Westministenders: Peak something

[BigChocFrenzy]

Westministenders: Peak something

The story so far

COVID has changed the world for the next few years, like a slowly exploding nuke:

• killed well over 100,000 people
• made many people afraid to leave their home
• caused a Global Depression

Countries locked down because they needed the extra time to

Raise the Line while Flattening the Curve:

1. Flatten the curve of the numbers needing healthcare to a level the system can manage

2. Raise the capacity of their health services and public health systems - their testing and tracking process

Also, scientists desperately needed time to find out more about COVID:
how to avoid it, how to treat it

What happens next ?

Research teams around the world are working to produce a vaccine,
will become hopefully available within the next couple of years

In the meantime, treatment procedures are being developed to better treat COVID sufferers.

Also in the meantime, countries will need to gradually exit lockdown to rescue their economies from complete catastrophe.

Timing & measures for each country will be dependent on:

Death rate after peak,
health service capacity,
testing & tracing capacity etc

....and also what their govt and public deem an "acceptable" level of extra deaths & serious illness.

Possibly some countries will need to cycle in and out of lockdown,
whereas others will be able to accept the death toll with lesser social distancing measures.

The first few countries are already relaxing lockdown,
so the UK will watch, wait and hopefully learn what works and what doesn't

..... then copy these the correct way round

From saying that 70 million Turks are coming over the hill to devour our NHS, to thanking Turks for sending us the gloves and masks we used to make for ourselves.

Oh well...

They seemed quite proud that they were sending it to us

That comes across wrong - almost ungrateful. I meant that they announced it in the same way as we would when the RAF sends off its first relief flight to a disaster-hit third world country.

My thoughts exactly Mockers.

The orange healthcare workers are increasing a lot. Must be about 25% of the total.

we all gave consent for him to do anything he wants to do that effects us by electing him.

Those who voted for the Tories most certainly did, because his only policy was Get Brexit Done. The detail, with his not being a details man, escaped him. More fool them.

we all gave consent for him to do anything he wants to do

So did Jennifer-with-the-big-boobies, and look how that ended.

Mockers, you do make me laugh.
Much needed.

Re the test/CT scans thing I was wondering about recently, someone on the thread currently active about BJ getting 4l of oxygen (where Cinderella is singing a familiar wee ditty) linked to yet another article about Germany.
There is a quote about a "lung specialist" [sic]:
"In an interview with the Frankfurter Allegmeine [sic], he speaks of how he has treated 29 patients without suffering a single death so far. It isn’t testing that makes the difference, he says – he doesn’t even bother with the tests because he finds them unreliable. Instead, he gives suspected Covid-19 patients a CT scan of their lungs in order to assess the extent of damage – and then treats them occasionally."

Whoever translated for that article should be sacked forthwith.
I presume occasionally should be appropriately. If German doctors are only occasionally treating their patients, their stats are truly miraculous.

There is also a big debate on that thread about using oxygen instead of ventilators for some patients, as the latter are v much the last resort.

A friend here in France who had CV (not tested, because they don't...no comment... but very characteristic symptoms) was followed over the phone daily by her GP who got her to check pulse, temp and heartbeat and had a pulse oximeter delivered to her house so she could monitor her oxygen levels. He was adamant that if her oxygen level started looking iffy, she should go to hospital.

From what I read of people in the UK who have symptoms at home, this isn't happening much, though I may be wrong.

Auld - GP's don't want to know you. They just direct you to 111 - they have nothing to do with Covid treatment - that's what my sisters GP told her.
So you go through a call center - answer questions, tick boxes - very occasionally patients sent to hospital. More often than not, you are left at home.... in some cases (only time will tell how many) to die

Tbf DH who got an online diagnosis here in France had no follow up at all.

I have the same GP as the friend, and he is always very thorough and tends to run through all possible outcomes of anything, no matter how minor it seems, so that may be a factor.
He didn't prescribe her any medication, but monitored things for several days.
The whole thing is a lottery, really.

Ah my last post about putting him in a room with a bear went a bit squiffy. Shite day of attempting to home school both a small child and 9mo puppy...couple of shots of apricot brandy were required before cooking dinner!

The numbers of "infected" cases seem to be dropping off at a very high pace Loads of cars on the roads here today, so much so I heard sirens x3 today (Kent is now the hotspot apparently) as they couldn't get through the roads . And no, there is no at home care provision from what I have heard in UK; either you are sick enough for an ambulance (which I guess you'd need someone else to make the call for you for if you couldn't breathe) or you are fine and left to your own devices.

...Ooooooh look: US Oil Price does not so much collapse as evaporate into the air:

edition.cnn.com/business/live-news/stock-market-news-042020/index.html

(that's minus $1.43)

Mockers I assumed you were linking to Waterfood Whispers or similar
Holy fuck, it's on Guardian Live and it's not 1 April - that is actually true !

With all the oil and shale money behind so much of the GOP now
(and dark money to climate change deniers and far right populist movements across the West)

..... Trump may start a war somewhere to get prices back up

The US oil price collapse is because there is nowhere to store it. Explainer here (with some corrections to 1st tweet but point still stands).

twitter.com/UBFriccardo/status/1252296070379507714?s=20

Will they be paying us to fill our cars up with petrol?

After all, a lot of us aren't allowed to go anywhere much, so aren't using any. I haven't had to fill my car up for a month now.

That actually is as unlikely an event as a 1 in 100 years global pandemic
or Brexit
or Trump being POTUS

Yes, I understand the reasons
There have been global oil surpluses before, but combined with so little demand for oil during this Global Depression has led to this world first in modern times

I wonder what other extraordinary effects the Global Depression will have,
what else may be vulnerable to the shock

In the Great Depression last century, people weren't locked down,
so this Depression will have some completely unforeseen consequences, with lockdowns across so many countries

In the Great Depression, people could walk, or - like Norman Tebbit's dad - get on their bikes
My dad went barefoot and sometimes hungry, but he could travel as far as those bare feet could take him

Oil being so cheap isn't a great advert for renewables ...

But with energy bills still coming thick and fast and people on tenuous incomes, perhaps more will be thinking about solar and renewables - many more than usual will be shopping around for utilities deals now we have the time on our hands . Usually that means the usual suspects get ruled out in favour of slightly greener companies, such as Octopus and Bulb IME.

So many usuals in this unusual time of all things!

As usual, bad data .....

John Burn-Murdoch@jburnmurdoch (FT

"We know 9 out of 10 [covid] deaths occur in hospital" — Yvonne Doyle of @PHE_uk

But we know that data is highly suspect.

Nursing homes account for 50% or more of covid deaths in Belgium, Canada, France, Ireland, Norway.

Main reason UK % is lower is bad data....

< i.e. we need to add on about 6,000 deaths to the UK total - it's then well over 20,000 already >

This is extremely alarming. Lots of Twitter accounts appearing to be of NHS staff supporting 'herd mentality'. This guy has been investigating them. Wow.

John O'Connell
@jdpoc

4h
Regarding those 128 fake #NHS Staff accounts posting for 'Herd Mentality' and support of the Govt that were set up by
@DHSCgovuk or their marketing agency ...

Posts were sent using Hootsuite, a mass-posting tool. Account registered to 1 person with 4 assigned contributors.

twitter.com/jdpoc/status/1252266724449230848?s=20

Renewables generally produce electricity.
The biggest uses of domestic oil and gas are winter space heating.
Oil prices for the June futures are holding up ...

Sickened by the fake accounts expose on the Twitter thread below.

TL:DR Looks like astro-turfing Brexit social media tactics being used by marketing agency employed by Dept of Health (DHSC). Suspected fake accounts posting; first in support of herd immunity, later on touting easing/ending lockdown.

(Okay, okay - hardly shocking the tactics being used. But pretty blatant link to Dept Health comms team. This marketing agency has one client and entirety of staff is three former DHSC employees.)

Beautifully, one photo used and given the name Susan shows an NHS nurse clearly wearing a name badge stating 'Mia'.

twitter.com/jdpoc/status/1252266724449230848

I await further details and evidence on those claims about Whitehall department links to fake soc media accounts. But if they are true and can be proved then sheesh...