Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak

[RandoEFC+]

I think they've been saying for a while about Vitamin D seeming to help.

I talked about the obesity thing with my house mates today. One of them is a personal trainer and well up on his nutritional knowledge and he says the education about diet in the UK is appalling and outdated and he's not wrong. All that gets done in schools is mainly to do with food groups and having a balanced diet but nothing about calorie intake which is what's going to fuck you up weight wise. When I come to think of it anyone I know who even has a basic understanding of balancing your calorie intake has pretty much found it out for themselves.

It's also only been about 10-15 years since they started sorting out the garbage served up in schools because it was going on when I was a teenager. You've got to hope that it has led to our generation having a better understanding of how not to become clinically obese. If you can say one thing about this virus it will have done wonders for the health of those who haven't been affected by it directly. I've never seen so many people out walking, running and cycling. Firstly it's the only excuse to get out of the house with all bars, clubs, shops and restaurants closed for so long and no live sport on the tele. Secondly plenty of parents who probably don't exercise that regularly have been forced to go out walking or cycling with their kids because the kids can't do it alone and can't meet their friends. I've also seen a few times parents who are clearly reasonably serious joggers out on runs with their kids tagging along with them when they'd usually be on their own.

Trying to look on the positive side of the last few months. I live in a beautiful place and I've done a lot of walking recently in this weather and it's a treat to see so many families out together just enjoying each other's company and exploring some of the more obscure rocky beaches round the coast and stuff. Hopefully some of it stays when we go back to normal or normalish.

[Dr. Gonzo]

7 hours ago, Harry said:

Is it possible trump doesn't actually understand what per capita actually means?

 

Unsurprising tbh

 

33 minutes ago, Fairy In Boots said:

Yeah theirs going to be a massive upheaval in nutritional facts and health regulations. 
 

Also I suggested Vitamin D the other dang and I saw this just, I think there may be something to it

 

Considering that most severe cases are Vitamin D deficient, there’s most likely something in this. I still wouldn’t recommend anyone start taking heavy doses of Vitamin D supplements - which I know some people have started doing. But for people who’ve tested positive, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re using supplements in treatment.

It’s a bit shit though because if everyone’s time outside is very limited - everyone’s going to have a harder time getting sun.

[Fairy In Boots]

8 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Unsurprising tbh

 

Considering that most severe cases are Vitamin D deficient, there’s most likely something in this. I still wouldn’t recommend anyone start taking heavy doses of Vitamin D supplements - which I know some people have started doing. But for people who’ve tested positive, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re using supplements in treatment.

It’s a bit shit though because if everyone’s time outside is very limited - everyone’s going to have a harder time getting sun.

I don’t know about supplements but for my vit D it’s sun, eggs, beef, milk the good life

[Dr. Gonzo]

1 hour ago, Fairy In Boots said:

I don’t know about supplements but for my vit D it’s sun, eggs, beef, milk the good life

Same pal, same. I’ve heard of people doing crazy shite online, but I think most people won’t turn to shite like supplements. It’s the crazy hoarder types that I think are at risk for doing stuff like that

[Harry]

 

 

[Honey Honey]

9 hours ago, Fairy In Boots said:

I don’t know about supplements but for my vit D it’s sun, eggs, beef, milk the good life

Side effects include heavily bloated and covered in freckles 

[Stan]

Cummings broke lockdown rules in March/April. 

Twat.

Quote

 

Police spoke to Dominic Cummings about breaching the government’s lockdown rules after he was seen in Durham, 264 miles from his London home, despite having had symptoms of coronavirus, the Guardian can reveal.

Officers approached Boris Johnson’s key adviser days after he was seen rushing out of Downing Street when the prime minister tested positive for the virus at the end of March, a joint investigation by the Guardian and the Mirror has found.

At the time, the government had instructed people not to travel and to stay at their family homes. Cummings, however, was seen in Durham. A member of the public is understood to have seen him and made a complaint to the police.

When asked if Cummings had been warned about breaching the lockdown, a spokesman for Durham Constabulary said: “On Tuesday, March 31, our officers were made aware of reports that an individual had travelled from London to Durham and was present at an address in the city.

“Officers made contact with the owners of that address who confirmed that the individual in question was present and was self-isolating in part of the house.

“In line with national policing guidance, officers explained to the family the guidelines around self-isolation and reiterated the appropriate advice around essential travel.”

Downing Street has previously refused to disclose where Cummings was staying during the lockdown.

The Guardian has also been told Cummings was spotted near the gate of his parents’ home with a young child, believed to be his son, at around 5.45pm on Sunday 5 April, five days after the complaint was made to the police.

This was just over a week after he began self-isolating with symptoms of the virus. It was also less than two hours before the prime minister was admitted to hospital after his symptoms worsened.

The Guardian has previously asked Downing Street about this sighting in April, but officials declined to comment.

The disclosure that Cummings was spoken to by police raises potentially awkward questions for him and No 10. With the UK in the grip of the pandemic, the government’s own advice urged everyone to stay at their main homes to avoid the spread of the virus and to save lives.

“You should not be visiting family members who do not live in your home,” the guidance said. “The only exception is if they need help, such as having shopping or medication dropped off.”

Instead, Cummings appears to have made the trip from his home in east London to Durham at a time when Johnson and the health secretary, Matt Hancock, had tested positive.

Downing Street said Cummings had developed symptoms “over the weekend” of the 28 and 29 March.

When questioned about Cummings’ whereabouts during the following week, a Downing Street spokesperson said only that he was in contact with No 10.

 

A Durham resident who lives near the Cummings family home expressed shock and annoyance after the 5 April sighting.

The witness, who did not wish to be named, told the Guardian: “I was really annoyed. I thought it’s OK for you to drive all the way up to Durham and escape from London. I sympathise with him wanting to do that, but other people are not allowed to do that. It’s one rule for Dominic Cummings and one rule for the rest of us.”

A Labour spokesperson said of the reports: “If accurate, the prime minister’s chief adviser appears to have breached the lockdown rules. The government’s guidance was very clear: stay at home and no non-essential travel. The British people do not expect there to be one rule for them and another rule for Dominic Cummings. Number 10 needs to provide a very swift explanation for his actions.”

 

 

[Bluebird Hewitt]

1 hour ago, Stan said:

Cummings broke lockdown rules in March/April. 

Twat.

Utter utter stupid cuntstain (Cummings that is, not you). 

Why on earth would you visit your parent's house (which isn't exactly down the road) when in lockdown and showing coronavirus symptoms? 

Thick fucking cunt. 

Following the chief medical adviser in Scotland and our lot in Wales amending rules when they get caught out, are we in the UK, from top to bottom, really this fucking stupid? 

Edited May 22, 2020 by Bluebird Hewitt

[RandoEFC+]

Don't get too excited. This will be an outrage for 48 hours, the government will refuse to comment or obfuscate and claim they'll look into it, throw a dead cat of some description on the table and keep Cummings out of the limelight for a couple of weeks until it's forgotten.

[Inverted]

22 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

Don't get too excited. This will be an outrage for 48 hours, the government will refuse to comment or obfuscate and claim they'll look into it, throw a dead cat of some description on the table and keep Cummings out of the limelight for a couple of weeks until it's forgotten.

BBC and ITV already had the usual suspects Peston and Kuenssberg out batting for their "unnamed sources" about 5 minutes after the story broke. 

The repulsive slime that run this country are so brazenly contemptuous of human life and decency that I don't see why they need to bother. It's clear that people who care about these kinds of things are in a firm minority in this nation, and the majority is quite happy to defer to their supposed superiors. 

[Harry]

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scenarios.html

Extensive model released by the CDC. 

Key takeaways....

their best guess infection mortality rate is 0.4%, with a worst case value of 1%, and best case of 0.2%. 

A person aged 50-64 is 4 times more likely to die than someone aged 0-49.

A person aged 65+ is 26 times more likely to die than someone aged 0-49.

 

 

[Harry]

Patrick Ewing hospitalised with COVID. 

 

[Stan]

If anyone isn't aware of what Cummings, the chief PM advisor, did then this should clear it up. 

Indefensible and has to go. 

[Honey Honey]

Statement out, see tweet for what was said.

Or save yourself the hassle of what is next with these quick summaries 

Summary for normal people - The defence from no.10 has began claiming this wasn't against the rules. There needs to be a grilling of the claims. If it doesn't stand up they're in trouble.

Summary for online mouth frothers - the disgusting far right BBC are doing the governments bidding again

 

 

[Stan]

8 minutes ago, Harvsky said:

Statement out, see tweet for what was said.

Or save yourself the hassle of what is next with these quick summaries 

Summary for normal people - The defence from no.10 has began claiming this wasn't against the rules. There needs to be a grilling of the claims. If it doesn't stand up they're in trouble.

Summary for online mouth frothers - the disgusting far right BBC are doing the governments bidding again

I see Kuenssberg's 'source' is out in force again defending him

Also, who's lying? Police confirmed they spoke to his parents and they confirmed he was staying there. Then Number 10 say police weren't contacted?! 

It just puts a mockery on everything since government started dealing with this pandemic and emphasises their lack of honesty and clarity and inability to take any kind of responsibility in it all. Denying he broke the rules is mistake number one when a day after the lockdown was planned, Boris was saying don't visit family if you or your family may have symptoms. It's the whole point of 'protecting the NHS' wasn't it? Stop the transmission of infection? Of course Cummings is immune to these rules.

I sympathise with all the families who have resisted the temptation to go and visit their relatives under the stricter lockdown rules. They've held strong for weeks and weeks yet within days of the instructions being announced, the PMs own advisor is breaking the rules.

[Honey Honey]

13 minutes ago, Stan said:

Also, who's lying? Police confirmed they spoke to his parents and they confirmed he was staying there. Then Number 10 say police weren't contacted?! 

Love it.

 

[Bluewolf]

They had two choices, come clean which would have meant he would need to step down, or defend it and hope they can fudge and fog their way round some semi plausible explanation that buys them time... They have picked option 2 because right now in the face of questions they can't or won't answer it would just be another huge smack in the mouth on how they have gone about handling this since it began.. 

Just one poor decision after another.... 

[RandoEFC+]

This is the classic "it didn't affect anyone else" scenario where he probably hasn't caused a problem individually but if everyone thought the same thing and did the same thing there would be total chaos. While what he did may be arguably reasonable there are thousands of people across the country who have had to care for children while suffering from the virus. Not to mention the number of people who have made even bigger sacrifices than that, accepting that they can't attend funerals of loved ones or visit dying relatives.  Their other big problem here is the Professor Ferguson thing.

The latest battle in the war between people who look at the actual facts and people who shout enough slightly varied, spun or "alternative" versions of the facts in the hope that it makes things murky enough to create plausible deniability for people to just give up. It's worked for them before.

However, the prime minister and official advice is clearly on record and the guidelines around travelling to second home, staying at home under all circumstances if you're symptomatic and not leaving children with elderly relatives are explicit. Unless the media allow themselves to be completely cowed on this one I think the government will eventually have to admit defeat here. The harder they fight it, the bigger a defeat it will be unless they can face it down.

[Inverted]

It's the fact that we got sympathy wank stories in the usual rags about Dom being sick, forensically breaking down how the family was coping with the situation, and at no point was this mentioned. 

And now that it's been revealed, they're saying it's obviously within the rules and at no point did they conceal it.

There are some times where things really are as simple as they seem. It's not a mark of deeper engagement with the problem to complicate everything, and infer nuance which isn't there.

That's how spin works when you're on the backfoot - you throw out some explanation or counter-story, no matter how tenuous, and you can count on plenty of well-meaning nuance-junkies rushing to take that sweet, sweet middle-ground. 

Edited May 23, 2020 by Inverted

[Stan]

22 minutes ago, Bluewolf said:

They had two choices, come clean which would have meant he would need to step down, or defend it and hope they can fudge and fog their way round some semi plausible explanation that buys them time... They have picked option 2 because right now in the face of questions they can't or won't answer it would just be another huge smack in the mouth on how they have gone about handling this since it began.. 

Just one poor decision after another.... 

 

5 minutes ago, Inverted said:

It's the fact that we got sympathy wank stories in the usual rags about Dom being sick, forensically breaking down how the family was coping with the situation, and at no point was this mentioned. 

And now that it's been revealed, they're saying it's obviously within the rules and at no point did they conceal it.

There some times where things really are as simple as they seem.

It's not a mark of deeper engagement with the problem to complicate everything, and infer nuance which isn't there.

Also begs the question that if it was fine at the time, why was it covered up...

[RandoEFC+]

Think it's a massive own goal the Tories doubling down on this. Giving Cummings the boot would have been a loss but they risk turning this into a real scandal. There's no viable line of defence here and even if they manage to fend off the media you would expect Starmer and Labour to have a field day on this one. There isn't much that can penetrate the walls of the party political and Brexit divisions now but there will be plenty of pro-Johnson/Brexit people who have made massive personal sacrifices over the last few months and this will cut through to them.

[Stan]

27 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

Think it's a massive own goal the Tories doubling down on this. Giving Cummings the boot would have been a loss but they risk turning this into a real scandal. There's no viable line of defence here and even if they manage to fend off the media you would expect Starmer and Labour to have a field day on this one. There isn't much that can penetrate the walls of the party political and Brexit divisions now but there will be plenty of pro-Johnson/Brexit people who have made massive personal sacrifices over the last few months and this will cut through to them.

If no significant action is taken before Wednesday's PMQs, it could be quite entertaining. All of them have so far because of Starmer's calm yet cutting demeanour strikes right through the heart of Boris, Hancock and anyone else really.

Not only Starmer and Labour, there are several Tory MPs/back-benchers who can't stand Cummings either. There's going to be pressure from all over the shop.

[Inverted]

It's also illustrative of the differences in political culture between different parts of the UK. Despite the SNP up here being in power for several terms with large majorities, they are still extremely wary of alienating voters - hence Calderwood being swiftly demoted when she had a similar scandal. They feel that public support can't be taken for granted even amongst their base. 

The Tories have learned the opposite lesson - any crisis can be survived because you can always keep a sufficient chunk of the electorate sufficiently stupefied or pliable. There's always a competing narrative, an alternative version of the facts which a decent chunk of people are gonna be happy to swallow, because it's in their interests to. 

They're still in power after all this time, so what harm is one more scandal realistically going to do? 

[Dr. Gonzo]

37 minutes ago, Inverted said:

It's also illustrative of the differences in political culture between different parts of the UK. Despite the SNP up here being in power for several terms with large majorities, they are still extremely wary of alienating voters - hence Calderwood being swiftly demoted when she had a similar scandal. They feel that public support can't be taken for granted even amongst their base. 

The Tories have learned the opposite lesson - any crisis can be survived because you can always keep a sufficient chunk of the electorate sufficiently stupefied or pliable. There's always a competing narrative, an alternative version of the facts which a decent chunk of people are gonna be happy to swallow, because it's in their interests to. 

They're still in power after all this time, so what harm is one more scandal realistically going to do? 

Yeah, Tories seem to be rewarded by treating voters with utter contempt tbh. Why would they stop now?

[Inverted]

3 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Yeah, Tories seem to be rewarded by treating voters with utter contempt tbh. Why would they stop now?

At this rate the United Kingdom has basically developed a humiliation kink when it comes to its choice of government.