Some numbers from Johns Hopkins University database:

145,00+ cases worldwide
over 5000 deaths
nearly 72,000 recovered

Source:
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

EDIT: If we look at cases against population, Norway is number 2, only Italy has more.

Yup, we're among the most infected. Lockdown started last week.

But hey.. at least the gasoline is cheap! I just filled my tank for $1.5 a liter.

Here in Spain seems the end of world. Government has stabled the State of Alarm, only supermarkets and pharmacists are open. People buying food and toilet paper. Last week all was party women and now all closed and virus cases increases a 20 % every day. A lot of irresponsability by all of them.

Ha, UK doesn't know more than the rest of the Europe. They just chose another strategy.

Scientists are twitching over herd immunity and most governments chooses to not inform, as herd immunity doesn't seem to work on every virus, and even vaccines have up to 10% failrate. With the sheer number of virus strains it's nearly impossible to know excatly.

Denmark's government tried getting emergency-power (sounds familiar, right?) to literally break into peoples homes if there was ANY hints about sickness... possible to force-vaccinate people down the road. Luckily they didn't get it.

That said, I'm not against vaccines in principle, I just think there's too much politics and money involved (Norway was caught buying an inferior vaccine for "common cold" a few years back, and some still got sick (including my grand-parents, but it was heavily downplayed).

Yes, and we can look forward to some seriously low power bills (hopefully) thanks to much rain, and massive amounts of snow in the mountains this winter. :D

EDIT: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/herd-immunity
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/herd-immunity/

This reminds me of Mass Effect 3's opening.....the council/humanity had 2 games worth of time to prepare, and did nothing, then got caught with their pants down & suffered for it.

(Heck, even IN ME3 they still whiled away on the citadel/etc relaxing/ignoring while everything else crumbled in the galaxy around them)

Yes, like with covid it would scr*w a bunch of people anyways a sit's so bad.....but a lot could've likely been done to lessen it's effects with proper measures done early enough.

Like how officials(not just govt) and others said 14 or so days was good enough quarantine(likely so they could clear beds faster & bump up the recovered figures) and then they found some cases where some had it in their systems for much longer.....assuming too much.
============================================

The problem with this is all those with compromised/destroyed immune systems....people with HIV/AIDS and other such diseases/etc that weaken/obliterate the immune system, if they get this, likely won't survive it.

Agreed....that's why we should always(imo) err on the side of caution and not underestimate it.

(Was also gonna post a clip from V for Vendetta but cannot find one atm)

(To all: Clip above is YT video with sound)

Side note: Did you(or anyone else) hear that the founder/owner of Amazon was/is trying to make a vaccine against the common cold?

Midwest update: they are arresting people in the parking lots on suspected purchases to price gouge. Limits on amount of types of food you can buy.

that said if you can afford the high end grocers they are fully stocked at a premium price. Class dependency allows the middle class to weather the storm unphased while lower class and poverty quite literally are fighting for food.

kids in dorms are being evicted, fast food places are closing down, major grocery chains are prepping to "potentially" close down, its interesting out here.

Those who are gouging are being d*ches.

That said, I hope they are just letting them go eventually with fines, as they should really keep the cells clear for more serious offenders else they might run out of room if this keeps up.

I wonder if any of them will be nice(or use this as a way to get business) and lower prices a bit store wide during all this.

Sounds like it's getting hairy out there....I hope you stay well and safe through all this.

I think if you read various reports from the UK, you will see that...

+ the UK has -- like many other countries -- been woefully behind in preparing for such a pandemic

+ they are seeing that containment -- using earlier European examples -- is physically impossible and at this time is a misuse of resources.

+ with containment being impossible, they have to pivot to simply trying to slow the virus' through means such as self-isolation / quarantine (which has shown promise in some parts of Italy where the spread became much more manageable by local medical resources)

+ the truly terrible aspect of any disaster is triage. And while the current UK strategy of trying to slow the spread makes sense in the UK's current position...

... it also shows...

... JUST HOW WOEFULLY INADEQUATE THE UK's PREPARATION FOR SUCH A PANDEMIC IS. WHILE TRIAGE IS INEVITABLE IN DISASTERS, THE FACT THAT IT IS BEING FLOATED AS AN "UNOFFICIAL" NATION-WIDE STRATEGY WOULD SEEM TO BE THE UK SAYING "WE _____ED UP."

+ the "herd immunity" theory is probably not applicable to COVID-19. In fact the WHO is now communicating as much to the UK.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/uks-herd-immunity-approach-to-tackling-coronavirus-questioned-by-world-health-organisation/ar-BB11bxt6

IMHO the UK's current strategy seems like calling in a strike "Danger Close"... and that's not particularly encouraging.

I think a couple things while I've been reading this thread:

1) No country yet has had a particularly good response to COVID-19 (although Korea has probably been the best). That would suggest that countries -- although having ample warning over the years of just such an issue -- chose not to take those warnings seriously. Going forward there should be a serious conversation on "why?"

2) Hoarding has come less from "bad" people as much as from scared people. If our governments were providing clear guidance alongside reasonable strategies, hoarding would be a minimal issue. But hoarding grows as official messaging contradicts and government strategies seem chaotic. In essence, hoarding is more the effect than the cause.

Don't forget Taiwan that has handled it a hell of a lot better and with good efficiency, for they had a hard lesson to learn a few years back. They didn't want to get caught with their pants down again.

You are correct. I'd overlooked Taiwan. Seems that was a mistake.

A must-read IMHO:

https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-taiwan-case-study-rapid-response-containment-2020-3

Don't beat yourself up, I've only myself found out recently by sniffing around the Web on who truly were those best prepared for another big nasty to fall upon us. ;-)

Not beating myself up. ;P

Very glad you mentioned Taiwan though!!!!!

It would seem Taiwan and Korea took SARS to heart and developed holistic strategies.

Pleasure. Holistic or logistic? ;-) If the latter, glad am not the only one messing up because of not enough sleep, I keep piling them up today! :-D