Re: Chinese Coronavirus

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.

Re: Chinese Coronavirus

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.

Re: Chinese Coronavirus

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.

Re: Chinese Coronavirus

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.

Re: Chinese Coronavirus

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.

Re: Chinese Coronavirus

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.

Re: Chinese Coronavirus

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!!

Re: Chinese Coronavirus

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.

Re: Chinese Coronavirus

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.

Re: Chinese Coronavirus

Sadly, and embarrassingly, we still appear not to have taken any real measures to prevent unwanted entry into our country, both legally and illegally!