Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Tonitrus]

Languish does seem conflicted on Morrisons.

If anything, my opinion on Morrison's has only improved.  They're pretty much my exclusive go-to nowadays. 

[Josquius]

And I thought I was struggling as Amazon has essentially turned me into a Morrisons shopper*.

*Bulk of Amazon Fresh items are from Morrisons.

Huh, I had no idea. Thought it came from their own warehouse.
And thought morisons was a northern thing.
Though don't think I've ever been in one.

[Zanza]

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53095336

The UK is switching to the decentralised app model. But only "in autumn".  Germany already took way too long, but at least our app is live now.

Also: UK ranks 191 of 195 countries in [Oxford] lockdown easing readiness study
https://www.thenational.scot/news/18515708.uk-ranks-191-195-countries-lockdown-easing-readiness-study/

[Eddie Teach]

Scottish independence

[Richard Hakluyt]

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53095336

The UK is switching to the decentralised app model. But only "in autumn".  Germany already took way too long, but at least our app is live now.

Also: UK ranks 191 of 195 countries in [Oxford] lockdown easing readiness study
https://www.thenational.scot/news/18515708.uk-ranks-191-195-countries-lockdown-easing-readiness-study/

The preparedness seems to be quite independent of the wealth of a country; eg Vietnam and Rwanda are in the top 10 of that study.

Our current government is painfully low on talent; Raab appears to be a fool, they dare not put Patel (Home secretary) in front of an audience......so Grant Shapps (aka Michael Green) is often used as a "safe pair of hands", but Shapps always gives me the feeling that he should really be doing time   

I think, given the novel circumstances, that this lack of talent is very important.

[Tamas]

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53095336

The UK is switching to the decentralised app model. But only "in autumn".  Germany already took way too long, but at least our app is live now.

Also: UK ranks 191 of 195 countries in [Oxford] lockdown easing readiness study
https://www.thenational.scot/news/18515708.uk-ranks-191-195-countries-lockdown-easing-readiness-study/

The preparedness seems to be quite independent of the wealth of a country; eg Vietnam and Rwanda are in the top 10 of that study.

Our current government is painfully low on talent; Raab appears to be a fool, they dare not put Patel (Home secretary) in front of an audience......so Grant Shapps (aka Michael Green) is often used as a "safe pair of hands", but Shapps always gives me the feeling that he should really be doing time   

I think, given the novel circumstances, that this lack of talent is very important.

Yes it feels like we are drifting without much direction. Also feels like the government would just like for the whole pandemic to slowly drift out of people's attention, as opposed to actually keeping it under control.

[Gups]

And I thought I was struggling as Amazon has essentially turned me into a Morrisons shopper*.

*Bulk of Amazon Fresh items are from Morrisons.

Huh, I had no idea. Thought it came from their own warehouse.
And thought morisons was a northern thing.
Though don't think I've ever been in one.

They've had a big presence in the south since they took over Safeways back in 2004

[Sheilbh]

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53095336

The UK is switching to the decentralised app model. But only "in autumn".  Germany already took way too long, but at least our app is live now.

It makes sense to switch to a model that Google and Apple are supporting, though personally I wish we'd taken the more aggressive French stance on this.

Also: UK ranks 191 of 195 countries in [Oxford] lockdown easing readiness study
https://www.thenational.scot/news/18515708.uk-ranks-191-195-countries-lockdown-easing-readiness-study/

Yeah - though that study is from May. It looks at 4 criteria from the WHO recommendations and then gives a mark of 0 - 1.

The first criteria is whether transmission is under control and their approach is, if you're over 50 new cases a day (on average) = 0. The next two measure things the UK hadn't introduced in May (track and trace, and travel restrictions/quarantines measures), so the UK got 0 for them too. The last one they measure is community understanding (basically lockdown compliance based on travel data), which gave the UK 0.9. So on average the UK has 0.3.

I'm not sure how useful it is given the emphasis on border controls or the really strict approach to transmission. For example, Germany and Greece which have been really successful in different ways have the same score as Brazil (0.5) which is one of the fastest biggest outbreaks in the world (and still growing). Given that the UK still has more than 50 new cases a day but now has a track and trace system, and quarantine I imagine we'd probably also be around 0.5.

[Sheilbh]

I think, given the novel circumstances, that this lack of talent is very important.

I think that's also the reason Rishi Sunak is the minister who's kept his popularity boost most. He appears competent - that may also be why he tends to be used quite sparingly in recent weeks.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Yes, I think the financial side of things has been handled quite well; of course Johnson may well now regard Sunak as a threat 

The difficult bit, financially, will come later when we try and stop the tide of ever rising debt.

[celedhring]

Over here some bands are trying to salvage the summer festival season with a series of shows at the Camp Nou. They are selling just 800 tickets per show to comply with virus safety rules, the Camp Nou can hold nearly 100.000 people...

This is an extreme example, but many businesses just can't survive with social distancing in place.

[Syt]

I hear the Barcelona opera is going to play for an audience of plants?

Seems like the logical extension of this project in Carinthia:

[Sheilbh]

Over here some bands are trying to salvage the summer festival season with a series of shows at the Camp Nou. They are selling just 800 tickets per show to comply with virus safety rules, the Camp Nou holds nearly 100.000 people on footie days...

This is an extreme example, but many businesses just can't survive with social distancing in place.

Yeah. Thing that I find worrying is the businesses that are least able to survive are the ones that make a city most worth living in.

This is part of the move to drop our guidance to 1m (which is the WHO recommendation - and followed in France, Denmark, Singapore) or 1.5m (Germany, Austria, Italy) instead of 2m. Because it will help some businesses, especially hospitality. But the truth is whether its 2 or 1m a lot of businesses just won't be able to survive.

I don't know when we'll get back to things like gigs, shows, bars

[Syt]

Austria is 1, not 1.5 meters.

[celedhring]

I hear the Barcelona opera is going to play for an audience of plants?

Yup!



It will be broadcast in youtube for us unlucky humans