We are going to be like Italy

[chococo]

Just like Italy we will be in a few weeks. The park is packed with children!! Weddings are still going ahead with hundreds of people, no one cares. There will be high risk people at the weddings because their mentality is we are not on lockdown so we will continue as normal.

Unfortunately I know a lot of people who are not taking the virus seriously and mock those that do, really pissing me off

I’m a bit bored of hearing that Italians are dying because of the high percentage of old people in the population and it couldn’t possibly happen in the UK.

Italy has a high elderly population because they are healthier than many other countries so live longer. The co-morbidities present in the Italian elderly population are found at a much younger age in some other Western countries and in particular the US. The UK is one such country.

There are fewer older people in many other countries precisely because more of the population is dying sooner, often from those very oft cited co-morbidities. Ergo younger people elsewhere may be equally at risk as an Italian 70 year old.

Daniel Hewitt - 'You wouldn’t know anything had changed in St Albans. Market open, loads of stalls, loads of people out shopping in close confinement. Can hear live music from my place, had a quick run to the end of my road to look. Unreal. Really worry how bad this had to get before ppl listen.'

This is like a forest fire where Italy had far more dry combustible material

bulb literally no one gives a single fuck about brides, pandemic or not. Hope that helps.

All schools are completely closed in Italy. Our region was the first, my DD has been home from school from the 24th February, so nearly a month. No idea when she will be going back. Luckily she doesn’t have state exams this year, it’s very frustrating for those who do.

Whilst I don’t in any way want to play down the seriousness of what we are going through, there are some significant differences in how the outbreak has spread in the UK and in Italy.

For a start Italy had a delay of about 20 days between reporting of the first and second cases, that’s 20 days of spread and, taking best case scenario that patient x was the only one with CV-19 in the whole of Italy to begin with, the virus will have spread to approx 200-odd people within those 20 days and those 200 people will have in turn been infecting an average of 2.5 people every 5 days - hence the explosion in numbers.

On top of this, the majority of cases so far in Italy have been focussed in Lombardy, hence the huge strain that the health service in that area is under. We do not have a concentration of severe cases in the same way that Italy does and the pattern of infections does not so far suggest that we will similar, or at least at the same rate.

This article has more useful info on the differences: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51858987

Suspect in Spain and Italy more people are close to the neighbours so key workers who are single parents or both are can use them for childcare in a greater way than the uk.

My next door neighbour, in her 80s with heart disease, was added to our neighbourhood whatsapp group by her daughter as someone who needs help/ is isolating/ will need shopping etc and we all said "of course".
Today she appears to have all her family around - I can see at least four adults and 6 children in the garden and it sounds like there are more inside.

Schools, colleges and child care facilities have also been closed here in Ireland since 6pm on the Thursday before Paddy's day. Already the biggest teaching hospital in Ireland has one half of the A n E assigned to suspected Corona Virus patients. In the seated waiting area every second seat has a note saying don't sit on it. Unfortunately I know this as I have been a patient in the A n E four times in 3 weeks or so. Shops here have tape on the floor showing where to stand. Also pubs closed sooner than in UK.

I can't see any reason why we WON'T be as bad as Italy. It is exponential growth of cases as the virus spreads. It started earlier in Italy, that's the only difference.

Until we are in a position to act more like South Korea - testing, tracing all contacts - we will be on Italy's path.

Italians must be feeling desperate to see a reduction in the number of deaths as the lockdown starts to show effects.

I suspect in Spain and Italy children aren't such 'precious snowflakes' and they are brought up to be able to occupy themselves for an hour or two while parents do some work from home.

Cafes were full How come they weren’t shut?

For anyone who wanted the stats www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Well done, everyone who voted for the Tories. We are all going to be reaping what you sowed.

Any evidence to suggest that Labour would have handled it better? Now is probably not the time for party politics.

I have a feeling some people won’t be happy until they can sit back in their armchair and wag their finger at the telly saying “see, I was right”.

Is there a government TV broadcast today? They need to lock us down.

@hedgehog they just finished a press conference with the DEFRA Minister talking about food supply chains and telling people to stop panic buying as there is more than enough to go around.

RedLentil/ It is also because successive governments have thrown (wasted) billions of pounds on foreign aid when it should have been channelled into the Health Service. Labour as well as the Tories have been in this farce.

In my area it was the Labour Party, under Tony Blair, who took our a&e away and made our hospital a satellite clinic instead

10 years of a Tory government. Wherever we are now, it happened on their watch.

Don't blame the tories solely for this, it was your beloved Labour Party who started the asset stripping

See above. And remember please that loathing the Tory party doesn't mean loving Labour. That's just silly.

Any evidence to suggest that Labour would have handled it better?

Obviously, none whatsoever, although one would think that the NHS would be in much better shape and an entire layer of society wouldn't have been thrown to the dogs.

It's wry amusement that the best - the only one apparently - argument that Tories have is the constant refrain of 'but...but...Corbyn would be worse.'

Lets hope not but I'm totally dismayed at people's attitude and lack of knowledge of basic infection control. People on local facebook sites organising dance classes in the street, yes they are a metre or two apart but surely better to just stay in, people trying to ' help' each other by passing books and toys around ?? Maybe I'm being over cautious but people just don't seem to get it ?

germany and france spends 0.7% as well.

Surely most key workers do a full days work not an hour or two.

Italy are desperately short of doctors, they’ve put an urgent global appeal out this afternoon, I’m really worried about our true numbers, we are not testing in earnest, only with critical symptoms.

If the government wants people to stay in then they have no choice but to completely shut the country.

It’s a difficult one. It’s a nice day. People are facing another 6 months or more of this. It will be winter again. I can see why people would try to make the most of the weather. I haven’t done it but I’m struggling to criticise those that have to be honest.

I am the partner of a key worker (ICU Nurse) who is at huge risk of getting this and bringing it back to me and the kids so I’m wondering why I am sitting her bored shitless whilst waiting for the almost inevitability or getting it anyway. I get that I need to think of others but it’s hard and I can see why some people don’t.

As a pp said, we are on a steeper trajectory than Italy. Plus our health system is far less well resourced, in terms of beds, ventilators, staffing and consumables. People are being stupid, yes, but it's largely because the government has given out mixed, diluted and sometimes just plain inaccurate messages over the last month. As well as having asset-stripped the NHS for the last 10 years. It's going to be appalling. Well done, everyone who voted for the Tories. We are all going to be reaping what you sowed.

I agree with @RedLentilYellowLentil a million percent. Also agree with pp that pointed out Blairite policies part of this. Don’t need to get into political mud slinging but we need to face facts. Our NHS was already drowning. DH and friends working in nhs are being told to expect that they may not be able to ventilate over 65s, because we are so short on ventilators. This is going to be utterly appalling - there may be some ‘I told you so’s’ out there, but in the main people shouting about this are appealing to everyone to educate yourself to the facts and act now to prevent death of your loved ones and vast swathes of society. It is heart breaking that people don’t see it coming.