Virus worries

mr wilks said:
Tinker15 said:
Yes, but it’s by Peter Hitchens who studied philosophy and politics. His views on Coronavirus are no more valid than yours or mine. Apart from which he has a history of being contrary and no doubt it has earned him a decent living. It’s interesting that unlike most articles in the Mail no comments are allowed. I wonder why!

Indeed but in a democratic world its just another opinion to consider , in reality the government were dammed if they did & dammed if they didn't so ultimately had to follow the lead set by other countries , my own thoughts are when this is over yes it will have been tragic for many families but not on the scale initially told we would see :? is that due to the measures or is that due to how it would have played out anyway :wink:

Shame I won't be around for the 50 or 100 year rule to release government papers - I bet the discussions around this and Brexit are going to make very interesting reading!
 
mr wilks said:
BMWZ4MC said:
Mr Wilks, I understand that he feels his liberty and human rights are being infringed. They are to some extent, but solely to maintain a far greater basic human right of many others - that is the right to life.
However, I’m not sure what’s he’s proposing as an alternative strategy? In Italy, the lack of early definitive action has resulted in a huge number of deaths and not only amongst those who “would have died this year anyway”. Furthermore, the consolidating pneumonia found in severe COVID-19 will leave a significant number of the survivors as respiratory cripples. 10% of those ventilated in Italy are healthcare professionals, hardly society’s old and infirm. Of those who survive, many will never recover to anything like normal.
Is the better strategy to bury our collective heads in the sand, praise our right to watch the football in the pub with our mates and try to keep the economy afloat whilst the NHS collapses and people dear to each of us become desperately ill and die?
I don’t favour his plan, but it will lead to a successful exit strategy once 80% of the population has been infected.
The number of deaths in Drs & nurses is alarming & must be worrying for anyone like yourself in that area of work :cry: it does seem common sense to isolate therefore reduce further spreading of the virus but unfortunately as we have seen way too many times around the world there is a level of idiocy that means the liberty of free movement has to be removed & enforced by law whether we like it or not .

Mr Hitchens would disagree with you and let those idiots contaminate one another liberally!
 
BMWZ4MC said:
mr wilks said:
BMWZ4MC said:
Mr Wilks, I understand that he feels his liberty and human rights are being infringed. They are to some extent, but solely to maintain a far greater basic human right of many others - that is the right to life.
However, I’m not sure what’s he’s proposing as an alternative strategy? In Italy, the lack of early definitive action has resulted in a huge number of deaths and not only amongst those who “would have died this year anyway”. Furthermore, the consolidating pneumonia found in severe COVID-19 will leave a significant number of the survivors as respiratory cripples. 10% of those ventilated in Italy are healthcare professionals, hardly society’s old and infirm. Of those who survive, many will never recover to anything like normal.
Is the better strategy to bury our collective heads in the sand, praise our right to watch the football in the pub with our mates and try to keep the economy afloat whilst the NHS collapses and people dear to each of us become desperately ill and die?
I don’t favour his plan, but it will lead to a successful exit strategy once 80% of the population has been infected.
The number of deaths in Drs & nurses is alarming & must be worrying for anyone like yourself in that area of work :cry: it does seem common sense to isolate therefore reduce further spreading of the virus but unfortunately as we have seen way too many times around the world there is a level of idiocy that means the liberty of free movement has to be removed & enforced by law whether we like it or not .

Mr Hitchens would disagree with you and let those idiots contaminate one another liberally!

& i would happily sit back & watch that happen , no finer way of seeing the population thin itself out :oops: however its the part where the idiots then expect assistance from others that the plan goes awry :P
 
mr wilks said:
Tinker15 said:
Yes, but it’s by Peter Hitchens who studied philosophy and politics. His views on Coronavirus are no more valid than yours or mine. Apart from which he has a history of being contrary and no doubt it has earned him a decent living. It’s interesting that unlike most articles in the Mail no comments are allowed. I wonder why!

Indeed but in a democratic world its just another opinion to consider , in reality the government were dammed if they did & dammed if they didn't so ultimately had to follow the lead set by other countries , my own thoughts are when this is over yes it will have been tragic for many families but not on the scale initially told we would see :? is that due to the measures or is that due to how it would have played out anyway :wink:

Of course Hitchens is entitled to his opinions and I certainly wouldn’t deny him his right to have them. It doesn’t mean I have to agree with him. 🙂 Now who knows on the final numbers? I guess they were possibly hyped to persuade us that it was better to do as we were told and stay indoors. if the numbers are lower, as I expect they will be, will we ever know if it was the measures now being taken. I doubt it.
 
BMWZ4MC said:
Thanks John. It looks like both of the lines for the UK data are following the Italian data, just lagging behind.

As does this, written by a remarkably eloquent neurosurgeon from my alma mater:

https://www.ft.com/content/00312c48-6e87-11ea-9bca-bf503995cd6f

I’ve yet to see a credible exit strategy from the current circumstance proposed by any government. I perceive there to be three possibilities:

We’re following option one at present but I can’t see that leading to clearance from the population, rather a second wave of infection and then further crisis after we come out of lockdown.

Richard, the writing of Henry Marsh is an excellent assessment and understanding of the dilemma faced by the medical profession, health care workers and support required from the population under the direction of government and its advisers.

mr wilks said:
Option 4 possibly :roll: ok its from the DM but certainly makes for interesting reading https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8163587/PETER-HITCHENS-Great-Panic-foolish-freedom-broken-economy-crippled.html

I think that Peter Hitchens is always worth listening to and it seems that the argument that he proposes is that we should essentially let nature take its course, but I disagree that would be the best way and would appear to many as morally irresponsible.

The economic impact of lockdown will be massive on us all and will change all of our lives in many ways that we don't yet realise. Is it best that we should let nature's Lottery take its course and scythe us down at random or should we attempt to save as many of ourselves as possible to face the uncertain future together? Personally, I think the policy being pursued in the UK is actually a combination of 1 and 3 in Richard's posting, where we've permitted the virus to spread around the UK in, as yet, relatively low numbers, so that the the entire country is infected and followed by the voluntary lockdown measures to slow down the spread which eventually creates herd immunity, whilst at the same time allowing the NHS to cope with the most serious cases of infection. This buys us time whilst we await the necessary vaccine to become available for us all.
 
mr wilks said:
my own thoughts are when this is over yes it will have been tragic for many families but not on the scale initially told we would see :? is that due to the measures or is that due to how it would have played out anyway :wink:
If this thing were to be left to run its course without any attempts to take preventive action to protect ourselves, as a society, it would take out many millions of people, and not just the over 70s. What we are presently seeing in a small region of Italy would happen everywhere, even in your small part of the World. I think you might change your tune then, if you were still around...
 
Unfortunately John, I suspect that the UK government is attempting to follow strategy one, but three will come to pass as it has in Northern Italy. Australia won’t fare differently for the same reasons - early inaction and too soft a response once things started to go downhill. Large swathes of the population will be infected and whilst most will experience only a moderate illness, many will be hospitalised and a significant proportion of those will die.
Draconian measures strictly enforced will slow that process, make it more manageable and lower the mortality rate, but won’t greatly reduce the final number of people infected.
 
@exdos
Is it not likely by the time there is a vaccine available ( possibly 12 -18 months away) we won't need it ?
Or is this form of SARS considered more a threat to us longterm whereas previous one hasn't proved that way ?
 
SARS was more lethal but less easily transmitted. For both reasons it was more easily contained and a vaccine proved unnecessary.
This Corona virus is less lethal and highly contagious in the pre-symptomatic phase of the illness (unlike SARS). As such it can spread like wildfire without becoming self limiting until the majority of the population have become immune. That will prolong the course of COVID-19 for a great many months to come (unless we opt out of self isolation and other protective measures, accepting that it will ravage society but be over with before the year is out).
 
mr wilks said:
@exdos
Is it not likely by the time there is a vaccine available ( possibly 12 -18 months away) we won't need it ?
Or is this form of SARS considered more a threat to us longterm whereas previous one hasn't proved that way ?
That is possible, or even likely, dependant upon the rate of spread.

It seems to me that the government's strategy is to prevent the rapid spread of the infection so that the hospitals can try to cope with the huge numbers of people requiring hospitalisation and ventilators, and the safe disposal of large numbers of deceased at the same time. This is essentially an emergency logistics problem to be solved which places the frontline services at great risk. The creation of huge emergency hospitals in London, Cardiff, Manchester and Birmingham shows the scale of the problem with relatively limited manpower and resources whilst the majority of us are required to watch idly behind our closed doors.

The end result maybe the same whichever path we take, but at least attempting to slow the rate of progress gives those whom have to deal with the practicality of handling patients and the deceased a chance to spread the load.
 
Here’s another academic opinion:-

https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/news/cambridge-virologist-explains-what-we-know-and-dont-know-about-covid-19-9104220/
 
ronk said:
Here’s another academic opinion:-

https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/news/cambridge-virologist-explains-what-we-know-and-dont-know-about-covid-19-9104220/
Very interesting :thumbsup:
 
ronk said:
Here’s another academic opinion:-

https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/news/cambridge-virologist-explains-what-we-know-and-dont-know-about-covid-19-9104220/
Interesting that Ron, we went to Oz november 1st week in dec i came down with some virus ,fluey type symptoms, felt mi breathing getting worse couldnt get outa bed,,laid out for a week .mi back and chest felt really hot ,off mi food for weeks too,got sum intibiotics of the local docs which sorted me out after another week, so my son in Oz reckons ive had it back then , certainly makes me wonder if it was around then ,but as i have a history of chest probs ,pneumonia etc i aint taking chances and we are isolating ourselves ,
Stay safe .
M
 
The problem I see with not isolating and letting nature run its course is that although you might be ok and survive, what about your wife, husband, son, daughter, mother, father etc.
Is it really ok to take the chance that everybody you know will be alive at the end?
 
ronk said:
Here’s another academic opinion:-

https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/news/cambridge-virologist-explains-what-we-know-and-dont-know-about-covid-19-9104220/

Very interesting read, thx Ronk :thumbsup:
 
If I read it right, it does mean that a second wave of health care people who have had the virus can then approach the sick without specific protective gear then as they are now immune for it?

The same with law and order, the police who have had it, can get in proximity of the people they need to deal with?
 
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