Member Info for Grayling

"To suggest that a bioterrorm agent cannot be released because it would equally affect the rogue state doing such a thing is totally absurd...Look at a very simple recent example with the A-232 ethyl analogue binary agent from the Novichok programme in Salisbury." Not comparable surely? The only damage that Russia could (and did) incur was reputational. If their goons had managed to get in and out undetected and had not carelessly discarded their excess nerve agent where it was picked up by random civilians, they might have got away with it completely. However, there was never any physical threat to the Russian population at large, only the agents tasked with delivering the poison.

I would have thought that was normal practice for someone with the misfortune to be married to a Daily Mail journalist?

You could make just as as convincing a case for the crisis having now peaked in China and also evidence of same in Italy/Spain leading to a more optimistic view on the likely length of the shutdown. I agree markets will remain volatile but see no reason to call a DCB or "suckers rally" as you so prosaically put it.

Dividend suspended and RR looking to raise lines of credit of around £1B to bolster liquidity according to FT. I guess that makes things a bit clearer and indicates that recovery for RR could be a long road.

I have a small holding and like most others here are well under water despite having what I had considered to be a bombproof position having bought on the back of the three profit warnings a while back. Question is when the new ISA window opens Monday is RR going to be one of the no-brainers or is the cash going to flow into uber defensives like Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever and National Grid et al.? Personally I am torn and not quite sure what to do.

June divi suspended and decision on payment will be made at AGM in July. Saturday Telegraph business section today.

"It depends on when fit people and under 50s are allowed to return to work" That will only come with mass community testing to determine if you either have it or have had it. I do not see this happening anytime soon as the priority will be testing NHS and social care staff. Age is certainly no guide as to disease course, unless you want to use the virus to find out if you actually have an underlying health condition you were previously unaware of? A bit too much like playing Russian Roulette for most people.

"I’ve read many papers and did lots of research" Really? Please share the "sources" then...........

The way "old Trumpy" is going he will do very well if he does not cause the removal of a good proportion of his support base from the gene pool. Not very smart after all.

Yes and most of it is being fed into the system by North Korea, Russia and China (amongst others) in the hopes that gullible idiots will pick up on it and disseminate it via social media.

"One has to wonder if this had been planned all along, if indeed the virus is not the flu. " Another conspiracy theorist idiot. I think even the Donald in the midst of his idiocy has now realised this is NOT the flu. As for it all being an elaborate plan to rob us all of our pensions, I would lay off the pop for a bit if I were you.

The sooner these idiotic conspiracy theories are knocked on the head the better. Bad hygiene and mixing exotic species with humans in insanitary conditions is the cause and the sooner China makes these practices completely illegal and socially unacceptable the better.

Oh no not another conspiracy theorist. Very sad

Why the fixation with George Soros? So he bet that the UK's membership of the ERM was unsustainable and made a s**tload of money betting we would crash out and guess what... he was right. That was back in 1992 almost 30 years ago, for christ's sake ....get over it!

I think you will find that the UK government would take a very dim view of AZN being taken out by another major Pharma company. Plus the Pfizer bid failed at £55 and we are way over that now.

An epidemiological analysis of Lombardy, the epicentre of the outbreak in Italy, reveals that the first onset of symptoms in the country occurred weeks before the disease was reported there on 20 February. The preprint article, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, looks at nearly 6,000 laboratory-confirmed cases. The advice from infectious-disease modeller Michele Tizzoni: “Be prepared. Even if you don’t see much.” (Nature 26/03/20)

Hospitals in New York City — now the US epicentre of the outbreak — will start treating COVID-19 patients with the blood of people who have recovered from the disease. Researchers hope the antibody-laden blood might reduce severe infections, and ease the burden on hospitals. A big advantage of the blood is that it’s available now and relatively safe, if it is screened for infections. China tried treating some patients with plasma from recovered patients, but results of its effectiveness are preliminary so far. (Nature 26/03/20)

Steven Dick, the deputy head of mission at the British embassy in Budapest, passed away on Tuesday after testing positive for the COVID-19 disease. Very sad news indeed.

https://youtu.be/wnd1jKcfBRE

The explanation for the apparent failure of the mortality figures to show up the effects of Covid19 is relatively simple and laid out on the Euromomo website thus: "Some wonder why no increased mortality is observed in the reported mortality figures for the COVID-19 affected countries. The answer is that increased mortality that may occur primarily at subnational level or within smaller focal areas, and/or concentrated within smaller age groups, may not be detected at the overall national level. This even more so in the pooled European-wide analysis, given the large total population denominator. Furthermore, there is always a few weeks of delay in death registration and reporting. Hence, the EuroMOMO mortality figures for the most recent weeks must be interpreted with some caution. Therefore, although increased mortality is currently not being observed in the EuroMOMO figures, this does not mean that increased mortality does not occur in some areas or in some age groups, including mortality related to COVID-19.Therefore, although increased mortality is currently not being observed in the EuroMOMO figures, this does not mean that increased mortality does not occur in some areas or in some age groups, including mortality related to COVID-19.