covid dystopia

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garyboy
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Re: covid dystopia

Post by garyboy »

Thankyou Asgard :)

What I have written is a factual account of my experiences and feelings about this new thing.
I don't perceive myself as `the bad guy` or as taking the piss for self gratification, or annoyance to others.
My writings are a means of doing the boring time of `self isolation` .. which actually has more to do with the weather than the covid virus.
I have kept my personal thoughts separate from the two main threads on this subject, and it is up to the individual reader if they want to read this shite .. er .. personal account.


Now, I know I am going to upset at least one of my two readers, by confessing that I am a Global Warming / Climate Change denier.
The same with all this Covid Panic nonsense.

OI .. who left the room ..


Anyway .. HERD IMMUNITY

As soon as Boris mentioned the phrase .. `herd immunity` .. I knew that the government had given up on trying to control the spread of the virus .. and was going to leave nature take its course and let us old bikers die.
Further more there was mention of stripping away the ICU breathing masks off hopeless case OAPs and give them to people more able to respond.
If you are shocked by this and don't believe it .. they are already doing it on a routine long term basis … ask any nurse.
garyboy
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Re: covid dystopia

Post by garyboy »

to continue ..

Herd Immunity,

I decided this morning to go to the local Iceland to get some more toilet rolls .. seriously .. I am running perilously low, with just a couple of rolls left … how did that happen?

Anyway, the store was sold out, and I could see that the situation was getting very serious. .. not from the spread of the virus, but by panic buying .. and you can't really blame people. ,,
Toilet Roll availability will in future become the bar by which an epidemic is measured.

So .. .. I decided to get out on the bike.. and get some of that valuable `herd immunity`.
I already know I got loads and loads of woolly `flock immunity` as I .. well .. I .. I just know, ok?
So I decided to go up the Ranges to find a herd of cows. .. perhaps some had not been shot or splattered by the rooky troops on the rifle ranges .. you never know.

So I carefully got ready and wheeled the trusty NC steed out , together with lasso, looking forward to a nice sunny day, (as forecast), chasing cows across the training fields.
This immunity thing is worth the risk, man .. I mean !!
Wot with me being the most biker oap type at risk, due to my age, senility and sheer stupidity.
Last edited by garyboy on Sun Mar 15, 2020 10:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
garyboy
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Re: covid dystopia

Post by garyboy »

Guess what?

I had only been out 10 minutes when I did my usual anti-senility mental checklist .. and realised ..
I had forgotten my phone .. with cash and card .. all sitting nicely charging sat in my nice warm flat.

DOH … I just couldn't turn around because I am a real man .. so carried on regardless, thinking I had 4 bars left on the fuel gauge, which should take me to the bikers café in Llandovery, where I could converse, at close range, with younger bikers, and help spread the herd immunity thing.
I am good like that.

Then came the torrential rain .. and the cold .. and the poor visibility .. but not so poor I could not see that the fuel bars had got to 2 or 3 already .. jumping back and forth to tantalise me. 3.. then 2 .. then 3 again.

For once, I made a good decision .. and turned back .. just at the start of the ranges, at llywel.
I wanted to spend the day out, even in the rain, as it was all going well .. but the `discretion is the better part of valour` thing won through, as I know my NC gauge is a bit faulty or inconsistent at the low point. .. I would have to leave the female bovine chasing till another date.

Got home with wet dirty leathers, and sopping gloves .. but felt a whole lot better for getting out. :D
garyboy
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Re: covid dystopia

Post by garyboy »

ok .. so now there is talk of a `shutdown`.
Sounds logical.
Trouble is .. people like me, the most vulnerable age group, even though I am fit and healthy, apart from a mild cold, .. will be forced, by law, on pain of a huge fine, or imprisonment, to self-isolate (be imprisoned) in their own home.

Bloody ridiculous. !!

I can see a certain straight-forward single line thinking type of logic to this, .. its to protect people like me, from exposure etc ..
(coincidental is the fact that the people in power, in charge of this strategy, are also my age group .. the people that run the world are old bastards like me, but more selfish and ruthless then I can ever imagine). Its just that they already have their stockpiles of food and other essentials, including nuclear bunkers and ready supply of young blonde boys.

Poor innocents like me, who need to get out a bit, due to imposed isolation by society and family, for decades . will be the hardest hit.

These behavioural strategies, are simply not going to work .. we all know that … there will be defiance and a necessity for self preservation that will see society as we know it, break down. Then we will really see a dystopian covid world. .. destroyed not by the virus, but by the extremes of human behaviour, and the need for self preservation. Truly frightening.

But not caused by any virus .. but by the peoples leaders. .. and by the subservient peoples overreactions.
Last edited by garyboy on Mon Mar 16, 2020 4:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
garyboy
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Re: covid dystopia

Post by garyboy »

The truth is .. no-one can stop any virus .. especially by setting stringent rules for human behaviour .. it just won't work, from that point of view, as human behaviour will change to adapt, and from the point of view of nature itself, the virus is cleverer than us.

These corona viruses are airborne and highly infectious .. they breed in our lung cells, and gain advantage from close contact.
If we dont have close contact the human race will go mad .. its how we are made .. how we have evolved to dominate the planet.
Any isolation of individuals, groups, age types etc etc will simply slow down the virus spread. It will not stop the spread, and either way, hospital facilities will be overwhelmed by infected people.

Thing is, not all of these people will die .. just the vulnerable, At least, until the virus mutates.

So in my mind, ther is a case for simply letting nature take its course .. that way .. yes there will be herd immunity built up in an unfortunate way .. but at least it will be over quickly, and not put a prolonged strain on our health systems, which could last over a year .. or a lot more, due to incorrect human intervention. And lead to an intolerable and fatal world situation.
Last edited by garyboy on Mon Mar 16, 2020 4:13 am, edited 2 times in total.
garyboy
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Re: covid dystopia

Post by garyboy »

The truth is .. that we have been living through a golden age of the human race .. especially us baby boomers.
All species on the planet have thrived and multiplied and then gone.

There are varied reasons for this .. meteors, natural climate change, ice ages, food supplies, drought, changing specie conditions or competitors, etc.

It is good that we, as humans, have the intelligence and power to try to change things .. but we all know that the world is overpopulated, and that we are living unsustainably, not by resource, but by greed and selfish preference.

Because I am over 70, does not mean that I should be punished by threat of imprisonment, by not being able to ride the only thing I have to keep me fit and sane. .. but condemned to a life of continuous cabin fever.

And how would it be policed .. police data base pings on my number plate?
ID checks by troops carrying guns?
Shooting of anyone that just looks old?
Shooting of anyone actually caught outside for some life-giving fresh air. The very thing that can save us?
Neighbour turning on neighbour (nothing new there then, its like a vipers den in my block of flats)

All this is beginning to sound familiar, in concept .. the holocaust .. the death pogroms .. crystal nacht ..
Perhaps the apocalypse films were right after all ..
A visionary foresight of what is to come.

But ,, the annoying thing .. all created by humans.

I'm off on my bike again today .. may be one of the last !! ??


Dont be fooled by illogical dogma.
This is not the black death.
But a black night for the human race, in terms of common sense.
garyboy
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Re: covid dystopia

Post by garyboy »

ps..if you don't like or agree with my reasoning,
try to respond with your own logic and ideas or points of view, and not resort to personal denigration, or trolling.
sledgegreen
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Re: covid dystopia

Post by sledgegreen »

"ok .. so now there is talk of a `shutdown`.
Sounds logical.
Trouble is .. people like me, the most vulnerable age group, even though I am fit and healthy, apart from a mild cold, .. will be forced, by law, on pain of a huge fine, or imprisonment, to self-isolate (be imprisoned) in their own home.

Bloody ridiculous. !!

I can see a certain straight-forward single line thinking type of logic to this, .. its to protect people like me, from exposure etc"


I think that there are a number of flaws in this statement, but I will begin with "I am fit and healthy, apart from a mild cold". Normally, I would agree with this statement, but in the the current circumstances a 'mild cold' represents a significant additional risk factor. A major part of our protection against viruses, bacteria and other potentially harmful beasties is the physical barrier which is our outer surface covering. Most of our surface area is covered by skin, and the areas which are not covered by skin are covered by mucous membranes - eyes, mouth, ear canals, nostrils, genital, urinary and digestive tracts. To cause an infection, most organisms need to penetrate this outer layer, and it is only when this barrier is penetrated that other parts of our immune systems come into play. Skin is a harder barrier to penetrate than are the mucous membranes, which is why those areas which ae covered with mucous membranes are frequent sites of infection STIs, Upper Respiratory Tract Infections, Urinary Tract Infections, Ear infections etc etc.

Having a 'mild cold' means that the mucous membranes of your upper respiratory tract are already inflamed, which further increases your vulnerability to COVID-19.

Being at increased vulnerability does not just mean that you more likely to catch the virus. I also means that you are likely to develop a more severe form of the disease. You will probably be sicker, and so more likely to need hospital care and less likely to respond well to treatment. You are also more likely to shed a lot of fresh viruses, so you pose a greater threat to the rest of the population. A few days ago, Asgard provided a link to a Lancet paper by Roy Anderson and his colleagues (https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPd ... %2930567-5). One of the important points made in that paper was that we do not yet know whether people who ar infected become infectious before or after symptoms develop, so it is possible that people will start spreading the disease whilst still apparently 'fit and healthy'.

I agree with you that 'to protect people like me, from exposure' is 'straight-forward single line thinking type of logic'. However, I think that the Govt (and especially their advisors' have gone a long way beyond that. The aim of the Government's strategy is to disrupt transmission of the virus. Those people who are at greatest risk of catching the disease also present a high risk of disseminating the virus. Isolating high risk individuals does not just protect those individuals, it also reduces the strain on the NHS, and protects all those people that might be infected by those people. And the people that those people might infect etc etc.


"Any isolation of individuals, groups, age types etc etc will simply slow down the virus spread."

This is true, but you seem to imply that slowing down the spread is pointless. In fact, it is a major part of the governments strategy. There are two reasons for this. First is that the hospitals are always hardest pressed in the winter months, because of seasonal illnesses and injuries. This is why so many elective procedures are done in the summer. Delaying the virus spread so that the peak incidence occurs as late in the summer as possible will mean that the NHS is best able to cope. Delaying the spread of the virus also means that the build up of additional resources can be maximised.
Richard Simpson Mark II
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Re: covid dystopia

Post by Richard Simpson Mark II »

Pull yourself together, chaps!


garyboy
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Re: covid dystopia

Post by garyboy »

Thankyou Sledgegreen for your concern about my snot :D
I will try not to spread it around too much 8-)
BTW a runny nose is a symptom of a COLD, which is also caused by the corona virus, but not a symptom of the covid 19 virus.

I think it is already established that the virus can be spread even before symptoms appear .
I believe that once infected, the virus can spread from that individual, whether it is an old vulnerable person, or a young asymptomatic person. So I guess that I (and other old people) am no more a public liability than anyone else, as even young persons still have the virus in them, even though it does not show.

You mention a `more severe form of the disease` .. I am not aware of a more severe form of the covid virus atm, just a more severe reaction in older people, but it is the same virus infecting all age groups.

My point about the `delay` strategy (or `pretend` strategy, as there is no sign of it being under control at all) .. is that by delaying the inevitable, with the good idea of allowing the nhs to cope over a longer period, the whole country will be put under great stress for a longer period, causing deaths from cabin fever, suicides, depression, panic, lack of food at shops, riots, troop control etc etc putting the economic systems, business, travel jobs, etc etc etc at a greater risk of failing. or being of limited use. causing greater suffering for the good people of this country, and world wide.

My personal view is that there should be simply a recommendation, as at present, for vulnerable and old people to remain at home, if they wish .. but to allow large gathering of people and for the nation to continue business as usual.

If there is such a thing as herd immunity, then it is these stronger people that will develop it.
Though nothing is guaranteed of course.
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