h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I also bought a box of thin latex gloves before it all kicked off. I sometimes use them when cooking, to stop my hands smelling of onions or garlic and for handling raw meat. So I'm OK for those. I took a pair shopping with me this morning and forgot all about them

I did get everything on my shopping list, though.

The Germans are finally going to have to come to grips with cashless shopping now. It's quite funny watching them struggling at the till figuring out what to do.

Also supermarket deliveries. Hitherto unheard of in these parts. Something else that is now taking off that will drag the country straight out of the 19th into the 21st century.

Yeah, but it will probably also cause even more small local shops to close

Small shopkeepers used to deliver. My grandfather delivered milk for a while.

Out of the "evil" of coronavirus, comes an air quality in cities etc and around the world in general
Less aircraft/cars/industry pollution etc, a small respite for our planet

We can stop and smell the daffodils.

We were already using pick-up point grocery shopping for our weekly batch (saves time, money and fuss if you have a family). Because now everyone wants to do that, we have to book a slot two weeks in advance... and I heard they had a major computer crash at the distribution centres, so I hope I will get everything I ordered.

my son who is wheelchair bound, has his grocery's delivered by on-line shopping. He told me a couple of days ago, it could be up to a 6 week delay because of how many are now doing it

I hope Junior gets all the help he needs

Wish him luck. Six weeks!


I wonder what, after all this is over, will remain changed in everyday life.

My employer has always been dead against working from home, but we now have a lot of opportunity to experiment with it. Maybe it will stick somehow…

A lot of people who would normally go to the gym (or at least have a gym subscription), are now taking walks or having online training sessions.

I feel pretty sure everything will return to what we used to perceive as "normal". In time. I mean nobody remembers the so-called Spanish Flu (which originated in Kansas) and what has actually changed since we discovered HIV?

Sure. People may warm up to the idea of working from home. And more people will become used to order in from shops. And more small local businesses will close (before their time so to speak). But apart from that? Nah, don't believe it.

Massachusetts has started to get a lot more cases. Were they there already, and just needed testing to corroborate suspicions? The President of Harvard has the virus. New York state has (or recently had) 20,000 cases. Also, religious get-together in East Asia has fueled the spread of the virus to many countries in the Mid East.

(not on sympathy)
due to the 6ft gap social set up etc now in "order" and close contact - he (Prof Junior) now has no one to assist him to put his wheelchair in the car - so he's sort of grounded. (shopping as such)
I could go and fill that role, but for the momenthe's ok in food etc..

I'm putting myself on stand-by "ghost busters" I ain't afraid of no bugs/viruses

Billions of people are scrambling right now, with no clear paths that they can follow. The most resilient will likely manage, unless they are old or saddled with risk factors ("underlying conditions").

For a while, it may be possible to do things that beef up your immune system. After a while, will that still be possible?

Director of Denmark's National Health Board Soeren Brostroem has this to say about COVID-19:
When the first wave of this pandemic is over, we will know much more about what kind of disease this is.
Will we get immunity? We dont know.
How long will the immunity be? We dont know.
Is there a new wave coming? We don't know.
Is it a disease that returns season after season in milder form like the flu? We don't know.
Do we get a vaccine that will be a total game changer? We really hope so.
Will there be effective medicines? We really hope so.
In three months we will know more, but I really hope that our massive preparations have meant that we do not get Italian conditions.

Group psychology will have a lot to do with how much and how long we can hold this pandemic at bay. Labs everywhere are testing thousands of existing substances to see if they have an effect on Covid-19.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has a president who assumes that three weeks of restrictions will do the trick, and the economy can come roaring back after April 7, when all restrictions will be lifted.

As I see it, the three-week period has been a time-buying exercise during which governments and health workers all over the globe can scrounge for as many masks, ventilators, and supplementary hospital space as possible. Charley Baker, the Governor of Massachusetts, made his career as the head of Harvard-Vanguard, a pioneering HMO that always seemed one step ahead of everybody else. he is absolutely golden right now. His approach is flawless, not only in terms of rounding up extra space for hospital beds, but also as a leader who remembers that people should be allowed to choose to do the right things after you have explained things to them. Right now we are basically locked down (but allowed to get groceries, pharmacy supplies, and take walks in the Spring air), though he isn't calling it that.

The president of Harvard has the virus. I will be interested to see who comes through all right, and who doesn't.

If the disease does not spread like wildfire, health workers may be able to put together treatment protocols that can keep up with the very ill. That way, the people who need care the most will have a shot at surviving. No one wants to have to decide who gets care and who doesn't. That's an ethical nightmare.

Mess with "mother nature" and she will always have the upper-hand, but the resilience of the human race at certain times throughout it's history! Will endure!

The good will pull together as oneunfortunately the lowlife will always try to profit on the misfortune of others

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52029877

The lowlives have already been doing that. One of our congressmen sold all his stocks when it became apparent that the market was likely to crash. This was basically using insider information, as he public didn't yet know how bad things were going to get.

China is making 200 million masks a day, but only a tiny percebnt are the surgeons' masks that are most effective.
http://www.thoughtco.com/can-you-drink-rain-water-609422

I think ? (don't quote) that 3 congress folk are being investigated for insider info ?

Only three?