Coronavirus

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Kiwi Bloke on 08/03/2020 07:42:07:

Having been far abroad and seen milk bottles half-full of water in lower-class conveniences and small hand-held shower-heads on flexible hoses in more salubrious ones, how on earth is one supposed to use water instead of paper, without getting it everywhere? Such knowledge could be very useful soon…

Either the BBC or the Guardian (I forget which) carried a suitably sensible explanation.

I think you could sum it up as 'carefully' and wash your hands afterwards.

I wonder what's happened to the price of bidets?

Neil

[doubletopParticipant @doubletop]

Posted by JA on 08/03/2020 12:35:13:

Just got back from the supermarket. As expected there is no toilet paper, no worry. There appears to be a run on the alternative – tinned soups and tomatoes!

No doubt by Tuesday there will be so much toilet paper that it will be stacked in the car park.

JA

I visited the local supermarket late on Friday, expecting "Hell's Grannies" with handbags drawn to find pallets of the stuff in the entrance way.

Pete

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Ady1 on 08/03/2020 08:18:16:

It's in those those poorer places like in Africa India south America etc where this thing is going to be totally rampant

It could be carnage for them

The press doesn't seem to be talking about it either

Edited By Ady1 on 08/03/2020 08:20:02

Curiously, Africa seems to be escaping, even allowing for less infrastructure for testing:

It does suggest a warm spring and summer would be a blessing.

Neil

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

May be the lower international travelling is why till now Africa has all but escaped, A Friend with dealings in China and friends in highish places there has commented that the virus was connected with biolgical warfare experiments and got out, by accident. The poor doctor who tried to warn of the impact, and was told to be quiet only to subsequently die. It fits

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

Posted by noel shelley on 08/03/2020 22:18:26:

May be the lower international travelling is why till now Africa has all but escaped, A Friend with dealings in China and friends in highish places there has commented that the virus was connected with biolgical warfare experiments and got out, by accident. The poor doctor who tried to warn of the impact, and was told to be quiet only to subsequently die. It fits

Now that does sound logical. Wipe out the human race. My god what is it coming to.

Steve.

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Posted by noel shelley on 08/03/2020 22:18:26:

May be the lower international travelling is why till now Africa has all but escaped, A Friend with dealings in China and friends in highish places there has commented that the virus was connected with biolgical warfare experiments and got out, by accident. The poor doctor who tried to warn of the impact, and was told to be quiet only to subsequently die. It fits

This conspiracy theory has been rattling around for a while. It's not entirely logical since the virus has a low mortality rate. It would either have to be designed as an experiment to see how a pandemic spreads but that information is easily enough guesstimated from past minor cases such as the H5N1 episode. It's probably based on the disaster at Porton Down where Foot and Mouth got out from a loss of bio-security. Option two is that it was designed as a disease to create economic mayhem to rivals but again that scenario falls down since it would inevitably impact (as it has) on china itself and screw manufacture and export. It only works if you have a vaccine (which gives the game away) or an inherently resistant population. At best a simple case of playing with viruses and an unintended loss of bio-security and luck that the virus wasn;t more pathogenic which is no more likely that the believed scenario that bats are a natural reservoir for coronavirus and it's a natural evolution to greater morbidity/mortality.

We should have had enough wake-up calls over all this with dutch elm disease, ash die-back and many other episodes of disease spread to the UK from cheap travel and globalisation and porous borders. Another simple eample – I bought a couple of sweet chestnut trees not knowing they were originally grown in Spain, no quarantine and Dera have been coming round every few years to check them since the original grower had a diseased lot (mine remain clear) – daft when we can grow the darn things here from certified seed.

Another daft scenario is the abolition of rabies quarantine becasue of vaccination and we now have tick borne diseases we were clear of…

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

I thought the last ‘escape’ of Foot + Mouth was from the research station near Guildford and originated from a blocked drain allowing the tyres of the building contractor’s lorry to carry it to nearby farms.

If one wanted to weaponise a flu like epidemic then the 1918 Spanish flu is one to go for as this killed significant numbers of healthy young as it placed the body’s own anti-virus mechanism into an ultimately fatal overdrive – tho I guess hitting the elderly in a western style medical system will effectively block that system and have significant side-effects.

[SamsarandaParticipant @samsaranda]

Being rather cynical in my point of view, knocking out all the elderly population of a country could ultimately be a significant financial gain to their economy so probably not the way to attack an opponent, just an observation. I am not averse to thinking the worst of various countries, those who play dirty have an advantage.
Dave W

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember19781]

[This posting has been removed]

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

It could be a big help for the uk care crises

Mike

[thaiguzziParticipant @thaiguzzi]

Posted by Kiwi Bloke on 08/03/2020 07:42:07:

Well, 'thread drift' has allowed this thread to reach rock bottom, so, unashamedly continuing the theme… Anyone who has tried to clean chocolate spread off the face of a toddler, using only dry tissues, soon discovers it's impossible and will appreciate the superior cleansing abilities of 'wet wipes'. Pity they clog up the sewage works. In fact, dry tissue is such a poor cleaner, it's not surprising that cultures which use water for 'personal cleansing' (or whatever the PC term is) look upon the western paper-wiping world with scorn.

This forum is a mine of information – perhaps someone can enlighten me, especially in view of the possible imminent paper shortage. Having been far abroad and seen milk bottles half-full of water in lower-class conveniences and small hand-held shower-heads on flexible hoses in more salubrious ones, how on earth is one supposed to use water instead of paper, without getting it everywhere? Such knowledge could be very useful soon…

Google Thai bum gun.

Toilet paper, and wiping one's arse with it, is oh so yesterday, and quite frankly rather filthy.

The West has a lot to learn when it comes to personal hygiene…

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

"… A Friend with dealings in China and friends in highish places"

and .

"Now that does sound logical. Wipe out the human race. My god what is it coming to."

The internet is a valuable asset but the ability to publish anonymised, unsubstantiated tosh and piffle , AND support such, makes it as problematical as the virus.

A forum dealing with practicalities ought to be better than that!

rgds

Bill

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Conspiracy or cock-up. I'm with cock-up every time. Interesting view on why these diseases originate in China on Youtube here

To precis: The Chinese command economy failed to feed its people. The government decided to allow unregulated private enterprise to provide food and, critically, announced that all wildlife be designated as a natural resource for exploitation. This led to the "wet" markets where all sorts of live animals are stacked cheek by jowl where they contaminate each other with their effluent, thus leading to cross infection. Although the food problem has been solved, the markets continue to be used by the well off who now treat the exotic meats as status symbols. In order to maintain their market share, the traders have also been at pains to exploit the demand for hyped up "traditional " medicine from various body parts of the exotic fauna.

Rod

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by noel shelley on 08/03/2020 22:18:26:

A Friend with dealings in China and friends in highish places there has commented that the virus was connected with biolgical warfare experiments and got out, by accident. The poor doctor who tried to warn of the impact, and was told to be quiet only to subsequently die. It fits

Except it also fits with what's known about viruses in the wild.

Occam's Razor applies: "Entities should not be multiplied without necessity'. It means, given a complicated and a simple explanation for an incident, the simple explanation is most likely correct.

The idea that a flu virus has escaped after being weaponised is 'complicated'. Why weaponise flu when their are far more effective nasties available? Why develop a not very effective disease which hurts friend and foe alike?

While it's possible for bugs to escape from a research institute, it's unlikely. The last case I know of was Smallpox in 1978 at the University of Birmingham Medical School. Accident, not conspiracy.

And there is a simple explanation for Coronavirus. It's been around forever. However, viruses evolve continually, partly by adapting to their environment, and partly randomly. It's how life works. There are many examples of avian flu (normally only active in birds), making the small genetic change needed to adapt to a human host. As the human immune system hasn't experienced this new variety before, it takes a while to learn how to deal with it. During that time the bug can run amok, perhaps fatally. It spreads rapidly and does more damage than a virus the body has dealt with before.

As killing the host is as bad for the virus as it is for the victim, it's the less unpleasant strains that tend to survive in the long run. Not much in it for individuals, but on average the population will recover. A Corona Virus epidemic is predicted to peak after about 9 weeks, after which – like other plagues – it becomes history. The UK hasn't got to the epidemic stage yet, my guess is it will be over by July.

The urge to blame someone else is always to be resisted. Creating an unnecessary new enemy by acting on bad information is always bad policy. Different entirely from responding robustly to someone who really is up to no good. Evidence, not opinion or rumour please!

Dave

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

I'm sure that SOD mean't well by his last … but QED!!!!

Trying to evaluate rubbish is ……..rubbish!

Can the mods stop this PLEASE

rgds

Bill

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I'm not sure what I am being ask to stop here…

But the conspiracy theory is actually the plot of a 1980s novel which featured a biological agent that escaped from a facility in Wuhan that is now being passed around (by some) as fact.

Neil

[doubletopParticipant @doubletop]

An update from our friends in Australia

**LINK**

Pete

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Just when you thought it couldn't get any sillier, Woolworths Australia has issued a notice saying it will not refund the money for purchases of toilet paper to those now trying to take it all back to them.

No wonder a bloke spends his life in the shed talking to ancient piles of scrap metal.

[I.M. OUTAHEREParticipant @i-m-outahere]

I got a good laugh yesterday when i looked on ebay for toilet tissue ( just for something to do ) , one seller was auctioning one roll which was at $5 at the time with one bid but the hilarious thing was the $8.99 postage !

I went to my local industrial supplies store and got all the dunny roll i could ever want and cheaper than what it usually is at a shopping centre outlet .

Could this bog roll buying frenzy spawn a new currency ? Bog coin perhaps ?

Here in OZ this stuff has now become more addictive than Heroin !

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Cheaper second hand !!

Martin

[JAParticipant @ja]

I suppose it is a bit like a gold rush except that you have something useable at the end.

Now it is off to the supermarket to buy some more toilet rolls.

JA

[geoff walker 1Participant @geoffwalker1]

Just when you thought it couldn't get any sillier, Woolworths Australia has issued a notice saying it will not refund the money for purchases of toilet paper to those now trying to take it all back to them.

No wonder a bloke spends his life in the shed talking to ancient piles of scrap metal.

Love that Pete

Just been in Woolworths in Perth. Loads of toilet paper available. Panic over

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

I'm not sure what I am being ask to stop here...

Simple – the troll ouput such as " my friend … ; I heard …: I saw in the paper … etc. etc. "

There is rarely a problem which cannot be made worse by these unattributed claptrap posts. They should be stamped on immediately. The need is for more of the robust humour from 'dunnunder' … good on yer, blokes!

rgds

Bill

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Wish my wife had agreed to a bidet

Neil

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

You could always get one of these:

Should last a week or two

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