3 ms·

What does Britain know about coronavirus that the rest of Europe doesn't?

13 points by headalgorithm 7y ago

mytailorisrich 7y ago
They are predicting that the outbreak will not peak before 14 weeks because they are not taking many measures to contain it and say that they are not taking drastic measures now because the peak will be in 14 weeks... This sounds like circular reasoning... Or bad faith.
- samizdis 7y ago
  Or pragmatism?
  - mytailorisrich 7y ago
    They've taken the decision to perhaps limit peak economical impact at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives, but of people who are less productive and cost society while alive. That is pragmatic, yes...
jjgreen 7y ago
I'm very much not a supporter of the current government, but I have to say that I'm impressed by their measured response. It's infectious, we are all going to get it (even those that hide) so let's get on with life, try to slow the spread to keep pressure off the NHS at the peak for sure, but enough already with the flapping. Seems to be a fairly common view in London at least, still hard to get a seat in the pubs on a Saturday night.
- mytailorisrich 7y ago
  Even if we go with this strategy, pressure won't be kept off the NHS and they need to start building extra hospitals extensively right now: Maybe 10% of cases are serious from what I read (rough estimate). If their plan is for 40 millions of us to get this then this means 4 million people in need of hospital treatment. They would need to "flatten the curve" over several years for the NHS to be able to absorb this. Apparently the UK currently has about 6.6 ICU beds per 100,000 people, i.e. less than 5,000 ICU beds in total.
- rasz 7y ago
  Good luck in two weeks.
  - jjgreen 7y ago
    Thanks, and yourself ...
    - rasz 7y ago
      One week so far, 56 dead yesterday alone https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/ https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/
      - jjgreen 7y ago
        And there was me thinking your good wishes were sincere, instead they were sarcastic and nasty. Oh well ...
        rasz 7y ago
        I was realistic. We are at two weeks now and 260 new deaths yesterday. Its unimaginable how stupid UK "plan" was. Btw I read an interesting conspiracy theory today. Dominic Cummings https://news.sky.com/video/prime-ministers-chief-adviser-in-a-hurry-after-his-boss-reveals-he-has-coronavirus-11964540 https://news.sky.com/video/prime-ministers-chief-adviser-in-... , author of herd immunity aka >500K dead at minimum plan spend 10 years in Russia in the nineties. Russia isnt all that fond of UK.
mehh 7y ago
The annoying thing is not being able to get tested. I'm in self-isolation, have a bunch of symptoms that might be coranavirus, or just the usual cold/flu. If I could get tested then I could get back on with stuff once it's cleared, help cover for people who haven't got it yet etc
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

13 points by headalgorithm 7y ago

They are predicting that the outbreak will not peak before 14 weeks because they are not taking many measures to contain it and say that they are not taking drastic measures now because the peak will be in 14 weeks... This sounds like circular reasoning... Or bad faith.

samizdis 7y ago
Or pragmatism?
- mytailorisrich 7y ago
  They've taken the decision to perhaps limit peak economical impact at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives, but of people who are less productive and cost society while alive. That is pragmatic, yes...

jjgreen 7y ago

I'm very much not a supporter of the current government, but I have to say that I'm impressed by their measured response. It's infectious, we are all going to get it (even those that hide) so let's get on with life, try to slow the spread to keep pressure off the NHS at the peak for sure, but enough already with the flapping. Seems to be a fairly common view in London at least, still hard to get a seat in the pubs on a Saturday night.

mytailorisrich 7y ago
Even if we go with this strategy, pressure won't be kept off the NHS and they need to start building extra hospitals extensively right now: Maybe 10% of cases are serious from what I read (rough estimate). If their plan is for 40 millions of us to get this then this means 4 million people in need of hospital treatment. They would need to "flatten the curve" over several years for the NHS to be able to absorb this. Apparently the UK currently has about 6.6 ICU beds per 100,000 people, i.e. less than 5,000 ICU beds in total.
rasz 7y ago
Good luck in two weeks.
- jjgreen 7y ago
  Thanks, and yourself ...
  - rasz 7y ago
    One week so far, 56 dead yesterday alone https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/ https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/
    - jjgreen 7y ago
      And there was me thinking your good wishes were sincere, instead they were sarcastic and nasty. Oh well ...
      - rasz 7y ago
        I was realistic. We are at two weeks now and 260 new deaths yesterday. Its unimaginable how stupid UK "plan" was. Btw I read an interesting conspiracy theory today. Dominic Cummings https://news.sky.com/video/prime-ministers-chief-adviser-in-a-hurry-after-his-boss-reveals-he-has-coronavirus-11964540 https://news.sky.com/video/prime-ministers-chief-adviser-in-... , author of herd immunity aka >500K dead at minimum plan spend 10 years in Russia in the nineties. Russia isnt all that fond of UK.

mehh 7y ago

The annoying thing is not being able to get tested. I'm in self-isolation, have a bunch of symptoms that might be coranavirus, or just the usual cold/flu. If I could get tested then I could get back on with stuff once it's cleared, help cover for people who haven't got it yet etc

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]