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Media Coverage of COVID -19

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brad465

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An article on the BBC seems to talk about learning to live with the virus, which seems to go along with many of our opinions on here:



The constant mantra is the virus must be suppressed and contained. But how do you do this when people can be infectious without knowing they have it? Where it can be passed on silently because people do not develop symptoms?

The nation has been brought to a standstill once at immense cost to the economy, education and health more generally. And now with cases rising there is the threat of new national restrictions, while large parts of the country have already found themselves back in partial lockdown. But are we fighting a losing battle? Do we instead need to learn to live with the virus?

It's 'utter chaos' now
Prof Carl Heneghan, the head of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford University, says the current situation is "utter chaos" with a constant stream of new restrictions and schools sending whole year groups home when just one person tests positive. All this at a time when the level of infection is still very low.

This, Prof Heneghan says, is the consequence of trying to suppress the virus. Instead, he argues we should accept it is here to stay and try to minimise the risks, while balancing that against the consequences of the actions we take.

In particular, he's concerned the Covid test is actually so sensitive it's picking up what is effectively dead virus as it spots traces of it months after the person has stopped being infectious.

"We need to slow down our thinking. But every time the government sees a rise in cases it seems to panic," he said.

Hospital admissions matter 'not cases'
The argument put forward by Prof Heneghan and a number of other experts is that more weight needs to be put on disease rather than cases. While hospital admissions have started rising they are still incredibly low compared to the spring and the increase is much more gradual than it was.
 
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Bantamzen

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An article on the BBC seems to talk about learning to live with the virus, which seems to go along with many of our opinions on here:


An interesting piece, and one that is starting to reflect the changing public mood. Also interesting that it was buried away in the health section of their website and not seemingly making it to be linked on the BBC News landing page. Meanwhile a recent survey in my local newspaper reveals that nearly a third of respondents indicated that they would not be fully compiling with the new rules coming in from tomorrow.
 

brad465

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An interesting piece, and one that is starting to reflect the changing public mood. Also interesting that it was buried away in the health section of their website and not seemingly making it to be linked on the BBC News landing page. Meanwhile a recent survey in my local newspaper reveals that nearly a third of respondents indicated that they would not be fully compiling with the new rules coming in from tomorrow.
From my device at least it's on the landing page, this is what I can see, with the subject article circled in blue:

1600683904782.png
 

ainsworth74

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I think the briefing this morning probably deserves a thread of it's own rather than carrying on the jumble of this thread. Please find it here :)
 

Bletchleyite

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An interesting piece, and one that is starting to reflect the changing public mood. Also interesting that it was buried away in the health section of their website and not seemingly making it to be linked on the BBC News landing page. Meanwhile a recent survey in my local newspaper reveals that nearly a third of respondents indicated that they would not be fully compiling with the new rules coming in from tomorrow.

It was on the front page for me, both of the website and the app.
 

Jonny

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I think they are down-playing the vaccine on purpose. After all, there was a large presence of anti-vaccine-compulsion (not to be mistaken for anti-vaccination) campaigners at a recent protest. Also the media like to scare the people.

(No they are not my first choice of news source but they did a good job on this one)
 

adc82140

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Boris's ministerial statement to the Nation as reported in the press on Sunday has now been downgraded to a statement in the House of Commons.
 

MikeWM

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Boris's ministerial statement to the Nation as reported in the press on Sunday has now been downgraded to a statement in the House of Commons.

Which is what is supposed to happen, so that's something at least.
 

Yew

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Which is what is supposed to happen, so that's something at least.
Does this perhaps imply actual changes, rather than a general announcement to try and follow the rules?
 

MikeWM

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Does this perhaps imply actual changes, rather than a general announcement to try and follow the rules?

I'm sure something or other will be announced, given the warm-up we got this morning. But hard to say how horrific it is likely to be.

Interesting that the only real opposition at this point is coming from the Conservative backbenches. Quite a number are getting quite openly unhappy now.
 

brad465

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I'm sure something or other will be announced, given the warm-up we got this morning. But hard to say how horrific it is likely to be.

Interesting that the only real opposition at this point is coming from the Conservative backbenches. Quite a number are getting quite openly unhappy now.
I imagine the opposition might get on board with the Tory backbench concerns, especially if they're looking for an opportunity to impose a Government defeat. Labour have recently been opposing a full national lockdown, saying everything must be done to avoid this, including fixing test and trace.
 

NorthOxonian

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I'm sure something or other will be announced, given the warm-up we got this morning. But hard to say how horrific it is likely to be.

Interesting that the only real opposition at this point is coming from the Conservative backbenches. Quite a number are getting quite openly unhappy now.

It's interesting that this has also spread from the likes of Steve Baker, who are really on the fringes, to people like Graham Brady, who is chairman of the 1922 Committee, and thus quite a big player. He spoke to the BBC just today about how he is concerned the government is ruling by decree, and I suspect if he's openly making these statements most backbenchers probably agree with him (or at least aren't massively opposed to him).
 

Yew

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I imagine the opposition might get on board with the Tory backbench concerns, especially if they're looking for an opportunity to impose a Government defeat. Labour have recently been opposing a full national lockdown, saying everything must be done to avoid this, including fixing test and trace.
Ultimately though, I think that too many of their supporters (a group that I'd count myself among) are pro suppression until a vaccine.
 

MikeWM

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I imagine the opposition might get on board with the Tory backbench concerns, especially if they're looking for an opportunity to impose a Government defeat. Labour have recently been opposing a full national lockdown, saying everything must be done to avoid this, including fixing test and trace.

I'd hope they support Graham Brady's proposal that all regulations from now on have to get Parliamentary approval. They don't seem to have a position on that yet (!) but hopefully they will come around to supporting it. If they don't then they may as well pack up and go home now.

It won't make a vast amount of difference, because all the regulations (so far at least) would have sailed through with opposition support - but at least we'd be doing things the way we're supposed to, rather than by ministerial diktat.

It's interesting that this has also spread from the likes of Steve Baker, who are really on the fringes, to people like Graham Brady, who is chairman of the 1922 Committee, and thus quite a big player. He spoke to the BBC just today about how he is concerned the government is ruling by decree, and I suspect if he's openly making these statements most backbenchers probably agree with him (or at least aren't massively opposed to him).

They should, if they understand anything about being (small 'c') conservative, or parliamentary democracy.
 

adc82140

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They would also be released at a reasonable time, rather than by twitter at ten to midnight.
 

bramling

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I'd hope they support Graham Brady's proposal that all regulations from now on have to get Parliamentary approval. They don't seem to have a position on that yet (!) but hopefully they will come around to supporting it. If they don't then they may as well pack up and go home now.

It won't make a vast amount of difference, because all the regulations (so far at least) would have sailed through with opposition support - but at least we'd be doing things the way we're supposed to, rather than by ministerial diktat.



They should, if they understand anything about being (small 'c') conservative, or parliamentary democracy.

It is disgusting that little of this is going through Parliament, with no votes nor debates. We’re well past the stage where emergency measures are no longer appropriate.
 

Bletchleyite

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Hasn't the Mail already gone pro-EU, someone told me? That's more of a kick in Bojo's proverbials than this. (I don't know for sure, I wouldn't buy it if it was the last bog roll on the planet).
 

brad465

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Hasn't the Mail already gone pro-EU, someone told me? That's more of a kick in Bojo's proverbials than this. (I don't know for sure, I wouldn't buy it if it was the last bog roll on the planet).
Can't say if they're pro-EU now, but they were very much against him reporting on the Cummings' affair, and I believe on the exam fiasco too, so they're clearly upset at a lot of the Government's behaviour this year.
 

LAX54

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No, but the "don't kill Granny" might be thought as going down well with part of their core base, which in a way is selfish of that party & by proxy it's members who ought to be pushing for younger people's lives to be equally important.

Why don't we have 'Don't kill Granny' when we have a bad flue season, or any flu season ? that can do the exact same damage is this bug
 

Bantamzen

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There is definitely a change in the media air this morning, many of the newspaper headlines have cooled on lockdown with the Daily Mail in particular calling the measures "Draconian". I think the government are not only losing the war on statistics with covid, but now the PR war tide is turning against them. Maybe they have gone so far that even fan of Durham Specsavers Cummins can't save them (at least hopefully).
 

yorksrob

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I haven't seen much reporting in the media of how France and Spain are coping with their outbreaks. I'm aware that France particularly has come out against a further lockdown, so it would be interesting to compare with what measures they're taking.
 

DB

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Of course it's not exactly difficult to be a granny and still be aged less than 65 which is the normal threhold for getting the jab on the NHS.....

In which case, granny isn't at any great risk unless she has some other medical condition which puts her at particular risk - and anyone who this applies to will also be eligible for a flu vaccination and will therefore know that they are at risk.
 

kristiang85

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The Mail, for all its faults, is actually seeming to be one of the best media outlets for calling out the response right now. They have some good contributors who speak a lot of sense. I think the Telegraph is also another one going down that line, although I don't have a subscription so I only know that from tweets mentioning it.

If the Tories are losing the Mail and the Telegraph, that should wake some of them up.

Interestingly the Guardian has been pretty benign throughout this, from what I've seen.
 

trebor79

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Horribly misleading headline and article on the BBC
"Cases increased by a quarter". Goes on to say 6 thousand and something new cases "in the last 24 hours"

Errr. No. If you go to the government data by sample date there isn't a day over 5,000. I think this is catch up after the well publicised issues with the testing system.
 

adc82140

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I haven't seen much reporting in the media of how France and Spain are coping with their outbreaks. I'm aware that France particularly has come out against a further lockdown, so it would be interesting to compare with what measures they're taking.
France 24 is your outlet of choice for all things French, in the English language.

France has gone very light touch. OK so they may be mask enthusiasts, but they are dialling back a bit on that, only insisting on masks in crowded outdoor places.

There is a rule of 1000 on outdoor gatherings in local restriction areas, 5000 elsewhere (yes, really)

Table service only in bars, but this is the norm in a lot of establishments anyway.

No big parties. Rule of 10 indoors in high risk areas, can't see any restrictions elsewhere.

No funfairs, antique fairs etc where social distancing cannot be maintained.
 

westv

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Of course it's not exactly difficult to be a granny and still be aged less than 65 which is the normal threhold for getting the jab on the NHS.....
Well presumably it'll only be the older grannies that would be affected badly by flu so those under 65 aren't relevant.
 
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