United Kingdom V: Son of a beach

[Dogg Thang]

What if you have loo roll in your teeth and a minty crack?

That works too. We’re veering off topic but I have seen a minty spray for that very purpose.

[Team Andromeda]

Is it still ok to shag Sonic ?

[Dogg Thang]

No point in being alive if you’re not really living.

[JazzFunk]

I've got to say hospital is the great leveller. EVERYONE gets sweaty cracks sleeping on them rubber mattresses!

As for all this lark, let's not panic here. It's que sera sera, anyway, no matter how much one insulates one's self from it. Like you say, DT, might as well live.

Plus, it's kind of exciting, innit?

[MartyG]

Mortality rate in Italy is 6.7%

Just saying.

Which shows just how stupid a herd immunity plan is.

60% (at least) of UK need to be infected for herd immunity to work which = 39,876,000 people of which 6.7% is 2,671,692

Seems more like a plan to reduce the pension deficit to me

[Dogg Thang]

Yep. When you look at the WHO figures, it’s important to consider why some countries, like Italy, have a high mortality rate (and Italy has a good healthcare system) and some don’t. In some of those scenarios, many people who could have pulled through don’t - those deaths are needless and can be avoided.

[MartyG]

I'm in favour if it if the entirety of government are the first to deliberately infect themselves live on television intravenously with top cabinet ministers having a double dose.

This is the plan from the geniuses that think Brexit is a good idea.

Also: https://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/2...from-invisible

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/13/how-many-will-die-of-coronavirus-in-the-uk-a-closer-look-at-the-numbers

A breakdown of the mortality math

[Dogg Thang]

Since this afternoon, I have been trying to get a better understanding of the rationale behind the herd immunity thing and so I’ve been reading up on what that is and how it works and, well, it’s not happening here any time soon. Herd immunity by its very nature requires large scale vaccination to happen first. That’s how it works. You don’t have herd immunity without it. So far, there is no covid19 vaccine. And so no such thing as herd immunity. The idea that it might apply here seems to be based on a profound lack of understanding of what the term means.

Without the large scale vaccinations first, what you are left with is simply a virus running unchecked through a population and, against all advice, that seems to be the current UK plan.

Edit: Adding to the numbers article above, a problem Italy faced was that the virus took hold too quickly which meant the health system did not have enough resources to deal with the explosion of infected people. In that situation, otherwise-preventable deaths happen because doctors have to prioritise those with the greatest chance of survival. Other people who could have pulled through with the proper care didn’t. So many more people die than should die even if every single person in the country ultimately gets infected. This is why other countries are implementing the measures they are.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I guess what we are looking at is a two pronged attack. Once a person has had the virus they can't have it again (although even this isn't 100% at this point), so if 1 million people have had it, then anyone in that group who hasn't had it should be more protected. However the only way to eradicate it is to produce a vaccine which requires time. Herd immunity will hold it back like a dam for a while, but it's going to continually cost lives until the vaccine happens.

[Dogg Thang]

Nope, that’s not how it works.

[gunrock]

Denmark is on lockdown and borders closed to foreigners (like me - I had better not leave).

[Mayhem]

From what I’ve read, there have been some people who have recovered from it... and then got it again.

[Dogg Thang]

From what I’ve read, there have been some people who have recovered from it... and then got it again.

Yep, I was reading about this yesterday but the thinking is that this could be because they were never fully clear of it. They were discharged once seemingly through the symptoms but they could still have it so symptoms reoccurred. The way you can go up and down a bit with a cold. This is a bit of an unknown right now but the thinking is that people will develop an immunity to it once they have had it and fully recovered from it, at least for some time.

[prinnysquad]

‘Discharge’ is just one of those words that sounds grim.

Like ‘mucus’, ‘moist’, and ‘Boris’.