Mutating Corona Virus

[honeybee13]

The independent Sage group published its report and recommendations yesterday.

 

http://www.independentsage.org/read-the-key-recommendations/

[honeybee13]

Thank you for the pdf, TJ.   There's a link in what I posted as well.

[honeybee13]

I think the other thing about Independent Sage is that their meeting was watchable by anyone on Youtube and they've published their findings. It's a contrast to the government's Sage group.

[honeybee13]

Yes. It's not perfect, but at least their opinion is open to challenge by other scientists.

[honeybee13]

The actuaries have published this week's update.

 

https://www.actuaries.org.uk/news-and-insights/news/cmi-anticipates-gradual-decline-excess-weekly-deaths

[honeybee13]

And LSE have analysed the excess death rate in care homes.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/13/coronavirus-real-care-home-death-toll-double-official-figure-study-says

[honeybee13]

31 minutes ago, citizenB said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-52530518

 

Apparently this explains what we can and cannot do from today.. Scotland and Wales have different ideas and rules. 

 

Ryan Air does not seem to care and will be stuffing passengers in all of its seats on 40% of its planes !! 

 

 

 

Really? I think I read that you have to wear a mask but even so...

[honeybee13]

TJ, did you mean to put this on the Article 50 thread?

[honeybee13]

That's a good clip, TJ.

 

The British Medical Journal, BMJ, has a very good article about testing and tracking.

 

https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1918

[honeybee13]

It's crazy, TJ. We've said for a while that strategic testing is the way to know where the outbreaks are, rather then scattergun. It's a missed opportunity.

 

I don't understand about just letting people arrive in the country with no checks either, unless that's changed.

[honeybee13]

The New York Times has a very interesting article on how the 100,000 tests target was reached. It seems to have left problems in its wake.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/world/europe/coronavirus-tests-uk.html

[honeybee13]

22 minutes ago, brassnecked said:

Simple answer don't download the "All your data belong to us" app in the first place.

 

Is it true that you can't ask for your data to be deleted? I think I read that in the last few days.

[honeybee13]

I don't think they know what they're doing.

[honeybee13]

This is very funny and also very sad.

 

Bozo has a briefing about Covid which he doesn't totally listen to and at the end he asks who is responsible for implementing the new plan. In a Yes Minister moment, Mark Sedwill says 'It's you, Prime Minister'.

 

I hope everyone can read this. I can and I'm not a subscriber.

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/coronavirus-boris-johnson-and-civil-service-chief-sir-mark-sedwill-clash-over-action-plan-g05tx5256

[honeybee13]

The Sunday Times had an article about care homes in the Covid crisis yesterday. I'm posting a link that shows the start of the article but sadly it has a paywall at the moment. The first couple of paragraphs don't read well though

 

@anandMenon1 tweeted a bit more of it.

 

'The government was asleep at the wheel. We were sent a public health document on March 13, which said that if any of our residents got significantly ill, they wouldn't be allowed into hospital and would have to die in their home. We've never read anything like it.

 

Elderly people weren't a priority. The government's thinking was: care homes won't be affected. But if anything, the war on Covid is happening in care homes, not just the NHS. The government is boasting about how well it did in protecting the NHS, but the reality is deaths in care homes.

 

Ministers added care home deaths to the figures only two weeks ago. Until then I was screaming at people, saying the figures were rubbish. And we still haven't got a robust testing system. It's ridiculous.'

 

 

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/thanks-to-nhs-managers-ive-now-got-two-care-homes-infected-with-covid-19-xk2n8f6nx

[honeybee13]

Anthony Costello from the independent Sage group and previously of the WHO, says the minutes of Sage's meetings should be made public.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/18/sage-advice-britain-coronavirus-science-government-policy

[honeybee13]

The ONS have reported 55,000 excess deaths up to early May. The FT's figure is at around 62,000.

 

 

[honeybee13]

The actuaries have published their weekly assessment of mortality rates. Their overall figure is very similar to the FT's

 

https://www.actuaries.org.uk/news-and-insights/news/cmi-cautions-fall-excess-weekly-deaths-exaggerated-timing-ve-day

[honeybee13]

This is damning from George Monbiot. 'We were second in the world for preparedness. Then Boris Johnson et al deliberately de-prepared us.'

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/19/uk-government-pandemic

 

[honeybee13]

Captain Tom to Colonel Tom and now he's going to be Sir Tom. Wonderful news.

 

The article says HMG want to recognise unsung heroes of the NHS in due course. They could try having a word with Priti Useless who doesn't seem to want carers coming into the country from our nearest neighbours and is charging them hundreds of pounds a year to use the very NHS that they're helping to keep going.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/19/beacon-of-light-capt-tom-moore-to-be-knighted

[honeybee13]

In reply to post #676

 

One minister more or less admitted that, didn't he, yesterday or today? I'm thinking of the comment about needing to protect the NHS and as I understood it that meant prioritising PPE for them, at the expense of the care homes.

 

OK, there wasn't enough to go round but what would have happened if the government hadn't wasted weeks when it did nothing about ordering supplies?

[honeybee13]

Tragically, the UK government has squandered much of the precious eight weeks bought at such great social and economic cost. The question now is whether it is willing to admit mistakes and do what’s really needed to suppress the virus "

 

Exactly. I won't be holding my breath about them admitting mistakes.

[honeybee13]

Here's an interview with John Ashton, who told Stephen Barclay a few home truths on BBC Question Time. He's medical adviser to Bahrain and helped them organise for Covid. He's talking about pitfalls the UK should avoid when contact tracing.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/20/pitfalls-the-uk-needs-to-avoid-when-contact-tracing-for-coronavirus-john-ashton

[honeybee13]

IIRC, Palantir are already harvesting data and offering their services for free. I hope I'm thinking of the right company.

 

Adding link.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/12/uk-government-using-confidential-patient-data-in-coronavirus-response?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[honeybee13]

What a shame about your phone.

 

I read that Serco's breast cancer screening centre staff dealing with sensitive issues got an hour's training before they were let loose on the public.