Day 2: Friday
It's now a full week since I stopped commuting. I have no cough. We are short on thermometers, and certainly not desperate enough to try and buy one (imagine how many are left!), but I expect I was not infected at work. Yesterday my wife and I discussed the tactics we'll use once the boys get home. The main thing is to wash hands carefully when re-entering the house. Within the house, we'll use ordinary hygiene, plus washing hands for every meal (which was our routine when the boys were young), until or unless someone shows symptoms.
I've contacted my neighbours, who are elderly, and asked them to get in touch if they need anything brought to them. Speaking of which, we have a tradition of eating out on Saturday afternoon; today, we shall bring food home from a local restaurant. I assume that they go to some lengths to keep the food safe anyway, but it is much harder to keep tables and counters free of virus.
I've found out the reasoning behind the UK government's policy. It seems sensible, though there are imponderable factors at work. The present growth rate of the number of known cases back there shows a frighteningly short doubling time, much faster than Liz Specht and others envisaged, almost like the rice on a chessboard problem, so the UK must be counting on that rate slowing down somewhat. To me, the most critical of success factors seems to be how long someone is infectious before showing symptoms. The government has apparently decided in principle to provide sick pay from the first day someone is absent from work because they self-isolate, so people will be more willing to do so. Economic incentive for infected people to go to work looks to be a severe weakness in the US. We shall see.
World War Z emphasises (in the first chapter, which is all I've read), the roles that poverty, corruption, and desperation can play in spreading disease; so does The Stand (I've read about half of that, a long time ago). It sounds as if China made serious efforts to prevent desperation, such as by building that hospital, and was somewhat able to clamp down on corruption.
I've contacted my neighbours, who are elderly, and asked them to get in touch if they need anything brought to them. Speaking of which, we have a tradition of eating out on Saturday afternoon; today, we shall bring food home from a local restaurant. I assume that they go to some lengths to keep the food safe anyway, but it is much harder to keep tables and counters free of virus.
I've found out the reasoning behind the UK government's policy. It seems sensible, though there are imponderable factors at work. The present growth rate of the number of known cases back there shows a frighteningly short doubling time, much faster than Liz Specht and others envisaged, almost like the rice on a chessboard problem, so the UK must be counting on that rate slowing down somewhat. To me, the most critical of success factors seems to be how long someone is infectious before showing symptoms. The government has apparently decided in principle to provide sick pay from the first day someone is absent from work because they self-isolate, so people will be more willing to do so. Economic incentive for infected people to go to work looks to be a severe weakness in the US. We shall see.
World War Z emphasises (in the first chapter, which is all I've read), the roles that poverty, corruption, and desperation can play in spreading disease; so does The Stand (I've read about half of that, a long time ago). It sounds as if China made serious efforts to prevent desperation, such as by building that hospital, and was somewhat able to clamp down on corruption.
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