Coronavirus SZN Forever

[SixFeetDeep]

The UK only realised "in the last few days" that attempts to "mitigate" the impact of the coronavirus pandemic would not work, and that it needed to shift to a strategy to "suppress" the outbreak, according to a report by a team of experts who have been advising the government.

The report, published by the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team on Monday night, found that the strategy previously being pursued by the government — dubbed "mitigation" and involving home isolation of suspect cases and their family members but not including restrictions on wider society — would "likely result in hundreds of thousands of deaths and health systems (most notably intensive care units) being overwhelmed many times over".

The mitigation strategy "focuses on slowing but not necessarily stopping epidemic spread — reducing peak healthcare demand while protecting those most at risk of severe disease from infection", the report said, reflecting the UK strategy that was outlined last week by Boris Johnson and the chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance.

But the approach was found to be unworkable. "Our most significant conclusion is that mitigation is unlikely to be feasible without emergency surge capacity limits of the UK and US healthcare systems being exceeded many times over," perhaps by as much as eight times, the report said.

In this scenario, the Imperial College team predicted as many as 250,000 deaths in Britain.

"In the UK, this conclusion has only been reached in the last few days," the report explained, due to new data on likely intensive care unit demand based on the experience of Italy and Britain so far.

"We were expecting herd immunity to build. We now realise it’s not possible to cope with that," professor Azra Ghani, chair of infectious diseases epidemiology at Imperial, told journalists at a briefing on Monday night.

I feel like I’m reading the plot of the same bad movie over and over again

[Pope]

The craziest part of all this is that I find myself agreeing with JE

[Johnny English]

The craziest part of all this is that I find myself agreeing with JE

They're closing bars and restaurants as of midnight tonight in Ontario. We just went to our local for a last pint until who knows when, the staff don't know when they're getting their next paycheck. If this goes on for long the economic impact will destroy far more lives than the virus.

I wonder if someone can explain why everyone's having to do this isolation thing, instead of just the at risk section of the population? Why can't we have a hygienic service doing groceries and errands and excrement for those people at risk, and let the world just get sick and then move on with our lives?

[MBGreen]

They're closing bars and restaurants as of midnight tonight in Ontario. We just went to our local for a last pint until who knows when, the staff don't know when they're getting their next paycheck. If this goes on for long the economic impact will destroy far more lives than the virus.

I wonder if someone can explain why everyone's having to do this isolation thing, instead of just the at risk section of the population? Why can't we have a hygienic service doing groceries and errands and excrement for those people at risk, and let the world just get sick and then move on with our lives?

Because you can’t be trusted

[Pope]

They're closing bars and restaurants as of midnight tonight in Ontario. We just went to our local for a last pint until who knows when, the staff don't know when they're getting their next paycheck. If this goes on for long the economic impact will destroy far more lives than the virus.

I wonder if someone can explain why everyone's having to do this isolation thing, instead of just the at risk section of the population? Why can't we have a hygienic service doing groceries and errands and excrement for those people at risk, and let the world just get sick and then move on with our lives?

It’s going to be much more fun fending off someone holding a pistol to my forehead for a roll of toilet paper than it will be fighting a fever for 2 days

[bojanglesman]

They're closing bars and restaurants as of midnight tonight in Ontario. We just went to our local for a last pint until who knows when, the staff don't know when they're getting their next paycheck. If this goes on for long the economic impact will destroy far more lives than the virus.

I wonder if someone can explain why everyone's having to do this isolation thing, instead of just the at risk section of the population? Why can't we have a hygienic service doing groceries and errands and excrement for those people at risk, and let the world just get sick and then move on with our lives?

Never try to reason with the unreasonable.

[SixFeetDeep]

It’s going to be much more fun fending off someone holding a pistol to my forehead for a roll of toilet paper than it will be fighting a fever for 2 days

Nobody cares about your well being, shithead

[Pope]

Dow Jones dropped 3000 points today after feds pulled their last move to try to pump the economy

No big deal

[Johnny English]

Never try to reason with the unreasonable.

I genuinely don't know the answer to that, I'm not trying to be unreasonable here. (Actually I suspect I do but people don't like it.) I feel like at some point we're facing the age old hypothetical ethics dilemma of the driver of the car with the failed brakes having to decide between hitting the stroller or the group of elderly people. I would love to hear that there's a run off lane not being mentioned because right now we're definitely not steering towards it.

[Johnny English]

Dow Jones dropped 3000 points today after feds pulled their last move to try to pump the economy

No big deal

Actually isn't, couldn't give a excrement about the Dow. Fortune 1000 companies aren't laying people off because their stock plummeted.

[SixFeetDeep]

I genuinely don't know the answer to that, I'm not trying to be unreasonable here. (Actually I suspect I do but people don't like it.) I feel like at some point we're facing the age old hypothetical ethics dilemma of the driver of the car with the failed brakes having to decide between hitting the stroller or the group of elderly people. I would love to hear that there's a run off lane not being mentioned because right now we're definitely not steering towards it.

Your strategy the other day was ignore it and it goes away. Now you want to play God?

[SixFeetDeep]

Btw that’s exactly what they’re doing in Italy right now. Pay attention

[Pope]

Actually isn't, couldn't give a excrement about the Dow. Fortune 1000 companies aren't laying people off because their stock plummeted.

What do you think happened with a lot of people’s 401k’s? Retirement? Market has lost a third of its value in three weeks

[bojanglesman]

I genuinely don't know the answer to that, I'm not trying to be unreasonable here. (Actually I suspect I do but people don't like it.) I feel like at some point we're facing the age old hypothetical ethics dilemma of the driver of the car with the failed brakes having to decide between hitting the stroller or the group of elderly people. I would love to hear that there's a run off lane not being mentioned because right now we're definitely not steering towards it.

No, I'm telling you to never try to reason with unreasonable people.

[bojanglesman]

What do you think happened with a lot of people’s 401k’s? Retirement? Market has lost a third of its value in three weeks

That only matters if you are near retirement, and if you are you shouldn't be anywhere near 100% invested in equities. Everyone else has plenty of time to recover and an excellent opportunity to buy low along the way.