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Sickness covered isn't that much if you shop around. The wife as a policy that covers various liabilities that she needs and sickness for just over £11 A month, pays out 80% of her earnings.
I'll have to put it on the list with pension, life insurance and any other insurance other than the van.
Anyway there is worse than me out there for sure, I just hope every one will be OK.
 
That's it I'm going to foxy for a few months, ha.
 
Having a new hip operation three weeks ago I've felt weak and feeble ever since; and ditto SWMBO who had an anti-pneumonia jab just before I went into hospital.

So, is our feebleness due to old age? Is it a common cold? The flu? Coronavirus? or just "There's a lot of it about!"?

We just don't know; but one thing is certain and that's that there will be no trips out for the foreseeable future, especially to a Doctor's Surgery full of sick people!

Our French friends have painted a depressing picture of France at the moment and at 77 years old, we have decided to just hunker down here in the UK for the summer and try and avoid catching anything really nasty. With this in mind, today we cancelled our April holidays that comprised:
  • Eurotunnel to France.
  • Two Hotels (Boulogne and Caen).
  • An apartment for two weeks in Pornichet.
  • Three Flights from Edinburgh to Nantes and return. (For great-granddaughter, her Mum and "other half".)
We started booking this holiday nearly a year ago in April 2019. The apartment is "non-refundable" but for the rest I will have to rely on "Vouchers" for future travel plans; and even then I suspect that it will cost us over £1,000 by the time the dust settles.

Ah well, we can only hope that we have done things properly and think "It's only money!" aheadbutt aheadbutt when the black-cloud of despondency starts to descend!

Now I'm off to have a beer! In the meantime my advice is "Stay Fit!" athumb.. athumb..

PS

The Ministry of Medicine in France has released a statement telling everyone that Anti-Inflammatory painkillers (e.g. Ibuprofen, Nurofen etc) makes Coronavirus WORSE and reckons that Paracetamol is much better! Enjoy!
I reckon a hip op and pneumonia jab would take its toll at age 17, let alone 77. It's not too bad over here, the PM has had to close everything down bar the food, backy and petrol shops because "we're not being responsible and taking it all seriously enough" and he's right! If you've only got money to lose which you're going to lose anyway, I'd keep my options open until the last minute. But that's just me- mad as a hatter.
 
Where have you read that?

My wife showed me a link that mention it was going to happen in Scotland (we are in wales) Welsh news saying schools will close for 16 weeks. Makes sense that it's closed after Easter when you consider all the timelines for the peak demand. Just hope that they can drag it out closer to the summer holidays.
 
My wife showed me a link that mention it was going to happen in Scotland (we are in wales) Welsh news saying schools will close for 16 weeks. Makes sense that it's closed after Easter when you consider all the timelines for the peak demand. Just hope that they can drag it out closer to the summer holidays.

I'd be interested to see that link if you are able to find it again. I worry a lot about the impact shutting the schools will have on people being able to go to work, and thus the knock on effects on supply chains, etc.
 
Dutto...feeling weak and feeble after your hip op is exactly how I was. There seemed to be a bit of a delay after getting home too...it's the "come down" after the excitement. You'll soon perk up.
 
It baffles me.
Made in UK, the same amount each week to meet the very steady demand that dosent even really have seasonal fluctuations.
Has unlimited shelf life but is bulky

Is literally the last thing we need to panic buy
Can anyone shed light on why toilet roll is being panic bought? I can understand most of the items - but toilet roll is a mystery to me.

The argument I've seen is that part of it is people having a vague need they need to prepare for "hibernation" but haven't really thought through in detail what to buy, but when they see the scenes of empty shelves in Australia etc they assume that's the thing that is most likely to go short so they start with that. Also it's something with indefinite shelflife and that they know they will use up eventually. Also worth mentioning that IME women seem to use about 4x as much as men, so what seems less essential to you may be rather more important to others. There's also a bit of an idea that it's clinging on to a bit of dignity - even if civilisation is going to the dogs, they can still wipe their backside with something soft and velvety, it puts them one level above the animals...and the French.

It’s about saving people’s lives, the fact I think our leader is clueless is neither here nor there.
I’m not the only one.
Coronavirus: Some scientists say UK virus strategy is 'risking lives' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51892402
It seems 229 UK University scientists disagree with Boris' scientists.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51892402

Look closely - as the BBC themselves admit, there's no epidemiologists in there, but astronomers and lots of graduate students, even a research technician. Compare that with the CMO who is a world-class epidemiologist and professor of public health.

It's easy to snipe from the sidelines when you've not got the responsibility of taking the tough decisions, and some of the worst people to ask are the people on the sidelines who know enough to be dangerous but don't understand the full story. It's even easier to snipe when decisions are being taken on complex science where we don't know the full story - but taking no decision will cause even more deaths than making a "bad" decision.

The people to be scared of are the people who think there are simple answers to any of this stuff. Or as Bertrand Russell put it "in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt". The people who understand the problem know that there are uncertainties and downside whichever way you go. Take this example, https://twitter.com/BallouxFrancois/status/1238837158007447558
"I'm a computational/system biologist working on infectious diseases and have spent five years in a world class 'pandemic response modelling' unit....After having spent considerable time thinking how to mitigate and manage this pandemic, and analysing the available data. I failed to identify the best course of action. Even worse, I'm not sure there is such a thing as an acceptable solution to the problem we are facing....The most plausible scenario to me is for the covid-19 pandemic to wane in the late spring (in the Northern hemisphere), and come back as a second wave in the winter, which I expect could be even worse than what we're facing now."

That's what real expertise looks like - "We can't be sure, but this is probably the least-bad way to proceed".

All of these have been over 60's with existing health problems so is this virus any more dangerous than seasonal flu?

Yes - at least 10x more deadly, maybe 100x more deadly once healthcare facilities are overwhelmed by sheer numbers as in Italy. And only about 10% get the flu each year compared to potentially 50% COVID19. So if one season of regular flu puts the health system on the edge, imagine how it copes with 50x flu.

All I can say is ‘just minister’ , ‘Just prime minister’ & ‘The Thick of it’. Great comedy exposing the system as basically compromised by many factors ie mainly self interest etc...... as the old saying goes. ‘Power corrupts’. The NHS had a campaign many many years ago against the big pharmaceutical companies ‘patients before profit’ ! It worked to a certain degree that these companies couldn’t tap up individual GP’s but the margins are still crazy imo.

My son had the flu on the 20th December (or it might have been Coronavirus?) he got prescribed the Tamiflu and it was a nightmare trying to get it, 6 chemists later we managed to get it. It lasted 4 weeks and was horrendous.
This is getting more serious by the day and by the time the UK do something about it it will be too late, for goodness sake we have plenty of examples of countries regretting not shutting down sooner, washing hands and not going on a bloody boat just doesn’t cut it now, for once money shouldn’t rule but hey ho once again, let’s listen to a bloody buffoon who a year ago wouldn’t be trusted to water the plants in number 10.
The laughing stock of the world.

As an aside, Tamiflu doesn't work against SARS so probably won't work against COVID19, in fact there's not much hope among conventional antiviral drugs : https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/03/06/covid-19-small-molecule-therapies-reviewed

You're somewhat missing the point though - the aim is not to minimise casualties in the short-term, but to minimise them in the long-term. And I'd suggest that if you don't understand why we're not closing schools immediately or not testing everybody, it's all in the 2014 Pandemic Plan : https://assets.publishing.service.g..._data/file/344695/PI_Response_Plan_13_Aug.pdf Why not take some time to read that rather than going off on one about Boris? I'm no fan of his but you look ridiculous trying to score political points in the middle of what looks like the biggest crisis to hit this country since WWII.

It's fun to make lazy comparisons with Yes Minister etc but having been a small cog in the wheels of something a bit similar (that was nipped in the bud so you won't have heard of it, although it looked a bit dicey for a while), I can assure you that while the machinery of state can turn slowly at times, the scientists advising ministers are generally smart, honourable people who are trying to make the best sense they can of messy, complex, incomplete data. It is hugely offensive to suggest they're not trying to minimise the long-term death toll - and they will do a better job in saving lives than the average blatherer on social media.

To be fair part the government have invited people to make a political point by blurring the boundaries between the science and the politics. One of the most interesting things I've read lately is this Twitter thread by Andy Burnham, who was Health Secretary when swine flu hit in 2009. He's honest about some of the "car crash" interviews he had before he realised that he had to stand back and make more of a distinction between the CMO talking about the science and the politicians playing politics. That needs to happen now, rather than the Health Sec making detailed announcements in a paywalled article in the Telegraph as happened today.

A 2 week shop, I cant load my fridge quick enough. The younger ones will eat grapes raspberry's and strawberry's by the bucket load not to mention yogurt. I do one big shop a week then top up with the local shop a few times with the essentials

We've had a bit of a talk today about how SWMBO tends to binge on random things - bread one day, fruit another - in a way that makes stock control impossible, because she's used to popping to the shops most days. I think she's got the message that we really want to try and avoid doing that at the moment, which means being a bit more disciplined about matching the snacking to the shopping lists. I don't envy anyone with children in this situation though, it's bad enough with her...

Beginning of June last year in turkey I developed pneumonia with fever and fluid on my lungs, heart palpations, couldn't sleep at all until exhausted and was scared at times over lack of oxygen, fatigue aching limbs, it knocked me for six, even when I got home I had loss of breath going upstairs this lasted a month before I was back to normal. I never went to doctors there but got antibiotics that did nothing and when I came home was given different that did nothing but I was never tested. All I can say is I've never experienced anything like it. Are they sure this asnt been around longer because the symptoms fit perfectly. I'm 51 and wouldn't want that again, truly unusual.

Nah - that's just regular pneumonia, most of the older members of my family have had it once - in a rush to hospital kind of way. There's little doubt that this virus originated in China, although the Chinese propaganda machine is trying to manipulate social media to make people think all sorts of daft conspiracy theories.
 
Nice one, Foxy. I'd trust Scott Morrison about as far as I could kick Trump's corpse up a sand dune. Which is twice as much as I'd trust Boris to get out of bed tomorrow and start actually doing something.
Kevin Rudd tried it in the global financial crisis, handed out $950 each to those earning less than $80,000 $650 for those earning less than $100,000 , cost the country more than $41 billion to stimulate the economy, biggest winners were the pokie venues.
I can understand Scomoes thinking, it is to keep the money moving during this current crisis but I think after what happened last time vouchers would have been a better idea.
They have just declared a state of emergency in Victoria now.
 
The argument I've seen is that part of it is people having a vague need they need to prepare for "hibernation" but haven't really thought through in detail what to buy, but when they see the scenes of empty shelves in Australia etc they assume that's the thing that is most likely to go short so they start with that. Also it's something with indefinite shelflife and that they know they will use up eventually. Also worth mentioning that IME women seem to use about 4x as much as men, so what seems less essential to you may be rather more important to others. There's also a bit of an idea that it's clinging on to a bit of dignity - even if civilisation is going to the dogs, they can still wipe their backside with something soft and velvety, it puts them one level above the animals...and the French.




Look closely - as the BBC themselves admit, there's no epidemiologists in there, but astronomers and lots of graduate students, even a research technician. Compare that with the CMO who is a world-class epidemiologist and professor of public health.

It's easy to snipe from the sidelines when you've not got the responsibility of taking the tough decisions, and some of the worst people to ask are the people on the sidelines who know enough to be dangerous but don't understand the full story. It's even easier to snipe when decisions are being taken on complex science where we don't know the full story - but taking no decision will cause even more deaths than making a "bad" decision.

The people to be scared of are the people who think there are simple answers to any of this stuff. Or as Bertrand Russell put it "in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt". The people who understand the problem know that there are uncertainties and downside whichever way you go. Take this example, https://twitter.com/BallouxFrancois/status/1238837158007447558
"I'm a computational/system biologist working on infectious diseases and have spent five years in a world class 'pandemic response modelling' unit....After having spent considerable time thinking how to mitigate and manage this pandemic, and analysing the available data. I failed to identify the best course of action. Even worse, I'm not sure there is such a thing as an acceptable solution to the problem we are facing....The most plausible scenario to me is for the covid-19 pandemic to wane in the late spring (in the Northern hemisphere), and come back as a second wave in the winter, which I expect could be even worse than what we're facing now."

That's what real expertise looks like - "We can't be sure, but this is probably the least-bad way to proceed".



Yes - at least 10x more deadly, maybe 100x more deadly once healthcare facilities are overwhelmed by sheer numbers as in Italy. And only about 10% get the flu each year compared to potentially 50% COVID19. So if one season of regular flu puts the health system on the edge, imagine how it copes with 50x flu.





As an aside, Tamiflu doesn't work against SARS so probably won't work against COVID19, in fact there's not much hope among conventional antiviral drugs : https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/03/06/covid-19-small-molecule-therapies-reviewed

You're somewhat missing the point though - the aim is not to minimise casualties in the short-term, but to minimise them in the long-term. And I'd suggest that if you don't understand why we're not closing schools immediately or not testing everybody, it's all in the 2014 Pandemic Plan : https://assets.publishing.service.g..._data/file/344695/PI_Response_Plan_13_Aug.pdf Why not take some time to read that rather than going off on one about Boris? I'm no fan of his but you look ridiculous trying to score political points in the middle of what looks like the biggest crisis to hit this country since WWII.

It's fun to make lazy comparisons with Yes Minister etc but having been a small cog in the wheels of something a bit similar (that was nipped in the bud so you won't have heard of it, although it looked a bit dicey for a while), I can assure you that while the machinery of state can turn slowly at times, the scientists advising ministers are generally smart, honourable people who are trying to make the best sense they can of messy, complex, incomplete data. It is hugely offensive to suggest they're not trying to minimise the long-term death toll - and they will do a better job in saving lives than the average blatherer on social media.

To be fair part the government have invited people to make a political point by blurring the boundaries between the science and the politics. One of the most interesting things I've read lately is this Twitter thread by Andy Burnham, who was Health Secretary when swine flu hit in 2009. He's honest about some of the "car crash" interviews he had before he realised that he had to stand back and make more of a distinction between the CMO talking about the science and the politicians playing politics. That needs to happen now, rather than the Health Sec making detailed announcements in a paywalled article in the Telegraph as happened today.



We've had a bit of a talk today about how SWMBO tends to binge on random things - bread one day, fruit another - in a way that makes stock control impossible, because she's used to popping to the shops most days. I think she's got the message that we really want to try and avoid doing that at the moment, which means being a bit more disciplined about matching the snacking to the shopping lists. I don't envy anyone with children in this situation though, it's bad enough with her...



Nah - that's just regular pneumonia, most of the older members of my family have had it once - in a rush to hospital kind of way. There's little doubt that this virus originated in China, although the Chinese propaganda machine is trying to manipulate social media to make people think all sorts of daft conspiracy theories.
Have a beer mate
 
I'd be interested to see that link if you are able to find it again. I worry a lot about the impact shutting the schools will have on people being able to go to work, and thus the knock on effects on supply chains, etc.
Will ask her for it in the morning, she is sleeping. Same thing is reported in several papers but it wasn't a link to a news paper. Her friend in Scotland sent it.
 
It probably was but the constant coughing is the most frightening bit leaving you fighting for oxygen. I have never had anything like that. It just had all the same symptoms.
I'm sure you are right Northern brewer.
 
Will ask her for it in the morning, she is sleeping. Same thing is reported in several papers but it wasn't a link to a news paper. Her friend in Scotland sent it.

Its OK mate - I've found it on the Beeb website, but thanks for the heads up. Yikes! 16 weeks would be tricky. I suspect lots of companies will be war gaming tomorrow!
 
Someone slagged Boris off and has not been deleted :laugh8: im putting my keyboard away I have had a skinful :beer1:come on people its a virus and they are cleverer than us humans they can mutate can we, no, its ok saying we have experts on the case I don't think any government has a clue how to deal with this aheadbutt
 
Someone slagged Boris off and has not been deleted :laugh8: im putting my keyboard away I have had a skinful :beer1:come on people its a virus and they are cleverer than us humans they can mutate can we, no, its ok saying we have experts on the case I don't think any government has a clue how to deal with this aheadbutt
I think I have mutated.
What you mean to say people drink alcohol on here. :coat::beer1:
 

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