Coronavirus

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

That seems like an objectively interesting point from Sunetra Gupta, unfortunately extremely inarticulately communicated.

I wasn't trying to say that what Luis de Benito said a month ago (13th August) wasn't accurate then (although whoever he is [a gastro-enterologist apparently https://www.topdoctors.es/doctor/luis-miguel-benito-de-benito] he fairly wore his agenda on his sleeve, especially when he lost the plot towards the end of the now famous interview, advancing that the media hadn't sufficiently communicated the gravity of the situation well enough when the hospitals were initially overrun in March). No; what I was saying is that the interview was absorbed as part of the arsenal of the anti-xyz movement and turned into a generalized anti-xyz argument rather than the description of a specific moment and place of the pandemic's overall evolution that it was. When astgfly posted it about a week ago, for example, it was already an inaccurate reflection of the reality on the ground in Madrid, yet it's still being pushed to support an agenda that empirically it no longer can. In light of that, was it irresponsible for a gastro-enterologist to go on the national news and hint at sweeping conclusions from discreet observations? I'll leave that one up in the air for consideration in good faith.

[astfgyl]

I think I only reposted that video to show somebody who hadn't seen it after a request. I think his general point with the media still stands and the thing I like about it is that it shows the media for the shit stirring bollixes that they really are. So I don't know if he was being irresponsible, as I don't have access to the figures this minute of how hospitalisations ebb and flow during the course of a normal year in Madrid. I doubt the fact he is a gastro-enterologist has much or indeed any bearing on his observation as he can surely be considered as being on the front line by being a doctor in that hospital at all. He certainly has a better handle on it than the two reporters who were insistent on selling panic when at the time, it wasn't the case at all and even still may not be. Saying he is not right now is like pulling up a video of me saying in August that the weather is fantastic and then replaying it in November to show how it doesn't apply now.

I do agree with you about the anti-xyz thing though, and it reflects how I feel about the yellow vest protests. There is too little focus on any one thing in particular and more of a general "we're not happy with everything" idea going with them. I also think that the fact they are seen as anti-mask in particular is detrimental to any point they are making, given that the masks are the least of the issue with how the response has been handled in this country. Anyone who wants should be more than welcome to wear a mask as I see it, and I think the vast majority would likely do it without it being mandatory. I also think all of the stuff about masks being physically harmful is a bit of a stretch of the imagination, but there is a certain mental conditioning at play as much as any risk reduction they might or might not provide.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Some interesting science behind the testing strategies and implications here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02661-2?utm_source=fbk_nnc&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=naturenews&sf237958960=1

[astfgyl]

That is indeed interesting, and could see the end of everyone being presumed infectious. The strange thing about this is that a chap I used to go to school with runs a company who have been making these tests since last March and at the time it was being touted as a game changer and his company had delivered the first 5000 kits to Irish hospitals. Then it seems the health authorities didn't follow up on it, although the company was still shipping them internationally. Looking at his twitter feed there now and there is nothing much about it since a photo of him ready to ship tests back in May. It probably wasn't accepted as being accurate enough at the time, or not available in the numbers needed or something. Cool to see the idea come back into play all the same.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Just found out that on Friday the minister for whatever here in France announced that all crèche workers will have to wear masks all day from now on. Awesome environment for our kids' development! ffs

[astfgyl]

Yeah it figures. Sure no point looking at all the evidence worldwide that the risk of small kids passing it to adults is negligible. Where my kids are in junior infants, the teacher wears the utterly pointless plastic visor so at least they can see the teacher's face and it feels like something resembling normal. Hopefully the teachers in France will follow suit.

[Eoin McLove]

Fed up to utter fuck with it all. There's a peak starting again and they are locking down counties. Talking about trying to get the numbers back down again. Grand. Then what? Open things back up again, let the numbers rise again, have another peak, close down again, repeat ad nauseam? Utter shite.

I know three people died yesterday, which is no joke, but any idea of their age or if they were otherwise ill?

This half existence ain't living.

[Pedrito]

Agreed

[astfgyl]

That's the spirit!

[Eoin McLove]

What's the spirit? I mean, I'm following the ludicrous rules because I can't say I have the answers myself, but it seems like a Groundhog Day scenario.

[astfgyl]

Questioning the logic of it all was what I meant

[Eoin McLove]

I get ya. Yeah,  I mean,  I'm no conspiracy theorist by any stretch and I always instinctively cringe away from those lines of reasoning,  so I'm not a Corona denier.  I just think that in solving one problem we are creating another one.  It's a catch 22 scenario.

[Paul keohane]

Sometime in July i decided to move on with my life,been  to the pub plenty of times,was in Killarney over the August bank holiday,was in Wexford for a few days.Few of us going out for the Liverpool/Chelsea game later in the city.My kids have been in various camps during the summer,i catapulted them  in the door of the school the min it opened.

There was a headline in the Echo the other day 'Covid admission on the rise in Cork hospitals' ,there was 4 people in hospital!

I genuinely feel sorry for the people locked down again,a waste of time imo.I do miss going to gigs and football matches,both a massive part of my life.

As long as someone isnt right up in my face im good, Wash and sanitize and look after your own space,get on with your life,pointless walking around a paranoid mess full of worrie.

[Pedrito]

That's the way I reckon. There will come a time when we're all just going to have to throw caution to the wind unless they find a vaccine.

A line of reasoning that has been thrown around a lot is 'They aren't doing it for no reason' i.e. the politicians. I don't believe the conspiracy stuff, I think we should take precautions, but I also wouldn't underestimate the ability of politicians to embrace anything that keeps them 'looking good' and diverts attention away from very real issues in the economy, health system etc. I have a feeling that if they begin to downplay this and once everyone taked their eyes off the main issue, the consequences, the economy, the reperscussions, are going to blow over them like a tidal wave. Now, is it their fault..probably not. But we all know the way the public reacts, looking for someone to hang. So, there are very real reasons for keeping us all a little edgy and preoccupied, it's not a conspiracy type scenario, but something far more human.

We're just going to have to ride it out over the next few months and see where that takes us.

[astfgyl]

I agree with the last 3 posts.

The grand conspiracy thing doesn't get me going either but the fact remains that while our economy and freedoms are being eroded, a lot of folks in private industries are likely to make a sickening amount of money out of this, so I see it as a pandemic of opportunism as much as an actual pandemic.  Couple that then with the political game which needs to be played out, as Pedrito says and here we are.

I also don't have the answers and still follow all of the rules, but I can't accept that this is the way forward and the evidence against the approach taken is mounting, and so have been getting on with living in the same way Paul Keohane describes there.

Let's not forget that the shutdowns were informed by computer modelling which is being proven to be inaccurate from the real world data, and yet all governments and health advisory task forces are still working on the presumption that this modelling is indeed accurate, completely ignoring the fact that the models assumed that nobody had any immunity to it at all. So the hospitals never did get overrun with the sick and dying as was expected but that made not a blind bit of difference to the methods employed to stop the spread. So we all sit here in this limbo while the Swedes get on with their lives and won't be paying the price for the next decade or so while we of course will be paying through the nose.

So fuck does this ever need to be questioned, as even those who don't know the answer can see that this is not it.