The biggest killer in the world is heart disease which is down to genetics and lifestyle. Many causes of death do not take people with no warning before their time. While some crazy people go mountain climbing and fall to their deaths or have terrible accidents skiing down the most dangerous slopes they do so by choice. The average person wouldn’t choose to walk across a busy motorway to see whether they get run over.
Spot on Donkeyman, the thing that makes a number large or small is it’s comparison to other numbers…By itself, a statistic is meaningless…To most people they haven’t bothered to look at the number of previous deaths from previous viruses, they just look at the size of the number and compare it to say a football stadium and think Wow! that’s a lot. Fortunately, the world is slightly larger than a football stadium. But the media would have you believe otherwise.
But this is freedom of choice Annie, and it’s not our job to judge…Or is it?
We are practically begging the authorities to take away our freedoms because we have been made so frightened of this invisible killer.
What if the authorities had forced you into a lockdown with no virus?
Have you ever heard of ‘Social Engineering’ Annie? It’s a way of getting people to create their own laws because they think they need them…It’s a very clever way of making people do what the establishment wants.
OGF if we had an Ebola pandemic would you say the same? Many don’t recognise the impact of Covid because so much has been said about a “mild illness”. We understand deadly illnesses that cause external visual symptoms such as smallpox, but because covid’s damage is internal it’s difficult for a healthy person who hasn’t contracted it to see the danger. With Ebola they took emergency measures to stop it spreading to our shores. This one got in. Because it starts so mildly it is like a trojan horse.
Once we understand more about how it works we can argue about getting shot of restrictions but the trouble with this is that it is new and deadly and there’s no cure or vaccine. (yet) I have every faith that we will get over this in a few months.
Let’s stop confusing the issues with all this talk of Ebola. The WHO plus other sources have all stated that the risks of this virus coming to Europe, Australasia and N America are low. In their terms, low usually means virtually non-existent. In any case, there is a tried, tested and fully approved anti-Ebola jab available.
While we’re talking about risks, let’s just ponder what this actually means. There is nothing in this universe that is 100% risk-free. As a corollary of this, there is nothing that is 100% safe either. You just have to learn to mitigate against risk in all of its forms - be it stubbing your toe, catching a cold or crashing into a bus.
One thing I’ve learnt over the years, is that many people will seize upon the number rather than the size of the number (e.g. Risk of A happening is 1 in 1,000,000, risk of B happening is 2 in 1,000,000) and scream “Look B is 2 times as bad as A. Help!” That’s a load of BS imho because the relative risk is still very, very, very, very tiny.
Let’s stop confusing the issue by looking at global deaths as some sort of explanation that there is no danger from Covid. It’s the same as comparing it with flu, road deaths, suicides. I’m sure there were plenty who thought the same of bubonic plague, Spanish flu and smallpox.
The World Health Organisation warned all the countries in the world that a pandemic was coming and to be prepared. Taiwan responded to that. They immediately locked down the whole country, broke open their stocks of PPE and put their extremely well funded health care service in high alert. They are now completely clear of Covid and have been for some time.
In the UK, priority was given to the economy before people. The second priority was not to overwhelm the NHS which has been torn apart by privatisation and severe under-funding for years and years. We only went into lockdown when Boris was faced with no alternative.
The decision to return the elderly to their care homes whilst still infectious is something the UK Government should be held responsible for… The Nightingale Hospitals were never fully equipped and never full…because of that lack of equipment! The UK has zero alternative options to the present government…and I thank god that Jeremy Corbyn didn’t get in at the last general election…so Boris is our only option…but we should all be looking out for ways he will take personal advantage of every situation…as will most of his cronies. Does he care about ordinary people? Only as a fraction of GDP…
BUT…at least he’s not suggesting we drink bleach!!
When I say that our governments were warned about a coming plague, I mean to say that we had years and years of warnings. Certainly long before we ever heard of Covid-19.
In my opinion, to not stockpile hundreds of millions of face masks is nothing short of criminal negligence. Will the next administrations learn anything from this pandemic ? No ! I doubt it. When this pandemic has run its course, it will be back to “business as usual”.
It is passed time that the people rise up by the millions and demand that our governments stockpile PPE’s in sufficient quantities to deal with any future pandemic. This pandemic is bad enough, but the next one could be MUCH, MUCH worse. There is no telling what China will release upon us the next time. Heaven knows that many nations have germs and viruses so horrible, that make Covid-19 look like the common cold.
Supposedly, we the people of the U.S. and the U.K are 1st world nations and not some backward banana republic. Why we did not, at the 1st hint of this virus, raise the drawbridges, and slam shut the gates, totally escapes me. The only reason I can think of is ineptitude on a massive scale.
Good post, LL, especially the second paragraph.
I’m afraid we, regardless of which party happens to be in power, seem to be rather unprepared generally and slow to react to possible threats, and that appears to have been the case for a number of years now.
Sadly, and embarrassingly, we still appear not to have taken any real measures to prevent unwanted entry into our country, both legally and illegally! :roll:
I think we should stop considering the US and UK to be the top-dogs of the world while making deprecating comments about countries such as Korea and Taiwan. The latter have proved their preparedness to the world and we should be taking their advice in future.
As for China…there’s nothing I like about the madman Trump (although his madness is in itself a realistic and handy threat to some) but Trumps use of the “Chinese Virus” and references for China to make some kind of admission/apology/explanation is brilliant! Personally I think we should have economic sanctions against China…I would be very happy to see their economy suffer!!
As it happens I think countries do have such stockpiles, Australia certainly did BUT they were severely depleted by the mega bushfires along the east coast early in the year when they had to be used because of the smoke pollution. Fortunately local industries were able to produce masks but there was a shortage at one stage early on.
It is also true that countries do have pandemic rehearsals on a regular basis again Australia did but after the 2008 exercise didn’t run another and this lack of practice may well have caused the Ruby Princess incident and the mixed messaging coming from the PM (Scotty from Marketing) in the early stages of Australia’s response.
Global Cases 5,405,186
Global Deaths 343,983
Australia
Cases 7,114
Deaths 102
Critical 5
Cases per Million 279
UK
Cases 257,154
Deaths 36,675
Critical 1,559
Cases per Million 3,790
USA
Cases 1,666,828
Deaths 98,683
Critical 17,133
Cases per Million 5,039
I saw on the evening news that the first clinical trial of a Covid-19 vaccine on humans is now underway. This vaccine was previously tested on monkeys and the monkeys did not get Covid-19 when they were injected with the virus 30 days AFTER the vaccine.
So far, it appears that humans do not have any side effects from the vaccine. Since it would be unethical to deliberately expose humans to the virus, only time will tell how effective it truly is. However it is looking very good.
When will the vaccine be ready for mass inoculations ? Scientists are hoping that mass inoculations will begin late this year.
Sorry, I have no link. I only heard it on the nightly nationwide TV news.
Global Cases 5,500,679
Global Deaths 346,721
Australia
Cases 7,114
Deaths 102
Critical 5
Cases per Million 279
UK
Cases 259,559
Deaths 36,793
Critical 1,559
Cases per Million 3,825
USA
Cases 1,686,436
Deaths 99,300
Critical 17,135
Cases per Million 5,098
Today was the first day of full time NSW state schooling since the crisis started. Interestingly the local station car park still only contained a dozen or so cars (normally it is full of Sydney commuter’s cars) so either people are avoiding public transport or they are not returning to work yet.
They should use the prison population - especially murderers/rapists/terrorists/child molesters - not just for C19 but any new vaccines. It could act as a deterrent .
Anyway - good to know there is light at the end of the tunnel!
Trouble is Tabby, if it works and we all die of corona before they get the vaccine to us, the world will be full of murderers/rapists/terrorists and child molesters…:shock:
Isnt it allready OGF??
Donkeyman!
I don’t think there is much light at the moment these are very early days. Remember the much heralded and promising Oxford trial was started on monkeys and was abandoned because all the monkeys became infected with Covid19.
It is more media hype and wishful thinking than science at the moment. There are bound to be more disappointments before either a vaccine or an effective treatment is found.
The Marrsbar interviewed the boss of AstraZeneca yesterday about this vaccine trial. He said they are making provisions for 100,000,000 shots to be available in the UK by September if it works. Their other factories around the world will be making shed-loads more for their local markets. He said that the cost/shot to the NHS will be no more than £2 and that will cover the manufacturing and distribution costs only. Here’s a DM link to the interview: