Red-Robbo

Same where I live. Was amazed how loud it was to be honest.

Think I was thinking of H5N1. I've read, somewhere, that bats were implicated with Sars. Great Horse Shoe Bats that may have been stored near the species that might have passed the virus to humans. Weren't they also the likely vector for ebola? I think the entire comic book franchise Batman may have to be rethought.

I think the civets were the bridge animal to chickens. I may be wrong. Like the current virus, i'm not sure definitive conclusions have been reached. Incidentally, the current coronavirus is a form of SARS, so you do wonder.

LATEST NEWS: Prince Charles is isolating at Balmoral with Covid-19. Meanwhile, Prince Andrew is isolating in Windsor Castle with Jennifer, 15.

There are indeed lots to "blame" the government there for. Invading Tibet and virtually destroying its culture for one thing. I don't think we can necessarily blame 'em for a viral mutation though. Interested you ate bat (and rat!), JJT. I'd be too squeamish. I wimped out of the old locust-on-a-stick in Vietnam. I'd be hopeless on I'm A Celebrity...

I have to say, until scientists have been able to do more analysis, we don't know who or what caused the virus. We may never know. The causes of many great pandemics, including "Spanish flu", are just conjecture. The dominant theory is that it began in Wuhan in November/December and may have some connection to the city's "wet market" and either bats or pangolins. But there are problems with this: the form of bat coronavirus found in the kind of bats eaten in central China is only 96% a DNA match with Covid-19. That isn't normally close enough for a mutated virus to "jump species". As for pangolins, it's the scales that are ground up and used in (already banned) traditional medicine. These would be very unlikely to carry the virus, and pangolins only have a 90.3%match with the genetic material carried by Covid-19. Unlikely that they are either its direct source or even the "bridge" to forest bats. They are critically endangered for one thing. Also, multiple reports suggest that neither bats or pangolins were sold in the wet market in Wuhan. Bat-eating being much more of a rural thing; something that is dying out in modern China. You don't need to blame the peculiar eating habits of some Chinese for these zoonotic diseases. They are much more likely to come from everyday farm animals that everyone eats: chickens (SARS/MERS); pigs (Swine Fever), etc. Moreover, research on many virus outbreaks has suggested they may have circulated for decades at a low-level before a mutation made them more dangerous and a "super-spreader" burst them into an epidemic. Although AIDS was first identified in New York in 1981, evidence now shows it was present in the Congo basin area in the 1930s and had reached the US by the 1960s. Deaths from it were chalked up to different causes. So I personally wouldn't "blame China" for a virus mutation over which they would've had no control, and which may not even have originated there. If there's blame to be attributed, we need to await the "inquest" on all this: and that may be years away.

They'll lose their licence. end of. Then not get it back after all this is over. I doubt the lockdown takings will cover the cost of losing their livelihood.

For those of us wondering if we had already had a mild form of the virus already. One research model suggests we might have. https://www.ft.com/content/5ff6469a-6dd8-11ea-89df-41bea055720b?fbclid=IwAR0t9k4JbS64ewd6UwLfRWxWp8NdjdYbpnB2VyRgVVnknt3Gje9kZfd1Ktc

To be honest, I've exercised more and drunk less than at any time in the last 25 years. A new slimline Robbo is emerging and Mrs R is definitely keen. Which also helps with passing the time. What surprises me is I'm not missing the pub much at all. I keep in messenger contact with good friends and family. That's fine for now.

I couldn't agree more with your post, WR. In the case of 'Spoons, what I found unacceptable was not that the owner was interviewed on telly and gave his political opinions: he can believe what he likes. I objected to one-sided propaganda being set out on beermats and pamphlets left on tables in his boozers. It's a sort of insidious political advertising that should not be allowed. It was an easy boycott to maintain, as I never liked the places anyway. It meant I missed my darts' team Christmas Party, but so be it. They knew my feelings, but felt cheap, flat beer was more important. Now, with his awful treatment of employees, I suspect more than just Remainers might be boycotting his sticky carpeted establishments, once they re-open.

It might have been that they tested more widely and therefore detected and counted more "mild" cases that have gone un-noticed by officialdom here. I have a friend self-isolating in Redland. She has all the Covid symptoms, but has not been tested as she's young and not in a near-critical condition.

Don't we also report once the day is over? The figures are given at one-off daily briefings, not realised as a trickle. I think an exception that does report throughout the day is the US, where you'll often see the infections figure rise hour-by-hour. I'm guessing that is because each individual state reports its total, and they are in different time zones and probably have different reporting procedure.

That did occur to me. If it's countrywide, that's a hell of a turnaround from the 1000+ per day they were getting a week ago. Unfortunately, it appears reports of Germany's infection curve flattening out may be wishful thinking judging by its last figures.

Is it definitely Southmead, Mr S? I've seen a similar picture, but the caption said it was somewhere up north.

I see Spain reporting just 76 new infections today*. That could mean a flattening of the curve for them, after a period of strict lockdown. *Unless I've misunderstood the data.

Worth reading this fella's explanation of empty supermarket shelves. It's not all down to idiocy. The thread explains it.

Hard to argue that the pay freeze on NHS staff during the Cameron administration, scrapping of nursing bursaries and Brexit haven't all contributed to our major shortage of nurses. Also, to be fair to the dreadful Blair, he was the last PM to consistently deliver large above inflation increases in health spending over a prolonged period. The poorly thought out PFI was on top of that - and was opposed by Labour's current leader. Many new local hospitals, including West Mendip, Shepton Mallet and Bridgwater were either built or planned during this era. But TBH we are where we are now. It's up to the current administration to expand the health service to deal as best as possible with the current crisis - and hopefully learn the lessons of past mistakes. We can all point to mistakes made by both parties, but that doesn't help the current situation.

Someone has already posted this and it's spot on until he gets to the Henry VIII bit which is bollocks. But then, Americans probably think his son was Henry IX.

It's worth bearing in mind that the 1944 white paper envisaged a less extensive service than Labour created in 1947. Nye Bevan went beyond Beveridge and extended the NHS into areas like dentistry, free glasses etc etc. Hence the wartime estimate, which also didn't allow for peacetime inflation, was highly inaccurate.

My next-door neighbour knows of someone who came down with the virus 5 days after attending two days of the Cheltenham Festival. ?

Also note that if you're "not sick" but you're "not well", you should definitely self-isolate.

They do. I think another option is self-test kits that are being rolled out, but only for people who definitely seem as though they are likely to have it. Of course, at present, we're still upping our capacity to test, but when we get 25K tests a day capacity - and if you were really unwell - they'd likely get to you. Right now, I expect they'd probably tell you to isolate within your house and contact again if you deteriorated.

You wouldn't hop over to your GP anyway. If you have the symptoms use the NHS 111 website to self-report or ring 111 and they decide whether you need to be tested or indeed need any specialist treatment. TBH if I was in that situation I'd be keen to know, as if I was ruled out I wouldn't have to isolate from others in the household and I'd know I still had no antibodies for Covid-19. If I was tested positive, I could warn the people I'd been in contact with and the places I'd been in the last 14 days.

You have to realise WR that the scientists the government rely on aren't necessarily there because they are the best in their field. People rise to these lofty positions for a number of reasons - political expediency and willingness to say the right thing included. Perhaps the fact that Sir Patrick Vallence is a personal friend of Dominic Cummings is coincidental. It has to be said that the government's initial responses to this crisis were widely criticised by those who do deal with the science and modelling of pandemics. Italy should've been the warning, but it appears we were caught on the hop by the speed this thing developed just like they were and - as has been posted - our death rate seems to be mirroring theirs when they were at the same stage of the contagion. We seem to finally be following the consensus advice as to virus containment now though, so let's be glad that has finally happened. I think the more up in the air question now, is how you help the self-employed and gig economy workers get through this, and how these small business schemes are going to operate.

Very interesting although the author seems to be certain Covid-19 emerged from the market in Wuhan in December, and this is only the predominant theory. Science hasn't proved this yet. [as an aside, I'm not really sure what he's on about with "the Black Plague" either. The Black Death was two centuries earlier and the plagues in early Tudor times were called the "sweating sickness". Henry VIII didn't stay in a room, but moved the entire court out of London]