Sure, but I am referring to Oz where 7 are dead. And NSW schools will remain open. So be it.

Watch out for the flu.

My wife's cousin was healthy and strong 4 days ago. She passed away yesterday. Aged 54.
Not in Australia.

In Phil Carl?

Yes Pete

Carl ,my wife is there in binan I'm a bit worried.
Her dad had a stroke so she is there for awhile ..but you and know what the medical system is like over there so I'm concerned.
Pete

Looks like they are taking the necessary precautions, similar to here.

Yes president duterte isn't mucking around.

There is a photo of the health care workers in phil and they are so short if medical equipment they are all wearing plastic garbage bags to try and protect them selves for catching it
.my lady is well though and staying at home with her familyi
wish this site had photo upload I would put it on

It is fascinating to look at the headless chook & retrospective stupidity that is becoming evident. Many of the issues of shortages come from stuffing up our manufacturing.

A lot of stuff if the factories are working is ordered in from the very place the bug apparently started. We have one factory still left in Australia that can manufacture respirators (Shepparton). With the help of the Army it's now running 24hr Shifts.

Last year the flu killed 900 & there wasn't this hullabaloo: Obviously just an acceptable stock loss? Different now many pollies are into the danger age and are looking down the barrel of a loaded gun.

Interesting if you are into Nostradamus; One prophesy related to a pandemic in a year of double numbers? 1919 Spanish flu, now in 2020 we are looking at another pandemic.

However, staying home & avoiding people has its benefits. I have been dreading changing the belts in the Lathe. Swine of a job as one has to dismantle a large part of the head-stock which includes removing the spindle.

No instructions in the book as to what is required: Probably not game. However, its now done & hopefully they will last as long as the old originals (1982).

The impact this is having on shops is tragic. Guy who runs a restaurant, where I often have brunch with friends, just recently spent $250,000 on a compulsory refurb demanded by the shopping centre in the lease contract. Today he was sitting alone in there, lights out, looking very forlorn. Under the rules, he can only serve takeaway but he's not set up for takeaway.

Shopping centre owners are well known to be the modern day Robber Barons, taking extortionate rent plus a percentage of turnover. They had better be giving rent holidays to guys like this or they'll end up being display halls for boarded-up former businesses.

The daily onslaught of panic buyers who clear out shelves in supermarkets does not seem to have abated in my neck of the woods. Just before the 8pm curfew tonight I was having laugh with a shelf stacker over the items that the marauders choose not to buy and I mentioned ration books from WW2. She told me that her mother lives in one of the Baltic countries (I forget which) and the story from there is that supermarkets gave up trying to manually enforce limits. Instead they changed the cash register system to jack up the price of over-limit items by a massive amount. That is, if the limit on (say) toilet rolls is one pack, you get that pack for the normal shelf price. However, if you buy additional packs the price is (say) $100 each for the rest of them.

Interesting concept, rather like excess baggage.

I did hear a story from Beechworth where apparently there was one of those shopper bus raids by city invaders. The bus was supposed to have some Christian mobs name on it.

If that is in fact the case perhaps they should join some of the other shonks, that have had there status revoked.

The bus was supposed to have some Christian mob's name on it.

The Crusaders?

I was listening to a discussion about all this at work yesterday. I am with the PM on this - kids should still be going to school. Closing schools will wipe out both the childcare sector and employment generally. Today is not like it was when we were kids. In most cases, both parents work because they have to. If one leaves their job voluntarily to play housewife they are not entitled to ask for their job back once the virus has passed. If during that time the other parent is laid off because there is no work, both parents are out of work. There goes the home, the car and a family's way of life.

Whilst kids can be carriers of the virus, not one virus sufferer has yet caught it from an under 18 y/o. Kids are probably safer at school because they are most likely going to be distant from those likely to get the virus.

Australia's health system is the best anywhere. We have a better lifestyle, better food, better water and because of the PBS, better access to prescription drugs that cost around $40.00 rather than $4,000.00 per issue. Who knows - maybe the flu vaccine will protect against the virus by default. They have already discovered that a medication for HIV and AIDS does.

The rampant spread of the virus in northern Italy can be attributed to a few things - healthcare not as good, Italy's ageing population, the more condensed and overcrowded population and the way older Italians greet each other with the eccessive kissing and hugging.

I am still not convinced that China isn't lying about its alleged halt of the spread of the virus in Wuhan and other affected areas though if it were to be true, it'll be a lot easier to do here than there. To be honest, I fear much more about the economic side effects than the virus itself. The unemployment rate during the Great Depression was 25%. It could surpass that now if our governments get their response wrong.

Brad, re the Chinese halting the epedemic.
I was reading the Chinese news , apparently the mighty warriors of the medical system have fought a glorious battle and defeated the enemy and now China is virus free and no new cases or deaths have been recorded!
Cue photos of cheering actors dressed in medical garb complete with stethoscopes posing as the heroic doctors and smiling cured patients walking away from medical facility (for the ruling class only).
Thats the BS you get from a dictatorship that now has clamped down on the news media which is dictator controlled anyway.
Funny thing there are still ordinary citizens dieing like flies because the resources are all gone but you dont see that on CTV!
And I thought the Yank TV and papers were bad!
At least USA and us have opposing parties to call each other out.
Fred.