cases as what's happened in Italy.

I'm in the mindset now that you can't be too careful. It feels like it won't be long until a pandemic is declared. Still no cases on the island yet but it is surely only a matter of time and I dread to think how poorly a health system designed to serve 80000 people will cope with a significant influx of this virus.