In the UK April was the sunniest on record but I imagine people without a balcony or garden weren't really able to benefit from it. FWIW my wife and I take vitamin-D supplements. The NHS doesn't seem overly enthusiastic about them, but says:

Because it's difficult for people to get enough vitamin D from food alone, everyone (including pregnant and breastfeeding women) should consider taking a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D during the autumn and winter.

 

https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/food-and-diet/do-i-need-vitamin-supplements/   

 

PS: I think you mentioned having fewer colds since moving to Canada. Not a control group for your theory but in the last decade I have also developed colds less frequently than before. In my case I attribute it to increased immunity after having been exposed to many cold viruses during my first 40 years and living a less stressful life since I stopped commuting. Ironically last winter was the first time for 4 or 5 years that I had a full blown one and it happened to coincide with my holiday in Finland. Nonetheless, I'm confident it wasn't corona unfortunately. 

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Agreed. I've got about 7 binloads of green waste from the garden!

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I suspect that there's a certain amount of 'chicken and egg' here but there's no doubt that shops stock what people want to buy. I've noticed that even Tesco varies its product range according to the area. For example, we used to be able to get an excellent peanut butter (imported from New Zealand) but they withdrew it. When I rang them I was told it was still available at the Baldock store; obviously there wasn't enough demand at the Royston one. My late mother noticed the same thing when they moved up to Norfolk, where quite a few items weren't available at the local store.

You can get vegetable boxes delivered and they don't seem overly expensive but I do recall we had to use the Internet on a few occasions early on to work out what we'd been given...!

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Fishing!  Possible good news for those wanting to get back on the bank side.  My son wrote to our MP asking him to support the lifting of angling restrictions, as proposed by the Angling Trust. 

https://joinanglingtrust.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/FULL-REPORT-TO-GOVERNMENT-MINISTERS-FINAL-1.pdf

Our MP replied saying it wasn’t the government that imposed the restrictions but the Angling Trust, in support of the government ‘non essential travel policy’.   He also added “In truth, if fishing is your chosen exercise and you can find somewhere that is open for you to go, I don’t think there is anything formal actually stopping you from doing so.”

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Scotland has reported 40 new deaths and 301 new cases

Wales has reported 160 new cases and 17 new deaths

Yes, we've got every garden bag crammed full and I've had to dump the grass cuttings for now; and buy some more garden bags.

The green bin collection is resuming in two weeks' time but we've only been promised one in May unless they can squeeze in a second one. The local recycling centre remains closed; I'm hoping that will change with next week's suggested moves towards easing the restrictions.

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Northern Ireland has reported 87 new cases and 18 new deaths

Impossible to know but I wonder if this is the significant bit - again anecdotal but when I work in London I use the train + Tube quite a bit. I often have a cold towards the end of my trip or just after I get back. The Tube must be a complete petri dish at rush hour. I wouldn't be keen on using it at the moment.

I've also wondered if the hot, humid summers + dry, cold winters suit me here. Conversely I have family members who grew up outside the UK and suffer badly from colds now they live there.

 

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NHS England has reported 352 new hospital deaths down from 391 yesterday

 

Last Friday. NHS England 587 new hospital deaths

Our Green bin was collected this am by Chichester District Council.. their refuse collection service has been top notch... I've been putting all my allotment waste/bindweed/couch grass in it... it gets heat treated and turned into compost that you can buy!!

Not sure if they have provided this before but Northern Ireland are providing deaths by the date they actually occurred. Quite a lumpy distribution as i suppose you might expect given the relatively low number of deaths. Peak day was 22nd april although several other days in the last 3 weeks run it close.

 

Source: https://t.co/a8O2GeZXff

— David Paton (@cricketwyvern) May 1, 2020

The provisional death toll in UK hospitals is 427 down from 482 yesterday

The 352 patients who died in hospitals in England were aged between 30 and 103 years old

18 aged between 43 and 98 years old had no known underlying health conditions when they tested positive

Breakdown of the 352 new deaths in England's hospitals by date

• 70 on April 30th


• 148 on April 29th


• 39 on April 28th


• 70 between April 1st and April 27th


• 25 in March with one on March 16th

I've brought up the subject of Vitamin D a couple of times, but it gets lost in the noise of blame. I'll try to find the relevant links, but in the meantime there's something from the BBC website from 23rd April.......

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52371688

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Try Lidl or Tesco,  they're very good.

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That's interesting. I see that the article mentions that darker skinned people in particular may need Vitamin D supplements at darker skin is not as efficient at taking in Vitamin D from the sun at higher latitudes. This might possibly be a contributor to higher infection/death rates for coronavirus among BAME people.

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Hi Caz! I have been following this and there has been a petition on facebook to the govt to allow fishing and also Rob Hughes has been speaking with the angling trust to put forward a Stage 1 proposal to the Govt to get fisheries open again with measures they would use to ensure strict social distancing as per the report you linked to.It is very interesting to hear that it was the angling trust shut down fishing I guess it was the right thing to do at the time and there is real hope in the angling community that we can get back on the bank soon! Thanks very much for posting this Id imagine your son is having bad withdrawl symptoms like me

The council here reversed the decision to stop collecting garden waste (which has an annual prepaid charge). Instead they are now collecting it every 4 weeks which working out fine currently, especially combined with the compost bin. It seems like a good compromise.

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Just over the "border" in Aberdeenshire, we do not get an option even to pay for garden waste collection.  I  normally go to the local recycling centre but it is of c0urse closed.  First world problems of course... :-)

Daniel is absolutely itching to get back to his fishing!  He’d just paid into a new carp lake syndicate the morning before lockdown was announced!  Sod’s law!    He’s rostered for maintenance and feeding the fish though, so he’s getting a tiny taste.  He’s also been out on the lake mapping the depth with a device we bought him a couple of Christmases ago, so he’s made use of the closure time.

Although the email from our MP said it was the Fisheries Trust that made the decision to lockdown fishing, Daniel says it was actually the fisheries organisation that made the decision. He’s signed the Facebook petition!  

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Interesting both of you. Thanks for posting. The sea is so close and yet so far for me. There's also a lake near me within walking distance and a river but both out of bounds at present.

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Tele has a zoomable map which shows corona virus deaths in your area:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/01/coronavirus-death-toll-double-poorest-areas-ons-statistics-reveal/

In my plot Berkhamsted, Northchurh and Potten End we've had 6 deaths I believe. The population of the area is prob (it has grown a lot in recent years and up to date figures are hard to come by) about 32,500 to 35,000.

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Just one here. Several adjacent areas have had none.

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There's a free version of that on my local rag's site - it covers England and Wales:

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/where-in-kent-have-people-with-coronavirus-died-226567/

3 deaths here in Sheppey East, out of a population of 6,000. Fits in with the whole "more people die in deprived areas" thing from earlier!

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