MadCatUSA wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:
 :cry:  :(

Wtf?


The UK lockdown update isn’t due until tomorrow or Tuesday, but I’ve done some serious analysis over the last couple of days competing the UK with France, Italy, Spain & Germany.
UK media was making a big thing about the US passing Italy & Spain in the death toll yesterday. No shit Sherlock. Do they even know the size of the US and population differences??

Anywho, Germany has twice as many cases as the UK but 1/4 of deaths. I believe that’s due to testing, testing, testing so they have tried to eliminate spread to vulnerable but also counts anyone with mild cases. If we were doing the same, we’d cut our death rate. UNLESS Germanys deaths starts growing over the next 1-2 weeks.

In comparison to all 3 countries, we’re bc about 2 weeks behind in the growth scale and plateau so we can expect a minimum of 2-4 weeks more of lockdown then a gradual return to a new normal over 2 months. I suspect we will be seeing some sort of normal my all in mid July. That’s if the economy hasn’t collapsed!

However with Italy allowing several million workers back this week, it will be interesting to see if their cases and deaths start rising in 2 weeks time. That would be an indication of what we have to do.

Yesterdays UK Govt news conference however was the worse they’ve had so far. Under pressure to deliver PPE to NHS staff, the clown Priti Patel did not apologise for not delivering the equipment but apologised for people perceiving there was an issue. To say “I’m sorry you feel we’re not achieving” is not an apology but to me it reads in true Tory, “You’re wrong but I’m sorry you think like that” which is very different.

When you look at the graphs available (trusting the info on them, except China unfortunately) then it’s quite clear what patterns are emerging.

And if I can see that, as a simple postal worker, why can’t MPs and scientists

True.

Just read in a UK newspaper, the UK Govt have been considering herd infection

I’m going to armchair QB this bad boy -

Herd immunity is traditionally achieved through vaccinations, but since we won’t have a vaccine until early 2021 (at the earliest), I would like to see the following happen:

- Stay self-quarantined until we’re on the other side of the curve (approximately mid-May)
- Allow people who have been tested positive for antibodies and the lowest risk individuals to fully re-enter the workforce
- Continue to mandate (I hate to use this word, especially when it comes to government) social distance, hand washing, and breathing masks in public
- Slowly roll-out the higher risk individuals once the above paradigm has been fully established
- Depending on healthcare metrics, prepare (via testing) high risk individuals to possibly go back into self quarantine for a fixed amount of time
- Rinse and repeat until vaccine

Hopefully this method would help us avoid viral casualties and at the same time, avoid an economic depression

Deadlord wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:If our worldwide media outlets weren't a complete fucking joke this would have gone a lot better. Journalism has never been a pure art, but over the last 50 years or so it has devolved exponentially into a circus show. The governments knew this too, and since they couldn't count on the media to do the right thing, they have been careful about information.

There are plenty of examples of media doing sensationalism, but it appears the mainline media overall has been doing a good job of informing the public regarding the corona virus.  In my opinion, the highest percentage of false information has come from Facebook and social media "news."  Is that what you are talking about?  

Here’s a random question, probably for Foul, but with the Acaeum site noting its 20th anniversary now, I’d like to find the first few posts for the forums, who were the first few members but also, why is Foul’s registered date 2002?

Just interested in the history  

Deadlord wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:If our worldwide media outlets weren't a complete fucking joke this would have gone a lot better. Journalism has never been a pure art, but over the last 50 years or so it has devolved exponentially into a circus show.

"If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you do read it, you're misinformed." - Denzel Washington

Invincible Overlord wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:
I'm getting a lot of that from my Facebook friends right now. They link misinformation, like the greatness of hydroxycloroquine, and spam it into infinity. Thinking that it's a miracle drug going to save us from the coronorvirus.

Or a bunch of conspiracy theorists saying that this was a plan of rich people to control the planet... heh...

My wife is an ER doctor in Boston, and she is involved in an extensive hydroxycloroquine evaluation.  Also, I can’t speak for the rest of the country/world, but both Massachusetts and New York are fully utilizing hydroxycloroquine treatments for patients in the ICU that are suffering extreme symptoms.  She has said that one of the reasons that they don’t use it on more patients is that the medical community is worried about shortages.  Miracle drug - this hasn’t been indisputably proven, but it certainly hasn’t been ruled out yet by the medical community (despite what we might hear on the news).  I don’t want to come off as a hydroxycloroquine zealot, I’m just telling you what I know to be true.  Our politicians and our news media are being reckless by trying to politicize a pandemic and potential treatments which could potentially save lives.

benjoshua wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:There is now a small study showing that Hydroxychloroquine isn't that helpful.  Here's a brief quote from an article about it:



Here's the complete article:
Hyped Malaria Pill Doesn’t Help Clear Coronavirus in Study

Personally, I'm more excited about Remdesivir, but it's early.  

You have to do a Spock eyelid lift when you realize that the article is in Bloomberg, the test was done in China (reliable reporting there), it has not been peer reviewed, it has a very small sample of testees (it does at least have a control group), and it is isolating the HCQ portion of the full treatment as I understand it. I recall there were three main 'ingredients' in the full regimen, HCQ, zinc, and something else I don't remember. If one is to do an apples to apples study, I think it appropriate one should use apples. It could very well be that it works only with the other elements present, or maybe it's one of the other elements that is really the big cheese in the treatment.

Personally, I wouldn't trust the word of Facebook Warriors or Twitter Twits on pretty much anything without some type of evidence to back up their statements. Just like the press, eh?  

Invincible Overlord wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Or a bunch of conspiracy theorists saying that this was a plan of rich people to control the planet... heh...

David Rockefeller: Memoirs pg. 405 wrote:For more than a century ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents such as my encounter with Castro to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as "internationalists" and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure—one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.

Yep, David Rockefeller is a "conspiracy theorist." A phrase as I mentioned upthread that is way overused and abused.

On a lighter note, (I still work full time on site as I'm considered an essential worker) but I was talking with an older gentleman this past weekend and here's his humorous comment about these coronavirus times...

"It's like being a teenager again.  Gas is cheap and I'm grounded!"