Walk with Sara at Walberswick, a good route away from the sea with plenty of space for us to walk with healthy 2 meter separation. She is anxious. Protecting Jeremy. Watching news. Anticipating events as they fall. Of course, this is why we love each other, one of us skeptical to the others glass half full. While my cup contains potential of self delusion, hers contains the downside of anxiety and worrying about things that may not happen, and even if they did worrying would not dull them. She knows this. With astute self awareness she knows she is a news addict and has had to put an app on her phone to stop her checking intermittent news feeds. This walk is good for both of us. Expressing and distracting. It is a glorious day, not a plane in the sky, bird song. Jeremy is going to embrace growing vegetables in their garden overlooking a field to the sea
I have never seen so many cars in Walberswick. The Londoners 2nd homers have arrived. I would have done the same but this is also what happened in Lombardy Italy, with the southerns escaping south and taking the virus with them.
Walked with Sam around the wood. I can no longer pay him, but offer him this safe place to stay during these uncertain times. He is happy here, and embraces the list of woodland tasks to accomplish. A swift visit to Rigeons for some last minute bits to fix the guttering, just in time.
The UK news is 335 deaths to date and the lack of PPE. Mat Frei gave hard shift to our health minister, Matt Hancock. What’s gone wrong? We knew about this from China and Italy. In Italy doctors are dieing. Michael’s document from Candy explains that the 2nd and 3rd person contracting from the first gets a much more leathal dose of the disease.
Back at East Lodge, MJ’s work has dired up. ‘People have time to do their own gardens’,
Trump – who continually refers to this virus as ‘the Chinese Virus, wants to re-open America for business in “weeks,” not months and refuse to say whether he would simply ignore public health experts if they advised. In this ilk a 69-year-old Texas Republican, said in a Fox News interview that, as a senior citizen, he would rather risk death than have the government pursue measures that would fundamentally damage the American economy. “I just think there are lots of grandparents out there in this country like me,” Patrick said. “Let’s get back to work, let’s get back to living, let’s be smart about it, and those of us who are 70-plus, we’ll take care of ourselves.”
Trump: “People get tremendous anxiety and depression and you have suicide over things like this, when you have a terrible economy, you have death, definitely would be in far greater numbers than we’re talking about with regard to the virus,” Trump said. “We have a double obligation. We have a great country, there’s no country like it in the world, and there’s no economy like it in the world.”
This from the internet
Not really feeling sick and do not want to be.. but if you are feeling confused as to why Coronavirus is a bigger deal than Seasonal flu? Here it is in a nutshell. I hope this helps. Feel free to share this to others who don’t understand…
It has to do with RNA sequencing…. I.e. genetics.
Seasonal flu is an “all human virus”. The DNA/RNA chains that make up the virus are recognized by the human immune system. This means that your body has some immunity to it before it comes around each year… you get immunity two ways…through exposure to a virus, or by getting a flu shot.
Novel viruses, come from animals…. the WHO tracks novel viruses in animals, (sometimes for years watching for mutations). Usually these viruses only transfer from animal to animal (pigs in the case of H1N1) (birds in the case of the Spanish flu). But once, one of these animal viruses mutates, and starts to transfer from animals to humans… then it’s a problem, Why? Because we have no natural or acquired immunity.. the RNA sequencing of the genes inside the virus isn’t human, and the human immune system doesn’t recognize it so, we can’t fight it off.
Now…. sometimes, the mutation only allows transfer from animal to human, for years it’s only transmission is from an infected animal to a human before it finally mutates so that it can now transfer human to human… once that happens..we have a new contagion phase. And depending on the fashion of this new mutation, thats what decides how contagious, or how deadly it’s gonna be..
H1N1 was deadly….but it did not mutate in a way that was as deadly as the Spanish flu. It’s RNA was slower to mutate and it attacked its host differently, too.
Fast forward.
Now, here comes this Coronavirus… it existed in animals only, for nobody knows how long…but one day, at an animal market, in Wuhan China, in December 2019, it mutated and made the jump from animal to people. At first, only animals could give it to a person… But here is the scary part…. in just TWO WEEKS it mutated again and gained the ability to jump from human to human. Scientists call this quick ability, “slippery”
This Coronavirus, not being in any form a “human” virus (whereas we would all have some natural or acquired immunity). Took off like a rocket. And this was because, Humans have no known immunity…doctors have no known medicines for it.
And it just so happens that this particular mutated animal virus, changed itself in such a way the way that it causes great damage to human lungs..
That’s why Coronavirus is different from seasonal flu, or H1N1 or any other type of influenza…. this one is slippery AF. And it’s a lung eater…And, it’s already mutated AGAIN, so that we now have two strains to deal with, strain s, and strain L….which makes it twice as hard to develop a vaccine.
We really have no tools in our shed, with this. History has shown that fast and immediate closings of public places has helped in the past pandemics. Philadelphia and Baltimore were reluctant to close events in 1918 and they were the hardest hit in the US during the Spanish Flu.
Factoid: Henry VIII stayed in his room and allowed no one near him, till the Black Plague passed…(honestly…I understand him so much better now). Just like us, he had no tools in his shed, except social isolation…
And let me end by saying….right now it’s hitting older folks harder… but this genome is so slippery…if it mutates again (and it will). Who is to say, what it will do next.
Be smart folks… acting like you’re unafraid is so not needed right now.
#flattenthecurve. Stay home folks… and share this to those that just are not catching on. To copy and paste, hold your hand on the text till copy appears, then go to your page and hold you finger down again till paste appears.
Meahwhile at 8.30 Boris Johnson delivers a Churchillian type speech announcing Lock Down.
Kalikellett 