Coronavirus

[Lavanda]

All the best for your hospital trip and operation, Gerry.

[gerryh]

Thanks
Cheers
Gerry

[markwilding]

One thing is certain. Someone, somewhere is making a lot of money out of selling half-baked ideas, apps, tests, cures, snake-oil, etc to the masses. I think we should protect the vulnerable from all this rubbish. I'm with Costakid and don't even have a SmartPhone let alone an App for whatever and no one is sticking anything in my arm, thank-you. Absolutely not.

In your case, It's not necessary to to have an app because you live in a Village and track and trace is not difficult. If someone from outside your village visits a member of their family and has Covid 19 and it passes on to someone who might work in a public place which you frequent, you will have to back into quarantine unless you take the test. If quite a few people in your village test positive, the village might well have to go back to phase 0.

https://english.elpais.com/society/2020 ... l=masphase


As I have posted before for some people this is something people have to live with on a daily basis and is serious. Personal ideology will not protect you from this, My wife has come into contact with people who have tested positive various times and has now had quite a few tests both to see if she has the virus or the other one for anti-bodies, all of which have been negative but if the results are overnight, we have to isolate from each other as mush as possible at home too. However, as she had taken the test, she could return to work as soon as she had the result

Could be thousands needlessly quarantined with the app. Imagine message telling you your supermarket cashier was infected. Lockdown for two weeks and a couple of days later you were in contact at the Farmacia...another 14 days.

Yes but, Imagine someone not going back into quarantine, knowing that they have been in contact with someone who had had it and it turns out they are then the source when some of your friends or family contract it and god forbid, one of them dies . I certainly would not want to live with that

[markwilding]

Another thing is the Smart phone which has been so important in keeping people's business's going and making life easier for those remote working. It has countless uses and for WhatsApp has been the greatest help because I can send a document to many people at a stroke, sending emails is time consuming and less likely to be read immediately, I can also send advice, receive homework and very importantly people can pay me with their phones instantly using their address book and my telephone number.

The list goes on
I can send MP3s for students to listen to and PDFs with questions, scan and send all to multiple people at the same time. Cambridge exams are coming up so I can create and send exam papers and they can send me the answers and in return I send them the result often within minutes but always by the morning and if they want, a PDF of the answers to check the ones that were incorrect.


And that from someone who prefers to make actual phone calls to family and friends.

[olive]

One thing is certain. Someone, somewhere is making a lot of money out of selling half-baked ideas, apps, tests, cures, snake-oil, etc to the masses. I think we should protect the vulnerable from all this rubbish. I'm with Costakid and don't even have a SmartPhone let alone an App for whatever and no one is sticking anything in my arm, thank-you. Absolutely not.

Oh yes. I said that 700 pages ago. Read about trading standards jumping on a usb stick that protects you against 5g which of course is what caused CV19. The snake oil usb stick was a 5 euro item with a mysterious light wired into it which bumped the retail price up to three figures . Something like 300 euros. People were buying them by the truckload.

I will not be rushing into having an app. Be it Google/Apple or the special French or British one. I foresee them being beset with problems. Time will tell. At least the one in Spain will have the might of Gand A behind it.we already hand over something like a thousand bits of data to Amazon just by buying one item.

[olive]

Another thing is the Smart phone which has been so important in keeping people's business's going and making life easier for those remote working. It has countless uses and for WhatsApp has been the greatest help because I can send a document to many people at a stroke, sending emails is time consuming and less likely to be read immediately, I can also send advice, receive homework and very importantly people can pay me with their phones instantly using their address book and my telephone number.

The list goes on
I can send MP3s for students to listen to and PDFs with questions, scan and send all to multiple people at the same time. Cambridge exams are coming up so I can create and send exam papers and they can send me the answers and in return I send them the result often within minutes but always by the morning and if they want, a PDF of the answers to check the ones that were incorrect.


And that from someone who prefers to make actual phone calls to family and friends.

Whatsup =facebook. A more potent data mining combination than most others. It is a scary world. Great tools but what a price you are paying.

[markwilding]

That depends if you care?
A.com is using my data to send me ads on my phone based on the thread I’m viewing.
Everything I write on this forum is available for anyone to read
So what?
Meanwhile all messages on WhatsApp are encrypted.

[Beachcomber]

I dumped Whatscrap months ago. It had been my intention ever since it was taken over by Fakebook. The two or three of my contact who insisted on staying with it are not worth bothering about and are people with whom I didn't particularly want any contact anyway.

The coronavirus channels on both Telegram and Signal, as well as other alternative messaging applications, are well regarded by those who subscribe to them and if any data is mined at least it is not going to Suckerberk's odious organisation.

[Lavanda]

All very interesting points of view and all valid. We all chose what suits the way we want to live our life the best. When I was working I was always available for other people almost all the time. Since I have retired, about 15 years ago, I decided that the most important and luxurious thing I had was my time. I do not want to be contactable 24/7 and jump every time a small plastic box goes 'ping'. I do not want to tap in to and be a part of all the mindless trivia that seems to do the rounds among 'friends' who hardly know each other's names. People can contact me by phone (old-fashioned mobile that cannot be hacked) and by e-mail. They can also write to me. I am very happy with that.

As you wrote, Mark, I live in a small village. If anyone has the virus we would all know and we would all take the necessary steps.

[gerryh]

I dumped Whatscrap months ago. It had been my intention ever since it was taken over by Fakebook. The two or three of my contact who insisted on staying with it are not worth bothering about and are people with whom I didn't particularly want any contact anyway.

The coronavirus channels on both Telegram and Signal, as well as other alternative messaging applications, are well regarded by those who subscribe to them and if any data is mined at least it is not going to Suckerberk's odious organisation.

Sorry, but what has this rant got do with this Coronavirus thread?
Time a moderator stepped in and removed it.
Cheers
Gerry

[Beachcomber]

I pointed out coronavirus channels on alternative messaging apps. That is equally appropriate for a thread on coronavirus and probably more so than previous messages to mine.

If you want the moderator's job feel free to apply to admin.

[markwilding]

All very interesting points of view and all valid. We all chose what suits the way we want to live our life the best. When I was working I was always available for other people almost all the time. Since I have retired, about 15 years ago, I decided that the most important and luxurious thing I had was my time. I do not want to be contactable 24/7 and jump every time a small plastic box goes 'ping'. I do not want to tap in to and be a part of all the mindless trivia that seems to do the rounds among 'friends' who hardly know each other's names. People can contact me by phone (old-fashioned mobile that cannot be hacked) and by e-mail. They can also write to me. I am very happy with that.
As you wrote, Mark, I live in a small village. If anyone has the virus we would all know and we would all take the necessary steps.

Lavender
Fine but how is that relevant to the current situation? How would you give classes over your phone and by sending a letter?

You never had to teach in the current circumstances and to adapt your business to survive the the problems of the lockdown, If this had happened before the smartphone, we might have survived with computers but it' would be more cumbersome. pre internet? I have no idea how many businesses who have managed to keep going would have been able to do what they can do now just with a landline.

There have been many challenges that people have had to face. Many parents have children and employ people to look after them while they work but under the lockdown, they not only were the children at home, the child carers couldn't work but they still had to be paid at least 20 percent from the parents. The solution has been technology.



Even though my my business is absolutely tiny compared to most and while I understand that some just couldn't operate under lockdown, the key to any business surviving is flexibility and being able to adapt to the new situation in a pragmatic way, not to go worry about trivial things such as using a much less popular app, which would negatively affect my business due to some idealism I've picked up along the way.

Anyway, to answer your post. It's not the Smartphone or any other program on it which is the problem, It's the user

I've have had Telegram for more than a year and there was another one I had years ago and they are both waste of time to use in this current pandemic. I have only ever received one message that wasn't automated when someone joins Telegram.

[Wicksey]

Whether you have a Smartphone/use Whatsapp/apps etc wasn't really the point I was making (although I do have a Smartphone without a contract and use Whatsapp all the time at home, but do not use the phone as no-one rings me as we have no signal at the house) ..... the point was the accuracy of an trace and track app that the government may try to rely on for de-escalating lockdown and the movement of people, not only the population but for visitors to the country too. Most European countries seem to be desperate to start tourism again.

Plus it seems it's open to hackers too: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/0 ... -warnings/

[Devils Advocate]

Sorry, but what has this rant got do with this Coronavirus thread?
Time a moderator stepped in and removed it.
Cheers
Gerry

I understood the significance of it, although I do realise it may hurt the feelings of a few avid Facebookists and Whatsappists.

Thought Police are rife in the outside world, lets have a bit more freedom of thought here.

[Beachcomber]

It is important that other sources of information on coronavirus may be accessed not just what the Fakebook 'fact checkers' allow the world to see. That is why I specifically stated in my previous post that apps like Signal and Telegram as well as many other independent messaging apps have their own channels dedicated to providing excellent, sometimes alternative, information on the subject of coronavirus.

I appreciate that there are people in denial of that fact that any information on coronavirus that strays from the mainstream antisocial media agenda could possibly be valid but this is a very dangerous path to follow in respect something that has so adversely affected every single person on the planet.

I shall continue to comment on and provide links to such alternative information on coronavirus until or unless I am told not to do so (by someone who actually has the authority to do so) and any member who doesn't like it will just have to lump it!

[K&LTupper]

That will be you then not really a level playing field then

[Lavanda]

Just a quickie before I go back to the Covid-19 thing: Mark, I'm RETIRED. As I wrote "We all chose what suits the way we want to live our life the best." That is a statement and not a value judgment.

In my village, and the wider area, it has been decided that all village pools will remain closed. There will be no pools or pool bars this year. Equally, the reservoirs will be closed and so will the natural pools. I've bought one of those adult, giant paddling pools from Carrefour and so have many other neighbours. We are gong to have small (6 people) pool parties in the summer and we will survive.

However, there is always a HUGE influx of visitors to the village every summer for the fiestas. They won't be happening either. What will all these people from away do all summer and, more importantly, what will they bring with them in the way of viruses? I, too, have a second (third) home about two hours drive north of where i live. I have not visited my other home even though it's in the same province!!! The word in the village is hostile.

[markwilding]

It is important that other sources of information on coronavirus may be accessed not just what the Fakebook 'fact checkers' allow the world to see. That is why I specifically stated in my previous post that apps like Signal and Telegram as well as many other independent messaging apps have their own channels dedicated to providing excellent, sometimes alternative, information on the subject of coronavirus.

I appreciate that there are people in denial of that fact that any information on coronavirus that strays from the mainstream antisocial media agenda could possibly be valid but this is a very dangerous path to follow in respect something that has so adversely affected every single person on the planet.

I shall continue to comment on and provide links to such alternative information on coronavirus until or unless I am told not to do so (by someone who actually has the authority to do so) and any member who doesn't like it will just have to lump it!

In denial? Please!!!!!! Maybe we look at the same stuff as you do and come to different conclusions.

As I said before, Telegram is not suitable for everybody and in most work situation would be an absolute waste of time an energy. You openly confessed in a previous post who you are talking with on Telegram "people in the know", I am not interested in joining any WhatsApp or Telegram group to just listen to their conspiracy theories which mirror my own opinion.

But you are right it is all there in black and white on the internet.


https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2020-05-28 ... index.html

[Beachcomber]

China Global Television Network??? And you criticise me for quoting RT???

By the way, there is an excellent resource for videos providing alternative information on coronavirus and other subjects that have been censored by the Fakebook watchers and You Tube Thought Police.

If you wondered what they are trying to hide, and why, and want to decide for yourself check out Bit Chute:

[markwilding]

Sorry, but what has this rant got do with this Coronavirus thread?
Time a moderator stepped in and removed it.
Cheers
Gerry

I understood the significance of it, although I do realise it may hurt the feelings of a few avid Facebookists and Whatsappists.

Thought Police are rife in the outside world, lets have a bit more freedom of thought here.

If you check back into my posts, you will find nothing about freedom of speech or thought.. My defence of smart phones and specifically WhatsApp was its use as a great tool to use during this pandemic.

Everybody has to weigh up the pros and cons of everything and I have come to my own conclusion based on my own experience, which is , that without it, my working life would have been much more difficult.