Worried about coronavirus thread 22

[ofwarren]

@usernameishistory is busy and asked me to start a new thread.

Please see post 21 for more information about coronavirus.

[Edited by MNHQ at OP's request]

Petition to consider closing schools- petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300403

A bit worried here: other countries with lower rates are introducing social distancing. In the UK it just seems to be BAU (except the odd disappearance of loo roll).

There's delay in testing with the results taking days to come out. Today's figures are actually yesterday's (at best)

1 confirmed close to me now. They have to start advising people to work from home now surely

Hancock:

"We do not expect numbers to peak in the next fortnight, we expect numbers to continue to rise after that
and the peak would be after a matter of a couple of months, rather than in a matter of a couple weeks.

This is a marathon and not a sprint."

I'm not entirely sure why everyone seems so obsessed with closing schools. Closing schools brings a whole new set of problems for many families in terms of childcare and indeed for many children who may, for example, only be eating at school. Wuhan was placed on complete lockdown and school closure was only part of this.

When Italy had the same number of cases as we do they were all concentrated in a huge cluster around a few towns, so they took the decision to close schools in those areas. We don't have any large clusters so why would those measures work? The numbers of cases are clearly not the whole story - the distribution is also important.

Move along please, there’s nothing to see here...

What will it actually take for the government to do something other than tell us to wash our hands?

Are we still in ‘contain’?

i was just about to quote that Marathon line

I reckon the ban on large gatherings will come next week after Cheltenham is over. Although a lot of people outside the industries involved aren't aware, Cheltenham is a big event (economically) and now it has started, it sort of makes sense to let it finish and ban other gatherings from next week.

That's just my guess anyway.

Purely just out of interest come the summer what figures would you consider to be a successful handling of the situation?

For me if we get under 2k deaths by the summer holidays i think we have to say that the government has done a good job on this one!

They aren't even doing minimal things.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/11/research-finds-huge-impact-of-interventions-on-spread-of-covid-19?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

Study suggests number of cases could have been cut by 66% if China had acted a week earlier.

But let's just keep seeding the UK virus explosion for another week with no actions shall we???

Bristol North MP asks what families do re school and absences if adult is self isolating.

Ofsted will take a more lenient view on attendance figures

MH says at the moment advice can be given on an individual basis but as that grows...
we will make sure there is advice so everyone knows what to do.

No rush Matt. Just tell us when you've decided.

Denmark has announced they are closing schools, universities and daycare facilities- they have a similar number of cases to the UK, but that is obviously many more per capital compared to the UK.

I hope there has been a massive increase of hand washing in parliament, considering the amount of time they have spent scratching their arses lately

Life Care Center of Kirkland begins today’s update, two more residents taken to the hospital (47 at facility). New test results show 5 more positive (26 at facility). Testing of employees continues, no results back for those who have been tested #KOMONews

I don't honestly believe they plan to stop or change anything at all. Just been stated that the local elections will go as normal. They seriously plan to just let massed community spread happen.

It won’t be Boris and Hancock who are worked to the bone putting themselves and their families at risk to treat people with this though will it. If we let the wave hit us the NHS will be overwhelmed and a lot more people will die. Just look at the Italy figures and see how they are getting on. I actually despair and I hope that they see sense and listen to the ‘frontline’ workers. Just proves how little Boris cares about the people in this country.

@emsy86 I will judge performance based on what WHO says and comparisons of mortality rates with similar countries.

I'm quite obsessed with closing schools. I have an 85 year old MIL with COPD and DH is disabled. I work in a primary school. How long will I have to risk the health of my family without risking my job?

I think it is going to be a shitshow in this country and I think it is being handled incompetently.

This photo of Cheltenham 🥺
twitter.com/EP010185/status/1237780068421849088?s=09

It's a photo someone shared on twitter.
I know it gets busy but it shows how tightly packed they are.

Ditto TheBenefits

How long do vulnerable people have to risk their necks in order not to risk their jobs? Although I suppose so long as they make up the 2k the pp is happy with, it doesn't matter, right?

The callousness is shocking.

I don't think they're ever going to step up their action plan stages. I think now, having heard that statement, that they're thinking they can just brazen it out with our vulnerable as collateral damage and tomorrow's cobra will be a stalling announcement to get to next week's cross party talks... Then it'll be oops too late and we're in the peak.

I agree- success will be comparative. It sounds awful to say, but if we have a lower death rate and infection rate compared to other similar countries, that will be a success. If our death rate is higher, that will be a failure.

I'm swinging between the government having no plan, and their plan being actually to just let it spread and see what happens. I totally think that Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson don't think they will be affected, no matter how bad things get.