“Both communist/socialist authoritarian regimes with very strong control of the press.”
A very few non-Government individuals/organisations appear to control UK information media today.
LeSving wrote:
It’s called “kiss sickness” here, or “mononukleose”, caused by the herpes virus “Epstein Barr”, EBV. I have no idea what it is called in English.
It’s called Infectious mononucleosis. Wikipedia is a great translation tool for this kind of thing.
‘Mono’ as people call it was prominent in US teen culture, movies etc in the 50-70s. I’m not sure it is any less common today but it gets less press. The son of friends in Austria had it a couple of years ago, very debilitating for some time to the extent that he was initially diagnosed with cancer. He’s OK now.
Graham wrote:
People can/should manage their own risk – I’m increasingly coming around to that view.
I respectfully disagree. If the pandemic has shown one thing it is that they can not. Egoism goes much further than care for next guy.
They had their chance in spring, when we were told by the government to pretty please be reasonable and stay home. We all know the result. Had the people been able to manage their own risk or rather been willing to forego some liberties for a couple of weeks to PROTECT EACH OTHER, we would not be in the mess we are now.
And no, the European population is NOT readily accepting lockdowns but are in many cases ready to fight even up to civil unrest level (see what is happening in the Netherlands) instead of fighting the disease.
No again, it is not about the government permitting you to do things, it is about the government stopping you from harming others. For all practical purposes we are in a war like crisis situation and in such times, it is obvious that different standards apply. Those countries who did come through with their initial measures are now in a much better situation than we are.
We also do not need to repeal the legislation, but to change it into a law which brings forth clear criteria under what conditions government may impose what measures so that in the next pandemic case, whenever it may occur, there is no dicking about but clear and straightforward action imposed to avoid prolonged pandemics like this one.
Apart, it will not hurt if the people themselves start to apply some of the simple hygienic conventions which have been quite normal in places like Asia: If you have a cold, or feel off, wear a mask in public. And as we can see now, actually keeping personal hygiene and a bit of distancing helps tremendously also to stop much lesser epidemics such as the yearly flu. If we take that one along, then we might actually learn something positive out of this.
This “UK variant” was actually first picked up in Kent,
Are we back to naming viruses and mutations thereof after the country or region in which they were first found and/or sequenced? If so that’s a welcome step back from the crass wokeism to which the CCP stooges at the WHO succumbed a year ago.
I suppose that we could also call this and other more infectious mutations, collectively, the “lockdown” variants – if indeed a logical effect of face masks and “lockdowns” (imported, like the original disease, from China 
) is that they favour the evolution of viral strains which are more transmissible.
Jacko wrote:
Are we back to naming viruses and mutations thereof after the country or region in which they were first found and/or sequenced? If so that’s a welcome step back from the crass wokeism to which the CCP stooges at the WHO succumbed a year ago.I suppose that we could also call this and other more infectious mutations, collectively, the “lockdown” variants – if indeed a logical effect of face masks and “lockdowns” (imported, like the original disease, from China ) is that they favour the evolution of viral strains which are more transmissible.
I find all of this incredibly childish. Does it really matter what the variants are called? Who cares! (and I know this is the point you are making).
This isnt a case where political correctness has any place any more than China whinging about it is to early or to political to investigate the virus where the first cases were recorded.
One of the points that we have all got right is this pandemic will be resolved by the science, and the science is concerned only with the facts.We do need to be grown up and recognise that however it might be spun, we must rise about this. Everyone knows that if the crime scene (and I mean that in the best way) is left uninvestigated for a period of time, it will be cold and useless. China may believe their scientists are as good as everyone elses, but when the virus has effected the world, this is also irrelevant. The scientists of the world are entitled to inspect the crime scene. I really dont understand how there could be an argument to the contrary?
We will all benefit, the whole world, from a thorough investigation and I have no time for any nation, regime or organsiation that would stand in the way.
Fuji_Abound wrote:
In what way do you excuse their lack of transparency?
First of all, I’m not excusing anything.
Second: Which lack of transparency are you referring to?
The initial delay in openly telling what is happening? I would not call it “lack of transparency” but rather a combination of underestimating the magnitude of this event (like almost every other government as well) and the normal behavior of states to cover up. How long did it take before the Ukranian government published the whole magnitude of Tschernobyl? How long until the US published what really happened in 3 mile Island? It took the UK government 25 (!) years to publish the first report on the true number of casualties from Sellafield – so 24 years to go until we are in a position to judge China on its Covid information policy.
And after that initial reaction, everything that is required to fight the disease is shared and transparent now – it’s just that the Chinese government is not supporting any kind of “blame game” going on – like the Italian government is not very actively communicating right now, that we have indications for cases in Italy that date to clearly before the outbreak in Wuhan.
Jacko wrote:
if indeed a logical effect of face masks and “lockdowns” (imported, like the original disease, from China ) is that they favour the evolution of viral strains which are more transmissible.
It absolutely is without any question – and it’s the same effect with any deadly virus: New strains develop only – without the slightest exception – if people actually survive the first wave. So if and only if we take measures that we are not all killed by the virus there is a chance that it mutates. As masks and “lockdowns” have exactly the purpose to have as many people as possible actually survive the first wave, from a logical standpoint it is absolutely fair to say that they are responsible for mutation.
This is absolutely true in the very same way as it is without any doubt that seatbelts are the root cause for a much higher share of population dying by cancer.
The real project fear…
The real project fear
It might be an idea to visit the local big hospital and count the bodies being transported out.
But for sure many people simply don’t believe this is real. A young woman, 20s, who got caught going to a rave was interviewed on TV yesterday. She said she just feels like going out and meeting people and seeing what’s going on. Hopefully she doesn’t live with her parents… And a lot of people don’t wear masks when speaking to another person 0.5m away, following the same rationale. To many, it simply doesn’t compute to them that this is happening and it is a virus.
How to get the population to realise the reality is indeed a major task and one which had been massively underestimated. However, the effective solutions can’t be implemented in most European countries, and even fewer can be implemented in the UK (reasons posted earlier, to do with history).
UK heading down fairly fast; France going upwards
