Just looked at the Tesco website and the message at the top says:

https://digitalcontent.api.tesco.com/v2/media/ghs-mktg/8099bc8d-90f0-419f-9818-68929c59535a/special-time-for-the-nhs.jpeg?icid=dchp_cs1_nhs_accesshour_w3#

Really good to see.

Profiteering. Sickening. Yes, this is real.

If people are staying at home they don’t need hand sanitiser anyway. Good old soap and water is better. 

It is disgusting and preying on people’s fears. The prices are similar online. As Rob says, where practicable soap and water does the job perfectly.

I hope that's due to more testing. 

It would be great if they were right and that a lot of people are already immune. But the spread we are seeing now makes it look almost certain to me that cases where essentially zero before early Feb. 

Unfortunately not, their testing is up and down - 10845 yesterday but last week it was 12-13k per day. The % increase in new cases though is consistently below 10%.

The Italians seem to believe that the virus was circulating much more than they knew in early Feb; this could mean that the UK is more than a month behind Italy (no two countries will be the same anyway).

That's bad news so. That's the big fear about the virus. I'm pretty sure that the lockdown will steadily reduce the number of cases. However, when will we be to let down our guard and get back to normal? 

I would imagine not until we have a vaccine or herd immunity.....

If people just returned to their 'normal' weekly shop habits, we will be okay. When they are several items short, they return a few days later and buy more stuff than they would have.

Great idea. Would virtually stop that.

I seemed to remember Morrison's were running short of bog rolls well before this all kicked off.

The virus has spawned some ingenuity locally.

• The pub at the end of the road now serves home-delivered takeaway food. They'll make up a meal to suit you too, if what you want isn't on their menu.


• The local beauty products company has switched their production line to make alcohol hand gel, at sensible prices. https://www.kentonline.co.uk/sheerness/news/long-queues-at-factory-for-anti-bacterial-products-224143/

• A local catering supplies company, shorn of its usual schools and restaurant customers, is doing home delivery of its products for those within 30 miles of Maidstone. I got a slot for Tuesday, result!  https://shop.wattsfarms.co.uk/

I'm sure this is going on all over the country. In times of crisis, there will always be opportunity!

(Day 4 of self-isolation here. The milkman didn't have any eggs or bake-at-home bread this morning, but luckily those plus more will now be coming courtesy of that farm company in a few days' time.)

I think we just need to look at the wide range of viruses that floated around the population causing disease and death before the days of vaccination programmes. It’s within the lifetimes of anyone over 65 that we lived with measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, influenza, tetanus and many more. Even polio was still feared back in the 1950s. 

The point is that we have overcome a range viruses only by widespread vaccination programmes to achieve herd immunity. It may well be the only option for SARS-Cov2.  The questions are how long to find a vaccine and how long to complete a programme that requires perhaps 5 billion shots globally.

I think I have mentioned that a neighbour got polio in the 50s. His dad was a farm worker and had to do lone work on the farm for the duration while his boy was in isolation!

Roger

This whole horrific nightmare that is unfolding has become very real for me today.

I learned this  morning that a very close friend of mine has contracted Covid19 while working in Germany last week.

He developed symptoms earlier this week and has deteriorated rapidly and is now in intensive care in a coma and a very critical condition.

This guy is a fantastic man, newly married, and he is 35 with no underlying health conditions that I am aware of.

This is REAL guys. This is just the start. I am very very upset today. Until I heard this news this morning, I thought, this won't affect me. I thought, this is something that afflicts the elderly and infirm. 

Absolutely not. My friend was fit and healthy and young. He is now fighting for his life, and the next 24 hours is critical. I am praying for him, I feel so helpless. His wife cannot visit him, today is his birthday.

Please, everyone on TWO, pray for my friend. Positive thoughts are all I have right now. I pray that my friend pulls through.

Sorry to hear that, I hope he pulls through.

This is terrifying that he is young and no underlying conditions.  Could the virus be mutating to affect the young?

Bloody hell, Moomin. That is terrible. I really hope your friend pulls through this.

To be honest, I had managed to convince myself that the lockdown would bring results and that we might be getting back to normal in a few weeks time. While I still think that the lockdown will transform the situation, I now fear that normal will be a lot slower coming back. My milestone will be whether I can take my holiday in Italy in July. It's a milestone for me not just for selfish reasons. If it's safe to holiday in Italy then the world is back to normal. The world economy will remain banjaxed unless tourism can get back up and running. Does anyone believe that my family holiday in Italy will go ahead?

I would like to say it is possible but, realistically, it has to be unlikely 

Yes and I am coming around to that view too. Which, quite frankly, scares me. 

Then again, Moomin's post puts things in perspective. I hope your friend pulls through, Moomin.

For anyone who thinks the aviation industry will be the same as it was by Easter/Christmas/next year.

Like the lady in the garden centre the other day who really thinks it will be over by Easter/Christmas and life returns to 'normal'.

https://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/mothballing-your-airplane

https://www.desertusa.com/desert-arizona/airplane-graveyards.html

I don't think we will forget flying, maybe just the cheap mass flying we have become used to over the past forty years.

Nick