Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: fcooke

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ORIGINAL: Sammy5IsAlive

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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel


Seems like we're all glad we live where we live and wouldn't want others from far away deciding how we should do things.

From a UK perspective I'm not sure I'd go that far. A while back our government set out 'alert levels' that were supposed to link the progress of the epidemic with corresponding levels of response in terms of social distancing measures. As far as I am concerned we seem to be racing well ahead of that road map and without the testing and tracing system that we had previously been told would be the cornerstone of being able to open up safely.

But I think the reality is that we are taking the only course of action available - the economy simply cannot afford to continue paying for lock-down. What frustrates me is that there is no transparency - so we are not only opening up prematurely from a public health perspective but also not giving people the appropriate information in terms of the ongoing risks to encourage them to continue to take informal social distancing measures. I don't know what it's like north of the river but in South London everything seems to have broken down. People have been told it is safe to go back to normal and that is precisely what they are doing. Edit - this is actually perhaps harsh on the govt. who have been paying lip service to the importance of maintaining social distancing. I think my issue is more that they know what the fundamental message is that people will be taking and are being reckless to this - see for example this article by a behavioural scientist https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/24/boris-johnson-ease-lockdown-england

The other point for me is that whilst we are now probably taking the only available course of action economically, as things stand the examples of other countries both elsewhere in Europe and further afield suggest that we didn't have to be in this position in the first place had we reacted quicker.

On both counts it seems to me that the US is in a similar position.

I'm happy to live where I live for lots of other reasons. I'd be much happier if I could add to those reasons a government that had reacted well to this epidemic.

Where exactly south of the river? Lots of good boroughs down there....some still working on improving. Just curious. When I lived in London I was north of the river.

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ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

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obvert: Many people had a pattern of symptoms, where their symptoms were heightened initially, nearly disappeared, then returned again with ferocity, along with a very wide range of symptoms.

That seems to fit with the research that shows the virus developing new strains quite quickly, probably as the body neutralizes the initial infection. Another reason why I think we will be fighting this beast for a long time. I know vaccines try to target immunity to some key, immutable characteristic of the virus but sometimes the best we can come up with is a vaccine that targets an RNA bit that can mutate.

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ORIGINAL: Sammy5IsAlive

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ORIGINAL: fcooke

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ORIGINAL: Sammy5IsAlive

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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel


Seems like we're all glad we live where we live and wouldn't want others from far away deciding how we should do things.

From a UK perspective I'm not sure I'd go that far. A while back our government set out 'alert levels' that were supposed to link the progress of the epidemic with corresponding levels of response in terms of social distancing measures. As far as I am concerned we seem to be racing well ahead of that road map and without the testing and tracing system that we had previously been told would be the cornerstone of being able to open up safely.

But I think the reality is that we are taking the only course of action available - the economy simply cannot afford to continue paying for lock-down. What frustrates me is that there is no transparency - so we are not only opening up prematurely from a public health perspective but also not giving people the appropriate information in terms of the ongoing risks to encourage them to continue to take informal social distancing measures. I don't know what it's like north of the river but in South London everything seems to have broken down. People have been told it is safe to go back to normal and that is precisely what they are doing. Edit - this is actually perhaps harsh on the govt. who have been paying lip service to the importance of maintaining social distancing. I think my issue is more that they know what the fundamental message is that people will be taking and are being reckless to this - see for example this article by a behavioural scientist https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/24/boris-johnson-ease-lockdown-england

The other point for me is that whilst we are now probably taking the only available course of action economically, as things stand the examples of other countries both elsewhere in Europe and further afield suggest that we didn't have to be in this position in the first place had we reacted quicker.

On both counts it seems to me that the US is in a similar position.

I'm happy to live where I live for lots of other reasons. I'd be much happier if I could add to those reasons a government that had reacted well to this epidemic.

Where exactly south of the river? Lots of good boroughs down there....some still working on improving. Just curious. When I lived in London I was north of the river.

I'm in Wandsworth at the moment. Have ping-ponged between there and Lambeth the last few years as tenancies expire/flatmates come and go etc.

So my walk between work and home yesterday was
Brixton - still pretty quiet although I didn't go to the high street which is probably much busier. Although there was a big street party in the evening that seems to have got well out of hand.
Clapham Common - very busy lots of households mixing but some sort of distancing
Clapham Junction - probably the 'worst bit', lots of the bars are serving onto the pavements which were completely packed with people with no distancing whatsoever.
Wandsworth Park - as with Clapham Common

Maybe a quarter of the people in Brixton were wearing masks. Outside of Brixton nobody was wearing masks.

IMHO The government and the public are putting a whole load of eggs in the basket of there being little or no outdoor transmission.

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ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

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ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

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obvert: Many people had a pattern of symptoms, where their symptoms were heightened initially, nearly disappeared, then returned again with ferocity, along with a very wide range of symptoms.

That seems to fit with the research that shows the virus developing new strains quite quickly, probably as the body neutralizes the initial infection. Another reason why I think we will be fighting this beast for a long time. I know vaccines try to target immunity to some key, immutable characteristic of the virus but sometimes the best we can come up with is a vaccine that targets an RNA bit that can mutate.

While there are certainly new strains there is little evidence that is causing the record high new cases in the United States. If that was the case places that has successfully flattened the curve would be rising along with the rest of the country. That is simply not the case. New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania are not seeing the massive increases Texas, Florida, Arkansas , The Carolinas and much of the south are. If there was a new strain why the disparity? Immunity from he original strain? Perhaps, but there is nowhere near enough confirmed exposure levels for any sort of herd immunity. It seems that the states that locked down longer and harder are not seeing the levels of increase of states that shut down less completely and for a shorter period of time.

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ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Remember the Aircraft Carrier that had the major outbreak? The USN is using social distancing in an extreme way to make sure other ships are not similarly compromised.

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2020/06/25/dodging-covid-19-navy-ships-break-record-for-staying-at-sea/

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ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Remember the Aircraft Carrier that had the major outbreak? The USN is using social distancing in an extreme way to make sure other ships are not similarly compromised.

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2020/06/25/dodging-covid-19-navy-ships-break-record-for-staying-at-sea/

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ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

I think I know people who had that sugar cube. I wonder if people who had the dead polio vaccine would benefit from the live vaccine.

And to think of the cooperation like that at the height of the Cold War. That is like the Soviet Union coming to the US to improve its pork industry in the 1950s.

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ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

Blizzards were in the forecast yesterday. A New York Supreme for me and a Cotton Candy one for someone that I met. The staff wore masks and only half of the inside seating was available. No outside seating was available.

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Blizzards were in the forecast yesterday. A New York Supreme for me and a Cotton Candy one for someone that I met. The staff wore masks and only half of the inside seating was available. No outside seating was available.

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ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

Yikes! Florida went from bad to worse. 5,000 new cases yesterday, 9,000 new cases today! DeSantis victory lap not looking so good now https://www.towleroad.com/2020/04/gov-ron-desantis-takes-covid-19-victory-lap-despite-927-deaths-and-counting-in-florida-watch/

Yesterday DeSantis was crowing about not "slowing down reopening" . 24 hours later they are shutting down bars again https://www.wesh.com/article/florida-bars-alcohol-consumption-suspended/32981423#

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Don't make any hard plans yet. The situation is pretty fluid and there's immense pressure to act, so countermeasures might be reinstated, any place, any time.

To this point, mortality continues to drop steadily nationwide and in many states, so it doesn't yet seem that the increasing number of cases is similar to what we faced in February, March, April. I hope that proves true.

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Don't make any hard plans yet. The situation is pretty fluid and there's immense pressure to act, so countermeasures might be reinstated, any place, any time.

To this point, mortality continues to drop steadily nationwide and in many states, so it doesn't yet seem that the increasing number of cases is similar to what we faced in February, March, April. I hope that proves true.

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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Florida is a dumpster fire. It's approaching 10% of the deaths New York has experienced.

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ORIGINAL: fcooke

That must have been an interesting conversation.....

I think the cruise lines are toast. which means that the shipyards that build them are toast too.

I did go fetch some dinner tonight. No food being served inside, just pick-up, but the door said you had to wear a mask. But the bar portion was open and literally not a soul was wearing a mask (hard to drink with a mask on). When I pulled mine down to get my credit card out of my wallet (not sure how many others have a difficult time seeing things with a mask and glasses on), nobody said boo.

Anyways - goodnight, ladies, gents, aliens, etc.

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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Morehouse College in Atlanta cancelled fall sports. It's a small school but that trend is going to put increased pressure on others. In addition to the natural desire to get things right, there's a tremendous amount of pressure not to get things wrong, especially not to go against the grain. When the first big school cancels, all the rest are bound to follow. So unless things change for the better - or if they're better already, unless the perception changes - college football isn't going to happen this fall. And then, ditto pro football.

Deer hunting will be very popular this autumn, as turkey hunting was this spring.