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I wonder if Boris wishes he'd left Theresa May to it a bit longer...

51 replies

pawsies · 16/03/2020 01:11

What do we think?

What would she have done so far? Or would it be no different?

OP posts:
borntobequiet · 16/03/2020 08:07

Here's a genuine expert, Prof Anthony Costello. Govt strategy not a strategy and he can't see how the current regime of testing can delay the impact of the virus - may accelerate it.

07:20 ish Today programme

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_fourfm

borntobequiet · 16/03/2020 08:11

That's just a list of people using their job titles for their own agenda
Not what our PM, his cabinet, cronies and hangers- on are doing at all, at all.

borntobequiet · 16/03/2020 08:14

People have to get sick for us to build immunity and be able to fight the illness. It's the same as chicken pox as a kid.
Except that we vaccinate against chicken pox, we don't just let it spread through the population like wildfire.
I refer you to the link I posted to the Today programme, where Anthony Costello makes that point very clearly.

GiveHerHellFromUs · 16/03/2020 08:16

@borntobequiet they're taking expert advice. He hasn't gone "well I'm the prime minister so I know everything". He's said "this is what experts in the field have advised me to do".

For all we know that link is the same as a load of Art teachers signing a petition on how an English department should be run.

longwayoff · 16/03/2020 09:01

I believe that Mr Cummings is a bit of a eugenics fan and, if that's so, this is an ideal situation in which to test his preferred experts. I trust scientific experts who have petri dishes and test tubes; behaviorists with clipboard and algorithms? Not really.

TooGood2BeTrue · 16/03/2020 09:26

Eugenics or even: euthanasia.

CoffeeHere · 16/03/2020 09:27

I'd feel a lot.more comfortable with her at the helm.

borntobequiet · 16/03/2020 09:55

Really not like a bunch of teachers giving ideas on how to run a department in a school:
By putting in place social distancing measures now, the growth can be slowed down dramatically, and thousands of lives can be spared. We consider the social distancing measures taken as of today as insucient, and we believe that additional and more restrictive measures should be taken immediately, as it is already happening in other countries across the world.
The first few signatories (out of more than 400)

  1. Steven H. Strogatz, Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics, Cornell University
  2. Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Robert Gray Dodge Professor of Network Science, Northeastern University, USA;
Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School
  1. Shlomo Havlin, Professor of Physics, Bar-Ilan University, Israel
  2. Yamir Moreno, Director of the Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems, Zaragozza;
President of the Network Science Society; Past-President of the Complex Systems Society;
  1. Guido Caldarelli, London Institute of Mathematical Science; Full Professor of Theoretical Physics at IMT
School for Advanced Studies Lucca; President of the Complex Systems Society
  1. Alain Barrat, Research Director, Centre de Physique Theorique, Marseille, and Turing Center for Living
Systems, Marseille, France
  1. Reka Albert, Distinguished Professor of Physics and Biology, Pennsylvania State University
  2. Mason A. Porter, Professor in Mathematics, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
  3. Danielle S. Bassett, J Peter Skirkanich Professor, University of Pennsylvania, USA
10. Raissa M. D'Souza, Professor, Universityof California Davis; External Professor, Santa Fe Institute; Editor, Physical Review Research
KenDodd · 16/03/2020 10:02

I expect he's not finding it as much fun as he thought.

Maybe we should all just believe in Britain a bit more, then we wouldn't get it.

longwayoff · 16/03/2020 10:15

Physics and Maths. Any medics in that list?

borntobequiet · 16/03/2020 11:00

These are people who model epidemics. Plenty of expertise across all disciplines. You could have a proper look at the list.

borntobequiet · 16/03/2020 11:04

Though this is my favourite
Senior Lecturer in Disordered Systems
Very apposite...

PicsInRed · 16/03/2020 11:11

Nah, this is his moment.

I can just see him in No.10, shaking his head back and forwards to really get the jowls flapping.

"We will faight it in the cafes, we will faight it in the shopping malls, weeeee will nevaahhh suhrrrendahhhh" wooble wooble wooble.

PicsInRed · 16/03/2020 11:15

Physics and Maths. Any medics in that list?

Precisely. You would also need input from epidemiology, sociology and psychologists/psychiatrists as well as economists (re: stalled economy = no food/water/gas = death).

The maths may not lie, but human behaviour is what predicts the outcome of any given solution.

Clavinova · 16/03/2020 11:18

The first few signatories (out of more than 400)

Relatively few British signatories on that list.

Plenty of expertise across all disciplines.

I counted approximately 90 PhD students (in their early/mid 20s) when the list was much shorter yesterday.

daisychain01 · 16/03/2020 11:22

Theresa May would have struggled because she is herself high risk, in terms of age and being a diabetic.

borntobequiet · 16/03/2020 11:36

Relatively few British signatories on that list.

They work in the UK. In what way would an all-British list be more convincing when dealing with a worldwide pandemic? I've yet to hear that British science is diverging from that in the rest of the world.

Clavinova · 16/03/2020 11:39

I just wondered why relatively few British scientists had signed - were they asked, did they decline?

borntobequiet · 16/03/2020 11:45

I fail to see how a scientist's relative youth is relevant, but James Watson was 25 when he codiscovered the structure of DNA. Francis Crick was older (37) but I believe had never submitted his PhD thesis.

borntobequiet · 16/03/2020 11:51

I'm interested in the implication that people with foreign sounding names aren't British. I have taught many British people with names like this.
There's a further, worrying implication that in some way these foreigners are conspiring to undermine policy. Is that your intention?

Clavinova · 16/03/2020 12:15

Why a conspiracy?

I can see from your link that the email address used to send the list is for Dr Vincenzo Nicosia at Queen Mary/London.

From his LinkedIn profile:

Contract Professor of Computer Science at Physics Department
University of Catania
Nov 2009 – Dec 2011·2 years 2 months
Dipartimento di Fisica - Universita' di Catania
Research Assistant
Dipartimento di Fisica - Universita' di Catania
Dec 2010 – Nov 2011·1 year
Scuola Superiore di Catania - Laboratorio sui Sistemi Complessi
Research Assistant
Scuola Superiore di Catania - Laboratorio sui Sistemi Complessi
Nov 2008 – Oct 2010·2 years
University of Catania
PhD Student
University of Catania

Looking at the names on the list at least we know our EU academics haven't all fled the country after Brexit!

borntobequiet · 16/03/2020 12:43

To conspire is to act together to bring about something harmful. Emphasising that signatories have foreign sounding names and wondering if British scientists declined to sign for some reason does encourage such speculation.
Neat touch with "our" EU academics though.

Clavinova · 16/03/2020 13:21

To conspire is to act together to bring about something harmful.

Obviously I'm not suggesting that.

Emphasising that signatories have foreign sounding names

You can hardly miss it!

Neat touch with "our" EU academics though.

Why would I want middle class Europeans to leave the country - more of them please and fewer car washers.

RuffleCrow · 16/03/2020 13:23

The man don't give a fuck.

KenDodd · 16/03/2020 17:52

Clavinova is an ardent brexiteer, not surprisingly she's singled out foreigners.
British scientists for British people, none of your jonny foreigner nonsense for her!