Yes - shocking.

Such precociousness is touching.

And no I'm not bipolar, I am a little cabin fevered though after enduring months of this lockdown. I appolgise for some of my more egregious outbursts last week.

 

Insults are the sign of a small mind so just ignore him.....I might not agree with many of your opinions but you are entitled to them so don’t stop.

 

Gandalf, can you name a country in the world that overestimates its healthcare more than the UK does?

What proportion of the UK population think UK healthcare is the best in the world? It has to be at least 75%. Look at the Olympic games opening ceramony. The NHS is literally part of our culture. And that is not a good thing because it blinds us to its faults in a way that no other country is. The same is true of America and guns.

I just don't agree with your '75%' figure you've plucked from up your rectum.

I think people are deeply glad that the NHS is funded out of general taxation - or, in other words, free at the point of need.

I also think people are naturally suspicious of those wanting to fund it differently, because 1) the loudest shouters against the NHS tend to be either those with higher incomes & wealth (who'd stand to gain the most with, say, a 3- or 5-percentage point income tax reduction if the NHS was funded by more direct contributions) or those who are forelock-tuggers towards the wealthy and want a low-tax state; and 2) there's a suspicion that, whilst some European countries have health services funded moderately equitably, we'd likely end up with a system more like the American one, which is hugely regressive in how people pay for it.

Yes, the NHS is far from perfect - it is too decentralised causing replication of jobs and there's far too many non-clinical roles and, as GtW pointed out, suffers from mission creep - but I'm massively protective of the principle of not throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

 

That objection was based on misunderstanding and/or misrepresentation. The virus recovered from the monkeys could not be grown in culture. I.e., it was not active virus.

Thanks Nick, that's interesting: presumably it could only have been parts of the RNA of the virus.

As you say, misleading, whether by ignorance or intent.

 

It is Justin who should apologise! He is prone to hissy fits and intemperate language. I don't suppose he means to be rude and ignorant, but that is how he comes across when he loses his temper.

Justin - this is a forum for debate and people are free to write what they think and you are free to disagree, but it can be done without calling people bipolar or whatever.

ROFL. Exquisite coming from someone prone to intemperate language.

Just been reading the summary from the PMQs, still plenty of spin going in wrt tracing. Of course it's already been significantly delayed.

I have my doubts that it'll be 'world beating' given it's email and phone based.

Plenty of self-congratulation to come when it eventually launches.

 

They gave three weeks advance notice!

That, Richard, is completely and utterly irrelevant to the point I was making. 

Look, you're clearly not stupid so why wilfully misinterpret what I said?

Breakdown of the 166 deaths announced today in England by date

• 31 on May 19th


• 63 on May 18th


• 17 on May 17th


• 48 between May 4th and May 16th


• 5 in April 


• 2 in March with one on March 24th

 

Cmon gandalf you didn't just make the 'but the USA' argument. At least the Americans have some amount of self awareness about their healthcare.

You yourself called the NHS amazing, most people would agree with you. Hence most people overestimate the NHS.

 

You seem incapable of understanding the meaning of some words. As I said, 'amazing' does not preclude the scope for improvement.

The Wright brothers first flight was amazing but we have, I think you know, moved on a little.

So a new strain or mutation of covid19 is being detected in NE China which is different to the current one.

Unlike the current one it's effect on the heart and the kidneys is less noticeable however it's still attacks the lungs. Outcome for those who have had this one is less severe with a higher chance of survival. 

Chinese are blaming imports on it. The symptoms take longer to appear and it takes longer to get over this however like mentioned above prognosis is better. It also doesn't typically bring with it a fever, but it does bring a sore throat and general feeling of ill. 

Sounds more like a common cold to me. 

Information is on the BBC also a link on the BBC to an article explain more however with this new mobile that I have have I can't figure out how to copy and paste links.

How is the UK's antibody testing programme going? Do we have data from it yet? Number of tests, % positive etc.

I believe it's world class

​

 London sees NO new coronavirus cases for 24hrs in clearest sign yet UK strategy is working

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1284780/london-news-no-new-coronavirus-cases-east-of-england-public-health-england-tests?fbclid=IwAR04uLaz9Ap4p8k7Emux2hbSYIzCxuhslfvU1VVbgN7P9oRYDuPq6FwJqIQ

​

​

 London sees NO new coronavirus cases for 24hrs in clearest sign yet UK strategy is working

Quote

 

LONDON and the East of England have both gone 24 hours without a single new coronavirus case being officially recorded. The figures from Public Health England have given the most positive sign yet that the Government's strategy to combat COVID-19 is working. Just 79 people were diagnosed across the whole of England yesterday according to the data.

Swab tests taken on Monday, May 18 in London and the South East of England did not diagnose a single new case of coronavirus. Between them, the two regions have a population of 18million - making up almost a third of the entire population on Britain.

The latest figures come as Downing Street said the number of passengers using London's usually-busy transport network remained "fairly low". This is despite the easing of come lockdown restrictions last week, including workers who are unable to work from home to return to their physical workplace.

 

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1284780/london-news-no-new-coronavirus-cases-east-of-england-public-health-england-tests?fbclid=IwAR04uLaz9Ap4p8k7Emux2hbSYIzCxuhslfvU1VVbgN7P9oRYDuPq6FwJqIQ

​

I'm betting this is complete twaddle. They are talking about samples taken on Monday, most of which will not have been tested yet. Meanwhile there will have been many positive tests from samples taken prior to Monday. So all this is saying is that the testing results are slow to return.

Source Reuters via ECDC. (% of overall mortality)

— 🅕🅞🅧🅧🅨 (@FoxxysTweets) May 20, 2020

Source Reuters via ECDC. (% of overall mortality)

— 🅕🅞🅧🅧🅨 (@FoxxysTweets) May 20, 2020

Yes, we managed to spread death more evenly across society.

Source Reuters via ECDC. (% of overall mortality)

— 🅕🅞🅧🅧🅨 (@FoxxysTweets) May 20, 2020

I'm not disputing the figures, because I don't know what sources & facts they purport to be based on, but two things:

1) The figures do seem very suspect. '% of overall mortality'? Overall mortality of what? All residents? Those that were confirmed to have caught it?

2) The Twitter poster seems to be an Alt-Right, nationalist lunatic, and the replies are almost all conspiracy bollocks about this whole crisis being manufactured/manipulated by liberals and the MSM.

Post is based I presume on this article:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-eu-casualties/england-reports-far-fewer-covid-19-deaths-in-care-homes-than-european-states-idUSKBN22V1VI

The article in its breakdown of the figures however suggests that the other countries are including care home deaths in their figures, not just UK and Belgium.

Agree that the account holder appears to be a lunatic. He even goes out of his way to praise Trump's press secretary

 

Are you sure it wasn't Covid-19?

Didn't the SARS pandemic occur back in 2003 or thenabouts?