We have done a similar amount of testing (per 1m pop) to Sweden which has little in the way of a lockdown, and yet we have more cases and more deaths. I assume that may be down to population density? Or more healthy?

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With respect Phil, when you’re the one performing mental gymnastics to constantly defend Trump - expect to be in the minority. 

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So, with Italy keeping its schools closed until September, it seems France was urged to do the same... but Macron over-ruled the scientific advisors. I suspect ours will open before September too...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-news-cases-uk-lockdown-deaths-test-covid-19-vaccine/

 

President Emmanuel Macron appears to have ignored his scientific advisors’ recommendation to keep schools closed until September when he ordered them to reopen gradually from May 11, it emerged on Sunday.

The advice by his government’s Scientific Council is summarised in a memo published this weekend on the Health Ministry website. It is the first time the recommendation by the government-appointed council has been made public.

“The risk of transmission [of Covid-19] is high in places where masses of people gather such as schools and universities, with barrier measures particularly difficult to implement among the youngest,” according to the memo. It said the council “proposes to maintain nurseries, primary and secondary schools, and universities closed until September”.

It was at the urging of the council, formed on March 12 to advise the government on the Coronavirus crisis, that Mr Macron ordered schools to close as part of France’s lockdown, which began on March 17. His April 13 announcement that schools would reopen from May 11 surprised the public.

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The comparison with their immediate neighbours is less encouraging.

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Jesus! Are you thick as mince, deliberately obtuse or just need to lay of the crack pipe for a while?

God knows! I've read it could be because of your colour, what type of climate you live in with the sunlight and humidity, even blonde hair and blue eyes when the Germans were mentioned 'doing well', suppose that goes for swedes as well! Seems BMI could be a significant factor in all of this. Must help having less concentrations of people. Just waiting for the LGBT people to claim something as they haven't been mentioned in a while as a minority group!😂

Yes John, he is the pantomine villain of course, just like Farage was. The BBC and the media done their work! Funny thing is I have never defended him in the past. In this instance I felt it was taken out of context, nothing more. Now, I am just trying to prove the stats aren't conclusive when taken in isolation and served a purpose, an agenda. People need to show more than two points of data where in this case the one going up helped to serve a purpose.

If HMG is indeed moving towards a mass testing and tracing strategy, then I am optimistic that the lockdown will gradually be relaxed in the next 2 months and the contagion will be contained without a significant second surge.

It will then be more of a cat and mouse game until the potential mass vaccination. 

Although Trump now claims he was simply trolling the fake news media, maybe he got the germ of the idea from the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing 

Justice Department Seeks to End Illegal Online Sale of Industrial Bleach Marketed as “Miracle” Treatment for COVID-19

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-seeks-end-illegal-online-sale-industrial-bleach-marketed-miracle-treatment

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Thanks for calling me thick, Sweaty! Come on then, join the party, show us your proof. If you need to keep up I'm after several years of household agent abuse stats from let's say several states to tell a story, not just two points in time to fit an agenda. Thanks.

Seems we had our own one man band on the south coast selling deadly goods around the world with supposed coronavirus cures. Oh my god it's Donald 😂

https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2020/03/22/man-appears-in-brighton-court-charged-with-selling-fake-coronavirus-treatment-kits/

 

Insults instead of data? I think you will find he has got you, Haggis!

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Blimey its tough on here this morning - cant we let someone have a POV without getting personal ? 

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I really don’t see how contact tracing can work unless everyone is tested and that will take far too much time. 

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China makes it illegal to cough or sneeze without covering the mouth. 

What do you mean? You contact tracing everybody who has tested positive and you test all their contacts.

Germany is hiring 21,000 contact tracers and they will be deployed at local level. 

  I gave up with the thread yesterday for that reason.  There are some very interesting points raised but they get swamped by the insults and single mindedness. 

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We’re already finding more positive cases and fewer hospital admissions, which suggests some are mild cases and we know there are also cases that are asymptomatic.  Unless everyone has a test, we’ll miss those cases and they’ll go on to infect others. 

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People are getting bored. They've been sat at home, which was novel for the first couple of weeks. But they see the decorating or DIY jobs that could do with being done and they have a chunk of free time they've not had before and won't again, so want to utilise that. The great weather adds to this feeling.

You just need to see the queues at the places that happen to sell DIY/garden stuff alongside 'essentials' and it tells it's own tale. The new empty shelves are those of DIY and gardening products, not bread and eggs and tinned food.

Meanwhile, there are other retailers sinking into oblivion because they are prevented from opening, their owners seeing the lucky shops with tills constantly ringing. This is fostering resentment. 

This semi-lockdown is a dog's breakfast and as such people aren't taking the threat seriously so which is adding to the yearning to return to some kind of normal. In short, it's unsustainable. 

I'm not, by the way, wanting it to be ended; I'm not offering an opinion either way. I'm just recognising the reality of what's happening. 

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Yet all the countries which do the above contact tracing have contained their epidemics. 

Too right Marcus. Seems some on here think even without conclusive evidence they are right. Typical remainer trait!

I agree and I think this is the best we can hope for. 

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Greece flies contact tracers by helicopter to more remote areas. Their chief scientific advisor says that every minute counts in this. 

Possibly because they started early when there were fewer cases.    Places like Taiwan already had the contact tracing system in place because they’d learnt from their last epidemic.  

Our problem is timescale. To trace all the people with recent contact of the 4,000 testing positive today, is going to take time.  Over a week of testing we need to contact trace for 28,000 people. Assuming each has had contact with 10 others, that’s 280,000.  How many of those will have passed it on before they’re identified and contacted?  Then there’s next week etc. 

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That's a little harsh on those members who have argued their point respectfully with you.

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