Devastating. Shameful. RIP. pic.twitter.com/SzOPihTaa8

— *****Morgan (@piersmorgan) April 20, 2020

I was unaware that the WHO has officially advised against the use of antibodies tests for the time being

https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/advice-on-the-use-of-point-of-care-immunodiagnostic-tests-for-covid-19#.Xo_1jdsCuUE.twitter

Absolutely. That's what the Queen does if a story has no credence. They should put a paid spokesperson on air, as they did with Gove yesterday. The fact that he admitted Johnson didn't attend 5 Cobra meetings makes the "unfounded" claim look a bit stupid and the PPE statement is beyond ridiculous. I hope Sky and the Sunday Times don't capitulate on this.

What is worse is that we are now going to be governed by State Twitter, like the USA. It will just become claims and counter claims with people just going down partisan lines irrespective of the truth. This Government will not be criticised or admit to making any errors. This is why a Government of National Unity would have helped so we could pull together without so much partisanship.

Probably a load of balls but...

Delayed clearance of SARS-CoV2 in male compared to female patients: High ACE2 expression in testes suggests possible existence of gender-specific viral reservoirs

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.16.20060566v1.full.pdf

or the tabloid version

Men’s testicles ‘could make them more vulnerable to coronavirus’

https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/19/mens-testicles-harbour-coronavirus-12578779/

On that particular point Gove mentioned on Marr yesterday that it wasn't particularly unusual for PMs in general to not attend every COBRA meeting.

Wiki says they are usually chaired by the PM or another senior minister.

and it says here

https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/cobr-cobra

The composition of any COBR meeting will depend on the situation being discussed. It will be a mixture of officials and agency personnel, alongside ministers, from relevant departments and agencies. The meetings are often chaired by the most senior minister in the room, and the prime minister if he or she is attending, but not always.

Do we know which 5 he didn't attend?

I thought I read somewhere that half of Swedes live on their own. When they go home they are socially distanced without trying!

Never a better time for a sex change!

Careful, or you'll have Maunder ranting about a post-op woman still being a man and how they should still be forced to use urinals

A 2,500 strong rally of freedom from lockdown protesters at the capital of Washington yesterday (these protests have been encouraged by the US president). They are doing their bit for the god blessed American herd!

I'm not sure but I think they were all in February, early March and were generated by the Corona virus outbreak. I mean which ever way you look at it you think he would have attended some of them.

Bit like Canvey then 

Haha. We are an Island within an Island. Often thought if we put barriers across the bridges. Would please a lot on the mainland as well!

Worth checking this out

https://order-order.com/2020/04/16/britains-biggest-hypocrite-piersmorgan/

*****Morgan has been as selfish as any. He throws rocks at the govt, perhaps rightly, but he does not do it from the high ground. He behaved like a tit in March when there was no excuse for doing so.

Coronavirus was not engineered in a lab.

https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-not-human-made-in-lab.html?fbclid=IwAR2SdHQhEjl-mXGDUfe3H7I9juWRDXt20Bjt3SWb8B3wZ1N6GW59cdULP-A#xenforo-comments-1568

This doesn't actually prove anything. The virus being created in the lab is unfalsifiable, i.e there is no good evidence it was. But there is also no good evidence against. This virus could be simply an escaped experiment, the idea that 'computer simulations show it isn't effective' proves nothing. Its like chemists never try to manufacture anything that computer simulations suggest will not work. Of course they do. Research papers are written all the time when a compound is created in a novel way with a prior not understood mechanism.

Look, saying the virus was 'created in a lab' is not helpful and it is a conspiracy theory. But its also completely conceivable and people that dismiss it as impossible are being rather naive. Of course its possible, the science for doing this is decades old. And if anyone was going to do it China would easily be in my top 5 candidats if not #1.

For the US, which is also going to try lifting the lockdown I see two plausible scenarios.

1) Deaths shoot up but stop at a level much lower than everyone thought. Virus appears to 'vanish' as herd immunity is achived. Essentially this scenario happens if the CFR is alot lower than we had all thought because of a large asymptomatic number of cases. There is some evidence for this but its dubious

2) The virus burns through the population at around a 2% CFR. The combined direct and indirect effects are devastating and the US endures the worst catastrophe since the civil war, possibly even including it.

2b) A more likely variation is that people panic once they realize this is happening and an even more severe lockdown is instigated. The outcome is still almost as bad though which untold economic devastation that will take years if not decades to recover from.

So any country that is putting all its eggs in one basket and hoping that 1) happens is taking a pretty huge risk. Also letting the virus burn through the population also increases the risk it will mutate into something worse. Very very high stakes.

The evidence of where the outbreak originated, i.e. a wet market in Wuhan, and the genetic characteristics of the virus, i.e. clearly traceable to identical viruses in the original host species, are very strong indicators that it was not 'created' in a laboratory.

So, whilst it may, in the strict usage of the expression, be 'completely conceivable', I take exception to your use of the word 'naive' to describe people who dismiss the idea.  I would say it is entirely rational to follow the evidence and draw a conclusion based on that evidence.

You might argue that it is immature to be incapable of understanding the probabilities of certain events or sequences of actions.

That would be wonderful. If it did no doubt some people will say the World over reacted and look at what it has cost us. But i would just see it as a lucky escape and a useful exercise in what to do or not do next time round. Like be prepared.

I see the idea of a minutes silence for the NHS workers killed by Covid19 has been raised. Does raise the point though of what about all the other people killed.

But we know that the virus probably didn't originate in the wet market. A significant number of cases (I think 80%) came from there but recent evidence suggests patient 0 did not. And indeed staff from the lab visit the wetmarket too. The other thing to bear in mind is that the Wuhan facility is the highest level bio facility in China and was literally within a mile radius of the first cases. And if China wanted an excuse the wet market becomes the obvious choice.

None of this means that it did originate from the lab. But if it did originate from the lab the series of events that we have seen are exactly what we would have expected. Not all conspiracy theories are equal, this is not something like the moon landings being faked which is completely inconceivable. This is completely conceivable, there is just no firm evidence for it, which of course there wouldn't be.

And to answer the point on the virus having similarities to natural viruses. Well sure, but then how good are we really at telling the difference between an artificial virus and a natural one? It seems quite possible to me that something that could have been created by trial and error could also have been created by design. There are of course things that could not have been created by nature but could have been designed, but I wouldn't put this virus into that catogary.

Could have a toll bridge Phil.  I best not mention my mate who is a local Councillor for the Canvey Independence Party. (Yes, they do exist folks!)

Its a good idea if only it might stop those stupid street parties.

I'm still pissed off at Cressida dick and her band of merry men proudly flauting their double digit IQs for everyone to see.

And again I should clarify I am not against people showing solidarity with NHS workers. I think its a great idea. But when that idea becomes dangerous and takes the piss out of the lockdown rules it is no longer a good idea.

The distance on the ground between the lab and the wet market is 280m. I wonder what test one could do to distinguish these sources?

Yes I thought that too. We should be flying flags at half mast also. This is a national tragedy.