Our local sobeys has had Lysol wipes in for the last week and a half now

Whew controversy averted I now know that if referring to the virus as Covid in French then I have to use the feminine la in front of it.For months, the people of France have faced an énigme.
Was Covid-19, the new coronavirus tearing across the globe, masculine or feminine? Grammatically speaking, that is. In practical terms, should the French use a "le" or a "la" before the disease's name?
Now, the group charged with preserving the French language has spoken. Covid-19, the Académie Française decided,is assuredly feminine, despite its increasingly common usage with the masculine article.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/16/world...rnd/index.html

Thanks for posting. Figure skating can restart, a week after ice show was supposed to happen But bodes well for ticket ice, and September (second wave notwithstanding)

yay hopefully they will soon appear in the outer reaches of the GTA 🤞

Went for a little drive, the lines to get into stores was so long, longest I have seen at any point in the last 3 months. And far less social distancing, at one covered bus stop there were 4-5 people huddled close together like usual times, didn't appear to be together or know one another, granted it is raining but still. In our building its becoming more difficult to stay away from people because most wont stay away and instead of standing back and letting you off the elevator they barge in or stand right next to it waiting so impossible to maintain any real distance.

If you asked people to play russian roulette they'd shy away and yet... very likely someone in this photo will die of the virus.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-52754039

Yes. I said to MrBEVS that if this stealthy deadly virus came with smelly suppurating purple and green pustules , then perhaps people would understand better and be less keen to get it or give it.

Fools.

Yeah….a couple of friends of mine in the UK have turned all American and are having rants that lockdown was a mistake and were in the worse recession for 300 years (quite where that statement came from , I have no idea, makes no sense) and lock down will cause more deaths than the virus….more deaths from normal flu… etc etc

It’s the dammed if you do, damned if you don’t scenario, its easy to make such comments in hind sight, Im pretty sure if there was no lockdown imposed, and they had lost loved ones and/or thousands were infected, with health service overwhelmed, they would be outrage then too…..what are the government doing, why didn’t they lock things down!! Etc etc.

We will never really know the “correct” action that should have been taken….. to be honest I think the only reason they are complaining is because its affects how they enjoy their lives, pubs and restaurants closed, flights grounded so no holidays, no music concerts. This is how a lot of the public react… it’s a selfish view point really, but we are guilty of it in varying degrees. Whether we like it or not, this is a very contagious virus, and a very umpredictable virus, we don’t know what it will do to us individually…it doesn’t just kill older people….and if the health did become overwhelmed it could be a lot more people dying as they couldn’t be treated.

I think the decision to lockdown in many countries was the right decision, and I also think it’s the right decision to slowly start to open up again… stick to toe in the water so to speak.. take it from there..

We do know. People in New Zealand and Korea are not dead. People in the UK are.

It may be that, even with an organized government, the UK could not have applied the same approach as those countries but being ineffective is different than being clueless. And I know, we're not supposed to discuss it here.

Obviously as my post implies I am in full agreement with lockdown. But there will always be outrage no matter what route is taken.

The problem the UK had was that it changed tactics, it was going to go with herd immunity then changed to lock down.... the damage was already done then. However as you say, its hard to compare the UK to the likes of New Zealand, the population if the UK is over 16 times that of New Zealand and Im estimating the NZ has a bigger geographical area. The UK should have locked down way earlier than it did....

I tend to think the 264 people in Korea who died and the 21 in NZ would say different. Granted those numbers are very low compared to other countries and yes in hindsight we can say we should have done this or that. I tend to think each countries leaders sought information as too which was the best approach to take but for whatever reasons elected not to take the same action as Korea and NZ.

I agree with a lot of that. But there are some strange things afoot in the UK. How, for example, does one read the daily whingeing in the Guardian, and the BTL comments, and reconcile that with pictures of London, for example, (which I am informed is a Guardian type "progressive" city) and crowds of people doing what they have always done. The government may have messed up by changing tactics, but the great British public need to bear some responsibility for their behaviour.

The other thing to note is that we are not even at half time in this things... who knows, when it is all over, what the NZ or UK position will be?

The thing I don't understand is, NOTHING has changed. There is still no cure & still no vaccine and yet people are going about their business like they are immune.

The only helpful preventative measure I see, is to wear a mask and social distance. How facking hard is it for people to do these two simple steps to prevent the spread? You want to go the beach, sure you can, but social distance. You want to go to food shopping or get your hair cut, sure you can, but wear a mask.

It's the Manchester Guardian so it seems a stretch to suggest that everyone in London would follow Arwa's blitherings to the letter.

Just reading that there were nine scenarios for school reopening examined by experts, with two in particular attracting support.
The current plan was apparently not among the nine looked at.

Is this an example of that recruitment policy of hiring “weirdos and misfits with odd skills” for jobs at Number 10?

How can it possibly be safe to have a haircut? The barber's disease leaking bits are a couple of inches from your face and have been right next to the face of very many other people. You may as well take a turn with Stormy Daniels.