Apparently twitter have updated their rules to ban spreading absolute nonsense and misinformation about the virus, because if some celebrities tweet some urban myth it gets more traction than actual epidemoilogists.
General / Off-Topic The safest place
- Thread starter Robin of Spiritwood
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Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
The Off-Topic section, on this forum, has a prohibition on political discussion:
If participants in this thread can't manage to discuss the topic without entering into political debate then I'll close the thread now.
Fair enough.
The lucky part is that SARs research and ebola meds give us a leg up with this problem. I can remember ages ago as a pharmacy technician stocking box after box of Tamiflu, only to see how narrow the window of use was and think 'is this actually useful?'
Covid-19 and Coronavorus are just a rebranding of SARS. After all, its proper name is SARS-CoV-2. Its generic link is clear, and that's what you test positive for. Not "Covid-19". I'm not sure why it has been branded this way, and not as SARS2, but that's just how it's gone.
It is one of the few mercies thus far.
I have a friend who works as a Biomedical Scientist (they basically prepare biopsy samples for doctors to be able to assess them) and he's been saying there is a lot of positive talk in terms of the progress they're already making because of it being related to SARs and MERs.
This is why.
TL/DR: "Using the name SARS can have unintended consequences in terms of creating unnecessary fear for some populations, especially in Asia which was worst affected by the SARS outbreak in 2003.”
It was a sensible rule TBH. People get super mad about video game space ships here so you can probably imagine how actually important things like Brexit went down with some.
The mods are nicely cutting us some slack as normally this thread would have been taken out the back and shot by now. Politics is as you say interwoven in all of this, but we should heed their warning lest we feel their mighty wrath.
Just chuck it on the pile really
My real concern / curiosity comes from what happens after things die down- reopening borders and switching off the money taps. The UK has Brexit to deal with and a world recession- can people go back to the way things were? I can remember as an NHS public sector worker being villified in the tabloids as a scrounger, and the government all too eager to chop stuff up.....now the lowly shelf stacker, cleaner and NHS worker are saints.....what a funny turn of events.Great article. So there you have it. Still, I'm not entirely sure that labelling it as something other than SARS has actually calmed anyone down about it. If anything, calling it SARS2 would give me hope that it could be beaten, just like SARS was.
This is the same public who buy hundreds of toilet rolls and strip shelves. Joe Public would void themselves repeatedly.
Ian Phillips
Volunteer Moderator
Under the circumstances I think it's been pretty civilized. The mods arent perfect, but I feel comfortable giving them an A- rating for their tolerance.
We watch
Well, if it gets too much I can always occupy Robert with a 100 page Open only Powerplay megathread. Just break the emergency glass and I'll pop out.
There's toilet doom in the UK !.
Because of the panic buying of toilet paper people are using alternatives such as newspaper, which is now blocking the sewers. The sewer companies have asked people to put their poo smeared alternatives in the bin instead to prevent floods of raw sewage.
However if they do that the bin men will refuse to collect the bins as they are contaminated with poo which is supposed to go in the toilet so we'll have a load of poo covered rubbish sitting on street corners attracting vermin causing the next crisis.
There is no toilet paper shortage it was a social media panic that started in australia.
Anyone reading this from behind a rampart of toilet paper should immediately insert their head into the bowl and flush some sense into themselves. Its only been two weeks and you idiots are already causing a crisis cascade, get a grip.
Edit : the worst part is the same idiots reading about that wont get the message they'll just read as far as people are using newspaper instead and rush out to buy more bog roll.
Because of the panic buying of toilet paper people are using alternatives such as newspaper, which is now blocking the sewers. The sewer companies have asked people to put their poo smeared alternatives in the bin instead to prevent floods of raw sewage.
However if they do that the bin men will refuse to collect the bins as they are contaminated with poo which is supposed to go in the toilet so we'll have a load of poo covered rubbish sitting on street corners attracting vermin causing the next crisis.
There is no toilet paper shortage it was a social media panic that started in australia.
Anyone reading this from behind a rampart of toilet paper should immediately insert their head into the bowl and flush some sense into themselves. Its only been two weeks and you idiots are already causing a crisis cascade, get a grip.
Edit : the worst part is the same idiots reading about that wont get the message they'll just read as far as people are using newspaper instead and rush out to buy more bog roll.
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This was from the UK: https://www.theguardian.com/technol...size-of-wembley-whatsapp-joke-swallowed-whole
This is what you are dealing with.
This is what you are dealing with.
But isn't it more likely that people share it because it is a fun joke? It doesn't really suggest people took it seriously?
Here, removed any geo-political reference:
Honestly, and I mean honestly, I don't care the slightest whose blabbering mouth stuff like that comes out of, or from what corner of the world, but how one cannot see that whoever, anywhere could be able to publicly state stuff like that in such a timeframe and critical worldwide context, would be clueless to the point of being dangerous. And I repeat, because I'd like this point to be extremely clear, be it from France, Zimbabwe, Mongolia, US, Antarctica, Andorra, I don't care. It's reckless behaviour, whoever does it.
Honestly, and I mean honestly, I don't care the slightest whose blabbering mouth stuff like that comes out of, or from what corner of the world, but how one cannot see that whoever, anywhere could be able to publicly state stuff like that in such a timeframe and critical worldwide context, would be clueless to the point of being dangerous. And I repeat, because I'd like this point to be extremely clear, be it from France, Zimbabwe, Mongolia, US, Antarctica, Andorra, I don't care. It's reckless behaviour, whoever does it.
Sadly you're not wrong. The thing I'm finding odd is the way a lot of the more metropolitan 'woke' types are the ones really buying into it.
Two case study examples from my personal life at the moment.
My ex-wife and her less new partner live in the flat we shared, in the city centre. When I left, they threw out all the tinned goods/UHT I kept in the house (coming from a rural area and as someone who works in isolated areas for long periods of time, I usually keep at least two weeks of food in the house) so they had nothing apart when panic buying set in, and are now properly struggling with what to do next and have bought into the panic buying mentality (but are still buying nonsense instead of long life non-perishable goods). The important thing to remember is she's very metro-centric, and has been coddled by her family investing for her/buying properties on her behalf she lets out.
My father came home from two months on holiday/travelling. Despite this,he's got a month of tinned goods in the place already for him and his wife. When I asked him what he was going to do for fresh meat, he stopped messaging me and 2hrs later sent me a picture of a rabbit he'd gone out, shot and prepared within that time frame. He's a small time business man who's retired and financially, isn't the most comfortable on a day to day basis.
Different circumstances I'll grant you, but the mentality behind the two is the big difference. It worries me how many folk fit into the same category as my ex.
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While it's true that you can go out a shoot a rabbit... assuming you have something to shoot it with and can find one using a certain skillset... the reality is that the world doesn't function in a rural context. Cities are vast congregations that rely on ease of access to supplies and amenities. Of course city dwellers become accustomed to it. They need supply chains. So do rural communities, but less so. Tinned goods only last so long for everyone. Same for toilet paper. The key is not to freak out and just buy what you need, because then there's no abnormal load on the chain. But people like to panic and freak out. For various reasons, both legitimate and silly. So things back up and get... sketchy.
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