Unfortunately I think we probably do otherwise we will greatly underestimate the level of cuntishness as they ‘can’t possibly be that bad can they?’. Yep, and some
I think I’d rather be taking CV advice from Jeff Stelling
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Fear not, Chris Grayling has arrived with new supplies of PPE.
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I’m afraid you’re right. They started the ‘lockdown’ at a point where the deaths were immediate enough that they got good compliance. But they also said, albeit quietly, that they felt people would only put up with it for so long. We are three weeks in. Last week, when it was just two weeks, Justin Webb on Today spent half his interview with some government minister asking about the exit strategy and what signs would indicate we were ready to start getting back to normal. He sounded like nothing so much as a 4-year old on a long car journey asking “Are we nearly there yet ?” before he’d even left his home town.
More seriously, there is the question of how long the economy can survive the current haemorrhaging. I know it’s not fashionable to think the economy matters. But it’s worth reminding ourselves once in a while that it’s what pays for the NHS and feeds everyone who doesn’t grow what they and their family need themselves. The Treasury will doubtless have a view on how long we can keep everyone at home. The sooner we start those x months running, the sooner we’ll have to bring them to an end. We’re now seeing, to an extent, Spain and Italy up against this.
We can dismiss them if we like. But as someone once said
VB
When you have specialists in virology & communicable diseases saying they don’t know who the people advising the government are, then while their input may be ‘true’ it may not always be useful.
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This may be as straight as an arrow… but it don’t look like it.
And this comment in another article is interesting…
Animal Equality argues that they are not only “inhumane” and a source of “intensive suffering inflicted on farmed animals”, but that they are also a “threat to public health”.
In this case it’s talking about wet markets, but I doubt you’d get much conflicting evidence of aimed at any industrial animal farming, especially the larger us firms
Unless they get right on top of testing, opening up again seems pretty pointless
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I still find this staggering
I’m not sure who they meant. Are they saying they don’t know who these people are ?
I’m afraid my first-hand experience of senior scientists who say “The people in charge aren’t listening to the scientists !” is that what they really mean is “The people in charge aren’t listening to ME !”. They can also be very intolerant of the people in charge listening to anyone who “isn’t a proper scientist” (by which they mean the Finance Dept, or the HR Dept, or anyone whose job is to hold the organisation to account or, in organisations which have them, the customers …).
VB
Maybe he was referring to the group of behavioural scientists that Dominic was advocating and Boris was listening to at the start of this crisis?
I am pretty sure that we allowed Liverpool to play against Atletico Madrid in Liverpool after the Spanish Govt. had stopped stadium attendace in La Liga, which astonished me as Spain was 10 days -2 weeks ahead of us in terms of cumulated mortality.
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He probably was. But it’s a tricky one. Specialists risk developing a silo mentality. There’s a difference between saying “I’m a specialist and my advice is very important and must be listened to” and saying “I’m a specialist with important advice and I’m the only one that should be listened to. In particular don’t pay any attention to people I’ve never heard of”.
VB
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Also those specialists (in any field, not just science) who end up as top-level advisers are selected partly for their willingness to shut up when their political masters tell them to, even if they feel that the wrong course of action is being taken. They may look uneasy and squirm in press briefings, but it’s rare for one to openly criticise politicians - at least until they have left their jobs.
Another commentary from a public health specialist:
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Very sad news.
So sad
That’s awful.
oh jesus that’s truly awful
Beyond words.
That is tragic