Coronavirus - Dig In, It's going to be a while yet

So all the debate\argument on here with boys throwing up graphs of different countries comparing growth rates and so on is just bullshit really.

TFK in a nutshell.

Not really. You have to just compare to multiple variables and can’t straight up make comparisons.

Smokers singled out again on the rte news.

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This is the front page article about my neighbour who passed away last week. Direct family only for the funeral on Friday. Memorial hopefully later on in the year when things get back to normal. Certainly does hit home a lot more when it is someone you know.

In general, I’ve found people have been taking things seriously around here. Everyone in supermarket last week all wearing disposable gloves and leaving plenty of space. Rates are quite low in the county so it’s been well taken.

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Good to see community spirit with regards staying indoors & social distancing when outside.

We can all keep the heads down, see our family & friends less just to keep our elderly neighbours safe.

Pubs will open again but you get one chance to say goodbye properly.

9 o’clock news. Urged not to travel.

Show beautiful connemara scenery. This is connemara looking splendid and captivating, almost drawing you in. The temptation will be there.

That was the voice over

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Interesting piece. Kissinger talking about a new epoch.

I’ve a savage headache. Please God don’t let this happen to me

You’re fierce fit. You’ll bate it :muscle:t6:

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Can you post it all? How is kissinger still on the go

What’s the view on Finland’s success so far and saunas?

@Little_Lord_Fauntleroy @TheUlteriorMotive

I’m too bogged down in BCG to focus on anything else

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They’re steamers

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The Wall Street Journal

April 3, 2020

The U.S. must protect its citizens from disease while starting the urgent work of planning for a new epoch.

The surreal atmosphere of the Covid-19 pandemic calls to mind how I felt as a young man in the 84th Infantry Division during the Battle of the Bulge. Now, as in late 1944, there is a sense of inchoate danger, aimed not at any particular person, but striking randomly and with devastation. But there is an important difference between that faraway time and ours. American endurance then was fortified by an ultimate national purpose. Now, in a divided country, efficient and farsighted government is necessary to overcome obstacles unprecedented in magnitude and global scope. Sustaining the public trust is crucial to social solidarity, to the relation of societies with each other, and to international peace and stability.

Nations cohere and flourish on the belief that their institutions can foresee calamity, arrest its impact and restore stability. When the Covid-19 pandemic is over, many countries’ institutions will be perceived as having failed. Whether this judgment is objectively fair is irrelevant. The reality is the world will never be the same after the coronavirus. To argue now about the past only makes it harder to do what has to be done.

The coronavirus has struck with unprecedented scale and ferocity. Its spread is exponential: U.S. cases are doubling every fifth day. At this writing, there is no cure. Medical supplies are insufficient to cope with the widening waves of cases. Intensive-care units are on the verge, and beyond, of being overwhelmed. Testing is inadequate to the task of identifying the extent of infection, much less reversing its spread. A successful vaccine could be 12 to 18 months away.

The U.S. administration has done a solid job in avoiding immediate catastrophe. The ultimate test will be whether the virus’s spread can be arrested and then reversed in a manner and at a scale that maintains public confidence in Americans’ ability to govern themselves. The crisis effort, however vast and necessary, must not crowd out the urgent task of launching a parallel enterprise for the transition to the post-coronavirus order.

Leaders are dealing with the crisis on a largely national basis, but the virus’s society-dissolving effects do not recognize borders. While the assault on human health will—hopefully—be temporary, the political and economic upheaval it has unleashed could last for generations. No country, not even the U.S., can in a purely national effort overcome the virus. Addressing the necessities of the moment must ultimately be coupled with a global collaborative vision and program. If we cannot do both in tandem, we will face the worst of each.

Drawing lessons from the development of the Marshall Plan and the Manhattan Project, the U.S. is obliged to undertake a major effort in three domains. First, shore up global resilience to infectious disease. Triumphs of medical science like the polio vaccine and the eradication of smallpox, or the emerging statistical-technical marvel of medical diagnosis through artificial intelligence, have lulled us into a dangerous complacency. We need to develop new techniques and technologies for infection control and commensurate vaccines across large populations. Cities, states and regions must consistently prepare to protect their people from pandemics through stockpiling, cooperative planning and exploration at the frontiers of science.

Second, strive to heal the wounds to the world economy. Global leaders have learned important lessons from the 2008 financial crisis. The current economic crisis is more complex: The contraction unleashed by the coronavirus is, in its speed and global scale, unlike anything ever known in history. And necessary public-health measures such as social distancing and closing schools and businesses are contributing to the economic pain. Programs should also seek to ameliorate the effects of impending chaos on the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Third, safeguard the principles of the liberal world order. The founding legend of modern government is a walled city protected by powerful rulers, sometimes despotic, other times benevolent, yet always strong enough to protect the people from an external enemy. Enlightenment thinkers reframed this concept, arguing that the purpose of the legitimate state is to provide for the fundamental needs of the people: security, order, economic well-being, and justice. Individuals cannot secure these things on their own. The pandemic has prompted an anachronism, a revival of the walled city in an age when prosperity depends on global trade and movement of people.

The world’s democracies need to defend and sustain their Enlightenment values. A global retreat from balancing power with legitimacy will cause the social contract to disintegrate both domestically and internationally. Yet this millennial issue of legitimacy and power cannot be settled simultaneously with the effort to overcome the Covid-19 plague. Restraint is necessary on all sides—in both domestic politics and international diplomacy. Priorities must be established.

We went on from the Battle of the Bulge into a world of growing prosperity and enhanced human dignity. Now, we live an epochal period. The historic challenge for leaders is to manage the crisis while building the future. Failure could set the world on fire.

Mr. Kissinger served as secretary of state and national security adviser in the Nixon and Ford administrations.

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He’s 96 years of age now.

Still has a serious obsession with world order :smiley:

Could never get past john pilgers theory that he was a conman putting on the accent

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Their dairy products are fortified with vitamin d

No post in 9 hours… lads have finally cracked.

Anyway, it looks like they are finally gonna call a lockdown here. Tony and co meeting this morning. @Lazarus may have been telling the truth.

I had war with the mrs last night as an outrageous shop arrived from tesco… However, a full lock down will give her the upperhand now- ‘arent you glad now’ … even tho when she ordered 10 of everything there was no lock down. Wimmin are the real virus.