Coronavirus

[tom kilner]

6 hours ago, C8RKH said:

My neighbour is an A&E consultant. Christmas, Easter, you would be amazed how many old people are "dropped off" at A&E just before Christmas, Easter etc.

Absolutely bloody ridiculous and totally selfish - Remember, In 2020, in the UK, it's all about me, me and oh, don't forget, me!

I work opposite the hospital and the usual crowds outside of fat people smoking are gone.

(No offence fatties and smokers!😉)

The medical staff are calm before the storm🤞 I think there will be a lot of ptsd in a month. 🙁

 

[mg4lotus]

1 hour ago, march said:

Milk prices collapsing to 15ppl (farmers are now dumping milk), beef prices crashing and Sainsbury's putting Polish beef on the shelves - Way to go Britain, thanks for supporting the British farmer who will be working whether or not they have the virus. None of this is necessary.

Seriously unimpressed guys!

I'm a townie and the supermarket shelves are still empty. The supermarkets have stopped the bulk buying. Lots of fruit and veg are missing. Eggs are missing. Where is it all going? Red milk is missing but there seems to be plenty of green? What's that all about?

[Giniw]

 

Edited April 5, 2020 by Giniw

[tom kilner]

8 hours ago, mg4lotus said:

I'm a townie and the supermarket shelves are still empty. The supermarkets have stopped the bulk buying. Lots of fruit and veg are missing. Eggs are missing. Where is it all going? Red milk is missing but there seems to be plenty of green? What's that all about?

My mate has turned his cafe into a grocery, and says there's no egg or veg shortage wholesale, but my local supermarket still has no eggs and few veg - like yours. The problem seems to be the supply chain; the big supermarkets can't adapt to a sudden change in  demand - apart from pushing prices down when there's a surplus created at the farm gate - because they can't adapt their supply chain.

It's a bit like those poor premier league footballers worrying about how they will pay less tax for the nhs if they have to take a pay cut.

There are plenty of examples of self sacrifice and generosity though,  just not always by the rich and powerful.

Now, where's my local 5g mast?

Give me daleks coming down the road to represent britishness, not footballers and supermarket buyers.👍

 

[march]

9 hours ago, mg4lotus said:

I'm a townie and the supermarket shelves are still empty. The supermarkets have stopped the bulk buying. Lots of fruit and veg are missing. Eggs are missing. Where is it all going? Red milk is missing but there seems to be plenty of green? What's that all about?

No idea but farmers are dumping milk now due to low prices and reduced demand. Perhaps there is a bottle neck in the processing plants / transportation but I doubt it. One thing is for sure some supermarkets are getting very rich off this and the statement that 'we are all in it together' is total rubbish.

[C8RKH]

11 hours ago, march said:

Milk prices collapsing to 15ppl (farmers are now dumping milk), beef prices crashing and Sainsbury's putting Polish beef on the shelves - Way to go Britain, thanks for supporting the British farmer who will be working whether or not they have the virus. None of this is necessary.

Seriously unimpressed guys!

You have my sympathy. No idea why prices are crashing to producer, went shopping on Thursday ( first time out in almost 3 weeks) and the absence of "special offers" meant a normal £60-70 shop was a £100!  The supermarkets have been coining it in.

Very few eggs, milk, toilet rolls (still, FFS each house in the UK must have 40 rolls already), fresh meat (chicken, beef and pork).

I'm also appalled that produce from overseas is being put on the shelf over local. That can only be about price, unless the UK abbatoirs/meat factories have all shut. But would have thought they'd be classed as essential.

[march]

21 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

unless the UK abbatoirs/meat factories have all shut.

Nope all open.

21 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

You have my sympathy

This does not affect us directly being small with other income streams, I am also sure there are other sectors affected as well. I am just stunned that some businesses are taking such advantage of the situation to their own gain to the cost of others when simple decisions to match pricing etc. to pre-pandemic times would be so easy and they could still make their money.

[andydclements]

Some of the supply chain is  specific to restaurants etc, which means that has pretty much closed down (save for the take-out part), that demand has shifted to retail, which may /may not not have the capacity. Flour is a great example, there is loads of base product, loads of the actual flour but there's a bottleneck for retail packaged product at 0.5/1.0kg etc bags, rather than the wholesale bags that bakers etc get in. There's even a news article on it.

Those supermarkets suppliers can probably even increase production but the packaging is often specified as having to come from one of a few approved packaging suppliers, so that can limit the amount of trays for meat/ eggs, let alone the labels.

[march]

That is all true but does nothing to explain the driving down the prices below production costs, surely in this time of emergency that is just greed and profiteering at the cost of others(bloody hell I am almost sounding like a Curbyn supporter).

[Barrykearley]

57 minutes ago, march said:

No idea but farmers are dumping milk now due to low prices and reduced demand. Perhaps there is a bottle neck in the processing plants / transportation but I doubt it. One thing is for sure some supermarkets are getting very rich off this and the statement that 'we are all in it together' is total rubbish.

This is simply disgusting.

 

10 hours ago, mg4lotus said:

I'm a townie and the supermarket shelves are still empty. The supermarkets have stopped the bulk buying. Lots of fruit and veg are missing. Eggs are missing. Where is it all going? Red milk is missing but there seems to be plenty of green? What's that all about?

Eggs - there’s millions in the supply chain every single hour. Makes no sense to me at all. There’s tens of thousands in every shed I’ve wired going out on trucks everyday. This should sort out the toilet roll crisis once the panic buyers are egg bound.  Now might be the time to stock up on laxatives 🤪😂

[pete]

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10163147712655527&id=731645526

[tom kilner]

Concise.

I'm seeing youths though in the city centre saying why should i shut my life down for an old persons disease.

That, after all, was uk plan a, still followed by sweden and the Netherlands,  but looking less popular as  many of this year's hundreds of thousands of deaths all happen in a couple of months. With some extras thrown in.

Back to logistics,  but with p.r. thrown in.

Imagine: Hospitals full, emergency morgues, the army collecting bodies,  mass graves, temporary crematoria, no ceremonies, loads of low-paid untrained workers dealing with death and the dead, lacking proper equipment..

Where's hindsight when you need it most?

Best wishes to everyone changing their routines to try to unpick  this lethal knot.🤞

[gregs24]

13 hours ago, march said:

Milk prices collapsing to 15ppl (farmers are now dumping milk), beef prices crashing and Sainsbury's putting Polish beef on the shelves - Way to go Britain, thanks for supporting the British farmer who will be working whether or not they have the virus. None of this is necessary.

Seriously unimpressed guys!

To be fair that is the spot price which has fallen of a cliff and does suffer huge fluctuations both ways. There is a big difference between that and dairies buying in the UK - although it will have an effect down the line if it remains that low. It very much depends on firstly, the contract you have and who it is with, and then secondly what the milk is being used for, liquid milk, cheese etc. What is certain is that there is huge uncertainty and cash flow problems for the dairy industry as with others and it makes for worrying times again for our clients. The problem comes trading in a global commodity when the world is in lock down.

https://ahdb.org.uk/dairy/uk-wholesale-prices

I had heard that the beef situation (via a supplier to ABP) is that they are short of the cheaper cuts which are flying off the shelf, but have lots of the more expensive cuts that they cannot shift which is causing them cashflow problems. Buy some steak everybody !

And just to put all of this in perspective, we have lost 2 clients to suicide in the last month. Food on the table is taken for granted in the UK and there is a complete disconnect between that food and where it comes from. I'm not a farmer, but have many good friends who are and it is without a doubt the toughest job in the world, physically, mentally and financially.

[mdw]

I guess also the lack of the daily shop for odds and ends affects how much and when we buy.     One of us goes once a week and if we run out of milk or eggs before hand , tough we wait.   There is no popping over the road to the corner shop we make do with what we have.   I have already noticed our recycle bin which was always rammed is now 2/3rds full before collection.

[Jacques]

I quote:

"

The panic set in the European continent by the new coronavirus is likely to be amplified by a news story that shakes one of the most affected countries. The tests for detecting the new coronavirus are also infected with coronavirus, writes Capital.ro, citing several European publications.

The shocking disclosure was made today by the Telegraph publication, which cites sources within the London Ministry of Health. Testing laboratories across the country were warned Monday, via an email received from Luxembourg, to expect a delay in delivering new coronavirus tests, after traces of viruses were detected in some imported components. . The announcement comes after the government commissioned several private companies to import as many tests as possible for the new coronavirus, hoping that the population could soon be mass tested.

More providers with the same problem

The alert was issued by one of the suppliers - the Luxembourg company Eurofins - which sent an email to UK government laboratories Monday morning warning that the delivery of key components called "probes and primer" will be delayed because it has been contaminated with coronavirus. .

The company acknowledged that there was "a problem" and insisted that other private providers suffered the same problem.

It is unclear how the contamination occurred, and British journalists cite government sources who say the problem will not greatly affect population testing.

Meanwhile, the Downing Street government has accused the British public health department of providing ministers with incorrect information about the number of coronavirus tests performed after Michael Gove claimed that 10,000 were completed on Sunday. Only 8,278 tests were performed that day.

The London government has proposed that by mid-April it will reach 25,000 tests per day. 24 hours after Mr Gove, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said the government's goal of 10,000 tests a day was hit, ministers now imposed 25,000 by mid-April, writes Capital.ro."

-------

That's a heads up!

Kind regards,

Jacques

[Bibs]

That news is about a week old Jacques, I'd hope it's been dealt with by now. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52177125

Boris has been taken to hospital, do you think he has to buy his own TV card?!

[oilmagnet477]

Mass testing does what exactly? It just gives a picture at any given point of who is infected

Concentrate on those self isolating so those NOT infected can return to the front line. Anyone one else who has symptoms - test them so they can what? be isolated from their families after it is too late. 

Germany seem to have dominated the available tests (towels at the pool anyone?) but to what effect?

It doesn't stop the spread - it maybe makes the stats look better because you have more positives v deaths but at the end of the day it is a total waste of resources. If we had a vaccine maybe it would help target the use - but we don't. Focus on being able to identify those with antibodies already. Far more use. If my wife (an NHS worker) tests negative tomorrow - so what? Is she going to be tested daily to prove she hasn't picked it up since the last test.

What happened to common fking sense in this Country?

Stay indoors. If you feel ill come and see my Mother in Law. 

Get well soon Boris

[DaveyT]

4 minutes ago, oilmagnet477 said:

If you feel ill come and see my Mother in Law. 

The spirit of Les Dawson lives on 👍🏻😀..

 

[gregs24]

22 minutes ago, oilmagnet477 said:

Mass testing does what exactly? It just gives a picture at any given point of who is infected

 

The only testing that will help is antibody testing to establish who has had it.

[ramjet]

If I recall correctly, haven't people that have had it been tested again, have been found to be reinfected?

[tom kilner]

The tests aren't foolproof, which is part of the trouble. I think 90% accuracy was given.
 

22 hours ago, oilmagnet477 said:

Mass testing does what exactly? It just gives a picture at any given point of who is infected.

The tests are needed to monitor the effects of the various efforts to restrict the spread of the  virus, and to help predict upcoming demand for hospital treatment.

If you can test enough people, you can then ease restrictions for some or all the population,  but we're not really there yet with the quantity and resources available.

Antibody tests (post-recovery) could be used to allow people back to work after quarantine, or work in high risk areas, but I don't think we're there yet with these either

[oilmagnet477]

On 04/04/2020 at 21:31, march said:

Milk prices collapsing to 15ppl (farmers are now dumping milk), beef prices crashing and Sainsbury's putting Polish beef on the shelves - Way to go Britain, thanks for supporting the British farmer who will be working whether or not they have the virus. None of this is necessary.

Seriously unimpressed guys!

Bonkers! Doing my bit to support local. I am using local small shops and producers as much as possible. We still have doorstep delivery of milk - have done all my adult life wherever I have lived. Last week we were given a free gift of some local Bigod Brie (fantastic product) - we always buy it anyway but I guess they are struggling to get rid as they supply most of the local restaurants.

Is going to the local Deli/wet fish shop/veg shop etc ESSENTIAL - you're damn right it is - once they are gone they won't be back any time soon. Get out there safely, maintain your distance and support local

[Barrykearley]

It would seem the police are doing all they can to close some essential suppliers

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-52138171

[pete]

One officer in Hove had clearly had enough - and decided to disrupt a couple of people having a barbecue on a pebble beach by filling his helmet with water and using it to extinguish the flames.

[au-yt]

Cant even just go for a drive as its not essential travel, and Air B&Bs are now deemed Illegal In Australia for the lock down to stop people traveling anywhere over Easter

https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/australia/coronavirus-australia-people-fined-for-blatantly-going-for-a-drive-as-police-crack-down/news-story/6316b2b999ababca2a56d95c9293bb91