To be worried about Coronavirus part 5

[idontusuallypanic]

Parents here are very upset about kids from Milan being at school today.

Italy has been having problems with running out of test kits. There was a local official who was talking about it the other day in an Italian TV interview.

Finding this thread very interesting. Without ploughing back through all the pages, what kind of masks are the best and can they still be gotten?

it was the same with Brexit people stockpiled food for that, what on earth was the point!!

I also appreciate the updates. They're much faster than other news sources.

If people feel that they're unnecessary, or if it makes them too anxious, then they have the option to hide the thread.

I'm just back from doing my weekly shop at Tesco. No paracetamol or ibuprofen tablets left (generics) - plenty of expensive ones on the shelves. I guess this is either because lots of people are stocking up, or the generics come from China so supply has dried up.

No antibac hand gel to be had. I bought a few extra tins, some meat for the freezer and a big bag of pasta. Like others have said, it won't go to waste. I had the flu last year and had to cope alone with 2 kids. They lived on my always-present stash of baked beans, tinned soup and frozen veg (and school dinners). I was very glad I had plenty in the cupboards as I was laid up for 2 weeks and no way could I face going to the shops.

it was the same with Brexit people stockpiled food for that, what on earth was the point!!

I'll be doing the same at the end of the transition period if it looks like we're going to have no deal!

it was the same with Brexit people stockpiled food for that, what on earth was the point!!

Well now they've got a lively stick pike for covid-19! Are you jealous of the stock piles, Kat? Is that it? 😆

Lively stick pike-= lovely stock pile 🤦🏻‍♀️

Finding this thread very interesting. Without ploughing back through all the pages, what kind of masks are the best and can they still be gotten?

FFP3, and not widely available but you might be lucky if you hunt around

@AlexaShutUp

Me too!!! Boris/Gove and their June deadline isn't filling my outlook with optimistism.

I ordered my masks from wickes online. They took 3 days to come.

Thank you!

Does anyone know if there are plans to cancel Crufts ? I am supposed to be going and I am having doubts .

@Kat2345 ODFOD

www.straitstimes.com/singapore/coronavirus-hotels-closing-floors-shortening-service-hours-sending-staff-on-leave-to-cope
Coronavirus: Hotels closing floors, shortening service hours, sending staff on leave to cope with lull

SINGAPORE - Hotels are moving fast to tackle the downturn with one mothballing some floors to save on electricity and manpower while another has told staff to use two-thirds of their annual leave by the end of May due to the lack of guests.

Other cost-cutting measures are being deployed as well, including reducing restaurant opening hours and shortening times for services such as in-room dining.

With occupancy plummeting from almost 100 per cent to roughly 30 to 60 per cent in the past two months, cost-cutting has become essential.

Also think about the supply chain to hotels etc in this too. Who supplies food etc.

And what does that do to jobs?

Job losses have to be an inevitability as does some bankruptcies and problems paying housing bills and other bills.

Some real hardship on the cards here.

It's liable to spread because these consequences are already in the system and are their own economic contagion.

None of this is good news.

California's latest patient with coronavirus was admitted to hospital on February 19 but was not tested for days because of CDC's narrow testing criteria, officials say - NYT

Does anyone know if there are plans to cancel Crufts ?

Not presently.

I saw something in the last two days saying it was still going ahead as planned.

However the situation is fluid at the moment so it's possible that will change.

Atm I think most scheduled this week and weekend will still go ahead. Beyond that into next week I think we might start seeing some cancellations.

Depends on what transpires in the next couple of days.

The health secretary has said staff self-isolating because of the new coronavirus should get sick pay. t.co/WxcTLmkmSv

St Peter's High School in Gloucester sends visiting Italian students home The students were visiting the Gloucestershire school from northern Italy which is at the centre of coronavirus outbreak t.co/MJVKLezfxk t.co/AyCxgHvSYb

Threads like this just reinforce a view I have that explains why "anxiety" is such a modern scourge.

THe human psyche has to have something to worry about in terms of our survival.

In the past it was woolly mammoths eatings us (semi jokingly)

Over the ages there have been periods of things to worry about.

In the modern world, there actually very few things that threaten our day to day survival. So we invent things to get anxious and worry about.

it was the same with Brexit people stockpiled food for that, what on earth was the point!!

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory

The black swan theory or theory of black swan events is a metaphor that describes an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalized after the fact with the benefit of hindsight. The term is based on an ancient saying that presumed black swans did not exist – a saying that became reinterpreted to teach a different lesson after black swans were discovered in the wild.

The theory was developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to explain:

The disproportionate role of high-profile, hard-to-predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance, and technology.

The non-computability of the probability of the consequential rare events using scientific methods (owing to the very nature of small probabilities).

The psychological biases that blind people, both individually and collectively, to uncertainty and to a rare event's massive role in historical affairs.

Unlike the earlier and broader "black swan problem" in philosophy (i.e. the problem of induction), Taleb's "black swan theory" refers only to unexpected events of large magnitude and consequence and their dominant role in history. Such events, considered extreme outliers, collectively play vastly larger roles than regular occurrences.:xxi More technically, in the scientific monograph "Silent Risk", Taleb mathematically defines the black swan problem as "stemming from the use of degenerate metaprobability"

There is a whole industry in trying to predict, avoid and mitigate the possible effects of a black Swan.

Investment banking and insurance try to calculate these as its how they make money and avoid large losses.

So as to 'what's the point?'

Why do you have life insurance?
Why do you have health insurance (also applies to NI payments in UK)?
Why do you have car insurance?
Why do you have a pension and get someone else to invest your money?
Why do you have car insurance?
Why do you have home insurance?

All completely pointless if you never need them.

Woolly Mammoths were herbivores.

The health secretary has said staff self-isolating because of the new coronavirus should get sick pay

Full pay or statutory sick pay?

Statutory sick pay won't cover the average person's normal outgoings.

Finally caught up.

More worried about people "recovering" and then testing positive again than other stuff. All articles report the people have no symptoms which is good in itself and their contacts were neagative on nuclei acid tests. It's an odd one. Maybe it stays in your system for some time.

What does worry me though is an endless reinfection cycle. You recover then keep catching it. There is some evidence with ADE that initial infections can open a pathway for a second more serious/fatal infection. In which case, it's pretty doomsday for all of us. Though someone who understands the science needs to explain this better.

I currently feel an immense sense of sadness. So many people are dead already, so many more will suffer and die. I know it's just evolution but it's hard - we've evolved to become emotional creatures to live in a world where we can expect to live to old age, where we do expect babies to live beyonfd infancy.

You know I would feel far happier if the China situation looked genuinely under control, if it looked like numbers were generally falling and we didn't get snippets like yesterday stating that numbers in some provinces may be 52X higher than stated and if we saw some people in China return to life as normal, and for the infection rate not to skyrocket again.

NHS advice of who should contact 111.

Symptoms of coronavirus

The symptoms of coronavirus are:

a cough
a high temperature
shortness of breath
But these symptoms do not necessarily mean you have the illness.

The symptoms are similar to other illnesses that are much more common, such as cold and flu.

Urgent advice:

Call 111 now if you've been:

to Hubei province in China in the last 14 day
to Iran, areas of northern Italy in lockdown or "special care zone" areas in South Korea since 19 February

to other parts of mainland China or South Korea, Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau in the last 14 days and have a cough, high temperature or shortness of breath

to other parts of northern Italy (anywhere north of Pisa, Florence and Rimini), Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos or Myanmar since 19 February and have a cough, high temperature or shortness of breath
in close contact with someone with confirmed coronavirus

Do not go to a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital. Call 111, stay indoors and avoid close contact with other people.