General discussion on current situation

[jillruss]

One of the main reasons DC gave for leaving home rather than staying put was that there was a ranting crowd of the media outside his home at all times and that it wasn't a place to be when ill.

How do the dates work out? We were surely in lockdown by then (hence all the controversy) so surely a throng of media types outside his home would have been legally moved on by the police, if they were there in the first place??? I think he may have over-egged the pudding with this assertion.

I bet the cabinet bods aren't all lining up to take today's covid update!!! One of the toadies, no doubt....

[IgorStrav]

Oh the whole 'taking a trip to Barnard Castle to test my eyesight, because I was worried about it' is just a complete joke.

A five year old would know that this is just a stupid excuse which cannot possibly hold water.

He's lying, he doesn't care about lying, and he doesn't care that we know it. 

The more worrying thing is that our elected representatives, the "brightest and the best", apparently, who are in the Cabinet, the rulers of our country in the unprecedented times we find ourselves in, are defending this barefaced lie.

Can't say sorry, can't apologise - won't even, like Priti Patel, say ''I'm sorry if you feel' I acted unreasonably".  And our Ministers defend that?

Angry?  You bet we are.

I recommend a very good article in the Guardian today by Irishman Fintan O'Toole

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/26/cummings-contempt-lockdown-rules-public-catholic-church-ireland

With the distance achieved by being Irish, and not British, he compares our current situation with that of his mother's allegiance to the Catholic Church in Ireland.  She found some of the Church's teachings hard, but despite all the difficulties caused to her, she stuck with it because she had faith in the authority of the Church itself. 

And then she discovered what had happened about the cover-up of sexual abuse, and she suddenly realised that all her difficult adherence to rules and authority was misplaced.  She'd been taken for a mug.

And Boris Johnson on Sunday, in defending Dominic Cummings and in the process demeaning all the people who took hard decisions to stick to the rules and were, in some way, therefore not as 'good' parents, has told all the rest of us that we're mugs.

Make me cry?  Yes, it did.

[heywood]

I was going to post that O’Toole article - a good piece.

[Millmoor]

Having just read the article about coronavirus and eyesight on the BBC website it does not state " to drive with caution until you are sure you are ok". Please show me where in the piece it says "until you are sure you are ok".

Here is the correct quote "... a recent study in Wuhan... reported a range of eye problems, including swelling and sticky eye. All of the above symptoms may affect vision and affected patients would be advised to drive with caution or not at all if there was significant blurring of vision or double vision".

I am rather surprised, Mazi that you did not refer to the part about not driving at all in your post.

Moreover the article goes on to quote the RNIB - "...any sudden change of vision should be taken seriously and is a reason to seek immediate medical advice from an optometrist or NHS 111".

Link to article here:



https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52802661

[mazi]

Having just read the article about coronavirus and eyesight on the BBC website it does not state " to drive with caution until you are sure you are ok". Please show me where in the piece it says "until you are sure you are ok".

Here is the correct quote "... a recent study in Wuhan... reported a range of eye problems, including swelling and sticky eye. All of the above symptoms may affect vision and affected patients would be advised to drive with caution or not at all if there was significant blurring of vision or double vision".

I am rather surprised, Mazi that you did not refer to the part about not driving at all in your post.

Moreover the article goes on to quote the RNIB - "...any sudden change of vision should be taken seriously and is a reason to seek immediate medical advice from an optometrist or NHS 111".

Link to article here:



https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52802661

I am pleased that you have looked  at it,  others may not have bothered. I am guilty as charged, I hate long winded posts, but still think it very relevant.

Eyesight and vision are slightly different things

Mike

[Gadget]

He said that the doctor who he consulted told him he was fit to return to work. Why didn't he raise the problem of his sight with him? 

(sorry if this has been mentioned earlier and I've missed it).

[Greensleeves]

Whilst Dominic Cummings gave his version of events on 25th May his wife - Spectator Commissioning Editor Mary Wakefield - gave her account on BBC Radio 4 Thought for the Day on 25th April and also published a written account in The Spectator at about the same time.  Obviously I can't reproduce the article. It is available online but curiously the BBC (I am told) has deleted the R4 programme.  However here is a brief synopsis of events according to Ms Wakefield annotated with dates  by me in bold type. 

[Dominic] said "I feel weird" and collapsed. I felt breathless, sometimes achy, but Dom couldn't get out of bed. [28 March]

'Day in day out for ten days he had a high fever, with spasms that made the muscles lump and twitch in his legs:[28 March - 6 April]
28 March - high fever & twitching legs. Only limited shallow breathing.
29 March - Ditto
30th March - Ditto
31st March - Ditto.
1st April - ditto
2nd April - "After a week we reached peak corona uncertainty,  day six is a turning point I was told, when you either get better or head for ICU. Was Dom fighting off the bug or was he heading for a ventilator, who knew?"
3rd April -  'I sat on his bed staring at his chest trying to count his breaths per minute. The little oxygen reader we'd bought on Amazon indicated he should be in hospital, but his lips weren't blue and he could talk in full sentences” 

No mention whatsoever of leaving London.  Now according to Cummings' account things were somewhat different because it was his wife who became ill and on 30th March after she had started vomiting he put her and the child in the car and drove 260 miles to Durham.  According to her published account on 25th April he was more or less at death's door on 30th March and they hadn't travelled anywhere because he was too ill to leave his bed.  Curiouser and curiouser.

[Erato]

And now for some good news.  Two of my lifelines - Rodolfo and Elmer - went down sick last week.  I was worried for them and for me.  BUT, I have found out that Rodolfo was out because he broke his hand last year and it was acting up on him from carrying so many heavy sacks of groceries to people in the neighborhood.  He took a few days off to rest up.  And Elmer was just suffering from his usual allergies.  He's back, too.  A big thanks to these frontline people who are keeping us supplied.

[mazi]

He said that the doctor who he consulted told him he was fit to return to work. Why didn't he raise the problem of his sight with him? 

(sorry if this has been mentioned earlier and I've missed it).

Round here the nhs doesn’t “do” eyesight, it’s contracted out to you know who.

They are closed