we had some hailstone a few days ago :hmph:

I hope they don't relax the 2m rule as it will just muddy the waters

The scenes coming out of America relating to lockdown are hideous, medical staff being abused and protesters parading around with guns! :/

It was never going to go any other way, unfortunately. The American establishment can't even complain about it; it's a situation of their own making. They've drummed the narrative of freedom/anti-socialism/the right to bear arms into their civilian population since the birth of the States, and in recent years they've capitalized on that brand of "patriotism" hard, mostly to push war agendas.

And now they turn round and say "Ummm hehe actually guys, so listen, freedom isn't all that important... we want you all to stay in your homes for the foreseeable future... but don't worry we'll make sure you're supported by these heavily socialist policies"

...?

*Large swathes of the American population immediately grab their AR15's and take to the streets*

https://i.imgur.com/WIcddRj.png

Being more concerned about the economy than peoples life is probably, and I’m not exaggerating, the most right wing thing I’ve read on here in years.

You want the country to stay closed until a vaccine potentially next year? There will be no shops left and the unemployment will be in the 10s of millions, the country will be in so much debt that they wont be able to pay benefits and other things and things like the NHS will have to be sold to make money

You can't separate the two completely, though. It's a balance, not an either-or. The idea that a collapsing economy won't affect lives and have a significant death toll is really short-sighted. People are already dying because of service closures, and it's the tip of the iceberg compared to what the situation will be in six months/a year/beyond if we carry on with this idea that we can just shut down entire countries indefinitely and expect them to continue to function.

Um no. A sensible approach. Open more and more places as deaths reduce. Primary schools (and nightclubs and theatres etc) should be amongst the last to open like I originally said.

@ts, couldn’t be bothered to multi quote, but you too.