Coronovirus message from Italy

And to top it all off there will be doubtless vast reams of important documents doing the rounds of the EU 27 that Britain is no longer privy to.

Do y’all have to be so hostile to the OP?

I agree - no need to be nasty.

I think one thing that we can all agree on is that governments - and that certainly includes the shambles that is ours - have been incredibly short-sighted in cutting health services to the bone the way they have.

There should have been investment in the NHS, not repeated pruning - we haven't had a strong enough facility to cope with even the usual daily need for a long time now, let alone any slack for emergencies, The WHO has been warning for decades that we are long overdue for an epidemic - the govt should be ready for this, at least to some degree.

Of course politicians and their families will have private health care; why should they worry?

People need to wake up. This is serious. Italy is suffering and their health system is at breaking point. They have far more hospital beds per 1000 people than the UK. We all know the NHS is already under immense pressure and understaffed. We are two weeks behind Italy. I hope our gov finally acts in a bid to prevent this getting out of control. So far the only clear advice has been ‘wash your hands’, whilst countries with far fewer cases (e.g. Denmark, Czech Republic) are closing schools, encouraging wfh, banning large events. Am hoping for strong measures today.

The problem is the British government is not communicating frankly and with detail with the population. It’s all very well saying “we’re monitoring things” and “let’s sit tight and what and see” when your children attend a small private school that gets disinfected each evening and your salary means that you private healthcare options available to you if required. And important government members and their families can always get a chartered flight out of the country entirely if the shit really starts hitting the fan. Some proper information would be nice regarding what is expected and when, what they plan about doing about it and for how long.

^ and further to what I said above, obviously if the government does not provide the information people need, then obviously others will fill the space - with a mixture of truths, lies, rumor and panic.

"It could happen over here, yes, but may well not."

Why do you think it happened in Italy, but won't happen here? A country with an NHS that is already under pressure, where there is no slack in the system and a lack of intensive care beds, apparently without the ability to test all people reporting symptoms and where 111 has been giving people stupid advice like 'go to A&E'?

The second article linked to by Justaboy was discussed at length yesterday on many of the Covid threads, lots of people gleefully interpreting the potential, possible, worse case scenario 15 measures as already in place and telling us asthmatic children wouldn't be treated.

The second is the press round robin I mentioned above.

Sorry, the first

Scroll down to the Italian video, EXCEPT if you're of a nervous disposition.
www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/taiwan-reins-spread-coronavirus-countries-stumble-200307034353325.html?fbclid=IwAR1rsA_52edsNlY6G5LmUckoyEbzIWQ-RXT9TxFe95TmMpFVL-YqDwSY7bk

The idea that the government at this juncture still does not know whether we in the UK are likely looking at 1000 cases, 10,000, 100,000 or millions, and over what time scale this could occur, is ludicrous. Until they come clean, rumors will continue and panic and distrust will continue to grow.

Interesting how quick we turn on particular nationalities and try to "other" them.
Chinese people.
People from the Far East.
Italian people.
It won't happen here because we are special. For. Fuck's. Sake.

From what we’ve heard from Germany and Ireland in the past couple of days, it seems almost certain that this isn’t going to “blow over” in a matter of weeks or possibly even months.

Is this the Intensive Care video from last week?

I follow Dr John Campbell on YouTube and he said a similar thing yesterday. He says he is getting many emails from Italian nurses and doctors saying that they are inundated and basically having to prioritise who dies and who lives, I’m so scared for my family and in particular my elderly parents and in-laws. I can not comprehend how horrendous it would be knowing your family members will die because there is not enough medical equipment to save them and that younger, fitter, healthier people will be prioritised. It beggars belief that this can happen in modern, western countries in which their citizens give millions every year in taxes. This is all about money and the survival of the fittest. We mean nothing in the eyes of governments.

Of course politicians and their families will have private health care; why should they worry?

No one is angrier than me about the govts criminal negligence in dealing with those returning from worse affected areas. I am horrified by the way they are dealing with it in that and some other ways.

I don't know if the private healthcare thing applies though...even if many do have it, it probably will not cover anything relating to coronavirus. Many private hospitals may be commandeered to be extensions of the nhs. Also as far as I know most don't have as much in the way of ICUs as the NHS. It seems like with the kind of health care needs this illness causes private healthcare won't be much of a fallback. I could be wrong.

It’s all very well saying “we’re monitoring things” and “let’s sit tight and what and see” when your children attend a small private school that gets disinfected each evening and your salary means that you private healthcare options available to you if required.

And it’s all very well saying “close all the schools and everyone stay at home now!” when your children are old enough to entertain themselves while you work from home (or you don’t work anyway so it makes zero difference to you) or you’d be on full sick pay for the duration. Tell that to the single parents of pre-schoolers on zero hours contract or the self employed whose businesses are going under. Tell that to the children whose main meal of the day is usually their free school meal which they would no longer get. There are social consequences to taking these actions and they have to be balanced against the alternatives, even if people find that unpalatable.

Without sounding morbid... until I see videos inside Italian hospitals of all this chaos (which there would be many if it was as bad as they say) I will just stick to the news.

Anything that comes from Facebook or twitter etc is likely fake or at least greatly exaggerated.. people do it get likes and shares... it’s been happening for years.. everyone goes on about this great doctor that does these videos on YouTube.. do you really think he’s doing it out of the goodness of his heart or do you think the financial benefit to so many views and subscribers is getting him to carry on. If he was as good of a doctor as you are all making out I’m sure he would be in a surgery not on YouTube!

There are videos, Emsy. Lots of which have been debunked as fakes, or from 4 years ago, or not in Italy etc.

There is the intensive care video from last week from, iirc, Modena. That one is real.

There was an article in a Norwegian paper from someone who has just got over it yesterday. She said she has felt worse from colds, it has been a bit boring being stuck at home, but she has got all her windows washed, reorganized her drawers and read some books she's been being to read. Funny how her story isn't being translated and sent all over the world....

If it’s true that we are 2 weeks behind Italy and we should see our peak begin in 2 weeks, this means Italy is currently seeing its peak so if we average over the next 10 weeks of 1000 cases a day in Italy they would still only end with up 80000 cases or 0.013% of their population... very similar figures to Hubei actually!

If the Italians were so desperate for Europe to take action they would be letting news cameras into the hospital (while the camera men with in hazmat suits) to prove to everyone that it is happening!

We had 500 fewer cases diagnosed yesterday than Monday and the number of people considered "cured" is rising slightly daily and remains always higher on the curve than deaths.
You can almost hear the sighs of disappointment from the guillotine on some threads

This is rapidly becoming a forum for people with out of control health anxiety.

And I've just seen another doctor's video which has done the FB rounds and nauseum on one of the Snopes style sites - it's not a fake, she is a doctor. She's just also lied about the situation in her own hospital apparently saying there aren't enough of anything. The director of the hospital has confirmed it's not true.

Obviously he might be lying but to what end...

@BookMeOnTheSudExpress so true some people are so desperate for a real life disaster movie or desperate for it to be bad just so they can blame the government... last 2 days in the uk when people had predicted hundreds of new cases and we had only had 50 odd.. instead of saying oh the government may be doing a good job, straight away it was well were clearly not testing enough people haha

What is scary more than the illness is the amount of denial out there. Good luck.