Final total raised is 12m

UK cancels order for simple ventilators, needs more complex ones

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKCN21U0UI

So it turns out that it’s quite difficult to design a complex piece of medical equipment in a couple of weeks even if you are British, who knew?

Don't know whether this belongs here or in the Brexit thread:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52293061

Seems we need those horrible foreigners after all and the Great British Public aren't going to move hundreds of miles to perform back-breaking labour for minimum wage.

It's certainly harder work than I'd be prepared to, or possibly be able to, do. :o

Let's see how many people actually turn up and, more importantly, how many keep turning up day after day once they realise how exhausting and poorly paid the work is.

I posted something in the Brexit thread

Sun and Mail today calling for a George Cross to be awarded to the NHS and a knighthood for the pensioner raising funds for the NHS by walking round his garden.
It's all a distraction I suppose.

Another Tory minister Helen Whately is implying NHS workers are in some way responsible for the shortages of Personal Protective Equipment because they are misusing it.
She's blaming Doctors and nurses who are literally dying because of the abject failure of this Tory Govt for the shortages.

She got torn to shreds on TV for laughing repeatedly during an interview with Piers Morgan.

You have absolutely no idea how calling it is as a Brit to feel that Piers Morgan is right about something.

Why make up a fake report?

One new design is going into mass production https://www.theguardian.com/business...nlon-regulator

Nice of him to do this but what is he raising the money for? The NHSs we have been assured will get everything it needs at the moment.

That is the preferred approach of the right wing - blame the victims at every possible opportunity. President Trump is the master but Boris Johnson and his lackeys are learning quickly.

The next step will be to suggest that NHS workers are stealing PPE, possibly for use at home. Suggesting that they are selling it may backfire, it will highlight how poorly NHS staff are paid. At the moment doctors and nurses are the nation's heroes so perhaps the "right" people to blame are foreign porters and cleaners - which will give an excellent reason to send them packing as soon as the Coronavirus crisis is over. :rolleyes:

NM

It was a shocking interview. I suspect she'll either be fired, or decide to resign and spend as much time with her family as she currently is.

I have no idea why people make up fake reports, there does seem to be a widely reported phenomenon of 'fake news'. Often people see something on e.g. twitter or a web site that supports their preconceived notion of what is happening they then repeat the message perhaps with a slight alteration of which they are not aware. Then it gets repeated. I would have hoped that people posting here would try and fact check. It is alleged that sometimes these are deliberate disinformation campaigns from hostile foreign agencies.

I think the Dyson case is a good example of a false narrative. Elevated to a CT. So you have the tale of someone who donated £millions to the conservative party (evidence?) who was given a contract (untrue) because of the donation, rather than a contract being given to extant ventilator manufacturers (untrue). Who had no experience in designing medical equipment (untrue as it was a partnership with a medical equipment design company). So invested in this narrative were some posters that they preferred to believe that someone who questions the narrative has been bribed. Dyson may or may not win a contract for ventilator manufacturing, but the product should be judged on its merits and the process of bidding truthfully represented not turned into political propaganda and personality assassination with allegations of criminal behaviour when nothing of the sort took place.

She's a Tory. I expect she'll issue an "I'm sorry if some people were offended" non-apology, and carry on as if nothing had happened.

Sounds like the dowsing rod is making yet another comeback. A device that sounds familiar made the rounds in Iraq and Afghanistan in the previous decade, pretending to be a bomb detector.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651

There was another similar gadget that was supposed to detect hepatitis C a few years back: https://www.theguardian.com/science/...tor-sells-hope

I take it back. It seems there are no information about "millions" in donations from Dyson to conservatives in sources considered widely as "reputable". My personal opinion about billionaires donating to political parties and why they do it didn't change, of course.

Someone would wonder how government can order (this is word that most news used for it) some supplies (even conditionally) without contract. :rolleyes:

It is well known fact that actual medical companies were discriminated against, sometimes with ridiculous excuses. Also UK for some reason didn't really want to acquire ventilators from other countries.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ventilator-row

Newsflash: partnering with medical company does NOT make your company a medical company. Brought to you by captain Obvious. :rolleyes:

That line was sarcastic remark. But I already know about your reading comprehension problems.

You can believe Dyson got that business from UK's government out of good heart of BoJo, not because Dyson has preferential treatment due to his standing with conservative party and his status as member, donor and billionaire. Unlike some people I am not fool and I won't.

Somehow I think even if Dyson's contraption turns out to be also such "simple" ventilator, order for them won't be cancelled.

The fallacy is that a 'simple' ventilator is a bad thing. Modern ITU ventilators are complex their interface is not easy to use. Many of the staff working on ITUs are from anaesthesia and theatres or surgery, not familiar with complex ventilators. A ventilator with a complex interface has room for errors. E.g. I was carrying out a procedure on a patient with Covid on ITU, I needed the patient to stop breathing for a short period, it several minutes to work out how to put the ventilator into pause mode. A simple ventilator for staff who are not regularly working on ITU may be safer than a complex ventilator.

I am glad you accept that James Dyson although a billionaire has donated £100s millions to training engineers and not to political parties so your allegations of bribery or corruption were unfounded.

Please provide evidence that actual medical companies were discriminated against. It may be well known to you, but I am in the trade and it is not well known to me. I think that like your £millions donated to the conservative party this is fake news.

Your comment about my reading comprehension problems is another ad hominem, can you really not follow the guidelines and address the argument and not the arguer? I don't want to report you to the mods but if you keep on insulting me rather than dealing in the facts I will. I have never made an insulting comment about you. You have insulted me with every post. I do respect you for your admission that Dyson is not a massive donor to a political party. I think that makes you a truly strong person to admit when you are in error, don't spoil it by trying to bully me.

The successful bid reported above was by a combination of non-medical engineering companies partnering with a medical engineering company; this is the sort of collaboration needed to deal with a crisis. I think it is to be applauded not denigrated. I accept that is my opinion not a fact.

Coronavirus lockdown: Police guidelines give 'reasonable excuses' to go out

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-52312560

Did they run out of belts and braces?

Uber Eats must be expecting something similar here in the States.

In a clear demonstration of synchronicity, only thirty minutes or so before I read your post I had an email from Uber Eats in my Inbox advertising their new subscription service for delivery fee free deliveries from local restaurants. Only $9.99/month. First month free. Average saving of $3 to $4 per order!!!

I went to look at the Uber Eats page, and in what I am quite certain is purely coincidence ...

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

... nearly all of the local providers had begun charging $3 to $4 dollar delivery fees. Last week most of them were either free or token charges of around $0.99.

Note that this is (and has been) in addition to the "service" fee Uber Eats tacks on, and the driver tip which doesn't seem to be voluntary (you can chose between 10, 15, or 20%). A $50 order I made last week, with no delivery fee, cost a bit over $70.

Someone profiteering from a crisis? No way!

Uber eats has destroyed wealth for New Zealand youth, merely recalling that a fool and his money are soon parted.
Covid will surely drive warehouse to door for almost everything, hopefully sacks of rice and flour will feature for the young fools.
Politics of Green.

Ha ha.

Fortunately Brexit means hundreds of million of pounds will flow weekly into the NHS, right?

Well, to be fair there are hundreds of millions of extra pounds flowing into the NHS at the moment, cost is no object in the face of Coronavirus.

Whether this largesse continues if and when Coronavirus is under control is an entirely different matter.

Dame Vera Lynn has sent a personal message to Captain Tom as has Prince William to thank him for his fund raising.
As far as I’m concerned, anybody who doesn’t hang a 30 foot poppy on their house in November should go and live in ISIS.

Two people eat some chips together on a deserted beach and the police take out their tazers.
Hundreds of people gather on Westminster Bridge so people can see how great they are for clapping the NHS and the police join in.
perhaps we’re not thinking big enough.
Maybe next week we could fill Wembley Stadium with appreciative members of the public, put all the staff from the hospitals on the pitch and show them how much we really love the NHS.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1250754847353327617

Article embedded in tweet.

Not directly related to the coronavirus, but I've definitely seen it assumed by many sources that extending the transition period was a given with the Tories just holding off on the announcement in order to avoid any extra potential crash of the stock markets.

But it seems that no, they're still committed to doing something incredibly damaging to the economy while the economy is in a terrible and worsening state.

Interesting that Hancock said "early signs" show that hydroxychloroquine may be "very effective treatment" for Covid19.
He implied UK government is acquiring significant stocks of it.

Very interesting, not least because it runs counter to the results of scientific studies in China and Brazil.


edited to add....

Then again, the reference I could find was in the Daily Express so it may not necessarily be the full story.

We are very quickly accepting that the NHS is something we raise money for rather than something the government is meant to fund.

Men in their 90s shouldn't need to be doing sponsored walks for the NHS.

It's not the people doing the sponsored thing that actually raises the money - it's the people who do the giving. If we didn't have a 99-year-old walking round his garden, people would sponsor a disabled person climbing stairs, or a blind kid painting rainbows or whatever.

This is not the only example, where last night's applause for carers, involved widespread ignoring of social distancing rules, including the police.

https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/17/peopl...ital-12569129/

Westminster Bridge was packed.

No out of Spitfire propellers

Why? Why was this bloke doing this? We have been told the NHSs can have whatever they need so quite seriously where is this money going to be used?

But they’ve set up a hotline!

Depends, would it have saved Diana’s life?

I find these types of displays disgusting, it is (and as much as I hate the term it is sometimes the only accurate term) 100% virtue signalling