It wouldn’t suppress the research, obviously, but it has a duty to do anything it reasonably can to avoid widespread panic.
Not being able to buy food is a “big deal”. Modern society is just one meal away from anarchy.
At home we have managed to avoid shops for the past 6 weeks or more, but it has been difficult at times. The supermarkets have been totally booked out for weeks ahead, and Ocado (a UK home delivery outfit) cancelled all their prebooked and confirmed deliveries for weeks ahead but now they are back up – but only because they have a big choice of non-cheap quality food so most of the British public won’t use them.
Additionally, all the home delivery outfits were told to prioritise those who have been advised to stay totally at home – about 1.5M in the UK. That figure alone probably exceeded the entire previous home delivery market. I reckon they eventually realised the blindingly obvious i.e. that most of these 1.5M were not going to become long term customers once this crisis is over, so they had to get organised.
Research shows that most older people are rather afraid of catching this thing, and rightly so.
Now throw in a news item that supermarkets are #1 for infection locations and the result would be fairly predictable. No criminal conspiracy involved…
Food supply is one of the areas I would think the government most likely to want to ensure. I understand in the states there are issues with some of the larger processing plants shutting down and potential difficulty in getting items from farm to table.
Whilst I have read the number of times “prof lockdown” has massively overestimated his models, I would have thought there should be other similar estimations which I don’t think I’ve seen.
The New York data for people picking it up at home was very interesting, as I think quite a number of them also didn’t use public transport either. So one would think unless they are having other people within the house it must be on the occasions they do go out. Which is presumably the supermarket as outdoors seems to have very low risk of infection.
Peter wrote:
No criminal conspiracy involved
I quite frankly don’t get you. So the gub’ment wouldn’t suppress the research, but they would suppress the press reporting on it? Or what are you trying to suggest?
More probably, the risk of catching this in a supermarket is very low with the applied measures (at least here in Switzerland). And people weigh the risk of getting infected with the risk of starving to death quite successfully without “widespread panic” for the time being. Also, it is currently just impossible to quantify this risk reliably with the few information we have – also no conspiracy required.
I know of one case where an elderly lady died having only been out of the house to buy food.
If I were dictator I would investigate the possibility of putting all healthcare workers on the free delivery list and banning them from supermarkets – personally I would miss shopping but I think we’re more likely to spread the infection there than most others.
To be fair so far as the press are concerned, I do wonder. It is nothing more than a sense, but I feel the press have been largely asked to keep on side in the UK at least. Asked, not told, but we all know the consequences of not following. It is interesting that there is really very little crtiicism of the UK Government at the moment. To the extent there is, you need to know where to look. For example, the BBC had a very critical expose two nights ago on Newsnight, but of course it starts at about 10.40, and I suspect has quite a limited audience. The Government has also scripted very well some stock answers that are difficult to challenge because the stock answers essentially are we dont know, or the basis between countries is probably very different etc., all of which has an element of truth and, in any event, the underlying research has yet to be done. I dont entirely disagree with their approach either, were I they, because keeing the population on side is important.
That said, I think the job of defending many of their actions will become a great deal more difficult when the gloves are off, and the opposiiton, select committes, the press and, possibly, the Courts get stuck in. These things have a very nasty habit of coming back to bite you. However, Government’s have also become a great deal more sophisticated at covering their tracks so that it becomes very difficult to attach blame. It is a game that has been played out for a long time, and you would expect it to generally become more sophisticated as time progresses. That said, the challenge in these circumstances is things are moving at a very fast pace, and it becomes difficult to keep up with the plan, without leaving a trail behind you. I am lead to believe for I suspect very reliable sources, that one of the reasons things are taking so long, is that the civil service are requiring much more to be put in writing so their is an audit trail, and, of course, no one wants to accept responsibility where responsibility does not rest, but is a classic way of passing the buck if you can.
I suspect Hancock will not be for a ministerial post for long, and I also suspect he will do well to get away without being prosecuted, although such prosecution will probably fail. I dont make that comment in any way as a political comment, simply that in my view he is far too light weight and his lack of experience is on display every time he opens his mouth. Where I the Government I think I would have kept him out of the press light a great deal more, but it must be a challenge as he is meant to be the focus of the current crisis. What do you do?
I bet it is the case in every country in Europe, if not everywhere else, that the home delivery branches of supermarkets cannot possibly keep up if people didn’t come to the shops anymore. Even Ocado which was set up as online-only, and hardly at the cheap end (various jokes about it being too posh), was rapidly over-run.
The other part of the challenge is that most people are not capable of assimilating other than the most basic banal messages (“stay at home, save the NHS, save lives” being the endlessly repeated UK version) so the hygiene issues in supermarkets are impossible to deal with. One could do it, with disposable gloves, and disinfecting most stuff when you get it home, taking care to not transfer anything picked up to the steering wheel etc, but it is quite tricky. This is also why most PPE is chucked away after a single use; it’s the only method which everybody can operate.
Yes Fuji I am sure there will be countless investigations, and recriminations. This is the biggest thing since WW2. Already started in the Daily Trash 
A new report from the Norwegian institute of public health came out today. The “R” is now 0.49
It also say that before March 14 it was 3.1 then it dropped to 0.67 between March 15 and April 19, and is now 0.49
That’s amazing, and all this with no masks, open shops, open restaurants, airlines flying etc Maybe they are right, maybe masks are just nonsense? I don’t know, I just want to hear on the press conference later that we can start instructing again, since the driving schools can start up again from tomorrow. Crossing fingers.
In Ireland the last information was that we are between 0.5 and 0.7 and the last measures won’t be lifted until August 10th!
We don’t have a fixed timetable like that. We have a 6 stage plan (we are at stage 1 – restrictions on being outside lifted, and you can travel as much as you want for whatever reason you want, but social distancing still in place). Stage 6 is reopen the borders. I think there’s a more than even chance that stage 6 won’t happen this year, until then no one leaves or enters except in an emergency.
Phase 1 – Construction sectors back to work/no time limit on how long you can spend outside. <— we are here
Phase 2 – Restoring non-essential retail shops and services.
Phase 3 – Cafes and restaurants to reopen.
Phase 4 – Lifestyle and tourism businesses to reopen.
Phase 5 – Bars and nightclubs to reopen.
Phase 6 – Borders to reopen, dependent on the state of the UK.
The most dangerous thing I’ve done is using the village minimarket instead of driving to Tesco. There’s too little air volume per person, even with a 5 customer limit.
My illegal hours out of doors, and sunbathing to make Vit D are safe.
