"Currants Bw..."

[Niall_Quinn]

KBO!!!!

(Although he did tend to be pissed by 11 in the morning)

[Niall_Quinn]

If you or any family member has a cough, a temperature or show any signs of being unwell (during the cold and flu season), "You should not go out, even to buy food and essentials."

There it is.

Now what about the government and the scientific community and the retailers and the media urging people not to stock up on supplies? The BBC was laughing at them and equated proper preparation to hoarding loo roll. Absolutely appalling.

Has anyone here not prepared?

[Niall_Quinn]

The inevitable debate has started to rage about whether governments have the right to force people to remain in their homes.

The unequivocal answer is no, they don't. There can be no argument or debate about this in any society that is founded on liberty, or else the society is not founded on liberty. For authoritarian regimes like that in China, sure, it's natural for them to behave in an authoritarian manner. Even Italy and Spain have long established track records of "soft" authoritarianism. Macron's behaviour is unforgivable though. The nation that sent the Statue of Liberty to the United States, locked down under a curfew. As such, Macron now joins the unsavoury ranks of despots such as Stalin, Mao and Hitler. Governors in the United States, the land of the free and the home of the brave, are on the verge of issuing similar despotic decrees.

Here in the UK, thankfully, we seem to have retained at least some degree of perspective and principle. People who get sick have been asked to stay at home for the good of themselves and everyone else. And, if the character of the British people in general holds true, that's very likely what most will do. And so, the overall aim will be achieved without the need to fall back on petty tyranny. I hope it stays that way. I hope if we end up seeing troops on the street they are there to assist rather than dictate.

After all, we know we can't contain this virus. It's here. It's been here for weeks, thanks mainly to the secretive and deeply damaging behaviour of the despicable regime in China. Their lies, their coverup, their blatant disregard for humanity in general (all hallmarks of authoritarianism) are the main driver behind this disease. That and the increasingly discredited experiment of globalism that, not surprisingly, has found its biggest ally in the government in Beijing. Two horrific bedfellows spreading misery and now disease across the globe. The goal here is to defeat this pandemic without having to resort to the behaviour of the globalists and authoritarians. Because if we fail in that second objective, whatever cost we have to pay in a death toll from a virus will be paid again tenfold under the boot of oppression. You can't get a little bit pregnant, just as you can't be a temporary tyrant.

If falls now on the people of France to overthrow their newly self appointed dictator and I wish them luck in doing so, should they choose to. In truth, they have been trying to oust this shit of an excuse for a human being for some time. I hope that doesn't change.

I'll still be going out and about. I'll take sensible precautions in the process and I won't shun my neighbours. Being informed is the best defence. Government hasn't done much of a job of that so far, so common sense is the best guide. If this virus is primarily a threat to the elderly and infirm then those are the people that need to be protected, and helped by those who are younger and more healthy. The government has at least been forthright enough to admit what we already knew, most of us anyway, that it will ultimately be down to us, the people, to ride out and defeat this threat. There's no point winning that particular war if we come out the other side and see a government pointing guns at us and barking instructions. For all their fuck-ups I haven't seen any indication yet from the British government that they intend to be dicks about this. They could be right, they could be wrong, they certainly aren't telling us the whole story, but at least they aren't stomping up and down in jackboots.

It's becoming a Very British crisis and, in the end, I suppose I wouldn't have it any other way.

I do wish they'd shut the fucking schools though, because that's an easy and effective response that doesn't tread on anyone. It's not as if the kids are going to complain.

[Letters]

The schools thing is tricky.
Most kids won’t complain but they won’t complain if you let them stay up all night or let them have as many sweets as they like or feed them chips every day.
Kids are, famously, idiots.

There is sense in closing the schools and many countries have. But we are getting to the time of year when we are getting to the business end of things like GCSEs and A-Levels. Kids will need certain results to progress with their education. Too much disruption now is going to harm them.
This is an issue the BC are having in countries where we have had to shut down operations. People need to do our exams and do them soon because they need the results to show various universities to whom they need to prove they have a certain level of English. Doing it in 6 months isn’t good enough.

I’m sure there are solutions to some of these problems. In Poland they are attempting to carry on lessons remotely. In this day and age that should be technically possible. Not ideal but better than nothing.

[Globalgunner]

Stringer Bell has it.

Ye Gods! Not Heimdall too? Is nothing sacred.

[Niall_Quinn]

The schools thing is tricky.
Most kids won’t complain but they won’t complain if you let them stay up all night or let them have as many sweets as they like or feed them chips every day.
Kids are, famously, idiots.

There is sense in closing the schools and many countries have. But we are getting to the time of year when we are getting to the business end of things like GCSEs and A-Levels. Kids will need certain results to progress with their education. Too much disruption now is going to harm them.
This is an issue the BC are having in countries where we have had to shut down operations. People need to do our exams and do them soon because they need the results to show various universities to whom they need to prove they have a certain level of English. Doing it in 6 months isn’t good enough.

I’m sure there are solutions to some of these problems. In Poland they are attempting to carry on lessons remotely. In this day and age that should be technically possible. Not ideal but better than nothing.

Every kid today probably has at least 12 tech items glued to their face. Phones, laptops, consoles, and there's probably a mountain of kit in the loft too - stuff that is so 2018. It's astonishing the government doesn't already have a plan in place for this. It's almost as if they don't really give a shit. We have war, natural disaster, pandemic, Phil Collins getting the band back together. But all contingencies seem to be focused on saving the economy and letting everyone know who's still in charge. No real practical plans. The Swiss have a survival bunker for almost every family, part of the building code IIRC. At least that's how it used to be when we were all worried about nuclear war. Here, no masks, no gloves, no ventilators, no protective gear for essential service workers, no published plans. I have an old Protect and Survive pamphlet hanging around somewhere, which makes me ultra prepped compared to most, although the wife won't let me take all the doors down and stick bin bags over the window.

It's been a bloody bad show really. And I have no expectation any lessons will be learned or procedures changed after this.

[Niall_Quinn]

Erm... probably best not to mention this...

New TB cases in 2017 - 10 million
TB deaths among HIV-negative people in 2017 - 1.3 million
Lives saved (a euphemism for global cases I guess) - 54 million through effective diagnosis and treatment between 2000 and 2017

Err, em, 10 million cases and 1.3 million dead? Isn't that more than 10%? In many ways, that seems bad. But it just goes on every year.

After this pandemic is sorted, are we going to do something about this shit too?

[Marc Overmars]

Been officially told to work from home as of tomorrow. London is pretty much in lockdown now in all but name. Don’t think it will be long before a blanket ban on bars and restaurants tbh.

Don’t think I’ll achieve anything being at home. The wife will probably be happy as she’s on mat leave, so she can go stretch her legs while I look after the screaming baby. FFS.

[Niall_Quinn]

TB kills 4000 people each day, and 1.5 million people each year. TB is the leading killer of people living with HIV/AIDS. An estimated 10 million people developed TB in 2018, and nearly half a million people developed drug-resistant TB (DR-TB).

China has a large burden of TB. In 2018, an estimated 866,000 people fell ill with TB in China, and 40,000 deaths were reported. As of mid-March, China has reported over 80,000 cases of COVID-19, with over 3000 deaths.

The global COVID-19 response will likely result in diversion of healthcare workforce and resources away from routine TB services, or reduction in the number of health workers because of illness and self-isolation. TB wards could become COVID wards.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/madhuka.../#5caf95ee295c

[Letters]

Now the church has shut down all meetings!
Wow.
This really is the end of days!