From:
slider@anashram.com
On Saturday evening, my 10-year-old son and I went out on the town. Dinner
at Wagamama and then a trip to watch Hamilton in London.
A special treat long in the planning, it felt to me like our last night of normality as we walked into a packed restaurant and then a full theatre.
The only nod to COVID-19 was my near constant administering of hand gel
and admonishments for touching hand rails.
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-our-lives-will-change-dramatically-as-no-10-ramps-up-covid-19-measures-11958033
But I knew as we sat watching this brilliant production that I was getting
in under the wire.
From here on in all our lives are going to change dramatically. I'm not
even sure Hamilton will be open in seven days time.
The scale and speed of both the virus spread and government responses
around the world is astonishing.
Take Spain, where my dear friend Emma lives.
On Wednesday in Barcelona, life was normal; on Thursday morning, Emma was
told the schools were closing on Monday; that was then accelerated as her
boys' schools shut on Friday; on Saturday a state of emergency was
declared.
All the shops, restaurants and bars in her village just outside Barcelona closed. The supermarket and chemist are still open for essentials. She and
her family are on lockdown.
Different governments will take different measures depending on the spread
of the virus through their population and their health service
preparedness.
There has been plenty of debate here about whether our own government is
going too slow.
Boris Johnson has made it clear his government is following the scientific advice.
The crucial balance that the chief medical officer and chief scientific
adviser are trying to hit is to manage and reduce the spread of the virus
in order to try and ensure there is capacity in the NHS to cope with what
is undoubtedly the biggest public healthcare crisis in a generation.
It is a Herculean effort which is why the government is now calling on manufacturers to start making more ventilators if they can - Mr Johnson
will host a conference call with manufacturers on Monday - and asking
private healthcare providers to offer up beds if necessary (that amounts
to an extra 10,000 hospital beds).
Student nurses and doctors are being asked to work on the wards and
retired doctors are being asked to return.
It all comes as the disease accelerates more quickly than anticipated.
### - looks like they's finally startin' to wake up here in the uk a bit
more now about all this - boris' big plans virtually going straight out
the window as this thing gathers pace at an alarming + unanticipated rate
only over just the last couple of days!
italy, and now spain too, would seem to be the model we can likely expect
for how it's all gonna unfold here (and elsewhere) too over the next 2
weeks or so? the whole place now on firm lockdown with police vehicles patrolling the streets telling everyone to stay indoors, all shops,
restaurants and public venues closed by law with the exception of food
stores and pharmacies, and with the rest of europe all now starting to
fall-in behind them by applying similar draconian measures right across
the board too...
plus how quickly things can sometimes change huh?
interesting times indeed! :)))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeMlQEWEg2Q
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)