Hope things are getting better now Steve. Thanks for the photo, now I know why my brother has been asking for our older free newspapers, stupid me thought he wanted to read them TD
F@#$ me. The local shop has been cleaned out by a plague of locusts. The car park was completely full of mud spattered 4X4's. I assume the farmers have gone into panic mode. One lady was even climbing up some shelving to get the last pack of rice crispies.
Thoroughly enjoyed watching the panickers in a few shops yesterday. People in Costco buying trolley-fulls of flour that you suspect have never baked anything in their lives. Fun game working out what was a normal Costco shop (often quite odd), and what was a loony buying a year's worth of tinned tomatoes & ranch dressing. Do they really think the policy will become shops closing, adding starvation to the mix... bizarre. Though... Think of the belters you went to school with, who doubtless grew up to be adult belters...
They told the staff here on Friday to work from home unless really necessary, so here I am with the whole office to myself. Been around the office raiding the biscuit tins, checked the fridge for any in-date goodies, got music on and fielding calls from people working from home surrounded by screaming kids and spouses. Mind you, I haven't checked if the loos have any paper. Might have to take a ream of A4 bonded with me if I get the call.
Now you know why there are so many reported cases out here in Italy. People are being tested in special tents set up in hospital grounds outside the A & E units. Can't the UK afford to test people or do they want to keep them out of places where they could be tested? If they die untested their deaths can't be put down to Covid-19.
Our local health supremo (East Mids) put the shelving of testing down to it being most useful for modelling, and they had enough info so not much gain, and strain on resources, from doing more. Unless you're testing absolutely everyone, Korea style, I'm not sure infection level numbers are that interesting anyway. Assuming most deaths occur in hospital they'll test & know what people died of there. So death rate rise or fall seems to be a better indicator of progress. Who knows, though! We're all still at the 'who knows' point here, aren't we. As ever, only time will tell. I'm neither a statistician or a virologist, like most of us chatting about it. In the hands of the grown-ups, so I'll keep on keeping on.
Actually they won't as was pointed out on the Beeb this morning. Many who die in hospital are already in end of life treatment anyway. All one knows is that they had contracted the virus not whether that was what killed them.
Reading some interesting stuff on why Italy might have been hit so hard & fast. Didn't know that many Chinese firms had set up there, bringing workers with them, so leather goods could be stamped 'Made in Italy'. Every day a school day. (Transcends conspiracy loonies - articles looking at it going back quite a few years.) 古驰!
The tradition of kissing cheeks in some European countries might be adding to the Covid19 problem. Maybe our British reserve might help to keep some of us safe. Probably not. I went out for some milk today and there were a lot people in the Supermarket at 9-30am (car park as well). More than you would expect on a Monday.
I love the Yanks Residents in Los Angeles seen queuing outside weapons store as they flock to buy guns amid coronavirus lockdown https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/los-angeles-guns-coroanvirus-outbreak-latest-lockdown-a4387986.html
Those yutzes will be surprised with the paperwork and fees for the California background checks plus the mandatory 10 day waiting period for long guns. Forget about buying a pistol there. There will also be no ammo of any kind in that store within 10 minutes of opening. The employees usually take it off the shelves and only sell it to their friends during shortages.
"Footage has emerged of a long queue forming around the outside of a weapons store, with people saying they are worried for their safety if food runs out." They're anticipating cannibalism?
To be fair if I lived in a country where you can buy guns over the counter I would stock up along with petrol and fire starters
Apparently there's a run on breadmakers. Which means we are actually prepped for something, having two of them. All we need now is flour...
Another shopping observation from yesterday. Morrisons Hand sanitisers & pump soaps, sold out. Sod all. Not a trace. Facing them; an untouched mass of bars of soap. We maybe need some scientific work as to whether there's any connection between these products. This 'bar of soap' thing could be huge. Imagine if you could wash your hands with it!
During the first of Boris's daily virus news conferences it was stated that in fact ca. 44k people in UK were tested, of whom - I think it was said - 42k proved to be negative. Testing will continue and even ramped up, they said: targeted at hospital patients, ICUs and health staff in particular. Funnily enough I bought a lot of bars of soap ages ago. They were on offer at the time. I wasn't hoarding, honest. Maybe I was cos I haven't been tempted to add anything extra to our usual weekly shop despite having to move our normal delivery slot this week from Tuesday morning to Friday evening - cos the whole week was booked up by the previous Sunday night. I've been wondering if this prolific use of anti-bacterial sprays and hand washes - to counter a virus - will come back to haunt us with new superbugs... just a thought.
Costco membership means much of our normal shopping looks like the squander bug was at play. Bog roll etc. is bought every few months in giant packs. (Convinced it saves us tons, living with teenage locusts boys.) "Looks like a fucking survivalist enclave" ~ The Fishwife, quite often, surveying the shelves in the garage. Don't Take the Squander Bug When You Go Shopping. © IWM (Art.IWM PST 15457) IWM Non Commercial License Lady in Spain today saying supermarket stocks returning to normal after a week or so, which is what I imagine will happen here.
