Covid-19 discussion thread

[dorabella]

Same here, fishman. Im in the Midlands which is up north to many in London. We wear flat caps, carry a pig under our arms and eat hotpots. (apologies to all the normal Londoners down there, we know it's only some who make you look bad just as some of our lot do).

We don't do much protesting since who would care or even know? The media only care about London. So many of us will be rolling our eyes at yet another bunch of numpties protesting in the capital.

Terry - I'm a from the same neck of the Midlands woods - my dad did wear a flat cap and he did like his black pudding and pork scratching although I never remember us keeping pigs ...

Agree with you about London numpties though ... I've no time for them - mostly a tiny minority of left-wing, 'politically correct' ass@@@es with too much time on their hands who think that because they inhabit this cesspit of a capital that the sun shines out of their proverbial... I'm always glad to get back to the Midlands and deal with straight-talking, no-nonsense folk! The BBC never strays from its little metropolitan bubble for news stories.... in fact the rest of the country is another planet to them.

[WiseMonkey]

Good God! Even "experts" are saying CV is no deadlier than the regular flu!

What a load of conspiratorial bullswool! So that's why (your country UK) has close on 35,000 deaths in two months (likely 50,000 before the end of June) because it's just 'the flu'!!

ps. Zero new cases in NZ again today

[MyNameIsTerry]

What a load of conspiratorial bullswool! So that's why (your country UK) has close on 35,000 deaths in two months (likely 50,000 before the end of June) because it's just 'the flu'!!

ps. Zero new cases in NZ again today

My recollection is that experts have said it's another flu. They have recognised it's higher mortality rate and greater ability to spread but I think they were trying to inject some reality into the media circus that was making it out to be the next plague.

[Lolalee1]

Sounds like we need to update the dictionary putting politicians and celebs next to this entry

Yep I agree

[Scass]

London was the largest gathering. Most other places in the UK barely attracted a dozen people.

Perhaps because London has the higher population?

[Scass]

What a load of conspiratorial bullswool! So that's why (your country UK) has close on 35,000 deaths in two months (likely 50,000 before the end of June) because it's just 'the flu'!!

ps. Zero new cases in NZ again today

Please stop comparing my country to yours. It’s tragic enough.
It’s also a different country, every country is different. Yes your country is wonderful. So is mine.

[pulisa]

You can't compare NZ with the UK..Completely different set of circumstances/population spread/logistics.

I'm glad I'm living in the UK too. We're going through dark times but this isn't a competition.

[BlueIris]

Right with you on this one, Pulisa. WiseMonkey, I have nothing but respect for you but it does sound as though you're gloating.

That said, I don't have much time for tribalism within the UK, either. I've lived for prolonged periods in Luton, London, Durham and Coventry, and while I've never been comfortable about Luton's racism problem or student snobbery in Durham, the vast majority of people are just people wherever you go.

Life's short and we need to look out for one another, no matter where we live.

[WiseMonkey]

Right with you on this one, Pulisa. WiseMonkey, I have nothing but respect for you but it does sound as though you're gloating.

That said, I don't have much time for tribalism within the UK, either. I've lived for prolonged periods in Luton, London, Durham and Coventry, and while I've never been comfortable about Luton's racism problem or student snobbery in Durham, the vast majority of people are just people wherever you go.

Life's short and we need to look out for one another, no matter where we live.

Actually, I used the UK as an example because I was replying to KK's post (so nothing personal against you or UK), I could have used France, Germany, Spain (if she'd/he'd have come from there). Plus my relatives live in UK and I was born there and my grandfather lived in Luton.

In regards to gloating (which I actually wasn't doing), but come to think of it, why not? Little 'ol NZ has done what other countries with the same population haven't done. Many on here have said that NZ has done a great job and has been a shining example, but I haven't talked it up. But we are not out of the woods (to use a platitude) and are still very serious with our social distancing and hygiene and health officials have ramped up testing to look for signs of community spread. So far about 0.6 of our population have been tested.

I went into a haberdashery shop yesterday and had to wait my turn to enter, then write my name and contact details in their log book then use han-san so quite a procedure but there is a requirement for it.

In giving details of what we do here in NZ, I'm sharing info and hopefully it might helps others. This is not meant to be condescending in any way, just a practical approach

[Gary A]

I honestly wish people would stop comparing this virus to the flu. Ignoring the basic differences in infectiousness and mortality rates, the most important difference is that we have vaccinations and treatments for the flu. We know how it spreads, we know it is seasonal and our health systems are familiar with the numbers expected and how best to deal with them.

Covid-19 was an unknown entity until January this year. There are no treatments, no vaccines and, unfortunately, healthcare systems worldwide had no idea how far this was going to go. Comparing an unknown novel virus to one that has been in human population for as long as records were available is utterly ridiculous.