I have to say that apart from wishing MikeG and his family "get well soon" - plus any other members affected of course - (as MM says, those are totally inadequate words to express a sincere wish/hope), I've decided to bow out of this thread.
It's already got rather near to the "state" of that infamous "B" thread that we had a while back, but with the help of some IMO sensible moderation, plus the absence of our much missed (NOT!) "Resident Troll", it hasn't quite lowered itself to that level - despite the attempts of several "Jacob wannabees" - not yet anyway.
While I do appreciate the value of informed debate, on here as anywhere else, there are IMO some subjects which are so complex that those who aren't trained in whatever specialisation we're discussing actually hold "opinions and ideas" which are, to all intents and purposes, quite valueless. Such expressions of opinion are actually either based on the 99% of drivel that can be picked up by anyone on "the media"; and/or on a a mixture of pre-existing prejudices - mainly political of course - held by the individual poster.
As I've already said, I see precisely NIL purpose in discussing "why are where we where we are now?"; NOR comparing one particular country's responses/lack thereof with wherever "home" is for us all now. As also said before, I don't see this as a matter for comparing the number of Gold medals "we've" won (Olympics), or the number of goals scored by "our" World Cup football team.
And sorry to say, some of the ideas expressed here about the "value" of the NHS compared with other "privatised" health systems are clearly based purely on hearsay and prejudice, NOT on practical experience - to the extent that they're just not worth commenting on.
This whole thread has become a complete waste of time and energy IMO, and not only does it do "us" no good at all - arguably, even some harm from the depression standpoint - but also will NOT change a single thing in the real world. So why bother?
As someone has also already said, the whole thread is just going round and round in circles and just isn't getting anywhere
So as above, I've now unsubscribed from this thread, and will now stick to the more "useful" threads on here - even the "A bit of calm" thread has only "degenerated" into gardening stuff (and I NEVER thought I'd ever find THAT at least "acceptable")! ;-)
Have fun all, see you all elsewhere no doubt - and as above, all the best to anyone who's actually contracted this miserable disease (or unfortunately will do so).
