Or it could just be that the UK is trying to get ahead of the game. Politically this is much better, because fewer will die, and being ahead of the opposition is better than being on the run with the opposition trying to bite your ankles all the way.
Every country which had anyone skiing in the Alps has had the virus planted all over the place and is going to get much the same thing, plus or minus a few weeks at most.
I see not much interest in GA for a while…
BTW you can edit your post for up to 2hrs. No need to do two of them 
The morgue was news 2 days ago.
This is interesting:
The scientists found that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was detectable in aerosols for up to three hours, up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel.
This offers a useful strategy for incoming packages: leave them for 24hrs.
Another 794 people died in Italy today, probably 150 in France (figures hasn’t been published yet), because of the stupidity of our government that wanted to preserve economic activity instead of locking out people… That is so sad…hundreds of hurt families and people that died mostly alone.
About 300,000 people were hospitalized for flu this season in the US, 12,000 died of it in the US, and as the flu season is mainly over capacity is increasing. An acquaintance who works as a epidemiologist and medical ethicist for the US Army and DHA in DC thinks that outside localized areas (such as Italy) that most likely the current political response will be viewed later as a vast overreaction to the unknown. His POV is that people need to stay calm and focused, avoid the tyranny of the irrational, and maintain perspective.
Meanwhile somebody at a garden center near me has either a warped sense of humor or remarkably bad business sense. I took this photo about an hour ago.
a vast overreaction to the unknown.
The exponential growth and overwhelming of emergency hospital beds would suggest otherwise.
That data has more dead than recovered. I guess that could just be a factor of how long people take to recover?
I don’t think the flu comparsion seems to be of any particular use because this seems to be worse in just about every way. More infectious, longer incubation time, higher hospitalisation rate, etc.
The seasonal flu figures I think work out to roughly 4 deaths /hr . Italy I think is at about 26 d/hr at the moment.
Italy I know has smoking issues, people perhaps more gregarious and some terrible decisions / suggestions early on. But are Americans significantly healthier to deal with the breathing issues?
I guess we will just see how it continues as we get more data, but I’m certainly not taking it lightly.
Interesting article (in French, but I’m sure google can help) about viability on surfaces. Bottom line: in real life, a few minutes is probably enough. That said, I am treating everything coming into the house as contaminated. Nothing to lose by doing it after all.
Why does Japan have such a low rate? It’s one of the most crowded places on the planet. Two likely elements: the Japanese all wear cheap drugstore masks as soon as they are ill, and often when they’re not. The don’t give anything close to 100% protection, but even 50% makes a huge difference. And even if they are totally ineffective they stop you touching your mouth, which probably gets you 50% straight off. Also, they never touch each other – they bow where westerners shake hands. Compare that to Italy where everyone hugs everyone.
Tourists are unwelcome in the Scottish Highlands. We’re all possibly unwelcome to land-away.
“ISLANDS OF BARRA AND VATERSAY ARE CLOSED. Don’t travel here, don’t put unnecessary strain on our medical staff and limited resources. We will open again and be delighted to see you. But in the meantime we are looking after our community, the thing that makes us so special.”
“Ms Forbes, who represents Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, said: “If you live elsewhere, please don’t use the Highlands as your means of self-isolation. People live here who are trying to follow government guidance and the continuing flow of campervans and other traffic who appear to be escaping the cities is not helping.”
I work in Wales in one of the few places that is about as busy in the summer as the winter – due to holidaymakers. If all the retired folk from the midlands come here to their holiday homes and caravans as I imagine they will, we might see double the number of COVID cases we expect – and that is already a large number many times the capacity of the hospital.
