My wife is a frontline worker in the NHS. She came home today saying there is worry about PFS. They are not sure but think this an area where the virus is spreading.

If it has not already been flagged up, the advice may be issued to always wear rubber gloves when filling up with petrol and then immediately dispose of them. They are not sure but think this an area where the virus is spreading. The virus can stay on the actual pump.

You make some good points here. I'd overlooked the AIDS issue in Africa and the associated illnesses: certainly not restricted to South Africa.

A number of people flagged Africa as a very high risk area because of poverty and generally poor healthcare systems.  

I listened to a piece on the radio and it was pointedly out that in the slums hygiene levels are appalling and washing your hands properly in clean water is an impossibility.

Interesting article 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/alexwickham/10-days-that-changed-britains-coronavirus-approach?__twitter_impression=true

Very concerning to read Vallance and Cummings are 'close allies'.

Note the line about the 'mother of all inquiries' after this.

My view is they've botched this at the crucial time and now we're going to pay.

Had heard before about a small part of Austria being an epicentre for coronavirus and this article talks about it. Half of all Norway's cases have been linked to the ski resort of Ischgl, along with one third of Denmark's cases.

https://www.ft.com/content/e5130f06-6910-11ea-800d-da70cff6e4d3

can see the article without a paywall at the following link   https://finanz.dk/austrian-ski-region-global-hotspot-for-epidemic/

Sorry, what is PFS?

I was wondering that too! Mention of petrol gave me a clue and I think it stands for Petrol Filling Station.

While I've been able to get most of my weekly food shopping and my elderly mother and myself are feeling okay in ourselves, it does feel like being in the Starship Voyager with rationing, conserving ships energy, bartering for supplies, finding inventive solutions while fighting off strange viruses. But think we all need to be our own Captain Janeway at this moment in time.

Actually, there is a virus episode in that series, but with "macro viruses" that are 12 inches in size.

Is the virus a petrolhead?

Any surface touched by many people must be high risk of spreading contamination.

Supermarket trolley and basket handles must be prime suspects too.

My apologies. Yes Petrol Filling Station.

does he commute regularly? I did it by air weekly and my immune system and general well being felt like it was shot to tulipafter 18 months of it.

Because of the long incubation period, you'd expect that to be the case. For at least a couple of weeks cases would continue to rise sharply and deaths - well, they'd carry on whatever trajectory they were on for an absolute minimum of two weeks. We have at least two weeks of rapid growth in both statistics here, too, as it'll take that long for the effects of closing pubs etc to take effect.

I do wonder what's going to happen as people realise just what logarithmic growth means!

Sorry to hear about your friend Moomin. Fingers crossed. It highlights 2 things which are annoying me a great deal:

1) People convincing themselves they had COVID-19 in January or February. Until the Dutch study is published we are shooting in the dark to an extent. However, I think it very likely most people are fooling themselves and that could be dangerous in itself

2) It is only old people who need worry. The data sets are not comprehensive enough yet but there are signs that it is hitting younger people with no diagnosed medical conditions harder than expected*. That of course does NOT mean that older people and those with underlying conditions are not at much greater risk. 

* follow the White House briefings and simply ignore the orange idiot - listen to Fauci and Birx

I have just been into Banbury town centre 

EVERYWHERE is open

Card Shops

Phone Shops 

Estate Agents

Travel Agents

Jewellery shops

Market is busy

Furniture shops

W H Smiths

Savers 

Body care …………...I could go on 

I went into a shop and asked " how come your open " … reply " no one has told us to shut"

We have to be the stupidest race on this planet , oh arrogant and ignorant 

Crazy crazy times

As I said yesterday, this is because there are so many more 20-49s out and about than 70+. Way more of those should be infected than the 70+ crowd, thus you would expect there to be the odd severe case. It will, of course, be far more newsworthy as "35 year old gets seriously ill" gets more clicks than "someone who's already seriously ill and 70+ gets it and dies".

EDIT: Marcus' post explains why this is the case quite likely. The majority of people visiting those shops today will be under 70 and they will, of course, be spreading it like wildfire.

We really, really need that antibody test!

Yes, I found it crazy how they closed everything else but retail outlets. With people not having much to do they will just go to these places instead. Yes a lot of people will stay away but a lot also won’t. With seen the pig headiness of people all ready who think they are immune.

Until  there is a total shutdown , we have no chance 

Handrails on escalators are annoying when the recorded voice tells you to hold onto the handrail, as it does in my local Asda and I refuse to listen to it!  The first thing I do when I get home, is wash my hands and I’ve recently started to clean my steering wheel regularly.  Am I getting OCD?  
On another note, supermarkets were quite civilised early this morning, perhaps everyone was in bed nursing hangovers from their last hoorah!  Morrisons had most things, although hubby got the last bottle of our usual Rioja and loo roll shelves were empty.  Aldi had everything, even loads of loo roll but with a notice that they were restricted to one pack per customer.  I don’t need loo roll yet and I refuse to let any fall into my trolley.  

I should also point out that those freaking out over the numbers over the past few days are really going to go nuts when they realise what logartihmic growth means!

After all, the charts the government's using (pasted below for convenience) show we're barely off the zero scale at the moment. Note it's only mid-April before it starts to be noticeable on the top chart... and that's still 3 weeks away!

This is priceless...

Not supposed to touch your face, but in this case Dr. Fauci has no choice.pic.twitter.com/sSkqdDqygA

— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) March 20, 2020

The carnage is spreading to Spain with over 300 deaths in the last 24 hours. It's coming to the UK unless we get a lucky break. 

UK TV Guide website shows there is an update today