Coronavirus: Doctor who warned prime minister about PPE dies with COVID-19 https://t.co/LbyHqDQVNR

— SkyNews (@SkyNews) April 9, 2020

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I agree but we should have been doing it for weeks. Changing now will only add to the confusion.

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King Boris has record approval ratings and millions "clapped" for his recovery last night

When he gets out of hospital, millions of women will want to reward his "bravery"

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I was out in Alton at 8pm last night on my exercise walk and there was no clapping

 

I do struggle sometimes understanding the point you're trying to make, and also how you can move from seemingly relevant and sensible comments to utter bollo x. We need to have a serious chat and I'll be pm ing you shortly.

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Actually his article criticises more the global response and the scientific response in the UK. 

Pretty much every leader has record ratings right now - it's a fairly normal response to times of trouble: get behind the leader. Ratings in 6-12 motnhs are what counts.

Millions did NOT clap for his recovery last night.

 

Stop being such a crass fckwit.

 

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He's lying, and I think Jon will be contacting him.

That whole post was pitiful.

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We're off! Hopefully. Could be yet another false start but this report seems to have a lot more credibility than some. 

Germany to carry out first large-scale antibody test for coronavirus

Guy Chazan in Berlin

Germany will be the first country in the world to carry out large-scale antibody testing for coronavirus, which will help show how many people are now immune to the disease.

Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute, announced details of three antibody tests: one of blood donations, one of 4 distinct areas that saw outbreaks of the virus, and a representative study of the broader population.

They will be carried out jointly by the Robert Koch Institute, the Institute for Virology of Charité Hospital in Berlin and the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig.

Dr Wieler said the aim was to find out how many Germans were immune to the virus. He added:

We'd like to know how large is the proportion of asymptomatic cases - that is people who were infected by the virus but didn't know it - and to assess how many people in Germany have died, so how high the mortality rate is.

Experts have argued that doing spot checks and randomised tests will be key in uncovering real infection rates for coronavirus, rather than relying on models which use data that can quickly become obsolete. So far, no country in the world has successfully implemented a nationwide antibody testing programme.

https://www.ft.com/content/55a136c0-05f1-39f4-b946-9e099dd05256

 

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Some positive news from this doctor

 

 

 

In some good news, on our Intensive Care Unit, we are seeing the majority of #COVIDー19 patients survive to discharge.

We all need a silver lining right now.

— Chris Gough (@GoughCJ) April 9, 2020

You could argue that the editor of the Lancet enabled the antivax movement and led to sizeable decrease in the MMR vaccine uptake.

I’m not his biggest fan. 

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For reaction's sake, makes you wonder if they should overstate the figures now and get more tighter controls in place so we could start to relax restrictions sooner. Pain before the gain!

I don't know his history, but how come he survived in that post after that debacle? 

I wonder how many people will actually take Bank Holiday seriously this year?  Nobody can go anywhere so they may as well work if they can.  I’ll be working from home over the Easter weekend. 

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It would give a clearer picture if we had a separate graph that showed the dates the deaths actually occurred.  There’s obviously varied lag rates due to autopsies and testing, which confuses the current picture. 

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I wish we could get the data on hospital admissions as readily as the data on deaths. It’s a key measure that will determine when we can ease the restrictions 

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Yes, it's the most reliable number and sadly the best predictor of the number of deaths. 

It was Monday night!  Beast’s lost a couple of days!

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My work (which I only joined less than three weeks ago) has announced it is furloughing some staff, on full pay (topping up the remaining 20%). My department is apparently too busy to be furloughed, just as well seeing as I left my previous job on Feb 29th so would have fallen through the cracks. Although I would have been quite happy with time off till the end of May on full pay!

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Being a chef, this easter given the current situation,is going to provide some relief as obviously am currently not working and will be the first easter in god knows how many years ive not worked. A  very stressful time usually second only to December and won`t be missing working this easter one bit!! If this lockdown had started the  same time in  November I and many other chef`s and others working in hospitality would have been very happy indeed.

At the time I thought it was totally absurd to allow that match to proceed, Saint. Prof John Ashton, who is a Liverpool fan, made reference to this when he appeared on Question Time the following night.  IIRC, Spanish domestic football was playing played behind closed doors for some time before then.

The following night, there were a few thousand German fans in Glasgow for the first leg of the Rangers v Bayer Leverkusen Europa tie which the Germans won 3-1 (this was Rangers last match before the shutdown). This was after German authorities had made the decision to now allow any fans to travel from Scotland to Germany the following week for the return leg.

UEFA has been as complacent in all this as any government has in this crisis.

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He certainly has a case to answer.

According to Wiki:

Horton defended his position by saying "I do not regret publishing the original Wakefield paper. Progress in medicine depends on the free expression of new ideas. I worked at the Royal Free from 1988 to 1990 and met him on many occasions. He is a committed, engaging, and charismatic clinician and scientist. He asks big questions about diseases - what are their ultimate causes? - and his ambition often brings quick and impressive results."

According to the NHS:

https://www.nhs.uk/news/medical-practice/ruling-on-doctor-in-mmr-scare/

 

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Better news from the USA:

Fauci: US deaths may only reach 60,000
The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in the US may be as low as 60,000, less than half what was initially predicted, the country’s top infectious disease expert has said.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the effect of social-distancing measures had prompted him to revise his projections.

“The real data are telling us it is highly likely we are having a definite positive effect by the mitigation things that we’re doing, this physical separation,” Dr Fauci said in an interview with NBC on Thursday.

Dr Fauci said the death toll “looks more like the 60,000, than the 100,000 to 200,000” fatalities he initially predicted.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-52225173

 

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  Yes, there will be many who have a restful Easter for a change.  I’m actually enjoying the peace and quiet and slower pace of every day life.  I’ve only volunteered to work because I’m working from home, making PPE for NHS staff and this virus won’t be having Easter off!  

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All that drinking I guess