these are strange times. It feels like I am (and probably you all feel) like we are extras in a horror film similar to 28 days later. I went out yesterday and today in my car - I took my 80 year parents out for a drive so they did not get stir crazy in doors - non of us left the vehicle so it was from front door to car and back. Roads we empty, places we would usually get stuck in traffic we drove through with ease. I was tempted to drive down to either Bournemouth or Poole (to see where my company are relocating) but opted for the beautiful new Forest. Hopefully, and with he projects I have coming up with work I should be able to work from work indefinitely which will mean I go shopping for them (and some of the elderly neighbours nearby). Now the other half is in Thailand - working in an elephant sanctuary. She has had very limited internet access. Our last conversation she said she was trying to see if her flights had been changed but I am tempted for her to stay put. In the middle of a jungle (hum....very wet from what she has said). I have had HMV and another couple of shops advise of temporary closedowns, plus trains / tubes having restrictions and closing - should I warn her now her return to UK maybe slightly more problematic than she realises. I personally (as would I guess all others) want to wake up to find out this has been one hell of a bed dream. Stay safe everyone
If the cretinous ****ers who can’t stay 2 metres away from others when outside force the government to tell me not to walk the dog, it would be a serious understatement to say I will be livid. But I fear this is inevitable, having seen the footage of idiots, many of them families, barging past each other on country walks today, not respecting anyone’s personal space let alone a cordon sanitaire. It beggars belief. I think the government, or more accurately Johnson, is doing a pretty good job and he certainly looks more statesmanlike at these news conferences, cutting out the stupid jokes and speaking very clearly. Every fibre of his libertarian body is fighting against coercion which impedes personal freedom, preferring to persuade us and appeal to common sense and decency. It’s worked with me and it seems everyone on here, but clearly millions of others are too ****ing dense to do it, and Johnson will have no option but to bring the hammer down soon. Some disgraceful stories in the local (West Midlands) news. Tesco’s in Dudley was meant to be for NHS workers for the first hour of the day but so many others turned up their was no social distancing and staff were forced to let everyone in at the same time. Reports of burglaries of warehouses storing food. Just **** off. In balance, also stories of generosity and decency, including pubs and restaurants with no current income stream cooking and delivering food to those in isolation. My local, the Fat Pug, 70 yards up the road, put all of its surplus vegetables in crates outside and asked for donations through the letterbox, which would then be given to charity.
Have to say that the few people we encountered today, both on the street and in the countryside, did observe the distancing advice. Perhaps there is hope.
Trying to gather my thoughts about all this, having just watched Boris and friends’ latest press briefing. The press questioning is clearly pre-scripted and serves to push the points that might sound to authoritarian coming straight from Boris, mainly regarding further curbing freedom. The press questions involve unnecessary fear inducing language. Approx 5700 cases in UK so far, 280 deaths = 4% mortality rate. a) 5700 nationwide after several weeks doesn’t seem an exponentially large figure for a virus that has the ability to spread like wildfire. b) bumped into a family friend in the park this afternoon who works fairly high up in NHS, who suggested that the 5700 known cases is likely significantly lower than the actual total, in which case 4% mortality is way OTT. c) of the 280 who have died so far, I assume some would have died anyway due to their other health complications. I’m not looking for an angle on this, but the economic devastation is enormous and is never usually even a consideration. Usually the NHS is underfunded, money over lives, homelessness is accepted, money over lives etc etc. Can’t get my head around things.
Noted. Party politics are out of the window as far as I'm concerned. Left wingers on social media are pulling Boris apart daily. He's actually, possibly the most liberal minded Tory prime minister ever imo and is visibly struggling with all the social restrictions.
Likewise. First in the park with the kids, apart from a group of lads smoking a joint on a bench, everyone was perfectly sensible, granted, I didn’t see the playground, then after, at a local Sainsbury’s and on a 15 minute walk home, everyone behaved as required.
The number of people who have had the virus will be many times higher than the reported figure. Mortality rates are therefore way overstated.
Is it really a risk to to be within two metres of someone for two or three seconds? When this started it was 15 minutes.
Not looking good for the USA, 60% increase in cases in one day up to over 38,000. New York declared 'Disaster Zone', just what Trump needs in election year...
For once I’m not going to try to wind you up Woody. I thought some of the questioning was very sensationalist, and I thought Johnson was getting tired of it. All about perception. As Stroller noted the numbers are very misleading. Don’t really understand your last paragraph. I don’t think any government can explicitly put a large slice of the electorate at increased risk by arguing that the economy is more important than lives. What is not clear is whether the current strategy will actually save the lives of vulnerable people. I don’t know. Is it too much to ask that we don’t risk it?
Must be so. I understand that much of this is about minimising the strain on the NHS at any given time.