You'll notice the media agenda (pretend this is the end of the world - a good story) when they NEVER say "today 786 deaths but hospitals announce 1,364 intensive care patients have survived and been released home". They never say "2000 people die every day in the UK"; instead they interview a sobbing relation crying about the death of their son, daddy, daughter, aunt. When did the media last do that for a cancer death?

We can only look forward to the inevitable "humanity survives plague to end all plagues" story in a few weeks when life returns to normal.

Yet still most people simply cannot see the Emperor is naked.

JK2006 wrote:
in a few weeks when life returns to normal

Normality, as we knew it, will never return - after the daily War of the Worlds type broadcasts.

Personal interface and greetings will be different - as will commerce, travel, education and healthcare.

As well as leisure activities and sport - people will be concerned where colleagues/neighbours have been.


In case another super virus arrives - to again bring nations to their knees, virtually eradicating all trade and forcing multinationals to seek help.

From governments - like ours, which doesn't have the liquidity to help. Only to borrow - and this time, borrowing is unavoidable.

Computers, contactless, crowd avoidance, will be everywhere - and lives will be lived more via the internet, and its successors.


Sooner than later, many questions will be asked. Do we really need a nuclear capability - we spend billions on it, but have never used it?

Is our inbuilt inequality sustainable - with footballers on £300k per week here - when thousands are homeless!

And the richest 1% twice as wealthy as the poorest 50%. If we don't reaccess now, we never will - bearing in mind that world poverty is massively worse.

So let’s nail this one down for good:

1. Are you saying that the number of daily deaths we are seeing at the moment is not significantly higher than for the same period last year?
2. That even if the death certificates of the deceased mention coronavirus, it is trivial and irrelevant in most cases?
3. Where do you draw the line between between what is a trivial and what is a serious condition?
4. Is the flu trivial if it kills 50,000?
5. Isn’t any virus that weakens the immune system so severely, causes serious breathing problems requiring a ventilator, and then makes way for a deadly bacterial infection which tens of thousands of people succumb to, NOT trivial BUT very serious?

No patronising or facile answers please!!!

Or maybe we have got it backwards, and it is worse than they are telling us and the mild version doesn't exist? It might well be just a cold. How would we know? Nobody gets tested.

I really find it odd that we have not had a picture of the "Dear Leader" in his hospital bed!!

OK Havana but this is a bit pointless; those brainwashed by media to think green is red can never be convinced it may not be true.
No I'm not claiming anything; I have no idea whether there are more or fewer deaths in ratio. I suspect we'll never know. Figures simply do not take into account whether the panic measures have cut down deaths from other reasons.
But put it this way (re "trivial").
There are thousands of car accidents around the world every day.
Most are "fender benders". In general the problem - or "virus" - of car accidents is trivial.
Some cause death or serious harm. The consequences of those are far from trivial for those involved, families, friends.
But that doesn't make Car Accidents a serious problem.
Likewise measles, mumps, chicken pox etc.
Likewise food poisoning. For most a minor problem. Trivial.
Media has inflated this as a good story.
Concentrating on doom and gloom; featuring individual sob stories (most of which could apply equally to all the above).
A cancer death is tragic. Rarely covered like this.
Result of media exaggeration - panic measures.
Which increase the problems. Like an avalanche, reaction causes worse facts.
Nobody panicked when 50,000 flu victims died in 2017-18 England & Wales.
Why not?
Not a "good story".
There you go.
Red is red and green is green.
Unless you are colour blind.

Using the word trivial to describe this illness is callous and grossly insensitive. Road accidents, chicken pox and cancer don’t manifest themselves as pandemics, sweeping their way across the world like a tsunami. What we are experiencing at the moment is a once in a hundred year event and shouldn’t be brushed off lightly.

Get real Havana. I can guarantee road accidents, cancer etc are world wide; just not promoted and used as ways of increasing circulation figures, ratings and media profits.

Another myth doing the rounds is that the ‘threat’ won’t be history until there’s a vaccine or treatment. While it’s true that there is no vaccine at the moment, there are most definitely treatments around that are helping people to recover.

Yes md - see my hydroxychloroquine post

I've decided to start dropping stats from the news: 9 million expected to be furloughed next few weeks by employers.

Cost to UK over 2-3 months £30 to £40 billion.

Is this worth it?

I agree with Havana about using the word trivial. It might well be (comparatively) trivial, and it might well all be terribly exaggerated or even underestimated, but why upset people if you don't have to?

Barney - according to the European Medicines Agency, Hydroxychloroquine (and Chloroquine) can have serious side effects. Although clinical trials for these drugs and the vaccine are currently underway it may take months until the results are known. China has already had notable success in treating coronavirus patients. Wuhan came out of lockdown today. I’ve seen a few odd articles but my overall impression is that Chinese treatments are being overlooked.

www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/covid-19-chlor...gency-use-programmes

Honey wrote:
............but why upset people if you don't have to?

It's a tactic used by media whores to attract attention. I do love the irony of choosing an attack on the media to do it.

giles2008 wrote:
I really find it odd that we have not had a picture of the "Dear Leader" in his hospital bed!!


I was bemused by the reports that the doors of No. 10 had been barricaded. Why was this drastic step taken? Was it to stop Boris from going out or to stop others from going in?

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-81860...tes-RICHARD-KAY.html