Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[madwullie]

56 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

You aren't totally off the mark with this tbf.

But the main difference between Whitty and the likes of Leitch & Devi is the recent tone.

Since struggling to see through cigar smoke, Whitty has played down the issue of cases etc, and generally been quite positive about the road ahead.

Leitch, on the other hand, is as slow to update his views as always. He'll get there, but in the interim period he'll continue to say things that will turn out to be nonsense, and that everyone bar apparantly him already knows it. It's as if he forgets we have access to news from outwith Scotland.

Literally 10 days ago people were screaming for his head because he quoted a model that predicted 30k deaths despite the vaccination program and said that restrictions should not be eased any more quickly than laid out and hinted they may need to be kept on longer. 

The difference is that you pick over everything Leitch says with a toothpick to find something to criticise him for (often not hard tbf), and gloss over the bad shit whitty says and amplify anything leaning positive. Just look at the reaction to Leitch's interview this morning, then compare it with the commentary that @craigkillie provided of what he actually said in the interview. 

Edited March 23, 2021 by madwullie

[Elixir]

16 minutes ago, madwullie said:

Glad someone else noticed this. I've mentioned it a few times now. It's pretty standard across the continent tbh - advisors / scientists have became public personas (ae?) during this, and every man and his dog with a twitter account thinks they know more about public health than time served degree educated professionals. So when the deaths mount up, someone is to blame - then when they start to push for unpopular measures to be continued, the hounds are released. 

Literally the only criticism I haven't seen directed at whitty that Leitch and Sridhar have had (on here) is the panning of their qualifications. In fact, when speaking about his qualifications, it's more likely that they'll say he's shit at his job and his career/qualies are not worth the paper they're written on as evidenced by death rate / infections etc etc etc. Everything else is carbon copy - ideas beyond station, loves sound of their own voice, only want restrictions to continue he so the money / fame / exposure keeps coming in / constant listing of anything they've said that turned out to be BS/ magnification of mistakes and playing down of successes. 

Something else I've noticed is that people tend to deify advisors from other countries instead and gloss over their shortcomings/mistakes. If I'm being kind it's because they don't know about them, but sometimes I think it's their tunnel vision hatred for their own nation's cohort behind it. Believe it or not there's people down south (from reading twitter) who would walk over hot coals to have whitty sacked and replaced with Sridhar. 

Fringe weirdos who advocate eLiMiNaTiOn do also exist south of the border.

13 minutes ago, Donathan said:

Disappointing to see Gregor Smith joining forces with Sridhar to pen an article for CNN promoting a Zero Covid approach. Out of all the SG government briefing regulars, Smith is the one that's had the least to say on the matter in recent months and he often discussed his love of live music and sport on social media so I was under the impression that behind the scenes in Edinburgh, he'd be the one championing a move away from Zero Covid, especially given the views of his counterpart Chris Whitty.

It is particularly noticeable that the CMO of England and the CMO of Scotland are now openly championing different approaches.

Where is this article?

[madwullie]

I just made the mistake of typing whitty sridhar into a twitter search and choosing latest. 

There are some seriously damaged c***s out there. 

 

'Kin hell

 

[Elixir]

Quote

Posted at 19:08

Analysis: No chance of 'zero Covid'

Nick Triggle

Health Correspondent

The vaccination programme is going well, but once again we are being reminded of the threat of a third wave.

Both the prime ministers and his senior advisers made reference to it.

With restrictions lifting, cases are likely to go up – although there is hope the change in seasons will help limit those rises.

Over half of adults are vaccinated, but that still leaves many millions susceptible.

Some will be in the vulnerable groups – either because they have chosen not to take up the vaccine or because it has not worked.

That means people will still die just as they do from flu each year.

In a bad winter, there can be more than 20,000 flu deaths.

Modelling suggests with the vaccine rollout and a careful lifting of restrictions there could be 30,000 Covid deaths by summer 2022.

But the government’s advisers made clear there really is no other option, saying there is “close to zero chance” of zero Covid for a virus that spreads so easily, often undetected because so many do not even develop symptoms.

The challenge now is managing that risk.

Nick Triggle is usually fairly pragmatic and always scoffs at #ZeroCovid when given the opportunity. You love to see it. 

[Thereisalight..]

23 minutes ago, Donathan said:

Disappointing to see Gregor Smith joining forces with Sridhar to pen an article for CNN promoting a Zero Covid approach. Out of all the SG government briefing regulars, Smith is the one that's had the least to say on the matter in recent months and he often discussed his love of live music and sport on social media so I was under the impression that behind the scenes in Edinburgh, he'd be the one championing a move away from Zero Covid, especially given the views of his counterpart Chris Whitty.

 

It is particularly noticeable that the CMO of England and the CMO of Scotland are now openly championing different approaches.

 

 

It really saddens and perplexes me that there is an appetite for zero covid. If people like Devi want folks livelihoods shattered, their mental health deteriorated, enjoyment levels to be non existent all in the quest for some mind boggling utopia. That mindset and "dream" should have been binned long ago, not rearing its head every few weeks 

[HibsFan]

1 hour ago, Scosha said:

Where’s that Hearts gif of P&B getting it right up Leitch and co. Perfect timing for it

 

On 22/02/2021 at 16:21, HibsFan said:

 

[super_carson]

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/23/opinions/ending-global-pandemic-opinion-smith-sridhar/index.html
 

CNN article here.

I’ve only skim-read the article so forgive anything I’ve missed out, but to be fair it does sound like idea of elimination (room for semantic debate) is focused around the phased reopening of society (which both WM and SG are going for, albeit at different time scales), underpinned by the vaccines blocking transmission/serious illness. There are additional things mentioned like test and trace, self isolation etc. but I’m not sure how much there was that’s actually drastically different from the current plan is.  Again, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong as I only skim read the article just now. 
 
While there are some advisors who have seen their professional stock rise and who have managed to carve out a nice little media career, we need to remember that they are only experts in one part of society and not decision makers.  I’ve been guilty of heads gone reactions to all of this, but I’m trying to remind myself that public health is their sole area of responsibility.  I don’t care for their condescending and patronising messages at all, and some of them need to understand that their policies will carry very real consequences for most of the population, but they will not be getting to decide what happens in society long term.  It feels like that now because of the disproportionate focus they enjoy in the media, but their time in the spotlight will end.  

 While some may well promote controversial and unlikely solutions like zero COVID, but their recommendations   should be  be balanced against those from experts in other fields across society.  I think that is starting to happen as we hear more about employment, education and the impact on society. Clearly lockdown fatigue has set in and there is a growing demand for a return to normality.  Once the electorate en-mass move to this position, then leaders should adjust their policies accordingly.  
 

The reason why we are hearing much more outlandish claims from previously unknown experts about masks and distancing for years is that the MSM aren actively looking for click bait headlines that these sort of claims provide.  

[Elixir]

I wonder how much of that was actually Smith and not just him giving it 'aye okay, Devi, that seems fine, put it through'. Unless I missed it, there's no explicit reference to 'Zero Covid', although granted, this seems to have pivoted to a comparison with measles which is equally discredited. It's funny how this has happened as the people advocating 'Zero Covid' have realised what a laughable fringe they are, and are having to market things differently as a result.

 

[madwullie]

How to build trust when people are suspicious of your vaccine 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/23/business/astrazeneca-vaccine-questions.html?referringSource=articleShare

Absolute fannies

[Shandon Par]

10% off at The Chinese to celebrate lockdown.

 

[Elixir]

I mean, the Chinese Government couldn't be more pleased that western 'democracies' and their populations lapped up their unthinkable measures like lapdogs, but here we are.

[Forest_Fifer]

I just made the mistake of typing whitty sridhar into a twitter search and choosing latest. 
There are some seriously damaged c***s out there. 
 
'Kin hell
 

I always check twitter accounts like that to see what their posting rate is. That one is 8.2k tweets in 6 months. They clearly have nothing better to do.

[Baz Chuckle]

Mortality in 2020 in perspective 

[Benjamin_Nevis]

Booked in for my jag on Thursday - it's at the local community health centre so i'm assuming it will be the Pfizer. 

I haven't smoked for about a year but I think i'll make an exception and fire up a Cohiba to celebrate the occasion.

Lovely.  

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

Paulo's posts seem even angrier than usual this evening. Any reason why?

[Forest_Fifer]

Mortality in 2020 in perspective 

Do you have a point you're making? Or do you just like the pretty pictures?

[Elixir]

1 hour ago, Sherrif John Bunnell said:

Paulo's posts seem even angrier than usual this evening. Any reason why?

You confuse me with someone who actually still cares about Hertz or football while this utter nightmare continues to unfold, m8.

I'd happily see Hertz get pumped by Brora Rangers every week until the end of time if it meant an end to this absolute shit show.

[LargsTON]

Sorry if it's been posted already but I think the holiday ban and accompanying fine is for reasons far more obvious than we think.  The UK government simply want us to reinvest in our own economy and flood our own holiday resorts.

[madwullie]

9 hours ago, Baz Chuckle said:

Mortality in 2020 in perspective 

I'm not sure what this is supposed to prove? I mean, I can use an extremely large scale and make 100k+ deaths look insignificant too - or I could use an extremely zoomed in scale and make it look completely and utterly horrifying. But whichever way I present 100k+ deaths, it's still 100k+ deaths.

If you're trying to point out that in recent memory we had that many deaths for other causes then PartridgeShrugging.gif. Of course we did, medical science is improving at an amazing scale every year - the point is, that compared to last year there is a larger jump up than we've seen in many many years - IIRC, since WW1 (it is visble even on this laughable scale) and this year there have been 100k+ more deaths than expected, the vast vast majority of them attributed to covid 19

Edited March 24, 2021 by madwullie

[101]

10 minutes ago, LargsTON said:

Sorry if it's been posted already but I think the holiday ban and accompanying fine is for reasons far more obvious than we think.  The UK government simply want us to reinvest in our own economy and flood our own holiday resorts.

It's not a holiday ban, it's only a holiday ban if you don't have (own?) property to stay in at your destination.

If they want to be elitists their ears need to be ringing with it. 

By putting the stupid clause in how are they going to police that, is a time share a second home? Is a rented property a second home? Are there going to be enough Home Office officials interview rooms to take everyone aside off a plane and find out exactly where they stayed? 

I hope people take the utter piss out of England and their daft rules.

Edited March 24, 2021 by 101