Calling Doctors and nurses, many of whom may be in the 'at risk' group, back to the NHS. Austerity causing the lack of nurses and Doctors coming back to bite. Well done.
Well i know (suspect) why people are doing it, it's just baffling (IMO) as it will have little effect for the vast majority of people. It's like getting to the supermarket and saying to yourself (third person you) well this will have next to no effect on me but I'm going buy everything i can get my hands on, it's stupid. Maybe it's that We've had enough of experts thing and people simply don't believe the mortality rates or what they're seeing on the news. For sure, and I'm saying that as someone who is in the at risk group, but even though I am it's pretty much life as normal for me, not that i was normal to start with.
Back from the post office, stopped in the local cornershop next door and there was rice, pasta, flour, tins... all sorts. Also snacks. 'Convenience' prices, but snacks nonetheless. So now I have snacks. I also have a tin of kidney beans that I am debating whether I add to the beanless chilli I cooked last night. I'd like to think the British public in general aren't idiots panic buying and stocking up in the true sense, but even if it's 1% idiots, it's still 500k people. Assuming that everyone else is panic buying makes stock issues an ironclad guarantee - you grab a couple things you may not, you book delivery slot a bit earlier or further in advance, you go to a brick and mortar store instead of relying on online delivery, start to see results of other people doing it thus confirming your assumption, and so on. For the other 99%, buying habits have changed for all of us as evidenced by this thread - when you're dealing with every household in the country, even a small change like making sure you've got certain things in, or restocking the fridge/cupboard a few days before you normally would, or like me buying snacks because the kids are home from school for a bit, or buying more from the local Sainsburys because we can't get a slot next week, and don't want to be going there every day, could have quite a significant impact on stock levels. Our general shopping habits are a big delivery once every 10-14 days or so, and stopping at the local shop for one or two things pretty much every day, at least every other day. And we have a bad habit of sometimes leaving it until you can see the spiderwebs in the back of the cupboard to do the big shops. Now since we are unlikely to just pop to the shops every day on the way to/from something, because all of the to/from things are cancelled anyway, we've changed how we buy. Because we can't be in the spiderweb position if we suddenly need to lock-down for 14 days, we've changed how much we buy. Multiply that by 15 million households and it adds up real quick. We're not panicked, we're not buying more than we need, circumstances have changed, so we've changed. And circumstances have changed for everyone. That being said, I did say I'd like to think everyone else isn't an idiot, but that doesn't mean I'm right.
It shouldn't be. This is a remarkably contagious virus, which can be spread by contact, droplets, and according to the last study I saw short-term airborne. If you're blithely going about your daily life like nothing's changed, You're Doing It Wrong. Social distancing. Everybody should be doing it, right now and through until the population has been vaccinated. Stay home. Read some books. Have a nice bath or twelve.
Like i said my life isn't what you'd consider normal to start with, self isolation and social distancing has pretty much been the norm for me for years.
Yeh, same, I basically have my same routine, but I just can't see any of my partners which is a very lonely place!
Hah - in that case keep up the good work, soldier! 's a bit like everyone suddenly discovering that work-from-home is a thing... I've been doing exactly that for well over a decade now.
Right? This week has been really odd for me, having also been home based for 10+ years. In spite of the fact I work for an IT vendor, seems that there are a lot of people that just don't - it's night and day how things have changed between people who are used to it where it's totally BAU and those who are not, who seem to have entirely dropped off the map.
Immunologists reckon that's about 18 months away. The social distancing is more to flatten the curve of infection to a more manageable level if I understand correctly. Most of us will get it, or have had it, and will be fine. Many will not notice. These actions are primarily to reduce the rate in order to cope and therefore reduce deaths. I think the question is whether the actions we take are enough to flatten that curve enough. But yeah, avoid hoomans if you can to help those at risk survive.
Bavaria is on lockdown, at long last. Apparently people in Augsburg were still crowding cafes and whatnot yesterday according to one of my girlfriends colleagues. Utter lunatics, some people.
Or until survivor immunity covers most of the non-vulnerable population and transmission is limited in the same way as other immunised diseases (e.g. Chickenpox, TB). That is, assuming both that survivor immunity is viable (and there is not a sufficient infected population for mutations to reinfect and spread), and that there is not a long-term post infection asymptomatic carrier phase. Neither of these assumptions has had enough time to be solidly confirmed yet, though both are reasonable assumptions judging by the behaviour of past coronaviruses.
It's definitely helpful to be one of those folk that has actively avoided social situations more often than not.
Been home schooling this week. It's a bl00dy nightmare (mainly for the missus whilst I try to do all the domestic maintenance and keep their network running, print instructional material etc.). Heard mention earlier of this lasting for the next twelve weeks. To think years ago we were going to take them travelling and school them ourselves!
Productivity of home working and home schooling is going to be a nightmare for me and the missus. Luckily she is only on a 16 hour week so can do 3 hours a day (of which 1 can be my lunch hour). I feel for anyone on full time plus younger kinds cos its bloody impossible. I see little jane and/or jimmy being foisted onto the super vulnerable grand parents by a lot of families.
