Author Topic: Various thoughts about the current situation.  (Read 1857 times)

Offline Roger Kettle

  • Roger
  • *
  • Posts: 4972
  • Ho! Ho! £$%^&* Ho!
Various thoughts about the current situation.
« on: April 13, 2020, 09:29:16 PM »
I can't help wondering what would have happened had this virus materialised 30 years ago. With the internet in its infancy, how many people would have been able to work from home? Or, let's say, even earlier, when this whole branch of technology didn't exist?
Would the governments of the world have taken a completely different approach? I can only assume they would have gone for the "herd" option and taken it from there---perhaps with a few adjustments. Certainly, the numbers of people who could have worked from home would be a tiny percentage of what it is today. Would that have been a better approach?
Anyway, let's focus on the positive stuff. I mentioned this earlier but 99% of people who contract this disease will survive. This is an official figure. (As official as anything can be these days). Measles is seven times more contagious. This will pass. Most importantly, the American public will learn what a complete and utter asshole Donald Trump is.

Offline Diane CBPFC

  • .
  • Posts: 4509
Re: Various thoughts about the current situation.
« Reply #1 on: April 13, 2020, 10:43:51 PM »
Yes, up until about 15-20 years ago we wouldn't have had this level of communication, but I suppose everyone read the newspapers in those days. It is quite common to lose older people and people with health conditions to the flu and pneumonia each year - but this is different in that so many health workers are dying too. The Spanish Flu poster attached isn't giving much different information to people on how to behave but now we seem to need to be told the same things with little updates several times a day, maybe back then one poster would have informed for a few weeks. 

Most people who can work from home are not essential - it is almost like there is a system in place to move currency around and keep people busy - when I was a teen we were told we would only need to work 3 or 4 days a week because of our increased productivity. Time for universal income for all which would do away with much of the misery in the world and which would also be savings in the long run in health care.  If only more people knew what to do with themselves without a job - this situation will at least make people think about these sorts of ideas. 
People will come from strange lands to hear me speak my words of wisdom. They will ask me the secret of life and I will tell them. Then maybe I'll finish off with a song. The Nomad

Offline Mince

  • .
  • Posts: 6958
  • Utter Waste of Time
Re: Various thoughts about the current situation.
« Reply #2 on: April 13, 2020, 11:02:26 PM »
I can't help wondering what would have happened had this virus materialised 30 years ago. With the internet in its infancy, how many people would have been able to work from home? Or, let's say, even earlier, when this whole branch of technology didn't exist?
Would the governments of the world have taken a completely different approach? I can only assume they would have gone for the "herd" option and taken it from there---perhaps with a few adjustments. Certainly, the numbers of people who could have worked from home would be a tiny percentage of what it is today. Would that have been a better approach?

I doubt even thirty years ago we would have so recklessly gone for herd immunity. Even during the Spanish Flu in 1918, schools, cinemas and bars were closed, public events were banned, and social distancing was practised, all to flatten the curve.


Anyway, let's focus on the positive stuff. I mentioned this earlier but 99% of people who contract this disease will survive. This is an official figure. (As official as anything can be these days). Measles is seven times more contagious. This will pass.

Measles is a ridiculously contagious airborne virus that would laugh in the face of a two metre separation. But its case fatality rate is only 0.2% and there is a vaccine, so provided the anti-vax cretins do not convert too many to its cause, we can maintain the herd immunity.

With the coronavirus, there is no immunity and no vaccine. The cases in the UK before lockdown doubled every 3 to 4 days. Maths would tell us that with that doubling and a case fatality rate of 1%, going for herd immunity would have resulted in most of the UK becoming infected within a month and 500,000 fatalities before the end of the next month.

Models are never accurate, but keep in mind that the Spanish Flu killed 228,000 in the UK alone, and that was with lockdown measures.

Yes, this will all pass, once there is a vaccine and we can all sensibly create a herd immunity without killing hundreds of thousands. I am still concerned about how many, ultimately, we will lose before we get that vaccine.

Some recent reports put the case fatality rate for coronavirus as low as 0.38%. Let's hope that's true.


Most importantly, the American public will learn what a complete and utter asshole Donald Trump is.

Again, we can hope.

In the meantime, I'm still pissed that we lost Tim Brooke-Taylor.

Offline The Peepmaster

  • .
  • Posts: 5834
Re: Various thoughts about the current situation.
« Reply #3 on: April 16, 2020, 09:17:24 PM »
There is some good news. Some artistes are doing live "performances" over the internet. One guy I have always admired for his song writing is Mike Batt, creator of the Wombles, (and their great music), writer of Bright Eyes, Closest Thing to Crazy, Nine Million Bicycles in Beijing, The Station Hotel, Winter's Tale... I could go on. Anyway, he has been doing a weekly "show" from his house, and before this week's he asked for people to suggest words that he could incorporate into a song, that he would write before the next show. He couldn't promise to include all suggestion.

Anyway - he wrote and performed the song, and MY word suggestion was included, and indeed became a walking point as he mentioned it several times both before and after singing it.

Today he announced that the song is to be released in iTunes, and that profits will go to the NHS. I am so proud to say that I, (ME), wrote one of the words in this song. I suggested that I could be considered a "co-writer", but he swiftly put the dampeners on that idea.

My word was floccinaucinihilipilification, by the way.
Nostalgia is not what it used to be. 😟

Offline The Peepmaster

  • .
  • Posts: 5834
Re: Various thoughts about the current situation.
« Reply #4 on: April 16, 2020, 09:18:43 PM »
•talking point (not walking point)...
Nostalgia is not what it used to be. 😟

Offline Diane CBPFC

  • .
  • Posts: 4509
Re: Various thoughts about the current situation.
« Reply #5 on: April 17, 2020, 01:28:06 AM »
That's not a word you hear everyday.
People will come from strange lands to hear me speak my words of wisdom. They will ask me the secret of life and I will tell them. Then maybe I'll finish off with a song. The Nomad

Offline Roger Kettle

  • Roger
  • *
  • Posts: 4972
  • Ho! Ho! £$%^&* Ho!
Re: Various thoughts about the current situation.
« Reply #6 on: April 17, 2020, 12:40:22 PM »
That's brilliant, Nige! (I hope you suggested a suitable rhyme for it).

Offline The Peepmaster

  • .
  • Posts: 5834
Re: Various thoughts about the current situation.
« Reply #7 on: April 22, 2020, 09:53:56 AM »
That's brilliant, Nige! (I hope you suggested a suitable rhyme for it).

Better than that, I have now written my own song...

It's called "Floccinaucinihilipilification".

Floccinaucinihilipilification,
It's the latest word to be sweeping the nation,
Use it at the office, (or when down at the station),
Then watch the ladies go crazy at your heightened reputation.


Nostalgia is not what it used to be. 😟

Offline Roger Kettle

  • Roger
  • *
  • Posts: 4972
  • Ho! Ho! £$%^&* Ho!
Re: Various thoughts about the current situation.
« Reply #8 on: April 22, 2020, 11:10:36 AM »
That was very moving.

Offline Mince

  • .
  • Posts: 6958
  • Utter Waste of Time
Re: Various thoughts about the current situation.
« Reply #9 on: April 22, 2020, 11:59:12 AM »
Peeps is a true romantic.

Offline Tarquin Thunderthighs lll

  • .
  • Posts: 5823
  • They call me Tarqs... and other stuff.
Re: Various thoughts about the current situation.
« Reply #10 on: April 23, 2020, 12:56:55 PM »
I'm touched! With self-isolation, it's been a while.
I apologise, in advance.