Wuhan virus.

[Workingman]

Bloody hell, if what we just had is an exemplar of what we are about to receive on a daily basis then God help us. Tedious, to say the least. Journalists asking much the same questions, the monkeys throwing back the same tired answers. I'll give it a week before we go back to just getting the numbers of tested, infected and dead. They are all we are really interested in.

If there is something new, something not seen before, some staggering news, then by all means put up a talking head, otherwise just put out a communiqué and leave us alone.

[cromwell]

Hear hear.

[medsec222]

I still can't grasp from all the talking and questions whether the over 70s are definitely in lock down from the weekend. What does the word 'shielded mean'.

[Kaz]

I still can't grasp from all the talking and questions whether the over 70s are definitely in lock down from the weekend. What does the word 'shielded mean'.

This! So unclear!

[saundra]

Latest headlines 18months lockdown if it wasn't serious I would be laughing
How are people expected to live ????hope they build a few .ore prison to put us all in yea gods

[cromwell]

What seems to be happening is that the government advisers are putting out worse case scenarios and the media immediately put them out as fact.
Eighteen months would do me in as well Saundra, but I can't see it.
People would find it very difficult to "socially distance" themselves from friends and family, to effectively stop socialising altogether for eighteen months. Plus just about every small high street business would go bust. Pubs, restaurants, hairdressers. Also many sports clubs would go bankrupt.
Eighteen months like the next twelve weeks might beat the virus but it would economically kill half the country.

[Suff]

Hence my comments earlier about the government conflict between gdp and dead bodies.

14k new cases so far today.

China rolled out the Army, just about shut the country down and bit the bullet for 6 weeks. Today the place you are least likely to get the virus is China.

All these well meaning moves and all the "but you can't" complaints for social distancing and isolation only have one possible end. More dead bodies.

Sorry but it is Fact, the fastest way to deal with a virus like this is 0 interaction. No new fuel (people), no new cases.

As for the press cromwell, you are right. In disaster planning, you have three scenario's, best case, median case and worst case. You plan for the median, hope for the best and have contingencies in place for the worst. You constantly monitor and change between activities depending on which case pans out over time.

The press, of course, only release the worst case. So they can sensationalise it and sell more news.

I have a sensational BS filter and I use it. It is called "do not click on click bait". Yes, I know, it is getting harder, but you have to do it.

As for Broadcast TV? Choose life, it's not worth it....

From judicial monitoring the news we decided to change our ferry from Thursday to Tomorrow and just to be sure, we changed it from overnight to morning. I've had to cancel a Garage appointment for the car and I'll fix it when I get home.

Brittany Ferries are suspending all ferries from Thursday to the 12th April.

I had a job organised to work for Tesco from Central Europe, which avoids IR35, but the panic buyers have caused so much stress on the IT systems that there is a total change freeze for the next month. Nix one job.

Tesco is experiencing volumes of shopping and online services never seen even at Christmas. They are calling it Christmas 2.0+

[Workingman]

This 18 month thing is being misrepresented.

18 months is how long it might be with us before it is under full[?] control, either by natural "herd" immunity or with the help of vaccines. The thinking is that there will be a dip in the summer and autumn before it returns at some point by next winter and into the spring. There are very few places (or people) on Earth that could go into lockdown for that length of time so it is not going to happen.

What the UK appears to be doing is trying to control the rate of the inevitable deaths to manageable figures over a longer time frame. Other places are using different approaches, but nobody knows which, of the many, is the right one. However, there will come a tipping point in all places when the number of those who have had the virus and recovered outnumber those who have not had it. That could well be the time for it to be left to run its course.

Then there is the economy. It is already struggling and the money tap has been turned on. It and many others could not survive an 18 month closure. We would have a global depression to make the last one look like a tea party.

[cromwell]

Thanks both.
Btw I heard today that there is plenty of food etc in the warehouses, but they don't have the drivers and lorries to get it to the supermarkets quick enough to prevent empty shelves.

[Suff]

Of course there is cromwell. All distribution chains are now just in time. So the stock and transport fleet is sized for normal plus a contingency of 20%.

Panic buying at 600% volume will only have one end. Empty shelves. The more the shelves empty, the more people panic.

Thank god very few people rely on cash nowadays. 30 years ago it would be empty banks and cash ma hi es and mass panic on levels much higher than this.