Coronavirus

[Ascender]

Back from my Covid swab test which was thoroughly unpleasant! Yet another reason to be thankful for the NHS workers and anybody else having to get that done every week or so.

[Marv]

Still finding the whole thing fascinating.

Americ is a total shit show still, and doesn’t seem to be getting better any time soon. Case numbers still not peaked.

From the car and motorbike channels I follow, which are based in the USA, it really does seem that the majority of Americans aren't bothering to socially distance, or wear masks. They're carrying on like the virus doesn't exist.

[Nefarious]

Wearing a mask with a beard is a bugger.

It's a look. The other day, I could've sworn I saw Immortal Joe in my local supermarket.

[nuttinnew]

[mention]Jobbo[/mention] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53552557

[Jobbo]

Fortunately doesn’t seem to be contagious between cats

[nuttinnew]

At least your clutter should be ok then, now to find out if it can go cat to human or cat to other animals.

[Ascender]

I see all the talk from the government now seems to be about spikes leading to a second wave in Europe and they’ve even started talking about the dangers of this alongside the seasonal flu later in the year. That and the state of the economy, not to mention big companies not wanting to send people back in to offices is really making it look like its going to be a very grim second half of the year and for the foreseeable after that.

[duncs500]

You're probably right. Won't be an instant fix, but we really need one of these vaccines to work asap!

[Marv]

Yep, might be tough times ahead. If the government are starting to take a more cautious approach, I think thats a good thing.

[integrale_evo]

I don’t quite follow the logic of a winter second peak when all the biggest peaks so far seem to be in warmer climates, but yeah, if you’re already weak with flu then a dose of COVID on top is likely to finish you off.

If people are generally being more wary, not gathering in large groups, not getting close to lots of strangers, being more careful with their hygiene, wearing masks etc then surely that will also help slow the spread of other infectious diseases too?

I know more people who’ve been struggling with snots and sneezes recently due to hay fever than I usually see suffering from coughs and colds at any one time in winter!

[Broccers]

Seems to be a problem where people are bunched together so a plane unsurprisingly isn't a good place or a cramped house or hotel.

The death percentage of the population is still tiny.

[integrale_evo]

It’s interesting that the government is regularly criticised for the lack of testing ( which definitely was the case at the start of the outbreak in the uk ) that were 14th out of 215 listed counties / territories in the world with 224,000 tests / million population.

Some way ahead of regularly praised countries like Germany at 88,500 / mil, Spain at 124,000/mil and to quote trump “ best testing in the world” USA at 167,000/million

[Swervin_Mervin]

I saw something the other day about us being on over 200,000 tests but didn't check it out.

I've also seen a tweet suggesting that one of the motives behind adding all of Spain to the quarantine list is actually because of Spain's national holiday period kicking in on the 1st Aug, and the potential for those in the worst affected regions to suddenly head to the tourist hotspots and potentially spread it all about

[Ascender]

Do the different regions of Spain not have developed powers which means its difficult for the government to put a consistent approach In place? Or did I just make that up?

[DeskJockey]

Do the different regions of Spain not have developed powers which means its difficult for the government to put a consistent approach In place? Or did I just make that up?

Devolved?

[Ascender]

Do the different regions of Spain not have developed powers which means its difficult for the government to put a consistent approach In place? Or did I just make that up?

Devolved?

F*cking hell, I honestly think autocorrect & autocomplete are more trouble than they’re worth.

[Jobbo]

Do the different regions of Spain not have developed powers which means its difficult for the government to put a consistent approach In place? Or did I just make that up?

Devolved?

F*cking hell, I honestly think autocorrect & autocomplete are more trouble than they’re worth.

I turned mine off for a week recently, but I wasn't any quicker, it turns out. I wish you could just turn off the thing which changes words before the one you're currently typing, and turn off the thing which keeps changing the one you've just typed to the same word you've already deleted and re-typed because the autocorrect was wrong!

[ZedLeg]

I wonder how many times the government will change their minds about a second wave coming.

[Ascender]

Saw this earlier...

The Covid-19 pandemic is unfolding in “one big wave” with no evidence that it follows seasonal variations common to influenza and other coronaviruses, such as the common cold, the World Health Organization has warned.

Amid continued debates over what constitutes a second wave, a resurgence or seasonal return of the disease, Margaret Harris, a WHO spokesperson, insisted these discussions are not a helpful way to understand the spread of the disease.

The reality is that the issue of second waves has been a contentious one, much talked about by politicians – including the UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson – and the media, but often very ill-defined.

With no agreed-upon scientific definition, the term “second wave” has been used to mean anything from localised spikes in infection to full-blown national crises, leading some experts to avoid it.

“‘Second wave’ isn’t a term that we would use [in epidemiology] at the current time, as the virus hasn’t gone away, it’s in our population, it has spread to 188 countries so far, and what we are seeing now is essentially localised spikes or a localised return of a large number of cases,” said Linda Bauld, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh.

[duncs500]

Watch out in Glasgow lads!