Morning all,
Elbow boops of solidarity to all..... hope those who have symptoms recover quickly and that those under financial strain and worried get some relief soon.
I posted the following on another thread and thought I'd put it here.
My isolating friends are still poorly but the community is rallying round for them - however kind community support is but one part of the approach needed to address the current crisis IMO, and the lack of transparency and still conflicting messages from the Govt aren't doing anything for people's anxiety.
Anyhoo, feel free to tell me to get a grip......If you truly believe I'm way off the mark. I could be bonkers.
"OP, no, YANBU at all and I am quite terrified of the numbers of boiling frogs in the mushroom club - ie many of the UK's population.
There is a thread running with a link to a Harvard Study of cases in China that shows in a nice powerpoint display why testing and early intervention even in mild cases is vitally important, and STILL people are saying it's too difficult to test for accurate data and to make sure people are handling their symptoms correctly.
If the UK can pull billions out of its arse for the Olympics and other vanity projects when it suits, it sure as hell can find money for test kits and research and to incentivise personnel.
People's lives are at stake here, and if you allow us to sacrifice a whole bunch of the elderly and health compromised to this virus for the alleged greater economic good, you are missing the point that later down the line goalposts may change and it will be easier to accept other groups falling into the "non-essential" for treatment category, then yet more until it's you, your family, your friends (which is already happening and yet we're being told to suck it up).
Do you think our "leaders" and their families are just going to self-isolate without a test for 7 days if they come down with CV19 symptoms and only seek medical help if they get worse? They'll have their Harley Street poodles on tap from the first cough. BoJo's Dad would be on a respirator in a heartbeat.
Never mind the fact that testing and observing this disease provides the real time data needed to develop treatments and make sure the damn thing doesn't mutate over and over again as well as providing a real picture of the spread, not just a guess which might mean half the people self-isolating are doing it for a nasty cold or other flu virus with a side helping of utter fear and going stir crazy for periods that don't even tally consistently with how the virus is observed to develop so far.
8 weeks ago it was clear this was going to be a problem, 4 weeks ago it became urgent, two weeks ago it became a potential crisis. In 4 to 12 weeks time we will know just how big that crisis is, and I don't want to be cynically believing that BoJo drew the short straw in the "which country can be the petri dish for exponential growth" at the Bildeburg meeting because the UK is an island and can be cut off from the rest of the world quite easily.
But if I can start thinking like that, when I pride myself on evidence based thinking and being rational, then others will too. And some will be clamouring for blood. I don't want to see an escalation into civil unrest and the way our Govt are handling this is making it seem less fantastical by the minute.
Sorry for the rant, but I'm all out of "Keep calm and carry on" this morning."