Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[witchdoc187]

That's not stopping plenty in here, let me tell you

Tiring isn't it

 

[witchdoc187]

Well that's not my situation personally; our tap water here is amazing. I can't see anywhere in the UK where it's undrinkable though.

You've literally just assumed everybody is in the same position as you are

 

[Abraders]

Well that's not my situation personally; our tap water here is amazing. I can't see anywhere in the UK where it's undrinkable though.

It's hard-water around Yorkshire area and it's foul.

 

[Nymzee]

You've literally just assumed everybody is in the same position as you are

I really, really haven't. I've been down south, it's rank, but it's clean and drinkable.

A water filter costs, what, £50? If necessary people can afford that. Or you could just, you know, boil the water.

No one in the UK should be stockpiling bottled water.

There's a reason it's simple to drink any type of water when you're out hiking and stuff with a filter.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

isn't there some crazy exemption to the border closing like if you live 30 miles from the border but work in Germany / Austria then it doesn't apply?

I think if you work across the border you can cross but need to provide some proof or other. That may have changed though as they seem to be making it up as they go along.

 

[peteblue]

I think a lot of people don't realise yet that we are dealing with 2 emergencies here. One is a health emergency, but the second is an economic and logistical emergency on a scale probably not seen since the last world war.

The government need to manage both of these at the same time and it will invariably involve balancing one with the other. It's a terrible conundrum as peoples lives are at stake, but when the health situation does improve people will need jobs to return to, and the likelihood is many of those jobs won't be there.

Every decision that is made will have consequences. For instance, closing schools causes a problem with child minding, with people staying off work or children going to stay with vulnerable grandparents who should really be isolating. Cancelling sporting events, like the Grand National and football matches, bring their own problems. The company that own Aintree racecourse, for example, used to bring in 95% of it's annual income from the 3 day Grand National event, I doubt they could survive the cancellation. Friends of mine own a hat shop in Liverpool and 50% of their sales are in the run up to Aintree. Many football clubs outside of the premier league cannot survive without the gate receipts and match day income.

When the big shut down comes, which it inevitably will at some stage as the government has already stated, then our already vulnerable High Street is going to find it hard, with many small business's, in the hospitality sector especially, failing. The travel industry will also be hit hard. The longer the shutdown, the more business's will go under.

Pensions and investments will be hit massively, and whilst they will no doubt recover over the next 5 years or so, that won't help the poor guys who are coming upto retirement now.

As I understand it, the people advising the government on this are trying to take into account all these factors plus the impact on the emergency services. They are trying to time events to ensure that the shutdown, when it inevitably comes, will have the minimal effect on our long term economy whilst enabling our medical services to cope with the numbers that require hospitalisation. The fact that more people may possibly die as a result of their decisions makes their jobs that much harder.

It's all well and good criticising government for making the wrong decisions or listening to the "wrong expert advice", but nobody at this stage really knows what's good advice and what isn't. Hindsight will give us a better indication, but even then it's inevitable that all governments around the world made mistakes in the handling of this virus, and all evidence would therefore be open to interpretation. For all governments, and ours is no different, it'll be a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Personally I'm just glad it isn't me having to make those decisions.

Indeed, it is a fine balance. Those that get it right will recover quickly and do well, those that screw up their economy will suffer for years. When the kids on here stop panicking and just follow what they are told to do by our Scientists and not Twitter we will be fine. There are going to be massive rows within the EU with some countries expecting others to bail them out. Without the U.K., I think this will bring the EU to the brink tbh.....

 

[Bruce Wayne]

It won't stop for a while. But it will stop the numbers exponentially increasing, and eventually after a while it will begin to slow.

When does that start like? They locked Lombardy down around a week ago now.

 

[Nymzee]

It's hard-water around Yorkshire area and it's foul.

It's still not undrinkable is my point; it won't make anyone ill.

 

[witchdoc187]

I really, really haven't. I've been down south, it's rank, but it's clean and drinkable.

A water filter costs, what, £50? If necessary people can afford that. Or you could just, you know, boil the water.

No one in the UK should be stockpiling bottled water.

There's a reason it's simple to drink any type of water when you're out hiking and stuff with a simple filter.

What about people that live in vans? Campsites? Rural areas not connected to mains water?

 

[Nymzee]

What about people that live in vans? Campsites? Rural areas not connected to mains water?

Then you find a stream and you filter it...

You collect rain water (lots in the UK) and filter it if you want to...

Collect sea water and buy a filter...

 

[orly]

Tiring isn't it

It really is mate. Social and moral authorities on the pandemic, despite being unable to solve a personal conundrum like "why did no one but my mum remember my birthday", "why do I still live at home" or "why don't I have a girlfriend".

Happens every single time.

 

[witchdoc187]

Parents live in Spain so can appreciate the worry. Even though we share same lack of rainfall here in California I’m not that concerned about the taps not working in this particular emergency.

Although I will confess to having already got a large stockpile of water in the earthquake/fire kit so that might be skewing my comfort levels! I also added some wine and spirits to the store - purely medicinal of course

I'm worried slightly more now because of the supermarket situation. I also feel it will get worse as we are only at "stage 1" with "stage 2" imminent

 

[Brennan]

Not sure why people are arguing about buying bottled water really.

 

[Nymzee]

It really is mate. Social and moral authorities on the pandemic, despite being unable to solve a personal conundrum like "why did no one but my mum remember my birthday", "why do I still live at home" or "why don't I have a girlfriend".

Happens every single time.

Don't be such a tediour bore; you've only just come back and I'm already reminded why you're the worst poster on here. Fingers crossed you need to take yourself away from the forum again soon.

 

[Nymzee]

Not sure why people are arguing about buying bottled water really.

We're discussing how random hoarders are being with their purchases.