Wimbledon has been cancelled then. It was expected but still a bit of a shock. The sporting calendar has been decimated. I hope they manage to get some cricket played but can't say I'm that hopeful.

Many thanks john1, LTG, Decaf, Dafatone and richie for your best wishes since the last time I looked at the forum. john1, your circumstances seem challenging. Hope everything turns out well, which applies to everyone else as well.

Well that’s put the tin ‘at on it, ain’t it Rich?

Trump has done a 180 here, well after the proverbial horse bolted in the US. Horrifyingly, his and Johnson's popularity are rising. The ability to spin anything, even disasters like this, is mindboggling.

Yes indeed Bernard, all the best to you and family while coping.

Heh. My Dad is 92. He too has the exact same thing for his tea every day. A boiled egg, bread and butter and a pot of tea.

Fair play to you, John. Stay safe.

“Seems we have only tested about 2,000 NHS Staff so far... “

Seems that’s actually 10,000 - apologies for the mis-representation - but it’s still a ridiculously small number.

EDIT - as you were: confirmed that only 2,000 NHS staff have been tested so far.

Government is being seriously economical with the truth. Sorry but I think this is scandalous.

Thanks Zed.

Facts gleamed from Twitter, several sources, are that Germany created the current tesy for Covid19. The WHO ordered hundreds of thousands of these and Germany appear to be the only producer of them, remember they have the production lines we do not.

Germany from the beginning have been testing hundreds of thousands weekly. 1 add 1 make 2 possibly 3 if you refuse to export these tests to other nations.

Believe what you want, I'll say no more, but look at who starts the backbiting and baiting on the forum...................

Scandalous is exactly the correct term DHD.

As I said, there needs to be a public enquiry into all this, especially into what advice the government are getting, and why they are so far behind the curve. There seems to be a wilful desire to obfuscate, and as you say, downright lie.

The enquiry needs to include a full investigation into Dominic Cummings particularly; there is something hugely awry when someone like him comes from his background and exerts so much influence at the top levels of government. Massive questions against Johnson too; what really happened at that Italian mansion?

It absolutely stinks. And if anyone in this country ever dares to mention the corruption in any other country, well they haven't been paying attention to what's going on here.

Your desire to support this govt and its reaction to Covid19 and what's going on makes me wonder about you Chris, and what your 'skin in the game' is.

Is there anything that would make you question the politicians whom you so implacably support?

https://www.itv.com/news/2020-03-31/rob ... gredients/

So, when you look for scapegoats Chris, it's not our own govt (who are in charge and can make the decisions since we no longer have the EU to blame - we've "taken back control" remember) you turn to, but the Germans???

Why do they have the production lines?
Why should they have to give us the tests, when they have their own citizens to look after?
Why did they have a system that was already geared for this very possibility, and we did not?

Ah those nasty European Germans again - two world wars and one world cup, doo dah etc???

Wishing you all the best Bern

I know of someone who has underlying health issues and had some symptoms and had an appointment with his specialist.
He was shocked to be told that he had some issues ( not life threatening) with his condition that were likely caused by Coronavirus; and that they believe he must have contracted it in early December

Hi Hodd,

Doctors in italian hospitals have said that local GPs were seeing these strange and very severe pneumonias, especially in elderly patients, back in Nov/Dec.

We’ve reached the utopia folks

Those pesky Germans are behind this.

This is the promised land. The Taj Mahal of stupidity

Don’t tell him pike !!

Thanks Hodd.

Same old same old, the usual dissenters................

According to statistics, please don't ask, 50000 people die on average in March in the UK. Deaths so far from Covid 19, died with and died of, are around 2500, okay that we know of.

Nothing unusual then huh, in a pandemic, wow so alarming?

It's bad but not that bad.

Luckily the silence of people that believe the Government is doing it's best, is deafening just like on this forum.

The current testing only tells us who has it on a given date at a givren time, the rest who proved negative could get it tomorrow or at any time before their next test. More important is the development of the test for antibodies that will tell us who has it and who are therefore immune.

I support the Government because they are doing the right thing at the right time.....................

This is the sort of thing that needs to be included in a public enquiry. Was there prior knowledge? Were signs missed? Was the health service slow to pick up on clues something different was happening? If so, why? and so on.

Who said this not so long ago:

"As far as I am concerned the sooner we all get it the better. Instead of wrecking the world let it spread naturally and it will soon pass.

ALTERNATIVELY AS THE REMAINERS OF THIS WORLD THINK WE ARE DOOMED ANYWAY HOW ABOUT THEY VOLUNTEER TO BE TEST DUMMIES
"

Not only is that tantamount to saying 'the strong will survive, the weak can be sacrificed for the greater good' (herd immunity anyone?), but it contradicts your statement that you support the govt because they're doing the right thing at the right time. They've changed stance due to public pressure, and hopefully it means that idiot Cummings is losing influence.

Btw, anyone else noticed that Gove and Jeremy Hunt appear to be circling over Johnson's position? Perhaps not everyone within govt ranks share bubblechris' eugenistic outlook?

I used to hope that this pandemic would turn out not much worse than the standard flu; that was before I did some research and had a long discussion with my daughter. I realised then that this is far more serious, not just in terms of possible deaths, but also in terms of the damage it creates within some survivors' lungs. This particular virus seems to cause far greater lung damage, which in turn will create ongoing health problems within these people for the rest of their lives.

So please, anyone not yet restricting their movement to essential only, please think again.

Maybe there are 2 sides to the story. I thought I read some clubs were asking players to take a deep cut in wages until they are back up and running again?

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/m/2e45060 ... eague.html
The shame of Premier League clubs cutting workers’ wages and asking for government cash while paying stars in full

Are you on some sort of wind-up? Most countries in europe and around the world are on some sort of draconian lockdown just to try and contain it. The health services in Italy and Spain are in meltdown and unable to cope with the sheer volume of patients and we are heading that way. There's no vaccine or cure and even if we do get the numbers down through self-isolation who is to say the rate of infections won't skyrocket once lockdown measures are lifted.

The govt waited too long to lockdown after some ill-conceived notion that they could ride it out and create herd immunity, they have compounded this by being unable to supply PPE to those on the frontline who desperately need it and have been unable to sort the testing programme out.

Millions of vulnerable people are scared for their lives.

Apart from that everything is rosy.

And it gets worse:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/0 ... overnment/

That from the Daily Telegraph. And even the Daily Mail is being critical of this govt.

Time to get your head out of the sand bubblechris

Der Spiegel saying that the German testing is pointless and that Germany should be folowing the UK example of intelligence testing.

I suppose you can't mbe right all of ther time huh............

Why are you arguing that protecting the vulnerable cannot be done? ffs we built a hospital in 7 days, we can do anything we put our minds to.

Let the virus spread. I heard that possibly 50% of us have already had it. Get people back to work asap before more companies go bust and get the conomy back on it's feet for the good of everyone.

I could be wrong but why do you think you are right. Wait and see what happened when the lockdowns are toned down. Look at what happened in Wuhan when they did....................

Countless lives are being saved because of the preventive measures being taken all over the globe. To then look at the situation and say it’s ”not that bad” because not that many people are dying just beggars belief.

It's like complaining at firefighters working to save your house. "Meh, look, the fire isn't that bad and now they're getting everything wet." Without them your *%^@*** house burns down, dude.

john1 and Bernard, seems you're both doing the right thing at this time to stay safe. Best wishes to you both.

Source for what der Spiegel are saying?

Thanks Haz, same to you.

No? Ok here it is, and they're not saying what you so obtusely claim:

https://www.spiegel.de/international/ge ... 4364c43f2e

I can only conclude that you are either incapable of critical analysis, or you're a govt fanboy possibly with links to it.

Some more reading for you Chris, from a source you of all people should surely trust?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/arti ... -190121793

Just got off a conference call, someone mentioned they knew someone who attended Cheltenham and is now very sick with Covid, then someone else also said that somebody close to them did the same but was now on a ventilator. There is a no doubt that history will show the governments “herd immunity” strategy to be a reckless mistake. Johnson knows this and that’s why he leaked to the times it was Dominic Cummings idea. He knows history will take a dim view of that moment.

I think the government are doing the right thing now ish but they’ve cut the funding for NHS ridiculously historically and left them under resourced and un prepared. We need to bed in for the time being and stick together but the can idea you can let this thing run rife is absurd. A Greek newspaper ran a headline after the herd immunity strategy along the lines of “Britain chooses death”. What more can you say.

As for advocating genocide, jokes about killing ”remoaners” and so on that says more about the individual than anything the government is doing right or wrong.

I bet if it was “ze Germans” attacking us the forum imbecile wouldn’t be worried about the economy for the time being.

Spot on,

It’s killing doctors, nurses and children. It must be fought.

Email sent to all staff from Great Ormond St hospital today. 73 out of 181 staff have tested positive and 318 staff members off sick.



How can any idiot say you simply have to let this thing run riot

Thanks Hazuki.

I’m fortunate enough to be able to work from home most of the time, so I haven’t been out much the last two or three weeks. Had to go to the office today though, it was kind of weird riding the subway basically by myself (I think there were about 15 people in the entire train) in the middle of morning rush hour. But at least I've managed to get a hold of some toilet paper!

From what I've read doctors, medical researchers, high and low levels of medical professionals are conferring with colleagues and such globally, exchanging info, etc. The map of the virus was put on the web by a Chinese medical professional so that his colleagues around the world could use it to get a cure.

Maybe they are doing it behind the scenes but there is no public evidence of world leaders conferring and forming a plan if nothing else to work together and exchange info. The times reveals the man and I can only speak for 'our man' here and he was the wrong man before and the wrong man now.

This is what scares me in part, is that I'm not seeing some body, be it the UN, G8, G20, whatever, having an emergency meeting by video if necessary and having an agreement if not a plan.

To be fair, by the time that Cheltenham came around it was rather obvious that it would be a very risky event to attend. I certainly wouldn’t have gone (I had already decided to self isolate by then). Just because something is ‘allowed’ doesn’t necessarily make it a good idea. You can’t blame others for individual choices.

The government had to tighten things up because a significant minority were going to carry on as if things were all normal.

Some, like Jack Grealish, still are.