Brexit, for once some facts.

oyster

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Sorry Oyster, at no stage did the UK do well. It was waffled and confused at every stage from March. Remember Football matches would not have been cancelled except WRU called a halt and the FA followed.
We, the people, did well at abiding by the rules on lockdown when first introduced. (That Cummings, Jenrick, the Scottish health person, etc., seemed not to abide properly undermined the widespread support/"obedience".)

Everything that went before, and much that has happened since, is appalling.
 

sjpt

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Jun 8, 2018
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Whoaaa! Did Trump ever live in Houston, Texas?

Texas residents warned of tap water tainted with brain-eating microbe
  • Communities around Houston are potentially contaminated
  • Naegleria fowleri enters body through nose, travels to brain
Texas officials have warned residents of some communities near Houston to stop using tap water because it might be tainted with a deadly brain-eating microbe.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/26/texas-tap-water-tainted-brain-eating-microbe
You'd think they'd require more people to drink it ... if their brains are eaten they are more likely to vote for Trump.
 
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sjpt

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I notice that the US and UK Covid deaths per million are now just about the same; though the US government's even more reckless attitude means their numbers are still climbing steeply. I'm still not sure how Belgium managed such a huge number early on though. Probably just shows how testing and reporting regimes make detailed comparisons meaningless.

 
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oyster

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Sorry Oyster, at no stage did the UK do well. It was waffled and confused at every stage from March. Remember Football matches would not have been cancelled except WRU called a halt and the FA followed.
Sorry Danidl, but the actual behaviour of the people was surprisingly good. People did stay at home. People did avoid the things they were told to avoid.

Sure, not everyone, everywhere, but the general acceptance was pretty good.

That the government had said it was OK to go to the races, to sporting events, was a government failure - not one of the people failing to do what they were asked/told/advised to do.

That the WRU made their decision shows that non-government was ahead of government.
 

oyster

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When the government claims to follow the science, maybe take this into account:

Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science

I had this pointed out to me by one of the foremost researchers in a field I know and care about. His ethics are of the highest order. He is, technically, retired so has no external pressure on him. His papers, written with colleagues, are of immense importance. I believe, in time, they will force a massive change in the field. But currently very much ignored - clearly read by the rest of the people in the field, but almost scrupulously not referenced.
 

flecc

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Oct 25, 2006
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Is that why London is now on lockdown watch alert flecc ;)
Do take notice.

As I've already reported, that is mainly due to the Borough of Hillingdon which is the Heathrow airport area borough supplying the bulk of Heathrow Airports 76,000 workers who have been receiving all those flights from infected areas. That 76,000 is overwhelming more than London's 16,000 infected who have caused the current panic.

Those infected but not in Hillingdon, as again I've already reported in here, are mostly around London's border with Essex just north of the Thames, due to Essex's higher infection rate and commuting.

27 of London's 29 boroughs do not have a problem. Two of them are Londons largest boroughs, including my own, which at the beginning of the pandemic was London's worst hit by far. That of course is why we don't have a problem now, we took the hit early. Here we are ignoring the politicians latest panicky lockdown which had no need to be applied London wide.

We in Croydon also service a major airport, Gatwick, but that was soon virtually shut down, probably why our infections were very high early but have largely disappeared since. And Essex still with a high rate as mentioned above, services the other major London airport Stanstead which has continued working. It's a pity our politicians hadn't watched what was actually going on and acted more wisely with far stricter control over incoming flights during the pandemic, isolating and testing all passengers before allowing them immediate contact with immigration, customs and all other airport workers in shops, hotels, public transport and the rest of the country's population.
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RossG

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Don't shoot the messenger flecc, I'm just commenting on media reports which have said 17,000 in London infected with covid and the capital now on watch alert for possible lockdown. If you disagree as you may you'll have to take that up with the mass media ... maybe they are lying to wind you up !
 

oldgroaner

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Don't shoot the messenger flecc, I'm just commenting on media reports which have said 17,000 in London infected with covid and the capital now on watch alert for possible lockdown. If you disagree as you may you'll have to take that up with the mass media ... maybe they are lying to wind you up !
"you'll have to take that up with the mass media ... maybe they are lying to wind you up ! "

Many a true word
Is spoken in jest! :cool:
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,262
30,649
Don't shoot the messenger flecc, I'm just commenting on media reports which have said 17,000 in London infected with covid and the capital now on watch alert for possible lockdown. If you disagree as you may you'll have to take that up with the mass media ... maybe they are lying to wind you up !
Not doing that Ross, but as ever the person on the spot is more likely to have the up to date situation just as you've shown in your area. The 17,000 you mention will be correct since the 16,000 I posted was a couple of weeks ago. But as you can see those, largely confined to two hotspots, are nothing to get panicky over compared to the over 13 millions of London's supercity size and even the true 10.2 millions within the GLC boundary. Our very low London death rate reflects that, 25 in the last week who had been tested positive plus 2 mentions on death certificates.

Like many of us I'm sure, I don't understand what the politicians are thinking. For months they banned us from travelling to different areas of the country, yet now they've sent mainly young people from all over the country to universities scattered over all other areas of the country. That defies logic and has inevitably resulted in their lockdown.

I strongly supported the return of schoolchildren who are from local areas of course and have already been interacting in the community anyway, but repeating it for universities anywhere at a time when a resurgence of the pandemic was expected is simply barmy.
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RossG

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Feb 12, 2019
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I'd be less that truthful if I said infections have remained really low here but sadly that's not the case, many schools have seen either children or staff getting covid and as for Uni's & halls of residence here on the coast ... :rolleyes:
 

Danidl

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Sep 29, 2016
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When the government claims to follow the science, maybe take this into account:

Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science

I had this pointed out to me by one of the foremost researchers in a field I know and care about. His ethics are of the highest order. He is, technically, retired so has no external pressure on him. His papers, written with colleagues, are of immense importance. I believe, in time, they will force a massive change in the field. But currently very much ignored - clearly read by the rest of the people in the field, but almost scrupulously not referenced.
A few years ago, when my daughter was an undergraduate, I subscribed at her student rate to Nature ..the weekly serious periodical. The majority of the material was biological and astrophysics. The Astrophysics, I could partially follow, it being the discipline of my doctorate. The Biological Sciences .very very little. But there was an ongoing theme about reproducibility in measurements in the biological sciences and the lack of consistency between labs. Basically unless two labs used exactly the same cell line and reagents from the same source, they were unlikely to get comparable results. I would not have seen that as Science
 

oyster

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 7, 2017
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A few years ago, when my daughter was an undergraduate, I subscribed at her student rate to Nature ..the weekly serious periodical. The majority of the material was biological and astrophysics. The Astrophysics, I could partially follow, it being the discipline of my doctorate. The Biological Sciences .very very little. But there was an ongoing theme about reproducibility in measurements in the biological sciences and the lack of consistency between labs. Basically unless two labs used exactly the same cell line and reagents from the same source, they were unlikely to get comparable results. I would not have seen that as Science
Some biological/medical tests are standardised. But the ones I am most often discussing are not. The test manufacturers have made, effectively, no effort to achieve standardisation.

We see:
Reference intervals that vary from one lab to another;
Tests that are prone to interference by known factors which could be avoided;
Refusal to do tests on specious grounds;
And then, they publish papers which refer to reference intervals as if they were the same in every lab! Particularly when they are meta-analyses;
We see formal guidelines which say some value should be under/over a certain level;
Because the tests are not standardised, this is absolutely rotten to the core.
 
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