I mentioned this yesterday, but about 40% of the workforce is still going out to work - mostly public sector and key workers, but also those in food distribution and retail

We are still allowing unlimited online shopping and food takeaway deliveries, which are non-essential.  The production and distribution process will lead to virus spread.

Our loose lockdown will lead to a steady infection rate, but HMG seems happy with that - the NHS can cope. 

In France you have to print out a document every time  you go out. In Italy and Spain there are regular police and paramilitaries on every street corner stopping everyone and checking what they are doing

And they use drones!

We are very lucky that Boris is so lax!

Not just in this country - from the BBC:

"There has been a fourth consecutive night of unrest in the Paris suburb of Villeneuve-la-Garenne. Social tensions have risen further under strict lockdown rules"

He retracted his statement because Cummings put him in a thumb screw and he wanted to keep his job

He told the truth the first time

You cant compare the French lock down to ours. Theirs was far stricter.  

God will protect us, just like he protected the Pangolins

MAGA lady: “What do I say to your science? I say I don’t believe your science, because I believe in my god”#MoronOfTheWeek#TrumpVirus#TrumpLiedAmericansDied@lbc #C4News #Newsnightpic.twitter.com/7PEKVmR6e7

— I Am Incorrigible FCA (@ImIncorrigible) April 21, 2020

The Tele has this useful graph - click to enlarge. It backs up what the Chinese found, the virus is an efficient killer of the old.

Latest data from EU/EEA states & UK. Ordered by highest to lowest mortality rate per 100,000 of entire population:

I keep hearing that Sweden is doing terribly, and in its own right, it is, but comparatively speaking it is doing much better than pretty much all of the big players in western Europe. 

Pillar 2 - 675

Total - 4,451

Thanks Beast. Malaria, though not a virus, nicely illustrates some of my concerns. Since the early days of quinine, various new treatments have emerged and some have become obsolete as the parasite became immune to them. To make the most of our defences we attacked on several fronts - the epidemiological triad of host, agent and environment, plus the vector, the mosquito. The environmental action focused on removing pools and water bodies where the mosquito might breed, reducing the possibility of vector to host transmission. Pesticicides were used to kill adult mosquitoes to directly remove the vector. Barriers to the vector were added and improved, mosquito nets, fly-screened doors and windows, plus use of domestic pesticides and repellents. Humans took antimalarials that would kill the parasite. People in malarial areas live daily with such measures.

The position today is "There is currently no commercially available malaria vaccine. Over 20 other vaccine constructs are currently being evaluated in clinical trials or are in advanced preclinical development." "[WHO] "The development of resistance to drugs poses one of the greatest threats to malaria control and results in increased malaria morbidity and mortality. Resistance to currently available antimalarial drugs has been confirmed in only two of the four human malaria parasite species, Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax." [CDC]

I have never had Dengue - but once lived in a Dengue area. My Dr said - "It is one of my favourite diseases - Breakbone Fever! It will not kill you but you will wish it did. You will recover." The main method of control is to prevent transmission by measures against the vector, the mosquito. As you say - we did manage to eradicate Smallpox through vaccination and public health measures. It's an encouraging story most folks will know.

I'm trying to be optimistic - but the best I can manage is caution. Environmental and behavioral measures are important weapons, but WRT vaccines and therapies I am not going to do optimism yet.

Roger

Its not about the numbers, its about the police messing about worrying about gender pronouns and 'hate crime'. And if the numbers really are a problem just bring the army in.

You do realize that the tory base is the most affected by this virus right? If they are truly as sinister as you think (they arn't) then they would want to perform well because the deaths are mostly going to be tory voting.

Mass survailance through phone data. Get some data analysists in analyse people's movement patterns and arrest anyone fulfilling some basic criteria. Adapt the algorithm to increase rate of sucess.

And yes this will truly screw with our civil liberties afterwards. But if people had just behaved none of this would need to happen.

TBH after the first few days there hasn't been much attempt to enforce the lockdown.

Just don't bother carrying your phone then? Can a phone be tracked if it isn't being used?

Again I have to ask, who gets to decide what is or not a 'necessary journey'? Going shopping or visiting a friend are equally essential. The former because we need to eat, and the latter because we humans are instinctively social beings. The attempt to keep people 'distanced' from each other is only going to work for so long. 

Pretty much all of this contradicts your idea of freedom when it comes to the concept of 'free speech'. Curious how you have argued, quite well I will acknowledge, for the latter, yet see no problem having peoples basic freedom to roam to be severely restricted. Freedom is freedom. 

An excellent letter in yesterday's edition of Scottish broadsheet The Herald, formerly known as the Glasgow Herald, on the UK government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic since it started in this country:

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18393189.letters-heads-need-roll-make-sure-never-happens/