Coronavirus

[worn thumbs]

Now its officially a pandemic it seems the middle syllable is superfluous.

 

[Bm101]

The four stage strategy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSXIetP ... We0jwcmjvc

The players might change but game remains the same.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Preppers are fun. Real preppers are waiting for the fall of civilization, so they can use lavatory paper as a medium of exchange. That and feminine hygiene products are assumed to be the most sought-after trade goods in war zones, seige conditions etc. I think that this is mostly due to an article written by some chap who survived the Sarajevo seige. Other items assumed to be usable as money would be alcohol (preferably spirits), and ammunition (most preppers I come across are decidedly yankiferous, and therefore armed to the teeth).

What the general public are doing with the lavatory paper thing, I don't know. Perhaps there is a fear that they will be housebound for a fortnight, and no one knows how much they use in a daily basis.

If it is just people being sheep, can we get everyone to hoard anything truly nonsensical? Start a rumour that sugar-free gummy bears are being hoarded, and running out. (Btw, if you have been quarantined and have nothing else to do with your life, read the Amazon reviews on sugar free gummy bears - it's more entertaining than you might think).

 

[Steliz]

Also what's with the whole toilet paper thing?

I reckon they imagine themselves in the near future looking out of their living room window onto a dystopian nightmare with grey, desperate, shuffling and moaning hollow eyed people begging strangers for just one sheet or exchanging their family heirlooms for an entire roll and they stand there, feeling really really smug, protected inside their home by the presence of toilet paper. Probably.

 

[DrPhill]

If it is just people being sheep, can we get everyone to hoard anything truly nonsensical? Start a rumour that sugar-free gummy bears are being hoarded, and running out.

Aaah, that explains the need for toilet roll.......

 

[Trevanion]

I heard stocks of Surströmming are looking really dire, if anyone wants to get any nows the time before they totally disappear off the shelves!

 

[Phlebas]

I heard stocks of Surströmming are looking really dire, if anyone wants to get any nows the time before they totally disappear off the shelves!

Hey, I don't normally post on the general board here, but you must know it isn't the season for the new surströmming for months yet.

Do you want to promote illegal herring fermenting?

(I actually like it, by the way).

[Memo to self: mmm, must buy into durian futures too...]

 

[Lons]

I think probably toilet paper is right at the bottom of my list.

Was the use of the word "bottom" deliberate? :lol:

 

[MikeG.]

.......[Memo to self: mmm, must buy into durian futures too...]

Guess what we got these guys to aim at?

I'd carried it in my car for a few days. I've no sense of smell, but the others on the trip started retching when they went near my vehicle.

 

[Rorschach]

I think probably toilet paper is right at the bottom of my list.

Was the use of the word "bottom" deliberate? :lol:

Maybe

 

[Phlebas]

.......[Memo to self: mmm, must buy into durian futures too...]

Guess what we got these guys to aim at?

I'd carried it in my car for a few days. I've no sense of smell, but the others on the trip started retching when they went near my vehicle.

Funny you should say that. Currently on my worktop for snacks:

I partially grew up in Singapore. Aged ancestors just got back (on the wings of Covid19), so they brought me this as a reminder. You used not to be allowed to take the actual fruit on a 'plane.

I rather like durian, I find the smell comforting.

 

[MJP]

Well, there's one section of the population that's not worried about running out of bog roll - and that's the folks, like me, who have a stoma!
Talk about silver linings....!
Martin.

 

[RogerS]

Someone commented on the radio that his local supermarket had been stripped of all pasta ............ but all the tinned tomatoes and pasta sauces were still there. He wondered what people ate pasta with.

Loo rolls ?

 

[RogerS]

Down south their panicked buying all the toilet rolls and hand sanitizer. Up north we're going round licking door handles trying to get a fortnight off work.

Gerry

Think you might be out of luck.....well, depends what you define as North, I guess...You've got the North Midlands in Manchester. The Upper North Midlands in Yorkshire. But you do need to come a lot further towards the North Pole to be really North :wink:

Sunny Northumberland....no cases. Damn.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

North? Bodmin.

 

[SammyQ]

In days of old,
When knights were bold,
An' bog roll hadn't been invented,
They wiped their ass,
On a piece of grass,
And went away contented.

There! Somebody HAD to do it!

8)

 

[Andy Kev.]

Lots of enthusiasm to put the boot in wrt China, but would any western government have done as well? Italy knew about the virus well in advance, and how is that going? H1N1 originated in USA, was going to kill everyone, and that was spectacular in its failure to be contained. However, because it was USA to blame, no one mentioned it.

As with all things, there is a political element to everything you read. Some of it may even be true.

I suspect that any half-competent western government (I do not include countries with mediterranean coastlines or Balkan countries in that category) would have done much better in the initial stages, simply because in democracies govts are forced to address issues in a critical environment.

In the Chinese system by contrast every aspect of life must be measured against the interests of the party and those interests are paramount. The instincts of such governments seem to be to suppress facts which could put them in a bad light. Consider the USSR's initial response to Chernobyl.

However, once the Chinese did cough (no pun intended) to having a problem, they were able to use their totalitarianism to a practical advantage in a way that is not open to any western country unless it has won a degree of public consent first. Western govts will usually be able to achieve this as people are generally sensible in a crisis if sensibly briefed.

So on the whole I think that the answer to your question is a qualified, "Yes, they would have done better".

 

[MikeG.]

My daughter runs a language school in Spain. They've just been told to close for a fortnight. That'll be a Spanish fortnight because Easter is only a week after the end date of that closure, which means it will be 5 weeks minimum before they're open again. She's getting her staff together to sort out online lessons, starting Monday.

 

[RogerS]

Must confess to being a tad worried about the 'new' approach to Covid-19 what with being in one of the categories. Sounds a bit to me like 'Yer on yer own'

 

[Just4Fun]

So on the whole I think that the answer to your question is a qualified, "Yes, they would have done better".

I view it differently, and instead of "would have" we can look at actual performance. Because of the Chinese experience all other countries knew something was coming as far back as January. What have they really done about it since then? Very few have handled it well and this is leading to exponential growth of cases in dozens of countries. To me, the facts show that (with 2 or 3 notable exceptions) other countries are handling things worse than the Chinese did despite getting more warning.