Weston Super Saint

Not sure our great British public have got the message about 'social distancing'! The beach at Weston was packed today when I rode past - the pier was closed - and there were queues at pretty much every kiosk and takeaway flogging fish and chips. The golf course looked packed as well but presumably the golfers were all outside only and the club house, bar and changing rooms were all closed? It did seem a bit weird having everyone 'exercising' in the same place at the same time! One car parked up and four 'runners' got out so they could run along the beach which seemed odd, presumably they all came from the same area if they shared the same car, so why not go running locally?

Send him this link, might go some way to cheering him up.... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51989183

What a load of scaremongering pony! If the virus was transmitted as described in that article, then we would have seen a biblical spike following Cheltenham races which were attended by 60-70,000 people per day - has there been any reports of that happening?

I'm not sure I understand this if I'm honest. It seems to suggest some kind of apocalypse happening in A&E to the extent that an A&E consultant (who presumably has seen pretty much everything there is to see), has become withdrawn and shocked by what can only be assumed is the result of the virus. Sounds horrendous and certainly judging by this account something which we should all be terrified by. On the other hand, the NHS 111 website is suggesting that the symptoms include a raised temperature and a cough, which frankly doesn't sound like something that will terrify the nation. The second to last line in the statement suggests it is a choice between saving the young and the old, yet all the evidence to date states that most younger people are affected far less severely than the old. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-advice/ I get that the virus affects older people in different ways shutting down respiratory systems, but I'm assuming that is a frequent occurence for many illnesses and not something that would 'shock' an A&E consultant.

Apparently, they didn't include this in their original research / mapping, not entirely sure why not! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51979654

Source?

Is it because we generally have a healthier lifestyle than the fat ****ers that live in the US so haven't needed as many ventilators? I've not heard of a ventilator shortage before now, so presumably we've had more than enough for our needs to date - not sure it's an item you'd want to stockpile is it?

Indeed. The thousands of lives saved will doubtless be forgotten! Fortunately, the Labour supporters are very happy to have a huge hike in taxes!

Hopefully we can scrap HS2 and the stupid tunnel under the stones now and use the money earmarked for that more sensibly!

Imagine the food that has been ordered by pubs and restaurants up and down the country ready for Mother's Day which is now going to be wasted! Hopefully the big companies will see sense and donate this to the local charities / food banks etc.

Covfefe

Did you miss the very similar conclusion drawn by the Germans?

Ideal if your mortgage is BOE + 0.17%

Perhaps the Telegraph were mistaken? Currently on BBC Live feed : https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-51955509

Just had a call from my brother, he's heard that toilet rolls are running out - you heard it here first folks!

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1255634/coronavirus-uk-public-health-england-uk-cases-nhs-covid-19-latest Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England, has previously stated the figure, that four fifths of the UK population could become infected with the virus, was the worst-case scenario. But the briefing states that 80 percent of Britons are "expected" to contract the virus.

https://tass.com/world/1128867 Head of the Robert Koch Institute Lothar Wieler confirmed the 60-70% prediction. "We do not know how fast this will happen," he said. "The slower the better." Earlier, several German experts stated that one in three Germans might contract the virus. The Bild daily reports that Merkel had voiced similar predictions during a closed parliamentary session.

No idea! I read it and the statistic has stuck. It is a virus whose infection rate effectively doubles every five to six days - a lot of people have very minor symptoms, some have none. I'm guessing we'll never truly know the scale as not everyone that has symptoms is being tested, let alone those that haven't got / haven't noticed any symptoms.

BBC - it was on the live feed... I'm sure it's also in one of the articles but there are that many of them....

Jesus wept! Are you still in denial about the virus? It has been stated numerous times and from numerous countries that between 60 and 80% of the population will be infected and 'fall sick'. That is regardless of the schools being closed or not!

I'm sure Soggy will be congratulating the Government for keeping the schools open for the children of all key workers - and for finding solutions for all the other reasons why the schools shouldn't have been immediately shut down....

Soggy will be over the moon - schools closing on Friday....

Is that the same brother who is sending his daughter to school whilst he and his wife self isolate?

I don't envy the army!! Just over 100,000 army personnel in the UK (including Army Reserve), made up of enlisted and officers. Just under 790,000 named streets in the UK to keep people off!

Would seem like a perfectly legitimate reason why Brexit negotiations need to be put on hold if the people carrying them out are tasked with other, more important / imminent duties....