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We have loads of political threads. We have one for Boris and one for Trump. Can we try to keep politics in general in it's place and leave the CV thread for discussion about the virus and the politics that specifically relate to the virus.
I'm not telling people what to do - more begging really. 🙂
Mods feel free to delete this post.
What amazes me is the White House publish his words verbatim.
Presumably for the public record. And to serve as a valuable lesson for history. Paraphrase it and you’ll get some lost in translation.
You know, I have spent last night and this morning genuinely shocked at how much the news about Boris has shaken me. I really hope he pulls through soon, which is not how I imagined I would respond.
Then I move on to POTUS. And I am so conflicted. I want to be a good person and wish him well. I mean, at this point he doesn't have much impact on global policy so he's not affecting our lives in the UK right now. But he is just adding to the sense of despair about the whole situation. I find myself genuinely thinking it would be better for the American people if he just... went away*. At every turn if he's not doing something stupid and ill-conceived he's furthering his own interests. None of it is sincere or compassionate or smart.
* I don't think I want the demented old guy to actually die or anything. Maybe just sit out the next few months on a ventilator out of the spotlight.
That post featuring Trumps actual words was entirely on topic. Couldn’t be more so.
Those who don't care for BoJo, do you at least care for the office of Prime Minister?
The UK hasn't lost its Prime Minister since 1865.
Western Powers losing their leader to illness rather than assassination or accident is also hugely rare since the end of WW2.
Not good news for a country already in a bit of a mess.
PS - Harold Holt is a good story if you're bored.
PPS - US President must be career second only to suicide bomber; just under 20% mortality rate.
The BBC article on schools is surely just lining us up for the fact that kids will have to go to school in August regardless? I can't see how we can delay the start of a new school year, even assuming we skip the whole summer term.
Her opinion of that professor’s fine theories is that he hasn’t really thought it through.
Not just one professor, SAGE said that's what the evidence suggested as well. Agree it's totally counter intuitive. Of course there's no evidence that closing schools increases spreading either so closing the schools hasn't 'disobeyed' that advice.
Let’s hope they can return then, or sooner Scotroutes, but preparation for distance learning up to Xmas is already being considered at all levels of education. A return to school/college/uni should only follow a change of situation.
‘Regardless’ is a word I hope no one making major decisions is using.
Q Well, you come out here every day — right, sir? — talking about the benefits of hydroxychloroquine.
THE PRESIDENT: I want them to try it. And it may work, and it may not work. But if it doesn’t work, it’s nothing lost by doing it. Nothing.
Trump has lots to gain tho
Trump 'has stake in anti-Malaria drug'
Hydroxychloroquine. Chances are you only heard that word recently. And there's an even higher chance you heard it because it was mentioned by US President Donald Trump.
Trump has been pushing the drug - a known anti-malarial drug - as the treatment for the virus, encouraging patients to take it, saying: "What do you have to lose?"
Perhaps the real question is - what does Trump have to gain? Quite a bit, says a report by the New York Times.
The report suggests that Trump himself has a "small personal financial interest in Sanofi, the French drugmaker that makes Plaquenil, the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine".
The report also suggests that several other pharmaceutical companies also stand to profit - including those with shareholders that have connections to Trump.
but preparation for distance learning up to Xmas is already being considered at all levels of education.
didn't some ol' duffer suggest free high speed broadband for all ?
Trump ‘has stake in anti-Malaria drug’
A stake that's approximately $500.
I can’t see how we can delay the start of a new school year, even assuming we skip the whole summer term.
By September it's likely mass antibody testing will be available which will totally change the world's approach to this.
(Tory leadership battles always remind me of the death of the Skeksi Emperor at the start of the Dark Crystal movie)
Dominic Cummings is the Chamberlain.
You didn’t catch a name for the ITU doc did you?
https://twitter.com/StephenNolan/status/1247463604028399617
'Dr. Al' is all they say.
A stake that’s approximately $500.
Glad you said that. Do you have a source for that? It's the sort of thing that makes a good headline but by going for the killer blow when there isn't one - it's missing the real point.
Trump is basing his response to this crisis on a false hope that an unproven drug is going to save lives, instead of following what the only actual science says. Even if chloroquine is useful, it's clear (from the absence of a significant effect seen in the small trials) that it is not going to make a big difference to mortality numbers. Maybe it helps a few (thousand) people, in which case great. But it's not a panacea. The only real way that we know is to stop the spread is the hygiene, social distancing measures to reduce the amount of transmission - that 'r' value we've all heard about.
It's a misguided approach that is going to cost them thousands of lives, because he's too stupid to know the difference between expert opinion based on actual science, and hyperbole.
Gove self isolating now, truly end of days
Gove self isolating now, truly end of days
Whitehall is right at the centre of CV. All those journos visiting and long hours in close contact between civil servants etc.
Chances are you only heard that word recently.
To be fair to Trump, this has been one of the drugs that quite a few specialists have been looking at with regards to this set of corna-virus. (MERS, Bird flu, swine flu) etc. My work brings me into contact with doctors in in the Far east, Aus and NZ and they're quite familiar with it. So it has been in medical circles for quite some time, (years at least) and I've no doubt that Trump has been briefed by doctors who specialise in these sorts of diseases.
Gove self isolating now, truly end of days
No no no, even him I wish well!
Regardless of profit / efficacy motivators, we need to be wary of hydroxychloroquine side effects before considering global therapeutic vaccination / treatment. They are related to Fluoroquinolones, now largely banned due to thousands of deaths / lifelong adverse effects. As with FQs. HCQ / CQs are also known to cause retinal issues, serious cardio problems and neuropathies. Governments keen to reduce their headline grabbing Covid 19 death tolls may not care much for the side effects of mass treatment if a) the economy gets moving again b) the Covid 19 toll goes down and c) emergency legislation protects medics from legal action. A proper vaccine may take longer and cost lives in the short term but HCQs / CQs should really only be a last resort.
I’ve no doubt that Trump has been briefed by doctors who specialise in these sorts of diseases.
Have a read of the article that was linked earlier in this discussion. Trump is pushing chloroquine because he has been lobbied by Rudy Guiliani (who has declared himself an expert on C-19) and other acquaintances, including a "simple country doctor" who has declared it a wonder treatment based on his local use.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/technology/doctor-zelenko-coronavirus-drugs.html
As usual, Trump is just shooting from the hip based on anecdotes he likes the sound of.
Trump's official medical adviser is cautioning that there is currently an absence of good scientific evidence to support chloroquine as an effective treatment.
LBC reporting the schools report in the same was the BBC. What are journalists playing at?!?
Basically stating that schools don’t need to be closed.
🤦🏻♂️
What a vile specimen he is.
Gove self isolating now, truly end of days
UK Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove is self-isolating at home, because a family member is showing symptoms of coronavirus
@speedstar Ordinarily you’re right, however at the moment we’re trending towards 100% ventilated, and the ones that aren’t are people we’ve extubated.
Measures short of ventilation that we’d ordinarily use on ITU are being done elsewhere.
@ratherbeintobago I was only quoting from the latest ICNARC data. Every ICU will be fighting its own independent battle although there is some thought whether ventilation is actually counterproductive for some patients. I'm not an ICU doctor so this is all second hand information and happy to be corrected.
Paris has banned daytime joggers
My wife (ED ACP) observed to me yesterday that it seemed at her hospital that the vast majority of patients who are started on CPAP end up on ventilators, it just delays the point at which they do so.
She also said that of the Corvid admissions the trust is seeing there is a large percentage who are within the 30-50 age bracket and these are often the ones who are ending up the sickest.
Paris has banned daytime joggers
Saw that. Obvious question; what happens at 1 minute past 7?
She also said that of the Corvid admissions the trust is seeing there is a large percentage who are within the 30-50 age bracket and these are often the ones who are ending up the sickest.
Let’s look at that another way. 30-50 is the highest population bracket and if you are admitted with covid it’s because you’re seriously unwell with it, otherwise you stay at home to recover.
The most effective measure to clear the streets near me would be to ban walking dogs.
Oooh! Edgy.
30-50
Thats also the age where shit lifestyle starts to catch up with you.
He says clutching at straws.
The most effective measure to clear the streets near me would be to ban walking dogs.
How have you come to this conclusion, if dog walking was banned I'd still go for a walk either alone or with my son.
How have you come to this conclusion, if dog walking was banned I’d still go for a walk either alone or with my son.
Because they hate dogs it’s better than their last suggestion of what to do with dogs. Of course it alludes them that there’s more people exercising without a dog then with.
Because they hate dogs
I guess so.
I love dogs. Doesn’t make his statement untrue. The most action outside the home around here, away from work, and away from essential shopping, looks, anecdotally, to be dog walking. While that is allowed (and I think it should be) there will still be a lot going on outside the home.
I love dogs, it's the bellend at the other end of the lead that's the issue. 🙂
I don't mind one dog but taken as a whole we'd be better off without them. They shit all over the place (although this is better than it was back in the 80's when I was a kid and responsible dog owners weren't a thing) and they put something like 8,000 people in hospital per year with bites.
It's also looking like some pets may host the coronavirus so will be interesting to see what happens there.
Our friend's kids have just returned from Argentina.
One of their neighbours told another one they couldn't walk their dog. An argument ensued as to the validity of walking the dog.
The neighbour later shot the dog dead to stop the man walking it .
It’s also looking like some pets may host the coronavirus so will be interesting to see what happens there.
Is it? Well my dog is isolation too so he’s not going to transfer a virus soon.
I don’t mind one dog but taken as a whole we’d be better off without them
Do take turns in walking that one dog?
they put something like 8,000 people in hospital per year with bites.
How many peopleca year do mountainbikes hospitalise?
@rydster, I'm semi rural and see only one or two folk out walking dogs and all are following social distancing practices, so what's the risk there? You are also ignoring the mental health benefits of having a pet, both in normal circumstances and in these exceptional times. I've not seen my kids for weeks. Fortunately, the dogs are company for me living on my own.
Controversially for this forum, I've never seen so many cyclists out and about.
It’s also looking like some pets may host the coronavirus so will be interesting to see what happens there.
Now if you had mentioned cats can host the virus then i would have agreed but you wrongly pointed out that dogs can host the virus, they cannot. The can carry the virus on their coat/fur through contaminated touch which is not hosting.