West Side Story wrote: ↑Sat Apr 25, 2020 2:42 pm
I had a cardiac arrest a year last August. I was gone for 10 minutes plus. Nothing to it. Mind you, when they brought me back to the land of the living, I didn't feel too great for quite a few months. I am trying to defer a similar experience for as long as possible.
West Side Story wrote: ↑Sat Apr 25, 2020 2:42 pm
I had a cardiac arrest a year last August. I was gone for 10 minutes plus. Nothing to it. Mind you, when they brought me back to the land of the living, I didn't feel too great for quite a few months. I am trying to defer a similar experience for as long as possible.
Look after yourself. We will all get through this!
Dunners wrote: ↑Sun Apr 26, 2020 9:14 am
Of course there are. Just tell us which type of economy you propose and how you would go about enforcing it.
I know many people who grew up in command economies. Whenever the conversation drifts to the subject of western capitalism (usually three pints in so I'm not claiming it's at much of an intellectual level), while there is much to be critical of, not one of them would swap what they have now.
I don’t know, I leave that stuff to the big thinkers like Marx and Chomsky and Russell Brand etc
I’m just certain we could find some way of making sure everyone had enough stuff if we really rack our brains.
Is it just me but today is the first day that I just was thinking I can't wait for 2020 to end. There is only so much reading, music, walking, gardening and cooking one can do. Its feeling never ending now and I know things will slowly get better but it's going to be awhile until we get something to stimulate the mind and soul. I realise alot of people are worse off than me and have the added pain of grieving a loved one and not being able to really celebrate a deceased life. This really is not fun.
I just have the uneasy feeling that there's no way out of this in terms of a "safe" option - unless the Chinese secretly do have a vaccine to the virus they (in all likelihood) made the chances of creating one for not only one strain but all 4-30 of them (depends on who you ask and how variant they are) seems slim.
More likely seems the prospect of effectively having to live the rest of your life with an invisible gun pointed at your head not knowing if one day you'll get "it". Pretty grim stuff and I think there are bigger repercussions to come on the world stage once the blame game starts and fingers get pointed in one direction only.
I don't know if this will provide any reassurance for you, but I can categorically say that your uneasy feeling is not based on anything close to fact.
RoryRocks wrote: ↑Sun Apr 26, 2020 5:55 pm
Is it just me but today is the first day that I just was thinking I can't wait for 2020 to end. There is only so much reading, music, walking, gardening and cooking one can do. Its feeling never ending now and I know things will slowly get better but it's going to be awhile until we get something to stimulate the mind and soul. I realise alot of people are worse off than me and have the added pain of grieving a loved one and not being able to really celebrate a deceased life. This really is not fun.
Rory a large portion of the country feel like you mate. I'm one for sure.
But having a couple of mates who've had relatives pass away through this, I'd say it's a darn sight better than the alternative.
It'll slowly get better for a few months then we'll get a second wave sometime in the winter and we'll probably have another 6 weeks of lockdown which will be similar to this one.
I reckon we won't get fully back to normal till this time next year but by then we'll have had a income tax raise and VAT having gone up to pay for all the people being furloughed.
RoryRocks wrote: ↑Sun Apr 26, 2020 5:55 pm
Is it just me but today is the first day that I just was thinking I can't wait for 2020 to end. There is only so much reading, music, walking, gardening and cooking one can do. Its feeling never ending now and I know things will slowly get better but it's going to be awhile until we get something to stimulate the mind and soul. I realise alot of people are worse off than me and have the added pain of grieving a loved one and not being able to really celebrate a deceased life. This really is not fun.
Rory a large portion of the country feel like you mate. I'm one for sure.
But having a couple of mates who've had relatives pass away through this, I'd say it's a darn sight better than the alternative.
It'll slowly get better for a few months then we'll get a second wave sometime in the winter and we'll probably have another 6 weeks of lockdown which will be similar to this one.
I reckon we won't get fully back to normal till this time next year but by then we'll have had a income tax raise and VAT having gone up to pay for all the people being furloughed.
How the financial impact of this is dealt with is purely a political decision, of course it's going to be used as an excuse to make every cut to public services possible and hold wages and benefits down. Quite likely to be the end of the triple lock guarantee on pensions too. We'll be told again, just like last time, that there is no alternative and we're all in it together. I fear the people that recognise that's a lie on both counts will remain the minority.
That aside, I'm actually feeling quite positive about a return to some kind of normality before too long. The number of cases I've seen where people have been in close contact with others immediately before they show symptoms but not gone on to pass it on gives me quite a bit of reassurance. Working with people who have tested positive and using some basic precautions has also so far prevented the spread, I still worry that there will be a full on outbreak in one of our services but we've shown that it's certainly not inevitable. Although it was a long time ago and I've forgotten most of what I ever knew, I studied Biochemistry and recall enough to be able to make sense of and evaluate the usefulness of the studies behind some of the scare stories. Despite all the talks of the number of strains (you need no more than a glance at wikipedia to understand why this isn't relevant) the evidence is that it is a pretty stable virus. It's a coronavirus which means that it will almost certainly act in a similar way to other coronaviruses we understand well, the worries about being able to catch it multiple times are almost certainly being overplayed - there isn't conclusive evidence of this but it is certainly more likely than not that catching it once will give at least some immunity for most people. There will almost certainly be a vaccine found, and with the effort going into it although I wouldn't make a guess on when, it's not going to be years away.
We may have to live with it but it doesn't have to be living in fear of it if we make sensible adaptions to our lives. Number one for me would be for everyone to be taking their temperature several times a day and isolating if it's high, everyone entering a work place or school should also have a temperature check. I admit it's not conclusive but it doesn't seem that infectious before symptoms arise, and even if it was, getting people isolated as soon as possible would still make a big difference. Personally there's no way I'm handing over my information voluntarily for any contact tracing, given the track record of those in and close to government I think it's entirely reasonable to have no trust they'll only use it for that purpose, but I hope we can get to a stage where we are dealing quickly with local outbreaks.
Spent 45 minutes queuing in the cold outside the Chemist. Keeping a safe distance. Chemist failed to deliver my barrow load of medications. I swallowed my last statin on Monday night. Was getting dangerously low on the ones that are more important. Got an assurance all will be delivered next month. I am not holding my breath ( probably be fatal! )
gshaw wrote: ↑Tue Apr 28, 2020 10:38 pm
I just have the uneasy feeling that there's no way out of this in terms of a "safe" option - unless the Chinese secretly do have a vaccine to the virus they (in all likelihood) made the chances of creating one for not only one strain but all 4-30 of them (depends on who you ask and how variant they are) seems slim.
More likely seems the prospect of effectively having to live the rest of your life with an invisible gun pointed at your head not knowing if one day you'll get "it". Pretty grim stuff and I think there are bigger repercussions to come on the world stage once the blame game starts and fingers get pointed in one direction only.
It's a scary time, especially for younger people who may not have been exposed before to this kind of daily reporting of 100s and 1000s of people dying.
From a purely medical perspective, you can be sure that the best minds in the world are trying to figure out both a vaccine and better ways to treat it. There are reports of progress on both fronts. The more people doctors see in hospital, the better understanding they have of how the virus presents for different people and consequently how best to manage treatment.
You should not worry unduly about getting it - and statistically people are far more likely to die of something else. As has been reported, for most people, especially younger people and the otherwise fit and healthy, it will only be a mild to moderate illness.
gshaw wrote: ↑Tue Apr 28, 2020 10:38 pm
I just have the uneasy feeling that there's no way out of this in terms of a "safe" option - unless the Chinese secretly do have a vaccine to the virus they (in all likelihood) made the chances of creating one for not only one strain but all 4-30 of them (depends on who you ask and how variant they are) seems slim.
More likely seems the prospect of effectively having to live the rest of your life with an invisible gun pointed at your head not knowing if one day you'll get "it". Pretty grim stuff and I think there are bigger repercussions to come on the world stage once the blame game starts and fingers get pointed in one direction only.
It's a scary time, especially for younger people who may not have been exposed before to this kind of daily reporting of 100s and 1000s of people dying.
From a purely medical perspective, you can be sure that the best minds in the world are trying to figure out both a vaccine and better ways to treat it. There are reports of progress on both fronts. The more people doctors see in hospital, the better understanding they have of how the virus presents for different people and consequently how best to manage treatment.
You should not worry unduly about getting it - and statistically people are far more likely to die of something else. As has been reported, for most people, especially younger people and the otherwise fit and healthy, it will only be a mild to moderate illness.
Fox News are telling their viewers this too all from the comfort of their own homes!
When I was a kid in the 1950's, Polio was a similar threat. More difficult to get infected. Basically you have to ingest faecal matter. But people were not so fastidious in those days and you don't have to ingest much viral material to get it. Swimming pools were a hot spot. Often the Highgate Lido would be closed due to an outbreak. Some people were asymptomatic: some only had mild colds, some had slight paralysis, some were paralysed for life and some croaked. Then in 1955 Jonas Salk invented his vaccine, trialled in USA. By the time I was 9 or 10, we were all getting jabs. Too late for a girl my age,a few doors down, she was left with badly withered legs and always on crutches. But we still had the threat of an all out Nuclear War to keep us on our toes.
Can anybody answer this conundrum? We are going into our seventh week of lockdown, yet the infection figures remain
consistently high. I thought that with social distancing, where we were told to keep away from all forms of social contact,
that the infection numbers would drop quite dramatically, but there doesn't seem to be that much of a reduction.
I thought that the infection rates would now be in their hundreds, but there are still thousands of new daily infections.
Can anybody give a coherent answer to this?
No, people in this country are just thick morons who think rules only apply to other people.
My neighbour on one side has had his girlfriend round to stay this weekend. He's had tradesmen in working yesterday and just now the neighbour two doors along just went in for a few minutes.
Neighbours on the other side (in their 50's so not in need of assistance) have their son and daughter in law round to visit most days.
If this is happening all over the country then this is lockdown in name only.
Before someone comments, (in best Michael Caine voice) I AM A NOSY NEIGHBOUR.
Seeing a few people a week is totally different to normal life. Think how many people you are in close proximity to during a typical day, it could well be hundreds.
The lockdown was never going to be perfect but it has worked, the stats show this.
Prestige Worldwide wrote: ↑Sun May 03, 2020 9:44 pm
Seeing a few people a week is totally different to normal life. Think how many people you are in close proximity to during a typical day, it could well be hundreds.
The lockdown was never going to be perfect but it has worked, the stats show this.
Sorry but have to disagree. The neighbour two along lives in a household of 8 people. If by "just popping next door" he picks up the virus, he is selfishly putting the NHS under more pressure. If he thinks it's ok to visit his neighbour then who else is he potentially visiting. And then on a Thursday night his father stands on the kerb banging his saucepan, so that makes it all alright.
You're right and it's gonna drag lockdown on for those who are playing by the rules. I'm gagging to get out on my bike or go for a run in the forest but am resisting taking any chances.
Social Distancing is the best tool at this moment but you need to back it up with a rapid testing programme along with contact tracing and isolation of positive people. Treat every person who takes the test as a positive and already set about tracking and trace all there contacts. That's much easier to do now as the majority of people will have been practicing social distancing, hence less people to contact and trace. They RV rate is below 1 so that basically that means each positive case on average across the community is infecting the equivalent to less than one person. 6 weeks ago that would have been almost 3. So 3 quickly becomes 9, 9 quickly becomes 81 potentially.
I hope that makes sense. My sister is leading a team who have been ramping up in the past few weeks.
Tom Chance wrote: ↑Sun May 03, 2020 10:44 pm
You're right and it's gonna drag lockdown on for those who are playing by the rules. I'm gagging to get out on my bike or go for a run in the forest but am resisting taking any chances.
You are allowed to do that. Do it. It’ll help with the curtain twitching, if nothing else.
