Looking at COVID-19 numbers for today. It is tragic to see the impact this has had on my country. But 66 new cases in the UK? WHY THE FUCK AREN'T WE TESTING EVERYONE? This is simply appalling. For those of you who are Brits/live in London we will likely have a state of lock-down for months or even a year simply because there is no reliable and accurate measure of actual case numbers in the UK. And before anyone gives me some bullshit about the UK being strapped for resources, ITS THE FUCKING UK. They can easily move resources around and have more people tested, because that's exactly what every country is doing.
@CRE" I'll second your answer to "the worst workplace incompetence you've ever seen" to add the UK government to that list. Honestly, probably worse than the Trump administration.
I admittedly haven't been following the UK's progress that much during this crisis other than seeing them change their "we're just going to let everyone get infected" tone rapidly after everyone pointed out how dumb that was.
The wild thing to me here in the US is that South Korea and America both confirmed their first case on the same day. South Korea implemented wide-spread testing, flattened the curve, and took control of the situation. America, in contrast, ignored and lied about it for a bit, has responded wildly different state to state, and is only now expanding testing.
While you and I agree on this whole situation and the government’s response, I am hopeful (because why not be? Whatever will happen I have no impact anyway, I’m not a policy maker) because America’s population is much larger and more spread out. So taking proportions into account, we aren’t close to that of other countries. We keep comparing ourselves to Italy despite the stark differences.
Still horrible though. But it’s my own piece of solace to hold onto regarding this situation.
Also, I hardly ever leave my place so the social distancing thing is easy. I’ll go for my morning run but that’s considered safe. Outside of that, not much I can do.
Currently in one of the shitshow countries of Europe (Spain/Italy/France) and it is terribke although the country has taken more aggressive measures than the UK, it’s gonna hit Boris straight into the face at some point but out of now where. I don’t think it hits you untill you hear of someone dying and then you’re like fuck this shit just got real and it scares the fuck out of you. Your Parents/Grand parents are over 70, well odds are if they get sick unless they are in the first 300 caes to the hospital, the hospital will have to turn them down... so really take care of your families, this is the time to do so.
I read burn them down instead of turn them down...
I feel for doctors and nurses who have to witness numerous people taking their final gasp for air and succumbing. I hear that's a real thing in Italy.
A friend of my grand-ma died overnight of Corona (age 65), showed no symptoms the day before and then no-one could reach her on the phone, sent someone there and it was too late. So visibly it's not all about doctors and places in hospitals, that's how sudden it can be
As of 17/03/2020, the UK is the 5th highest test conductor in the world, ahead of; US, Norway, France, Germany, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada etc. and really are ramping up the amount of testing going forward (planning achieve 25,000 a day within 4 weeks) Source: https://ourworldindata.org/covid-testing
I truely believe that the government is doing the best they possibly can and are implementing the advice given by our top medical professionals with the best intentions. I know this time is pretty damn stressful for everybody involved but screaming "ITS THE FUCKING UK" doesn't really mean anything or change how challanging it is for the governement to organise a response to a public health and economic disaster of this scale.
Not sure I agree here. The UK (and perhaps the US, although I'm not sure) is one of the only countries where predicted actual cases are orders of magnitude higher than confirmed cases. This suggests that there is a large amount of under-diagnosis or under testing. Additionally, the UK is one of the European countries that sees most traffic from Asia and has been the most lax when it comes to implementing containment measures. It seems strange that there would be such as small number of cases.
NHS 111 is incredibly adamant to test people unless they are so sick they need hospitalization - this is probably the single worst approach to mass testing out there. The government is not doing all it call, it wants to save its ass and underplay the crisis.
"The UK (and perhaps the US, although I'm not sure) is one of the only countries where predicted actual cases are orders of magnitude higher than confirmed cases. This suggests that there is a large amount of under-diagnosis or under testing."
Other countries have very similar scenarios regarding actual cases being way higher than confirmed cases. You still haven't really addressed our testing being one of the highest in the world. I've attached below a live table of every country with confirmed cases, deaths and you'll see that confirmed cases looks to be a meaningless stat when you rank total deaths for countrie. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
"NHS 111 is incredibly adamant to test people unless they are so sick they need hospitalization - this is probably the single worst approach to mass testing out there. The government is not doing all it call, it wants to save its ass and underplay the crisis."
Again, i don't think this is true. We have still have conducted more tests than other countries which have higher deaths and also cases confirmed than our own. This shows it's difficult to get the tests done and it isn't just a UK problem. Since the NHS currently only has a very limited number of test kits it wants to use them in the best way they think possible and that is to test those who are ill in hospital.
The government is essentially being told what to do by our top health professionals. It is not trying to "save its ass" or underplay anything. They have come up with a plan which is to try and achieve some sort of herd immunity amongst younger people whilst also protecting the elderly from the virus. This is a balancing act with the capacity of the NHS hence why more action is being introduced as we head towards the peak stage of the curve. Other countries have gone on complete lockdown very early and although it does stop the virus, what happens when everybody goes out again? Virus spreads and lockdown again. Because there is no immunity being developed essentially they will need to have a lockdown until a vaccine or cure is produced which could be 12-18 months away.
Firstly, immunity is observed in those are recover after being infected. That's essentially how vaccines work. Secondly, the point I am making with regards to the disparity between suspected and actual cases is that it is incredibly high for the UK, worryingly so. The UK has 3.2K confimed cases with estimated putting the real number at 55K+. That means that if the same magnitude is applied to other countries, Italy would have 704K suspected cases in Italy, 342K in Spain and 189K in France. Show me a source from those countries that gets even close to those numbers and I'll shut up. The last point is that whilst the UK domestically may have few tests and needs to optimize their use, they have the money and resources to buy/import from abroad whilst domestic/European production ramps up. How has Italy got a hold of so many more tests? How has Spain? Lastly, from a clinical standpoint testing people who are hospitalized makes less sense than testing people with mild/no symptoms at home. If you're in hospital people will take all the necessary precautions assuming you have the virus and will help you recover. The guy who is not in hospital-based isolation or in medical care and wondering around is the most at risk. I can attest because when a colleague of mine self-isolated because he felt a bit rought, he called NHS 111 many times and they always refused to test him (either by sending someone to his house or having him go somewhere). He could have easily spread it to 20-30 of us in the office the day before he went home from being sick. In Italy, entire towns and municipalities were rigorously tested when a handful of confirmed cases were found there. So no, I do not think everything possible is being done.
It's the 5th highest test conductor, but on a per capita basis it's much lower. When you are comparing it to Norway and Switzerland the per capita testing there is about 10x that of the UK.
For instance, Norway has had 7 deaths and 1800 knows cases (44k tests on 5m peopl), wheras the UK has 144 deaths and 3300 cases (50k tests on 67m people).
Source: Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)
I can't find the tests per country on your source but using this (WHO 17/03/2020): https://ourworldindata.org/covid-testing
I've gone back to try and compare a few different countries on tests per population:
UK 0.0759% Norway 0.335% (seems impressive) Switzerland 0.0466% France 0.0165% Italy 0.246% US 0.0127% Sweden 0.1413% Ireland 0.0369%
Taking into account where the UK is on it's peak vs other countries, i don't think we are an extreme outlier by any means.
Man if you have been to London's underground....if you think NYC metro is crowded, the London underground is full any given hour any given day of the week.
Would be impressive if they can contain it by shutting down the country, or the so called "herd immunity" strategy would make it spread crazy.
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