Regarding the questions about ToyConUK... Not sure if you guys will be able to access this (sometimes the BBC doesn’t give access to non-tv-license payers) but if you cannot, let me know and I’ll cut and paste the text; it explains the methodology behind the UKs approach to C19: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51874084
That's odd. Same strategy/goal as here (in Norway) but here schools and universities and pretty much everything else is closed for that very reason - to delay the peak for the summer months
Chris, one consideration is that students (or the majority of them without any underlying health issues) are not high risk; therefore, the argument is that by not exposing them to the virus, you are delaying the impact of when/if they do get it. Secondly, by closing schools, you end up creating the knock on effect of decreasing the necessary workforce (medical professionals, police, etc) because they are unable to attend work due to child care issues. I cannot help but feel that some of the responses are more about managing the perception of the population, than actually strategically mitigating the spread of the virus. Social media and stupid politicians have done an awful lot to whip the world into a frenzy. I don’t know about you guys but I am yet to hear one news story (or politician) mention the nearly 70,000 people who have recovered from C19. Any death is sad but the deaths from C19 pale into comparison to the annual deaths caused by other flu variants. Again, this is seldom reported or a footnote in an alarmist article. I have lost track of the current total of deaths to Covid-19 but I believe it is circa 5,000; standard flu kills c250,000 - 650,000 annually. As I said above, too little discussion of facts in the media. There is a reason why ‘good news’ news papers have always failed.
@ungawa222 Great article, Mike. Iran is just one of those cases where we (as the 'outside' world), but equally so it's own citizens, might have no idea of what really is going on. I mean, yes there are overtly insane things like the Chinese government censoring any mention of coronavirus-related terms across a host of different platforms, and of course we cannot even measure how these might contribute to the spreading. But then you have other countries whose political 'leadership' is either in full denial or fluctuating between near denial to hollowly arrogant bravado to using the situation to incite blame and raise their own status(?) with their supporters. It is not just sad, it is outright deplorable how it speaks to our [lack of] self-interest in humanity as a whole. As much as some people are taking this as a wakeup call to some of their personal hygiene habits, I think that it ought to be a wakeup call to our crisis response as a global society. If this were some type of truly apocalyptic change, I am starting to thing those collapsed civilizations of fiction are not so far off.
PS - an estimated 12,000 people die falling down the stairs in the USA annually; when is stair travel being banned? Car accidents kill 1.25 million people annually... and so on and so on. To me, it is about accessing the true, factual, risk and addressing that. Would I minimise visits to elderly care homes and hospitals, absolutely but some of the other actions must stink of alarmism and managing ill conceived perceptions.
Unfortunately, I think it would need to be a civilisation destroying crisis before you would see a “global” “crisis response” There are countries with excellent, and well established, crisis response capabilities but there are also those without. Furthermore, global response is hobbled (read nearly impossible) because of political agendas and ideologies. It would take Armageddon (sans Bruce Willis) to cut through the egos, ideologies and politics and get countries fighting for one cause. As for Iran, a large part of why they are struggling is because they have a very poorly funded healthcare system and social care infrastructure. Other countries with similarly underfunded healthcare and social support will, unfortunately, be more harshly effected than those with.
I totally get that and I haven't met a single student (being one myself, living on campus) that worried for him- or herself, nor have I read anywhere that closing schools are for the benefit of children and students health, but rather as a measure to prevent these from spreading it to elderly family members or those suffering from other health issues. But of course, I too worry about the knock on effect you mention and question these extreme measures.
Any event like a toy convention, concert, musical... still going on is flat out irresponsible. It reeks of greed and arrogance. Social distancing is proven to work. Toy conventions are not ancillary events associated with professions or systems of great societal importance. They are not going create some massive negative ripple effect to the airline or hospitality industries. Further, it's not paranoia or over-reaction to cancel a fucking toy event. If you're the promoter and you don't do it, you're just a greedy dick
Here's a factual and data-driven article on why social distancing is being used to manage this issue. https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca
It's not about people dying from the virus per se, it's about slowing the spread in order to stop too many vulnerable people from getting the virus at the same time and thus medical systems that have already been shitty pre-Corona from collapsing completely. They're already forced to do triage in Italy with people drowning in their own fluids while conscious ffs. Again, because it got kinda buried on the last pg:
I fully agree with John. It is not paranoia or alarmism to cancel large events and gatherings at this point- it is the responsible thing to do, period. Under the circumstances, I cannot conceive of any rationale for going forward with a toy show (ffs!) that would not be reducible, in 4 questions or less, to a matter of money.
if you focus on the numbers its worse, Flu kills 0.1% annually... CoronaVirus is expected to end up at 1%, that's way worse. and yes most of us in this forum have nothing to worry about, but this will still affect us all.
France is on a lockdown... bars, cinemas and other non vital places should remain closed until further notice. Going be enjoying beers on my own then
Just to clarify . . . The threat at ToyCon UK was minimal. Between the 120 people that showed up and the new bigger venue ‘social distancing’ wasn’t a problem. (jk)
Ha, I have been stuck at the Novotel enough times for organised events, in the end this was one that ended up definitely de-prioritised. Did you go Andy? If you have any pics, or points of note, still happy to hear 'em here.
Just to follow up on this: I'm not sure it's like this everywhere, but the idea is to free/excempt people with critical functions in society from having to stay at home: Source: the Norwegian Directorate of Health
I mentioned it to one other person the other day, but when Animal Crossing comes out later this week, all us toy folk should form our own AC island.
Just heard that some of this years UK medical students may graduate early (within the next two weeks) to become F0's . . . a never-before-seen level of Doctor, differentiating them from F1's (Junior Doctors) and F2's (2nd year Junior Doctors), allowing them to do some of the grunt work in hospitals and reduce the burden on the more qualified Doctors when the shit hits the fan in the UK. Supermarket shelves are starting to be depleted, advisories are in place to avoid pubs, restaurants, cinemas and theatres, some clients are already starting to work remotely, Doctor's are no longer taking appointments (info line or ambulance . . . no in-between), cities are naturally quietening and it's starting to feel like shit's about to get real.
Only just? Consider yourself fortunate there, Andy. People are generally nuts, and lack a better sense; but this panic induction is really making things fully illogical. Shit is most certainly getting real, though. What is of greatest concern to me is the completely indefinite time of any pro/reactive measures, and what the longterm fallout of this will be, on everyone's lives, before this passes - which it will do.
Zen out a bit with the Monterey Bay Aquarium live cams: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnM5iMGiKsZg-iOlIO2ZkdQ
