Blah Blah

I appreciate that Ole, but it is a splitting hairs kind of argument to be fair. Everyone seems to have forgotten why the lock down was necessary, and the death and ICU figures at the peak (which did not include care home deaths at the time), a peak that would have been much higher and prolonged without a lockdown. The virus has not gone away. All it would take to see the exponential growth of infection and death back to those levels (and worse) is for life to go back to the way it was before. People have to understand that there are going to be ongoing compromises in order to keep that infection rate low. As seenbeen's post above illustrates, covid is not just impacting lungs, it is impacting other parts of the body, and there are a range of conditions it can induce. Science and government try to simplify this stuff, but in reality it is always far more complex for those actually treating the various conditions. I also would argue that over time, we will shift from conversations about deaths caused, to ones around recovery from the various induced conditions and lasting impacts and complications that result. This may define public health spending in turn.

Ole and Jimlad, waves of people suddenly presenting at hospitals with severe respiratory illnesses happened. At one point, 900 people were dying EVERY day. No other virus does that. Had we let the virus spread freely, as we do with colds and seasonal flu, how many people do you think would have been flooding hospitals? For every death, there were 4 others needing ICU care to recover! And btw, most of those who die from seasonal flu, do not have the annual vaccine. The use of a vaccine is a fundamental tool of containment. We have no vaccine for covid yet. Understand the difference please. Very good programme on BBC last night, called 'Covid, my Brother and I'. In that you got some essence of the range of complexities around this virus. Data showing for example that the rate of strokes is above average in patients carrying the covid virus. These are patients that had no prior underlying illness. We focus on the respiratory illnesses because that is the primary function of covid, to attack the ACE2 receptors in the respiratory organs, causing severe inflammation. But there is emerging evidence of impacts in other areas of the body that induces conditions in some that they would not be suffering from otherwise. Scale all of that up to half of the nation getting this virus and you get a picture of many hospital departments and resources being challenged potentially. This is NOT flu, and the comparisons to that have to stop.

Uncle, as others have pointed out, the WHO has NO power to tell any government what to do. None whatsoever. Also, by the time they were told about this virus, it had already traveled beyond China's borders. You should understand by now that one of the very tricky things about this virus is that it takes WEEKS to show symptoms, and not all carriers of the virus show the same type or degree of symptoms either. You can't see a virus you know nothing about the existence of until someone presents at a hospital with a severe illness. In reality, the WHO is a body that is reactive, collating data and information and then advising governments on what to to. It has a track record of being slow to declare pandemics, but that is partly because not every new virus that emerges leads to a pandemic, so there is a kind of initial 'wait and see' approach. There is some sense to that or we would be locking down economies every few years. Even though there has long been a 'not if but when' understanding of pandemic threat, it still catches us out when that global pandemic finally arrives. Also, to be fair, the expected pandemic has tended to be a novel avian flu mutation (something we have a much deeper understanding and experience of) over a challenging SARS virus that we are still struggling to fully understand. So for all those reasons, Spartacus is right. The whole world lacked the best outcome response (in spite of everything it knows) when that pandemic finally came. The countries that were best prepared were those with recent experience of dealing with SARS, MERS, EBOLA, who already have their community led track and trace networks in place, tried and tested. But even there, the economic impacts (and knock on public health impacts) can not be avoided. And some of those places are least able to absorb and recover from those. We are where we are. Things are going to be tough for a while. Displays of outrage aren't going to change that. The key is to have a working plan, that we all do out part to enact, and hope that we get to a vaccine or other effective treatment as soon as possible.

Do not feed the troll.

Agreed Spartacus. There are two worlds operating in parallel here. There is the front line, the hospitals and medical and care staff witnessing first hand the deaths and serious illness caused by this virus, and of course, the families and friends of those impacted by that. And then there is the other world that is protected from seeing any that first hand. The world that is ordered to lock down, asked to social distance and wear masks. And it is in that other world, you will find the naysayers, conspiracy theorists, unbelievers of course.

Says the parody account that makes a big deal out of and refuses to wear a face mask! Pot calling kettle black clearly ;)

John L is right. It takes at least two years to assess if a new virus leaves immunity and longer to understand any longer term damage. If we employed no measures to contain the spread, we would literally be playing Russian Roulette. Yes there is a sensible and proportionate balance to be met, and government is still trying to find out where that is. Everything will change when winter comes (sounding like Game of Thrones now!) - when people are coughing and sneezing from seasonal infections. This is where the danger of a second wave lies, and it is a real danger. Covid is not just another bug. Hospitals don't have to expand ICU wards for any other bug. What part of that is so hard to grasp? People have a choice. Be part of trying to hold back a second wave, or go on as before. And when we are still talking about this in December, and if the country is locked down again, because our hospitals are filling with sick covid patients, we'll see what the mask naysayers have to say then.

So you are a bully as well as a troll then dontbesilly? And btw, herd immunity is never achieved without help of a vaccine.

While you are right jimlad, on the incoherent messaging and half-hearted approach to guidelines, you are completely wrong to think covid is only killing people with a few months or years left to live. That too is a failure of government messaging. What overwhelms hospitals more than those who die, are those who don't. Those who eventually recover but need intensive care to do so. Those people are of all adult ages and no-one knows yet, the level of immunity those people have, how long that lasts and if any longer term damage is caused by the illness. Now scale that up to what we would see if we allow the virus to spread freely. All the points you make about the economy are valid. That is why avoiding another spike when cough and colds hit in the winter is really important. Wearing a mask is one small measure that might help to avoid that. Throwing a hissy fit over having to wear one for the few minutes you spend in a shop is the over reaction I think ;)

When cockerals get to sexual maturity, they can and do fight each other yes. But a lot depends on how many hens there are and size of the roaming areas/ pens. Cockerals will be very territorial around 'their' hens. My parents have around 40 hens and three cockerals (the going rule is 10+ hens per cockeral). And they have a lot of space to roam. So if there are enough hens, the cockerals will work it our for themselves. Every now and then, you get a cockeral that is just too aggressive and won't tolerate another one though. So in terms of the person keeping four chickens of which two are hens and potentially two are cockerals, they are more than likely going to have problems once they get to sexual maturity. You can't keep two cockerals with just two hens. If there are no hens however, cockerals can live together just fine most of the time.

Security are there to catch shoplifters, not to turn away potential trade. In other words, the bottom line is revenue and unless the government makes the shop itself liable for failure to make sure customers wear masks, they won't bother enforcing anything.

Well, people can't complain if we are back in lockdown come October then. People that don't bother to wear masks are also probably not bothered about social distancing either, or bothered about getting the virus even. They are the ones that will send the R number up (it is already rising) and will be to blame for any action the government has to take as a result.

Agree with Sue. That is an excellent response. Crow collars tend not to stop the crowing, just the volume of it. So it will be a case of wait and see. I wonder how old the birds were when they got them? By the times chicks are 8-10 weeks old, it is pretty easy to tell male from female.

Believe it or not, some people can actually sleep through that! My parents have three cockerels on their farm, kept overnight in pens about 100 meters from the house. I told them last night about this and they said exactly the same thing rah - who on earth keeps a cockeral in the middle of a city? There really is no effective way to silence them either. So not sure how this one is going to pan out.

Yes, it has to be a next of kin, but his niece can do that. She just has to make the application for administration and then can write to the bank to release the funds directly to the funeral director. That all happens very quickly as well, so while complicated, it is a well oiled system, so to speak. Hopefully it all sorts itself out for you.

The answer is no. You are not required to be responsible for funeral or any other costs. Relatives however can apply for help with funeral costs from the DWP (Funeral Expenses Payment) if they want to take care of that, but it is never enough to cover more than the most basic funeral and is means tested. Money in the deceased's bank accounts can also be used for funeral costs on writing to the bank. Probate is only required if there is an estate above a certain value. Most commonly kicks in when someone is leaving a house behind with no will. The probate is necessary in order to claim the assets (and pay any taxes due on them). If no-one comes forward to take care of a funeral for someone, then the state will take care of a basic cremation and scattering of ashes (Public Health Funeral). Edited to add, the niece who does want to arrange a funeral can also apply for the help listed above. She should start by applying to appoint herself administrator, and then apply for a funeral expenses payment. Lot's of useful info for her here; https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/death-and-wills/dealing-with-the-financial-affairs-of-someone-who-has-died/

TheCropolite Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Did the chickens on the corner of Glengarry/EDG > wake everyone up at 5am everyday? Hens do not crow. Roosters are only needed if you are breeding chicks from the eggs the hens lay.

Why anyone is keeping a cockeral in a dense urban residential area is baffling. It is going to cause no end of disturbance for a lot of people and especially in Summer. Even on farms, the cockeral is far enough away from the house to not be a nuisance. The question is why they are keeping a cockeral? You don't need one for hens to lay eggs. So the owner may be breeding chickens (for food or otherwise) and that has a lot of other considerations attached that may or may not be being kept. Do the deeds of the property allow for the keeping of livestock for example. Hens and chickens are not pets. Some residential deeds do not. Worth contacting the council too to see what their bylaws say.

I spoke with someone from the gym I use mostly a few days ago and was told that they are still working on how to implement the requirements for reopening. They did not give me a date for reopening yet.

It is also clear that Boris is going to continue pitting leavers against remainers too. So much for seeking to unify the country. The Labour Party meanwhile, has the embarrassment of Corbyn refusing to acknowledge the court settlement for defamation against his leadership, and shows that faction are going to cause all the trouble they accused the centrists of doing. Both parties are pathetic right now.

The various Russian and Chinese government shills appearing on our news channels at the moment are laughable. No one in their right mind takes them seriously. Now why did the government not bother to look for Russian interference in the EU ref but did in the Scottish independence one. Confirmation bias all over this government. Look for it if it serves to discredit the opposition. Ignore it if it doesn't. No wonder they didn't want to release it before the election.

We can at least agree on the contrary messaging of the government. Flat Earthers claim a right to believe what they want too. It doesn't change the fact they are wrong. That is the beauty of science. By it's very nature, it demands the search for truth and absolutes.

A colleague made a good comparison (I thought) yesterday in comparing the anti-mask brigade to those who took offense to the law requiring seat belts to be always worn. Those opposed to seat belts also believed that they were not effective in reducing injury risk. So it would seem there are just a section of people who will never believe anything they are told, irregardless of the evidence to the contrary.

TE44. Peueudoviruses, as I explained to you, have the RNA instruction that enables them to replicate after invading a host cell, removed. Manipulating a virus in this way before creating vaccines for it makes perfect sense, because you only have to drive an immune response from a vaccine, not actually infect a person with the most dangerous part of the virus. As for good intentions, what part of pushing conspiracy theories, as you have, and taking an anti-vax stance, as you have, helps anyone? That is not critical thinking, it is wilful muddying of the science and facts. Sending a thread about mask wearing, off on a tangent you feel you will have more success with, is evidence of that. Would you prefer we still had smallpox and polio disabling children? How about HIV and Ebola? You can sneer all you like, but it is not you who will be defeating this or any virus. It will be the experts you seem to think you know better than.