UK Politics: Drawing Priti Patterns

[Werthead]

 

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Pretty scathing letter here by The Doctors' Association.

This matches my last period working in the NHS. Upkeep and maintenance of equipment costs the NHS between $2 billion and $3 billion a year, including ventilators, replacing masks etc. In fiscal year 2016-17 alone, the NHS equipment maintenance budget was slashed by a third. When we asked how we were supposed to keep all the machinery working, they said to prioritise and leave the low-priority stuff later. X-ray machines, ultrasound, MRI etc were top priority, ventilators were in the middle, masks were at the low end because if there was a problem it'd be relatively easy to buy in from abroad.

That worked.

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Eqully, in terms of transmission; it's not so much the social distancing - it's the use of hands. Social distancing is primarily a way to stop anyone coughing / sneezing on you, and to reinforce the "no contact" rules. There is still a risk from normal breathing, but it's pretty miniscule, and about 0.5m, not 2m (quite honestly the risk from a sneeze 5m away is probably greater than the risk of breathing from 0.5m). Social distancing REALLY matters if someone coughs or sneezes though.

Everything I've read has said that physical proximity to someone with the active disease is by far the most dangerous transmission vector, and if they sneeze or cough in your direction, you're probably hosed as the virus can travel up to 30 feet. Normal breathing is definitely a risk (if slight) at 2-3m, that distance seems to have been reached on grounds of practicality.

Surface transmission is certainly dangerous and probably the most common cause of transmission in shared spaces, but it also requires a specific series of events: someone with the virus puts their hand on the surface, the virus is transferred and survives (the surface isn't wiped down or cleaned), someone else puts their hand on the same spot (the virus doesn't migrate much across inorganic surfaces, because it's not a bacteria), and then touches their face in the vicinity of the eye, nose or mouth in the next few minutes, all without washing their hands for 20-30 seconds.

The virus cannot enter the body through skin contact alone or through ingesting it with food (again apart from the initial pangolin incident). That message I think hasn't been made clearer: if you touch a surface with COVID19 on it, you aren't infected and will be fine if you go and wash your hands. It's if you transfer the virus from the surface to your face that the danger becomes greater.

2 hours ago, Heartofice said:

I haven’t been wiping down anything I buy in supermarkets and now I’m freaking out 

I've been washing all of my shopping for the last couple of weeks. Each item, 20 seconds under a hot tap. Makes you feel like an idiot and I'm not sure how effective it is, but not sure what else I can do.

Also removing exterior packaging where possible and leaving all new purchases in storage for as long as possible before touching them (since even on the hardest surfaces, the COVID19 virus dies in under 3 days).

[polishgenius]

On 3/21/2020 at 1:27 PM, Mosi Mynn said:

Call me crazy, but I am impressed by both Rishi Sunak and Matt Hancock.  They come across as genuine and caring people, and are very well spoken.  Shame about Boris, who could not maintain any kind of statesmanlike presence, but at least someone has had the sense to always flank him with experts.

Hancock just got planed by Piers Morgan on This Morning.
 

 

[Heartofice]

Piers Morgan has been a hysterical moron since the crisis has started. 
Owen Jones has been playing party politics since this crisis has started.

I've tried to mute both from my life.

[Werthead]

Everyone has been playing party politics since the situation started, albeit at a reduced level. If you look at the emergency legislation being put forwards today to deal with the panic, it's clear that Johnson has leveraged the current situation to do things that will also benefit his post-Brexit plans (for example, being able to ban assemblies up to 18 months post Brexit date is very convenient when he's confident we can turn the virus around in 12 weeks).

[Heartofice]

20 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Everyone has been playing party politics since the situation started, albeit at a reduced level. If you look at the emergency legislation being put forwards today to deal with the panic, it's clear that Johnson has leveraged the current situation to do things that will also benefit his post-Brexit plans (for example, being able to ban assemblies up to 18 months post Brexit date is very convenient when he's confident we can turn the virus around in 12 weeks).

Yeah of course that’s why. Johnson of course is some authoritarian dictator.

[A wilding]

Johnson has certainly consistently tried to give himself overboard and uncontrolled powers at every opportunity ...

On the surfaces thing, we have tried, as far as possible, to quarantine all objects coming into or house for a day or so. Snail mail, for example, is a conceivable vector as well as groceries.

[Heartofice]

10 minutes ago, A wilding said:

Johnson has certainly consistently tried to give himself overboard and uncontrolled powers at every opportunity ...

On the surfaces thing, we have tried, as far as possible, to quarantine all objects coming into or house for a day or so. Snail mail, for example, is a conceivable vector as well as groceries.

Umm..  no. That’s just not true.

If this whole crisis has shown anything it’s that Johnson doesn’t believe in an all powerful state that tells people what to do, he is a bigger believer in letting people do what they want.

[Mosi Mynn]

27 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Umm..  no. That’s just not true.

If this whole crisis has shown anything it’s that Johnson doesn’t believe in an all powerful state that tells people what to do, he is a bigger believer in letting people do what they want.

Exactly.

He is desperate to believe in the "Spirit of the Blitz" and the good sense of the British people.  He wants to advise rather than tell the public what to do.

[Werthead]

54 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Yeah of course that’s why. Johnson of course is some authoritarian dictator.

No, Johnson is not enough of a pre-planner to be an authoritarian dictator. He is, however, smart enough to twist the situation to his immediate advantage.

The economic downturn as a result of C19 is in some ways very convenient for the government, as they can hide all Brexit-related economic issues under the banner of, "Well, that was down to the pandemic, what can you do?" In fact, it may encourage them to go further in a hardline stance then they would have otherwise countenanced.
 

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He is desperate to believe in the "Spirit of the Blitz" and the good sense of the British people.  He wants to advise rather than tell the public what to do.

 

Tremendous comfort to the thousands more people who will die as a result of his bungling so far.

[Heartofice]

17 minutes ago, Mosi Mynn said:

Exactly.

He is desperate to believe in the "Spirit of the Blitz" and the good sense of the British people.  He wants to advise rather than tell the public what to do.

You could say he was naive to think this but it shows the sort of position he takes on these things 

The same people who criticise him as being some dictator are now criticising him for not being dictatorial enough, I think that is pretty illustrative of what’s going on here. 
 

I wouldn’t be surprised in one or two posters on here actually believe the whole virus is a conspiracy to distract from Brexit 

[Mosi Mynn]

4 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Tremendous comfort to the thousands more people who will die as a result of his bungling so far.

The only vaguely comforting thing about Johnson being in charge is that at least he's not Trump!

[A wilding]

Nobody has said that Johnson wants to be a dictator. Strawman.

Nobody has accused Johnson of not being dictatorial enough - only of acting too slowly. Strawman again.

However his attempt to keep these extra coronavirus powers for two years without any safety mechanism at all to reign him in is unprecedented. Even in war time such powers have always had frequent renewal clauses. The only previous instances of anything like it were his illegal prorogation of Parliament, and his attempt to ram his dodgy Brexit bill into law without giving anyone a chance to look at the small print that again gave him extraordinary unchecked powers. I call that a pattern. Though I am happy to ascribe it to Cummings rather than Johnson if you prefer.

[Heartofice]

34 minutes ago, A wilding said:

Nobody has said that Johnson wants to be a dictator. Strawman.

Nobody has accused Johnson of not being dictatorial enough - only of acting too slowly. Strawman again.

However his attempt to keep these extra coronavirus powers for two years without any safety mechanism at all to reign him in is unprecedented. Even in war time such powers have always had frequent renewal clauses. The only previous instances of anything like it were his illegal prorogation of Parliament, and his attempt to ram his dodgy Brexit bill into law without giving anyone a chance to look at the small print that again gave him extraordinary unchecked powers. I call that a pattern. Though I am happy to ascribe it to Cummings rather than Johnson if you prefer.

I was making a general point about those in the media, but yeah I could point to "Johnson has certainly consistently tried to give himself overboard and uncontrolled powers at every opportunity ..." and wonder what the hell else you were implying, other than he's looking to turn into the next Orban. Which is total nonsense clearly if you'd been paying attention.

[Tywin Manderly]

Alex Salmond acquitted of all charges in sexual assault trial .

 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

6 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Piers Morgan has been a complete moron all his life. 

Fixed that for you.

[Maltaran]

45 minutes ago, Tywin Manderly said:

Alex Salmond acquitted of all charges in sexual assault trial .

 

Although one of them was not proven rather than not guilty - which I realise makes no difference legally but is always interesting to see.

[BigFatCoward]

I cant wait to see how we enforce those rules. They leave a lot of wiggle room for the determined fuckwit. 

[Werthead]

I'm reading this as the United Kingdom in a Spain/Italy-style lockdown, effective immediately with full police enforcement. All remaining non-essential businesses ordered to shut immediately. 

The most extraordinary step taking by any sitting British government since 1939. That also puts us two days ahead of the curve where Italy was at the same time, I believe, which may help a bit with the final total (Italy also noting two days in a row where the daily death count has fallen instead of risen, which they are being ultra, ultra cautious about).

[Werthead]

Just now, Leap said:

Well, looks like I'll still be able to get my run in. From the two minutes I could stomach watching, BoJo seemed fairly emphatic, which is higher than my admittedly subterranean standards would have predicted in this scenario.

If you'd told me this time last year that I'd be watching a national announcement by PM Boris about the need to take measures unheard of since the Blitz to protect society from a pandemic...well I'd have been surprised to say the least. Very surreal right now. 

I appreciate the addition of a desk to add a little bit of seriousness to the situation, but I've got to say the Yanks have got one over on us here. Oval Office, "My Fellow Americans" and all that - wonder if we can get the Queen out to maybe get people to listen?

I remember Tony Blair addressing the nation regarding the start of the Iraq War in extreme close-up from what looked like a random front room. I always thought that was weird.

[williamjm]

Earlier today I noticed that workmen had started working on resurfacing some of the local paths. Most of the time I'd be in favour of that, but it's baffling that they decided now was an appropriate time to have a dozen people working together on that.