There have been 684 more coronavirus deaths in the UK over the last 24 hours.
The total death toll in the UK now stands at 3,605.
I have a feeling we could be seeing 1000 deaths a day a lot earlier than Easter Sunday!
Matt Hancock is suggesting that 1000 deaths a day will be the peak of the deaths but that sounds somewhat optimistic to me.
Nevertheless, I hope he's right.
Quote: Rood Eye @ 3rd April 2020, 2:16 PMI think a lot of people are likely to take that view this weekend when temperatures of around 70° are expected.
The prospect of staying at home cooped up and bored becomes even more unattractive when the sun is shining and the weather is balmy.
I suspect thousands of Britons are going to head for the seaside and the countryside and, indeed, almost any beautiful open space.
Perhaps they're barmy too?
Or perhaps they think the statistics are being manipulated and misinterpreted in order to impose a global police state upon what used to be a substantially free world?
Who knows?
I am not suggesting that people shouldn't comply with the guidelines. They should comply with the guidelines including over Easter. But politicians are less likely to be scammers than to have been scammed. Broadly, it is to the huge credit of everyone involved in the setting up of the Nightingale Hospital that so much has been achieved there in nine days. It also shows what could have been done in terms of health and all other major infrastructure in, say, the last 30, even 50 years.
It may well be that we see 1000 deaths per day by this coming Sunday but the horror of that situation will be much allayed by the appearance on TV at 8 PM by our dearly beloved queen.
What the dear old girl will say to us, I have no idea. All I know is that not one single word of it will have come from her: it will all come from experienced speechwriters skilled in the art of making royalty sound as if they're not totally ignorant of what life for even remotely normal people is like.
There are creatures at the bottom of the deepest oceans who have more idea about human existence than our queen does.
Still, I'm sure countless British citizens will be thrilled and much comforted by her words of other people's wisdom.
Quote: Rood Eye @ 3rd April 2020, 2:45 PMIt may well be that we see 1000 deaths per day by this coming Sunday but the horror of that situation will be much allayed by the appearance on TV at 8 PM by our dearly beloved queen.
What the dear old girl will say to us, I have no idea. All I know is that not one single word of it will have come from her: it will all come from experienced speechwriters skilled in the art of making royalty sound as if they're not totally ignorant of what life for even remotely normal people is like.
There are creatures at the bottom of the deepest oceans who have more idea about human existence than our queen does.
Still, I'm sure countless British citizens will be thrilled and much comforted by her words of other people's wisdom.
Haud me back! (Before I hurl a brick at the TV) Her speechwriters seem to have as little idea of how to be normal as she has.
The Duke of Edinburgh should do a speech too
"Damn those slanty eyed fiends! Giving my son the lurgy. Bloody chinks!"
Jonathan van Tam who is on now is the best expert I have seen on any of these things.
He's got the best manner and the clearest style. The woman alongside him is good too.
If You Believed They Put A Man On The Moon
..........Dr Andy Kaufman in the Wrestling Match:
Quote: A Horseradish @ 3rd April 2020, 7:50 PMIf You Believed They Put A Man On The Moon
..........Dr Andy Kaufman in the Wrestling Match:
Horsey, are you goofing on Andy (Hey, baby!) 
Quote: Rood Eye @ 3rd April 2020, 7:56 PMHorsey, are you goofing on Andy (Hey, baby!)
The Guardian reported today that inside sources expected Friday to have been the day when existing intensive care units in London were totally overwhelmed. It wasn't said so as not to unduly alarm the public. As things transpired, those units are 25% empty and the Nightingale which could provide an extra 4,000 beds isn't even yet factored into that equation so in full capacity terms going forward - currently the Nightingale has 500 beds - the emptiness is much greater than 25%.
Let us hope this is the better news that we are hoping for.
Wouldn't it be great if it was indeed all exosomes and the virus theorists had got it all wrong. That quote which I included earlier and which is on Kaufman's film to the effect that it is all about exosomes comes from James Hildreth, an eminent scientist in the field of HIV who was once a professor at the renowned John Hopkins University. Mind you, if he and Kaufman do turn out to be correct, relations between the West and China are likely to plummet. It could be the Third War.
So it's not a virus from outside.It's your body responding from some poison inside?Which could have numerous causes.eg: 5G
Quote: john tregorran @ 3rd April 2020, 8:51 PMSo it's not a virus from outside.It's your body responding from some poison inside?Which could have numerous causes.eg: 5G
The 5G thing is a bit iffy. UK Government is very sensitive about it. Radio Uckfield - a community station in Sussex - got a clout for even promoting that idea as it was viewed. Yet the 5G rollout in China started in Wuhan. In Italy it started in Lombardy. On paper, that doesn't look good. However, on the other side of the coin, people who are still driving for work in the UK are noting that it is being rolled out in the UK as essential work even as most of us stay in our homes and perhaps nowhere more so than in Tyne and Wear. That currently has some of the lowest Covid-19 figures in the UK.
It has also been heavily rolled out in Rome and further south in Naples in Italy where so-called Covid rates were initially low, certainly in comparison with the Covid rates in Lombardy. So, no, I think you have to go by Kaufman's full list of getting on for ten things which cause exosomic activity. One of those is acute stress which given what we are all under is much bigger than it was before. Another is "all diseases". It's a natural immuno response to tackling all kinds of attack.
Having said as much, I should flag up my Luddite credentials. I was instinctively an anti fracker from the moment I heard of that process and I wrote everywhere in the UK to campaign for it not to go ahead. I maintained that the process and the wastewater disposal would cause earthquakes. Now Oklahoma has more earthquakes than California. Point proven. Consequently, I have severe doubts about 5G while at the moment sitting on the fence about it until we know much more. But put it this way. When the only space left at Glastonbury seemed to be under a traditional pylon alongside a couple of others who decided to risk it, I walked in rain for four hours around the site to find a tiny space somewhere else instead.
Quote: lofthouse @ 3rd April 2020, 3:42 PMThe Duke of Edinburgh should do a speech too
"Damn those slanty eyed fiends! Giving my son the lurgy. Bloody chinks!"
FFS. Phil the Greek is vastly more eloquent than that. Among his quotes of current relevance are:
"If it has four legs and is not a chair, has wings and is not an aeroplane, or swims and is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it."
"I must confess that I am tempted to ask for reincarnation as a particularly deadly virus."
Quote: john tregorran @ 3rd April 2020, 8:51 PMSo it's not a virus from outside.It's your body responding from some poison inside?Which could have numerous causes.eg: 5G
Spreading nonsense like that at a time like this..
NEW CONTEXTS
1. And if Covid-19 were actually a severe strain of influenza and one considered the vaccination take up of NHS staff:
Although Influenza vaccination is recommended for healthcare workers, the vaccination rate against influenza in UK healthcare workers is astonishingly only around 50%. The annual number of deaths of NHS staff from influenza in hospitals etc is unclear as death generally occurs at home, preceded by sickness absence, principally among those choosing not to have the vaccine (young females fearing side effects, young males feeling the risks are overstated).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6297706/
2. And if this were a typical year in NHS hospitals in terms of the number of deaths generally:
For the 129 trusts from 1 November 2018 to 31 October 2019: There were approximately 9.4 million discharges, from which 288,000 deaths - averaging out at 24,000 deaths a month - were recorded either while in hospital or within 30 days of discharge. This includes deaths from other causes as well as deaths related to the reason for the hospital admission.
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/clinical-indicators/shmi/current
3. Going back to influenza, if this were Spanish Flu in 1918-19 and we were considering death rates of doctors/nurses:
There was a low but highly variable mortality rate among nurses and physicians during the Spanish Flu pandemic, many of whom did not have personal protection equipment.It is believed that the surprisingly low rates compared with the rates for the public were based to a not insignificant extent on immunity gained from constant exposure.Staff continued in their work because of a devotion to duty which ever since has been expected of staff in any sickness event, major or minor.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4941589/
4. And if we were to question if influenza really does always peak in the winter months:
Finally, the belief that influenza is always worst in the UK between December and March and that if something like influenza occurs in other months then it can't be influenza is fundamentally wrong. The highest peak for swine flu in 2009 occurred in July and it was mainly an epidemic of the summer months. The figures are large and worth considering in the light of current events but so too the length of time it took for the influenza to burn out - not that far off one whole year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_swine_flu_pandemic_in_the_United_Kingdom
COMMENT
Given these facts set out in the relevant documents, a cynic might regard the slowness of getting vaccination and PPE to medical staff during the current crisis not merely as bungle but also part application of the concept of herd immunity which would see greater numbers of staff being protected by immunity in the long run. I am not suggesting that I agree with the approach but it cannot be ruled out. The flu vaccination rates among the workforce are staggeringly low, perhaps implying partly that the claims to the efficacy of the vaccine to the average member of the public are regarded by medics as overstated but more so that they themselves if young and fit opt for longer term immunity via greater exposure.
(Additionally, suicides among junior doctors is actually quite high, not least perhaps because of having to face many grim scenarios. In that light, a cocky "I am fit" approach could be seen as a healthier response to challenges. That though must surely signal alarm bells when it comes to the ability of the general public to take on board what is currently being presented to them. Unable to go out and in effect pretend death away, I'd expect suicides to increase considerably).
As for hospital or post hospitalisation deaths among the public generally, those account for almost half of the 600,000 annual deaths and far exceed the sorts of numbers we have seen to date re Covid-19. In fact, to even equal them, Covid-19 would have to lead to 24,000 deaths in and around hospitals in any one month. Hitherto, such figures, while not hidden from the public, have hardly been advertised for to hear that 288,000 die each year in and around hospitals is off putting in the extreme. Nevertheless, for reassurance,that needs to be viewed in the broader context of 9.4 million plus going annually through the NHS system. It remains to be seen whether after Covid-19 daily news will always now have a section on hospital deathwatch. Sadly, current coverage has set a different cultural tone in which morbidity is at the forefront.
Conservative governments all over the world are now giving money to the poor and not just the rich so something is seriously wrong.