I remain unconvinced that they're a new infections.

We know viral infections can hang around in some people for a long time, and negative tests have been wrong on many occasions and the data on it so far tends to point to those two scenarios more than reinfection.

Looks like a good click-baiting horror headline to me.

Teah, this kind of thing is going to happen given Human Nature.
Money Talks, No One Walks.

Neither the headline nor my summary imply that anybody has been re-infected. The first paragraph of the article states that it "is calling into question the accuracy of COVID-19 diagnostic tools". The article goes on to say that re-infection is thought to be unlikely, and cites the two likely possibilities as the first test being a false negative or the second being a false positive.

Translation: "Over here! Pay attention to me! Me! Me! Me!"

He always was a twat, shame so many people listen to him.

Eh? They both practically scream it:

Some people in Wuhan who had previously recovered from the virus are now testing positive again

and

Mystery In Wuhan: Recovered Coronavirus Patients Test Negative ... Then Positive

"Previously recovered" or just "recovered" at the very least implies they were clear of the disease.

I have heard an explanation that even though an immune person cannot have active vira in the body, he or she can still get live vira into the throat where it can remain in a sufficient amount to test positive, and infect through breathing.

BREAKING Boris Johnson writing to every UK home warning 'things will get worse'

Hope he isn't licking the envelopes!

My 79 year old mother and owner of 1 and a third COPD lungs, breathing through a stoma is still waiting for her first letter....

Well, then, this is making me angry (maybe this should go in the Covid19 anger thread). Either this virus is much easier to catch than we have been told, or we have a Prime Minister and Health Secretary who don't or can't follow the simple instructions they've been giving to others. Either way it's bad.

I tend to agree with you - I've heard a few stories about rich people returning from ski-ing holidays and the like, and infecting people left, right and centre. It seems they think rules and guidelines are for other people.

Fruit and veg ‘will run out’ unless Britain charters planes to fly in farm workers from eastern Europe

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...eastern-europe

One of these is not like the others. Class, can any of you tell us which one?

Your PM was boasting about continuing to shake hands about a week ago. Including the hands of Covid-19 patients, although that turned out not to be true.

That was actually more than three weeks ago, not a week ago.

Now, here's some political leadership: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coron...e20200327-1602

(Stolen off NZ, of course, but good on ya!)

Many states have taken similar or identical measures. Why is this even in "non usa" politics?

It's delusional to think the measure was "stolen." Why do you read the Huffington Post?

Possibly because it is relevant not just in domestic matters?
I would like to see this implemented not just for tenants, but also for people who are defaulting on loans because of the lockdowns.

Most banks are offering deferred payments now let's keep this forum's autistic obsessions out of this section.

From the Lancet:

The Guardian's piece on the Lancet article includes the government's response.

The government here in the UK is starting to set some expectations for the upcoming months. IMO even though the messages aren't great news, it's better to set reasonable expectations than, for example, suggesting that everything will be back to normal by Easter.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52079922

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/worl...ost_type=share

Daily Mail blaming Bernier for infecting Boris and the rest of the cabinet.
It's the fault of the EU

An act of prophecy I've been making since he returned to Parliament.

You're inferring that. Neither imply it. It very obviously means that they had stopped showing symptoms and had tested negative.

Just a month ago Priti Patel said anyone earning less than £25k is an “unskilled worker” & can’t enter the UK

NHS starting salaries:

Nurse £24.2k
Paramedic £24.2k
Midwife £24.2k
Radiographer £24.2k
Care assistant £17.6k

Oh what a wonderful time to be a political extremist!

The only damning indictment I can think of would be if it was shown politicians ignored or acted against the medical and scientific advice from their experts, a la Trump and various south american leaders.

All I've seen so far in the UK is everyone trying their best to deal with a crap situation, imperfectly.

We've got a long way to go guys and there will be a lot more sub-optimal decisions being made in the coming weeks.

"Sub-optimal decision" is such nice whitewashing euphemism for "total incompetence of government".

If only <insert favourite politicians/party> were in charge, every decision would be perfect irrespective of them not having all the information needed to make perfect choices when they have to make them.

Riight. It is not like they were warned months in advance about problem (like everyone else except China). China gave months of time for world to prepare for COVID-19. World in general squandered it (one exception may be some Asian countries that learned their lessons from earlier outbreaks).

Politicians in charge are responsible for this kind of murderous, criminal negligence. I do know that voters of those politicians tend to be a little lenient about it. I consider that attitude pathetic and suicidally moronic.

I currently believe the Canadian government did a decent job on this. Not great, but nowhere near the disaster that we've seen in Italy and the US.

Personally I don't have any faith in any government's claim to "follow scientific advice". I still remember the Blair government's response to scientific advice they didn't agree with (from Professor David Nutt) - sack the adviser and get one whose advice they DID agree with.

So, yes, I'm sure they can find someone to advise them in the way they wish to be advised. Big deal.

The British government has followed at least some scientific advice. What changed Dominic Cummings from his stance of "if some pensioners die, then too bad" when they were pursuing the "herd immunity" idea was getting a report saying that that would kill a quarter of a million people.

But they didn't heed the advice to prepare for the crisis, which is why we now need to scrabble to get hold on things like PPE, test, and ventilators. Or the advice to clamp down on it quickly and hard. Or, indeed, the advice that epidemiologists have been giving since the beginning - that the best way to control the virus and prevent mass infection is to test everybody suspected of having it, do contact tracing and test all those people, do more contact tracing and test all of those people. That's the way to wipe thing thing out quickly - find out who has it and prevent them from passing it on to anybody else. That's what worked in South Korea.

They're still not following the advice that the best thing that can be done is to test as many people as possible.

But they have finally put a lockdown in place, a week or two after they were advised to, and amidst much dithering which encouraged people not to take it seriously. And it is true that that is some scientific advice they've been given by experts.

But at least Johnson isn't bragging about the ratings for his virus update briefings. I guess that's... Something?

Any evidence for this claim?

We are being directly asked by Michael Gove to follow the advice of experts. Michael Gove, a man who famously told the nation "we've had enough of experts"

Is it any wonder people aren't following their advice, they've spent a decade proving they are untrustworthy.

Maybe BoJo and Donnie are having a contest to see who can have the worst possible choice in charge.

Donny: Mike Pence
BoJo: Michael Gove
Donny: Jared Kushner
BoJo....

Nigel Farage!

Give it two weeks and Katie Hopkins will be in charge.

You mean the one that they confused with Azerbaijan? :D

When Mrs Don and I were in Bulgaria earlier this month I read the phrase ".....Health Minister Nadine Dorries...." on the BBC website and almost choked on my breakfast.

Nothing surprises me any more :(

Meanwhile in Belarus:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52084121

I really hope that this doesn't backfire horribly.

Do you think the minority of people not following the government's advice would behave significantly differently if, say, Jeremy Corbyn had won in December 2019? I think such people would just find another excuse to behave like morons.

Putting my cards on the table, my politics are on the whole left of centre, but I'm not going to exploit a national crisis to score points, pick on every little thing that (in hindsight) could have been done better or whine about individual politicians because I disagree with their policies outside the pandemic response.

Christ, we've got a nominally right-wing conservative government paying people 80% of their salary to stay at home.

Being an armchair critic is so easy. If you're that incensed get off your ass and help.

I think the idea is to have someone who is even more incompetent step in so they look better in comparison!