My flatmate’s girlfriend was just telling me about this guy she has to care for, in his 80s, who has the attitude that he’s well past his death date so he isn’t going to cower at home and wait to die.
There’s the obvious rebuttal of what about everyone else though…
A society that rejected the collectivism and community of the EU, that made decisions to exclude millions of people on the basis of hate, bigotry, racism and xenophobia is not one that gives a fuck about their fellow man.
Brexiters: you Asians and Muslims will never be British, you will never be one if us. You do not have British values, you are not part of British culture. The sooner we kick you out of our country and save our white culture the better.
Brexiters with coughs: we need to show unity, we are one people, everyone needs to work together.
Ok, who wants to start developing a smell or taste test kit?
Alstein
6541
Maybe they think with the limited time they have left, that it’s better to take the risk than to be miserable in self-isolation for what might be years?
At this point I think the “rugged individualists” are going to win. Hopefully for the sake of society and karmic justice their prize is a Darwin award.
I wouldn’t mind a two to three week China-style quarantine enforced lethally if that would just get it over with.
There were thousands of people side by side in the town centre market and mini mall where I live this week-end. Food and goods were exchanged with no gloves. Some market stalls are cash only. There was no difference to a normal Saturday there.
And, in London itself, how do you think people get to said parks and markets? Public transport for a lot of them.
I know that just passing someone very briefly in a park isn’t a huge deal. But the point is that the Brits are currently very unwilling to change their habits at all. they joke about the virus and ignore it. And that’s something we see and hear over and over again very consistently. Some national parks had some of their biggest attendance this week-end.
It’s the same almost everywhere, some people don’t take things seriously until they have to, until it’s no longer possible to ignore.
It is what it is.
Aceris
6544
Yeah, the idiots are congregating in the places that are still open - and the NT opening gardens for free, while intended to reduce the number of people they need to run the properties and minimise volunteer/customer interactions, has in fact just focussed large numbers of the idiots in small spaces.
Idiots are idiots, certainly.
But beyond the idiot fringe, this is a question (or failure) of leadership. In a situation like this, you need strong, emphatic leadership that people trust in order to get everyone working together.
Old fashioned “alpha” leadership is not very helpful in these kind of situation: puffed-up authority coming from someone who appears falsely knowledgeable (or untrustworthy) in a situation where there is no certainty… is pretty much a recipe for disaster. Unfortunately, the world has few of the former, and way too many of the latter type of leadership.
This is kind of insane, and it’s hard not to believe they’ve looked at the prospect of paying millions not to go to work and decided that, instead, it’s better to let millions die.
One thing I’ve learned over these last few years is that no matter how bad things are, they can always get worse.
KevinC
6548
Hey! Bringing baggage from other threads is against the forum rules. I’m gonna report you! ;)
JonRowe
6549
Look, I know more than what multiple infectious disease experts have been telling us. I am posting on the internet!
This was noted in This Week in Virology podcast. I hadn’t heard this before Friday, but those virologistts seemed to think it was true, and the NYC doctor said he had lots of first hand evidence that
A series of pneumonia cases caused by 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV, also named COVID-19) are being reported globally. Based on recent publications,1–3 the most common symptoms in patients infected by 2019-nCoV were fever and cough. However, the incidence of other clinical features differs in different reports. To address this issue, we collected the data from three reports1–3 and compared the incidence accordingly. We found that the incidence of leucopenia, fever and diarrhoea in the three studies showed a statistically significant difference (table 1). Among these symptoms, diarrhoea displayed the smallest p-value (p=0.016), suggesting that the criteria for diagnosing diarrhoea may differ in different hospitals. Due to the different criteria, clinicians may underestimate the value of this symptom in clinical practice, and it may affect the preliminary diagnostic accuracy.
https://gut.bmj.com/content/early/2020/02/25/gutjnl-2020-320832
The docs on twiv said that some individuals only present with diarrhea then present other symptoms later. In short, this is a virus that displays typical viral symptoms.
Does that mean the person you quoted is wrong? Maybe, as we are still learning a ton about the virus, and may need to be flexible in our thinking as we learn more.
I’m not risking take home until there’s a study. I’m a pretty damn good cook though, so I usually only eat takeout one or twice a month anyway so it’s a far less drastic decision for me.
That’s true of any food though. Are you going to stop eating, or only eat things you’ve grown yourself?
Viruses aren’t robust to heat so if you cook your food you’re ok. I’ve heard suggestions to reheat takeout. For thing you eat raw you can generally wash them.
This is really just a cheap shot. There’s very little content in this thread except for people acting like instant experts. The ones you agree with get a free pass, and the ones you don’t get sneered at.
The word “novel” is in the name for a reason. Acting like the science is certain, at this point, is more about choosing to be opinionated than it is about speaking the truth. The truth is that much is unknown and that the best language to be using would be to describe probabilities and likelihoods.
Finally, I think everyone is entitled to feel worried and be a bit cautious during a pandemic. And to express that caution without being treated like shit and dogpiled with sneers.
Man, I stopped myself from writing something like this about ten times.
