to feel for the USA under Trump at the moment

[chomalungma]

I know that there are divisions here. Johnson could have done better. But our briefings aren't political and generally everyone is working together.

Anyone who is following Trump and the USA at the moment will know that division is rife in the USA. Trump is still talking about fake news and is using his briefings as a rally.

I just feel for people in the USA at the moment having to deal with all this as well as the virus.

But it's also been our strength Piglet.

When Boris Johnson was fannying about not closing schools and not imposing a lockdown, there was very little the UK could do. They had to just wait while Coronavirus was running rampant.

At that point here in the US many states had closed schools, started on lockdown, and implemented social distancing without any guidance from central government, because they don't need it. Social distancing was well underway.

In an ideal world we would have had the type of response our Governor put in place combined with the federal government doing testing of the scale of South Korea and organizing for respirators.
But we didn't.
Overall I still think my State is better prepared than the UK but either way the time for analysis in both countries is in the future.

@midwesteaster I agree, I'm in Maryland and our state's done a great job so far - and Gov. Hogan is pretty skeptical of Trump's ramblings!

I live in a very blue area but everyone I've spoken with is happy with Hogan's response, he's taken a calm and firm approach.

I'm happy with my state's response, and also the response of the states around me.

BTW one of the things they're doing in my state (city by city and town by town at the moment) is banning short-term rentals, so people can't come up here and overload our medical system.

We do have the issue of people coming up to their second homes, which we can't do much about.

@HoldMyLobster I think I know where you are, Lobster, I love vacationing in your state, but of course, tourists are the last thing you want right now.

Fingers crossed for the summer.

Hi @HoldMyLobster

In New York we have the best and the worst. Gov. Cuomo has been fabulous. I'm watching his daily news briefing right now.

The mayor of NYC on the other hand, has been a total nitwit about it, as he has form for.

Bill de Blasio hits public gym, flouting coronavirus rules amid city shutdown

Just Facetime a family member in the deep south who was shopping in Lowe's (like B&Q) for a project. My hair stood on end as people were wandering about, brushing past each other, failing to observe any separation at all.

There will be so much spread...

Just Facetime a family member in the deep south who was shopping in Lowe's (like B&Q) for a project. My hair stood on end as people were wandering about, brushing past each other, failing to observe any separation at all.

Yeah - that was how I felt when I was Facetiming my family in the UK before they went on lockdown, when we'd been socially distancing for more than a week. Just feeling terror for them. And now many of them have Covid-19.

The response from the Fox presenter after this interview with a scientist is priceless

twitter.com/JoshuaPotash/status/1245534266437652482

She could not get him off fast enough

Wow. Which is worse; totalitarian control of the media peddling lies (like China) or this stubborn refusal to engage with truth and expertise? The US seems rudderless and drifting towards rocks in this storm. The whole country is on a lee shore and there are no lifeboats. And my DD2 cannot get home to the UK now whatever happens.

Church services are essential business

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said religious services conducted in churches, synagogues and houses of worship are “essential business” and therefore exempt from this stay-at-home executive order announced this afternoon.

The stay-at-home order issued by DeSantis goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Friday.

www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-hillsborough/governor-desantis-includes-attending-religious-services-conducted-in-churches-as-essential-services

Just coming on to say how interesting it's been to hear from USA mner's experiences.
I've often wondered if it's only the UK that has a forum like MN - is that true (to all the USA posters on here)?

A church service is the easiest thing in the world to do online.

Georgia Governor competing with Trump for most stupid.

www.newsweek.com/georgia-governor-didnt-know-asymptomatic-people-transmit-coronavirus-1495695

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he wasn't aware that asymptomatic people could transmit coronavirus as he announced he was preparing to issue a state-wide shelter-in-place order.

Kemp had resisted imposing tougher measures to tackle the pandemic, but on Wednesday he joined other Republican governors including the leaders of Florida and Mississippi in announcing he would sign a stay-at-home order. The order, which he said he would sign on Thursday, will go into effect on Friday.

Georgia has 4,638 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, spanning 139 counties with 139 deaths as of midday Wednesday, Kemp said.

He said his decision to issue the shelter-in-place order came after he found out that people could transmit the virus before they started showing symptoms.

@MaMaLa321 I'm a transplanted Brit so I deliberately sought out MN for some British perspectives. No idea if there's an American equivalent to MN.

A church service is the easiest thing in the world to do online

That community feeling is hard to replicate at home tho. It’s been rather hard for my church-going relations

Jesus did 40 days and nights in the wilderness. Tell the church-going family members to take heart and follow His example. After all, they are never really alone, are they?

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he wasn't aware that asymptomatic people could transmit coronavirus as he announced he was preparing to issue a state-wide shelter-in-place order.

To be fair all the Public Health UK divisions are pedalling that there is not enough evidence/ proof of non symptomatic transmission and more work needs to be done. This is why NHS staff are not allowed PPE for patients who are “clean” and asymptomatic. Also why a lot of health care workers are going to get sick.

@MaMaLa321

I've often wondered if it's only the UK that has a forum like MN - is that true (to all the USA posters on here)?

Yank here, if that wasn't already obvious. There is not an American equivalent to MN. Craigslist and Reddit are huge American forum sites, but unfocused and cesspools of trolling very lightly moderated compared to MN.

I only found out about MN because I subscribe to The Economist newspaper/weekly magazine and they did a brief article about it about two years ago. I had certainly never heard of it before. So I took a look, joined and have been here since. I really like that it's a female friendly space and that the moderators are quick to clean things up with something has been reported.

That community feeling is hard to replicate at home tho. It’s been rather hard for my church-going relations
The whole lockdown thing is VERY hard on a lot of people, I'm sorry but an actual congregation is not essential for worship

I'm sorry but an actual congregation is not essential for worship

I don’t pretend to know or understand it, my outside impression is that the community element makes church attractive to people 🤷‍♀️

I don’t pretend to know or understand it, my outside impression is that the community element makes church attractive to people

It's not the only thing that make church attractive, but it's certainly a big part of it, at least in my experience. I think people miss it even more in times of trouble, like now.

My Episcopal (American Anglican) church is doing services on Zoom, and I really look forward to it. We just can't take communion, obviously.

My brother lives in Atlanta and they have struggled with buying their shopping, particularly toilet rolls. He had to fashion some out of kitchen roll paper last week

This is when the Daily Mail could be put to really good use!

Just yet more proof that those supposed 'checks and balances' barely exist. The corruption isn't even being hidden, so why is he still there? also the 'USA is more like the EU' is a myth im too bored of to deal with anymore.

hang on HoldMyLobster, that's complete bollocks. Cant let you get away with a lie of that level