Prime minister announcement at 12

[Hugglespuffed]

Is it going to be drastic changes? Or just 'work at home if you can'?

Of course it is.

@caperberries Yes climate. There is a new study out showing that where internal transmission is highest is latitude 30-50 North. This is the latitude of Northern Italy, Iran, Japan, South Korea and Spain. Maybe it’s optimum is not too hot but not too cold

Interesting, that latitude also covers practically the whole of the US

cdn.mapmania.org/original/wine_regions_of_the_world_between_30-50_degrees_of_latitude_60432.jpg

Two studies have cone out this week that indicate the virus is passed 40-65% time in the pre-symptomatic phase or by asymptomatic cases.

So telling people to stay at home when they get a fever won’t do much.

They sound confident and we have to trust them. There is no evidence that all of these measures taken elsewhere are working. He has just said worst case scenario is 80% of people will get this. Johnson has said many people are going to die prematurely. Unfortunately this is inevitable now and we can’t do much about it. The 580 number is a drop in the ocean. We are not testing everyone. There are 5-10000 people with this currently based on what he said. Every person infected passes on the virus to 2/3 others on average.

There is pretty much nothing that anyone can do about this apart from follow the advice or if you are that way inclined them completely shut yourself away and have no contact with anyone.

A couple of social distancing isn’t worth potentially thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of lives?

Wow, what a selfish society this is.

^months of

I think these measures are very sensible and the right thing to do. And I say that as a long-time Boris Johnson loather.

The thing is people DO need the Govt to say no:

My 73 year old mother who thinks she's immune

My father in law in his 80s, who wants a bargain break

My boss who takes non necessary trips to massive conferences in London, who goes to the Liverpool match, who is travelling to an infected country and doesn't want to self isolate. Who thinks it's a joke but won't suggest WFH.

If the Govt said that mixing in crowds, socialising, travel, employees working in the office when they don't have to, non essential travel, was to be avoided then maybe lives could be saved, but apathy rules as it comes from the top down.

If we survive this then I will have a long memory and so will my children - future voters.

@yatapina, Sturgeon will have a robust answer to that I'm sure!!
And should people NOT in Scotland believe him?

@peachgreen 100% agree

This was a very confident briefing

"Wash your hands and we'll get through this"

Is that the new Keep Calm and Carry On typically British phrase 🤦

Fair enough
I agree re sensible

*My 73 year old mother who thinks she's immune

My father in law in his 80s, who wants a bargain break*

Both of whom are adults, perfectly capable of making their own decisions. We get more sanguine as we get older.

I've developed a bit of a headache today.
No temp but I've had a small cough going on for weeks - phlegm in my throat.
Do I self isolate? I don't find 111 online very clear.
Also baby has had a bit of a cough for the past few days but not continuous...
I accepted a delivery earlier.
Not sure what to do!
Doesn't help I've got health anxiety

The cough advice is a bit of a recipe for trouble. I've got a cough that I've had for at least three weeks, so apparently I don't have to self isolate. But if I go round coughing at everyone on public transport I suspect I'm going to be deeply unpopular. Maybe I should go around with a sign saying "It's an old cough, honest, it's not corona, please leave me alone" and see how that works.

I dont think they do want kids taken out!
They want them all to catch it so they can come out of hiding quickly.
If 80% need to get it for herd that's everyone under x age.
It sounds like HT have been told to chase up non attendance.
Parents can't keep themselves or ill dc safe.
Well I'm still keeping him off as I don't trust them.

We don't even need to build hospitals we could requisition hotels and schools.
We should have looked at buying more ventilators etc.
I think he needs to tell us he won't be getting private care when he gets it.
Nor rest of parliament, they can wait like the rest and take their chances with age etc and weight maybe (men less likely to survive..)

Judycoolibar I've been thinking the same thing for the past few weeks. I've got a cough which started in January. I can't contain it and it is repetitive. I travel on trains/the tube often and have had many raised eyebrows and harsh stares! I'm worried about the next few weeks now, given the messages today! 😩

It was Sturgeon on GMB this morning who made the comment about not holding big public events because emergency services are needed there on standby and at the moment they could be better deployed elsewhere. So she probably made that remark in the cobra meeting and they put it in to keep her happy.

@middleager

Those aren't new ideas, though. The people you've listed would never listen anyway, even if they gov did x, y and z. I say this without any bad feeling, but surely if people are going to be that stupid, then catching it is expected and they should deal with the consequences?

They sound confident and we have to trust them

Snake oil salesmen always sound confident. So do con men. Has it ever occurred to you that what they think best for the country may not be best for you and yours?

We both have sniffles and a cough which kicks in every February, have to take piriton and beconase. Tis allergies, but will make folk very nervous now.

Can't believe he used this extremely critical press conference to lie about the state of NHS Scotland, which outperforms its English counterpart. There was absolutely no need for him to single Scotland out, but to lie!?

Pure politics. Because NS spoke out before him this afternoon.

He's wildly out of his depth and shitting himself. He thought being PM would be a fitting coronation for someone as entitled not be leader as him, and now he's found himself having to take it seriously he hasn't a single fucking clue what to do.

The CMO and CSA are far from snake oil salesman.

You can make your own decisions too. Self isolate.

@defthand you are bang on the money, with facts not fiction.
The economy does matter more to this government than human life.

The WHO has given advice how to manage this virus and it has been contained by the countries you mentioned going into lockdown.

Did they say peak was 9-10 wks away?
surely that will send the economy into free fall. who's going to go on holiday, get married, move house, socialise, exercise, shop etc?