UK: Over-70s - and younger people with certain health conditions - will be told they must remain at home and have groceries and vital medication delivered.
Are they stark raving mad???
And they are trying to discourage panic buying!!!
I hope to heaven France stays sane and doesn’t do anything so daft.
I have a mental image of headless chickens!
En France tous responsables
En Angleterre no one gives a shit - its every man for himself and fuck you if you get in their way.
Personally during this crisis I feel much safer tucked up in our modest bungalow in the Charente.
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washed in chlorine á la États Unis - orange variety of course.
No Show BloJo must be spitting feathers after being told the UK will be treated the same as Euro27 over US travel restrictions…
But when it’s all over, we may find that Covid 19 is more effective in saving the environment than anything we have done so far. . . .
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Be told or asked as there’s a difference?
asked according to Sky News:
If compulsory my hubby won’t be allowed to work, so no income, no where to live and he won’t be allowed to come home either. Also there are a lot of lonely aged people already, how are they going to cope if they have to isolate themselves for weeks or months.
Not sure how they can make it compulsory Ann. Can you imagine riot police standing at the entrance to Waitrose and carting everyone off who can’t produce a birth certificate to incarcerate them on the Isle of Wight!
What angers me is the fear that all this engenders. If we are to keep our immune systems strong the last thing we need is to be afraid.
France, Edouard Philippe -
“You have all been very naughty and will be kept in after school and severely punished!”
UK, Matt Hancock -
“Would you mind awfully, just staying indoors while we try to sort something out? Thank you all very much.”
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Not remotely what was said.
“Nous avons vu trop de gens dans les cafés et les restaurants. Pour quelques semaines, ce n’est pas ce que nous devons faire” a exhorté le Premier ministre Édouard Philippe samedi. “Je le dis avec gravité nous devons tous ensemble montrer plus de discipline dans l’application de ces mesures” .
It was a flippant innterpretation. Hancock’s words were treated similarly. Sorry if you found that offensive.
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I think what Hancock was actually saying is that by following this uniquely British herd immunity strategy you seventy and above year olds are going to die. So please do it a home and don’t clutter up the hospitals. Meanwhile just to ensure you do get infected we will keep schools, bars, etc open.
Even Hunt thinks this strategy is madness.
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From Professor Ian Donald
University of Liverpool 's Institute of Population Health Sciences,
A UK starting assumption is that a high number of the population will inevitably get infected whatever is done – up to 80%. As you can’t stop it, so it is best to manage it.
There are limited health resources so the aim is to manage the flow of the seriously ill to these.
The Italian model aims to stop infection. The UK’s wants infection but of particular categories of people.
The aim of the UK is to have as many lower risk people infected as possible. Immune people cannot infect others; the more there are the lower the risk of infection. That’s herd immunity.
Based on this idea, at the moment the government wants people to get infected, up until hospitals begin to reach capacity. At that they want to reduce, but not stop infection rate.
Ideally they balance it so the numbers entering hospital equal the number leaving. That balance is the big risk. All the time people are being treated, other mildly ill people are recovering and the population grows a higher percent of immune people who can’t infect. They can also return to work and keep things going normally - and go to the pubs.
The risk is being able to accurately manage infection flow relative to health case resources. Data on infection rates needs to be accurate, the measures they introduce need to work and at the time they want them to and to the degree they want, or the system is overwhelmed.
Schools: Kids generally won’t get very ill, so the government can use them as a tool to infect others when you want to increase infection. When you need to slow infection, that tap can be turned off – at that point they close the schools. Politically risky for them to say this.
The same for large scale events - stop them when you want to slow infection rates; turn another tap off. This means schools etc are closed for a shorter period and disruption generally is therefore for a shorter period, AND with a growing immune population. This is sustainable.
After a while most of the population is immune, the seriously ill have all received treatment and the country is resistant. The more vulnerable are then less at risk. This is the end state the government is aiming for and could achieve.
Personal note: On a radio podcast recently a ‘talking-head’ asked “Why is the British approach different to other countries? Are we better at this?”
The answer is YES. The British epidemiological scientific community is very, very good at this stuff. 'Nuff said.
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Are we absolutely sure that reinfection is not possible, as with flu and colds? I have seen articles that question this. And if reinfection is possible, surely the whole theory falls down.
@anon27586881 [quote=“Anna, post:16, topic:29283, full:true”]
Are we absolutely sure that reinfection is not possible, as with flu and colds? I have seen articles that question this. And if reinfection is possible, surely the whole theory falls down.
[/quote]
Except that even with colds and flu we do build up some immunity. When friends had young children and the kids first started at school the whole family would be getting 4-6 colds every winter. Now, most of us at best get one or two, even with contact with grand-children. Flu? Maybe once every ten years or so, maximum.
Plus - and I wish there was more talk of this, we can keep our immune systems strong, but sadly there’s no money to be made in telling people to get good nutrition and sleep well and come off social media to reduce the anxiety.
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Immunity yes but then the vrius mutates. There seems to be a new strain of flu every year.
Yes, as Matt Frei said on Channel Four, the English (I’m not sure Scotland s following the same strategy) population are being used as guinea pigs.
@John_Scully [quote=“John_Scully, post:19, topic:29283, full:true”]
Yes, as Matt Frei said on Channel Four, the English (I’m not sure Scotland s following the same strategy) population are being used as guinea pigs.
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And elsewhere they aren’t?
Yes Sue, I guess it is uncharted and frightening territory alright, but the UK strategy is out of line with every other EU country and contrary to the WHO advice. Personally I’ll listen to the WHO before Bojo or the fawning idiot Hancock.
I’m in Ireland (probably stuck here) at the moment and everyone is battening down the hatches big time. Italy has been a massive wake up call. One of the biggest infection risks here is that idiots in the North (as in the UK) still have schools and pubs open!
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