Chief Stipe

Brodie - that ISN'T what science is telling us at the moment. At best the jury is still out on this virus. If higher temperatures do kill it how come Delhi with a minimum daily temperature of 26 and highs of 38 has a growing cluster?

Disagree. In the space of 4 months it has infected over 1 million people. No slug! The science is inconclusive at this stage. I assume you mean ambient temperatures. Most of the world lives in average temperatures well under this. Also NZ is in autumn i.e. the "flu season." Totally impractical. When was the last time you cleaned every light/power switch, every chair arm, all the taps, door handles, TV remotes, mobile phone with BLEACH! Luckily it hasn't infected our vulnerable populations as yet. Wouldn't have mattered as it was already in Europe BEFORE China knew about it. The cities and regions that have been impacted the most - Wuhan, Northern Italy, Spain and New York all have one thing in common - severe air pollution. Northern Italy has the highest air pollution in Europe. Subsequently it could be assumed that many many people were respiratory impaired and therefore particularly vulnerable to this virus. Death is caused primarily by the failure of the lungs. So yes our population is less vulnerable than those currently affected. If you have smoking induced lung impairment I wouldn't venture too far.

I agree. Continually flicking back to a green presenter in the studio seems so superfluous now. Better to fill the time with audio comments from Australia which is what we see now. Saves money too I imagine. Even flicking to Sweeny or Guerin sitting on stool on track seems a waste of valuable air time.

What a weirdly run race?! 5th Australian Derby win for Murray Baker with Quick Thinker.

King's Legacy Breeding Sire: Redoute's Choice Dam: Breakfast in Bed Sire of Dam: Hussonet (USA) King's Legacy Owners James Harron Bloodstock Colts, Mrs B C Bateman, Love Racing, P Mehrten, Doyles Breeding & Racing, S N Gillard, G1G Racing & Breeding, D Saab, Rockingham Thoroughbreds, J A Ingham, Mrs F A Ingham & Pinecliff Racing

From today's viewing: Good tracks; Lots of skilled jockeys; Competitive racing with good fields; Good commentators; Pre-race analysis by knowledgeable people; .......

Scrub that. Just being picky. Bloody cabin fever. Should be grateful don't have to listen to Sweeny or Guerin or a script reading newbie.

Why are we getting that inane music between races? Surely we could get more commentary from the Championships.

That's not true Brodie. Although the numbers haven't been large there have been infected people in most if not all the major cities in China. I laugh when I hear our PM about going hard! Wuhan City/Hubei Province was locked down fairly quickly. A Chinese lockdown would make ours look like a national holiday. When China did move the moved a damn sight harder than we have. Also bear in mind that the Chinese population have had experience with SARS. I visited China in 2002 BEFORE SARS and was somewhat taken back with the Chinese propensity to spit instead of using a handkerchief. Not that our use of cloth handkerchief's is very hygienic! I visited again in late 2003 AFTER the epidemic had finished. The difference was astounding. There were official signs everywhere telling people not to spit and that there were fines or worse for those that did. No one was spitting. Lots of people were wearing masks - many did anyway because the pollution in the cities requires it. Typical Chinese capitalism and there were lots of sanitised disposible wipes being used. Basically everyone had accepted the orders, conformed and got on with things. The point I'm getting to is China has had what you would call a dry (wet?) run with a significant epidemic in recent times. The populous would have responded a damn sight quicker than ours.

Still some issues but bear with me. Been a very long 3 days working on this with an illness to boot. No not Covid-19.

I don't believe they were lax. Compare their efforts to President Trump who quite frankly is looking like a complete idiot. Wuhan has a population of just over 11 million roughly twice the size of New Zealand. We struggle to get 5 million people in order let alone twice that! Wuhan is in Hubei Province which has a population of 58 million. We have all suffered in this country with the slowness of bureaucracy. In Hubei there would be about 5 levels of semi-autonomous government. Messages move upwards slowly. How else do you manage those numbers of people without multiple levels of government? The same type of systems are evident in USA and Australia. Compare China's response to those countries. I don't believe it is irrelevant. There have been pandemics/epidemics around forever in human history. The first recorded being the Antoine Plague 165-180AD. 5 million people died. The Black Death Plague of 1347 - 1351 killed 200m. The Spanish Flu 1918-19 killed over 50m - some estimates are 100m. None of these so far mentioned were in times of global air travel. So this particular virus has been circulating for quite some time but only recently changing its structure to cause serious illness. Note NZ has only had 1 death so far, 2 people are critical and there are about 12 people hospitalised. By the way 780 people will die in NZ this week regardless of Covid-19. Yep the conspiracy theories will start. Do you honestly believe that any Government would impose this upon their people? I don't think so. So that leaves accidental infection out of research labs. Possible but evidence so far on the structure of the virus says no. Plus damn near every country in the world has research labs investigating infectious diseases.

Not correct. Their birth rate dropped from over six to 1.5. At 1.5 it is feasible that their total population will drop. In terms of workers that is an issue that the entire western world is facing because of the large bubble of aged people being supported by less young people. Yes but less than there has been previously. China has always had poverty.

Foxton? You don't need a Grandstand with Covid-19.

What do you mean? The bar that we are referring to was a "pop-up" and I imagine was on a temporary lease with frequent renewals.

May I suggest Way South that you tone down your views in public as you are liable to get nailed by our laws. I suppose you still have a grudge against the Spanish? (Spanish flu pandemic). Or the USA and Mexico for the 2010 outbreak of Swine Flu? The issue that we all will need to confront at some stage is over population. In my opinion that is the root cause of these pandemics, climate change and environmental collapse. Credit to the Chinese the attempted to address this with their one child policy. Western Governments are too scared to even mention over population.

But the bar is empty!

That was the result of ideology. How many died under Hitler? As for countries that have a say the leader of Western democracies is hardly crowning himself in glory for his management of the crisis.

One more post like and you are on moderation. I'm not risking prosecution for BOAY by your racist hate comments.

So you believe a theory put forward by Tucker Carlson? Have a read. This is the most up to date study so far. Not it cannot confirm the origin of the virus however it contends that the adaptation occurred in humans AFTER transference. Also the tests on bats and pangolins show it is the latter that has the closest form of the virus to the human ones. s41591-020-0820-9.pdf

For a start I wouldn't rely on Fox News as my definitive source. FOX - Friend Of Xenophobia! The science reports that I've read fairly conclusively say that the virus is NOT man made. They also hypothesise with some fairly solid evidence that the virus albeit in a more benign form has been in circulation for years. By the way these reports are form Western Scientists NOT Chinese.

I've been reading the scientific papers being produced and it seems that the virus is likely to have been circulating for years but in a more benign form. There is evidence that it was in Europe BEFORE China with unusual severe cases of pneumonia presenting during last year. The issue with China was that this new strain (there are 8 strains so far) presented in a very densely populated city - Wuhan. Compare this with New York which is the most densely populated city in USA. It is highly likely that this virus has been around for a long time and will be here forever. However the human population will adapt and survive.

Ease up pull your reins in. We don't tolerate blatant racism on BOAY. Much of what we take for granted today in terms of standard of living and invention either came from China or was invented by China. Have you ever visited China? I've been there 5 times and found them a friendly people.

Seems they may have read the British Racing Authority Operational Plan.

The more I read the more I become optimistic. I believe that the actual number of people infected currently in NZ is much much higher than the official figures. I wouldn't be surprised if some people have had it and recovered. The fatality rate will drop.

Don't let your xenophobia get in the way of rational thought. I've been reading a lot about this virus and there is strong evidence that the virus was circulating in a benign fashion for what could be up to a decade. Mid to late last year new forms of severe pneumonia were being presented in a number of European countries it is now suspected that they were caused by a variant of this Coronavirus if not Covid-19 itself. There are 8 strains circulating presently and not much is known about differences in virility. So it may not be a "China" problem and Wuhan may not be the epicentre. It is quite possible that the dangerous strain was developing in more than one country at once. As an avid reader of data it seems to me that population density is a key to its transmission and death rate. Wuhan and New York have a lot in common with regard to population density. New York is the most densely populated city in the USA.