Jump to content

Blah Blah

Member
  • Posts

    3,230
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Blah Blah

  1. Technology offers solutions to some of these problems. Online conferencing may well become the norm while this pandemic works through. But even with that, I can not see any trade negotiations anywhere being high on the list of things to do for the next few months. If as predicted, up to 20% of the world's workers being off sick and closures of public spaces kick in, there will be far more important issues pressing on economic and supply issues. In many ways, a pandemic is like a world war, in terms of the disruption to supply lines and resources. Everything will change, even if we do not know to what degree as yet. I don't think Boris will lose any face either by seeking extension to the 'transition' in these conditions.
  2. If someone has been in contact with a person carrying the virus, an assessment is made on testing based on how long and how close that contact was with the infected person. We passed the 'only testing those with links to travel' a couple of weeks ago. Having said that, testing anyone who has had even the most fleeting contact with an infected person would make more sense, so yes, I think cost is a factor. And that is a concern.
  3. This is a really good overview of what is going on and the challenge we face. https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca
  4. WRONG Thunderblue. Seasonal flu has a mortality rate of 0.1% and half a million die from it annually worldwide. THIS virus has a mortality rate of 3%. That is a huge difference. It makes it comparable to Spanish Flu, which was left to spread unchecked, quickly overwhelming existing health services and killed 100 million worldwide in just 12-18 months. Spanish Flu at the time, spreads easily and had no vaccine. See what the problem is now? COVID19 has the same potential if left to do its worst. The risk is very real. This is not just some jolly by health experts and epidemiologists. Ordinary people downplaying it as though it is, is extremely dangerous. This is one time that we must defer to expert opinion, of which Dan Calladine has none. He is not even a doctor for heaven's sake.
  5. This is why containment has had so many resources thrown at it. The worst case scenario is health services being overwhelmed to the point that people who could recover with treatment, start to die. Bear in mind that it seems ten per cent plus need hospital intensive treatment. The UK response so far has been to test anyone coming into contact with someone who presents with the virus. The idea behind this is to take the heat out of the spread by getting to those infected quickly enough to get them to isolate. But for that to work as an approach requires every country in the world taking that approach. One country doing very little to test people is the USA. And that is where I think we are going to see a real crisis unless something changes soon.
  6. Yes those are interesting points Keano. I did pick up on the scramble emerging as different members make demands on what they want in any trade deal. We still have to remember, that we are the first nation to ever leave, and sorting the trade agreement is new territory. The French want their fishing rights protected. The Germans their car exports protected. And it goes on. It is a lot easier to negotiate something new than let it go of something that already exists. If another global financial crisis comes off the back of Coronavirus it will be more brutal this time. Banking has nowhere to go on interest rates and economies still recovering from 2008 will be in real trouble.
  7. Grove....stop trolling. You only ever post (from your posting history) to insult people, usually based on class and because they voted remain. You are determined to ruin any debate and pick a fight with someone (literally). Just stop it.
  8. Yes, I am inclined to think that the Coronavirus matter may well give him the get out he needs. The problem though is that he is surrounded by hard Brexit impatience. These things have a funny way of panning out often. In many ways, Boris has been extremely lucky with timing. This is true of populism in general. It requires certain crisis to in place to thrive. Personally, I think Boris absolutely wants a deal with the EU and can see the dangers in not securing one. What he won't accept though, is that a comprehensive trade deal probably needs around four years to be completed. Getting to the end of his term as PM with a trade deal still in negotiation and the UK still technically in 'transition', is not going to work for him. But, resorting to WTO with a global recession threatening from the impact of COVID19, is a very poor place for the UK economy to be in. We have no leverage to get good and favourable trade agreements in such a scenario.
  9. I agree rahrah. The political declaration is what Parliament voted for. It is also the platform on which the Government fought the election. But now, that same government has no regard for it. Everything those fighting it warned about, is now coming plainly true. The hedged bet by the ERG that in supporting the Withdrawal Agreement, that they would still be able to get their desired no deal, is also coming true. Having said all of that though, it is still very early days in any trade talks. All we have seen so far, are the opening shots across the bows. Those pushing for the Leave side, promised we could have our cake and eat it, and that seems to be what they are going to demand. The EU on the other hand, are bound by their own concerns. Something will have to give if anything is to move forward. Ironically, the EU may well be forced to change some of the very things exploited by the Leave side because of external events anyway.
  10. And now we have gone from what was a civil conversation about the coming trade talks to some kind of pseudo class warfare led by obvious trolling. As for taking this forum seriously or not, who cares? Only those that took the time to login to run a good discussion into the gutter of abuse it seems. How ironic.
  11. pk Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Grove boy Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > > > > > > > It would carry more weight if you said that to > my > > face, until this happens you're just a faceless > > mouthy coward. > > You?re so tough and brave For someone who claims he never voted either way, he sure has a lot of irrational anger to project at remain voters and the middle classes doesn't he?
  12. Grove Boy. If you are not here to engage in what for the most part has been a civil and good discussion, then do one.
  13. Everything that drives the list of adjectives levied at leave voters by remainers illustrated perfectly by the angry little Grove Boy.
  14. A second wave is pretty much inevitable but the response should be swift enough to prevent any major hotspot emerging. Medical staff will be looking for it, just in case. This is in many ways a reverse of the 1918 pandemic, where less was understood, medical technology was not so advanced, there was no co-ordinated global effort (many countries were still undeveloped), and health services were none existent and quickly overwhelmed. Poor nutrition was also a factor, with poorer performance of immune systems. We are in a much better place today. People can isolate for as long as needed. Even something as basic as refrigeration makes that much easier. Yes there will be a short economic hit, but better that than a pandemic that rumbles on for two years (or however long it takes for the virus to run out of hosts) and brings everything to a grinding halt.
  15. China for the second day running has had minimal new cases. The message in this is that lockdowns and containment are working, and working relatively quickly. If this approach is repeated for every emerging hotspot, then there is a real possibility that a genuine global pandemic can be avoided. That of course is easier said than done, but this is exactly how Ebola was defeated in Africa. It means directing resources to the developing world to help them, along with developed nations taking unprecedented measures themselves, and a public willing to do as told. This doesn't mean that there can't and won't be repeated waves, but at least there is pathway to effective containment in evidence now. There should be a tested and working vaccine within 18 months.
  16. Well said Sephiroth.
  17. Can you not see the irony in your accusations TheCat? This thread was actually getting along fine, and then you decided to stir things up again with yet another tirade of sarcastic who knows what. The only one picking fights is you.
  18. Yep, damned if he does, damned if he doesn't, and it was always thus from the off. There is one caveat though. Coronavirus could possibly be the ideal and sole scapegoat for any economic hit. An electorate that bought the unicorns of Brexit, may just fall for that too.
  19. I have to strongly disagree EDguy. A new version of a virus, easily transmitted, that has no vaccine in place, with a mortality rate of up to 3%, that hospitalises at least another 10% has the potential of being a global pandemic that overwhelms health services. The efforts to contain it are right and based on expert knowledge around epidemiology. Do we really want another Spanish Flu scenario (where 100 million people died worldwide)? SARS, MERS, Ebola all had that same potential. That they didn't become global pandemics is down to experts developing processes of containment that work. COVID19 is a different challenge because of the ease at which it is spreading. And if someone is in one of those high risk groups, it doesn't help to have those who are not, downplay the risk. There would also be severe economic impacts to a full scale pandemic that would bite. We all have a responsibility AND a vested interest in taking the potential risks seriously.
  20. So you really want to rerun the same arguments around ignorance already done to death, really? Where shall we start? With a big red bus perhaps? Put down the troll potion ffs.
  21. Italy is a hotspot. But interesting to see them take the same measures (essentially) as China.
  22. To follow the advice being given. And to be aware of who the most vulnerable groups are.
  23. Slow hand clap...... It is blatantly obvious that some (if not many) leave voters voted for something without having any clue of the complexities. That was the whole drive of the leave campaign. So please, don't insult the intelligence of people here.
  24. Just to bring some sanity back into this discussion, the danger around viral mutations that have no vaccine is well understood. Fortunately, we are in a place to be able to develop vaccines relatively quickly. Every previous pandemic now has a vaccine or an effective form of treatment/ containment. Ebola is a case in point. We don't have to wait for 100 million people to die anymore to understand the potential danger. We should be thankful for that. There are very highly qualified people monitoring these risks all year round. A success story would be that COVID19 never gets to a place where it does its potential worst. That does not mean the risk was never real, it just means that we have genuinely found a way to prevent a global pandemic this time. So let's all do our part to help that outcome.
  25. Aldi and Lidl have plenty of loo roll..... just saying ;)
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...