Coronavirus (aka COVID-19) - just how serious?

[mercalia]

My wife was telling me that she was talking to one of our neighbours on a dog walk on Friday. The neighbour asked if we'd done the 'praise the NHS' handclap thing and she said that we hadn't, said she admires anyone working the so-called front line but didn't feel the need to publicly demonstrate it like that. The neighbour replied that she hoped my wife didn't need to use the NHS any time soon, because that would just be karma!

I find this sort of virtue signalling/loyalty test quite worrying.

lots of ribbish coming out of the woodwork. you should be worried as maybe she will get reported to the morality police

[Ellieb]

“Pro-Kremlin media outlets have been prominent in spreading disinformation about the coronavirus, with the aim to aggravate the public health crisis in western countries, specifically by undermining public trust in national healthcare systems,” states the report, seen by the Guardian.

There are traitors amongst us spreading the Kremlin’s message.

It's quite entertaining to think there are Russian Troll Bots at work on this forum. However, unlike one or two posters here, I think they do try and keep a veneer of credibility & attempt to be believable.

[reohn2]

My wife was telling me that she was talking to one of our neighbours on a dog walk on Friday. The neighbour asked if we'd done the 'praise the NHS' handclap thing and she said that we hadn't, said she admires anyone working the so-called front line but didn't feel the need to publicly demonstrate it like that. The neighbour replied that she hoped my wife didn't need to use the NHS any time soon, because that would just be karma!

I find this sort of virtue signalling/loyalty test quite worrying.

It's quite simple,your wife was talking to an imbecile,who wouldn't know karma if it were boomerang shaped and hit her on the back of the head

[kwackers]

My wife was telling me that she was talking to one of our neighbours on a dog walk on Friday. The neighbour asked if we'd done the 'praise the NHS' handclap thing and she said that we hadn't, said she admires anyone working the so-called front line but didn't feel the need to publicly demonstrate it like that. The neighbour replied that she hoped my wife didn't need to use the NHS any time soon, because that would just be karma!

I find this sort of virtue signalling/loyalty test quite worrying.

lots of ribbish coming out of the woodwork. you should be worried as maybe she will get reported to the morality police

Top of my list is anyone involved in the chain of food production.

If the health service disappeared life would mostly continue, but food? Not a chance.
After that probably services; water & power.
Then probably the health service.

(If the internet vanished then I suspect that would be a plus)

[mercalia]

“Pro-Kremlin media outlets have been prominent in spreading disinformation about the coronavirus, with the aim to aggravate the public health crisis in western countries, specifically by undermining public trust in national healthcare systems,” states the report, seen by the Guardian.

There are traitors amongst us spreading the Kremlin’s message.

It's quite entertaining to think there are Russian Troll Bots at work on this forum. However, unlike one or two posters here, I think they do try and keep a veneer of credibility & attempt to be believable.

I think the troll bots are those people on the touring & expedition forum here claiming they are setting off for a tour of south america or the arctic wastes, trying to lower the spirts of the rest of us?

[pete75]

When it comes to virtue signalling the NHS itself is hard to beat. It and its staff never stop telling us how wonderful they are. I'm sure NHS staff are professional and competent, but no more or less so than many of the workers who pay their wages. There is nothing especially virtuous in selling your labour to the NHS for the market rate. The NHS consultant I see at the moment lives in the very best part of my town in a very expensive house. He can afford it because he is very highly skilled and therefore he can command a high wage from the taxpayer. Good luck to him, but if he was more virtuous than the average UK worker he could work for the average UK wage and free up lots of money for the NHS to use elsewhere. I've no problem whatsoever with high wages in the NHS or anywhere else, but I am not impressed when highly paid workers claim they are especially virtuous and less motivated by money than the rest of us.

Hmm I've never heard anyone from the NHS saying how wonderful they are or virtue signalling. I think you've made that up. Your pal Boris has certainly been saying it though.
You seem to have a problem with people earning a good salary as you mention it quite often. Over the past few years I've noticed more and more of you lot on the right embracing the politics of envy.

Boris is the head of the NHS.

I've no problem at all with people getting a good wage, as I stated in my post. I've earned reasonably good wages myself throughout my working life and I pay some of them to watch footballers play for more money in a week than I get in years. I do not sit in the stands consumed with envy by those vast wages so I'm unlikely to be envious of the more modest wages earned by doctors, nurses or other NHS staff.

Over past few the years I've noticed more and more people not on the right attributing negative characteristics to their political opponents - envy, hate, racism, sexism, xenophobia, greed etc. Yawn.

I regard this behaviour as a form of virtue signalling as I think that people make these accusations to attempt to draw attention to their own alleged good characteristics. Or perhaps they do it because they know they can't win elections with their unpopular policies and their only desperate hope is to convince the electorate that their opponents are not nice people at all.

Whatever the reason these accusations say more about the people who make them than those they are aimed at. Constantly seeing the worst in others is indicative of unhappiness at the very least.

Johnson does not work in the NHS nor is he the head of it. That is Simon Stevens.

Hmm what you say here and what you say in other posts differs.

[nsew]

“Pro-Kremlin media outlets have been prominent in spreading disinformation about the coronavirus, with the aim to aggravate the public health crisis in western countries, specifically by undermining public trust in national healthcare systems,” states the report, seen by the Guardian.

There are traitors amongst us spreading the Kremlin’s message.

It's quite entertaining to think there are Russian Troll Bots at work on this forum. However, unlike one or two posters here, I think they do try and keep a veneer of credibility & attempt to be believable.

Spread the message not actuate it. There are posters here who unwittingly spread Russian troll farm talking points (unaware of the source). That’s how pervasive, intrusive and successful Russian active measure are. Which is why burying our heads in the sand as you’re proposing is not an option.

[pete75]

My wife was telling me that she was talking to one of our neighbours on a dog walk on Friday. The neighbour asked if we'd done the 'praise the NHS' handclap thing and she said that we hadn't, said she admires anyone working the so-called front line but didn't feel the need to publicly demonstrate it like that. The neighbour replied that she hoped my wife didn't need to use the NHS any time soon, because that would just be karma!

I find this sort of virtue signalling/loyalty test quite worrying.

lots of ribbish coming out of the woodwork. you should be worried as maybe she will get reported to the morality police

Top of my list is anyone involved in the chain of food production.

If the health service disappeared life would mostly continue, but food? Not a chance.
After that probably services; water & power.
Then probably the health service.

(If the internet vanished then I suspect that would be a plus)

No. If the food supply diminished I could get around that by growing and sourcing it myself. Ditto for water - not difficult to source. Can live without power if by that you mean electricity. If, for example, I developed cataracts I can't fix it myself.

[pete75]

“Pro-Kremlin media outlets have been prominent in spreading disinformation about the coronavirus, with the aim to aggravate the public health crisis in western countries, specifically by undermining public trust in national healthcare systems,” states the report, seen by the Guardian.

There are traitors amongst us spreading the Kremlin’s message.

It's quite entertaining to think there are Russian Troll Bots at work on this forum. However, unlike one or two posters here, I think they do try and keep a veneer of credibility & attempt to be believable.

Spread the message not actuate it. There are posters here who unwittingly spread Russian troll farm talking points (unaware of the source). That’s how pervasive, intrusive and successful their methods are. Which is why burying our heads in the sand is not an advisable option.

Better bury your head in the sand than cover it in a tin foil hat.

[nsew]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_measures

As taught to experts in information warfare, modern active measures in the 21st century subsume a variety of disciplines that are, first, epistemology, and then semiology, complex systems as a subset of systems theory, fuzzy logic, and a variety of forms of nonverbal communication recently associated in the Western World under the name meta-communication. During these teachings, the theory of active measures is exemplified in an abstract fashion with the other disciplines of chaos theory, fractal, and cellular automaton. Simultaneously, as active measures purport to change courses of actions in people or to elicit actions from them, either consciously or unconsciously, future experts in this field learn fundamentals in an evolution of behaviorism called “behavioral biology”.

[kwackers]

No. If the food supply diminished I could get around that by growing and sourcing it myself. Ditto for water - not difficult to source. Can live without power if by that you mean electricity. If, for example, I developed cataracts I can't fix it myself.

You'll need to have enough planted right now.
You'll also need some sort of weaponry to fight off the attacking hordes.

I'm pretty certain society would collapse without food, but I'd bet against it doing so if there was no health service.

[Syd]

lots of ribbish coming out of the woodwork. you should be worried as maybe she will get reported to the morality police

Top of my list is anyone involved in the chain of food production.

If the health service disappeared life would mostly continue, but food? Not a chance.
After that probably services; water & power.
Then probably the health service.

(If the internet vanished then I suspect that would be a plus)

No. If the food supply diminished I could get around that by growing and sourcing it myself. Ditto for water - not difficult to source. Can live without power if by that you mean electricity. If, for example, I developed cataracts I can't fix it myself.

If the food supply chain disappeared for a day, of even a week, a lot if people would end up hungry / very hungry.

If the health service disappeared for the same period a lot of people would die, particularly those requiring emergency care.

Longer term the food supply chain becomes a different story.

[Marcus Aurelius]

My wife was telling me that she was talking to one of our neighbours on a dog walk on Friday. The neighbour asked if we'd done the 'praise the NHS' handclap thing and she said that we hadn't, said she admires anyone working the so-called front line but didn't feel the need to publicly demonstrate it like that. The neighbour replied that she hoped my wife didn't need to use the NHS any time soon, because that would just be karma!

I find this sort of virtue signalling/loyalty test quite worrying.

There was one major flaw with the ‘clap for the NHS’ thing. The seals that were brainlessly clapping away, didn’t notice that they were all stood right next to each other, in groups of more than 2 not anything like 2 meters apart That’s genius right there. Were they showing support for the NHS, or trying to drum up new business for them?

[pete75]

No. If the food supply diminished I could get around that by growing and sourcing it myself. Ditto for water - not difficult to source. Can live without power if by that you mean electricity. If, for example, I developed cataracts I can't fix it myself.

You'll need to have enough planted right now.
You'll also need some sort of weaponry to fight off the attacking hordes.

I'm pretty certain society would collapse without food, but I'd bet against it doing so if there was no health service.

There's a phenomenal amount of wild deer locally not to mention lots of rabbits and the like. Also lots of fields full of growing crops. A friend still has many tons of wheat in his barn.
I think it'd be different in urban areas though.

[pete75]

My wife was telling me that she was talking to one of our neighbours on a dog walk on Friday. The neighbour asked if we'd done the 'praise the NHS' handclap thing and she said that we hadn't, said she admires anyone working the so-called front line but didn't feel the need to publicly demonstrate it like that. The neighbour replied that she hoped my wife didn't need to use the NHS any time soon, because that would just be karma!

I find this sort of virtue signalling/loyalty test quite worrying.

There was one major flaw with the ‘clap for the NHS’ thing. The seals that were brainlessly clapping away, didn’t notice that they were all stood right next to each other, in groups of more than 2 not anything like 2 meters apart That’s genius right there. Were they showing support for the NHS, or trying to drum up new business for them?

I think people were meant to clap from doors , balconies in their gardens etc. I didn't do it but I see no harm in doing it.
It gave people a sense of being together and making a group gesture in a crisis which most are powerless to do anything about.
I suspect a lot of health workers will have appreciated it and got a bit of a morale boost.