Time to read THE LAST CENTURION?

...and France is showing its true colors by "requisitioning" an entire lorry-load of facemasks specifically purchased by and for the NHS. Said confiscation happened at Calais, meaning that the load in question got through most of France without them caring, it's only when it tried to leave that the CESM's decided that they wanted it more and couldn't be bothered to provide compensation.

Not really a surprise. France never wanted the UK in the EU and now we're out, they're relishing putting the boot in, regardless of the resulting damage to their reputation on the international level.

Nice one, France. Nice one.

Michael Everett wrote:...and France is showing its true colors by "requisitioning" an entire lorry-load of facemasks specifically purchased by and for the NHS. Said confiscation happened at Calais, meaning that the load in question got through most of France without them caring, it's only when it tried to leave that the CESM's decided that they wanted it more and couldn't be bothered to provide compensation.

Not really a surprise. France never wanted the UK in the EU and now we're out, they're relishing putting the boot in, regardless of the resulting damage to their reputation on the international level.

Nice one, France. Nice one.

Care to finish the story, or do you just want to stop it in the middle like that?

You're right in that french authorities did stop a shipment of surgical masks intended for the NHS. A day prior, a similar thing happened to a shipment of hand sanitizers -- but both shipments have been released and should be in the UK already (This is according to the Sun).

So it's not really like these supplies were "stolen" from the NHS; yes, there were frictions here, yes, french authorities were overzealous here, but it was ultimately resolved correctly.

Why did you leave that part out, Michael?

Dilandu wrote:

Imaginos1892 wrote:
‘The E’ should be happy, though. Now we have stores full of empty shelves, just like the communists.

With all respect, but communists have universal healthcare, with a lot of reserve capabilities to handle epidemics.

That is yet to be demonstrated. We do know that the authoritarian government of China tried to cover up the pandemic contrary to the advice of its own professionals until things started veering so far out of control that they had to take action. And it remains to be seen about whether they are telling the truth now...

And Dilandu, do you really know that you are getting the truth about what's going on in Russia? Putin's reputation as a truth teller is not a lot different than Trumps when all is said and done. He is merely smoother which means that it's easier for him to get away with it... He would stage a cover up in a heart beat if he could,

Don

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Annachie wrote:Of course if you'd been paying attention you'd know that it's not a cold virus.

'The common cold' is a catch-all term for a variety of afflictions caused by a number of strains of rhinovirus and coronavirus. So, yes, coronavirus is one type of common cold.

n7axw wrote:Anyone who believes that an oncoming pandemic

Except that this 'oncoming pandemic' has been ongoing for at least 4 months. Why is it suddenly time to panic NOW?

Dilandu wrote:With all respect, but communists have universal healthcare

Except for the people who die waiting for treatment, or are outright refused.
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No matter how much it sucks, you can’t fire the government.

Imaginos1892 wrote:

Annachie wrote:Of course if you'd been paying attention you'd know that it's not a cold virus.

'The common cold' is a catch-all term for a variety of afflictions caused by a number of strains of rhinovirus and coronavirus. So, yes, coronavirus is one type of common cold.

If you want to ignore the tiny detail of multiple orders of magnitude differences in fatality rates.

n7axw wrote:Anyone who believes that an oncoming pandemic

Except that this 'oncoming pandemic' has been ongoing for at least 4 months. Why is it suddenly time to panic NOW?

Because it took this long for certain people to get a clue that it wasn't only going to be a China problem after it broke out of the region in a significant way...

Of course if you weren't getting your info from Fox news you knew a little earlier this was going to be bad.

Imaginos1892 wrote:

Annachie wrote:Of course if you'd been paying attention you'd know that it's not a cold virus.

'The common cold' is a catch-all term for a variety of afflictions caused by a number of strains of rhinovirus and coronavirus. So, yes, coronavirus is one type of common cold.

n7axw wrote:Anyone who believes that an oncoming pandemic

Except that this 'oncoming pandemic' has been ongoing for at least 4 months. Why is it suddenly time to panic NOW?

Dilandu wrote:With all respect, but communists have universal healthcare

Except for the people who die waiting for treatment, or are outright refused.
———————————
No matter how much it sucks, you can’t fire the government.

I wish that we could stop dealing with this ideologically. I rail on Trump. But it is less a matter of ideology than the dishonesty and incompetence he represents that I object to.

But this is not an ideological issue. We are all in this together no matter where we might be on the ideological scale. The pandemic is completely bipartisan.

Don

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n7axw wrote:I wish that we could stop dealing with this ideologically. I rail on Trump. But it is less a matter of ideology than the dishonesty and incompetence he represents that I object to.

But this is not an ideological issue. We are all in this together no matter where we might be on the ideological scale. The pandemic is completely bipartisan.

Don

The pandemic is just a really strong dose of reality that will rip the facade of some ideologies and show the truth behind them.

As some say, there's no atheists in a foxhole and some has suggested the corollary in a pandemic everyone is a socialist - well, unless you are a profiteering asshole.

Joat42 wrote:

n7axw wrote:I wish that we could stop dealing with this ideologically. I rail on Trump. But it is less a matter of ideology than the dishonesty and incompetence he represents that I object to.

But this is not an ideological issue. We are all in this together no matter where we might be on the ideological scale. The pandemic is completely bipartisan.

Don

The pandemic is just a really strong dose of reality that will rip the facade of some ideologies and show the truth behind them.

As some say, there's no atheists in a foxhole and some has suggested the corollary in a pandemic everyone is a socialist - well, unless you are a profiteering asshole.

Well, reality here is that we will have public sector-private sector partnerships to come up with the stuff we are currently short of. That along with manufacturing stuff will provide employment and shore up, at least over the short term, businesses we might otherwise lose. And yes, there will be some price gouging which is unfortunate. But profit is not a dirty word. Indeed my pension depends on private sector profit so I hope there is some of it. Also, I add, I receive social security and Medicare from the public sector.

So, I imagine that the social security and Medicare might be described as "socialism" of a sort, although that tends to muddy the term.

Don

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Todays anouncements for Oz.

Non essential services shutting dow.
School holidays brought forward to Tuesday od Wednesday.
State borders closing.

Plenty of food etc in the logistical pipelines but idiots still stripping the shelves. Though perhaps not as bad as last week.

Imaginos1892 wrote:Except that this 'oncoming pandemic' has been ongoing for at least 4 months. Why is it suddenly time to panic NOW?

Are you just acting stupid or are you genuinely clueless?
Read this article.

Covid-19 has a hospitalization rate of between 10 and 20% of all cases. Given how infectious it is and how fast it can spread through a community that does not take steps to isolate, the number of cases can quickly overwhelm the capacity of even well-funded health care systems. Once the Hospitals are at capacity, many cases that might have been survivable become fatal; aside from that, there is now capacity missing to deal with all the other illnesses and injuries that are happening, so there's definitely people who will die or have lasting damage because they couldn't be treated fully now.

Is it time to panic? No. But it definitely is time to stop being an idiot and do what you can to limit the spread of this bug, and it's just not enough to issue recommendations and ask people to please do what's necessary. The quarantine and isolation need to be enforced under threat of penalty; if this can be done early enough and complete enough, the immediate crisis can be over sooner rather than later.