Coronavirus

[paulears]

What sticks in my throat is the fact that China handled this decisively and quickly - we sniggered a bit at their Government's draconian attitude - ban the dangers, build hospitals and control everything. My Chinese contacts were very quick to contact me once WE were on the news, asking about us. They were amazed our response was just to wash hands - and now they've realised that they suffered from not being able to supply for a period, hurting them, but now they will get hurt again because we won't be buying products - and that I think they had NOT thought about.

 

 

I just cannot understand why the self-employed seem exempt from any kind of benefits. Surely their predicament is understood, but as I see it, the only self-employed who can get any benefit are those already receiving it, and I didn't realise there even were any benefits?

 

Potty - just potty.

[Andrew C]

The last figures I saw was a mortality rate from flu at 0.1%, Covid 2% - Covid is probably high due to the accounting of dead vs survived (you don't go in the second column until properly clear)

Now, for "herd immunity" to work, 60% of the population have to be 'immune', either through vaccination (not available) or to have survived.

 

Rough figures follow:-Population 60m

60% 36m2% 720,000 dead

 

-----ETA - Politics Paul, and we'd have to moderate ourselves if I started on particular individuals and their (entirely expected) woeful performance.

 

[Stuart91]

outside China the rate in the rest of the world is 3.5%.

 

Most of those figures are a percentage of reported cases. It doesn't include the many people who get mild or no symptoms at all, and hence aren't on the authorities' radar.

 

2% as Andrew suggests is probably more likely overall, but still gives a scarily high body count.

 

Re. the political aspect, I'd suggest that political discussion is acceptable here when it directly impacts us. Our venues, and our industry as a whole, have just been shut down by government decree. And a vague, poorly worded decree at that, which causes more uncertainty than it resolved.

[sandall]

our industry as a whole, have just been shut down by government decree.

Ah but it's not a decree, it's "advice", leaving the onus on the theatres, pubs, attractions, etc, etc. to take action themselves, hoping that their insurers might pick up at least some of the losses. On the other hand, is that better or worse than banning everything & promising hundreds of billions you don't have to cover the cost?

[Brian]

What sticks in my throat is the fact that China handled this decisively and quickly...

 

But China isn't a democracy: the people do what they are told. Can you really see us Brits staying indoors when told to?

 

 

Ah but it's not a decree, it's "advice", leaving the onus on the theatres, pubs, attractions, etc, etc. to take action themselves, hoping that their insurers might pick up at least some of the losses.

 

But does that insurance, if it pays out, help the myriad of 'freelancers' who now have no work? The contract we have with our insurers, for any sort of insurance, requires us to do all we can to mitigate our losses to keep the size of any claim down. So when a theatre/pub/restaurant is told to close down because of a virus then to mitigate the loss they should lay off all their staff.

 

It's not right but insurance wouldn't help anyone at the end of the chain.

[Andrew C]

But China isn't a democracy: the people do what they are told. Can you really see us Brits

building a 1000 bed hospital in 1 week? Never mind the 40 we were promised...

[J Pearce]

building a 1000 bed hospital in 1 week?

 

Sounds like an excellent use of our events industry stock and expertise. We can't easily do the medical kit, but we could easily build a few large field hospitals with clearspan marquees, temporary power, lighting, and HVAC.

 

In general our otherwise inactive industry has a lot to offer, logistics, trucking, temporary buildings/power etc., and the general expertise and determination to get stuff done on a very tight schedule. Computing power for research is another area that has come up today.

[bigclive]

The words sanitary and marquee don't really go together.

[Stuart91]

Realistically, though, we don't need to build temporary structures. There's all manner of conference centres, sports centres, and exhibition halls sitting empty that would work as a basic structure. Perhaps hang (well laundered) marquee linings inside to subdivide. There'd still be work dealing with temporary power etc.

[kerry davies]

Now now, Clive. We aren't talking wet coir matting and wedding marquees. They have things like aircon which your Royal Infirmary wasn't even built with, they have to hire marquee units in for hot summers.

 

The top-of-the-range marquees used for VIP work at Ryder Cups or the Guards Polo Club are things of wonder. Glass or solid plastic, wipe-down insulated walls with electric doors internally and externally. They would be more than adequate for non-specialist accommodation which could relieve pressure on NHS resource but, at a push, they could easily be rigged for ICU unit use.

 

Sadly I am all too familiar with ICU these days and 99% of it consists of machines-that-go-ping which are wheeled from bed to bed. The only thing they would miss is piped oxygen and tanks are almost as easy.

[Stuart91]

There's talk of using hotels for less serious patients, if all you need is oxygen and clinical supervision, it's an easy way of achieving it.

[GridGirl]

Ballet season got pulled this morning. So we have three months of no rehearsals or performances, once the month of annual leave (mid-May to mid-June) which was already scheduled is taken into account. We went in this morning and struck the pit, put the covers on the timpani and tucked them in to hibernate, and took all the percussion gear down to our percussion studio, which we do still have access to (the building isn’t closed at this point, just no performances taking place). Very odd to be packing up with no real idea of when we’ll be back in - hoping for the winter season in mid-June but who knows. Numbers of people around the place is way down - it was a glorious sunny day today and normally we would have been elbowing our way down Circular Quay, but I’d estimate under 10% of the normal foot traffic.

 

Boss has given me permission to work from home - too bad if he didn’t as I was going to anyway, given that the other half is immunosuppressed after kidney transplant - I’m not all that worried about catching it myself but I do not want to pass it on to him (he’s also working from home). Fully expecting to get stood down without pay for a while as there’s only so much admin work to be done with no rehearsals or shows taking place. We’re fortunate to be in a position to weather that and if it helps keep the company afloat I will happily do it.

[kerry davies]

No joke, immuno-suppressed significant others, is it? Be careful.

 

Luckily you work for a major cultural institution and may well get support, the Glasto boys are in deep doodoo. Apparently the lads are already taking jobs outside the sector using sectoral skills like driving, forklift, platform, scaffolding etc but if anyone learns anything about benefits, mortgage holidays, rent freezes or even who is hiring temporary workers outside the industry I think we need to see those posts on BR. Paul kicked it off with his topic on tax so perhaps we should keep it there, Mods?

 

This is one of those "hunker down, do anything to survive and let pride take a back seat" times. One job they need more of now than before is delivering groceries, Tesco and Asda have a two week backlog already.

[Jivemaster]

Sainsburies have an advert locally for delivery staff, Morrisons have had ads on national radio for delivery staff. Ideal for anyone with 7.5t driving licenses. Very likely to be temp and casual but immediate start so could well suit someone who has had their work vanish.

[Ynot]

Closed the doors on my 250 seat community venue on Monday after the PM's broadcast - that was painful, despite being necessary.

 

And whilst it's a very successful volunteer run space, and most of us have day jobs that will continue (I've been a BT homeworker for 17 years, so not a lot of change for me there!) it's still going to be a huge struggle.

 

The next show on stage would have been the annual gang show - they had a full rehearsal on Sunday then get kicked by the closure a day later :( (And the fact that the Scout Association apparently e-mailed them all with their edict that they highly recommended cessation of ALL group activities).

 

We have had a really busy season drop-kicked into touch. Some of them may be able to reschedule over the summer - we close for maintenance and refurbs mid July til September) but that's only if their casts (and audiences) are able to cater for it - I'm guessing that there will be HUGE numbers fighting over holidays in August to make up for those missed during this crisis...