UV light can kill viruses, so another sensible precaution is to replace all lamps with massive UV ones and sleep inside a sun bed.

Virus free and with a sexy chocolate tan, what's not to like!

Good idea, but just to be extra safe, install a UV floodlight.

You mean aside from skin cancer?

As I say, higher temperatures reduce the half life of the virus on surfaces, which in turn reduces the risk of infection.

It's a joke until suddenly it's really not.

If this all blows over, the worst case scenario is that I'll just look like a plonker. You lot think that anyway so

The same here - what a coincidence!

(I don't really see why everyone's so panicky about this, I really don't. It's essentially flu, it's got a small death rate and if you're healthy it'll just be unpleasant if you catch it rather than fatal. We have a couple of thousand deaths a year from normal flu and it's not even newsworthy...)

Probably am being overcautious but devastating pandemics do occasionally happen and this is a good candidate to be one, even though it's not all that likely.

Anyway makes more sense having supplies when there is a risk of a pandemic than over brexit

Viral inactivation has only a weak dependence on humidity (at least in SARS). And it isn't even that clear whether going for high or low humidity is best.

I might watch 28 Days Later tonight. For a laugh, like.

A sneeze (for example) in higher humidity will tend to result in larger particles in the air that fall to a surface more easily. In lower humidity the particles will be smaller and tend to remain airborne for much longer.

There's no need for rocket science or medical expertise when thinking about preparedness. It's common sense AHEAD of any event. The one thing you know you will need in sickness or in health is a supply of clean water. Let's assume the water mains fail - do you have enough water for a few days? If you were on your own, busy having flu, you might need more to drink than that.  Reflect on what comes next. Cans of soup  don't need a water supply, so they are always a good fall back - but what if you have no heating? Without being bizarre about it, try a list of say six critical things. It's an interesting exercise to go through.

I used to do an "earthquake preparedness" exercise with some students. What is the priority? Answer - know where your SHOES are. The ground is covered with broken glass and china - were you going to run for it barefoot? Stark bollock naked is OK, barefoot is not. So we've got water and shoes. What next?

R.

You may get "too much information" and be even more worried by what you learn!

R 

Humidity was a recognised factor in SARS transmission:

"The better stability of SARS coronavirus at low temperature and low humidity environment may facilitate its transmission in community in subtropical area (such as Hong Kong) during the spring and in air-conditioned environments. It may also explain why some Asian countries in tropical area (such as Malaysia, Indonesia or Thailand) with high temperature and high relative humidity environment did not have major community outbreaks of SARS."

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/av/2011/734690/

Given the temperatures required are 38c to see any significant loss in viability of the virus, then as I say I'd focus on humidity!

In fact we don’t really know what the rate of fatalities is yet but early indications put it orders of magnitude higher than flu.

As I posted a few days ago the infamous Spanish Flu had a rate of 2.5%. Generally you’re looking at something with a zero before the decimal point and sometimes another zero immediately to the right of the decimal point.

But it’s not in the UK yet and may not get here, so you’re right about there being no need to panic.

IPA (Isopropyl alcohol) is the way forward - simply run a bath full of it  and get in - stay in until   the virus has run its course (probably a year or so)  It won't kill you (honest) !

...OK, I lied,  it will .

I prefer doing this with it 

https://youtu.be/IAk0iTrsE3o 

Yes this is true, however since I'm not air conditioning the humidity is already moderately high. The lit suggests for Sars there is a U shaped distribution with moderately high levels of humidity actually being better than very high humidity.

Temperature however is a much easier relationship. More heat = lower halflife.

And yes at 38C you have brought the half life down alot. But every degree rise causes the half rise to fall, so the active virus spends less time on surfaces. That's the main purpose of it.

Worth pointing out the surface of your skin is quite hot so the virus is unlikely to survive long on your skin, but may survive for quite a while on cold metal surfaces.

Declared a global emergency now.

Well done Q!