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Coronavirus

Coronavirus - The Poll

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Previous news stories showed close links between the head of the WHO and China. The WHO did not criticise China in any way during this outbreak. They did mention anything about the delay in reporting the outbreak, the cover ups, the forced imprisonment of people into their homes, or the false reporting. When you now look at the figures coming out of other countries on a chart and compare them to China, along with the age groups which have been dying you can clearly see just how false China's figures are.

So no, I wont ever stop bashing China over this and quite frankly I hope the rest of the world completely shuns them. They had their chance with SARS to change but didn't. And if news stories about markets are correct being back open, they still haven't learnt.

While Trump did delay rolling out testing and PPE (as did our government), this was partly due to the WHO playing down this virus. If you recall they didn't declare it a pandemic for weeks after experts around the world already were. No excuse I know but I do think countries are right to investigate for themselves the links between the WHO and China and why they were so afraid of any form of criticism. Although we know the answer to that already...... money.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/C...China-ties-slow-decision-to-declare-emergency

Just to quote from that article one section:

"China and the WHO have extremely close ties," a diplomatic source in Beijing said. China is the world's second-largest financial contributor to the U.N. The WHO's previous director-general, Margaret Chan, was nominated to the post by the Chinese government after spearheading Hong Kong's response to SARS.

Using its diplomatic weight, China has blocked Taiwan's attendance at the WHO's annual health assembly since 2017, the year after China skeptic Tsai Ing-wen became the island's president.

China also provides significant aid to Ethiopia, the home country of current WHO chief Tedros. "
 
If there's anyone to trust in this sort of situation, it's the World Health Organisation. They have no reason to be biased towards any particular country; their very name proves that they're there for the good of the entire world!
 
Matt N said:
If there's anyone to trust in this sort of situation, it's the World Health Organisation. They have no reason to be biased towards any particular country; their very name proves that they're there for the good of the entire world!
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You'd like to think so but its their bias towards China this time which has really exposed them. Well, I say them, I dont think its "them" as a collective but there is obviously significant monetary influence involved here.
 
@GaryH are you criticising China or the WHO? Your post seems to conflate them.

From what I can see your only complaint is the WHO didn't criticise China and they didn't declare it a pandemic soon enough. Everything else in your post was aimed at China.
 
Alsty said:
@GaryH are you criticising China or the WHO? Your post seems to conflate them.

From what I can see your only complaint is the WHO didn't criticise China and they didn't declare it a pandemic soon enough. Everything else in your post was aimed at China.
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Ok, fair point. First and foremost China is the blame in all of this.

With regards the WHO, as we saw from the various press conferences during the initial outbreak, there was no criticism whatsoever against China from the head of the WHO. No mention of the people who tried to alert the world but who were silenced by the authorities, and no mention of China knowing about this earlier yet keeping it quiet. There was a lot of puzzling going on amongst scientists and other experts around the world (as seen in various news feeds, Twitter etc) as to why the WHO seemed to be so afraid of any form of negative comment towards the way the Chinese regime had handled this outbreak or its secrecy.

They were also extremely slow in declaring a pandemic when other countries already had done so. I believe what Trump (and I believe other countries including the UK and Australia) are asking is why did the WHO behave in this manor. Was it because of the money China pumps into their organisation, or the close links its head has with President Xi.

As a global organisation I agree, they should be for the greater good and I do believe they do make a considerable impact around the world, however, if the USA is paying millions of dollars to an organisation, which on this occasion, for reasons unknown as yet, has been very bias towards China, they Trump has the right to withhold their contribution until they can investigate this.

I believe the seriousness of this virus was also muted and played down by the WHO, which may be due to the limited information they were getting out of China, or may have been to try and protect the Chinese economy. After all, it was the WHO and President Xi who criticised countries for imposing travel bans early into this pandemic, but in hindsight, if the virus had been contained earlier in Wuhan (authorities knew about this in November apparently) then we may have avoided such a global catastrophe as we are now witnessing.
 
GaryH said:
Ok, fair point. First and foremost China is the blame in all of this.
As a global organisation I agree, they should be for the greater good and I do believe they do make a considerable impact around the world, however, if the USA is paying millions of dollars to an organisation, which on this occasion, for reasons unknown as yet, has been very bias towards China, they Trump has the right to withhold their contribution until they can investigate this..
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You're being being had, or alternatively, you're letting your desire for revenge overshadow an incredibly delicate and still unfolding situation.

Regardless of how you feel about China, Trump's decision to defund WHO is irresponsible, dehumanising and only being used for political leverage or to shift the blame. He has radically screwed up his opportunity to lead in the run-up to an election, and as the bodies of citizens pile up, he is shifting the blame and punishing the rest of the world. It's the worst thing under his watch so far, without doubt.
 
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Lockdown going well in Lancashire. Just taken the dog for a wander by the canal, big groups of the youth congregating, one lot with a BBQ.

I feel like people are about to crack because the sun is shining, which really undermines everyone's efforts thus far.
 
Apparently, the government still maintains that the majority of people are following it really well. In fact, many government sources apparently imply that less adherence was expected. For example, 20% of pupils were expected to still be in school; the actual figure ended up being 2%. Far more people were expected to be in work still, and the government only expected 3 million people to apply for the furloughing scheme, whereas the actual figure was 9 million.
 
You can bag on the WHO for not saying anything sooner, but even when they did say something we just sat our hands and said it was no big deal until the very last possible second. China has a lot to answer for in this crisis, but it's not like the rest of the world suddenly jumped into action at the first sign of trouble either.
 
Dar said:
You can bag on the WHO for not saying anything sooner, but even when they did say something we just sat our hands and said it was no big deal until the very last possible second. China has a lot to answer for in this crisis, but it's not like the rest of the world suddenly jumped into action at the first sign of trouble either.
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I do agree with you on that, the UK and other countries were far too slow and there is no excuse for the continued lack of PPE even now, however, I do wonder if they thought the virus was not as deadly as first thought given the data coming out of China indicated that it primarily affected only the elderly and those with existing conditions - which we are seeing is not actually the case.
 
GaryH said:
given the data coming out of China indicated that it primarily affected only the elderly and those with existing conditions - which we are seeing is not actually the case.
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You've said that twice but I'm curious where this claim is coming from. The Information is Beautiful dashboard shows the percentage of deaths for each age group in Italy and China is similar:

corona_deathages.jpg
 
High-street fashion chains Oasis and Warehouse have collapsed into administration, affecting 2,000 workers across 92 branches and 437 concessions.
I guess the government support didnt help :confused:
lockdown needs to start being lifted soon or there will be nothing left to go back to
 
Rick said:
Lockdown going well in Lancashire. Just taken the dog for a wander by the canal, big groups of the youth congregating, one lot with a BBQ.

I feel like people are about to crack because the sun is shining, which really undermines everyone's efforts thus far.
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As I mentioned a few days ago, people are just giving up on it and not making the effort like they did a couple of weeks ago. Got home today to a gathering of people from at least 3 different households in the garden of a house opposite me (I can see into the garden as our house is elevated) and lots more traffic on the roads than usual. People getting really upset about having to walk a certain way down supermarket aisles. Groups of people congregating on streets greeting each other by shaking hands etc. Same people going shopping EVERY DAY where I work showing an absolute disregard for our staff's safety as long as they get to have a bit of a leisurely browse around every day or to buy another trolley load of Easter eggs. Absolute disgrace the people in this country are. Getting paid to sit on their ar**s in the house and they can't even manage that. Sums our lot up perfectly. I'm getting very bitter about it all now in all honesty.
 
I see more and more traffic on the roads, more and more people out "walking" every day
people are getting to the "fck it" thinking point.
3 more weeks and it will be all back to normal no matter what the Gov say :confused:
 
BarryZola said:
As I mentioned a few days ago, people are just giving up on it and not making the effort like they did a couple of weeks ago. Got home today to a gathering of people from at least 3 different households in the garden of a house opposite me (I can see into the garden as our house is elevated) and lots more traffic on the roads than usual. People getting really upset about having to walk a certain way down supermarket aisles. Groups of people congregating on streets greeting each other by shaking hands etc. Same people going shopping EVERY DAY where I work showing an absolute disregard for our staff's safety as long as they get to have a bit of a leisurely browse around every day or to buy another trolley load of Easter eggs. Absolute disgrace the people in this country are. Getting paid to sit on their ar**s in the house and they can't even manage that. Sums our lot up perfectly. I'm getting very bitter about it all now in all honesty.
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I know this won't help and people can be vile and inconsiderate but 90% of people who are following the rules are really thankful for you supermarket workers. My mum works in pharmacy and she said she feels like supermarket and pharmacy staff have been forgotten about - so we're thankful for what you're doing and we do appreciate it :)
 
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