https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ8sQQvqvrE&fbclid=IwAR3irlk7FE-q8eqr8jYjlkGHS2xj4DIn_kvMJQbNEi8wwjjnxq0O5FjTnWI

Of course we are all concerned about this matter but we are going banaas her ein Gt Britain repeating the same things over and over again. News is taken over time after time and when I was sent that film by a relation it made me sit up.

We are behind what is happening in Europe about gradual re-openings. Now the Prime Minister will say something this weekend about a gradual kind of re-opening. Know it will be gradual but hope my boredom and being control freaked also gradually demises. However that woman Sturgeon the First Minister of Scotland (groan) came on television being the very opposite and nippy. She really angered me about the moments she was being more or less being okay. Eh? She also made no comment that up here family crisis situations have been rising and she was as balanced as a ton on one scale and a stone on the other.

If anyone is curious,  a stone weighs 14 pounds. 🤔

When used as a measurement of body weight the UK practice remains to use the stone of 14 pounds as the primary measure e.g. "11 stone 4 pounds", rather than "158 pounds" (as done in the US),[13] or "72 kilograms" as used elsewhere.
Wiki

  Guess I'm bored too.

If you care about how large the numbers sound then 11 stone is probably more attractive than 70 kilo, let alone 150 pounds.

The Prime Minister's announcements this Sunday will only be a very light intimation and if people think that cafes, hairdressers, dry cleaners and so on are going to open you can forget it. The process of catching up on places in Europe will be so slow and only increase my passing personal boredom. Tat First Minister of Scotland makes me groan all the time so that is a regular thing I am stuck with. We will be behind more and more places in Europe so Sunday will be sod all for an improvement. When walking home from a town next my city along a canal-side I noticed a father, mother and wee boy all sitting next the path with carry outs from KFC. When I go for a walk and get the eventual privilege of an eating place inside then will feel great again.

Some are winning, some are not https://www.endcoronavirus.org/countries

The rate-of-contagion curves for countries like USA, UK, and Sweden - those who seem to have adopted the "flock immunity" policy whether consciously (Sweden) or by way of incompetence (USA) - have been grouped together with Belarus, Russia, and Brazil, where the contagion is simply skyrocketing.

I have my doubts about the flock immunity point of view. If it worked against something like flu, we would not have much flu these days after having had it regularly almost every winter for over a century. Yet we still have flu - less with those who observe the hygiene and wear clothing appropriate to the season.

So I tend to side with the distancing policy. And I am quite sure it is a disease of cities and crowded places. It would be interesting to see the countryside-vs-city statistics of course.

Speaking of epidemics and best prepared countries



It illustrates how reality can damage credibility of our free media, directly owned or sponsored by a handful of (unbiased  ) billionaires.

I have my doubts about the flock immunity point of view. If it worked against something like flu, we would not have much flu these days after having had it regularly almost every winter for over a century. Yet we still have flu - less with those who observe the hygiene and wear clothing appropriate to the season.

The RIVM says that counter-intuitively, the more people have received the flu vaccine the worse outbreaks get. Because then there's less herd resistance. As such the yearly flu vaccine should be given primarily or perhaps even exclusively to risk groups for best results.

It illustrates how reality can damage credibility of our free media, directly owned or sponsored by a handful of (unbiased    ) billionaires.

I don't see how, unless you mean that China was rated significantly too highly. Detaining doctors for spreading "false rumors" evidently wasn't part of the rankings. Snark somewhat aside, Forbes' clickbait "most prepared" heading clearly means "less badly prepared." That's why it's yellow rather than green. And did you look at the numbers? You might notice that China ranked in the 50s rather than the 30s in large part because of zoonotic disease risk! You know, like viruses from bats or pangolins. The other ranking in which China negatively stands out is health care access. So setting aside that you should probably judge data on the basis of what knowledge was available at the time, I'm not sure your claim is supported regardless.

Full data set here: https://www.ghsindex.org/

The US ranks highly primarily because (if the rankings are to be believed) the risk for pathogens escaping from American labs and similar such rankings is the very lowest in the world. In actual practice one imagines there's very little difference between the top 20-30 countries in matters like lab safety but that's what you get when you do rankings I suppose. You'll note the US actually ranked quite badly in response plans, and that doesn't factor in political unwillingness. They also rank 175th in health care access. Perhaps those should weigh more heavily in the scale, especially when you refer to it as "preparedness" like Forbes did, when it's actually called the health security index ranking. Which is a combination of many factors, and curiously enough that which would most commonly be called preparedness is precisely where the US scores terribly. The report itself is broken down into prevent, detect, respond, health, norms, risk. The US scores badly in respond and not fantastic in health. China scores badly in prevent and somewhat bad in health.

But in spite of all that, if it had been a more ebola-type thing or even more SARS-like, the other factors that make up the index would've weighed through much more heavily.

PS The Forbes article in question seems to be https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2020/01/27/the-countries-best-and-worst-prepared-for-an-epidemic-infographic/ I'm not sure how well they actually read the report they're talking about tbh; it looks to me like they took a quick glance and decided what the overall index seemed to show would be a nice combination of implicitly comforting the American audience combined with a nice compassionate we should care for Africa sentiment.

The RIVM says that counter-intuitively, the more people have received the flu vaccine the worse outbreaks get. Because then there's less herd resistance. As such the yearly flu vaccine should be given primarily or perhaps even exclusively to risk groups for best results.

Assuming that there is no herd immunity to this thing, this is not counter-intuitive at all. Vaccination is exposing people to the disease, and the more people you expose, the more get sick, straightforwardly. Herd immunity, if any, can be observed at later waves and I don't think we are seeing any with flu-like diseases. We have already been exposed to it for a bunch of generations. I'll stay at the country house another week.

Herd immunity, if any, can be observed at later waves and I don't think we are seeing any with flu-like diseases.

You don't say. That's exactly what it's talking about. It's "counter-intuitive" because that's not how it works for bacteria, only for viruses like the flu.

Here in Gt Britain we are getting this groaning attitude going on between the different countries. In Ulster they are developing a slow five or so gradual advances (with the Republic already moving) and in England some slow but equally advancing moves. Wales being nippy no doubt due to the party in charge of the Assembly. However here in Scotland that wee pest Sturgeon is on being stroppy with the Prime Minister. Trying to give the impression that she and her control lot are being better at strictness yet it is now a truth that when the virus happened earlier in Edinburgh she kept quiet so borders on being hypocritical. One our newspapers has publicly shown that!

Sturgeon is on being stroppy with the Prime Minister.

No she isn't, stop talking nonsense. She's trying to keep people alive. Though why she bothers with some folk is beyond me.

My I inform folk that you know who is talking nonsense.Sturgeon and early February attitudes is not something made up but when the subject raised in press she got stroppy.  She is including on this virus matter being very confrontational and as south of the border slowly moves we will continue to get this nationalist v UK stance. How dare a person contradict another on politics!

Meanwhile I still go out.

She is including on this virus matter being very confrontational

Complete and utter drivel.
In her daily briefings you see the pathetic unionist press we have, trying to get her to say something about the clown Boris. But she swats them away as she's not going to play their silly games.

Meanwhile I still go out.

Well seeing as you're allowed out, why wouldn't you.

You unfortunately Luxor are acting a bit like her as if know all. The virus is also declining here too but yoiu do I am afraid come over all arrogant and bias nationalism at it's more sad elements. I have a long associate who is SNP but we can differ but you get huffy two shoes at your political stance being changed. We live in a democracy and I would further remind you and others that it was the Boris government which produced more money for Scotland apart from the Barnett Formula we still get. If not in the UK that loss would be catastrophic but neatly ignored by nationalists including Luxor.

There was a passing time when i tried to make allowances for her because she is tiny even i high heels (had a picture showing her once from the back while she spoke from a lectern and it showed she was on a low box to be more obvious. Many small people do get a bit more mouthy due to that. I would remind wider readers that Sturgeon always is a bit confrontational because she is an independence Scots politics fan. Luxor can slag me off all he immediately likes want but the portrayal being shown here is a bit negative, arrogant and her, him and the rest of that corner just want to be so distant from the UK no matter how much they get financially. And finally she should have been getting round to something more progressive than just sticking to the control freak issue because want to be separate from GB.

Not getting into it rj. Move on.

Well Luxor it would be just really us two and the rest sitting puzzled! 

No! It would be the rest of the members here getting as  bored I am. Enough!

Well your imbalance is used as an excuse dear man. When i can pop into McDonald's for a coffee, doughnut and read my paper I will be nice (maybe) to your female actor leader! By then also the control freakery will be history and the boredom gone folks! 

Leaving aside that grossly superior style attitude that actually does little. Sturgeon also includes the situation on senior nursing homes. And that north of the Border IS HER department!

That woman also belligerently acts as if in an independence corner and misused the virus situation as part of her head shaking stances.

It's called being a leader and she has been praised by many, even by her harshest critics. Guess the problem is you not her.

Well I do have to accept as factual that as you are from her corner you will have a high regard for her but I must also remind you when in that mode that we live in a democracy and I will equally say there are therefor many people like me who have little time for her. To the rest of folk here I would remind that she is the First Minister of a constituent country of Gt Britain and not a typical Prime Minister stance although she acts as if she has! What my corner gets is a rabid attitude as if we have on right to differ or take her or nationalism on. Trouble is that too many Nats get hoity toity when taken on as if other Scots here have little right or should automatically be independent minded.