I thought a coronavirus rant was long overdue. There has been so much garbage going around lately – and I do not hardly listen to the news. So here goes… Buckle up, pour yourself a drink (make mine a nice craft beer or a large Gin & Tonic) and get into this one…
Flattening the curve? Do me a favour.
“Flattening the curve” Ugh!!! That phrase is now one of the more annoying things about this “crisis”. I know exactly what it means. At least what it is supposed to mean. I suppose there are quite a lot of people watching TV presenters spouting this phrase day in, day out, who do not really understand it.
As I explained in a previous post, it really means “prolonging the agony”. But could you imagine some fool on tv or a politician saying that? Exactly. ‘Flattening’ is certainly not the right word to use. Because they need to eliminate the curve altogether. If they relax these ridiculous lock-down measures it only takes one case to become the new “patient zero” – or whatever the hell they call it. It’s just common sense. That is probably never going to happen, at least for a VERY long time. Furthermore, they could only know it was safe to let everyone go back to normal if they had the capacity to test every single person. That would be the only way to be sure there are no carriers or infected left alive. Having “no new cases” for a few days is not enough to be fully sure.
Alternatively…
On the other hand, the disease will run out of steam on its own, with or without lock-downs. Obviously, a lot sooner without a lock-down. I think they refer to that process as getting a “herd immunity” – not a big fan of that phrase but I do see it as the best way. Again, it’s all down to common sense. And since when did your government have much of that? Ask yourself that question.
The reason the governments have gone the lock-down route is driven by the inability of the respective health services to cope with a rush of patients. A huge spike in numbers if it was left to just run its course (quickly) would overrun most country’s health services. Especially the NHS in the UK (the one I know most about). So, they decided to come up with this “flattening the curve” bullshit and basically prolong the agony over a much longer time period with no real end in sight.
But remember: These huge patient numbers are only predictions, taken from computer generated models run by the likes of that prat (professor) Neil Ferguson. This is all a new level of insanity folks.
Where have the daft Videos Gone?
There is one ‘curve’ that I can say for sure has definitely flattened. That is a curve of the number of daft videos which were everywhere on the first week of lockdown. When it was all still a novelty.
That has slowed to a trickle. Almost dried up in fact now, as the UK is well into its 4th week of lockdown. I fear that the people have been worn down.
I know the same is true from Spain, which was fully locked down before most countries on 11th March. The Spanish too were making daft videos and spreading them via their mobile phones. Ironically many of these videos went “viral”. Maybe not the best word given the real situation eh? But that’s the word they use for those things.
Meanwhile there are still more than a few silly videos being made by police and health workers. Many seem to involve some sort of formation dance routines. I am sure you will have seen some of these. What are we to make of them? Personally I have a lot of respect for the front line health workers (but not the police). However, when they are supposed to be swamped with virus deaths and hamstrung by a lack of equipment etc (if you believe all the media hype) then is it really appropriate to be making such videos? Especially those wearing the very same (supposedly) short supply face-masks etc…? There is something not right about all that… On that subject…
Brave Journalism
I make no apologies for sharing part of an article written by Charles Moore for the Daily Telegraph. This is one very brave journalist to go against the new religion that is the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).
“As its name suggests, the National Health Service is there to serve the health of the nation. In this crisis, the roles have reversed — it is seen as the duty of the nation to serve the NHS. “Protect the NHS. Save lives,” says the slogan, in that rather surprising order. Children are made to recite it like a prayer. How are we to do this? We must help the NHS by avoiding hospitals and surgeries, we are told. The Government’s policy of lockdown is in significant part dictated by the demands not of patients, but of the NHS, and by its lack of adaptability and readiness.”
Spot on Charles. I couldn’t have put it better myself.
Thought for the day…
Coronavirus thought that is.
India has apparently announced that there are some 12,380 confirmed cases. The population of India is supposedly 1.35 billion. I doubt that either of those figures is anywhere near true. How would they even know? Anyway, these are the ones I will use. It basically means that less than one millionth of the population has contracted this virus. An incredibly tiny fraction. Is it just me or do you find that hard to believe? This is, they tell us, a “highly contagious virus”. Yet in a place like India less than one millionth of the population are infected after (probably) several months of the virus doing its thing. Is anyone else refusing to buy into this crap?