Brexit, for once some facts.

[soundwave]

any one going to wear a face mask?

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[RossG]

Ah yes...Morecambe & Wise, I used to love their Christmas shows. Bring me sunshine.....

 

[oldgroaner]

A good article from Morgan in the DM

PIERS MORGAN: Boris can boast but the death toll tells the real story


https://mol.im/a/8275365

It certainly brought out the Tory trolls to defend Boris and co didn't it?

 

[oldgroaner]

Even the Express seem to have abandoned Boris's big return with this
"
Fishing outrage: Dutch trawlers plunder British waters with UK boats unable to sail
THREE Dutch supertrawlers have been ruthlessly plundering UK fish stocks with British boats unable to sail during the coronavirus lockdown, environmental campaigners Greenpeace have warned.

How many thousands of dead now? and they are concerned about three trawlers catching fish?

 

[oldgroaner]

This announcement pretty much sums up the desperate need the Government had for some good news of achieving something by generating false news

The government’s coronavirus testing target was not set based on specific scientific advice, says England’s top medical officer, Chris Whitty

Hardly surprisingly they bungled it as usual, and even lied to justify trying to achieve a pointless target!
And what should not be forgotten is Boris's earlier promise of 250,000 tests a day.

 

[oyster]

This announcement pretty much sums up the desperate need the Government had for some good news of achieving something by generating false news

The government’s coronavirus testing target was not set based on specific scientific advice, says England’s top medical officer, Chris Whitty

Hardly surprisingly they bungled it as usual, and even lied to justify trying to achieve a pointless target!

They could so easily have drawn the sting of this failure. By simply showing clearly, openly, and honestly, what was achieved each day and a brief summary of what changes are happening to improve things tomorrow. They could even have included setbacks - we are changing xxx so tomorrow's number might be down 10% but will be up again the next day.

A single page showing this ongoing day after day would have meant the careless, and incredibly imprudent, 100,000 claim could have been cast as an aspiration and, to a large extent, seen for what it was.

If they achieve 100,000 today and claim they did really do it, let us remind them that tax returns don't allow an extra day.

 

[Woosh]

Fact check: Is the virus manmade?

it does not have to be made in a test tube.
We know that CV is closely related to CV in Yunnan bats and they don't infect humans. We also know that to make the virus cross the species into humans, the virus has to go through intermediates, usually small mammals like rodents or pangolins.
The virology institute in Wuhan published papers on this particular route.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12250-018-0012-7

 

[oldgroaner]

it does not have to be made in a test tube.
We know that CV is closely related to CV in Yunnan bats and they don't infect humans. We also know that to make the virus cross the species into humans, the virus has to go through intermediates, usually small mammals like rodents or pangolins.
The virology institute in Wuhan published papers on this particular route.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12250-018-0012-7

The link seems to confirm that this is no man made virus, thanks for the additional detail it gives
It rather blows the notion that there is a "Chinese plot" somewhere, but certainly adds weight to international calls for the Chinese to halt the sale and consumption of wild animals in the Human Food chain
PERMANENTLY, and find means to pressure them to comply.

 

[Woosh]

you can simply inject bats' serum into civets, wait for some civets to get ill, then inject the civet's serum into pangolins, wait for some pangolins to get ill then purify the pangolin's serum with e-coli - hey presto, you can now test in vitro if the purified virus reproduces in human cells.
The more intermediates you use, the better chance of cross infection.
The next step is to find a breathing human victim.
that link I gave was an article published in 2018. It explains the mechanism, a bit like horticultural cross breeding.
Most of the recent papers I read are technical papers on biochemistry - I don't know if anyone is obsessed enough to read them.

 

[oyster]

A few days since last I posted these very broadbrush numbers. In which time two Welsh health boards were found not to be properly reporting (now supposedly corrected).

Friday	01/05/2020​
Country	2018 population	Total cases	Deaths	Deaths / cases %	Cases / pop %	Death/pop %
England	55,977,178​	118,343​	24,110​	20.4%​	0.21%​	0.043%​
Northern Ireland	1,881,641​	3,536​	338​	9.6%​	0.19%​	0.018%​
Scotland	5,438,100​	11,353​	1415​	12.5%​	0.21%​	0.026%​
Wales	3,138,631​	9,812​	908​	9.3%​	0.31%​	0.029%​
	66,435,550​	143,044​	26,771​	18.7%​	0.22%​	0.040%​
Sunday	26/04/2020​
Country	2018 population	Total cases	Deaths	Deaths / cases %	Cases / pop %	Death/pop %
England	55,977,178​	110,203​	18,419​	16.7%​	0.20%​	0.033%​
Northern Ireland	1,881,641​	3,308​	294​	8.9%​	0.18%​	0.016%​
Scotland	5,438,100​	10,324​	1231​	11.9%​	0.19%​	0.023%​
Wales	3,138,631​	9,078​	788​	8.7%​	0.29%​	0.025%​
	66,435,550​	132,913​	20,732​	15.6%​	0.20%​	0.031%​

 

[oldgroaner]

you can simply inject bats' serum into civets, wait for some civets to get ill, then inject the civet's serum into pangolins, wait for some pangolins to get ill then purify the pangolin's serum with e-coli - hey presto, you can now test in vitro if the purified virus reproduces in human cells.
The more intermediates you use, the better chance of cross infection.
The next step is to find a breathing human victim.
that link I gave was an article published in 2018. It explains the mechanism, a bit like horticultural cross breeding.
Most of the recent papers I read are technical papers on biochemistry - I don't know if anyone is obsessed enough to read them.

You can also inject people with disinfectant, and while it is always possible that the Chinese would stoop to such a tactic, it is no less probable that the money injected by the USA into the lab funded such research.

The USA has form in this area
The Incendiary Bat bombs of the USA in WW2

Which went rather spectacularly wrong!

A series of tests to answer various operational questions were conducted. In one incident, the Carlsbad Army Airfield Auxiliary Air Base (32°15′39″N 104°13′45″W) near Carlsbad, New Mexico, was set on fire on May 15, 1943, when armed bats were accidentally released.[7] The bats roosted under a fuel tank and incinerated the test range.

Shame about the bats!
The thought comes to mind that the "evidence" that Trump has seen is actually a progress report the Chinese had sent to the CIA

 

[Woosh]

and while it is always possible that the Chinese would stoop to such a tactic, it is no less probable that the money injected by the USA into the lab funded such research.

in that paper dated since 2018, they have already developed antibody test for SARS-Cov.
How would you market your antibody tests?

 

[oyster]

in that paper dated since 2018, they have already developed antibody test for SARS-Cov.
How would you market your antibody tests?

They don't appear to have sold many to the UK!

 

[Woosh]

They don't appear to have sold many to the UK!

perhaps they did not expect subsequent mutations when CV hit humans.

 

[sjpt]

Extra work for our car charger (actually next door's posh one, I don't really trust our 40 year old one but can't bring myself to throw it away). Still, it got my wife out of a chore; somebody else had to deal with the shared allotment loo emptying.

I wonder how many other battery chargers are being pressed into service.

 

[Danidl]

Extra work for our car charger (actually next door's posh one, I don't really trust our 40 year old one but can't bring myself to throw it away). Still, it got my wife out of a chore; somebody else had to deal with the shared allotment loo emptying.

I wonder how many other battery chargers are being pressed into service.

Non sequitur par excellence... Perhaps an explanatory note?.

 

[oyster]

Do not pass Go. Absolutely do not even try to collect £200.

Revealed: NHS procurement official privately selling PPE

NHS launches inquiry after Guardian investigation exposes senior official trading protective gear amid pandemic
by Harry Davies and Simon Goodley

Fri 1 May 2020 12.16 BST

A head of procurement for the NHS has set up a business to profit from the private sale of huge quantities of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, an undercover investigation by the Guardian can reveal.
David Singleton, 42, a senior NHS official in London who has been working at the capital’s Covid-19 Nightingale hospital, launched the business two weeks ago to trade in visors, masks and gowns.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/01/revealed-nhs-procurement-official-privately-selling-ppe

 

[oyster]

Extra work for our car charger (actually next door's posh one, I don't really trust our 40 year old one but can't bring myself to throw it away). Still, it got my wife out of a chore; somebody else had to deal with the shared allotment loo emptying.

I wonder how many other battery chargers are being pressed into service.

None being used here. We simply make sure both cars are used in some sort of rotation. (No, not getting stuck on the roundabout.) And make sure we choose a route which is slightly longer to ensure a longer running time.

Actually bought some petrol a couple of days ago - for the first time since 15th March.

 

[flecc]

The DIY stores aren't waiting for the government to ease Lockdown, all the larger ones are re-opening this weekend, which they can do legally.

I can see the garden centres kicking up about this since they both sell similar products.
.

 

[Wicky]

it does not have to be made in a test tube.
We know that CV is closely related to CV in Yunnan bats and they don't infect humans. We also know that to make the virus cross the species into humans, the virus has to go through intermediates, usually small mammals like rodents or pangolins.
The virology institute in Wuhan published papers on this particular route.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12250-018-0012-7