[News] The Coronavirus Good News thread

[Is it PotG?]

I assumed that Brighton & Hove would be a real hotspot by now, but as was pointed out to me yesterday, there are no students at the universities (or at least very few) and that takes a sizeable chunk of the population out of the area. A group that would otherwise be extremely sociable and mobile, living in close proximity, and providing a very easy way for the virus to spread.

Add to that the fact that the city is built on its tourism, pubs, clubs and general party vibe – and all those things are closed down – visitor numbers will be almost negligible.

So, that just leaves the resident population, and if everyone stays sensible there ought to be a really good chance of keeping the numbers relatively low.

Exactly, and a good illustration of how measured, structured and controlled the release of the lockdown needs to be.

 

[Barham's tash]

The chief Scottish medical officer was on BBC news this morning stating that mass testing is not the panacea that many think. The real game changer is the antibody test, because as he said, if he was tested Monday, and the test result comes back Tuesday, the result only tells him that he was clear of the virus on Monday, not whether he has it now on the Tuesday.

100% this and as far as I have read we’re not close to this right? Or we’re not close to mass testing capability?

 

[Simster]

Why is the **** in the white lorry in the second lane

Is it Stanley Johnson on his way back from his Devonshire retreat?

 

[Wardy's twin]

My Niece is working in the Royal Sussex and is saying it is half empty and have been waiting for this mass influx of cases which still hasn't happened, she said the biggest problem is with staff nicking PPE etc.

Honestly hope this is not the case but if it is then it would be great that it is challenged assuming it is that obvious. I appreciate that this is a difficult thing to do for many people but when many doctors and nurses don't have enough kit and are risking their lives then it would be a disgrace if others are stealing it and making it more dangerous for them. I wonder if some are putting the stuff to one side cause they know that when they are moved to the front line they believe they won't have the kit.

The bigger issue is nurses and doctors not beds and let's be clear working 60+ hours a week in poor conditions will take its toll not just with potential COVID but stress and burnout.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Prof Sikora on R5 this morning giving some hope....if we keep up the progress currently made

 

[Guinness Boy]

I assumed that Brighton & Hove would be a real hotspot by now, but as was pointed out to me yesterday, there are no students at the universities (or at least very few) and that takes a sizeable chunk of the population out of the area. A group that would otherwise be extremely sociable and mobile, living in close proximity, and providing a very easy way for the virus to spread.

Add to that the fact that the city is built on its tourism, pubs, clubs and general party vibe – and all those things are closed down – visitor numbers will be almost negligible.

So, that just leaves the resident population, and if everyone stays sensible there ought to be a really good chance of keeping the numbers relatively low.

Quite a few "work from home" industries here. Lots who commute to London to work in either Financial Services or IT, industries that have strong WFH capability and business continuity plans. Lots of media / web design / creative jobs that are also either perfectly doable at home or shutdown. Would think it contrasts quite heavily with areas where there are a lot of manual jobs / building sites and key workers.

 

[Mackenzie]

It's local good news (for now) isn't it?

There seem to be some really shitty hotspots - London and Birmingham (not surprisingly) but also Newport, Gwent. To a degree this was the issue in Italy. Lombardy totally overrun while other areas were relatively free.

There must be a real balancing act between wanting to take cases in from other places in the country and knowing that if you do, you are screwed if it kicks off locally.

The general consensus locally is that the Newport hotspot partially stems from a rugby match on March 6th against Treviso (Benetton Rugby Club). Just goes to show that something as seemingly insignificant as going to or playing a rugby match can cause so much damage.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I assumed that Brighton & Hove would be a real hotspot by now, but as was pointed out to me yesterday, there are no students at the universities (or at least very few) and that takes a sizeable chunk of the population out of the area. A group that would otherwise be extremely sociable and mobile, living in close proximity, and providing a very easy way for the virus to spread.

Add to that the fact that the city is built on its tourism, pubs, clubs and general party vibe – and all those things are closed down – visitor numbers will be almost negligible.

So, that just leaves the resident population, and if everyone stays sensible there ought to be a really good chance of keeping the numbers relatively low.

Sadly though, care homes in B&H, and doubtless everywhere else, appear to be taking a proportionately large hit that won't be reflected in the numbers reported. And there's care home workers on the local news on almost a nightly basis quite rightly concerned that they don't have the necessary PPE

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/18372079.coronavirus-there-care-home-deaths-reported/

 

[Guinness Boy]

The general consensus locally is that the Newport hotspot partially stems from a rugby match on March 6th against Treviso (Benetton Rugby Club). Just goes to show that something as seemingly insignificant as going to or playing a rugby match can cause so much damage.

Sterophonics gig in Cardiff on 14 March can't have helped either.

 

[A1X]

Prof Sikora on R5 this morning giving some hope....if we keep up the progress currently made

Don't tend to listen to the non-sport output on Five Live, what was said?

 

[wehatepalace]

My Niece is working in the Royal Sussex and is saying it is half empty and have been waiting for this mass influx of cases which still hasn't happened, she said the biggest problem is with staff nicking PPE etc.

I’ve heard exactly the same, one of my customers is an ICU nurse at east Surrey, he said he’s never seen so many empty beds, he’s less busy than he has been for years, most of their patients were overflow from London and now the nightingale is open it’s even quieter.
He also mentioned the shortage of PPE is staff pinching gloves and masks.
Good news that perhaps the government have got it spot on and overestimated the numbers and that the measures in place are in fact working and we are flattening the curve !

 

[LamieRobertson]

Don't tend to listen to the non-sport output on Five Live, what was said?

Tbh it’s quite hard to summarise ..safe to say he’s a fairly positive guy who tweets daily ..I think it was on some when between 10 and 11 if you want to try catchup

 

[moggy]

Sterophonics gig in Cardiff on 14 March can't have helped either.

Probably add the Cheltenham festival to that too

 

[beorhthelm]

the good news is that with incubation and illness expected to be ~14-16 days, anyone contracting from gigs a month ago will be over it by now.

 

[Sue1983]

the good news is that with incubation and illness expected to be ~14-16 days, anyone contracting from gigs a month ago will be over it by now.

I hope so as both my sons went to Cheltenham.

 

[nickbrighton]

Good news that perhaps the government have got it spot on and overestimated the numbers and that the measures in place are in fact working and we are flattening the curve !

This seems to be the case, with everywhere reporting that they are running below capacity, and the spare capacity will increase as the wonderful Nightingale hospitals take patients. You wont see a lot about this in the press though, as it fly's in the face of the " no preparation, no clue, the Tory government are solely to blame, and everywhere else is doing much better" narrative that the press are pushing. Mistakes have of course been made, but every country has made mistakes (with hindsight). Unfortunately there was never a chance that the virus could have been kept out, and it was only a matter of when it would take off here, not if. That speed at which the nightingale hospitals were built and opened simply could not have been done without a huge amount of preplanning. Just equipment and materials HAD to have been being got ready months ago, and plans at least drawn up if not finalised. The military would already have had plans in place to suport the authorities.
One of the big issues for Northern Italy was that the influx simply overan the hospitals and there were no icu beds available, that does not seem to be happening here. Trying to compare death rates is not really an accurate indicator as there are too many variables. Population size, density, age, etc all have a massive impact and simply cant be seen in the figures.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Why is the **** in the white lorry in the second lane

If that is approaching J11 then lane one becomes a filter so he may have moved over in anticipation of the junction or had that prompt from a satnav.

 

[Icy Gull]

This may have already been mentioned, it’s a long thread. People who had a BCG inoculation MAY be less susceptible to full blown Covid 19.

Weren’t these given to most children back in the day?

 

[dazzer6666]

The general consensus locally is that the Newport hotspot partially stems from a rugby match on March 6th against Treviso (Benetton Rugby Club). Just goes to show that something as seemingly insignificant as going to or playing a rugby match can cause so much damage.

Arteta getting infected and our game vs Arsenal being cancelled might have saved dozens of infections in B&H.........

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

This may have already been mentioned, it’s a long thread. People who had a BCG inoculation MAY be less susceptible to full blown Covid 19.

Weren’t these given to most children back in the day?

And the older the type of BCG vaccine the better.

I've been very interested in why former USSR / Warsaw Pact countries haven't been hit so hard so far.

Beside Putin hushing up the Russia figures, it could well also have been the compulsory TB vaccination they used in Soviet days.

Lightbulb : Germany has good outcomes so far... but part of it used to be East Germany... does this skew their figures