[Growster...]

We've got two pick-up sticks here, one for inside, one for outside.

We regularly have to pick up fag packets and sweetie wrappers, plus junk-food stuff from the road-kill joint at the top, from where they are chucked by morons, but, around the corner, near the pub, the little yobs sink a can or three of cheap lager, then go to the tables designated inside. The cans and bottles are of course, left in the road, together with fag-ends etc.

Chums and I around here generally pick the rubbish up and use the sticks, as there is no way I'm collecting their germs by hand!

[Aunt Sally]

Good on yer, Mr G.  You have a grand village spirit keeping it tidy for others to appreciate.

[mrs bouquet]

I have been reading your thoughts and comments and will now add my own.  I saw a youngster being interviewed on tv.   We should be allowed to get on and enjoy our lives, we are only young.  My comment to that would be, Well, I am old, and haven't got as much time left as youngster have to catch-up.  We have abided by the rules.  Played our part and I would actually enjoy another decade or so.

Maybe the youngsters will take notice when one of their friends or their mum or dad or gran will sadly die.

Lets us hope that some sense will prevail, but I did have to tell a man in his seventies, in the garden centre, his mask would be better on his face, not in his hand !!!  He did put it on.

That is it, I've finished    Mrs Bouquet

[John]

Well I know my risk of dying is 1 in 50 if I catch it but this drops dramatically if I don't catch it. 

If I was young and fit with a 1:5000 risk or even 1:50,000 I'd probably feel differently. After all, when I was 20 I was immortal!

[Growster...]

Thank you Auntie!

One of the issues which is making this wretched virus more complicated, is the total confusion about statistics. It appears that tests proving positive are going up, whereas fatalities are going down. This has to be because more tests are being made, or does it mean that the virus is dying out and less volatile?

I read some where that a virus really 'wants' to replicate, but if it finally kills everyone, then it hasn't served its purpose - whatever that is meant to mean!

Mind you, however many statistics does one believe? I had to study stats during a course several years ago. the words 'damned lies' often sink to the top when I hear the terminology...;0)

[John]

I think it's actually quite complicated - increased testing, age of people who have it and therefore risk to them, lag between infection and death. What would be good would be a weekly detailed report.
But the news services just provide screaming click-bait headlines rather than in-depth analysis.

[AussieInFrance]

I calculated that worldwide, the actual percentage of people that have died from the virus, is something like only 0.0001. Here in Kaliningrad, the general feeling is; what's all the fuss about.

Is that why they call it 'Russian' roulette?

[Subversive_plot]

I think it's actually quite complicated - increased testing, age of people who have it and therefore risk to them, lag between infection and death. What would be good would be a weekly detailed report.
But the news services just provide screaming click-bait headlines rather than in-depth analysis.

There is summary report, of sorts, that graphically shows the world-wide effects of COVID.  It is prepared by Johns Hopkins University.  Google "91-DIVOC" and you will find it.  The site does show some world statistics.  Being a USA medical school, some of the details are USA-centric, but even these provide an explanation of the statistics that are being generated (see "Coronavirus Visualized as a 1,000-Person Community" at the website).

[John]

That's an interesting web site - thanks for sharing it. Link

It's really concerning here looking at a graph for the UK where cases had fallen but are zooming up again now rules are being relaxed. I keep saying it - never mind the rules, keep yourself and your loved ones as safe as you can. The phrase "I'm dying for a drink" could easily come true by visiting the pub!

Roll on an effective, safe vaccine.

A friend of mine reckons taking lots of vitamin D and C will help the body fight it off - maybe true, maybe not but a few vitamin pills don't cost a lot and don't do any harm. Getting yourself healthier will certainly help - being overweight with a BMI over 35 really adds to your risk. Losing weight is not that easy but it can be done.

[Subversive_plot]

My sentiments exactly John. Preaching to the choir!

I will plead guilty to weighing more than I should.  I have tried exercising more and eating healthier this year.  I have lost 10 pounds, but sometimes when that happens, I find them again.

[John]

Watched the Welsh health minister's briefing today - he actually seemed angry with Rhondda Cynon Taff  for ignoring the social distancing etc. causing a big rise in infections. So they've been sent to bed with no supper put into lockdown.
You can see it here if you have a TV licence or a VPS system:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000mwyc/bbc-wales-today-coronavirus-update-16092020
Starts about 2 mins in.

[Christine]

Oh come unto the North East. Looks like we are in for some form of lock down again.

Being in the rural end of the North East, heaven knows what we shall have left if things ever quieten down. At the moment the village I live in is suffering from road closures which cut us off from - well almost everywhere. These look like a novel way of lock down for the next couple of months before any other restrictions. 

[mumofstig]

Watched the Welsh health minister's briefing today - he actually seemed angry with Rhondda Cynon Taff  for ignoring the social distancing etc. causing a big rise in infections. So they've been sent to bed with no supper put into lockdown.

I think that's great they way he spelled out exactly what people had been doing wrong and who was to blame for the rise in numbers. I wish that the same happened in England. It's so easy for people here to say that ' it's nothing to do with me!'

[John]

I've felt that the Welsh government have been acting like people with a job to do, managers, rather than politicians considering their next election. Can't say I agree with everything they've done re the virus but generally I think they're doing a good job. More interested in actuality than worrying about offending potential voters.

[Aunt Sally]

That’s how Westminster should do it too.  Name and shame then strict lockdown.

I saw on the news last night that a huge house party was reported to the police who did not have time to even go there let alone shut it down.