Poor piece by Hitchens who can effectively self isolate while writing rubbish like that.

He's probably worried about his pension/wealth.

Why doesn't he volunteer to embed himself with a London ICU for a week without the PPE?

We can all read/see what is happening in Italy thanks to a brave Sky News team putting themselves on the line.

It's not 1918 people won't accept being left to die in their own bed because all the hospitals are full.

Haven't read the Hitchen's article, (can't bring myself to) but he appears to be taking a utilitarian position which is quite strange for him. Greatest good for the wealthy few is more his mantra.

What is missing from all governments is a way out of our predicament. I can't see our current policy of sitting on our hands until it goes away as working without causing far more damage than the disease.

In the 14th century we managed to conduct a war with the French during the Black Death. In the 21st century we appear to be paralysed by a much lesser threat.

In the 14th century we managed to conduct a war with the French during the Black Death. In the 21st century we appear to be paralysed by a much lesser threat.

Perhaps we just havent reached that stage yet.

thought the gist of the article was what you've been saying Spart, I must have read you wrongly.

Insiders in the Labour party reckon that Starmer will get rid if the lunatic lefties, I'm beginning to warm to my new friend Keir.

Social mobility might have something to with that Spart.

M25 hadn't been finished and the Leanardo hadn't quite sorted aeroplanes out at that time.

comment by 🏁 AngVanDerRaam 🏁 (U17428)
posted 1 minute ago
In the 14th century we managed to conduct a war with the French during the Black Death. In the 21st century we appear to be paralysed by a much lesser threat.

Perhaps we just havent reached that stage yet.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

We can't go to war with France now as the factory which makes white flags is closed.

It’s like lord haw haw meets Fraser from dads army.

comment by Watnallram (U10732)
posted 3 minutes ago
It’s like lord haw haw meets Fraser from dads army.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I will take it that many of you are too stupid to understand the meaning of my post or just want a cheap laugh..

The current strategy of sit and wait will cause more harm than the disease. I am fine with it for a short time but we have to come up with something better to prevent a worldwide depression with damage to everyone far greater than the initial threat.

Italy, average age of those who have died 78.5. Number of fatalities of those without any underlying health problem, 1.

That's what Hitchens said and you poo poo'd him. I tend to agree with you, the boredom will be worse than the flu. I'm not laughing, it's serious.

comment by Watnallram (U10732)
posted 57 minutes ago
It’s like lord haw haw meets Fraser from dads army.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't panic, we're dooomed.

“Fine with it for a short time”. ?
Why aren’t you a government advisor?

Germany Germany calling, our mortality rate is almost ten times lower than yours. We truly are the master race.

comment by Watnallram (U10732)
posted less than a minute ago

“Fine with it for a short time”. ?
Why aren’t you a government advisor?

-------------------------------------------

Other than haven't been invited amongst the numerous other reasons, I don't know.

Can someone explain how we are going to get out of this mess with our current strategy. Shortly after restrictions are lifted the disease will be back again. We could hope for the miracle of a vaccine but we have never developed one for any of the other corona viruses so it can't be that easy.

Must be serious. Primark are shutting temporarily

comment by Spart-Derby really are the best says red dog. (U4603)
posted 15 minutes ago
comment by Watnallram (U10732)
posted less than a minute ago

“Fine with it for a short time”. ?
Why aren’t you a government advisor?

-------------------------------------------

Other than haven't been invited amongst the numerous other reasons, I don't know.

Can someone explain how we are going to get out of this mess with our current strategy. Shortly after restrictions are lifted the disease will be back again. We could hope for the miracle of a vaccine but we have never developed one for any of the other corona viruses so it can't be that easy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Garlic may be a cure 🤪

We are still in the guessing stage. Until we know what proportion of the population has been infected without becoming severely ill then we don’t know what the true serious morbidity and mortality is. Very few younger or even middle aged and otherwise healthy people have been admitted to hospital with the virus but it seems inconceivable that they won’t have been exposed. Maybe a significant proportion of the more elderly have also had it with only a minor illness and have not been tested. If that’s the case it changes all of the projections. When we have an antibody test that can be rolled out across a cross-section of the population we’ll know a lot more. This was mentioned last week as being maybe a couple of weeks ago but I haven’t heard anything since then.

Thanks for the updates and professional insight Vidal.

Cheers Vidal.We need you on the frontline so keep away from rogue vacuum cleaners.

651 new cases in Italy in the last 24 hours. This could be good news. In the previous 24 hours there were 793 and today’s rise is actually the lowest in percentage terms since February 21st. It might be a blip but it gives hope that it might be slowing down there.

Fingers crossed vidal.

Why are some people so stupidl
Keep your distance and where all ok.ignore and we all suffer lockdown 😤

I can do that with everything except obtaining food. I tried shopping at quiet times but they don't seem to exist and there is hardly anything to buy. As I said before, the government needs to take more control of this.

We should all try to get out for some exercise if we can. I find it really de-stresses me just to have half an hour or so running by the Severn, which happily has now gone down enough to allow it. Even the vulnerable can try to find some open space, away from people, just to walk around for a bit.

Just when I was feeling a bit more optimistic I received a news flash of a 36 year old NHS nurse with no underlying health issues is fighting for her life.