Boris in hospital

[Cary2012]

Breaking news.

Almost, not also

I don't think they would be updating that if he was at deaths door

This was quite interesting from the guardian:

Boris Johnson remains in St Thomas’ hospital “for observation”, with No 10 saying he had a “comfortable night” and is “in good spirits”.

Downing Street is not denying that the prime minister received oxygen treatment last night. Officials are refusing to give any further update on his condition.

When asked if he had pneumonia, the spokesman said any change in his condition would be made public. No 10 is no longer describing Johnson’s symptoms as “mild”, but confirmed he has a temperature and a cough.

The PM remains in charge but the daily coronavirus meeting was chaired by Dominic Raab, who will continue to do so while Johnson is absent.

Raab is still working from the Foreign Office, rather than Downing Street. Johnson is continuing to work through his red box of papers and No 10 is following infection advice in relation to the box.

There will be no cabinet on Tuesday, instead the daily coronavirus meeting will replace it.

Johnson went to hospital by private car but No 10 refused to say what type. It was his first visit to hospital since falling ill.

No 10 insisted it had been “transparent throughout” despite having claimed up until Johnson’s admission that his symptoms were mild.

The prime minister DOES warrant a hospital bed Peregrina.

Quartz
The BCG only gave immunity from TB for around 10-15 years. A quick google says it’s been found to be effective for 20 in some cases. I also had it. Anyone 40+ would therefore no longer have any immunity.

I have been in hospital for a week with respiratory symptoms and could update face book.
Of course it may not be him updating it.

Boris doesn’t really deserve compassion.
The Austerity measures killed a lot of people and he and his billionaire pals couldn’t have cared less.

@KeysDontBelongInTheFridge Yes it would make sense if he was admitted to hospital for oxygen treatment. Of course he is not working through his boxes. If he is that ill he will be sleeping a lot. Struggling to breathe makes you very tired. Although if his cough is bad he may struggle to sleep.
This sounds standard for those who get corona virus more seriously. Struggling to breathe so needing oxygen treatment. Some will recover from this, others will get more ill and need ventilator treatment. Some recover from ventilator treatment. They will be basically supporting his breathing while his body fights the virus. So it becomes primarily a waiting game.

Boris may well have multiple moral failings but the important thing now it's that he's the prime minister and this is a national emergency

I imagine he needed some assistance with breathing- oxygen, and whilst this could have been done at home they could not take the risk of him suddenly deteriorating further and not being in hospital for immediate treatment. That's my guess.

@KeysDontBelongInTheFridge - Fine line between being, 'transparent,' and, 'alarming.'

I do feel for Boris though.

@UYScuti I don't want anyone to die of corona. But the country will carry on. The Cabinet and Dominic Raab will carry on. It is a very worrying time for Johnson't family and partner, but the country will be okay.

Well no actually he does deserve compassion. He's not evil. He made bad decisions but then so have all governments of the past thirty or forty years- particularly when it comes to mismanagement of the NHS. That's Labour as much as the Tories. It was also Labour that first introduced austerity to the disabled. It was them who brought in benefit caps and harsh assessments for sickness benefit claimants. The coalition government just went further down that road.

I was horrified early on when our government failed to take the strict measures necessary to protect us. Having thought about it, they were in a difficult position. Look at how even now there's so many people having a tantrum about semi lockdown - a lockdown where we are for now, allowed quite a bit of freedom. All those posts calling people hysterical for wanting large gatherings banned, complaining saying why should they be temporarily restricted to save "a few old people", all the very many who merrily jetted off on ski holidays and cruises. All done after the situation in China was very apparent. Authoritarian they may be but no country does what they did, which tanked their economy, for show. Much of the NHS lack of preparedness is down to Jeremy Hunt. It was on his watch the pandemic warning report was issued. So yes Boris messed up but he's personally suffering for it now. He could've done what many world leaders would and hidden away somewhere safe. He didn't. He practiced what be preached. He downplayed it and he's paying the price. He's a human being with parents, children, siblings, and a pregnant fiancée. I wish him, and all who have this (excepting terrorists and child abusers) a good recovery.

Corona virus is a national emergency. A prime minister being ill or even dying is a morale issue for the country, but it really isn't an emergency. If he died it would have a major impact on the countries morale, but we have had successive PMs leave while still in office in the last few years. That is not a national emergency.
It is important not to panic people when in reality things will go on as before.

@DarnedSocks Nobody is wishing him dead. I would prefer he is not PM, but that is very different from wishing an actual person dead.

Darned socks, when did labour bring in austerity caps for the disabled?

The housing benefit cap started under Gordon Brown. Labour started fiddling with disability benefits, and introduced the system where private companies are paid large sums by the taxpayer to "assess"claimants. That's another topic really though. My point is all the problems in the NHS and wider issues are not down to one single party. All of them share the blame.

Absolutely, all of them share some blame.

But the Tories went above and beyond. In fact, the Tories have tried to undermine the NHS since its creation.

Authoritarian they may be but no country does what they did

@DarnedSocks

Nope. Most countries certainly don't. China's response was to send the police to the doctor who warned about it back in December 2019 and force him to sign a confession of illegal activity. He subsequently died.

WUHAN, China — A mysterious illness had stricken seven patients at a hospital, and a doctor tried to warn his medical school classmates. “Quarantined in the emergency department,” the doctor, Li Wenliang, wrote in an online chat group on Dec. 30, “So frightening,” one recipient replied, before asking about the epidemic that began in China in 2002 and ultimately killed nearly 800 people. “Is SARS coming again?”In the middle of the night, officials from the health authority in the central city of Wuhan summoned Dr. Li, demanding to know why he had shared the information. Three days later, the police compelled him to sign a statement that his warning constituted “illegal behavior

www.nytimes.com/2020/02/01/world/asia/china-coronavirus.html

BovaryX China isn't alone in initially downplaying and burying their heads in the sand. We might not arrest our doctors but we certainly failed to take action that could've mitigated the situation. Likewise Italy, Spain, France, America, and others. And we all had the warning of China to heed.

The housing benefit cap started under Gordon Brown

Not sure if that's really accurate. The problem with Universal Credit/Housing Benefit has been that the Tories froze it for many years so that it was impossible to rent a house for the amount given across much of the country.

The cap as I understand it was just to stop people claiming £50k/year rent and only affected a few people in central London and not really the same thing at all.

The prime minister DOES warrant a hospital bed Peregrina.

Not if he's well enough to work! Not when we hear reports of people being so ill that they can just about manage to stagger to the loo and back to bed.

BovaryX China isn't alone in initially downplaying and burying their heads in the sand

You're laughable. Keep carrying the water.