Boris..intensive care..

The other issue for me is that listening to clinicians it is clear that Johnson will not be well enough to return to work for many weeks if not months.

The constitution needs tweaking to allow for a temporary leader with the same powers as a PM.

Whitewave yes I've read it and it's now repeated on social media. I too am waiting for it to be dismissed but I've learnt not to believe everything I read, especially the sensational headlines. Anyway let's hope so, we can only do what we have been instructed to do, the rest is in the lap of the gods, like everything else.

Feeling ill, upset, tearful? What in the world...?

Sorry to hear that gabriella one of your runs might sort you out?

PamelaJ1, that is good but rather late in the day. Better late than never. It's always a case of wrong priorities, then too little, too late.

WW2, hoping it's not as bad as predicted, of course, but I believe the real truth is that nobody knows - yet.

White - it’s a very worrying report obviously, but the figures have been disputed by UCL www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/07/uk-will-be-europes-worst-hit-by-coronavirus-study-predicts
Ultimately I suppose no-one knows. The herd immunity approach promoted initially by the Govt and the delayed lockdown (which is still not being adhered to by many) can’t have helped though.

That is what worries me SCJ. We went into lockdown late and there are still lots of people out. Italy is only just beginning to see the results of their lockdown and they are far stricter with it than we're being.

sirchen I think that is the biggest issue (herd immunity). It has certainly not helped, but we can only hope that the scientists have put a lid on that initial period of bad misjudgement. The extra beds being prepared in field type structures don’t fill me with confidence though.

It is easy to talk about huge figures, but each one represents a life, a family and devastation.

Yeah...funny, not.
I find it odd that Boris's hospitalisation is engendering feelings of being tearful, upset and ill in some GNers.
Some people get overly involved with people they don't know, somehow letting it affect their emotions. I wonder why.
Ready to get upset, crying all day, offended/affronted whatever, at the drop of a hat.
One can be concerned without all that.

The FT has a useful mapping system. The figures are only 'reported' cases though. The truth may be somewhat different.

www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest

That was to Whitewavemark2, who obvs tried to snip...without success.

Re the report that Britain may have one of the highest death tolls in Europe, bear in mind that we have the third highest population, nearly 68 million.
So a straight count compared with a country that has 24 million makes a good headline but is not necessarily meaningful.

GabriellaG54, how we react individually to this situation differs according to our personality, life experience and outlook.

I'm calm in a crisis. This is not the worst thing that's happened in my life. I can be detached and rational but concerned and interested.

I have a friend and a sister who are really freaked out by it.
They can't change the way they feel, however much I try to reassure them.

You’re right Gaga - it seems that too many think it won’t happen to them, with far too many excuses made about why they ‘need’ to go out.

Absolutely agree White, each figure represents a much loved family member or friend and these people are never coming back. This won’t be over until we have a vaccine, probably into next year - all we’re doing at the moment is containing it as best we can and spreading it out over many months to create healthcare capacity.

The special fabric for PPE is called tyvek and that is probably what is holding up manufacture. Surely the designer manufacturers are ready and waiting, I hope so

? no gabriella I genuinely misunderstood.

But getting back to your second post explaining what you meant.

I am not one who gets emotional over people I don’t know, and simply find it difficult to understand. It was just the same with Dianna.

I feel concern for anyone going through such a critical time, but feel no more for Johnson than anyone else I don’t know.

My concern is however for this leaderless country.

But saying all that, you know, everyone is different, that is what makes us all so interesting or frustrating or furious or happy (take your pick) so I would advise you to give everyone a break?. Let it go and relax

I watched a bit of GMB this morning and Linda Lusardi was on via video link and got very upset and tearful discussing her brush with death. She looks amazing for 61 and her husband is 51. She is obviously very healthy and they were both hospitalised and she, in particular, was extremely ill. It's true that people think it won't happen to them. We all need to be vigilant. I can get a bit OCD with it but it is scary.

craftyone tyvek is the ^brand name^it is polyethylene coated polypropylene. Under usual circumstances there can be a 5-10 day wait for orders to be delivered (Our business supplies safety clothing/products). I should imagine that the production companies are overwhelmed at the moment.

Re numbers of cases the Worldometer update is useful, updated daily.

Do we have a different model to follow than other European countries? I thought scientists were using similar modelling? The one we are following was to work out when the peak may occur and to flatten it so as not to completely overwhelm the NHS and adjust as events unfolded. According to that, I understood the peak has yet to arrive, later and not as high as if we had followed no restrictions.

France has by far the highest number of cases and deaths after Spain and Italy with a population about the equivalent of the UK.
Although Germany's death rare is lower, I read that they do not record COVID19 as cause of death if someone had an underlying condition, so their lower numbers could not be regarded as correct.

It is all unbearably tragic, whatever the numbers.
Numbers are people with loved ones.

yes exactly GG. Does tyvek come from abroad?

As someone with asthma (not badly, just the occasional wheeze with a cold etc) I'm pretty much resigned to being locked in for at least 3 months, if not longer. I'm a similar age (and shape!) to Boris and have no illusions about the effect C19 would have on me. I had flu a couple of years ago and was pretty out of it. I had to go to hospital once, to be put on a nebulizer. Fortunately, that was in Spain and I was seen, tested and treated and home within 2 hours.

In my (unpopular) opinion, the UK isn't being anywhere near strict enough and as a result, we're massively prolonging the lock-down AND hugely increasing deaths. Not to mention, as SCJ has said, the country wasted the long stretch of preparation time they had, also worsening the effect when it hit us.

I don't think I'm OCD. I take all the precautions I can and then I do my best to forget about C19 and just get on with living. As has been said on social media repeatedly, I'm not being called to fight a war. I'm sitting on my sofa.

if china had been open and truthful, then models would have been much more accurate. At the moment the timeline is far too short to have a great degree of accuracy. That country has a lot to answer for and while I am at it. Can anyone explain why the virus was so confined to a relatively small area in china, leaving billions of people in china unaffected whilst the whole world suffers the consequences of what started in china and became a rapid spread. Something very odd

Whitewave I don't think the kind of scaremongering they are doing is very useful at the moment.
I don't know if my post above would be of any interest to you.

However, better to be prepared and act accordingly.

We heard reports that France was introducing stringent regulations ; some on here compared us to France and found the UK lacking and were fearful for us. I was castigated on here when I told the story of the reporter I had seen live on TV from a small rural French town with people milling around in a market behind him, head to head chatting and a woman stall holder, then coughing near her produce.

Young French people living overseas relate quite different stories from their relatives back in France - people were out and about ignoring the rules and they are fearful for their older relatives back home in France.
The rapidly rising numbers of deaths would bear that out.
It is just that our peak may come later than theirs.

Whatever happens, it is a catastrophe.

We can only theorise, craftyone

Eglantine the Worldometer information gives the number of cases per head of population too.
I can't remember which poster linked it, I can't on this device, sorry.