Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Syt]

Meanwhile, in Spain.

[Sheilbh]

Yes, indeed.

YouGov has been polling opinion on whether Cummings should resign https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2020/05/23/56b74/2

And that poll was before the Barnard's Castle story came out. (For what it's worth I think the Barnard's Castle trip was legal - there's never been any restriction on travelling for exercise and he was in Durham anyway - but it looks worse.)

Other public figures have had to resign their positions for much minor transgressions of the lockdown regulations, AFAIK.

I think it depends how you view it. Cummings went further than Calderwood or Ferguson's lover, so that's worse. But he apparently went for childcare which is a better excuse than spending the weekend in your holiday home or having a shag.

But I agree with RH on this. I think there were ways out of it at an early date, but the government's response has really hurt them and also, I think, the principles behind lockdown and social solidarity.

Apparently Cummings will be making a statement and taking questions from the press at some point today. Given everything we know about him that doesn't strike me as a great idea - it also reminds me of Alastair Campbell storming onto Channel 4 News which was, I think, the end for him.

Meanwhile British politics continues to be utterly normal.


Edit: Two other striking features of this - we're still very much in the cabinet B team doing media availability. Shapps over the weekend and now Gavin Williamson.

Also while there's still lots of Tory MPs tweeting that he should go, the loyalist have been given a template message. Normally in the middle of a scandal I'd expect that to be about supporting Cummings in some way. But the messages are not like that and indicate the level of anger out there. It's along the lines of "Constituents who have contacted me about Dominic Cummings can rest assured I've conveyed the strength of local feeling to relevant colleagues very robustly. Personal replies to follow." That's not the message loyalists need to send in a "Westminster bubble" scandal.

[The Larch]

Meanwhile, in Spain.

We had a bunch of far right demonstrations on cars (carmonstrations?) last saturday. There are a few choice pics going around, that's one of them.

[The Larch]

Other public figures have had to resign their positions for much minor transgressions of the lockdown regulations, AFAIK.

I think it depends how you view it. Cummings went further than Calderwood or Ferguson's lover, so that's worse. But he apparently went for childcare which is a better excuse than spending the weekend in your holiday home or having a shag.

But that was basically an excuse as they didn't really need the childcare, right?

[Sheilbh]

Other public figures have had to resign their positions for much minor transgressions of the lockdown regulations, AFAIK.

I think it depends how you view it. Cummings went further than Calderwood or Ferguson's lover, so that's worse. But he apparently went for childcare which is a better excuse than spending the weekend in your holiday home or having a shag.

But that was basically an excuse as they didn't really need the childcare, right?

I'm not sure. I mean both him and his wife had coronavirus but didn't know how bad it would get, and they have young children. That's what they've been saying anyway and I've not seen anything disputing it.

Obviously there's a question of whether they had childcare options closer to home and other families in similar positions haven't trekked halfway across the country.

Edit: But I don't think anyone's been saying that this was false and just an excuse.

Edit: Double-checked the claim about one of the kids and can't see where it came from.

[The Larch]

Other public figures have had to resign their positions for much minor transgressions of the lockdown regulations, AFAIK.

I think it depends how you view it. Cummings went further than Calderwood or Ferguson's lover, so that's worse. But he apparently went for childcare which is a better excuse than spending the weekend in your holiday home or having a shag.

But that was basically an excuse as they didn't really need the childcare, right?

I'm not sure. I mean both him and his wife had coronavirus but didn't know how bad it would get, and they have young children, from my understanding one of their kids has autism and prefers being looked after by familiar faces. That's what they've been saying anyway and I've not seen anything disputing it.

Obviously there's a question of whether they had childcare options closer to home and other families in similar positions haven't trekked halfway across the country.

Edit: But I don't think anyone's been saying that this was false and just an excuse.

According to what I saw about the story, their kids stayed with them all the time, not with the rest of the family, and going up north was in a "just in case" basis, or something like that. And they had family members in London as well that could have taken care of the kids. It seems to me that they just looked for a more comfortable arrangement for the quarantine.

[Legbiter]

Gyms opened up today and the state of emergency has been called off. There will no longer be daily press briefings by the Chief Medical Officer. Any flareups, if they occur, will be handled at the lowest local level from here on out. The large summer festivals will remain cancelled though.

[Sheilbh]

But I suppose the point is, if you're both diagnosed with coronavirus you don't know if you'll experience mild symptoms or really horrible ones and need to go to hospital, and even some of the mild cases seem to knock people out for a few weeks. So you probably want to sort out that someone can take the kids if one or both you are hit badly. So, yeah, it was just in case but I think you do need to set up some alternative. And I think there is a gap in the guidance around this - it's clear they broke the rules which are household isolation but I feel like there should maybe be some guidance for what happens if you've got kids and both parents get coronavirus.

And yeah I don't know about London but I'd be astonished if there was no-one closer than Durham who could take the kids.

As I say it's clearly breaking the rules and he should go for all the reasons we've said and he went a lot further than the other advisors who've stepped down, but I have more sympathy for his defence than going to your holiday home at the weekend (twice) or having your lover come round.

Edit: And of course they broke self-isolation while they were in Durham.

Edit: Fucking hell, the government have messed this up so badly they've got Tony Blackburn angrily tweeting about it. They've managed to radicalise Tony Blackburn

[Legbiter]

The UK has a new problem with it's vaccine development.

An Oxford University vaccine for Covid-19 has only a 50 per cent chance of success because there are so few cases.

Adrian Hill, who is co-leader of the project, said that a trial involving 10,000 people could return no result because the virus was not prevalent enough for volunteers to catch. Last month the university said that there was an 80 per cent chance of success.

Professor Hill said that out of the 10,000 he expected fewer than 50 to catch the virus. If fewer than 20 test positive, the result may be useless.

https://archive.vn/adkbQ#selection-649.0-665.147

[celedhring]

We had a bunch of far right demonstrations on cars (carmonstrations?) last saturday. There are a few choice pics going around, that's one of them.

Kindly allow me to repost this particular one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWXIWvIh7Y4

[The Larch]

We had a bunch of far right demonstrations on cars (carmonstrations?) last saturday. There are a few choice pics going around, that's one of them.

Kindly allow me to repost this particular one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWXIWvIh7Y4

You're a big fan of that clip, aren't you? 

[celedhring]

One of the best things to happen in Spain in the XXIst century.

[Razgovory]

Meanwhile, in Spain.

I notice that the guy on the right has a Spanish Legion insignia.  Question:  is the Spanish Legion still a bunch of death obsessed, fascist scumbags or did they leave that behind when Franco died?

[Iormlund]

It's not the most progressive of workplaces, Raz.

[Sheilbh]

Which is extraordinary given the uniforms