Coronavirus

[Nearly Sane]

I was talking to the bloke in Timpsons earlier
He was trying to work out if he was a key worker 😆

He didn't look down at heel?

[SusanDoris]

Well, I know you're not into churchy type stuff - although we have suspended formal Sunday Worship, we'll still open the church on Sunday for prayer and reflections. You and i are relatively lucky, Susan, in that we can exercise to some extent, and have access to online stuff....but I know too many Visually impaired folk who have n such access, some of them doubly unfortunate in that they are also hearing impaired. An enforced isolation, whilst possibly helping keep them safe physically, will in all probabability damage them mentally. I'm genuinely concerned for that situation. As for me? I have farmland less than a hundred yards from my house, and plenty of places where I can swing the long cane in self-isolating bliss without breaking anyone's ankles. If I'm indoors, I can work on another E book to add to the one I wrote last year and which was out of date thanks to new discoveries, approximately ten minutes after I finished writing it.

Thank you for reply. Interesting that you go to a more open space to walk. Apart from the fact that I cannot get to the open land of the New Forest, I would not be able to do any walking. I need a firm (pavement) footing and reference points like hedges, clear kerbs and knowing them well. 

I much admire anyone who can write even a small book - I'd never get past a first sentence, even if I had an idea about what to write!

[Nearly Sane]

Well, I know you're not into churchy type stuff - although we have suspended formal Sunday Worship, we'll still open the church on Sunday for prayer and reflections. You and i are relatively lucky, Susan, in that we can exercise to some extent, and have access to online stuff....but I know too many Visually impaired folk who have n such access, some of them doubly unfortunate in that they are also hearing impaired. An enforced isolation, whilst possibly helping keep them safe physically, will in all probabability damage them mentally. I'm genuinely concerned for that situation. As for me? I have farmland less than a hundred yards from my house, and plenty of places where I can swing the long cane in self-isolating bliss without breaking anyone's ankles. If I'm indoors, I can work on another E book to add to the one I wrote last year and which was out of date thanks to new discoveries, approximately ten minutes after I finished writing it.

Chatting on line to friends and we are looking at setting up a regular on line meeting via Zoom or WhatsApp or some such, and look at maybe having some planned stuff in terms of what we know. We could do something similar on here.

[Aruntraveller]

Chatting on line to friends and we are looking at setting up a regular on line meeting via Zoom or WhatsApp or some such, and look at maybe having some planned stuff in terms of what we know. We could do something similar on here.

You mean we'd have to see posters faces?!

[Nearly Sane]

You mean we'd have to see posters faces?!

not compulsory

[Nearly Sane]

Was asking on FB about what songs to sing from a Glasgow balcony and this is the best suggestion

https://youtu.be/MMNDwtvAtPg

[Anchorman]

Thank you for reply. Interesting that you go to a more open space to walk. Apart from the fact that I cannot get to the open land of the New Forest, I would not be able to do any walking. I need a firm (pavement) footing and reference points like hedges, clear kerbs and knowing them well. 

I much admire anyone who can write even a small book - I'd never get past a first sentence, even if I had an idea about what to write!

   


I'm confined to tarmac and paved areas as well, Susan - but since the farms and countryside begin approximately two hundred yards from my gaffe, I have no excuses.
Add to this that an area of former open cast gas been planted with native woodland, with visually impaired friendly walkways which have great landmarks, and I have it made.
As for the writing thing?
My book started off as a paper I submitted to a magazine, and several fellow geeks suggest I expand it....so I did - choosing just about the most controversial topic in Egyptology today, spouting a theory....which has been well and truly debunked due to some twit finding a bit of discarded stone with two lines of writing on it last year.
I hate Egyptology....

[Gordon]

You mean we'd have to see posters faces?!

Well, we could wear darkened glasses and have both smelling salts and a lifebelt handy - it might even be survivable.

[Nearly Sane]

The collapse of the stock markets is still not properly  thought out 

[Walter]

The collapse of the stock markets is still not properly  thought out

I'll wait until the arse has totally fallen out then buy a few yen

[Walter]

He didn't look down at heel?

thats cobblers mate !

[Udayana]

It's bollocks.

Well there is an underlying truth. Diseases do transfer from animals with which we come in contact, but they have been doing this for millennia. What is newish is the mobility of humans. It's much easier for a new disease to become a pandemic thanks to the fact that people can travel almost anywhere on the  globe in under 24 hours.

The other thing that is new is that we - in developed countries - are not used to being confronted with diseases that we can't deal with. The R0 value for measles is far higher than coronavirus (12 to 18 compared to about 2.5) but we don't panic about it because it rarely kills healthy westerners.

Back in the day there were epidemics that devastated populations. Spanish flu killed millions. The Black Death killed a third of the people in Europe.

Pretending that this is, in some sense new is nonsense.

Who said it was new? The older plagues took longer to spread and lasted much longer - but we got used to them, even carried some to the Americas with devastating results. We know diseases can jump species and should have expected them to cross as we plundered new spaces.     

The risks of disruption are greater now precisely because of our mobility. The most depressing thing about the current shambles is that it is due to a generally minor disease that was entirely predictable and that we should have had contingency plans for.

We don't panic about measles or flu because we have vaccines for them and know how to deal with them.

[Gordon]

John Crace's assessment of our fuckwit PM - on the button, as usual.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/mar/18/pantomime-clown-boris-johnson-flounders-as-crisis-deepens

[jeremyp]

The thing is, do we actually start asking questions, or do we just wait until some bird flu variation manages to adapt so it can more efficiently spread from human to human before we do something? If that does happen then we really are all in the shit and coronavirus will seem like a walk in the park.

It happens all the time. Most of our major diseases originated in some other kind of animal. It's part of life.

[jeremyp]

John Crace's assessment of our fuckwit PM - on the button, as usual.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/mar/18/pantomime-clown-boris-johnson-flounders-as-crisis-deepens

When the country might be economically on its knees, we have a prime minister happy to bankrupt it completely just to keep the rightwing Brexiters on board.

That sums it up.

We have a similar problem to the USA. We have a leader who is great at the sound bites and the fluff but when there's a real problem is totally out of his depth.

[jeremyp]

This looks like a useful page.

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus

[ad_orientem]

It happens all the time. Most of our major diseases originated in some other kind of animal. It's part of life.

Well, nice to see you being so unbothered by it then. But no, let's not question dodgy eating habits. Do you go along with that herd immunity stuff, other than through vaccines, even if it means a high amount of deaths? After all, that's just nature too.

[Nearly Sane]

Interesting article

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-14/south-koreas-rapid-coronavirus-testing-far-ahead-of-the-u-s-could-be-a-matter-of-life-and-death?fbclid=IwAR1IjKVZ-Jb7STJbeYmN1KXTft_zUDMuFaCZIsKalfP2zxrFmhCSyriRja4

[SteveH]

Well, nice to see you being so unbothered by it then. But no, let's not question dodgy eating habits. Do you go along with that herd immunity stuff, other than through vaccines, even if it means a high amount of deaths? After all, that's just nature too.

It does look as though the live-animal markets and some dietary habits in China may be responsible, and we ought to be able to say so without being accused of racism.

[Robbie]

Was asking on FB about what songs to sing from a Glasgow balcony and this is the best suggestion

https://youtu.be/MMNDwtvAtPg

You'd go viral.

It does look as though the live-animal markets and some dietary habits in China may be responsible, and we ought to be able to say so without being accused of racism.

That is true.

I'm working from home  , it had to happen.

[Spud]

I have a question: If vaccination involves being given a small dose of the virus, is there a way in which we could naturally limit exposure to it, and by taking immediate action when experiencing symptoms such as sore throat, not allow the disease to take hold in the body?

My thinking is based on a two year period during which I went from driving a 2002-reg car to a 2007-reg, which had much better power steering. I didn't get a cold in that period. I then sold it and bought another 2002-reg, and pretty soon got a bad cold.

If the upper body and neck is overstrained, I think this predisposes to catching these viruses (obviously other factors are involved, such as not keeping warm).

I've now bought a 2008-reg with good power steering, and haven't caught a cold yet.

I'm also brushing my teeth after every meal, as logically the viruses come in through the mouth, and so keeping it clean helps prevent invasion.

Also changing handkerchiefs regularly helps prevent microbes getting in through the nose.

Does anyone identify with any of this?

[Anchorman]

Was asking on FB about what songs to sing from a Glasgow balcony and this is the best suggestion

https://youtu.be/MMNDwtvAtPg

   


Haud the bus....I've fond memories of listening yto Matt in the first half of a few gigigs.
....you didn't really want to hear him after 'hauf time'....he consumed a bootle of whatever alcoholic spirit was to hand.
That song was written by the brilliant Adam McNaughtan...and if anyone could find any links to his song "The Kamikase budgie' sung to the tune of 'The auld hundreth' - "All people that on earth do dwell", I'd be fair chuffed.

[ProfessorDavey]

I have a question: If vaccination involves being given a small dose of the virus, is there a way in which we could naturally limit exposure to it, and by taking immediate action when experiencing symptoms such as sore throat, not allow the disease to take hold in the body?

My thinking is based on a two year period during which I went from driving a 2002-reg car to a 2007-reg, which had much better power steering. I didn't get a cold in that period. I then sold it and bought another 2002-reg, and pretty soon got a bad cold.

If the upper body and neck is overstrained, I think this predisposes to catching these viruses (obviously other factors are involved, such as not keeping warm).

I've now bought a 2008-reg with good power steering, and haven't caught a cold yet.

I'm also brushing my teeth after every meal, as logically the viruses come in through the mouth, and so keeping it clean helps prevent invasion.

Also changing handkerchiefs regularly helps prevent microbes getting in through the nose.

Does anyone identify with any of this?

Please keep your ill-informed non-sense to yourself Spud.

[ProfessorDavey]

... experiencing symptoms such as sore throat ...

A sore throat is not a common symptom of COVID-19. If you have a sore throat it is likely you don't have it but have a cold.

The most common symptoms are persistent dry cough and raised temperature.

Please can posters here not spread gross misinformation - we are dealing with unprecedentedly challenging times, and misinformation of this kind simply makes matters worse.

Spud - if you don't know what you are talking about, better to simply shut up.

[Walter]

I have a question: If vaccination involves being given a small dose of the virus, is there a way in which we could naturally limit exposure to it, and by taking immediate action when experiencing symptoms such as sore throat, not allow the disease to take hold in the body?

My thinking is based on a two year period during which I went from driving a 2002-reg car to a 2007-reg, which had much better power steering. I didn't get a cold in that period. I then sold it and bought another 2002-reg, and pretty soon got a bad cold.

If the upper body and neck is overstrained, I think this predisposes to catching these viruses (obviously other factors are involved, such as not keeping warm).

I've now bought a 2008-reg with good power steering, and haven't caught a cold yet.

I'm also brushing my teeth after every meal, as logically the viruses come in through the mouth, and so keeping it clean helps prevent invasion.

Also changing handkerchiefs regularly helps prevent microbes getting in through the nose.

Does anyone identify with any of this?

Spud
Your gags are much better than mine , Hilarious 😂😂😂