Wuhan virus.

[Workingman]

I do not know who said it but with a bit of luck this panic buying will wash out of the system in, hopefully, a few weeks. People cannot possibly get through what they have already bought in that time (or perishables will have been thrown out, milk down the drain) so when they go again they will not have the cupboard or freezer space and will behave more like normal. I can wait them out for a while.

The problem is that there is no 'User Guide' for this particular virus.

That has led to different places using modelling of other virus behaviour(s) given their own data or shared data or a mix of all or any. The only certain thing is that nobody knows which one is right and we won't know till it's over.

[cromwell]

I suppose now the pubs have been shut the zombies will be outside aldi at 6.30am, ready to buy all the booze as well...

[cromwell]

Problem.
Now it's becoming obvious that London is a hotspot for the virus, rich Londoners are trying to get out by hiring holiday lets.
Thus spreading the virus, just like Italians leaving Milan did.
Shut down holiday lets now, I reckon.

[Workingman]

I suppose now the pubs have been shut the zombies will be outside aldi at 6.30am, ready to buy all the booze as well...

But only on the first day then after that the time will slip as the hangovers kick in.... there is only so much Aldi voddy a body can take before it all goes south.

[Suff]

And so it begins.

In a message to staff, Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow said it has no critical care capacity left and has contacted neighbouring hospitals about transferring patients who need critical care to other sites

The trust boss added: ‘Given we’re in the low foothills of this virus, this is f***ing petrifying. The thing people aren’t really talking about yet is that we are going to have to quickly agree some clinical thresholds for admissions to intensive care.This is what the Italians have had to do.’

[Workingman]

And so what begins....?

A major London hospital, shouts the Metro.

It's a cottage hospital in Harrow on the London outskirts.

It is these sorts of scare stories that feed the panic. It is not a major London hospital, and it is not even in London. FFS get a bloody grip.

What begins is panic driven by these non stories where no panic should exist.

[Suff]

So the headlines do it again. But this is just the start. First the smaller hospital icu's followed by the larger hospitals. This isn't conjecture this is simple fact.

Meanwhile people go out to the pubs to get one last pint before they close. Totally ignoring the fact that they are closing to keep people distant so the infection doesn't spread.

There is only one possible end result of that, more cases and more deaths. Some of these people will have undiagnosed medical conditions which are susceptible to the virus. That is not being alarmist, that is simple fact. Sheer common sense says don't be so bloody stupid. But sheer common sense is a commodity sadly lacking in the younger people of the UK today.

Mrs S and I were talking yesterday and we faced the fact that people we know are going to die. The Scottish Country Dance society is an ageing society and we know hundreds of people in the society.

Perhaps if these pub goers had thought that way, they might have been just a little less selfish.

Maybe not.

Alarmist or not, this is not the last ICU which will be overwhelmed. The appalling fact is that before this whole situation is over, such a situation won't be worthy of a new press scare story.

Today I go out to two different chemist's to get paracetamol. Mrs S did that yesterday. I will then send two envelopes to two different parts of our family at home.

[cromwell]

One of MrsC's old college friends has just come back from a holiday in Thailand. When she passed through Bangkok airport people were having their temperature taken and hand gel was being used every time you moved. When she got back to Heathrow - nothing.
I hope somebody invents a vaccine/cure pretty quick, that's all.

[JoM]

And so what begins....?

A major London hospital, shouts the Metro.

It's a cottage hospital in Harrow on the London outskirts.

It is these sorts of scare stories that feed the panic. It is not a major London hospital, and it is not even in London. FFS get a bloody grip.

What begins is panic driven by these non stories where no panic should exist.

You should’ve seen what the Birmingham Mail had as their online headline earlier in the week “Dudley health chiefs call for more body bags”

I kid you not.

[Workingman]

Only someone living in a cave with no access to the outside world could have failed to notice that 'something' is going on. We have had an endless steam of information for weeks on end but it seems that some sections of the media want to endlessly ramp up the pressure and so a small hospital in the sticks suddenly becomes a major London hospital.

It's as if the press is phoning round for stories.....

"Boss. I think I have one. Body Bags!"
"Good lad. Get it down the printers and do it NOW."
"Any more... keep ringing."

Don't get me wrong, some of the tales are heartbreaking, such as Dawn the nurse who found nothing to buy as she came off and extended shift. However, a lot of stuff is what we would expect to happen in a crisis and we do not need it shoving at us with endless analysis every damned minute of every day.

Facts are one thing, sensationalising those facts to create a story is another thing entirely and totally unacceptable.