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Coronavirus


Bjornebye

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8 hours ago, Dougie Do'ins said:

Just wait and see the shit we get if a similar thing happens in Liverpool after the celebrations. 

 

There were rallies in lots of places though so you expect to see similar results in those places too.

 

Wouldn't surprise me if there was a dodgy batch of testing kits about.

There was a Leicester MP on the telly this morning indirectly blaming their disproportionate number of densely populated houses. 

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29 minutes ago, The Gaul said:

There was a Leicester MP on the telly this morning indirectly blaming their disproportionate number of densely populated houses. 

Well, "hot-bedding" and densely populated/multi-generational houses would certainly aid the transmission of the virus. I don't see why it's considered outrageous to suggest this?

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3 minutes ago, Dougie Do'ins said:

Why would Leicester be any worse than anywhere else ?

 

According to the MP he said his constituency has a really high number of multi generational households in small houses and densely populated areas. I might be wrong, but I'm sure he said something like "it's not uncommon for 10 or more to live in a 3 bedroom house".  I was only half listening by then. 

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Wow, the last shreds of the US's reputation for not being utter cunts has gone- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/30/us-buys-up-world-stock-of-key-covid-19-drug

 



US buys up world stock of key Covid-19 drug
No other country will be able to buy remdesivir, which can help recovery from Covid-19, for next three months at least


The US has bought up virtually all the stocks for the next three months of one of the two drugs proven to work against Covid-19, leaving none for the UK, Europe or most of the rest of the world.

Experts and campaigners are alarmed both by the US unilateral action on remdesivir and the wider implications, for instance in the event of a vaccine becoming available. The Trump administration has already shown that it is prepared to outbid and outmanoeuvre all other countries to secure the medical supplies it needs for the US.

“They’ve got access to most of the drug supply [of remdesivir], so there’s nothing for Europe,” said Dr Andrew Hill, senior visiting research fellow at Liverpool University.

Remdesivir, the first drug approved by licensing authorities in the US to treat Covid-19, is made by Gilead and has been shown to help people recover faster from the disease. The first 140,000 doses, supplied to drug trials around the world, have been used up. The Trump administration has now bought more than 500,000 doses, which is all of Gilead’s production for July and 90% of August and September.

“President Trump has struck an amazing deal to ensure Americans have access to the first authorised therapeutic for Covid-19,” said the US health and human services secretary, Alex Azar. “To the extent possible, we want to ensure that any American patient who needs remdesivir can get it. The Trump administration is doing everything in our power to learn more about life-saving therapeutics for Covid-19 and secure access to these options for the American people.”


The drug, which was invented for Ebola but failed to work, is under patent to Gilead, which means no other company in wealthy countries can make it. The cost is around $3,200 per treatment of six doses, according to the US government statement.


The deal was announced as it became clear that the pandemic in the US is spiralling out of control. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading public health expert and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Senate the US was sliding backwards.

“We are going in the wrong direction,” said Fauci. Last week the US saw a new daily record of 40,000 new coronavirus cases in one day. “I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around,” he said. He could not provide an estimated death toll, but said: “It is going to be very disturbing, I guarantee you that.”

The US has recorded more than 2.5 million confirmed cases of Covid-19. Some states lifted restrictions only to have to clamp down again. On Monday, the governor of Arizona ordered bars, cinemas, gyms and water parks to shut down for a month, weeks after they reopened. Texas, Florida and California, all seeing rises in cases, have also reimposed restrictions.

Buying up the world’s supply of remdesivir is not just a reaction to the increasing spread and death toll. The US has taken an “America first” attitude throughout the global pandemic.

In May, French manufacturer Sanofi said the US would get first access to its Covid vaccine if it works. Its CEO, Paul Hudson, was quoted as saying: “The US government has the right to the largest pre-order because it’s invested in taking the risk,” and, he added, the US expected that “if we’ve helped you manufacture the doses at risk, we expect to get the doses first”. Later it backtracked under pressure from the French government.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau warned there could be unintended negative consequences if the US continued to outbid its allies. “We know it is in both of our interests to work collaboratively and cooperatively to keep our citizens safe,” he said. The Trump administration has also invoked the Defense Production Act to block some medical goods made in the US from being sent abroad.


Nothing looks likely to prevent the US cornering the market in remdesivir, however. “This is the first major approved drug, and where is the mechanism for access?” said Dr Hill. “Once again we’re at the back of the queue.”

The drug has been watched eagerly for the last five months, said Hill, yet there was no mechanism to ensure a supply outside the US. “Imagine this was a vaccine,” he said. “That would be a firestorm. But perhaps this is a taste of things to come.”

Remdesivir would get people out of hospital more quickly, reducing the burden on the NHS, and might improve survival, said Hill, although that has not yet been shown in trials, as it has with the other successful treatment, the steroid dexamethasone. There has been no attempt to buy up the world’s stocks of dexamethasone because there is no need – the drug is 60 years old, cheap and easily available everywhere.

Hill said there was a way for the UK to secure supplies of this and other drugs during the pandemic, through what is known as a compulsory licence, which overrides the intellectual property rights of the company. That would allow the UK government to buy from generic companies in Bangladesh or India, where Gilead’s patent is not recognised.

The UK has always upheld patents, backing the argument of pharma companies that they need their 20-year monopoly to recoup the money they put into research and development. But other countries have shown an interest in compulsory licensing. “It is a question of what countries are prepared to do if this becomes a problem,” said Hill.

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12 minutes ago, Mudface said:

Wow, the last shreds of the US's reputation for not being utter cunts has gone- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/30/us-buys-up-world-stock-of-key-covid-19-drug

 

 

 

But the government told us we had enough remdesivir for anyone who needed it? Are we suggesting here either the UK, US or both governments are not telling the truth? Shocked I am. Shocked. 

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13 hours ago, The Gaul said:

There was a Leicester MP on the telly this morning indirectly blaming their disproportionate number of densely populated houses. 

We had that over here due to the Tönnies outbreak in the Gütersloh area. Seeds being planted in the public mind that those affected are somehow to blame because of the cramped living conditions they live in due to being Eastern European workers. 

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27 minutes ago, Pistonbroke said:

We had that over here due to the Tönnies outbreak in the Gütersloh area. Seeds being planted in the public mind that those affected are somehow to blame because of the cramped living conditions they live in due to being Eastern European workers. 

I don't think there is any inference of blame, but it is a fact that those kind of living conditions will help the virus spread.

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1 minute ago, Spy Bee said:

I don't think there is any inference of blame, but it is a fact that those kind of living conditions will help the virus spread.

 

I was on about what certain people have said over here, and it was definitely an inference of blame. Thankfully most decent people realise that these conditions were purely down to the meat industry and their shit conditions. 

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My girlfriend got her notice yesterday. She used to work in a small cafe, but the social distancing rules will severely limit customer numbers meaning margins are tight. From August 1st, Employers have to pay National Insurance and Pension contributions so they are letting her go at the end of the month.

 

On the upside, I won't have to get up at 6am each day to drop her off at work........

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3 minutes ago, M_B said:

My girlfriend got her notice yesterday. She used to work in a small cafe, but the social distancing rules will severely limit customer numbers meaning margins are tight. From August 1st, Employers have to pay National Insurance and Pension contributions so they are letting her go at the end of the month.

 

On the upside, I won't have to get up at 6am each day to drop her off at work........

Sorry to hear that pal. I think sadly the hospitality and leisure industries are going to be hit hard. By definition they're where people go to unwind and relax and you simply can't do that while the person serving you is dressed in a hazmat suit and shouting at you to get behind the red line. I got moaned at in Costa the other day and nearly went medieval on the motherfucker.

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4 minutes ago, M_B said:

My girlfriend got her notice yesterday. She used to work in a small cafe, but the social distancing rules will severely limit customer numbers meaning margins are tight. From August 1st, Employers have to pay National Insurance and Pension contributions so they are letting her go at the end of the month.

 

On the upside, I won't have to get up at 6am each day to drop her off at work........

Sad news but I think this is going to be a pretty familiar scenario. There's no chance a lot of pubs, cafés and restaurants can survive on hugely reduced numbers. 

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53 minutes ago, Pistonbroke said:

We had that over here due to the Tönnies outbreak in the Gütersloh area. Seeds being planted in the public mind that those affected are somehow to blame because of the cramped living conditions they live in due to being Eastern European workers. 

The MP I think was talking about Asian families, he was Asian himself, so I don't think he was blaming the public. He did say something like we need different solutions - but aside from not living in those conditions I don't know what that is.

 

The thing is though the numbers are that low throughout the population now I would think if a family of 40 people lived across 4 houses as suggested by the MP, so they're in touch and easily spread, adding 40 people to the number of infections in Leicester now would be massive. Leicester is a city of about 300,000 people and apparently through the nation last week we had 1 in 1700 people infected, so about 175 and that number should be slipping. So if a single infection hit 40 people, that would likely really create a hotspot. I'm not sure the way to solve that is to shut down the entire city rather than try to isolate the smaller area, but perhaps if we had a decent track and trace system they could do that. 

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2 minutes ago, The Gaul said:

The MP I think was talking about Asian families, he was Asian himself, so I don't think he was blaming the public. He did say something like we need different solutions - but aside from not living in those conditions I don't know what that is.

 

The thing is though the numbers are that low throughout the population now I would think if a family of 40 people lived across 4 houses as suggested by the MP, so they're in touch and easily spread, adding 40 people to the number of infections in Leicester now would be massive. Leicester is a city of about 300,000 people and apparently through the nation last week we had 1 in 1700 people infected, so about 175 and that number should be slipping. So if a single infection hit 40 people, that would likely really create a hotspot. I'm not sure the way to solve that is to shut down the entire city rather than try to isolate the smaller area, but perhaps if we had a decent track and trace system they could do that. 

 

Gütersloh area is about 112 square KM's in size and has a population of about 100.000. Over 1500 workers tested positive for Covid from Tönnies. The Gov't/Local authorities acted quickly by quarantining the whole areas where these workers lived and basically introducing stricter measures than the rest of NRW for the City itself. It remains the only City/area with 100.000 residents or more where the R rate is over the desired number, although they have been testing a load of people who haven't had any symptoms and they have tested positive, those with symptoms and testing positive remains moire or less the same as it has been over the last month or so if you take the Tönnies workers out of the equation. 

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Wow, this is astonishingly bad, even by these cunts' standards. The obsession with day-to-day PR and news management is purely down to Cummings and the Tories' desire to get cheap plaudits for Johnson through the likes of the 'Super Saturday' headlines in their pet propaganda sheets. It's a public health crisis for fuck's sake, not a political game.

 

The Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who represents Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford in West Yorkshire, has said that it is “appalling and incomprehensible” that local public health teams have not been getting the full data about people testing positive for coronavirus in their area.



 

Cooper was speaking out following the revelation that in Leicester local officials were unaware of the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak because of the data they were getting from central government.

The Department for Health and Social Care publishes daily UK testing figures, including the figures for pillar 1 tests (tests carried out in hospitals and Public Health England laboratories) and pillar 2 tests (tests carried out by commercial providers, eg at drive-through centres or via kits sent to people’s homes). But daily local figures are only published for pillar 1.

In Leicester this meant that local health officials did not realise that in mid June the number of new coronavirus cases was actually ten times as high as the figure they had been given based on pillar 1 results.

 

 

 

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I’ve just ordered a test. I’ve been feeling like absolute shit since Monday afternoon. 99% sure it’s just one of the bouts of fatigue I get from time to time but seeing as they’ve expanded the list of potential Covid symptoms to include absolutely fucking anything then I thought fuck it. It’s something to look forward to at least. 

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