So we have another lockdown and then we can all go out again and guess what? The virus is still there because just like last time people only care about themselves
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My local has handily increased the number of umbrellas and outside heaters.
Inside the majority of space is now for food.
I can see where they think the real profitable market isâŠ
Four Horseshoes?
I heard some pub owner on the radio this morning bemoaning their situation. I have huge sympathy for anyone in her position, but she kept asserting that the only way out of it is to have a two week complete lockdown, get it over with, and then we could âall get back to normalâ. The really depressing thing is that she really believed what she was saying, are many people really that thick?
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No, The Wheatsheaf at Braishfield. Not exactly local but just a short drive.
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Heather Cox.
The US picture
October 13, 2020 (Tuesday)
While the media is focused on the predetermined hearings for Amy Coney Barrett, Trumpâs nominee for the Supreme Court seat formerly held by the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the big story of the day is the resurgence of coronavirus.
The nation is back up to more than 50,000 new cases a day, the highest rate since early August, and numbers are continuing to rise. The states currently suffering worst are those in the northern Midwest-- Wisconsin, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakotaâbut more than 30 states are reporting rising numbers. Wisconsin is so overwhelmed with cases itâs opening a field hospital this week, and it seems that Arkansas, Montana, North Dakota, and Oklahoma are right behind.
More children are being diagnosed with Covid-19, as well, making up more than 77,000 new infections.
The White House has abandoned the idea of controlling the virus and instead is openly embracing the idea of âherd immunity.â Officials are arguing that the nation should protect our most vulnerable neighborsâthe elderly and the infirmâand the rest of us should go about our lives normally, without waiting for a vaccine.
While the White House has been saying this for months, it now has a group of scientists advancing the plan in a document called The Great Barrington Declaration. This idea is being pushed by the libertarian American Institute for Economic Research, and scientists whose work has been dismissed by most epidemiologists. It offers no data or scientific argument; it is a political opinion.
The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called the plan âunethicalâ because it âmeans allowing unnecessary infections, suffering and death.â He explains that the concept of herd immunity is one used for vaccines, achieved âby protecting people from a virus, not by exposing them to it.â âNever in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy for responding to an outbreak, let alone a pandemic,â he said. âIt is scientifically and ethically problematic.â
The idea of simply letting the infection spread is not popular among Americans, especially among the seniors Trump needs to win Florida. In 2016, seniors preferred Trump to Hillary Clinton by 49% to 44%. Now they are turning to Biden rather than Trump by 54% to 43%. Weirdly, Trump took to Twitter today to post a tweet apparently making fun of Biden by picturing him as a resident of a senior homeânot calculated to win over more older Americans.
This approach reinforces the idea the president is trying to push after his own bout with coronavirus: that the illness is not a big deal and that those who say it is are simply trying to hurt his chances of reelection. At the Barrett hearings, Republican Mike Lee of Utah, recently diagnosed with coronavirus, refused to wear a mask. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows also refused to wear one when talking with reporters, apparently concerned about being filmed in a mask when the official White House position was to downplay the virus.
Meanwhile, another official who attended the celebration for Barrett at the Rose Garden on September 26 has tested positive for the virus.
America leads the world in infections and deaths. Globally, at least 38 million cases of Covid-19 have been recorded as of 6:30 this evening. More than a million people have died. America has had at least 7,850,000 cases and more than 215,000 deaths.
As horrific as those numbers are, an article published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association says they are far too low. Dr. Steven Woolf, the author of the study, says that âfor every two Americans that we know of who are dying of Covid-19, another American is dying.â Woolf looked at what are called âexcess deathsâ from March through July, that is, the increase over the average number of deaths expected in those months. He found 225,530 excess deaths. Sixty-seven percent of those deaths are linked directly to Covid-19, but the remaining 33% are unexplained, suggesting this unusual spike is related to the pandemic.
Erika Edwards of NBC News highlighted this study today, along with another in the same issue of the JAMA that compares U.S. death rates to those of other wealthy countries. The U.S. ranked poorly. According to the article, our Covid-19 mortality rate is 60.3 per 100,000 people. Canadaâs rate is 24.6 per 100,000, and Australiaâs was 3.3 deaths per 100,000. If we had had the same rate as Canada, we would have lost 117,000 fewer people, and 188,000 Americans would have been saved if we had the same death rate as Australia.
The good news is that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said today that vaccine development is âon a really good track.â Two vaccines have been put on hold as a volunteer in each trial has gotten sick, but Fauci says this is not at all unusual. He says he hopes that by November or December we should know if we have a safe and effective vaccine. If so, it will be distributed first to those who need it most, but will gradually become available to the rest of us.
Once again, Dr. Fauci reminded us to wear masks, maintain physical distance from others, avoid crowds, stay outside when possible, and wash hands. âThose simple things, as simple as they sound, can certainly turn around the spikes that we see and can prevent new spikes from occurring,â Fauci told Shepard Smith on CNBC Monday night. âWe know that because our experience has proven to us that that is the case. We just need to hunker down and do that.â
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All right for some. What a fucking scandal, how much longer can this cabal of crooks carry on shovelling countless millions of our money to their party donors and various chums? Twelve billion and counting spunked so far on so called test and trace. Why isnât the country up in arms?
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You are asking the wrong question.
You should be asking how do I get a piece of this action.
The world has changed. Me first so family is second
Dont like it but
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âHow do i get a piece of the actionâ
What school did you go to?
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I donât think Noadswood Comp is going to cut the mustard, mores the pity 
Apply to work at one of the in crowd as a consultant
Dont have to own it
Fuck off mate, Noadswood students fucking rule.
These fuckers are everywhere - they infest the ftse 100
ÂŁ7000 a day probably gets you a senior partner - even so, whether you get ÂŁ7000 value is debatable
I would never work for one of these outfits - they sell their souls to the firm. The hours they work are fecking daft
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And yet, anyone with common sense could tell you that curfew policy was never going to work as implemented.
Mate of mine did IT consultancy across the world, raked in the money, on his second wife.
No mortgage or kids but all the young Turks are now walking over him because the 18 hr days arenât what he wants in his run in to retirement.
The circle of consultancy life 
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Donât tell me you went there?!
Indeed I did.
Dibden Purlieu Massive!!
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Holy crap - so did I. Now you live just down the road. Have you been stalking me?!
Yep, and very well by the sound of things! What years were you there?
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A long time before you - started in â76 - unless like @Fowllyd you have the proverbial picture in the attic - you looked remarkably young at the FA semifinal a couple of years back tbfâŠor was that @Barry-Sanchez? 
Everything was in black & white in those days as @lifeintheslowlane will confirm. Bit like the uniform now that I think about itâŠ
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