Yes I am lucky but if I was back in the UK I would still be saying the same thing. The restrictions are a lot more draconian over here and lots of the Spanish live in flats without gardens but they still support the lockdown.
Yes I am lucky but if I was back in the UK I would still be saying the same thing. The restrictions are a lot more draconian over here and lots of the Spanish live in flats without gardens but they still support the lockdown.
And how nice that would be - but, alas, I don't see it happening. China is ramping up again, as will others (including good ol US of A) as soon as possible, and pollution will continue unabated. All IMHO.
Sun and pool sounds idyllic - enjoy your good fortune! Not easy to forget about dog walking when you own a dog - dog walkers are not the problem, it's the rest of the idiots bending the outdoor rules.
Dog walkers and cyclists along with any other idiots sunbathing or wanting to pop down to a local beauty spot are the problem. You can argue until the cows come home on whether it spreads the virus or not, the main thing is that if a draconian lockdown saves only 100 people dying an unpleasant and needless death, then it is worth it.
Keep it on track people - it’s the positive news thread
Exactly, we don’t need another thread lecturing others again on what they should be doing when they know nothing of their personal circumstances.
Anyway, promising news, looks like the weather this Easter Weekend looking less warm for most. Fewer people tempted to congregate at honey pots...
Yes I can see where you are coming from but sitting here in Spain where its a €600 fine for just stepping out of your front gate, it does seem that the UK is being a bit slack in trying to tackle the problem and it is, in all fairness, a breeding ground for barrack room lawyers to argue the toss on what is ok or not.
Much better to have a clear cut set of rules which incidentally has massive support from nearly everyone. I think anyone taking their dog for a walk in Spain is either very brave or stupid. They can expect people to come out on their balconies and shout at them accusing them of being selfish and reminding them that their actions will not be forgotten.
Whilst I hope that our Government is looking at what is happening in Spain and elsewhere and taking whatever learning can come out of it, the rules/laws in the U.K. are different. But I also recognise yours and others views on them.
Berating people for adhering to those rules is neither necessary nor helpful, and just breeds bad feeling.
The goodwill between most on here has already evaporated enough.
To try and get this back on track with the thread title.
Mercedes F1 produced 600 CPAP machines yesterday and should be up to 1,000 today and should be delivering to
the NHS this week.
Tesla ventilator made entirely from Model 3 parts.
https://youtu.be/zZbDg24dfN0
Travis Perkins branches countrywide have collected every single pair of gloves, respirators and ffp3 masks and delivered them to their local hospitals.
My conservatory is in the process of having a new valley gutter. The lockdown and good weather has allowed me to strip out the old (rotted) gutter and rebuild it properly, with suitable damp proof courses and flashings that will not allow water to run (capillary attraction) into the conservatory but outside! I have spent several days head scratching, repointing and sealing before realising that water can flow uphill if conditions are right! I also won't be replacing the fibreglass insulation which was dripping wet! It's a conservatory, not a bedroom. The tell-tale white fur on the outside wall should have told me of the problem! Stepped damp course, proper lead joint seals and a bit of fall will do the job nicely thank you. Happy days!
On Sunday, whilst roasting a chicken, the “fan element” in our cooker blew. Sunday night I removed said element and ordered a new one on line, for the massive sum of £12.50. The replacement arrived today and will be fitted tomorrow.
Once installed and tested, the wife will be grateful, thus winning me brownie points. Huzzah!
A small win, but a win all the same.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Interesting your view on insulation. We changed out conservatory that was either too hot or too cold for 9 months a year to a fully insulated solid roof one, now used all year round. I think you may regret a lack of insulation & unless it is blocked off by double glazed doors vs open plan then you will definitely regret.
Apologies failed to spot the thread I replied to & was not positive. Great news you have worked out the sealant and removed the chance of capillary action.
Just watch out washing the roof, our only leak pre change was with a long brush and a hose...as you said, water doesn’t flow uphill but you can make it do so if you’re not careful...we only did it the once!!
My brother and I received (it's in the bank) the £10,000 for our workshop premises based on the fact we are eligible for small rate relief, was very smooth and easy to do, hope it can be all the same for those eligible as it is down to each council on how they distribute it!
Air pollution reported to be reduced by over 60% in UK cities. Might that have a positive effect on the number of people admitted to hospital for respiratory conditions, unconnected to Covid-19?
I'd be interested to know how the lockdown is affecting other critical services -A&E must be seeing a very different Saturday night for example. What about burglaries, robberies and assaults? They have to be down don't they? Road deaths? It's going to take a long time to unwind (maybe years) but it will be interesting to see what the net economic and health effect will be.
Might be lower levels of No2 but dangerously high PM10 levels across Europe right now, particulate are far more dangerous for those with difficulties breathing.
http://macc-raq-op.meteo.fr
Visits to A&E down 29%. Visits to A&E with suspected heart attack down from 300 a day to 150.
Good news or bad news? Impossible to say without more information, but interesting nonetheless.
The A&E generally is more understandable...less alcohol fueled violence/accidents...less people turning up with relatively trivial stuff. (No idea why they do anyway, but they do). But heart attacks? The only figure I've seen is for a reduction in SUSPECTED heart attacks presenting. What would be more instructive is the figure for the number of actual heart attacks presenting. If that's down by the same amount, it's either very worrying or an indication that sitting at home not doing much is good fo you!
Where I work and in the region the vast majority of admissions to hospital come through ED which is why we're bothered by the apparent drop off in the things you'd expect to see independent of COVID. Agree actual objective data would be useful on the absolute numbers, but it's been relatively pleasant not dealing with the usual non emergency stuff though people are still managing to drink too much at home and injure themselves but admittedly to a lesser degree!
Given were all seemingly ...old gits.
It would appear that being a recipient of the BCG jab to stop us getting Tuberculosis is offering a meaningful protection against Covid-19..
I remembered mine well in 1984 and people fainting stood next to you at thought of having it, many of us will still have the wee scar and also recall the pin stamp in wrist..
U.K. stopped BCG in 2005 because..there were very few cases.....”chicken- egg”.
97% of Indias population have had it ...
================================================== ============/===============
Most countries in the world vaccinate children with something called BCG which stands for Bacillus Calmette-Guérin and it protects people from getting tuberculosis. India states that 97% of it's population has received the vaccination since it began giving them in 1949. Most countries on the planet have been giving the vaccine for the last 50-60 years, including every African country, Mexico, central and south American countries, Russia, southeast Asia, almost everybody. Now take a guess which countries don't offer the vaccinations, and instead decided decades ago to treat active tuberculosis cases instead of preventing them. Well, the US, Canada, Italy, the UK, Spain and Australia. China didn't start giving the vaccine until the early 80's, so much of their older population is unprotected. As it turns out, all of these countries that appear to be doing so well with the virus were never going to get many cases anyway. There will always be some vaccinations that don't take, or newborns that fall through the cracks and don't get the shot, which probably explains why some of these countries have a handful of cases with few or no deaths.
The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine to prevent tuberculosis, which has been given to Indian children since 1949, and which around 97% of the 26 million Indian children born every year received last year, appears to offer protection against coronavirus disease (Covid-19), according to US researchers who analysed the wide variation in the intensity of the disease in different countries. It also helps lower cases of Covid-19 in a country, the researchers found.
The study, which will need large scale clinical testing, could, if it holds, explain why the spread of Covid-19 has been muted in India.
The new study, by researchers at the biomedical sciences department, NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine at the New York Institute of Technology found Covid-19 cases and deaths are higher in countries that do not have or have discontinued universal BCG vaccination of children, such as the US, Italy, Spain and France, compared to countries with universal and long-standing immunisation policies, such as India and China.
Covid-19 cases and deaths in the United States, Italy and Spain have outpaced China, which was the epicentre of the outbreak that was first detected in Wuhan city in early December.
BCG vaccination significantly reduced deaths from Covid-19, with the strongest reductions in countries that established a BCG vaccination policy earlier, found the study, published in the preprint health sciences server, medRxiv. The BCG vaccination benefits held after factoring in cultural norms, mitigation efforts, and health infrastructure.
The study found a direct correlation between how early the policy was established and the elderly population that would be protected. “Countries that have a late start of universal BCG policy, such as Iran in 1984, also had high mortality, consistent with the idea that BCG protects the vaccinated elderly population. We also found that BCG vaccination also reduced the number of reported Covid-19 cases in a country,” said the study titled “Correlation between universal BCG vaccination policy and reduced morbidity and mortality for Covid-19: an epidemiological study”.
The study recommends BCG vaccination as a potential new tool in the fight against Covid-19.
Australia, Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom have already announced that they will begin large-scale human trials to see whether BCG vaccination protects health workers from Covid-19 by triggering an immune response to reduce symptoms, prevent severe illness or prevent infection.
Australia announced on Friday that it will begin BCG vaccine trials with around 4,000 physicians and nurses, who are at higher risk of becoming infected with the respiratory disease than the general population, and in older persons, who are at higher risk of serious illness.
Netherlands has recruited around 1,000 health care workers in eight Dutch hospitals to either receive the BCG vaccine or a placebo.
================================================== ==========================
Still remember everyone punching everyone else on the arm after getting the BCG jab...blood on the school shirts. Ouch.
Holby City have donated their ventilators to the NHS (really)!
Last edited by Kingstepper; 11th April 2020 at 21:34.
If it’s not been peer reviewed it should be read with caution. But it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad science! It’s increasingly common to ‘pre-release’ papers.
I’ve not read the paper so can’t pass comment.
As an aside, just because a paper has been peer reviewed doesn’t mean it’s good science either!
Absolutely.
And let's not forget 'bad reporting of good science' which happens a lot.
But that, based on the premise that 97% of the Indian population have had the BCG jab, looks a lot like bad science to me.
We're in the 'nature abhors a vacuum' phase at the moment. It all about BCG, blood group, baldness etc etc.
edit: and as someone who has had the BCG I would be happy if it were true
Last edited by MakeColdplayHistory; 11th April 2020 at 22:56.
This would count as good news as if proven would mean a vaccine would potentially be very effective as the virus does not react badly to antibodies even if a slightly different viral variant is present. For example some diseases such as Dengue have multiple strains and antibodies to 1 strain can actually trigger a more severe reaction if you get infected with a different strain. Does not appear to be the case with COVID.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...04.10.036418v1
I am in a similar situation with a trip to Mallorca with Jet2 in July. I wouldn't mind paying the balance if they either offer the trip as booked or if they cannot, they refund the full balance in cash. I realise that no-one knows what the travel (or any other) situation will be in July however for the sake of a £60pp deposit I am not going to lend them £00's and end up with a voucher I may not be able or willing to use even if they are in business going forwards.
Delaying refunds. Probably don't have the cash to refund everyone just yet. Will have paid hotels, airlines etc and be trying to recoup what they can.
I wouldn't pay a penny more personally, and would try to get my money back.
I wouldn't put a penny on their survival either, unfortunately, and you can be sure you will not be one of the privileged creditors, so your money will be used to fill the pockets of the liquidators, and would possibly not be protected by travel insurance. In any case, should you feel you need to fulfil, I would recommend speaking to your travel insurance first to understand where you stand.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
I meant do you think in 3 months time everywhere will be open again, like nothing happened? And people will be sitting in restaurants and bars and enjoying themselves on holiday, mingling in close contact with lots of other people? I don't think I'd want to.
This ^^ (although I still wouldn't want to go to be honest even if they offered the trip as booked.)
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
See that Public Health England have started serology testing yesterday, first results should be reported tomorrow.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
NEW VENTILATOR APPROVED FOR USE
A new type of ventilator has become the first approved for use in treating Covid-19 patients.
Made by a small Welsh company and designed by an NHS surgeon, it has beaten bigger players such as Dyson and Formula One to getting the green light.
Consultant Dr Rhys Thomas, from Glangwili Hospital, West Wales, designed the device with the help of Maurice Clarke of CR Clarke & Co, an engineering company in Ammanford.
The Covid CPAP machine has been approved by the Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). It will now undergo clinical trials.
Sent from my SM-A105FN using Tapatalk
No matter how often it's posted, A CPAP is no ventilator.
However, I may help some of the virus patients and most importantly keep the real ventilators for those who need them. As such this is good news, but there are no shortages in working design, the problem is in the manufacturing capacity.
It's actually more than that, Raffe: Ventilators are very traumatic, and it's no surprise there are about 50% who do not pull through. CPAP allows to delay, and hopefully avoid, the moment the patient cannot breath on his own.
The supply hurdle you mention remains, though.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Mercedes have been producing up to 1,000 CPAP devices a day since last week and believe quite a few of the 10,000 ordered have already been delivered, the government have also ordered 10,000 RMVS (rapidly manufactured ventilation system) machines which I believe are already being made by other F1 teams.
Last edited by TBKBABAB; 14th April 2020 at 12:09.