Anyone live in Leicester? The lockdown there has been extended.

That’s all very well but WHICH experts do we listen to? They don't all agree.

tickingbird

That’s all very well but WHICH experts do we listen to? They don't all agree.

Everybody agrees about facts. If you read the PHE report about Leicester (and I'm not going to apologise for posting a link to it), it's all about facts. It's mainly statistics, produced as graphs and charts. Unless the wrong or incomplete data has been put into the system, it's factual.

The facts are as I outlined above. The powers that be now know the characteristics of the people who are infected and have a good idea where they live. They know how coronavirus spreads and they want to stop that spread before it gets out of control.

Nobody has to be an expert to understand that.

Faced with the evidence, the government had to make a decision and, in my opinion, made the right to decision to lock down the city.

If anybody has an alternative suggestion, I'm sure the government would love to hear about it because locking down a city is never going to be without consequences.

Which "experts" have claimed anything different?

tickingbird

That’s all very well but WHICH experts do we listen to? They don't all agree.

You could get twenty experts in a room and get thirty different opinions.

Which is a major problem when trying to deal with an epidemic.

People tend to go with The Expert who’s opinion fits closest to their own narrative.

tickingbird

That’s all very well but WHICH experts do we listen to? They don't all agree.

It would be helpful if you could state what they don't agree about and back up the claims.

I do agree growstuff* that it is the correct thing to ^lockdown Leicester or any other town/city which has an exceptionally high percentage of Covid-19 cases.

Are the rules back to how they were at the beginning of lockdown, across the board for Leicester?

GrannyGravy13

tickingbird

That’s all very well but WHICH experts do we listen to? They don't all agree.

You could get twenty experts in a room and get thirty different opinions.

Which is a major problem when trying to deal with an epidemic.

People tend to go with The Expert who’s opinion fits closest to their own narrative.

Same request to you. Are you speaking generally or about coronavirus? As far as I can tell, real experts do agree, but if you can show that they don't, I'd be genuinely interested in knowing who they are and what they have to say.

Is anyone unsure of how you catch Covid? No one sticks their hand on the hot cooker, or plunges themselves into boiling water. No one is constantly told not to do everything that will maim or kill you. I’d you do to want to get hurt, avoid. Until it’s gone you are wary.

growstuff

tickingbird

That’s all very well but WHICH experts do we listen to? They don't all agree.

It would be helpful if you could state what they don't agree about and back up the claims.

...and make sure that your essay is clearly typed with no spelling mistakes and always name your quoted sources.
It will be handed back to you later with plenty of red pen corrections.You could be in the classroom for some time.

tickingbird

That’s all very well but WHICH experts do we listen to? They don't all agree.

A good point tickingbird.

What you usually see when peers - such as the scientists - get together, is that they discuss, not descend into personal attacks, and they find a way forward taking what appears to be the best from each. If it goes wrong, as it can do, they discuss why, learn and move forward. That may mean we have to listen to more than one source of information.

It seems a good idea to regard the virus as adapting to sporadic outbreaks .

Is it true about Leicester's clothing factories being staffed by underpaid Asian workers who have had to continue working as normal before the pandemic?

.growstuff if you had been watching any news programs or reading any newspapers/online articles it is blatantly obvious that there are differing opinions amongst The Scientists on how to manage the Covid-19 pandemic.

It’s certainly the right thing to do ( local lockdowns) because it’s unfair that the whole country should suffer economically and personally, when one area has high numbers of positive cases and the rest doesn’t.
It may have the effect additionally, that people within the lockdown city/area behave more responsibly in future.
Although a lot of the great British public have been sensible, an awful lot haven’t.

In the case of Leicester, the puzzle is how it's happened. So far, it doesn't appear that gender or ethnicity is relevant. It's certainly nothing to do with men in mosques or flights from Pakistan. People in Leicester don't appear to have been involved in mass gatherings which haven't happened in other parts of the country. I don't think much of his behaviour, but it's nothing to do with the mayor visiting his girlfriend either.

There's a question mark over the role of children at school and people working in factories. There are also questions about the living conditions of the people who have shown to be infected. Only further research and transparent data will answer those questions and provide evidence for a way forward. I expect at that stage various people will disagree about the best way because it will be a balancing act between the economy and public health.

GrannyGravy13

.growstuff if you had been watching any news programs or reading any newspapers/online articles it is blatantly obvious that there are differing opinions amongst The Scientists on how to manage the Covid-19 pandemic.

To be honest, I've seen a few maverick "alternative" opinions, but I haven't seen any serious disagreement. That's why I asked for some concrete examples.

PS. I don't count drinking bleach as a serious disagreement.

lemongrove

It’s certainly the right thing to do ( local lockdowns) because it’s unfair that the whole country should suffer economically and personally, when one area has high numbers of positive cases and the rest doesn’t.
It may have the effect additionally, that people within the lockdown city/area behave more responsibly in future.
Although a lot of the great British public have been sensible, an awful lot haven’t.

But is there any evidence that people have behaved any more irresponsibly than people in other parts of the country? I know some examples have been cited, but that kind of thing (street parties, participation in BLM marches) has happened elsewhere, including the trips to beaches and numerous people who have broken the "rules" on a minor scale.

lemongrove

growstuff

tickingbird

That’s all very well but WHICH experts do we listen to? They don't all agree.

It would be helpful if you could state what they don't agree about and back up the claims.

...and make sure that your essay is clearly typed with no spelling mistakes and always name your quoted sources.
It will be handed back to you later with plenty of red pen corrections.You could be in the classroom for some time.

Well, that was a helpful comment!

Look at the differing opinions between the official SAGE and the so called unofficial SAGE

Alexa

It seems a good idea to regard the virus as adapting to sporadic outbreaks .

Is it true about Leicester's clothing factories being staffed by underpaid Asian workers who have had to continue working as normal before the pandemic?

I don't think the virus itself does adapt.

GrannyGravy13

Look at the differing opinions between the official SAGE and the so called ^unofficial SAGE^

independent SAGE

They disagree about how the government should respond, but they don't disagree about the fundamentals of the science.

They disagree because the government isn't following the science.

It's a balancing act between the economy and public health. The government is choosing to ignore public health and the science in favour of economic pressures and seeming popular to voters.

I’ve just remembered the name of the scientist who thinks C-19 is weakening. His name is Professor Carl Heneg(h)an.

I had the PHE report in my inbox this morning.

The spike is a puzzle as none of the data indicates any one particular cause or origin.

There has been increased testing since the beginning of June with mobile units drafted in making it easier for people to get a local test. I was one of those contacted by track and trace after a relative tested positive.
So it may be that this level of infection is actually in a lot of areas but not identified.

There is also one little paragraph about the study of infection retrospectively that is going on throughout England. People who have had the virus are asked to recount there previous movements. Of those who responded in Leicester
the majority of them reported that they had only left home for essential shopping.

That should make us all think about what we are doing!

I read that 2 experts have disagreed. Professor Neil Ferguson and Professor Sunetra Gupta.

Thank you Urmstongran and MerylStreep. I'll look them up.

Growstuff objected:

"I don't think the virus itself does adapt."

Good point.I am not sure now what I meant by what I wrote.
Does virus mutating according to natural selection not affect virus?