Agreed with the proviso that airplanes can often transport quickly important/useful supplies. CO2 emissions would be the last thing on my mind currently!

Thank you, Nick.

I will reply politely...and thus of very limited value - perhaps even misleading.

Roger

Spanish flu v2 

I think all big sport events should take place without spectators now, it's not smart to be bringing thousands of people so close together.

HMG might regret its stance.

But I thought this was the greatest, most urgent threat to our existence? But I suppose it is when one has little else to worry about. 

Anyway, looks like a number of St. Patrick's Day parades are going to be cancelled over here. Every cloud.. and all of that. 

https://www.independent.ie/

Pub and business owners must be sickened though, the poor things. 

Shoneen!

More here:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-09/spain-says-coronavirus-cases-almost-doubled-overnight-to-999

The 'parades' are a by-product of British style capitalism! 

It will be really bad if Spain develops a Lombardy like cluster.

I agree, easy to implement and minimal economic impact to the country

The patient in their 70s and at the Royal Wolverhampton Hospital with underlying health conditions.

German state of Brandenburg imposes a quarantine for up to 5,000 people

Essen  & now Heinsberg

It's coming. I

Exactly, don't cancel sport but play them without crowds. There will be some impact, but it's a relatively easy way to prevent overcrowding and lower the risk of a big local cluster developing.

I also don't understand why there isn't a bigger drive for working from home, pretty much anyone who can do it, should be doing it by now. It'd ease overcrowding in public transport.

Let’s hope he is the most famous recipient of a Darwin award.

His approach is going to kill a lot of people, including his ‘base’.

It's just a graph Nick, FFS..... I thought it was useful and from a reputable source.

i wasn't being critical of what you posted, simply pointing out that you didn't show the source.

Another old, sick person has died then. It'd be more worrisome if it was a young, fit person who died.

Meanwhile the virus gets a bit closer to home: a pupil at a secondary school in Ashford has been diagnosed with the new flu and has been "self-isolating while symptomatic". The implication was that he wasn't self-isolating beforehand, so it'll be interesting to see if it spreads around that school. The school isn't closing either, FWIW.

The interesting bit here is that the head of my school goes over there one day a week. My school's not closing, nor is the head self-isolating, so you never know... I could  be the first on here to get it!

EDIT: I find the official advice a bit odd, TBH. We know, for example, that you can spread the cold and flu before you show symptoms, so surely it's the same for this variant flu? Here's the relevant bit from the local rag:

The educational institute in Essella Road noted the family and school had been "liaising closely" with Public Health England.

The advice given to the school by the health body said: "Following a risk assessment by PHE I can confirm that the individual has not attended school while they have been symptomatic and therefore would not have had direct contact with anyone at school while they were infectious.

"Therefore there is no need for further action by the school in relation to this case."

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/ashford/news/pupil-diagnosed-with-coronavirus-223439/

Having thought about it some more, where do you draw the line? Concerts, cinemas, theatres - all with people in close contact and indoors. 

Only those with really large crowds, so mainly football? I don't know obviously.

Won't people just crowd in pubs to watch the games though? They better finish the season though, cancelling it is not an option!

I agree about working from home but for a lot of people (including me) it's not an option. I only work three days and two of them are mostly outdoors. I'm thinking about having my dinner on my own in our little wood, the staffroom should have a biohazard sign on the door at the best of times, never mind now.