When will this shit end?

[stuartbert two hats]

Interesting article on possible exit strategies. Not particularly encouraging I must admit, but interesting nonetheless.

https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2020/04/04/1586015208000/Imperial-s-Neil-Ferguson---We-don-t-have-a-clear-exit-strategy-/

[zahidf]

Some good news from europe overall

 

 

[st dan]

Boris will receive the best care possible, and hopefully he pulls through and sees sense of just how important and amazing the NHS is, and realises that any plans he and his party had to privatise need to be eliminated for good. 

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

Got my letter this morning 

[Toilet Duck]

@Zoo Music Girl@Deaf Nobby Burton...Yes, basically the post a while ago was about how influenza is pretty much built to mutate frequently, but coronaviruses aren't. All analysis so far suggests that this one is also pretty stable, so if and when we have a vaccine for it, it should last for years, rather than needing a new one every year. As it stands, the suggestion that this one is or has mutated into new forms that are more or less "aggressive" isn't supported by any firm data. There was one paper a while back that looked at 103 samples from China and said there were 2 strains, an "L" strain and an "S" strain. It suggested that the L strain was more prevalent in Wuhan and that the S strain was more prevalent outside of Wuhan. They also suggested without any evidence to back it up that the S strain was less "aggressive". There's still no evidence to support this, and to my mind, the slight variations observed are just the general drift of the genetic code of the virus as it replicates. Sequencing of isolates from Ireland has shown that they are closest to those from Italy, and what the slight variations do tell us is a little bit about how the virus may have spread, but nothing about how virulent it might be or otherwise.

The actual data on why this coronavirus behaves the way it does has also been published. Basically it acquired new properties that let it bind to the ACE2 receptor in humans. Our upper airways have less of this receptor, deep in our lungs there is much more. Previous coronavirus outbreaks (SARS and MERS) did not have this new property (they could bind the receptor, but not very efficiently, so needed a lot of it to get into our cells), so they did not efficiently colonise the upper airways, only the deeper parts of the lungs, so patients developed severe symptoms when they were infected (and MERS had a scary fatality rate). But, because it couldn't infect the cells it most frequently encountered, it didn't spread as easily. This also explains why most patients don't get severe symptoms with this virus...their upper airways get infected and their immune system sorts it out. Only when they can't fight it off does the infection spread to the lower airways and pneumonia develops. 

[WhoamI?]

11 hours ago, Mark E. Spliff said:

Tough shit, I'm afraid.  I don't wish the man to die, but I'm not going to let the fascists turn this into a recruitment drive just because you're too afraid of causing offence to call them out.

In case anyone finds it easier to understand in different words to yours - yes - if he dies the far right will, not might, will make a martyr of him.  Their motive is not respect for his family, it is power.

I am not supporting any attempt to call for bad stuff to happen to individuals of any kind, just against the extreme right.

 

Edited April 7, 2020 by WhoamI?
To clarify my point.

[StLewi]

Facists? Far right?

[WhoamI?]

1 hour ago, st dan said:

Boris will receive the best care possible, and hopefully he pulls through and sees sense of just how important and amazing the NHS is, and realises that any plans he and his party had to privatise need to be eliminated for good. 

 

I like your positive thinking.  Hope on.

[Neil]

45 minutes ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

Got my letter this morning 

Me too. Now we know what Spaffer was doing when he said he was still working, so I've left it in the hallway to self-isolate.  

[stuartbert two hats]

2 minutes ago, Neil said:

Me too. Now we know what Spaffer was doing when he said he was still working, so I've left it in the hallway to self-isolate.  

Is your profile name change a furlough thing?

[Neil]

1 minute ago, stuartbert two hats said:

Is your profile name change a furlough thing?

yep - it stops me logging in to the content manager if I go into auto-pilot. I'd have to think about it enough to change my login here.

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

4 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

Is your profile name change a furlough thing?

Exactly what I was thinking and was about to ask 🤣

[stuartbert two hats]

Just now, Neil said:

yep - it stops me logging in to the content manager if I go into auto-pilot. I'd have to think about it enough to change my login here.

You should probably allow us to downvote you now you've descended to being a mere mortal like the rest of us! 😄

[Spindles]

@Toilet Duck Thank you for your informative posts, always great to hear your insight.  I'll be sure to return with upvotes when I can but I always fritter them away too fast

11 minutes ago, Neil said:

Me too. Now we know what Spaffer was doing when he said he was still working, so I've left it in the hallway to self-isolate.  

Yeah, it's the first post I've received in about 3 weeks, looking at it sat there like a bioweapon this morning.  I've picked it up, put it on the side and washed my hands.  In the words of Father Ted, Careful now.  I have a recycling bin directly under the mailbox visible from outside so any post just drops into that and if it's something worth opening I'll grab it.  As a result my postman no longer bothers delivering junk mail and I don't get the local free paper.  Took a few years but it worked.

Edited April 7, 2020 by Spindles

[Ozanne]

4 minutes ago, Neil said:

yep - it stops me logging in to the content manager if I go into auto-pilot. I'd have to think about it enough to change my login here.

Put your rep to 69.

[Toilet Duck]

6 minutes ago, Spindles said:

@Toilet Duck Thank you for your informative posts, always great to hear your insight.

No problem at all! Stay safe!

 

[stuartbert two hats]

1 minute ago, Toilet Duck said:

No problem at all! Stay safe!

 

Another vote of appreciation.  You're really good at explaining quite a lot of detail in an easy to understand way.

[Ozanne]

@Toilet Duck I echo those comments really insightful, thank you for explaining.

[zahidf]

Yup thanks toilet duck

 

Gove is self isolating.

[Toilet Duck]

12 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

Another vote of appreciation.  You're really good at explaining quite a lot of detail in an easy to understand way.

It's no bother at all, if it helps people get their heads around what is going on, then great! Your taxes have paid for some of my research (via EU funding) and if you've ever given money to cancer research, then I've probably spent some of that for you too, so explaining things is the least I can do!

 

[zahidf]

UFC are doing their big event on a private island apparently next week

[Sawdusty surfer]

@Toilet Duck  Thanks from me also.

Good to have easily understood info from someone who clearly know's what they are talking about.

[steviewevie]

Yes, thanks Toilet Duck.

How do you see this ending? Various levels of social distancing restrictions until a vaccine is being used globally?

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

10 minutes ago, Toilet Duck said:

It's no bother at all, if it helps people get their heads around what is going on, then great! Your taxes have paid for some of my research (via EU funding) and if you've ever given money to cancer research, then I've probably spent some of that for you too, so explaining things is the least I can do!

 

Am I imaging this or am I right in saying you didn’t have a ticket for 2020? It not then you definitely need some help in the resale?

[DareToDibble]

13 minutes ago, zahidf said:

UFC are doing their big event on a private island apparently next week

Yeah I saw his video on this earlier. Batshit crazy!