We're probably a few days out from all non-essential cross-border transit being suspended across the globe, or all travelers entering mandatory quarantine.
...out of contract 30th June. Though to be fair with the current climate who would sign anyone, even Sir Shane.
I've said it before, but I have watched nearly all of the Walking Dead, so I think I am well prepared. Walked the dogs yesterday, and took Lucille.
The problem is, US/UK isn’t doing what China did to mitigate spread and make sure they were able to treat as many of the seriously ill cases as possible. Not even close. In fact they’re doing the opposite. China was excellent at identifying, testing, isolating and tracking and started as soon as they worked out what they were dealing with. They set up over 100 small teams all working separately to track the lives of every confirmed case, find who they were in contact with, get them tested and then follow up with the same actions on the secondary individuals. Plus they have much less social control of their populace so the efficiency of those actions is less even if they start now (which they won’t). It will get bad in both countries. We have less ICU beds and ventilator units available per capita in the UK than Italy and Spain. When the spread is very aggressive health services are going to be overrun. If we go for herd immunity then the numbers simply don’t add up: data from South Korea, China, everywhere tells us that high numbers of risk group people need ICU/ventilators when they get this. Boris Johnson told the truth but he didn’t say why. A lot of people are going to die because they just can’t get treatment because the health services are unable to provide it. That’s without even getting into PPA shortages (which I had as an NHS worker during an ordinary year!) and your medical staff getting sick and then being unable to staff the facilities to the level needed. That’s the reason to be prepared to stall it as soon as it hits. That’s the action that helps save anyone immunocompromised or in risk groups. Government action that enables people to stay home and not be vectors. Waiting for private industry like sport and such to get so scared they cancel is unacceptable. It sounds improbable but this is the big bad that WHO and other health bodies have been warning the world about for a very long time. It’s here now and should result in changing the way our society is organised forever. This is the most immediate of the existential threats posed to our species in the coming hundred years. It is already very clear that humanity cannot meet them with a leadership that protects business and economic interests over human ones.
Also, 'herd immunity' kicks in at an incredibly high percentage of the population. As an example: 93-95% of the population needs to be vaccinated against measles for effective herd immunity. It's a mere 80-86% for polio, which isn't as infectious. So, yes: presuming re-infection isn't a problem (and it might be), once 90%+ of the population has contracted the disease, the remaining 5-10% are less likely to. Yay?
Just a bit of easy maths. We have around 100 active cases here at the moment. At any given time there have been 6 in the ICU, most of those patients have been able to recover and 2 have double dipped and been in and out of ICU. That’s at a medical centre specifically given over to corona patients. That’s with rigid controls and throttling to ensure everyone is getting treatment ASAP and getting tested to confirm. In most of the UK there are 6 or 7 of those beds. Not for 100 people but 100,000. And that’s before anyone unfortunate enough to have any other medical incident that could see them in need of those services. The 90% infection rate necessary for herd immunity would mean approximately 1m people that require a high level of care to fight it and a further 60m who maybe if they’re lucky have a **** time for a few weeks. It’s just not possible. That’s without looking at how many people have compromised immune systems in the UK. This could be due to diabetes, past health issues, genetic factors, illnesses caused from work or stress. It’s too simplistic to say “the olds get got”. Control the infection rate and you save lives. A lot of them. We should be shutting down as a country right now. No non-essential border crossing and only with medical clearance. The government should be annexing private property in order to isolate people more effectively. PPA rationing for supply chain/high tier employees. It’s the things not done that scare me. The level of inaction stands out massively.
I work for a big multi-national oil company and have been instructed to work from home until 15th April at the earliest. The wife will have me murdered long before then. Pray for AS !