Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Granny Danger]

7 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said:

Bidey-oot. A bidey-in who doesn't live with you.

Mrs Monkman.

[Honest_Man#1]

9 minutes ago, MONKMAN said:

 

Our what?

 

I think it’s some yokel speak for someone you’re shagging.

8 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said:

Bidey-oot. A bidey-in who doesn't live with you.

Yep. 

[19QOS19]

Not always been NS biggest fan but her statements are clear concise and without bullshit. Those fucking idiots down the road could learn a lot from her

That is almost word for word what I said a couple of hours ago.

[Granny Danger]

1 hour ago, Carl Cort's Hamstring said:

They're still going with the nothing to see here line. Incredible.

 

This is genuinely Trumpian.  Giving the police a difficult job to do at a difficult time then totally undermining them when it suits your political agenda.

[Florentine_Pogen]

3 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

This is genuinely Trumpian.  Giving the police a difficult job to do at a difficult time then totally undermining them when it suits your political agenda.

.....and no doubt the thin end of an increasingly thickening wedge.

[Todd_is_God]

A quite interesting breakdown on Spanish cases based on antibody testing

 

[Blootoon87]

The reporter from the Sun getting to the key point and asking NS when we can all resume pumping our bidey-oots

Finally, someone asking the big questions. What was the answer?

[DeeTillEhDeh]

So why were these 2 people fined for similar 260 mile trips yet Cummings was not?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-politics-52801574

[Mark Connolly]

7 minutes ago, Blootoon87 said:

1 hour ago, Mark Connolly said:

The reporter from the Sun getting to the key point and asking NS when we can all resume pumping our bidey-oots

Finally, someone asking the big questions. What was the answer?

Don't do it yet

Quote

The first minister acknowledges that this is "particularly difficult" and says her government is looking at the issue "specifically". She cannot provide a date at the moment, but hopes to be able to address the situation in the "not too distant future".

 

[s_dog]

1 hour ago, RiG said:

Telegraphy reporting that a Durham Police investigation concludes that Cummings did break lockdown rules. 

Despite the police basically being called liars by some at Westminster, it is worth pointing out that the police are now only saying he broke the rules with the trip he made while in Durham (the implausible test his eyesight), not that he broke any rules by driving to Durham in the first place.  Even that seems a bit of a cop-out to me, as it's now all those people that have struggled to cope with their kids without any help, not travelled to funerals of one of their own parents etc, that are the ones who are wrong, as a number of Tory ministers have alluded to in their comments. Even in times of a public health crisis it seems they can't ignore their individual rights trump everything.

 

Bit of a long read, but - Instinct or rules: making moral decisions in the Cummings scandal.

"Nowhere is this clearer than in a public health crisis.  If we all follow the lockdown rules, then we have a good chance of reducing infection rates.  But if we all are free to follow our instinct, to do what we personally think is right, then we have absolute chaos and the complete absence of an effective public health policy. As Irish Times journalist Fintan O’Toole said “We endure these things individually because we understand ourselves to be also enduring them collectively”.  

 

1 hour ago, Carl Cort's Hamstring said:

Looking forward to tonight's press conference. This should be the theme:

Did Mr Cummings lie to the Prime Minister when he said he acted legally and reasonably?

If he didn't lie, does this mean that neither he or the Prime Minister (or the Attorney General) understood their own rules?

a) apparently the Prime Minister has says he considers the matter closed. So I'm guessing he (or whoever fronts it on his behalf) will do the same as yesterday, try to shut down the question and move on. Johnston will just bluster, or if it's Hancock, he'll just laugh his way through it.

b) now all the anti-SNP/Scotland folk are running around trying to get behind the Blackford travelled even further than Cummings, why's he not sacked. Despite him doing the same as probably quite a number of MP's and leaving London once lockdown started, to return home, and there being absolutely no evidence that he's travelled anywhere since. Again despite the fact we've already been told that people are allowed to travel for work reasons and besides, where was the fury when cabinet member Robert Jenrick travellend between London and his house in  Herefordshire, which happened in April, well into lockdown, and not right at the start.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18478298.coronavirus-ian-blackford-isolated-600-mile-trip-skye-home-lockdown/

 

[DeeTillEhDeh]

I'm pretty comfortable in accepting the whole thing was unprecedented. 
However, anyone looking at this and thinking we have done the right thing or that the response has been good, is a lost cause. The inquiry will come, but the response has not been the correct one. The politicians and scientists can fight it out and blame each other, but they both got it wrong pre-lockdown, with everything that went wrong after that point being the government's fault. 
Still, I'm sure "valuable lessons learned" and all that will be the attempted deflection. 
There is no getting away from the fact this has not gone well at all. 

They got it wrong well before even this.

The general preparations for any pandemic had been scaled back for years before this.

[s_dog]

4 hours ago, Carl Cort's Hamstring said:

The government have said that you can't compare deaths tolls between countries because of different recording practices/lack of comparable data, and that excess deaths would be a better measure.

Well, the results are in, and we're the worst in the world:

 

If only we'd entered lockdown a couple of weeks earlier than we did, and realised that while we needed to create space in hospitals for Covid-19 cases, it wasn't a good idea to put the elderly 'bed-blockers' into care homes without some kind of contingency plan for testing them first. Maybe then our figures would have been nowhere near as bad. England clearly has the worst level of excess deaths, but I'm more interested why in Scotland, we have a higher figure (53%) than N. Ireland & Wales (42 & 41%)?

[Michael W]

40 minutes ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

They got it wrong well before even this.

The general preparations for any pandemic had been scaled back for years before this.

This is true, but if we had locked down a week earlier then many lives would also have been saved despite that. Perhaps if more attention had been shone on that previously, we might've done so. 

Failing to prepare is one thing and hindsight is indeed a wonderful thing, but we could've mitigated the poor preparation by acting sooner. 

[Todd_is_God]

Really encouraging trends continue.

One to watch tomorrow is new infections. Last Friday saw 113, the last time it was triple figures. Similar numbers tomorrow as announced today would see around 10 come off of the 7 day average; a quite considerable drop at this stage.

29 would see it hit 50 but I think that is perhaps too optimistic.

 

[carpetmonster]

51 minutes ago, s_dog said:

Despite the police basically being called liars by some at Westminster, it is worth pointing out that the police are now only saying he broke the rules with the trip he made while in Durham (the implausible test his eyesight), not that he broke any rules by driving to Durham in the first place.  Even that seems a bit of a cop-out to me, as it's now all those people that have struggled to cope with their kids without any help, not travelled to funerals of one of their own parents etc, that are the ones who are wrong, as a number of Tory ministers have alluded to in their comments. Even in times of a public health crisis it seems they can't ignore their individual rights trump everything.

 

Bit of a long read, but - Instinct or rules: making moral decisions in the Cummings scandal.

"Nowhere is this clearer than in a public health crisis.  If we all follow the lockdown rules, then we have a good chance of reducing infection rates.  But if we all are free to follow our instinct, to do what we personally think is right, then we have absolute chaos and the complete absence of an effective public health policy. As Irish Times journalist Fintan O’Toole said “We endure these things individually because we understand ourselves to be also enduring them collectively”.  

 

a) apparently the Prime Minister has says he considers the matter closed. So I'm guessing he (or whoever fronts it on his behalf) will do the same as yesterday, try to shut down the question and move on. Johnston will just bluster, or if it's Hancock, he'll just laugh his way through it.

b) now all the anti-SNP/Scotland folk are running around trying to get behind the Blackford travelled even further than Cummings, why's he not sacked. Despite him doing the same as probably quite a number of MP's and leaving London once lockdown started, to return home, and there being absolutely no evidence that he's travelled anywhere since. Again despite the fact we've already been told that people are allowed to travel for work reasons and besides, where was the fury when cabinet member Robert Jenrick travellend between London and his house in  Herefordshire, which happened in April, well into lockdown, and not right at the start.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18478298.coronavirus-ian-blackford-isolated-600-mile-trip-skye-home-lockdown/

 

The Guardian did report on Jenrick; I suspect there wasn't more outcry solely because he isn't a household name in either of his own houses. 

[Bairnardo]

Did they ever say whether covid is affected by hot weather?

[Granny Danger]

6 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

Did they ever say whether covid is affected by hot weather?

Said on the radio the other day UV breaks down viruses.

[bennett]

2 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

Said on the radio the other day UV breaks down viruses.

Maybe we could find a way to get UV rays inside people....

[die hard doonhamer]

Just now, bennett said:

Maybe we could find a way to get UV rays inside people....

Inject them with fake tan.

[vikingTON]

There's little evidence that weather/UV has a direct impact on contagion but plenty that the unhealthy and vitamin D deprived diet of most Scots makes sunlight essential to a properly functioning immune system.