At what point do you batten down the hatches?

[TRG-22]

Natural selection might just thin out the more pathetic in society.

OTOH the 1918-20 flu pandemic killed, proportionately, far more fit, healthy young people than it did the young/old/infirm.

[BamBam]

Some helpful weekend viewing.

[Laurie]

It will be the hype/hysteria that causes the most damage.

I wouldnt worry about the virus at the moment.

............... except for the economic effects. The container pipeline from China is around six weeks duration in time terms, so western industry is still living on pre Covid-19 supplies. Given how interdependent countries now are, any significant shut-downs, isolations etc risk major downstream effects. Jaguar Land Rover says it'll start closing production down in three weeks time and it'll not be alone. The US high-tech electronics goods industry can't live (in the short term anyway) without China. German industry is already taking a hit in both directions to China, shortage of components coming in and orders for machine tools etc, finished car exports etc already in collapse. If other industrially important Asian countries are similarly affected there will be shortages of everything down to and including M&S knickers.

... and should continental Europe batten the hatches and close the channel or Atlantic ports down, we'll soon regret making ourselves so reliant on imported French, Dutch, Italian and Spanish agricultural produce. That's worst case and I'd reckon a really low probability, but the Chinese manufactures issue has already happened, simply hasn't shown up yet.

[gashtyke]

Wise words, Laurie. But I think the medical/social impact will follow shortly.

[Alpha1]

Wise words, Laurie. But I think the medical/social impact will follow shortly.

What medical social impact we have had 23 cases.

[Ovenpaa]

23 reported cases, I wonder how many more there are that have gone unreported both here and abroad.

[Daryll]

To be honest, I bet there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of unconfirmed cases...

Apparently for a normal, reasonably fit person the symptoms are no worse than a bad cold... so how many people think they have the "sniffles", but actually have the virus...??

Someone in the office pointed out the other day that the news is full of the 2k deaths... but don't mention the 30k people who were confirmed cases, that recovered...

.. and did anyone else pick up on the fact that a few kilometers away from the Wuhan fishmarket, there is a Virology lab that was investigating into engineering viruses..?? I wonder if its "Umbrella Corp"... :-)

[Dark Skies]

To be honest, I bet there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of unconfirmed cases...

Apparently for a normal, reasonably fit person the symptoms are no worse than a bad cold... so how many people think they have the "sniffles", but actually have the virus...??

Someone in the office pointed out the other day that the news is full of the 2k deaths... but don't mention the 30k people who were confirmed cases, that recovered...

.. and did anyone else pick up on the fact that a few kilometers away from the Wuhan fishmarket, there is a Virology lab that was investigating into engineering viruses..?? I wonder if its "Umbrella Corp"... :-)

Agreed. You're more likely to be trampled by the hysterical herd than catching the virus.

And courtesy of the bowel watering panic the media have created economies are taking a hit and the usual hypochondriacs are flooding medical practices. Makes me wonder how many genuinely ill people (with more mundane illnesses) are now seriously ill / dead for want of being able to see their GP in a timely manner had the worrying queue-cloggers not been in their way.

[Gazza]

We have 560 bog rolls now

[Christel]

We have 560 bog rolls now

I can't believe you counted them