Fuck this fucking virus with a fucking farm implement.

17810121335

Comments

  • TelepathTelepath Shipmate
    Dyson. Self-promoting egotist who just sucks.

    Nice gesture: design a new ventilator. But, we don't need a new design of ventilator at this time (even if, on paper, it's marginally better than existing designs): we don't have the time to test it to make sure it works properly, we don't have time to train staff in how to use it. What we need are thousands of copies of existing designs that we know work and that health service staff know how to use.

    Isn't the idea that it uses a lot of existing parts so production can be ramped up faster using dyson's stockpile? Presumably there's also time and effort saved by creating a basic model that works for the specific situation rather than a general model with more bells and whistles. Dyson is certainly an egotist, a poundshop Elon Musk, if you will, but that doesn't make his solution the wrong one.

    It might be the right solution, but that doesn't help because there's no way to deploy it fast enough unless you propose to field test it on thousands of critically ill patients. That's assuming it could actually be produced as fast as advertised, which somehow I don't think so.

    There are ventilator manufacturers that have or had ventilators ready to deploy, answered the govt's call, and the govt blew them off.

  • Telepath wrote: »
    Dyson. Self-promoting egotist who just sucks.

    Nice gesture: design a new ventilator. But, we don't need a new design of ventilator at this time (even if, on paper, it's marginally better than existing designs): we don't have the time to test it to make sure it works properly, we don't have time to train staff in how to use it. What we need are thousands of copies of existing designs that we know work and that health service staff know how to use.

    Isn't the idea that it uses a lot of existing parts so production can be ramped up faster using dyson's stockpile? Presumably there's also time and effort saved by creating a basic model that works for the specific situation rather than a general model with more bells and whistles. Dyson is certainly an egotist, a poundshop Elon Musk, if you will, but that doesn't make his solution the wrong one.

    It might be the right solution, but that doesn't help because there's no way to deploy it fast enough unless you propose to field test it on thousands of critically ill patients. That's assuming it could actually be produced as fast as advertised, which somehow I don't think so.

    There are ventilator manufacturers that have or had ventilators ready to deploy, answered the govt's call, and the govt blew them off.

    Really? That's bad. Which ones, do you know? I'm sure that one of the opposition parties will be glad to know and eager to use such ammunition knowledge.
  • EutychusEutychus Shipmate
    That's subscription-only. I didn't have you pegged as an FT subscriber...
  • chrisstileschrisstiles Shipmate
    edited March 2020
    Telepath wrote: »
    Dyson. Self-promoting egotist who just sucks.

    Nice gesture: design a new ventilator. But, we don't need a new design of ventilator at this time (even if, on paper, it's marginally better than existing designs): we don't have the time to test it to make sure it works properly, we don't have time to train staff in how to use it. What we need are thousands of copies of existing designs that we know work and that health service staff know how to use.

    Isn't the idea that it uses a lot of existing parts so production can be ramped up faster using dyson's stockpile? Presumably there's also time and effort saved by creating a basic model that works for the specific situation rather than a general model with more bells and whistles. Dyson is certainly an egotist, a poundshop Elon Musk, if you will, but that doesn't make his solution the wrong one.

    It might be the right solution, but that doesn't help because there's no way to deploy it fast enough unless you propose to field test it on thousands of critically ill patients. That's assuming it could actually be produced as fast as advertised, which somehow I don't think so.

    There are ventilator manufacturers that have or had ventilators ready to deploy, answered the govt's call, and the govt blew them off.

    Really? That's bad. Which ones, do you know? I'm sure that one of the opposition parties will be glad to know and eager to use such ammunition knowledge.

    There - the companies referred to are MEC Medical and Topland.

    But ultimately this kind of story only gets carry if the media decides it does -- and at the moment they are fairly happy to take what the government says on trust and report it (the government claimed to have missed out on the EU procurement because of a missed email after Matt Hancock had gone on TV the week before to confirm receipt of the invitation - nothing happened).
  • Eutychus wrote: »
    That's subscription-only. I didn't have you pegged as an FT subscriber...

    I'm not. But perhaps my phone is...
  • There - the companies referred to are MEC Medical and Topland.

    But ultimately this kind of story only gets carry if the media decides it does -- and at the moment they are fairly happy to take what the government says on trust and report it (the government claimed to have missed out on the EU procurement because of a missed email after Matt Hancock had gone on TV the week before to confirm receipt of the invitation - nothing happened).

    Can you imagine the panic if the public realised they were being led through a global crisis by a bunch of incompetents who not only don't know their arse from their elbows, but are also wilfully malicious?

    There are very good reasons for the press to bury both cock-up and conspiracy at the moment. I'd much rather they didn't have to.
  • Eutychus wrote: »
    That's subscription-only. I didn't have you pegged as an FT subscriber...
    I think it's subscriber only outside the UK, as I can also read it OK (and, also not an FT subscriber). Also subscription so I'm only going by the initial paragraph preview from The Times
    Direct Access, a company based in Nantwich, Cheshire, and supplier to the NHS, contacted the health department early last week after acquiring an initial 5,000 ventilators. ...
    But its email went unanswered, despite further appeals, and the ventilators were snapped up by other countries.
  • Explanations are being offered, I’m not sure how much I believe them.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    I feel for them and for you Twilight. IIRC correctly your son works for said retailer, as does my brother, who, as an atheist may not appreciate my prayers, never the less he has them. As do all in jobs that deal with the public.

    I read of volunteers here using 3D printers to make face shields. It's amazing the ideas people come up with.
  • Huia wrote: »
    I feel for them and for you Twilight. IIRC correctly your son works for said retailer, as does my brother, who, as an atheist may not appreciate my prayers, never the less he has them. As do all in jobs that deal with the public.

    I read of volunteers here using 3D printers to make face shields. It's amazing the ideas people come up with.

    I suggest you don't try this at home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzGrh2io9Ds
  • Twilight wrote: »
    US's number one retail employer allows its people to take unpaid leave for the duration, but they must, "call in" every morning of their leave. The call-in is done online and is so complicated, or overloaded, that we've been working on it for the last three hours and not succeeding. Many of these minimum wage employees don't have computers at all. One of the things the complicated program asks for is a three week schedule provided online or at the store. * Many pages of online small print reveal (#27,) that health insurance will stop if premiums (normally deducted from paycheck) are not paid by the employee and submitted by Friday of the pay week.* No address given.

    * Employees are not allowed to enter the store while on leave.

    All across America grocery clerks and fast food drive thru workers are being asked to risk their lives for minimum wage and/or health insurance.

    Capitalism kills.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host
    Huia wrote: »
    I feel for them and for you Twilight. IIRC correctly your son works for said retailer, as does my brother, who, as an atheist may not appreciate my prayers, never the less he has them. As do all in jobs that deal with the public.

    I read of volunteers here using 3D printers to make face shields. It's amazing the ideas people come up with.

    I suggest you don't try this at home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzGrh2io9Ds

    Indeed.
  • Twilight--

    If it's the company I'm thinking of, with greeters at the door, I'm surprised their workers get insurance at all. I'd heard they didn't.
  • TwilightTwilight Shipmate
    Golden Key wrote: »
    Twilight--

    If it's the company I'm thinking of, with greeters at the door, I'm surprised their workers get insurance at all. I'd heard they didn't.

    That's the place! They do have insurance, but the first year the worker has to pay 80% of his doctor/hospital bill so it's almost like not having any. It's much better after the first year, I think it flips and the insurance pays 80%.
  • {Copying part of this from my post on the "Coronavirus" thead in Purg.}
    Golden Key wrote: »
    --"Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Says Medical Vendors Told Not To 'Send Stuff' To Michigan" (Yahoo, from HuffPost).

    --California finally got some respirators from the national stockpile...and they don't work. Grrrrr. A California manufacturer is working on "refurbishing" them. I don't know that T had anything to do with that, or that it was at all on purpose. Maybe no one monitored the condition of the ventilators. But T is often mad at California, and Gov. Gavin Newsom particularly.

    Someone really, really, really needs to distract T so that grownups can make better decisions about/for the country at this time. Perhaps wave of bag of McDonald's goodies in front of him? Then either send him to one of his homes (e.g., Trump Tower NYC, Mar-a-Lago), or put him in that place in the White House basement that served as VP Cheney's "undisclosed location". Keep him plied with his favorite fast food and lots of ice cream (one scoop more than anyone else's, as he insists). Maybe show him how to do virtual golf with a Wii program, or set up miniature golf elsewhere in the basement. Set up a fake Internet, so he can tweet to his heart's content, get "replies", and never actually get his tweets out to the world.

    Melania and Barron can go elsewhere.

  • chrisstileschrisstiles Shipmate
    edited March 2020
    BroJames wrote: »
    Huia wrote: »
    I feel for them and for you Twilight. IIRC correctly your son works for said retailer, as does my brother, who, as an atheist may not appreciate my prayers, never the less he has them. As do all in jobs that deal with the public.

    I read of volunteers here using 3D printers to make face shields. It's amazing the ideas people come up with.

    I suggest you don't try this at home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzGrh2io9Ds

    Indeed.

    I occasionally order electronic components from a Chinese site - their promotional emails are generally on point, nevertheless I was amused by the latest selection.
  • I am having a bad day! Despite having cancer, and a buggered up immune system because of chemo, I can't get home deliveries because I'm not registered as vulnerable. I don't like being ill, I don't like being reminded I'm ill, and I HATE endless phone calls and form filling where I have to prove I'm ill! Fuck the entire fucking situation.
  • TwilightTwilight Shipmate
    So John Prine has been hospitalized with Covid-19 symptoms (he's had cancer twice) and Bob Dylan has given us a sad song about the Kennedy assassination as sort of a goodbye gift I feel like my generation is bowing out.
  • TheOrganistTheOrganist Shipmate
    edited March 2020
    from The Times[/url]
    Direct Access, a company based in Nantwich, Cheshire, and supplier to the NHS, contacted the health department early last week after acquiring an initial 5,000 ventilators. ...
    But its email went unanswered, despite further appeals, and the ventilators were snapped up by other countries.
    My God. Scandalous doesn't begin to describe that.
  • I am having a bad day! Despite having cancer, and a buggered up immune system because of chemo, I can't get home deliveries because I'm not registered as vulnerable. I don't like being ill, I don't like being reminded I'm ill, and I HATE endless phone calls and form filling where I have to prove I'm ill! Fuck the entire fucking situation.

    Amen!!!!
  • I don't like being ill, I don't like being reminded I'm ill, and I HATE endless phone calls and form filling where I have to prove I'm ill!
    From people who know people I know ... that's just a normal day for anyone with an illness or disability needing to rely on Universal Credit.
  • Its normal even if you don't need UC just things like Attendance or Carers allowance. The best bit of advice we were given at our initial meeting with the hospice team was to stock up on passport photographs and certified copies of birth and marriage certificates.
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    Similar red tape exists on this side of the pond. When my father was still alive, his income toward the end was low enough to qualify him for the state-sponsored assistance that in most states is called Medicaid but in Arizona is called Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (usually identified by the acronym AHCCCS, pronounced "Access"). What a misnomer. To make a long story short, we had to hire an attorney to complete the process for us, it was so complicated.
  • Several cases of dangerously stupid and religious.
    Florida pastor thinks he's smarter than public health

    Stupid head cabinet minister in Sask, where I live. Which is as full of sh** as anywhere else (and so am I).
  • Dear Lord!

    The first is terrible. The second is just ridiculous.
  • In the same category as the Florida pastor is Jerry Falwell, Jr., head of Liberty University, an evangelical place started by his dad, televangelist Jerry Falwell, Sr.

    He, too, is denying the seriousness of the situation, and rejecting the medical advice on how to protect people (Salon). He had the students come back to campus after Spring Break--not just the kids with nowhere else to go, but *everyone*. 1,900 came back, but 800+ have since left. Around a dozen of those who stayed have shown symptoms. Not all were tested, or even saw an off-campus doctor. Some were told to self-quarantine. One student tested positive.

    JF Jr. is being a total idiot about this, including publicly spouting conspiracy theories. E.g., N. Korea and maybe China purposely set the virus loose to hurt America. (That's not in that particular article; but the Washington Post and many other outlets have it.)

    I was no fan of his dad; but I'm not sure even he would be this stupid without backing down.

    Oh, and there's a quickly-growing petition online to fire him.

    Grrrr.
  • He always struck me as an entitled knuckle.
  • EutychusEutychus Shipmate
    edited March 2020
    Meanwhile, founder of the White House Bible study group Capitol Ministries Ralph Drollinger blames gays and environmentalists for covid-19. Apparently, those in attendance at the studies include Pompeo, Betsy Davos, and... health secretary Alex Azar (Source (in French)).
  • anoesisanoesis Shipmate
    Eutychus wrote: »
    Meanwhile, founder of the White House Bible study group Capitol Ministries Ralph Drollinger blames gays and environmentalists for covid-19.
    I am not, on the whole, a fan of this guy, but he's got some solid-gold answers for those who trade in signs and wonders and portents and blaming of gays for bad things what are happening right now...
    (His uhk-cent is twangy even to my ears so will probably really hurt those of you who are used to English-english, but stick with it, the best bit is near the end).
  • TwilightTwilight Shipmate
    I'm going to the grocery store! First time out since March 12th!
    I'm so excited I've been awake since 2 AM. I feel like my Irish Setter fresh off the leash!
  • Yay, Twilight!
  • @anoesis Thank you for the link to that wonderful speech in the NZ Parliament. I wish it could be on a loop on the BBC.
  • Yes indeed. Witty, and very much to the point.
  • And, now a bunch of blasphemous charlatans masquerading as Christians have started preying on the vulnerable victims of this virus in New York. Enough to make you sick.
  • Lord, have mercy, and protect any gay person who happens to fall into the hands of these evil people...
  • As if people infected with Covid-19 didn't have enough to cope with :rage:
  • Well, when I wrote that post about Jerry Falwell, Jr. above, I wondered if he and Franklin Graham hung out together. Based on that article, Franklin is much, much worse.

    Wherever his dad, Billy Graham, is now, I suspect this does not make him happy.
  • bunnywithanaxebunnywithanaxe Admin Emeritus
    Lyda wrote: »
    As a Californian in earthquake country I sort of habitually keep the larder full of non-perishables. But then I don't inventory for years. I just threw out about a third of my stockpile. On the other hand I find I have quantities of canned chicken breast, mac and cheese (the florescent orange kind), corn bread mixes (?!), chili, several boxes of crackers, lots of pasta but little to make sauces. And on the bright side there is a little truck farm near us that is open air where I can make fresh produce runs while keeping good social distance.

    And if you can't find bleach, you might be able to go under the radar and score some distilled vinegar. While the bleach and disinfectants aisle was bare, I scored a gallon of vinegar in the salad dressing section.

    My mom has always shopped like a West Virginian survivalist, and for the first time in my life I am grateful for this. We won’t run out of toilet paper, soup, mayonnaise, Raisin Bran, or canned peas until summer.

  • EutychusEutychus Shipmate
    Hey, @bunnywithanaxe ! Is coming on SoF part of breaking into your survivalist rations too? If so, good ;)
  • Let's have a shout out for Coronavirus Arseholes Of The Day... "Christian" "Concern" who have decided that the most important think they can do right now is to challenge the change in the rules on medical abortion in England. Just... fuck off. Then fuck off again. No, no, keep fucking off. And fuck off a bit more, to be sure.
  • Kelly, good to see you! :)
  • Let's have a shout out for Coronavirus Arseholes Of The Day... "Christian" "Concern" who have decided that the most important think they can do right now is to challenge the change in the rules on medical abortion in England. Just... fuck off. Then fuck off again. No, no, keep fucking off. And fuck off a bit more, to be sure.
    Neither Christian nor Concerned ... constantly stooping to be more obnoxious than the last time the deigned to "bless" us with one of their pronouncements.

  • Sainsbury's have recognised me as vulnerable, and I get a delivery tomorrow!
  • Let's have a shout out for Coronavirus Arseholes Of The Day... "Christian" "Concern" who have decided that the most important think they can do right now is to challenge the change in the rules on medical abortion in England. Just... fuck off. Then fuck off again. No, no, keep fucking off. And fuck off a bit more, to be sure.
    Neither Christian nor Concerned ... constantly stooping to be more obnoxious than the last time the deigned to "bless" us with one of their pronouncements.

    God help them, the good people of Chichester Diocese have the leader of CC, Andrea Minchiello Williams, "representing" them on GS.
  • Sainsbury's have recognised me as vulnerable, and I get a delivery tomorrow!

    Yayyyyy! This is the very best of news.
  • Sainsbury's have recognised me as vulnerable, and I get a delivery tomorrow!

    That's great news!
  • Anselmina wrote: »
    Sainsbury's have recognised me as vulnerable, and I get a delivery tomorrow!

    That's great news!

    Well, yes, of course - but how odd that being vulnerable is suddenly a Good-ish Thing!

    The World Turned Upside Down, indeed (and I don't mean the pub in the Old Kent Road, Sarf London)
    Let's have a shout out for Coronavirus Arseholes Of The Day... "Christian" "Concern" who have decided that the most important think they can do right now is to challenge the change in the rules on medical abortion in England. Just... fuck off. Then fuck off again. No, no, keep fucking off. And fuck off a bit more, to be sure.

    Yes, and when they've fucked off to The Uttermost Parts Of The Sea (Psalm 139, IIRC - after all, TIACW), let them then fuck off a bit further still. If this were Discworld, they would then fall off completely, and hopefully dash their brains out on one of the flippers of Great A'Tuin.

    O wait...that presupposes that they have brains...
    :rage:

  • Golden Key wrote: »
    Kelly, good to see you! :)

    Hear!
  • A friend asked me, why won't everyone be infected. Errm, I stuttered over that. Presumably the lockdown shrinks the available candidates, then some get it and become immune, and in the end, there is a vaccine. Am I missing something?
Sign In or Register to comment.