Coronavirus

[Mudface]

39 minutes ago, Pistonbroke said:

 

You can over worry mate. Just use common sense to reduce the risk of putting yourself in a situation you can get it, up your self cleanliness etc. Avoid public transport if you can, especially if you are in one of the high risk groups from dying due to it. Get a younger family member to do the shopping and so on. If you are going to get it despite taking extra measures then it really is just a case of not really being able to prevent it. At 56 this year I suppose I'm in one of those risk groups, but I have a pretty strong immune system so I'm pretty relaxed about it all, not to say I'm not taking measures to avoid certain situations. 

I'm in my early 50s and am on Methotrexate for rheumatoid arthritis, which suppresses your immune system, so I've probably got a slightly elevated risk compared to others. That's mitigated by me being able to work from home- I've actually just been told not to go down to the Leeds office this month- so I'm relatively isolated from infection vectors.

 

I'm more worried about how it's going to be handled though- ten years of austerity, Brexit and a government of useless, callous fuckwits are terrible conditions to go into something like this with. I simply don't trust them to make decisions based on medical grounds without leaning far more towards economic considerations.

 

The NHS and councils are stretched to breaking point and beyond as it is, there's no 'slack' in the system to really cope with this if it does get bad. Sure, they can (belatedly) start procuring the equipment, especially ventilators, that they're going to need, but we're really short on health staff and beds. Even the army's really low on manpower and of course, all public workers are at least as susceptible to the disease and probably more so given their extra exposure to the public.

 

If anything good is going to come of all this, then I really hope that it kills the small state ideology off once and for all, along with the isolationism that Trump and Brexit are so gung ho for- it needs international cooperation and strong public services, otherwise we're fucked.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

7 minutes ago, Mudface said:

I'm in my early 50s and am on Methotrexate for rheumatoid arthritis, which suppresses your immune system, so I've probably got a slightly elevated risk compared to others.

 

I'm more worried about how it's going to be handled though- ten years of austerity, Brexit and a government of useless, callous fuckwits are terrible conditions to go into something like this with. I simply don't trust them to make decisions based on medical grounds without leaning far more towards economic considerations.

 

The NHS and councils are stretched to breaking point and beyond as it is, there's no 'slack' in the system to really cope with this if it does get bad. Sure, they can (belatedly) start procuring the equipment, especially ventilators, that they're going to need, but we're really short on health staff and beds. Even the army's really low on manpower and of course, all public workers are at least as susceptible to the disease and probably more so given their extra exposure to the public.

 

If anything good is going to come of all this, then I really hope that it kills the small state ideology off once and for all, along with the isolationism that Trump and Brexit are so gung ho for- it needs international cooperation and strong public services, otherwise we're fucked.

 

Thing is this isn't the first virus and won't be the last, especially due to the World being overpopulated and them needing clothes/food/fluids etc. Investing in health care should be the priority of every Gov't, after all, it is our fucking taxes the cunts would rather spend on Nuclear weapons/arms and trying to find fucking life in outer space, bunch of cunts. 

I'm on various tablets for Rheumatism, arthritis, heart stent (to stop it clogging etc) etc...7 tablets a day ffs. For some reason my immune system is pretty strong, although it remains to be seen if it will stay that way should I pick up a shitty virus like this one.   

[Davelfc]

I watched the latest Joe Rogan with Michael Osterholm who is an internationally recognised expert in disease epidemiology. He's the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. 

 

Key points from the interview: 

- His predictions via CIDRAP have been almost spot on to date 
- It's much worse than we think and it's just getting started 
- We're in this for 6-9 more months and they've estimated 90 Million infected and half a million dead 
- This could likely be 10 times worse than the flu 
- Transmissible during incubation period which is about 4 days 
- Primarily deadly for old people and the immunocompromised but now seeing deaths, that age is creeping downwards 
- Obesity and smoking (along with other conditions associated with obesity) are some underlying conditions increasing risk of death 
- Kids aren't getting sick 
- Primary transmission is respiratory and there isn't much evidence that transmission via touching from a surface to your face is actually happening 
- SARS and MERS, both coronaviruses, flourished during hotter weather 
 

An interesting but scary watch. 

 

[niallers]

 

[Strontium]

52 minutes ago, Stickman said:

According to Sky News  The WHO  have called it a Pandemic...I’m pretty sure I haven’t got that album 

 

Won't get flu again.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

Who will be the first to make a film/series about this in years to come, Netflix/Sky/Prime or the BBC with the soothing voice of David Attenborough Icke? 

[Bjornebye]

6 minutes ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

 

Won't get flu again.

Out of rep. 

 

The kids should be alright 

[Guest Pistonbroke]

The City of Bielefeld where I live (approx 350.000) has 9 confirmed cases with over a 100 others in quarantine awaiting results/tests. They've banned all places from holding events with more than 1000 people, football to be played behind closed doors. Any event with more than 50 people needs to have a special pass from the City council. In place until the end of April.

 

My missus works as a speech therapist in various Kindergartens within in the City. She's been asked to take a test voluntarily due to the various multi-cultural groups she teachers. Not sure if this is some sporadic thing or if it's something they are doing with a certain % of teachers. At least we'll find out if she's a carrier and putting my life in danger, the selfish fucker. 

[Alan Sex]

8 minutes ago, Pistonbroke said:

The City of Bielefeld where I live (approx 350.000) has 9 confirmed cases with over a 100 others in quarantine awaiting results/tests. They've banned all places from holding events with more than 1000 people, football to be played behind closed doors. Any event with more than 50 people needs to have a special pass from the City council. In place until the end of April.

 

My missus works as a speech therapist in various Kindergartens within in the City. She's been asked to take a test voluntarily due to the various multi-cultural groups she teachers. Not sure if this is some sporadic thing or if it's something they are doing with a certain % of teachers. At least we'll find out if she's a carrier and putting my life in danger, the selfish fucker. 

https://youtu.be/P9_hegaKOaY

[skend04]

Deaths in Italy have jumped by near 200 today. That's a bit shit.

[johnsusername]

I don't think people here are overreacting. They're concerned about the situation and there's conflicting information about death rates, vulnerability ages etc. Plus the situation seems to be changing and developing by the day. It's all quite unprecedented in my lifetime seeing a virus like this spread across the world. Throw in how quickly things escalated in Italy I think they're right to be concerned. And mostly they aren't concerned for themselves, but more for older family and friends and people they know with health conditions (the type of people we all know).

[Guest Pistonbroke]

Things are heading in a worrying direction in Europe. I'm still relaxed about it all, I'm of the thinking if your time is up then that is it. Doesn't mean I want to die like, or that I'm not worried about family and friends, especially since the majority of us are old bastards. 

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

Guatemala have banned all European nationals from entering the country. India have gone further and banned all foreign nationals from entering. 

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

At least we can be reassured that the 111 and UK testing regime is running smoothly... 

 

 

[Mudface]

36 minutes ago, Nelly-Torres said:

At least we can be reassured that the 111 and UK testing regime is running smoothly... 

 

 

That's appalling, and completely unsurprising.

[Red Phoenix]

4 hours ago, Spy Bee said:

Love this: 

UK to increase its testing capacity for coronavirus to 10,000 tests a day

The United Kingdom's National Health Service has announced that it is scaling up its capacity to test people for the new coronavirus infection, according to a report by BBC.

The increased capacity means that 10,000 tests a day can be done — 8,000 more than the 1,500 being carried out currently.

Confirmation of any positive test results will also be accelerated, helping people take the right action to recover or quickly get treatment.

 

The person who wrote the article obviously majored in English not Maths!

 

Anyway, with this in mind, I am going for 179 tomorrow.

 

Yeah this could be the moment where the figures get a lot worse in this country and we start to see how fucking stupid the recent handling of this has been. Similar to what could happen in the US shortly as well.

[Red Phoenix]

The world is now in the grip of a coronavirus pandemic, the director general of the

World Health Organization has said, as he expressed deep concern about “alarming levels of inaction” in the fight against the spread of the disease.

 

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

Lib Dems have cancelled their spring conference. 

 

I thought that gatherings of under 100 people were alright? 

[johnsusername]

4 hours ago, Nelly-Torres said:

At least we can be reassured that the 111 and UK testing regime is running smoothly... 

 

 

That is shocking. The country doesn't seem prepared at all. Not a surprise though. 

[Dr Arthur De Sabre]

12 hours ago, Red Phoenix said:

 

How can it be personal? The hope of it not spreading through the entire population? It could kill over a million people. I don't think there's any other way they'll deal with this. I could say I'm optimistic about them dealing with this shortly without health services collapsing but I'd be lying, I don't think they care unless it personally affects them. Or I could resign myself to the thought of it just getting worse and us not being able to control it but fuck giving up hope like that.

 

I want them to be outed for the scum they are if this gets worse and then they should be forced to deal with it. Then I hope we never forget what they've done here because it's already in the stage where it will have cost a lot of lives. It's spreading unchecked and they're not even testing properly. They're probably more bothered about raking in cash from the economy before a potential lockdown situation than they are about lives.

Because of your optimism, you are already accepting that there will be deaths and unnecessary deaths at that to force action.

therefore your optimism doesn’t appear to extend to this who will be among the number of fatalities that cause the government to act. Ergo it is somewhat personal, that you will not feel an impact.

[Ne Moe Imya]

Fuming. FUMING. The American health-care system is some sort of dystopic nightmare that has to be experienced to be believed.

 

So ... we think my better half has coronavirus.

 

But we can't be sure, which is pretty frustrating. As I've mentioned before, until recently we lived in Siberia but have just moved to Florida. Yesterday, she started to feel the onset of a flu-like illness. Fatigue, fever, chills, and body ache.

 

Then, the cough started and she got concerned. Dry cough, leading to shortness of breath. Not. Good.

 

She called her primary care physician today to see what we should do. I think both of us assumed that they would test her for the coronavirus and we could decide whether she should be quarantined alone, or whether we should all stay in as a family for a couple of weeks, whatever. You know, get some medical advice that we could follow.

 

Instead, we entered this weird Twilight Zone-esque world, where everyone is panicked about the coronavirus but no one is doing much about it.

 

Her primary care physician says that, based on her description of her symptoms (and keep in mind my wife is a nurse, so she's not some hypochondriac making medical terms up or anything), she needs to get tested for coronavirus right away.

 

"Great," she says. "I'll be in shortly." But no - it turns out the primary care office not only doesn't have any tests, they said that they'd be FINED if anyone with coronavirus showed up there. We were like "what?" but whatever, just tell us where she should go.

 

They recommended a trip to Urgent Care. We called the first place that our insurance accepted, they didn't have any tests either. So we try the second-closest place. They at least said she could come on in.

 

She arrives, and they put her in a room, take vitals, and everyone is dressed up in full protective gear. Seems like they're taking it seriously! Finally!

 

Turns out, they don't have the test either. But they can test for the regular flu, which has a lot of similar symptoms. That’s got to be worth something, right? So they do it, and she doesn’t have the flu. Not. Good. Again!

 

Both of us are thinking “this is definitely the coronavirus, then, right? Or at least, that’s by far the most likely explanation for someone having the exact list of coronavirus symptoms, in the middle of a coronavirus outbreak?”

 

Now it gets weird. The Urgent Care people also seem to think it’s coronavirus, so they call the FL department of health to get a test. They get back a checklist, with only two questions – have you recently traveled out of the country? Have you been in contact with someone who is hospitalized with coronavirus?

 

It didn’t matter that we just got back from a family reunion with people who flew in from all over the US. It didn’t matter what her symptoms are. If she didn’t have a check mark next to one of those questions, no test.

 

My wife was told that they were only testing people who were sick enough to be hospitalized, who were over 65. Not sure if the issue is lack of tests, or something else. So they sent her home.

 

And now we have no idea what to do. Do we send our kids to school tomorrow? Do I go to work? She’s definitely going to just stay indoors, for sure until she’s feeling better and probably a few days afterwards. The rest of us? No idea. Doctors gave us absolutely zero guidance, despite questions. They seemed as confused as we were, to be honest.

 

Given the fact that we are living in a temporary situation in a retirement community until the completion of our house purchase, I am seriously concerned that we are going to infect the whole group. The boys and I are currently feeling fine, so that’s good news and we are praying that we can stay virus-free.

 

In the meantime, I have no idea what to do, despite having spent the whole afternoon consulting with various doctors. Just ... how is this possible?

[Red Phoenix]

5 minutes ago, Michael Winstanley said:

Because of your optimism, you are already accepting that there will be deaths and unnecessary deaths at that to force action.

therefore your optimism doesn’t appear to extend to this who will be among the number of fatalities that cause the government to act. Ergo it is somewhat personal, that you will not feel an impact.

 

The only personal thing I have is not wanting to get coronavirus which is shared by 99% of the population. You'd have to be mentally ill to want it. There's no way I could be optimistic for people that are going to suffer and die before the government acts either, that's also insane. And I could still be one of those people yet, just like anyone else here who's posting from the UK.

 

It's almost as if you're saying I shouldn't be optimistic that the government are going to eventually be forced to do something because people are going to be harmed, so I should just feel shit and without hope instead?

 

The only intent of the post was to try to be positive about something eventually happening instead of doom and gloom.

[TheHowieLama]

8 minutes ago, Ne Moe Imya said:

Fuming. FUMING. The American health-care system is some sort of dystopic nightmare that has to be experienced to be believed.

 

So ... we think my better half has coronavirus.

 

But we can't be sure, which is pretty frustrating. As I've mentioned before, until recently we lived in Siberia but have just moved to Florida. Yesterday, she started to feel the onset of a flu-like illness. Fatigue, fever, chills, and body ache.

 

Then, the cough started and she got concerned. Dry cough, leading to shortness of breath. Not. Good.

 

She called her primary care physician today to see what we should do. I think both of us assumed that they would test her for the coronavirus and we could decide whether she should be quarantined alone, or whether we should all stay in as a family for a couple of weeks, whatever. You know, get some medical advice that we could follow.

 

Instead, we entered this weird Twilight Zone-esque world, where everyone is panicked about the coronavirus but no one is doing much about it.

 

Her primary care physician says that, based on her description of her symptoms (and keep in mind my wife is a nurse, so she's not some hypochondriac making medical terms up or anything), she needs to get tested for coronavirus right away.

 

"Great," she says. "I'll be in shortly." But no - it turns out the primary care office not only doesn't have any tests, they said that they'd be FINED if anyone with coronavirus showed up there. We were like "what?" but whatever, just tell us where she should go.

 

They recommended a trip to Urgent Care. We called the first place that our insurance accepted, they didn't have any tests either. So we try the second-closest place. They at least said she could come on in.

 

She arrives, and they put her in a room, take vitals, and everyone is dressed up in full protective gear. Seems like they're taking it seriously! Finally!

 

Turns out, they don't have the test either. But they can test for the regular flu, which has a lot of similar symptoms. That’s got to be worth something, right? So they do it, and she doesn’t have the flu. Not. Good. Again!

 

Both of us are thinking “this is definitely the coronavirus, then, right? Or at least, that’s by far the most likely explanation for someone having the exact list of coronavirus symptoms, in the middle of a coronavirus outbreak?”

 

Now it gets weird. The Urgent Care people also seem to think it’s coronavirus, so they call the FL department of health to get a test. They get back a checklist, with only two questions – have you recently traveled out of the country? Have you been in contact with someone who is hospitalized with coronavirus?

 

It didn’t matter that we just got back from a family reunion with people who flew in from all over the US. It didn’t matter what her symptoms are. If she didn’t have a check mark next to one of those questions, no test.

 

My wife was told that they were only testing people who were sick enough to be hospitalized, who were over 65. Not sure if the issue is lack of tests, or something else. So they sent her home.

 

And now we have no idea what to do. Do we send our kids to school tomorrow? Do I go to work? She’s definitely going to just stay indoors, for sure until she’s feeling better and probably a few days afterwards. The rest of us? No idea. Doctors gave us absolutely zero guidance, despite questions. They seemed as confused as we were, to be honest.

 

Given the fact that we are living in a temporary situation in a retirement community until the completion of our house purchase, I am seriously concerned that we are going to infect the whole group. The boys and I are currently feeling fine, so that’s good news and we are praying that we can stay virus-free.

 

In the meantime, I have no idea what to do, despite having spent the whole afternoon consulting with various doctors. Just ... how is this possible?

Tell them what they want to hear man.

 

 

[Dr Arthur De Sabre]

12 hours ago, Nelly-Torres said:

Boris Johnson will not be tested for Coronavirus as he has no symptoms. 

 

Sigh! Our response to this seems so disjointed. He could still be an asymptomatic carrier and require isolation. 

Probably looking to expedite his inheritance.

[Ne Moe Imya]

1 minute ago, TheHowieLama said:

Tell them what they want to hear man.

 

 

I don't even think that's an option at this point.

 

We should have probably just said that we just traveled somewhere to make sure that they tested her, but now she's in the file and her answers to the questions are recorded.

 

We have a friend who has a friend in the department of health, so we're seeing if there's a backdoor option to get tested. Either way, we want to know!