Corona Virus - Should we be worried?

[stuartbert two hats]

1 hour ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

 

😮

I'm really not keen on people with coronavirus being at a fricking PRESS CONFERENCE!!

[Wooderson]

8 minutes ago, Lycra said:

The latter would be preferable....Now what if a similar thing happened for Glasto. Barring persons from outside the UK would give a significant boost to the number of tickets available in resales. 

Mhmm. Brexit voters only pleeez.

[Copperface]

41 minutes ago, Lycra said:

I agree the omens are not good but the game has still not been cancelled. I expect serious discussions will be had between governments and rugby boards as to the way forward. How the game is structured there is little latitude for games to be rearranged.

During foot and mouth in the early 2000's they shifted one England game to either September or October if I remember.

[TorontoScot]

1 hour ago, Lycra said:

Jumping the gun a bit. Ireland/Italy is on 7 March. The situation is being monitored and no decision has yet been taken. Some internal rugby matches have been cancelled in Italy whilst 5 Siere A football matches will be played behind closed doors (ie no fans) this weekend.

My original post was based on the guardian, who have now amended the news story

 

[efcfanwirral]

1 hour ago, Matt42 said:

A friend of my house mate has returned from skiing in Italy and has become very unwell. She’s under self isolation and has reported the authorities.

This outbreak in Italy is mad. I don’t know how it has spread so quickly. 

Dunno if you can even be a tinfoil anymore. China has clearly lied about how infectious and how fast this disease has spread.

Their actions spoke louder than their words unprecedented quarantine at huge cost to their economy.

Italy spread quickly from the Western response of hoping for the best instead of being proactive in the face of a clear danger. Probably to protect the economy.

I think Glastonbury will happen along with other events. I'm not sure it should though...

[Brad2434]

My girlfriend is a teacher at one of the schools that’s been shut today. She’s locked in the spare room 👍

[waynewdk]

There’s a few school trips come back from a skiing trip in Italy close by , 20 kids are having to self isolate in Huddersfield and a parent has concerns for her kid returning from one too, in Ilkley Bradford

Edited February 25, 2020 by waynewdk

[DeadAmos]

3 minutes ago, Brad2434 said:

My girlfriend is a teacher at one of the schools that’s been shut today. She’s locked in the spare room 👍

Do we really need to know about your kinky antics 😉

[Ayrshire Chris]

25 minutes ago, waynewdk said:

There’s a few school trips come back from a skiing trip in Italy close by , 20 kids are having to self isolate in Huddersfield and a parent has concerns for her kid returning from one too, in Ilkley Bradford

School close to me  came back from an Italian ski trip last week and 40  kids , 3 staff went down with a vomiting bug, ruined the trip. Their hotel was quarantined, seems others in the hotel were also infected with a bacterial , not viral, infection.  Not having much luck in the Italian ski area. 

[squirrelarmy]

45 minutes ago, waynewdk said:

There’s a few school trips come back from a skiing trip in Italy close by , 20 kids are having to self isolate in Huddersfield and a parent has concerns for her kid returning from one too, in Ilkley Bradford

Same story in Leeds. Got friends with kids at the school where they’ve been told to isolate themselves. It’s getting real. 

[Leyrulion]

If you want to bite the bullet you can read the strategy on how the UK government will respond to a flu pandemic. 

Which includes:

"There is very limited evidence that restrictions on mass gatherings will have any significant effect on influenza virus transmission"

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/responding-to-a-uk-flu-pandemic

 

If you're at all nervous though I'd strongly recommend not reading the parts on "escalation" if you want to sleep tonight.

[chazwwe]

9 minutes ago, Leyrulion said:

If you want to bite the bullet you can read the strategy on how the UK government will respond to a flu pandemic. 

Which includes:

"There is very limited evidence that restrictions on mass gatherings will have any significant effect on influenza virus transmission"

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/responding-to-a-uk-flu-pandemic

 

If you're at all nervous though I'd strongly recommend not reading the parts on "escalation" if you want to sleep tonight.

I think the only reason the 'mass gatherings' is an issue is with the amount of international travel that comes with it from bands. 

[charlierc]

I've not been in school for over 10 years but clearly I forgot that "Italian ski holidays for schoolkids" are a thing anyway, nevermind seemingly the scale of how many schools have gone that have lead to an increasingly long list of school facilities closed down due to returning travellers having to self-isolate. But the scale is pretty mad, not to mention the spread of either Italians or visitors to Italy recording positive tests in neighbouring countries.

Maybe its easy to get easy feelings of being terrified given some of these line up with what you see in pandemic/contagion novels, video games and movies. I want to believe we're closer to this thing easing up, anyway, but it feels like its going to get worse before it gets better. The way its escalated in northern Italy is pretty mental, to say nothing of the fact its still not entirely sure what the fuck's gone on.

[SalviaPlath]

Seems inevitable that it will spread in the UK and cause significant disruption. But it's mainly old people dying from it so far. Would have been useful before the election.

[efcfanwirral]

50 minutes ago, Leyrulion said:

If you want to bite the bullet you can read the strategy on how the UK government will respond to a flu pandemic. 

Which includes:

"There is very limited evidence that restrictions on mass gatherings will have any significant effect on influenza virus transmission"

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/responding-to-a-uk-flu-pandemic

 

If you're at all nervous though I'd strongly recommend not reading the parts on "escalation" if you want to sleep tonight.

"Prioritisation". 

"Business a usual" bit could get tested as people start to realise this is real

[sedra]

We have a lot of English language schools in Bournemouth and it appears lots of cancellations of planned visits happening - Chinese already, now Italian. Also I nearly booked into that hotel in Tenerife that’s been locked down for a last minute holiday- chose one in Lanzarote instead and going Sunday 😷

[Lycra]

7 hours ago, Leyrulion said:

If you want to bite the bullet you can read the strategy on how the UK government will respond to a flu pandemic. 

Which includes:

"There is very limited evidence that restrictions on mass gatherings will have any significant effect on influenza virus transmission"

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/responding-to-a-uk-flu-pandemic

 

If you're at all nervous though I'd strongly recommend not reading the parts on "escalation" if you want to sleep tonight.

The government strategy plan was drawn up 9 years ago and seems to be being tested by reality. Countries are starting to impose movement restrictions and cancelling mass gathering events. Now I wake to The Guardian reporting  a call from the Japanese PM for all sport fixtures and cultural gatherings to stop for 2 weeks. The situation is dynamic. Let's hope all countries get a grip on it soon.

[dotdash79]

4 minutes ago, Lycra said:

The government strategy plan was drawn up 9 years ago and seems to be being tested by reality. Countries are starting to impose movement restrictions and cancelling mass gathering events. Now I wake to The Guardian reporting  a call from the Japanese PM for all sport fixtures and cultural gatherings to stop for 2 weeks. The situation is dynamic. Let's hope all countries get a grip on it soon.

Cancelling events now makes sense as you are trying to contain the virus. Once you have lost control and it’s everywhere you then move to the next thing which is protecting the vulnerable. 

[eFestivals]

20 minutes ago, dotdash79 said:

Cancelling events now makes sense as you are trying to contain the virus. Once you have lost control and it’s everywhere you then move to the next thing which is protecting the vulnerable. 

it's not quite just those options. Slowing down its transmission after it's out there is important too, so that hospitals are overwhelmed a bit less, plus pushing things towards warmer weather.

[squirrelarmy]

Maybe we’re thinking about this wrong way. It’s a possibility that this new strain of flu is the Earths attempt to address the issue of climate change and overpopulation. 
 

Maybe 10% of the world’s population aren’t meant to survive this in order to preserve what few natural resources with have left. 
 

#thanosdidnothingwrong

[March Hare]

22 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

it's not quite just those options. Slowing down its transmission after it's out there is important too, so that hospitals are overwhelmed a bit less, plus pushing things towards warmer weather.

It’s that that puts sporting events and festivals at risk. Preventing 50-100k people coming together in close proximity slows down the spread. Governments will force events to be postponed to prevent hospitals becoming overwhelmed. An interesting read if anyone fancies https://virologydownunder.com/so-you-think-youve-about-to-be-in-a-pandemic/

[Blisterpack]

I know from a very well placed source within the FA that the ‘go/no go’ decision by UEFA on the European championships was the end of April last week, and has been brought forward two weeks in the past couple of days due primarily to the situation in Italy. I think there are many people underestimating this; there will be significant travel restrictions imposed globally and the idea of putting 200k people from around the world in a field may not be as acceptable as many of you think and that period around balance payment/resale is clearly when the decision will be taken. 

[Sasperella]

1 minute ago, Blisterpack said:

I know from a very well placed source within the FA that the ‘go/no go’ decision by UEFA on the European championships was the end of April last week, and has been brought forward two weeks in the past couple of days due primarily to the situation in Italy. I think there are many people underestimating this; there will be significant travel restrictions imposed globally and the idea of putting 200k people from around the world in a field may not be as acceptable as many of you think and that period around balance payment/resale is clearly when the decision will be taken. 

I'm not sure about that last bit. This is a pretty dynamic situation. Why would they take a decision as big as that two and a half months before the festival is due to take place? 

There's definitely a possibility of a cancellation, but I doubt it would a decision that was taken quite that early. 

[Blisterpack]

3 minutes ago, Sasperella said:

Why would they take a decision as big as that two and a half months before the festival is due to take place? 

 

It’s not a decision taken in isolation though. Volunteer groups have a duty of care to their people which will include carrying out risk assessments. Public Health England will very probably have advice out there in April which will make Oxfam, for example, to have to make some big decisions. The impact on the NHS though, particularly local to Somerset, will trump everything. If this hasn’t died down significantly in a month (and that’s not likely)!then the Euros, the Olympics and major festivals are all at significant risk. 

[hfuhruhurr]

1 hour ago, March Hare said:

It’s that that puts sporting events and festivals at risk. Preventing 50-100k people coming together in close proximity slows down the spread. Governments will force events to be postponed to prevent hospitals becoming overwhelmed. An interesting read if anyone fancies https://virologydownunder.com/so-you-think-youve-about-to-be-in-a-pandemic/

Very interesting - thanks. Containment smoothing out the hit on healthcare. Large gatherings might be an issue due to the rate of new cases. But as pointed out, the old flu pandemic advice is that stopping events isn't part of the plan. Methinks they'll review that knowing the state of the NHS at the mo. It'll be a economic and timing issue on whether the govt bans events. For the first (and probably last) time ever I'm hoping Trump is right and hotter weather will stop this.

17 hours ago, Quark said:

A bit of both.  Said before that I'm not concerned for myself as my health and immune system are pretty robust and, at least from what we appear to be seeing, it's those with underlying conditions or systems weakened by age or illness that are at risk.

But I'm pretty sure that everyone on here has got at least one person close to them (or themselves in some cases) that you wouldn't necessarily wager your mortgage on having no issues if they got it.

And this is key - we do all know people who are vulnerable and that needs to be the priority - to protect them as much as possible.