Misfortune

[smokingboot]

I feel for my friend on whose event I had done a little work. What for me was a little head holiday amounted to two years of his life and a broken heart. He's had to cancel https://www.ritesofspring.co.uk/ No wisdom in getting 130 people from international destinations to meet on a little island while Covid-19 spreads in all directions. He's done the only thing, the responsible thing.

I hope he's OK. It's the second time he's tried to run something mega, the second time it's collapsed through no fault of his. Having paid the non-recoverable rental for the island, he can only give partial refunds, but my sense is that people will be quite generous of spirit about that. The trouble might be asking them to spend it again should he ever wish to run it in the future; it's a healthy whack of cash for most. Another venue, a remote and relatively cheap field somewhere might be the answer. But it's not his dream.

There are some artistic upsides; more time would allow more standardisation of the sheets, more finesse in writing, plotting, prop creation...

But there's no point saying this to him now. I think he just needs to grieve for it all. Very understandable, it's horrible when the sky falls.

**

About Covid-19. I've heard and read a lot about this now. My thoughts? Blighty's not testing because what really matters is maintaining a total lack of figures that might condemn the government stance or spook the economy. So there will be no quick understanding of how this thing works, whether it recurs etc. My problem regards my healthy octogenarian mother in Spain. Let's assume I catch this thing, go through it, am fine (I've been diagnosed with asthma but honestly believe it to be a misdiagnosis or at the most very mild) how will I know I am not still carrying a pathogen I could pass on to her?

She is a mahoosive hypochondriac and won't want me to visit for ages, but we speak by text every day. I get the impression that she is not impressed with our noble PM's advice to stay home, wash your hands, phone 111 if you're in a bit of trouble or 999 if you're dying. Bloody nonsense, letting this thing course through the population unchecked, untested, and telling us to prepare for our loved ones to die. I can't believe anyone considers this useful. The plan seems to be that with a bit of luck Covid-19 will be like measles, once had, never affected again. Well, let's hope so, because the liar is taking a huge gamble, and he knows it; whenever he speaks in public now his face looks like a crumbling apple pie. This was not his dream; He's all about fame, adulation, elements of Churchillian grandeur as great as a war without being a war. Last thing he wanted to face was the arrival of the most elusive Horseman charging his nag straight into the National Health Service.

Comments

[mallorys_camera]

Blighty's not testing because what really matters is maintaining a total lack of figures that might condemn the government stance or spook the economy.

Almost certainly that's the reason why there are so many roadblocks to testing in the U.S. Trump has admitted as much publicly.

Bloody nonsense, letting this thing course through the population unchecked, untested, and telling us to prepare for our loved ones to die.

Whoa! Is that really what's happening in the UK and other parts of Europe? Here in the U.S. we are all self-isolating.

I am sorry about your friend. And sending all good thoughts to your mother.

[smokingboot]

You are very kind, thank you, I appreciate those good thoughts.

Re what is being done re Coronavirus in the UK, it is not the same as what's happening in the rest of Europe. They are only going to test people in hospital, contrary to the WHO's recommendations. The argument seems to be to keep people out of hospital as much as possible til Summer, when the NHS has fewer winter related respiratory illnesses to deal with, and also to hope that the population develops immunity. They may not want to kill people per se (though a journalist in the Telegraph pointed out that on a purely economic level the 'cull' of elderly dependents could be beneficial) but as far as I can see, the main benefits of these policies are that

a)they are cheap
b)they create no stats that can be used as recrimination.

And yes, I do believe that b) is really all this govt cares about.

[benicek]

Really vague approach to self isolation here. Self isolate but get out and exercise. So thousands of people who are off work have gone outside to be ‘isolated’ and get some exercise in the spring countryside. Problem is England isn’t actually the rural country of nationalist fantasy, it’s a densely populated urban and suburban one. So we have hoards of people and jammed car parks at all the beauty spots and beaches. A rethink needed.

[mallorys_camera]

I'm getting out and exercising!

Of course, there's a lot really empty parkland and wilderness areas around here. I don't think I got closer than 20 feet to anyone who was similarly tromping in these parts yesterday.