Gorse in bloom

The full effect of last night's message from the Prime Minister is slowly sinking in and it is all so depressing. After initially supporting a herd immunity approach the scary statistics from Imperial College predicting that using this approach could lead to the deaths of 250 000 people, the government has changed course to that of suppression. The problem is there is no exit strategy with this approach - when this is lifted, as fewer people would be infected, there would be little immunity in the population and cases would soar soon after measures were lifted again.

This is the conundrum China now faces. Research suggests 95% of people in Wuhan were still susceptible to the virus at the end of January. With no vaccine for at least 18 months this is going to be a long term problem.

The NHS are not testing for Covid-19 as they don't have nearly enough testing equipment to do so. The advice on their website is to stay at home and not to contact a doctor or hospital if you think you have it, and basically to only contact a hospital if you think you are dying. For those in hospital there are not enough respirators to help them. It is all very worrying. 

We have decided to take the social distancing advice seriously - all arrangements to see friends have been cancelled, anyone coming to the house has been asked not to come. All I am doing are dog walks in the fresh open air where there is no contact with anyone, and grocery shopping.

Today I went to two supermarkets to try to get food. On the recommendation of a friend I went to Lidl and after 5 minutes I walked out again as they had absolutely nothing that I needed with mainly empty shelves. I then drove to the very large Sainsbury's near me and I was shocked to see absolutely no fresh vegetables, fruit, chicken, fish, meat, eggs....the list went on and on. The shelves were completely bare and staff were wiping them down as there was nothing else for them to do. I walked out and nearly cried on the way back to my car. If this continues I don't know how I will feed a family of five as the boys are all coming home.