Plastic

Look at that ****ing elephant. ‘Health’ minister? That’s a laugh.

Yeah, coupled with the first sunny day in months and gyms being closed it was probably a predictable outcome.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51994504 Incredible.

Tried to take the dog for a quiet walk today at Old Winchester Hill. Apparently every other ****er had the same idea, carpark was worse than Tesco’s. Drove straight out, parked in a lay-by on the A32 and walked across empty fields. Social distancing doesn’t work if we all ‘distance’ in the same places!

Can’t believe this hasn’t been addressed in some way.

If you think I want us to be in that position, then you are insane.

Odds on us needing to go crawling back to the EU with our tail between our legs? I suppose we could trade UK fishing rights for humanitarian aid. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51961624

It may not be very important given the wider context, but it’s important to them due to their limited appreciation of the situation. The problem isn’t their reaction, it’s the BBCs ridiculous need to focus on it. I’m sure they do, but I’d suggest those risks were slightly less terminal. Certainly at the moment. Obviously more accident than design.

I know it’s been mentioned already, but it’s no coincidence that both Spain and Italy have some of the highest mortality rates. This is very likely cultural - neither country has any significant level of elderly care infrastructure. Old people rarely move into assisted living complexes, and care homes are generally equivalent to hospices. The elderly live with their family and are cared for at home. Couple this with multi-generational households due to low employment among young people in both countries, and it’s understandable why the death rate is so high. I have personal experience of this recently, having needed to repatriate my elderly parents from Spain in January (thank god!). Our culture of shoving OAPs into assisted living and care homes had been heavily criticised, and rightly so in some circumstances, but it may lead to significantly less deaths among the elderly. I’m certainly pretty happy that my parents are now safely tucked up in bishopstoke park, with meals being brought to them. Hopefully this will help to insulate them against the virus.

Bullshît. This is obviously going to be a major cause of stress and disruption for them. You’ve certainly changed your tune.

Whitty's discussing the rationale behind the UK's approach live on BBC currently. Seems like a very sensible chap. Speaks very well, inspires confidence despite the overriding uncertainty imo.

Second that. Just finished it.

As a mild Asthma sufferer, I was interested to know if steroid inhalers had any effect (beneficial or otherwise). This led me to the below articles, which I found informative. https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200317/p2a/00m/0na/026000c https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.11.987016v1.full

Potentially 6 months... Jesus Christ.

All schools shutting on Friday, except to key worker children. Williamson confirms.

It will peak, there is only so much freezer / garage space available. However as it stands, it's madness. They should station Police / Military personnel at the large supermarkets to enforce the limits. Unreal that we are in this position. This thread is only 3 weeks old, some of the complacency from the first few pages seems incredible now.

Thanks for the offer! I have now managed to get hold of them all.

I don't want to watch miserable things. Currently, I'm re-watching Palin's 'Around the World in 80 Days' on iPlayer. Then ill do the rest of his stuff, although pole to pole isn't available - I think Amazon has snuffled it up, but im not making Bezos any richer so ill get it off usenet.

edit

My wife is still teaching, though plenty of the 'usual suspect' sick notes have decided to 'self isolate', putting alot of pressure on those still there (50-students in a class!). Also 250 kids out from the school yesterday, more today.

Not saying I agree with it, I’m not really in a position to give an opinion, however he seems to have a rational and reasoned argument. It’s certainly not a sensationalist message.

This is being done in the US, and I think it sounds like a good idea.

My concern is not childcare. My wife is a teacher and as of today I will be comfortably WFH for the foreseeable. My concern is whether or not closing schools now and greatly reducing infection is the ‘right thing to do’, or whether this will simply delay and exaggerate the peak at some point in the future.

Italy is not coping, NYC too early to say I believe.