Wednesday, April 29, 2020

To squash the epidemic and make contact tracing feasible, the lockdown needs to last several more weeks - but we're being edged towards a second disaster by a deeply irresponsible "get Britain moving again" campaign from the right-wing media

























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But on a more positive note, closer to home...





42 comments:

  1. There's not enough Big Eater on this thread.

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    1. One thing that *has* become clear from the troll comments I've deleted so far from this thread is that all or most of you are quite obviously the same person.

      Interesting.

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    2. Great British crops starting to rot because the brexiters are not out in the fields picking as promised, but sitting on their erses trolling the internet.

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  2. Unfortunately because of a febrile political culture and misplaced loyalties there are people in Scotland who choose to flout the advice of the Scottish government out of some kind of mentally irregular spite usually with quotes like *She's no the leader of ma country so she can get tae* (insert adjective) "Boris Johnson is the Prime Minister of the UK she's just a cooncil leader to big for her boots* and on and on they go

    This is part of the attitude that kills people and until it affects them personally they just don't care, then when it does affect them the complaint is "Sturgeon is tae blame"

    Because that's just how stupid they are, so when your granny or granda gets ill and possibly dies you'll know exactly who's idea it was not to comply with the instructions that terrible woman Nicola Sturgeon and all her team advised you of in the first place

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  3. If roles were reversed, and Scotland was the worst affected in Europe, you can bet your bottom £ that the Scots border would have been shut by England weeks ago.

    https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-britain-casualties/uk-has-europes-second-highest-covid-19-death-toll-new-figures-show-idUKKBN22B2JK

    UK has Europe's second-highest COVID-19 death toll, new figures show

    LONDON (Reuters) - The United Kingdom now has Europe’s second-highest official death toll from the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to new figures on Wednesday that cover fatalities in all settings, including in nursing homes.

    Some 26,097 people died across the United Kingdom after testing positive for COVID-19 as of April 28 at 1600 GMT, Public Health England (PHE) said. That means the United Kingdom has had more COVID-19 deaths than France or Spain have reported...

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    1. You have no evidence the imaginary border would be closed. Your hatred of the English and dwelling on the deaths of the English are apparent. You as an Irishman should worry about paddy.

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    2. The Brit paranoid insecurity about everyone hating them is quite something.

      You'll never survive brexit unless you have more confidence in yourselves.

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    3. You are insecure and an English hater. You have an imaginary French wife at the bottom of your bed near to your PC.

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    4. There's that severe paranoia again. If I'm to believe you GWC, the Brits are the most insecure people on the planet. It's the only way to the explain their obsessive worry about apparently being hated.

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  4. So, hold on, the e.g. Europeans, Americans, Australians...even the French can cope with border controls within their unions/countries, but the British can't? God knows how they're going to cope with Brexit.

    https://www.france24.com/en/20200429-key-points-of-france-s-strategy-for-lifting-its-nationwide-covid-19-lockdown

    Key points of France’s strategy for lifting its nationwide Covid-19 lockdown

    ...Compulsory masks, increased testing, a phased reopening of schools and limiting movement between regions...

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    1. You just want to make a political point in that Scotland can close the fictitious border with England and the Scots that live in England. You are Irish so get on the ferry while you can paddy. This is leprechaun picking season.

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    2. The fictitious border written into the Great British union constitution where Scots Law changes to English. Forever.

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    3. And if there's no border, stop talking about 'Scots' and 'English' you prize idiot. You need to rabbit oan about 'one British people' or something.

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    4. Please don't interrupt Covidia's train wreck of thought. It's doing a wonderful job for the independence movement.

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  5. I see Stuart Campbell and his freaks are invading this site as well

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  6. At the end of the day, the only thing that spreads this virus is people. We all know this and have been advised how to avoid it. When people die, the only folk to blame are those that came out their houses and spread it.

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  7. Anonymous troll: I'm going to continue deleting all of your comments until kingdom come, so you'll have to weigh up whether it's really worth putting all of that effort in for the tiny handful of people who are actually going to read your rants before I get to them. Entirely up to you, sport.

    To put it mildly, there have been rather a lot of factual inaccuracies in your tragically excised "contributions" this evening, but I'll just deal with the most important: it's simply not true that shielded individuals are told to stay indoors 24 hours a day. That would be absurd, given the obvious health benefits of sunshine and fresh air. They are not discouraged from using their own garden if they have one. They are, however, told to avoid all face-to-face contact, which creates problems if people from the outside world enter private spaces - such as gardens - suddenly and without warning. Those problems are obviously exacerbated if the shielded person has mobility issues. That was the main point I was making in the Twitter thread you're so excited about. It was not only a perfectly reasonable point, it was close to being unanswerable, in spite of the hysterical pile-on that ensued from people who are either still in denial about the seriousness of the virus, or about the thoroughness with which high-risk individuals need to be shielded. (It was also, incidentally, a purely hypothetical example of what could have happened if the shielded person had been outside, not an account of what actually happened, so you're once again demonstrating your hapless inability to read or to understand the pretty straightforward meaning of what you've read.)

    Just to reiterate: there's no need to reply to this, because if you do, it'll be deleted as soon as I see it.

    I would, however, like to take this opportunity to thank the people who spoke up for me during the pile-on, and also those who have privately contacted me to say they agree with the point I was making. It's very much appreciated.

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    1. As promised, reply deleted. You can stick your fingers in your ears and sing "la la la" as much as you like, but facts are chiels that winna ding. Shielded people are not told to stay indoors, and they are not discouraged from using their gardens. Shielding simply means staying within the grounds of their home (indoors and outdoors), and having no face to face to contact with anyone from outside the home.

      "It means staying at home at all times. You should not go out to shop or go for a walk in public places - it is fine to go into your garden if you have one.

      You should avoid any face-to-face contact, so that means no visitors."


      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/health-51997151

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    2. Reply deleted, Anon. (Within seconds this time - oh, what a waste.) But that was a very revealing little outburst - the motivation for your weird obsession with me appears to be a persecution complex about "curtain twitchers". I do hope you can find some help with your psychological issues, but I'm not sure you'll find it by hanging around here and screaming into the ether.

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  8. NZ closed its borders and tested all Kiwis returning home plus stuck to the lockdown. C'mon Sturgeon and SNP take your inspiration from NZ close the feckin borders and save Scottish lives from the psychopathic Tory Yoons.

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    1. "Sturgeon" isn't Santa. Border control is a reserved matter. But you know that, right? Which is why you ask the impossible, then hope to draw blame onto the most effective leader by far within this blighted kingdom.

      You fakes are just gettin' so obvious.

      We'll get NZ when we're independent. It's not the other way round. Obvious, really.

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    2. I didn't read his post as meaning borders closed completely; no country is doing that. Just that normal unhindered / free entry was stopped, and people would have to maybe undergo testing and quarantine. I think you just took his post too literally; it's a common mistake.

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    3. @Iain M
      In 2014 Scotland chose not to give the power to our government to close borders or take back the Maritime border that was moved by Westminster so that East Scotland 6000 square miles of oil and gas could be English GDP not even British but England only
      In 2014 Scotland chose to dump us at the mercy of a Westminster who would choose to leave the EU even though the current FM warned us they would do that and it was denied by the Tories branch manager then Ruth Davidson and the current branch manager Jackpot Carwash
      In 2014 Scotland didn't believe Nicola Sturgeon when she told them these things would happen

      They happened just like she said they would now Scotland is rubber ducked by the same Unionists right now who are complaining that she take Independent action that they refused to give her the power to do

      New Zealand has no land borders with anybody else, they're an Independent country and they moved quickly to do what they needed to do because no one else has any control over them
      In 2014 Scotland chose not to be as normal as other countries and to remain as a subservient colony of a blood sucking power

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    4. I don't care if it is a reserved matter. SNP should just close border to save Scottish lives. They should start acting like a Scottish Nationalist Party again. That is something they haven't done in 6 years and it looks like that gutlessness is set to continue.

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  9. Australian's are not insecure like the brits. Fine with differences across the country and are not constantly paranoid that people hate them.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/apr/30/australia-coronavirus-live-updates-nsw-victoria-qld-northern-territory-latest-news-update?page=with:block-5eaa00298f08b27d8fdd6e37

    I think it would be difficult to take an entirely national approach to this.

    The broad principles are set by the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, going to national cabinet, and agreed upon at national cabinet. Then it’s very clear that the epidemic is in different phases.

    Previously, on the show, we heard about the Northern Territory. That has had no community cases. For the Northern Territory to have the same measures that Victoria or New South Wales have would make no sense.

    Western Australia has 60% of their school students back in public schools as of yesterday.

    So we are a continent. It can be confusing seeing different states doing different things, but it is a necessary consequence of the federation having an epidemic that’s behaving somewhat differently across the country.

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    1. Practically every country/state in the world is having some sort of regional/state/country approach in their dealings with the epidemics. Epidemics will be at different stages in different parts of Australia/Germany/France/USA/insert here whichever country/state you want and differentiated approach is the only one that makes sense. Not only that Scotland should be coming out of the lockdown at a different pace to England, Scottish regions should differentiate as well.
      Had London been put into a strict quarantine in mid March, we would have probably saved thousands of lives in the UK and hundreds in Scotland.
      UKGov, English Tories and unionist parties in Scotland decided to turn this into a political issue - but politicising this is virtually killing (Scottish and English) people.

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  10. The irrational, life denying nature of hard core 'Britishness' comes out crystal clear on this thread.

    If greedy profit takers say lift restrictions and take your chances, and weak kneed Westminster politicians choose not to resist them then it is our patriotic, British duty to step in front of the second bus, even if we were missed by the first one.

    Well fine be our guests - go ahead all you witless jingos.

    At the right moment, despite limited powers, Scotland will do it's best to protect it's people. If that takes divergence from you loonies - good !

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  11. https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/04/22/there-is-no-empirical-evidence-for-these-lockdowns/

    This is some number crunching from Prof Wilfred Reilly of Kentucky State University. If he's correct, the virus is not spreading any faster in US states without lockdown policies than it is in the ones who have. That in turn implies that a) the virus is nowhere near as deadly as the "I Am Legend" brigade would have you believe, but, b) even if it were, lockdown is doing nothing to impede it. In that scenario, why are we trashing the world economy?

    By the way, has "right-wing" now become, in and of itself, a term of abuse?

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    1. Erm, that guy is an assistant professor in political science.

      Forgive me if I follow the WHO advice over politics graduates.

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    2. This is the giveaway:

      It certainly might make sense to redo my regression with ‘date of first case’ thrown in as a variable

      Or say matched to days since first 10 deaths.

      It makes the entire analysis a waste of time as he's comparing apples and pears. It's like looking at Italy just after the outbreak there when the UK was covid free, and saying 'hey look, you can be lockdown free and have no cases! There's no correlation!'.

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    3. "I Am Legend", "the Black Death", etc, etc. It's hardly worth engaging with this constant straw man drivel. Imperial estimate the mortality rate of coronavirus (when applied to the demographics of the UK) to be around 0.8% or 0.9% - which would cause many hundreds of thousands of deaths if 80% of the population is allowed to be infected. That's plenty enough to justify all-out containment efforts, and that's before you consider the far greater numbers who will suffer very severe illness.

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    4. As a chemical / process engineer working with large industrial processes, I tried to imagine what would happen if I let a political scientist do my job for a few days.

      I would of course provide them with 'the same data', software tools etc my colleagues and I use.

      The results were not pretty. Huge financial loss and quite likely a number of deaths to boot.

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    5. I hear that Scottish Nat sis have been injecting themselves with Esso Blue to avoid the virus The Nat sis are the virus.

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    6. Yes, I checked out the CV of the author read the article in that order.

      I also watched and found the John Ioannidis interviews interesting (I think you posted these), but they only told me largely what I already knew.

      Your point is?

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    7. Skier, you fascists will not get any political capital from this epidemic. Your followers will end up like the mugs who went to Jonestown.

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    8. Covidia knows its place at the heels of its Tory overlords. It is obedient, even when the orders are contradictory. Staunch.

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  12. On a scale from 0-10 a new UK wide Survation poll says 70% put trust in information from the Scottish government at 7 to 10, 14% 4 to 6 and 15% 0-3.

    Westminster by comparison is 54% 7-10, 25% 4-6 and 21% 0-3.

    The results for trust in the media are diabolical, no surprise there.

    https://www.survation.com/survation-covid-19-public-attitude-tracker/

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    1. That is a strange statement as all the UK govs are saying the same. Stay in the house and stay safe. Stay well away from Scottish Nat sis as they are gablers and spread disease every time they they open their lying traps.

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    2. It's the way they tell em.

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    3. Covidia only follows instructions from its Tory overlords. Staunch.

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  13. I heard an interesting observation on the radio where they were breaking down regions of Scotland and infection levels in each and as you would expect Glasgow being the most densely populated suffered the highest amounts of infection and mortality rate but as a percentage Ayrshire is the worst affected both by infection and mortality and that's an odd one as that region is pretty widely spread density wise



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  14. Athanasius: If you're going to indulge in bitter ad hominem attacks of that sort, I'm afraid you'll have to find a different venue for your bile. Comment deleted.

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