The Corona Diaries – Day 186

Posted on by Opher

Looks like another fine mess you’ve got us into Johnson. Our new cases have shot up to 6874 with another 34 deaths. Hospital cases are rising and SAGE are predicting a big increase in deaths – past a hundred a day in four weeks.

Talk about complacency and missed opportunities. This summer was the time to really get on top of it, to get the track and trace working and beat it down. It didn’t happen. We languished.

Our lamentable performance has put us worst in the world! Why?? Why is it that the UK, the USA and Italy are doing so badly while countries like Vietnam and Korea are doing so well? We have great healthcare systems and yet we are totally outperformed.

The USA – 208,483

The UK – 41,936

Italy – 35,801

Vietnam – 35

Korea – 399

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?utm_campaign=homeAdvegas1?

We visited Vietnam a year ago. It was teeming with people, hygiene was not brilliant. It was a no-brainer. As soon as coroner virus hit they would be swamped with deaths – yet just 35.

So what are the USA and the UK doing wrong?

Vietnam – population 97,338,579 people – 35 deaths

USA – population 331,000,000 – 208,483 deaths  (on the same ratio that should be about a 110 deaths shouldn’t it?)

https://www.tropicalmedicine.ox.ac.uk/news/coronavirus-how-overreaction-made-vietnam-a-virus-success

Here’s what Vietnam did and the USA and the UK failed to do:

The country very quickly enacted measures such as travel restrictions, monitoring and eventually closing the border with China, closing schools and increasing health checks at borders and other vulnerable places. A vast and labour intensive contact tracing operation got underway. Quarantine on such a vast scale is key as evidence mounts that as many as half of all infected people are asymptomatic.

What did we (USA and UK) do?

We kept border open with no health checks

We allowed unrestricted travel

We were complacent and took too long to act.

We are not doing health checks.

Our track and trace system is pathetic

We are not testing enough

We sent out the wrong messages – cheerleading that it was a hoax, that it would be over soon, that it was safe to go back to school and uni, that it isn’t too bad.

We’re still doing it!!

We reopened schools without a good system in place and a track and trace that doesn’t work. Now kids are being sent home right, left and centre.

We sent unis back and now we find students locked down in halls of residence and being told they cannot go home for Christmas.

We opened up offices and public transport, and eating and drinking inside restaurants and pubs.

Is it any wonder that cases are soaring in the UK?

Is it any wonder that they are going up in the States with another 48,567 new cases and 864 deaths?

Is it any wonder that Brazil has 31,911 new cases and another 729 deaths?

No, of course it isn’t! We are looking at a bunch of populist leaders who only care about the economy, are absolutely useless and incompetent and have been sending out the wrong messages and doing the wrong things!

What a pathetic bunch who have ended up killing tens, no hundreds of thousands of people!!

Today it rained. I’ve stayed in to work on my Harper book and play my Billie Holiday, watched an amazing game of football and now, the weather has improved, I’m off for my walk.

Maybe by the time I get back people might have booted Johnson, Bolsonaro and Trump out of office and the world would be a better place.

Neil Lock’s study of Covid-19

Posted on by Opher

Here’s a link to an article by Neil Lock. He makes controversial conclusions for the evidence he has analysed. It’s very detailed.

Have a look and tell me what you think.

http://www.honestcommonsense.co.uk/2020/09/covid-19-is-virus-weakening.html

The Corona Diaries – Day 185

Posted on by Opher

‘ Right, arf arf, jolly good. Yuk. Yes, yes well I’ve bloody well managed to sneak away and grab a – a – a few minutes without that er er godawful teleprompter. Righto!’

‘Good old Dom tells me that, er er, yaaah, some of you blighters don’t, er er understand what you’re jolly well meant to be doing, by Jove.’

‘Don’t you worry, I’m here arf arf. Can’t bally trust that bloody Raab to yuk yuk explain things.’

‘Who needs a bally teleprompter anyway??’

‘So, er er, I’m going to aaah, have to be quick, before Dom tracks me down.’

‘Firstly, we are in great er er peril. We have been, ya, forced to temporarilly take some er er drastic arf arf action. It’s um um not what I want. But we do, absolutely, need to shut pubs by ten o clock. Absolutely – no bones about it. Terra firma. So, by ten o clock, the country needs you home and errrrr safe. Desperatum.’

‘Just you bally-well remember, yuk arf, the rule of um um aah yes – six. That should bally do it. you can meet up with, with, err, your chums in the pub. You er should have time to get six pints down you by then, what! But er er only meet in groups of six per table. Right! But hundreds of you can er arf meet up at the pub – if it’s jolly well big enough and has lots of tables.’

‘Now, weddingsand funerals. Arf arf, splutter, well no more than six. Unless you want to hold errrrrr them in pubs. Then you er er can have as many as you like!’

‘So back to work. Gosh and golly, it’s safe. They’ve put lots of those hand jobbies in – er  you know, save you having to er wash. And eat for Britain but starve for Covid! Work at home and, er awww use the busses and trains. Don’t bust the um ummmm NHS and all those, what, starving nurses.’

‘Now, umm, masks. Bally things. Dooh must be worn in emmm shops, unless you’re uhh eating. Splutter. So I suggest that err you arf arf do like me and aaah eat a jolly good British err sausage roll, delicious, bally cornish pasty or aaah something, every time you go in a shop. That wards off the jolly virus.’

‘Social distance. I bloody am. Not even my own blinking cabinet will er er come near me!’

‘Ooooh, aaah, while I remember! We’ve got a world-beating App out today! It turns red or er er something, when there’s a a um virus around! Something um like that.’

‘Oh, and er while I’m aaah at it, don’t believe all those bally rumours about Brexit. You’re not, chuckle, all going to um lose your jobs. They’ll still, er be some jobs left. And the M whatever it is, er um, is not going to be a bloody twenty er five mile carpark. We’re building a huge, massive new carpark for all those lorries. It’ll have um facilities for the drivers so um they er can can live there er er quite happily.’

‘Look, I know, erm erm that in many er places, like Germany and er Australia, you can erm errr just nip round the corner for a test, and errrrmmm get the bally results ten er minutes later. But, who errr want to live in Germany or Australia! I tell you, errr my butler certainly doesn’t!’

‘Oh gazooks, there’s bloody Dom looking for me. Got to be off!’

It must be tough at the top! Making all those decisions that stop us having the worst death rate in the world. What? We have got the worst death rate! Well, at least the economy isn’t too bad. What?? We’re the worst at that too!

World beating and invisible!

Today it was cold and it rained all morning so I played my Fela Kuti and wrote my Harper book. It’s slow progress. I waited in for my BT engineer who never showed up. Now I’m waiting for a BT phone call from the BT manager – which also seems not to be happening. I’m beginning to think that BT is an arm of the Tory party.

Here in the UK it looks dire. New cases up zooming – up to 6,634 yesterday. The deaths, which lag behind are up to 40 and hospital cases are rising fast! What’s the betting on a circuit breaking lockdown??? I’ll put a thousand or two on it!

So great to have a government that knows what it’s doing – roll on winter!

In the States it’s another 42,917 new cases and 885 deaths – but it’s still a democratic hoax! Keep taking the bleach!

In Brazil, try as he may, Bolsonaro can’t quite catch up – another 32,817 new cases with 831 deaths – not too far behind.

Perhaps Johnson should ask Vietnam how it’s done??? They had no new cases yesterday and have only had a total of 1069 cases and 35 deaths since all this began. The USA exceeds that every 40 minutes!

Anyway – stay safe! Isolate, wash and stay out of pubs!!

Today’s Music to keep me sssAAAAnnnnnEEEE in Isolation – Fela Kuti

Posted on by Opher

Fela was not afraid to speak out against the evils of the Nigerian regime. He was not only a brilliant musician but a great man

I shall enjoy playing some Fela today.

 

The Corona Diaries – Day 184

Posted on by Opher

Strange day today. It’s been raining all morning but late this afternoon I managed to go for a walk up my hill in complete sunshine. Then we had a storm and the whole garden was covered in hailstones so that it looked like a snowdrift.

My internet is still playing and after another hour and a half on the phone, I’ve got yet another engineer out tomorrow! I don’t expect much.

So today I was working on my Harper book and playing some Ken Nordine. So great to hear The Lemming again. Took me right back to 1967!

Out there in Coronaland I am still digesting what Johnson has delivered. By his reckoning, the virus is only transmitted after 10 pm. So if we don’t go out late we’ll be fine!!

Interesting to see that the sceptical scientists do not think that his measures will make a jot of differences.

The second world-beating phone App was launched today. I don’t imagine too many people will pay it too much attention. Like all Johnson’s expensive stupidity it is likely not to work.

Getting Track and Trace working would be a step forward – not that that going to happen anytime soon – expect Dido Harding to be promoted again soon!

In the UK we have now zoomed up to 6,178 new cases and 40 new deaths. Hospital cases have gone up by 25%. It’s not looking at all good.

The world’s in a mess.

In the USA there were another 37,666 new cases and it has gone back up to another 1091 deaths. I bet all those people are regretting that they thought it was a hoax!!

In Brazil Bolsonaro is doing his best to catch up but could only manage 33,281 new cases and 869 deaths.

How blase we’ve become over these tragedies. Each one of these is a disaster for a whole family!

Terrible. These stupid leaders have a lot to answer for.

Today’s Music to keep me SSSSaaaaNNNNeeee in Isolation – Ken Nordine

Posted on by Opher

A friend – Roger Stenning – introduced me to Ken Nordine back in 1967. I was knocked out. His voice was so cool. He called it Word Jazz. There were a couple of albums – Word Jazz and Son of Word Jazz.

In 1968 I got hold of an album called Colours. That was brilliant. My friends and I would have our jazz woodbines and listen to Ken. Delightful.

Today I’m delving back.

The Corona Diaries – Day 183

Posted on by Opher

Autumn has come in with a vengeance. A big drop in temperature and an end to sunshine. Fortunately, I did my customary walk early before the rain set in and just came home a little damp.

Now I am at home working on my Harper book and playing Roy Harper interspersed with William Burroughs – seems appropriate – Roy was a beatnik.

I’m waiting for the BT engineer to turn up to correct my oscillating internet! He’s not showed up yet!

Outside in Coronaland the world is still topsy turvy and becoming more divided by the minute.

There are those who want everything back to normal and think it’s all exaggerated. Some even think it’s a hoax. It’s amazing how a stupid leader like Trump can poison minds. People are so gullible.

Others believe that it is a frightening disease on a par with the black death and we should completely lockdown until it’s gone.

I guess it’s somewhere in the middle. For a large number of people, it is fatal. For another group of people, it might prove permanently debilitating. For most, it is mild or merely like bad flu.

I suppose your viewpoint is coloured by which category you are in.

Johnson, as usual, makes a balls-up of it all. His bunch of libertarian extremists, who do not give a shit about anyone other than themselves, want the country opening up regardless of how many deaths that entails. He looks like a poor bunny with limp ears after being hounded by his own goons. Talk about a spent force!!

The measures he has come up with, trying to please everyone, fall short of pleasing anybody – and completely hopeless at controlling the virus. Of course, they will try to look for scapegoats – it will be the thoughtless public who are responsible.

Julian Metcalfe of Pret a Manger summed it up by claiming he was just spouting Churchillian nonsense.

What we need is some radical thinking and leadership. Eating and drinking outside, organising outside entertainment. The virus does not seem to transmit outside. It could have been done. It could have been encouraged. Much harder now that summer has gone – but not impossible.

I haven’t heard an apology for all that driving people back to work in the offices. What a stupid mistake.

It’s a balancing act – if we open up schools, universities and pubs there is going to be an increase in virus activity. That is obvious. It is how we do it more safely that requires explaining.

We either furlough the hospitality and entertainment industry and put money into it, or we see it go under.

We are presently careering upwards with 4,925 new cases. Unless that is stopped we’ll be in dire straits with Mark Knoppler. The hospital cases are going up rapidly and we certainly do not want a repeat of the extreme stress we were seeing in the first wave. The death-rate lags behind but is also ominously rising – 37 yesterday.

Are we going to dump more covid cases in the care homes and bump off our old folk again? Who knows? They are stupid and callous enough.

In the States Trump is looking at another 48,206 cases as the Yanks pass 200,000 deaths with predictions of 400,000 by next Spring. Some hoax.

200,000 is the equivalent of 67 consecutive 9/11s.  That is a horrendous death toll. And the American people were terrified about terrorism! They started a few wars for a 67th of this number!

In Brazil, Bolsonaro is in the hospital with kidney stones, while Brazil has another soaring 33,536 cases and 836 deaths.

What a bunch of dangerous prats.

Anyway, keep yourselves safe, I’m going back to my writing. All the best.

Today’s Music to keep me SSSAAAANNNEEE in Isolation – William Burroughs

Posted on by Opher

William Burroughs, with the amazing voice, recorded a number of works to musical backing. I find them fascinating and hypnotic.

Very explicit words.

 

 

The Corona Diaries – Day 182.

Posted on by Opher

‘I I I need to tell the great British people, aaaah, gashooks, that we are in great peril! Periculum magni! Gosh, it’s bad!’

‘There, there, there is only one answer. By Zeus. We’ve got to all come together to, aah, errr, fight this enemy. By Jove.’

‘We’ll um, er, wotsit, fight it in the fish and chip shops. Yes we will! In the supermarkets. Gosh. And in the pubs, yes the pubs. We, er, er, will stop at nothing!  We will never, er, ever, surrender!’

‘And, and, this is why I’m telling the British people, the er gosh, freedom-loving people of our great country, that we have to, awf awf, destroy this virus, by golly, drive it into the sea! We shall, er er, never bally stop!’

‘So today I am taking major strides towards, yew yew, aaagh, making us all safe. And, and and we have to jolly well follow the rules. It’s jolly important! So from today the pubs will shut at 10 pm! That’ll show the blighter! We’re changing, arf arf, aaagh, social distancing to aaah, 1 metre 26, outside and .954 of a metre inside, or something like that. I can’t quite remember what that Whitty fellow said. Anyway, keep apart, except if you’re very rich er er, then you can shoot grouse and party all night because, aaaah aaaah, you won’t be spreading the disease. teams can play sport but, aaah, aaah, arf, they can only have three in a team, unless, aaah, urgh, they are all from the same family, or or or similar families, then it can be up to, um um a hundred. But er, er, only if they wear knee-length boots to er protect against airborne virus on the grass.’

‘And, um, er, er, remember – you have to jolly well work from home – but nip out to buy sandwiches and er er gosh, always use public transport! And er arf arf, wear a mask – though not one of me – or aaaah that serial killer chappie.’

‘So, err, eat out to save my arse and stay in to aaaah,save yours.’

‘So, arf arf, my friends, remember, we’re all in it together. An an an to jolly well bring into line, all those arf, pesky youngsters out partying like there’s no tomorrow – well actually, there isn’t any tomorrow, is there arf arf – we’re going to um er er fine you all, well huh, not quite all of you, but those blighters not following the rules, to the letter. My good friend Rishi says we need the cash. This, er er bally virus, is costing us a fortune! So it’ll be £10,000 quid a pop! Straight, um um, from your bank into, er eer, my pocket!’

‘I’m jolly, er, glad, we cleared all that up! Now it’s bally well past two-o-clock – er errr, time for my bottle of red and, err er, my afternoon nap.’

I always find it exhilarating to hear our illustrious leader speak. He manages to clarify things in such a magnificent manner. His oratory and use of language reminds me of Churchill after his fifth bottle.

So nice to see him being allowed out to use the teleprompter. I bet Cummings had his heart in his mouth.

It’s so good to see that despite being in a terrible state with a fast-rising rate (up to 4,368 new cases yesterday and science experts predicting up to 50,000 cases a day if this rate continues, hospital cases rising fast and death not too far behind) Johnson is proposing to shut pubs by 10.00 pm. That’ll stop it! There’s nowt like firm, decisive action – and this is nothing like firm, decisive action.

In the States there was another 39,127 cases and 426 deaths, while in Brazil it was only 13,439 with 377 deaths!

Today, being the last day of summer and temperatures of 22 degrees here in Yorkshire, we headed out for the day onto the moors. Walked up to the Roman road and had a drive around – glorious.

Tomorrow the temperatures drop and autumn is upon us. I wonder what autumn and winter, under the heroic leadership of Johnson, Rees-Mogg and Cummings, has in store for us?

Stay Safe everyone!

 

Today’s Music to keep me SSSSAAAANNNNEEEE in Isolation – Cliff Richard

Posted on by Opher

OK – I guess you think I’ve really gone nuts – that isolation has done me in. Maybe.

But Cliff, before he became a sugary-sweet pop, mainstream Christian boy – was probably Britain’s greatest Rock ‘n’ Roller. His first album and first few singles were dynamite.

If he had died then we’d be in awe of how good he was (instead of thinking of him as wet).

Take a listen to this:

(unfortunately that first album is not on youtube – it’s been removed). this is Cliff as you might not have heard him.