[sdm]

It looks like the target of 100,000 tests a day by the end of the month will be met.

The ONS are starting a large scale study of household testing. The study begins on 29th April.

Initial phase is 20 or 30k tests depending on whether you look at Sky or BBC. And they’ll be tests where people are visited at home to have their swab taken. I can’t see 10k of them happening a day - that would require several hundred or more testers to be employed/ trained.

I thought I'd read that it was more than that but you're right. So it's not going to make as big a difference as I thought.

They are aiming to test everyone in the household once a week. 1,000 of them are also getting blood tests so will presumably show up in the numbers twice.

If it's 30,000 + 1,000 tested once a week, it would add up to about 10,000 per day if everyone in each household took part, which they won't.

[tomtom]

Read about how the Faroes dealt with their testing. Interesting tale - local lab set up to look at viral infections in Salmon farms repurposed to do CV testing. In mid Feb. Bought all the reagents - materials etc...

And if memory is right it was one person. One lab.

[sdm]

They do only have the population of a small town though.

[SA Chris]

Spread out into several small villages, across several small islands.

[Offwidth]

Read about how the Faroes dealt with their testing. Interesting tale - local lab set up to look at viral infections in Salmon farms repurposed to do CV testing. In mid Feb. Bought all the reagents - materials etc...

And if memory is right it was one person. One lab.

I'd already linked this on the positives thread
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/08/vetinary-scientist-hailed-faroe-islands-lack-covid-19-deaths

[Nigel]

Leave it out, it (the daily briefing) has never amounted to a propaganda session, you're only saying that because you really don't like the conservative party.
Watch Donald Trump's daily briefing, now that is a propaganda session.

Guilty as charged - I'm not impressed by the conservative party. That has never been a secret. No doubt it does introduce some bias in my posts for people to have to filter out, but it is actually a low ranking reason why I say it is a propaganda session.

The main reason is because they don't tell the truth.

They are able to have a daily direct platform to UK citizens. It is presented as being *public information*. During the course of which various government ministers have lied, obfuscated, tinkered with stats, and avoided questioning. I'm sure I don't need to give too many examples as they are out there, but Hancock saying we had did have enough PPE but the problem was one of "distribution" - lie. Patel saying she's sorry if NHS workers "feel" they don't have enough PPE! Hancock promising to properly protect care workers but then giving them a badge which says "care" on it -  public info or propaganda?! Giving PPE amounts in tons (! I have bought PPE before and it does not come by weight) - obfuscation designed to offer false comfort. Promising planes arriving next day with PPE - lie. Graphs with UK death figures which they know are incomplete, given with no explanation of that - fiddling figures. "Following the science" at all times even when making screeching U-turns. "Johnson is doing well" two hours before he goes to ICU. They even wheeled out a general in fatigues yesterday - alarm bells.

When the softball questions from the media come in they are often batted away as "one for the scientists". Or palmed off with platitudes / a list of seemingly big numbers, without a follow up. That is not scrutiny.

There were ones worth watching - Johnson announcing the lockdowns, Sunak announcing bailout packages. That is public information and on the whole they were properly done. My criticisms are not wholesale. The rest of them however are theatre. They could just send people a text. That is why I am pleased that parliament is back up and running.

Watch Donald Trump's daily briefing, now that is a propaganda session.

I'm sure you are absolutely right that it is propaganda, I'll take your word for it (I've never seen a Trump one). Why exactly? Does he lie too? His are, and yet ours aren't? We aren't all immune to picking sides it seems. Its interesting that you choose Trump to make a relative comparison - the fact that ours look less like propaganda than his is hardly comforting. How do you think they stack up next to say Merkel's from Germany, Varadkar's from Ireland, or Ardern's from NZ??? Watch one - ours start to look very much like what they are. Disagree with me by all means, but no I won't leave it out, I'll say it as I see it.

[seankenny]

This is good - and scary:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/22/eu-procurement-johnson-priorities-coronavirus-pandemic?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Kettle’s thesis is that the Johnson govt still has a hard Brexit as its overwhelming priority, despite the virus. This seems utterly irresponsible to me, and it’s been something that we’ve avoided thinking too much about. But the decision time is coming. I can’t see how the government can negotiate the next stage of Brexit given the covid crisis. And the economic consequences of a hard Brexit can only exacerbate the huge recession we are about to endure.

It’s fucking madness.

[Somebody's Fool]

They probably see this as a great opportunity to get Brexit done and be able to blame the fallout of it on something else entirely.

Or am I being terribly unfair to the Tories?

[seankenny]

I think you’re being more than fair to the Brexit lovers who will lap this shit up even as their own kids face years of stagnation.

[Nigel]

They probably see this as a great opportunity to get Brexit done and be able to blame the fallout of it on something else entirely.

Or am I being terribly unfair to the Tories?

Possibly - you're not suggesting they're dangerous ideologues are you? I was told that was the other fella...

[Oldmanmatt]

The FT are not wearing their “I love Boris” badges today:

https://www.ft.com/content/af17147c-84a1-11ea-b555-37a289098206

[Johnny Brown]

The choice between beating the virus and economic recovery is a false one.

Yup.

[TobyD]

Nigel I recommend that you watch a Trump press briefing, after that, whatever you think of Raab etc, and I don't think much, it helps you to reflect that it could be much, much worse.

This is a reasonable assessment of the government's performance, from a long time Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail journalist
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/04/senior-tory-backbenchers-are-increasingly-alarmed-their-own-government-s

[Nigel]

Nigel I recommend that you watch a Trump press briefing, after that, whatever you think of Raab etc, and I don't think much, it helps you to reflect that it could be much, much worse.

Thanks for the recommendation Toby, but as you know I find the UK one boils my blood quite enough. So I probably won't watch Trump.

In terms of reflecting, I don't think that I would take any comfort in the fact that things could be much, much worse. As in my previous post, if we are doing international comparisons we should not be doing them against the US and Trump. As a country they are clearly performing very very badly in dealing with the virus, and Trump is a known lunatic. It is cold comfort to say we are doing better than them, especially to those UK key workers who have contracted the virus in the line of duty due to lack of PPE. I have reflected, and concluded that things could be much, much better in the UK.

It would require our leaders to stop deflecting and making excuses, take stock of the current situation, and start talking to UK citizens as the adults we are. The government have stuffed up thus far (I think that is now the accepted consensus?), but we are where we are. We need to start seeing some serious nettle grasping from government, and soon.

PPE needs to be sorted *domestically* (how many times have I said this on this thread now?) asap. If that means the government commandeering factories then fine, do it. Saying global stocks are low is really weak. This stuff is not a rare earth element! Just make some, instead of saying the shelves are empty.

If test, trace, isolate is the strategy now, then tell us. The lockdown has worked so far (aka the British people have done the heavy lifting on getting R beneath 1 via social distancing) but compliance will not last forever. The dithering thus far from government will have to make way for clear action on moving forward. If so, testing numbers need to go up, massively. Tracing teams will need to set up. There will need to be visible action on this, rather than warm words. I think it is dawning on some of our cabinet that, in a situation like this, the usual semantic bollocks won't fly - you can't bullshit a virus. If they continue to prioritise bullshit over clear strategy and action, then there will need to be a serious national conversation about leadership. If the cabinet are too lightweight, and it requires the PM to be there then he needs to turn up for work. If he's too ill then fair enough but we should know now. We can't afford to wait around, again.

This is a reasonable assessment of the government's performance, from a long time Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail journalist
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/04/senior-tory-backbenchers-are-increasingly-alarmed-their-own-government-s

Thanks for the link. Summary - too slow to act throughout. I agree.

[ali k]

Matt Hancock doing the rounds this morning arguing that Sturgeon’s lockdown exit framework document is just a reiteration of their ‘5 tests’.

A 26 page document outlining potential next steps in easing the lockdown is not a ‘reiteration’ of 5 bullet points, which are in any case only a series of preconditions. Not only is this government incompetent, but they lack the humility to apologise when they fuck up or even give credit where it’s deserved.

[Offwidth]

Latest Metro pop up is depressing .... another day near 800 deaths, more news of a government warning ignored (anyone have a link?) and the prospect of Pritti Patel flexing her muscles given the incresing numbers igmoring advice.

https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/25/grim-milestone-uk-coronavirus-deaths-pass-20000-12609122/?ico=pushly-notifcation-small&utm_source=pushly

[Johnny Brown]

Spoke to my Dad this morning, about the only Telegraph reader I know. He was keen to know if we were getting the business back up and running, before I had chance to say much I was talked over:  YOU REALLY SHOULD - THE GOVERNMENT ARE URGING BUSINESSES TO GET BACK TO WORK... so that clearly the spin in the Telegraph. As I said, we'll get some platitudes about staying locked down, maybe some walkers shamed, while real transmission risks are ignored.

[Offwidth]

Carole Cadwallandr has been doing some more digging.

https://mobile.twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1254315149135151104

[mrjonathanr]

Cheers Offwidth. The thread is short but worth reading. Sorry to spoil, but the last tweet deserves quoting:

So that's Ben Warner. Who now either sits 'on' SAGE. Or  'at' SAGE. Or whatever you want to call it. While his brother now has access to entire our health data & is modelling the pandemic. Alongside Peter Thiel's Palantir.

I was wondering why on earth Ben Warner had access to SAGE. Interesting that the coronavirus tracking was awarded directly without going to tender. There are links between Peter Thiel/Palantir, Cambridge Analytica and Vote Leave.

Latest news on Palantir, according to Daily Beast??
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-administration-turns-to-peter-thiels-palantir-to-track-coronavirus

The presence of Cummings and Warner at SAGE fits into the pattern of crunching public data without public knowledge. It was to avoid answering questions on this matter that Cummings refused to give evidence to the select committee 13 months ago and was found to be in contempt of parliament: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/mar/27/commons-report-rules-dominic-cummings-in-contempt-of-parliament.

edit ?? added whilst looking for corroboration in other media

[mrjonathanr]

Quick question: happy to give these guys access to your private data in a CV19 tracking app?

[petejh]

Quick answer. No.

[remus]

Quick question: happy to give these guys access to your private data in a CV19 tracking app?

To nitpick, how much data is shared really depends on the details of the implementation that is chosen. In particular, the apple/google scheme that's being discussed only shares data if a person marks themselves as having contracted CV19. Up to that point all interactions are protected by a clever encryption scheme, and after that point only enough info from the carrier is shared to identify if you've interacted with them.

[mrjonathanr]

I realise that. The question remains though.

[ali k]

Quick question: happy to give these guys access to your private data in a CV19 tracking app?

Not a chance. The awarding of this contract looks on the face of it to be about as corrupt as it gets.

[tomtom]

Quick question: happy to give these guys access to your private data in a CV19 tracking app?

If it’s Buttoned down to just location and a unique identifier number that I can use anonymously - then it’s OK for me.