Sounds like someone finally snapped and started leaking the memos.
Iain Duncan Smith is a right Jeremy Hunt.
He (and his Tory cronies and big business mates) wants the NHS to collapse under the weight of corona-virus. Then they can turn around and say that the NHS is not fit for purpose, scrap the whole thing, and dump the assets to private healthcare providers for pennies on the dollar, and turn the whole UK health provision into a fees-charging private healthcare system (syphoning taxpayer dollars into off-shore accounts for minimum-level free care and charging like a wounded bull for anything else) with their insurance buddies on the sidelines rubbing their hands with anticipation.
They will have similar plans with the welfare system - they want to use the financial crisis triggered by corona-virus to appoint their mates to manage financial support for the corona-virus recovery, so they can steal taxpayer funds, minimise actual payments to people who need the money, and create wage-slavery for the working and lower-middle class in the UK based on zero-hour contracts.
Have you seen how incompetent Serco/G4S have been at running the UK track-and-trace system - imagine healthcare and welfare run by that set of clowns …
47,326,715 total cases
1,211,421 dead
34,035,878 recovered
In the US:
9,567,543 total cases
236,997 dead
6,171,402 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
A new lockdown, the country’s second, began today in Austria. The restrictions are slightly less onerous than the previous lockdown in March, but still much tighter than what we’ve been all living with over the summer. The new rules, which are expected to be in force for a month, are as follows:
- Everyone is expected to work from home where possible.
- Restaurants, cafés, and bars are completely closed except for take-out and delivery.
- Sport and fitness centres, including pools and gyms, are closed.
- Cultural events, including plays, movies, concerts, etc., are banned.
- Hotels and tourist services are closed.
- All other shops and services (grocery stores, markets, barbers, etc.) remain open, but they must close every night by 19:00, and must admit a maximum of one customer per 10 m² of floor space.
- Universities and secondary schools must conduct courses by distance learning only. Primary schools, kindergartens, and daycares remain open.
- Religious services may be conducted as usual, except that social distancing must be observed, and there is a ban on singing.
- Hospital visitations are severely restricted.
- There is a general curfew in place between 20:00 and 06:00. Leaving one’s home is permitted only to travel to and from work, for exercise, to procure essential goods and services (e.g., medicine), or to help others confined to their homes.
- Public demonstrations and protests are still allowed, provided that social distancing is observed.
Wearing face coverings in outdoor markets, and in indoor public spaces, continues to be mandatory.
Also, you may already have heard that last night there was a terrorist attack in Vienna’s central district, where I work. There is speculation that last night was chosen specifically because the city’s restaurants and cafés would be busier than usual, as patrons sought to enjoy one last night out before the lockdown began.
This morning public activity in the inner city is very sparse, though it’s not quite as deserted as during the first lockdown. It’s hard to tell how much this is due to the new lockdown and how much is due to people staying at home due to the terrorist attack. (The interior minister is asking people to stay at home today, though it seems most people without business in the inner district are ignoring this.) There are police with machine guns posted at all the subway stations, even in the outer districts, though all public transit services are running normally.
The small county (30,000 people, we have free bus service, and quite a few busses) I work for opened up it’s bus barns for the flu shot. It was literally a drive through situation. I never got out of the car. The person that gave me the flu shot was a nursing student, and he told me so.
This is being proactive. We used the bus barns to provide the nursing staff with a little protection from the cold, and make it very easy to just drive up and get a flu vaccine. This also kept people from gathering in small areas.
Barbers are considered an essential service? That seems very, very strange to me. Who doesn’t have a pair of scissors?
No, but this time around the lockdown isn’t focussed on “essential services”. It aims only at closing those venues where large numbers of people from different households congregate in close proximity for long periods of time. I imagine the reasoning for not including barber shops is that they tend to be small, that they have plenty of room between the seats, and that most visits don’t last too long. By comparison, most schools, theatres, and restaurants are large, have seating that is relatively tightly packed, and frequently have visits measured in hours rather than minutes.
New seven-day-average highs yesterday in:
South Dakota
Iowa
Missouri
West Virginia
Kansas
Rhode Island
New Hampshire
Maine
Pennsylvania
But I see a lot of states are still “coasting” with the highs they achieved on November 1.
47,894,604 total cases
1,221,335 dead
34,386,119 recovered
In the US:
9,693,632 total cases
238,656 dead
6,237,271 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
It’s November 4th. Per our esteemed President, nobody will be talking about coronavirus any more. I had a patient on Monday tell me flat out that we would hear nothing more about it as soon as the election was over. Therefore, I am predicting no more posts in this thread since there is no more need to extend the fake pandemic. :sarcasm:
I posted on the Election follow thread that COVID should have been on the ballot. Then we could have just voted it out of existence. 
I’m relieved to hear you are safe.
This surprises me a little, not because tourism seems like a good idea, but because people also use hotels to quarantine from family members.
I don’t know how often that happens. Most households couldn’t afford it, frankly.
The Chinese doctor who first reported that the virus was transmitted between people, who died of it, checked into a hotel to protect his family.
Sure. But I don’t think it’s so common in the US that it’s an economic factor in the industry. .
I’m sure it’s not, although fwiw I know two groups of people who were traveling when all the restrictions hit, and who quarantined in hotels in their home city before rejoining their households. It’s definitely a thing that some people do, and I’m surprised it’s been effectively outlawed in Austria.
Also there are essential workers who have to travel - truckers, maintenance people for factories, and firefighters, for example - and people who have to travel for other reasons, like my former neighbors who got assigned to an Air Force Base on the other side of the country.
Not sarcasm…
When I was watching TV today, scenes of up the Trump campaign declaring victory and the Trump crowds outside the voting counting places - I thought I saw a lot MORE masks than I’ve seen on Republicans in a long time. Am I imagining it?
48,438,567 total cases
1,231,019 dead
34,674,181 recovered
In the US:
9,801,355 total cases
239,829 dead
6,292,019 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
Those were hired actors. Actors Equity requires them to wear masks.
[/sarcasm]