The Covid19 thread

[Ruffy]

Originally Posted by keith_d

...
and two weeks of starvation would reduce the obesity problem significantly too. But it would result in a nation wide bucket shortage and none of the Tory party donors has a monopoly on buckets (yet).

This made me smile and laugh, raising my spirits. Thank you Keith.

Rest of your post pretty much aligns with my thoughts and experiences. Especially the bit about London - I was there on business a couple of weeks ago and barring a few folks visible wearing masks, it felt just the same as it ever did, pre-covid. Hard to comprehend.

[Seeker]

I had to laugh at this tweet regarding Omicron:

"This is not how I wanted to learn the Greek alphabet."

(Isla McKetta, MFA | #DreamBigFightHard@islaisreading)

[SV650rules]

Originally Posted by Seeker

I had to laugh at this tweet regarding Omicron:

"This is not how I wanted to learn the Greek alphabet."

The Greek alphabet has gone viral....


.

[Ruffy]

Originally Posted by Seeker

I had to laugh at this tweet regarding Omicron:

"This is not how I wanted to learn the Greek alphabet."

(Isla McKetta, MFA | #DreamBigFightHard@islaisreading)

With a background in maths and electrical engineering, I've come across quite a lot of 'stolen' greek letter usage. Intriguingly, Omicron is not one that seems to have common usage (although I do have a vague recollection of there being an industrial process control sensor manufaturer by that name.)

Originally Posted by SV650rules

The Greek alphabet has gone viral...

Very good!

[daktulos]

Originally Posted by Ruffy

With a background in maths and electrical engineering, I've come across quite a lot of 'stolen' greek letter usage. Intriguingly, Omicron is not one that seems to have common usage (although I do have a vague recollection of there being an industrial process control sensor manufaturer by that name.)

I dated a Greek girl once, so learned a tiny bit of modern Greek. One of the nice things about the language is that the pronunciation of the letters (and diphthongs) are consistent.

What amazed me was the fact that they're pronounced completely different to the way we do. So alpha, beta, gamma, delta are pronounced something like: alpha, veta, thelta, nghama. Mu and Nu are like "me' and "nee". Tau is like "taf".

But at least you can read a word and know how to pronounce it. You can't say that about English - hiccough, anyone?

[embee]

Originally Posted by daktulos

...... You can't say that about English - hiccough, anyone?

One of Gyles Brandreth's anecdotes is what he called his dog........ Phydeaux

[Ruffy]

I had wondered why they call the most recent variant "Epsilon", following the usual order of the greek alphabet.

Then it was pointed out to me that there's an anagram of Omicron that seems to perfectly apply to the management approach of our elected policy-setters: Moronic!

[Ruffy]

I wasn't sure what to conclude after reading this BBC website article today about the purported 'NHS crisis'.

For the most part it seems to read quite contrary to some of the general messages that are being bandied about relating to Covid situation, before hurriedly swinging back at the end towards the more usual theme of message we're hearing at present. I found that skewed presentation quite surprising.

So, what to think? Is Covid actually the problem or is the NHS response (to be able to treat those cases that actually need it) now closer to the real issue?

[Seeker]

Don't forget that 40 new hospitals were promised - so presumably there (is) was a need for more facilities.
(Only 6 may be built)
We were also promised 50,000 new nurses.
(15,000 of which were already working, due to leave and were going to be tempted into staying)
We are also short of 50,000 doctors.

By accident or design, the NHS is slowly being run down. Bit by bit privatisation is being introduced (remember Branson suing the NHS because he didn't get a contract?). The "NHS" Test and Trace was Serco. I had an "NHS" cat scan which was performed by a private company.

The Conservatives would prefer to move closer to the US health insurance model in the belief that private companies are more efficient and offer competition. Tylenol (Paracetamol) is about $80 a bottle in a US hospital and about $2 in a drug store. My friend in Arkansas cannot always afford his insulin by the end of the year because of his Medicare coverage and the insulin type he needs. My first child was born in the US before our health insurance covered us, it was very expensive. I hope we don't go down the same path.

The NHS is funded by general taxation and boosted by NI payments. 12.8% of GDP goes to healthcare.
Should we pay a token cost for each doctor's visit to cut needless GP visits? Should more money be spent on healthy living? 63% of UK population is obese/overweight (35 million people). Difficult decisions.

I think covid has shone a spotlight on the problems that were already present in the NHS. I suspect it will get worse with employee burn out assuming this pandemic ever goes away.
As a nation we are aging and our overall health as individuals is getting worse, I'm no longer sure that pumping increasing amounts of money into the NHS is going to fix the problem.

edit: the NHS spends £18 billion/yr on obesity related issues. https://theconversation.com/what-is-...nd-eats-164410
Maybe we need to look at that.

[Bibio]

we cant have our cake and eat it.. either the public start to pay more into our NHS or it will be privatised.. its that simple. furlough has cost the uk big time but where is the money coming from???? the uk was skint (trillions in debt) before this whole covid stuff. do we sell off some land? get the public to pay more tax??? either way something will have to happen but no matter what is decided you can bet that the public will blame the gov....