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Coronavirus

Coronavirus - The Poll

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jon81uk said:
This is super cynical. I think Captain Tom is fantastic and he has done an amazing job of raising money.
BUT once it got over several million its the media and his relatives that are more responsible for getting the huge sums. If they hadn't pushed it onto the news all day for the last few days it would never have got over a couple of million.
I still think he has done a remarkable thing, but it was a whole load of people that have caused it to be huge sums.
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I just mentioned this on the Pet Hates thread. The NHS should not be treated as a charity. We pay for it through our taxes. The more you earn, the more you pay in. Nobody should feel the need to donate and in fact all these stories on donations and clapping are diverting attention away from the government and how it's handling this situation
 
speedy said:
I just mentioned this on the Pet Hates thread. The NHS should not be treated as a charity. We pay for it through our taxes. The more you earn, the more you pay in. Nobody should feel the need to donate and in fact all these stories on donations and clapping are diverting attention away from the government and how it's handling this situation
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Oh thats an entirely different issue to the point I was making about the media attention.

The base function of the NHS should be funded by taxation (including National Insurance).

But Tom has been fundraising for https://www.nhscharitiestogether.co.uk

The NHS charities often fund other non-essential things, as well as large capital project. Yes often those capital projects should be government funded, but this isn't an idea world.
But the nice-to-have things they are currently raising money for mainly are to support the staff and families of the NHS workers, such as accommodation at hospitals so nurses can avoid travel and infecting their family. Or mental health support for staff and families.
The charities also cover research activity (similar to cancer research UK and other charities).

You can read about where some of the recent fundraising is going to here https://www.nhscharitiestogether.co...5m-to-nhs-charities-together-covid-19-appeal/

So yes, the day-to-day running should be taxation funded, but there are a lot of things that really help NHS staff that no employer would normally pay for.

Oh and edit to add.

I agree that the clapping is pointless, all those people who vote tory and don't want tax increases but will "clap for support" instead of actually paying taxes to support the NHS.
 
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The NHS has always been part funded by philanthropy and charity; wings and wards bear the names of people and businesses who have contributed since it's inception.

Comments that the NHS shouldn't need or receive donations, or insinuating it's something new because of current government underfunding, are just plain wrong. People who can give and want to give should give, whether that's £10 to something like this or £10,000,000 for a ward.
 
jon81uk said:
Oh thats an entirely different issue to the point I was making about the media attention.

The base function of the NHS should be funded by taxation (including National Insurance).

But Tom has been fundraising for https://www.nhscharitiestogether.co.uk

The NHS charities often fund other non-essential things, as well as large capital project. Yes often those capital projects should be government funded, but this isn't an idea world.
But the nice-to-have things they are currently raising money for mainly are to support the staff and families of the NHS workers, such as accommodation at hospitals so nurses can avoid travel and infecting their family. Or mental health support for staff and families.
The charities also cover research activity (similar to cancer research UK and other charities).

You can read about where some of the recent fundraising is going to here https://www.nhscharitiestogether.co...5m-to-nhs-charities-together-covid-19-appeal/

So yes, the day-to-day running should be taxation funded, but there are a lot of things that really help NHS staff that no employer would normally pay for.

Oh and edit to add.

I agree that the clapping is pointless, all those people who vote tory and don't want tax increases but will "clap for support" instead of actually paying taxes to support the NHS.
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Thanks for this. I didn't realise that there was a separate pot for "non essential" funds as such. For sure, people should not be donating to fund day to day operations.
 
speedy said:
Thanks for this. I didn't realise that there was a separate pot for "non essential" funds as such. For sure, people should not be donating to fund day to day operations.
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and I think that the charites do fund some things that could be seen as "essential" but they may help a hospital get something more state-of-the-art compared to their standard budget.
 
I have an intriguing question for you all; as some of you may know, the WHO hinted towards a future pandemic threat that could kill thousands of people worldwide in 2018 that they coined the term "Disease X" for. So my question is; do we think that coronavirus is Disease X?

My personal thought is that it is almost definitely Disease X, as it's most definitely caused mass deaths and disruption across the world like they said that Disease X would. In a way, I'd almost be slightly reassured if it was Disease X, because that would mean that we're very unlikely to see a pandemic of similar scale for many, many years after this has blown over, especially as I'd imagine that the world will become more careful not to let outbreaks spread after this.
 
Matt N said:
I have an intriguing question for you all; as some of you may know, the WHO hinted towards a future pandemic threat that could kill thousands of people worldwide in 2018 that they coined the term "Disease X" for. So my question is; do we think that coronavirus is Disease X?

My personal thought is that it is almost definitely Disease X, as it's most definitely caused mass deaths and disruption across the world like they said that Disease X would. In a way, I'd almost be slightly reassured if it was Disease X, because that would mean that we're very unlikely to see a pandemic of similar scale for many, many years after this has blown over, especially as I'd imagine that the world will become more careful not to let outbreaks spread after this.
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WHO seem to think it's disease X, it seems to fit.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
 
I don't see how having one pandemic directly reduces the chances of another one?

That's the same logic that dictates that "23 was the last number to come up on the roulette wheel so it won't be 23 next time".

Hopefully the infrastructure and corporate-memory will remain in place to better cope with any future pandemic though.
 
It's just statistics right? It's evidently quite rare for a virus mutation to cause such widespread deaths as it doesn't happen on this scale very often.

The odds don't change, much like if you win the lottery you're just as likely to win the following week if you play again... but the odds are just as remote as winning the first time, i.e. it's very unlikely.
 
The big test of the true scale of this (whether this is a 'disease x' if you like) will be the end of year death figures and whether that figure is significantly increased. It's a matter of whether significant numbers of people are dying 'with' covid-19 or 'of' covid-19 and so whether it's killed a significant number of people who wouldn't have died anyway within a short timeframe.
 
pluk said:
The big test of the true scale of this (whether this is a 'disease x' if you like) will be the end of year death figures and whether that figure is significantly increased. It's a matter of whether significant numbers of people are dying 'with' covid-19 or 'of' covid-19 and so whether it's killed a significant number of people who wouldn't have died anyway within a short timeframe.
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and due to lockdown there are fewer deaths by accidents and similar. We may also see lower deaths in general over the next few years as some of those people who had a pre-existing condition may have died next year but by catching the virus they sadly died earlier.
 
I wondered that myself, but then isn't the home supposed to be one of the most dangerous places?
 
The reason why I said that another pandemic of this scale is less likely is because the world is likely to have learned lessons from this one in order to prevent it from happening again.

Also, the fact that the last pandemic of this scale occurred over 100 years ago (Spanish flu in 1918) would suggest that they don't happen very often.
 
2019 - COVID19
2014 - Ebola
2012 - MERS
2009 - Swine Flu
2002 - SARS

and the biggie
1980 - HIV/AIDS

they are getting more and more frequent
 
Epidemics have always existed and there's always a few each year, but they are generally not that severe. I don't think they are getting more frequent. Have a look at the list here: List of epidemics

For the ones you listed, compare the number of deaths worldwide. Not all epidemics are equal.
  • 2019 - COVID19 - over 146,855 but still increasing daily
  • 2014 - Ebola - over 11,300
  • 2012 - MERS - 862
  • 2009 - Swine Flu - 151,700 to 575,400
  • 2002 - SARS - 774
  • 1980 - HIV/AIDS - over 32 million
  • And for completeness, 1918 - Spanish Flu - 17 to 100 million
 
I think the only pandemics out of the ones @bluesonichd listed were HIV, which is still ongoing, and swine flu, which some now think that the WHO was too hasty in declaring it a pandemic.

Of course epidemics occur far more frequently than once a century, but I was referring to a huge, deadly pandemic of this scale, and I believe that the last one was Spanish flu in 1918, correct me if I'm wrong.
 
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