Coronavirus - worldwide spread and control

So sorry to hear the news from France, @Cheshire. It somehow makes me so sad to think of empty streets in Paris.

 

I am NOT okay with this. Nobody is expendable. It wouldn't be okay even if it were true. But it isn't. The truth is that many previously fit, healthy and productive people have died or become chronically ill from covid.

Everyone here has had their lives ruined by ME, and we (rightly) expect society to do something. We (rightly) object when others try to minimse the seriousness of our condition by saying we're just a bit depressed or need to get out more. We should be the LAST people to be minimising the health problems of others, covid-related or non-covid related. Otherwise it makes us no better than the people we criticise on this forum.

I'm fine with people arguing the case for or against restrictions, but I am totally NOT okay with saying that those whose lives or health has been ruined by covid don't matter because most were on the way out anyway.

 

@Woolie

I am again sorry to say this, but the discussion is not about single cases, but on numbers, and you can only work to minimize damage. In this sense it´s a statistical problem. You can of course wish for golden societies (though I see it mere that our societies are still at risk, and this is not restricted to covid, if I am allowed to say my opinion as a citizen).

 

It is interesting that some people are still making this comparison between Covid and flu when there is none. When Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty initially suggested that the pandemic might not be so different from flu and that 20,000 deaths would not be too bad it confirmed my thought that a number of my colleagues have very little insight into reality.

Over the years I have been involved in medical wards taking emergency cases. I do not remember a single case of flu being admitted and given emergency care. A number of old people were admitted with pneumonia but not that I remember with any particular link to flu. If cases were genuinely though to be flu we would have had facilities for isolation and we never did. In fact the old fever hospitals would have stayed open. They didn't.

In comparison UK hospitals in April were overrun with emergency Covid cases.

Yes, there are figures for increased deaths in winter months but I am not sure that anyone actually has figures for the number of deaths from flu. If it is really true that 10,000 people die each year from fluid the UK (for instance) then I think we have to assume that pretty much ALL of these cases are people who are already considered to be terminally ill or have no realistic hope of survival of more than a few months. Maybe flu goes round care homes and kills the terminally frail - of which of course there are many. But even there I wonder because I have not heard of any such cases in may mother's care home.

To suggest that an illness that has a significant mortality rate for people like me at 70 with about 20 years life expectancy is similar to an illness that has a vanishingly small chance o f killing anyone who is not already terminally ill is ridiculous. I realise that people with immunodeficiency are different but even for them I was never aware that flu was a particular fear.

 

Anybody wondering why the UK test and trace system isn't as effective as it might be this might explain, to some extent, why (assuming it's accurate).

How teenagers ended up operating crucial parts of England’s test and trace system

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...nd-coronavirus-covid-test-and-trace-teenagers

 

I've said it before, but I don't understand why people with a chronic condition such as ME argue that it's OK if people with a chronic condition, whether ME or not, die due to Covid-19 - don't they see that we here are all in that same group of people?

 

Record 200 days with no local cases makes Taiwan envy of world

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/e...ith-no-local-cases-makes-taiwan-envy-of-world

 

I keep getting requests (or rather appointments I didn't ask for) from the NHS for various cancer screening. I don't see the point when there is such a back log of people with cancer unable to get treatment.
(The added irony of course is that as an ME patient I have had 'problems' (to put it mildly) getting any other illness taken seriously let alone treated.)

 

There has been a surge in cases in daughter's very large primary school in a deprived tier 1 area with a lower covid rate than national average. They did well until the middle of the week before half term but since then, she with the rest of the senior management team has been working flat out to gather information, numbers, liaise with appropriate bodies etc and a decision has now been taken for the school building to remain closed in the week after half term.

Distress all round but as things stand now, 14 out of the 28 classes in the school would be unable to return. The school is being fogged ??? this week, deep cleaned next week prior to children's return. Staff are really distressed that they haven't been able to prevent this by their carefully designed and followed protocols.

Granddaughter's secondary school in that area also has several classes out.

Am beginning to wonder if the local numbers are wrong or if there has been a sudden surge not yet reflected in the statistics.

What will happen to levels in school when they return? Will this just be repeated? In view of France and Germany's decision, are we going to be later rather than sooner again?

 

Because of responsibility for the whole?

The damage from short sighted views might extend the damage from long sighted view.
If you look at single cases and how bad it is, you miss your responsibility for the majority which one´s people you cannot all visit with your compassion.

 

[UK] Covid-19: Nearly 100,000 catching virus every day - study

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54723962

 

I am astonished to read this, although I am not an expert.

https://www.springermedizin.de/preparing-intensive-care-for-the-next-pandemic-influenza/17331718 (first side google gave)

And this is then is not the case with covid, which was said several times that it especially affects ppl with more than one serious morbidity? Also the age is more advanced in covid deaths than in flu deaths, when also young ppl occasionally die from flu, if I havn´t dreamed the information. I admit that the situation may not already have been evaluated throughout. Being carefully, I say again that I don´t say that we wouldn´t have a problem or that one should ignore the virus.


To say it again, one may think wishfully, but it´s also one´s responsiblity, when then the damage gets bigger.

 

This would be somehow nice, if would be that easy and would be correct, wouldn´t it?

 

Trying not to break forum rules, my wife is expecting to have an early detected, small and non spread breast cancer removed in the next 18 days here in Essex. Is your 'insane' due to post surgery radiotherapy issues? Or just presenting at hospital at present? I have yet to find any information on how effective NHS PPE has been or otherwise so do you have any anecdotal opinions on how your relatives became positive?

 

The long winter – why Covid restrictions could last until April

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-long-winter-why-covid-restrictions-could-last-until-april

 

This paints an even worse picture.

Currently says 153,000 covid related deaths by February 1st.

A couple of weeks ago it said 134,000 - so the trend, of the predictions, is...not good.

https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-kingdom?view=total-deaths&tab=trend

This is linked to off the 'official' page I have been using;

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/

Under the headline figures, 'projections'.

 

Since FHM and the government removed the recommendations for risk groups, local governments have started removing support too. For example, in my town the grocery shops are no longer offering home delivery. I'm devastated.