Today is the westminster bridge stupidathon isn't it.

Really dreading seeing the pictures.

Seems like the stupidity level has been downgraded from 'barely conscious living zucchini' to only 'bellybutton lint collector'

https://twitter.com/SheilaP24639065/status/1255936701937201153

Hardly any clapping here tonight. Perhaps the Daily Mail attacking the nurses in the Panorama film as "leftwing activists" has had the desired effect on the raffia mafia round here

But surely if the virus is that contagious, even spittle should be enough of a medium to harbour the virus. If you're only seeing the virus in the deepest cavities then you'd expect for it not to be as transmissable as it appears to be.

US to allow federal social distancing guidelines to expire

Trump seeks to further distance himself from increasingly unpopular and politically costly coronavirus lockdowns.

"I don't want people to get used to this," Trump said to reporters at the White House on Wednesday. "I see the new normal being what it was three months ago."

"We're going to start to move around and hopefully in the not-too-distant future, we'll have some massive rallies and people will be sitting next to each other," he said, adding that having people spaced out in accordance with social distancing guidelines "wouldn't look too good".

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/federal-social-distancing-guidelines-expire-200430133650594.html

That's true Caz and it's the same for DBS checks- they have to go through a system. I meant, when you get a 'clear', that only means up until then. Our front line workers may get this clear- I have no idea what that will feel like- but then they go and throw themselves back into the fray.

Clapping is still strong in a stretch of our road tonight. Seems to be self perpetuating like a Newton's Cradle in a small area. 

Herd immunity is reached at something over 70%. I’m sure you can work out how many cases are needed to get there and how many people will require hospitalisation and how many will die.

But given your typically cavalier stance perhaps you haven’t thought it through so let me help you: 40 million cases; potentially several million in hospital; several hundred thousand deaths. Except there isn’t the capacity for that and never could be.

For someone who wrongly assumed me of being complacent this is quite bizarre.

Still going strong here. Never had an issue with it and it's a matter of personal choice if you do it or not.

Obviously if people rely on the Daily Mail for their agenda they probably need sectioning

Some good news from Denmark so far

Covid-19 has not accelerated since the gradual loosening of restrictions began in mid-April. R value is below 1 with slight increase

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2020-04-30/denmark-says-coronavirus-spread-has-not-accelerated-since-reopening-began

same here in Chichester...lots of our Road were out clapping...and we get on well with our neighbours and most would use the Daily Mail as chip paper ...at best.

The Trump administration is reportedly considering retaliatory actions against China for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

The president has repeatedly tried to deflect criticism of the White House’s early response to coronavirus by blaming China for not being forthcoming about the outbreak.

Taken from WP

Senior officials across multiple government agencies are expected to meet on Thursday to begin mapping out a strategy for seeking retaliatory measures against China, two people with knowledge of the meeting said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to disclose the planning. Officials in American intelligence agencies are also involved in the effort. ...

In private, Trump and aides have discussed stripping China of its ‘sovereign immunity,’ aiming to enable the U.S. government or victims to sue China for damages. George Sorial, who formerly served as a top executive at the Trump Organization and is now involved in a class-action lawsuit against China, told The Washington Post he and senior White House officials have discussed limiting China’s sovereign immunity. Legal experts say an attempt to limit China’s sovereign immunity would be extremely difficult to accomplish and may require Congressional legislation.

So Japan has no lockdown, very little testing, twice the population of the UK, and cases were there long before most of Europe. So why have they only got 13,965 cases and 425 deaths?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-52466834

The Japanese are a very "hygienic" race ?

The office of the director of national intelligence has released an unusual statement saying officials do not believe coronavirus was manmade, echoing many health experts.

“The Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified,” the statement reads.

The statement added, “The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.”

Mr T has strong eye on the above he had asked intelligence officials to investigate whether coronavirus was created in a Chinese government laboratory, even though many public health experts have said they think the virus came about naturally.

Armed protesters in Michigan demand end to coronavirus lockdown

Hundreds of angry protesters, some carrying firearms, gathered at Michigan’s State Capitol in Lansing on Thursday to protest against Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s request to extend the state of emergency to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/armed-protesters-michigan-demand-coronavirus-lockdown-200430193810902.html

Very little testing so the number of cases is not accurate. They’re also not an obese nation (less than 5%) compared with the UK (28%) so number of deaths are low.

You are lucky. I live in a very right wing area unfortunately. Several of my neighbours (but not all) aren't deep thinkers about politics and I've heard them make racist remarks about our Asian and black GPs and nurses ((which make up the majority))and the dreaded "immigrants" is their favourite topic of conversation. . They go out there clapping because they see it as some sort of Nationalist pride.

George Sorial, who formerly served as a top executive at the Trump Organization and is now involved in a class-action lawsuit against China.

Good luck with that!

I'm a bit depressed tonight. I thought I'd eyeball lots of worldwide stats from a number of different sources. The UK seemed to come out just about the worst in all of them compared to the rest of the world with only a few exceptions. Maybe our data is just unreliable, I don't know.

So, identifying positives has no value?

A dangerous game.

China could pull the plug on the US debt mountain.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/040115/reasons-why-china-buys-us-treasury-bonds.asp

Perhaps tragic poetic justice that the two worst affected nations in the world share so many things in common

An evenly, yet bitterly divided population of educated liberals and ignorant forelock tuggers

A media where Rupert Murdoch and other billionaire moguls have disproportionate control and influence over public discourse

Two nations led by morally bankrupt sexual deviants who have perfected the art of lying and populist scapegoating

Both nations are an international laughing stock

*NEW COLUMN*
Breathless bullish*tter Boris can boast about his ‘successful' coronavirus war all he wants, but Britain’s horrendous death toll tells the real shameful story. https://t.co/TwkR73Ra0p pic.twitter.com/djC773sEAl

— *****Morgan (@piersmorgan) April 30, 2020