France is now in lockdown

Some photos of supermarket shelves stripped bare (!) complete with appropriately sarcastic commentary; and a recap of the points raised by President Macron in his televised broadcast this evening. Plus an embed of the video (if you understand French).

https://heyrick.eu/blog/index.php?diary=20200316

Germany is mostly in lockdown, too. Going by Italian experience as well as the infection rate, this is probably a week too late.

Switzerland is also in Lockdown since today.

Funny thing is, I’m very introvert, so apart from not being able to go into Big Town on the weekend, and farting around with paperwork, this actually changes…

…Um…

…Er…

…Uh…

…pretty much nothing. :-)

I still go to work (for now). I can still go shopping. And that’s about as far as it goes for interacting with three dimensional biological entities that aren’t covered in fur.

Annoyingly I’ve been mainly staying home over the winter, getting some software ready to use during the summer. Just about finished it now, ready to go out and enjoy the better weather. Ho, hum…

I go to work. I go shopping.

Add “I use RISC OS computers (and sometimes I sleep too)” and it’s a normal day :)

getting some software ready to use during the summer.

And the events that it would have been used at have been cancelled! At least up to the end of April. I’ve not bothered to send off for my bib as yet.
The floods took out a lot of events last month and early this month, now the virus.

I can still go shopping.

I’ve seen the pictures you put up¹, so what exactly would you bring home from this “shopping” you speak of?

And that’s about as far as it goes for interacting with three dimensional biological entities that aren’t covered in fur.

If you get to the point of being home “resting” as the theatrical types say then the furries will be in 7th heaven and expecting that level of service forever.

The morning conference call was only interruption free because I put “adequate” (there’s never “enough”) portions out just before.

¹ Your pictures were a bit more extreme than the state of Morrison’s shelves yesterday. That was normal weekly shopping expedition one day early as I’d been informed about 30 minutes before finishing for the day that this week is officially “week 2” and therefore my “working from home week” (Week home, week in)

Shelving units?

Week home, week in

Thus demonstrating that the aim is probably not to prevent us getting the bug, but rather to prevent us all going down at the same time
“Lowering the risk profile” was one of the phrases bandied about.

And the events that it would have been used at have been cancelled!

Ah yes, time not in work, visit a music event (cancelled) a beer festival (cancelled for 3 months at least), go to pub (Boris says no) if desperate for company go to church (closed)

Thus demonstrating that the aim is probably not to prevent us getting the bug, but rather to prevent us all going down at the same time

Which is completely undermined by allowing schools to stay open.
12 million school children in small spaces sharing close proximity every day,
in close contact with half a million teachers, all go home to mix with another 6 million or so parents and partners. So a quarter of the population in which the virus is transmitting freely.

Yes – sod the teachers, they don’t matter! Gun fodder – after all, we are at war!

Herd immunity? Genocide!

Add “I use RISC OS computers (and sometimes I sleep too)” and it’s a normal day :)

Hmm, I thought that part was pretty much a given. ;)

so what exactly would you bring home from this “shopping” you speak of?

Bottled water (house water is from a well), some… Oh my god… How can one describe Flanby? It’s sort of like jelly (as in Jell-O) but made of milk. Allegedly. It’s… Amazingly hard to describe actually.

And, um… Cat food, obviously. Not so much in the way of Rick food, but did pick up a few tinned things just in case it takes time for this nonsense to pass.

and expecting that level of service forever.

Works for me. She has a lot of baggy long fur so I push her around to sweep the floor. It’s a total win win.

Your pictures were a bit more extreme

That’s why I took them. It was a bit of a “WTactualF?”. The amusing thing, and why I got away with so many photos, was that some of the staff were taking photos, and we along with some random grannies that survived the war (both, probably!) were completely mocking these younger people hobbling around trying not to drop stacks of cans of things that they would never have bought normally.

Which is completely undermined by allowing schools to stay open.

Yeah, in comments on my blog, Steve (not you, the other one) argues that the UK’s solution isn’t to have everybody catch the virus to make it go away…a position that is increasingly untenable given that entire European countries are in lockdown and, hey, schools are still running as normal… Not to mention the chief science bod was pretty much promoting exactly this as part of the “herd immunity” plan (https://www.ft.com/content/38a81588-6508-11ea-b3f3-fe4680ea68b5). It looks like the government is attempting to backpedal on that, maybe too many people like me pointing out that without a vaccine they don’t get to get 40 million people infected while keeping things under control for the elderly and immunocompromised. It’s much more a case of “your epitaph will read ‘Collateral damage to failed policy’”.

Herd immunity? Genocide!

As I bluntly pointed out a few days ago in the ides of March: Still, I don’t supposed we should be surprised at a Tory government relishing a way to cull pensioners and the weaker members of society.

Apparently in Australia the toilet paper shelves are completely bare. Then pop over to NZ and find – count them – three whole gaps.

So a quarter of the population in which the virus is transmitting freely.

This is a very sensible thing: a pre-selected group to whom the virus is mostly harmless. If schools close where does the child care come from? Parents who then cannot work or grand parents who will be elderly. Neither a very good option until it is unavoidable.

My local pub (a Fullers house) has been told by the brewer not to order any more food so today’s lunch (something I do each week) might be the last one for a few weeks.

It is rather disappointing that even the Luftwaffe did not manage to close our pubs but this government might try it on…

… And they have. It is an interesting social experiment to abandon attempts to keep morale high in the interests of saving (quite) a few deaths. It would have been unthinkable a few years ago but at least they have stopped short of prohibition.

Possible change of work patterns (currently week on-site / week work from home) with the new including weekends.

I also have a date for the expected peak activity in the NHS so I;m barred from the sweepstake you can all run.

but at least they have stopped short of prohibition.

On the prohibition note, perhaps at the end of this they can move to the Belgian model and only require a licence for spirits sales.
Make pubs a social centre

This is a very sensible thing: a pre-selected group to whom the virus is mostly harmless.

CDC data indicates that at least 15% of the infected belonging to the younger part of the population still need to be treated in hospital. Do you think hospital capacity will be sufficient for that?

So “mostly harmless” might be totally, completely wrong. I don’t think anyone should take that risk. The more I read about that virus, the more I come to the conclusion that isolation for a long time (until a vaccine or good medicaments are available) is the only solution.

Well, I am glad that we are better behaved than the French and don’t require compulsion. At the supermarket and at my local shop there were queues of people patiently waiting for whatever criteria (maximum number allowed in the shop etc.) that the shop was applying to be fulfilled so that they could enter. The only odd thing, of course, was that the queue was stretched out so that people were four or five feet apart. Waitrose (open at 0730 but 36 people in shop at a time) had a queue that was several shopfulls long whereas my local shop (open at 0700, 4 people in the shop at a time) had a queue that was only ¾ shopful long. Coop was not open until 0800 but had no queue at 0746.

Now I can see the wartime saying – ‘if you see a queue just join it and wait, it doesn’t matter what it is for, you’ll probably need it’.

if you see a queue just join it and wait, it doesn’t matter what it is for

I always thought that that’s the core characteristic of the English, whether it’s war or not, even if they don’t need anything at all.

Well, I am glad that we are better behaved than the French and don’t require compulsion.

You say that with your tongue firmly in your cheek, right?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8146189/Morrisons-cashiers-work-plastic-shields-crowds-shoppers-queue-outside.html

It’s also only the first day.

Oh, and fines are coming. Due to how Britain works, it needs to be kicked to the Lords and back. Expect another announcement by the end of the week.

Hmm. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-bill-what-it-will-do/what-the-coronavirus-bill-will-do#contents-of-the-bill

The power of the police to detain people who are “suspected” of having the virus. In a country somewhat antagonistic to foreigners. Yeah, I can see this going well.

Yes, it says “for a limited period” but we all know what says and what happens aren’t the same thing.

If you can read French… https://www.ouest-france.fr/sante/virus/coronavirus/coronavirus-premiere-journee-de-confinement-au-royaume-uni-6790232

And if you can’t… same thing, via Google Translate

According to https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ statistics, we reached the stage of 400.000 infected worldwide.

I found two notable info in these stats:
- the low number of cases in Japan. you can see they are really organized and really nipped it in the bud.
- the low number deaths in Germany. They are at the 5th rank in number of case but the ratio of death/infected is between 5 and 10 times lower that most countries. It seems like their medical services have found something that other medical services seem to have missed.

I think what they’ve found is that they’ve got a well-resourced health system, because they’ve had a relatively responsible government for quite a long time.