Iām sure theyāll get some useful data but probably only relevant to authoritarian regimes that are able to cut off large cities completely and drag their citizens from their homes and put them into quarantine.
You may well be right. And there is a ton of unknowns to ponder. That approach in Italy now does not seem to have slowed their spiralling death rate yet.
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Like much of the Eastern European EU States then.
An upside to this nightmare has been the increase in communications with friends & family.
Calls keep ruining my Netflix bingeing
When something of this magnitude hits, no country on earth is going to be able to take it in itās stride. Health spending has been cut, sure, but as far as I can see it still accounts for nearly 10% of GDP, and 79% of that spending goes directly to the NHS. How much do you think we ought to be allocating to the NHS? 20% of GDP? 30%? More? Because however much it is, it will never be enough to cover every eventuality.
Itās interesting to watch government communication, which weāre told will now be daily, and how weāre given crumbs to hang on to.
If we didnāt have those crumbs weād be hopeless and panic would spread.
Itās like the safety briefing on an aircraft. Almost pointless. But we feel reassured.
Wash hands and build ventilators and weāll be ok.
Weāre given something to do as individuals and a society. Albeit probably pointless.
Not suggesting that washing hands is pointless but unless the whole society is fastidious it wonāt guarantee protection.
And ventilators?
Making them from scratch in the numbers weāll need when weāll need them, using non-specialised firms and giving them to hospitals that have insufficient nurses already without the likely collapse in numbers that their own sickness will create, is akin to saying your lifejacket is under your seat.
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A good explanation of the logic of the herd immunity and continual exposure approach.
But as you watch it, ask yourself what part of the bucket and bottle represents the sacrificial collateral damage (the necessary dead people).
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We awake to a new world. How long before some idiot marooned stag party remnants get shot in Spain for ignoring the curfew & trying to kiss a Cop?
Anyway.
Some takeaways overnight.
Do NOT touch Ibuprofen if you fall Iāll. It makes it much worse.
Stock up on Paracetamol only take that.
Time to stock up on Tonic Water Chloroquinine seems to be effective. At least you can imagine it is better for you than beer.
Oh and should a stocked up on Nicotine patches.
Change your diet disease deprives body of Iron so keep those levels up. Get the Greens in and maybe a bit more Red Meat would have been better than Pasta. Iron supplements if you can find any.
All other news is just grim. Pictures of deserted Polish streets, border queues, even Krakow Airport in UK Press today. KLM & Easyjet ran rescue flights yesterday.
The village road is REALLY quiet todayā¦
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This seems like a good first set of steps to ease the fear and panic.
Looking at a few articles it would appear to be to late now. The spread is unstoppable and much more advanced than weāre led to believe, so conveniently it might as well stay business as usual.
Reading Nafeez Ahmed again and we(government) are so (deliberately)unprepared. The article is old given the speed of this thing and will highlight how little was done to āflatten the curveā.
Lotās of data here(week old) that seems grim.
@Nottarf-Krap about eugenics boy and the nugde unit. Not sure if you mentioned this article, but itās a good reminder the of lunacy.
The freaks that tell the drunk in number 10 what to say/think.
https://www.bi.team/the-best-of-behavioural-science-in-uk-government-moving-from-micro-to-macro/
Chinese media links coronavirus to US military lab
The state-run Global Times has reported about a petition on the White House website urging the US government to release more information on the suspension of an infectious disease research lab under the Pentagon.
The Global Times noted that Chinese internet users and experts are calling for more information on whether The Fort Detrick laboratory was linked to the novel coronavirus, citing coincidental events between the labās closure and the outbreak of Covid-19.
It noted many English-language news reports about the closure of Fort Detrick were deleted recently, raising āsuspicions over the labās ārelationshipā with the novel coronavirusā.
This is the latest in a series of remarks by Chinese diplomats and the state media fuelling a theory that the virus did not originate in China, but was only found there.
Last week, the official Xinhua news agency claimed that the epidemic was first reported in China but āthat does not mean it necessarily originated in Chinaā.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian has even tweeted that āit might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan
I was postulating with some colleagues last week that the virus might be originated by the US as part of their ātrade warā with China, I was, of course, jokingā¦
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Bit eerie out there. Not entirely deserted, but I live on a main road. The traffic is at Sunday levels, if that.
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Yeah, I was thinking that as I was cycling into work this morning, it was almost school holiday levels of trafficā¦
Great isnāt it. Halfed my journey time this morning. I should be safe as iām doing the lordās (building)work and if the worst happens iām very close to the graveyard.
This poor fool thinks that mask will save him.
Without realising that iāve been coughing all the way there in an enclosed space 
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That kind of news really is not good.
Article from 2015, now coming with a disclaimer that there is no evidence COVID-19 escaped from a lab.
Pubs in Westminster to be shut within the week.