General Chat

'End of the world' by Herbert W Armstrong (1892-1986) in ‘Mystery Of The Ages‘:

Mankind is nearing the end of his rope. Today man’s world is reeling on its last legs. Wars, violence, destruction & terrorism engulf the entire world. Half the world exists in ignorance, illiteracy, poverty, living in filth & squalor.

The developed half is sick with ill-health, disease, mental stress, fear & frustration, wracked with crime, alcoholism, drug abuse, perverted & misused sex, broken homes & hopelessness.

Dermot, could probably go back further than that, it is getting very Biblical with Floods and plague. :-( :-(

We have at least 18 cases here in my area albeit a very big area. I've just been to do a regular grocery shop and no sign of stockpiling or panic if anything the shops were quiet. I'm sure the local Costco is full of panic buyers though :-)

We're washing our hands more than usual, cleaning our phones after being outside etc etc there's not much more you can do. The groceries I bought can I swear there's no germs on each item...no of course not so wash your hands right before you eat just regular soap works. When the kids are using the bus/train they're washing their hands even more, and the authorities are cleaning them more than usual. You have to live your life people just be sensible about what you're doing each day. With SARS I think we had something like 40odd deaths so far none with this.

It's a good job said person is not around today Dermot

" Armstrong placed much emphasis on faith in God for healing and taught against the medical practice, except in the case of "repair" (setting of broken bones, cleansing of wounds, etc.). Medical intervention was consequently frowned-upon, there were consequently numerous controversial incidents involving death of members or member's children due to lack of medical attention"

I found it surprising to realize that the US has only just got serious about this ............... after 99 presumptive cases reported, and 6 deaths in 3 days (4 yesterday alone) in the Seattle area of Washington State.

Canada has done many more tests of possible cases than the US has done, with a much smaller population.

Think about this if you thinking of going to Florida for half term or anywhere else in the US.

Trump wants a vaccine in 4-6 weeks, was corrected in public by the country's senior virologists who told him "1 year at least".


We're just told to be careful and take notice ........... 29 cases now in Canada, 8 or 9 in BC.

Most of the cases in BC are in the Greater Vancouver area, and seem to be connected either to China or now Iran.


OH does our grocery shopping, he said there was {EDIT ~9 pm:- oops! should read .... NOT much sign of] much sign of people stocking up, although we did buy a couple of extra loaves of my 2 types of bread (1 of each kind) to put in the freezer, but that was more because they were in the store and they are often sold out anyway (both are gluten-free breads).


The advice, as with Caroline, is masks are rally no use, wash your hands frequently, cough or sneeze into your elbow, and use common sense!

Interesting that you should mention Florida and half-term, Sylvia.

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/health/coronavirus-crisis-state-government-bans-students-public-servants-from-overseas-travel-ng-b881479297z

Guy in our local B&Q merchants bought their entire stock of 30 boxes of face masks today with the intention of flogging them off at an exhorbitant price.

Surely the store should have limited customers to an amount suitable for a family ?

Allan ..... that is interesting.

I emailed my daughter yesterday evening .............. it's Spring Break next week in her province, and the 3 of them are going to Florida for 10 days.

Son-i-l's parents winter down there so they will stay with them, but also move into a hotel near DisneyWorld for 3 days and "do" DisneyWorld.

They don't have TV or radio in the house 'cos s-i-l hates having to listen to news. Daughter does keep up-to-date on her iPhone or tablet, so she is aware and watching ...............

and hoping that the jinx doesn't strike again for her.

We planned on taking her to Disneyland when she was about 9 (same age as grandson), only to have to cancel at the last minute because there was a gas (petrol) crisis, with people fighting (guns) in LA and area. The person we were going to stay with advised us not to go, even he was scared to go out.

We never managed it again, so she missed out on a Disney trip.

Now she's hoping it won't happen a second time!!

Brian ..............

that is awful!

But there area always people who will take advantage.

I was in a drug store last Tuesday, and they had big signs saying limit of 2 packs per person of gloves, masks, etc.

There should be limits on how much you can buy of things like that for sure.

So our count has gone up to 20 in this area but to put it in scale there's nearly 6 Million people in this area....

We are fortunate so far in WA. there is one confirmed case and one death. Both were passengers on the Diamond Princess who were evacuated back to Oz.

On a lighter note, or perhaps not, I'm wondering what advice the Freemasons' Grand Lodge will offer re shaking of hands. We are also coming into the season of Installations. I may pass on attending those :-D

There was something on TV last night, men passing each other on a stage to get to the microphone, some sort of press conference ........ and the men were touching forearm to forearm

Then there were photos online of men in China feet touching feet.

Something new for you, Allan :-D

Or air hand shakes...not sure if rolled up trousers legs will make any different to catching the virus :-)

I suppose that using feet instead of hands would defeet the whole process :-D :-D

'Hand Shakes' - no need to worry about this very rare activity in the UK. ;-)

Your WA government is as bad as Britains.

One person saying DON'T shake hands and the other person saying SHAKE HANDS

People will do what they want.

Should the parliaments around the world be shut down?

In the House of Commons the members sit soooo close together all they need is one person attending with Coronavirus and they will all go down with it. ;-)

"If the govt remains determined in its "wash your hands and carry on" "

Well quite frankly that is really the only approach that and if you're sick stay home and phone the authorities for advice....quite what else Rollo thinks is needed is beyond me!
Wash your hands preferably with soap and water and do it correctly and don't touch your face.....but then what do we know we only lived through SARS.

It's not just what Rollo thinks, it's the advice given by what ever his name was from the WHO, earlier on our news, that the "wash your hands" strategy, will NOT be enough with the expected increase in cases. It has jumped from 51 to 90 cases today.

Closing down large events/schools/workplaces etc may be, and is an option.

I should imagine he knows rather more than the rest of us.

The latest advice from our Provincial Health Officer is to ..................

take it easy, don't panic, avoid crowded places if possible, be sensible, stay home if you are sick and call the health line for information and help, self-isolate for 14 days if you have just returned from any of the affected areas, don't stockpile food and goods because it is sufficient to have enough for about 1 week at the moment

Her best advice was on how to wash your hands .........

......... wash your hands and face frequently, washing your hands as if you had been chopping jalapenos and need to change your contact lens

In other words .......... a thorough soap and hot water wash, scrubbing under nails, between fingers, etc, followed by a thorough rinsing.

One suggestion taught to small children in the past has been to wash your hands for the length of time it takes to sing Happy Birthday.


It does no good to go all doom and gloom .......... we KNOW this is survivable if common sense precautions are taken.

Canada survived the SARS epidemic, and learnt from it. We survived the H1N1 and used the lessons learnt from SARS.

All the advice we are being given now, and the preparations that are IN PLACE at hospitals, care homes, etc are all set in well-planned documents based on what was learnt from SARS and H1N1

Your problem in the UK is the same as in the USA and certain other countries ............... your authorities didn't get moving fast enough.

The UK allowed around 2000 people to enter the country in late January/early February without any testing, or providing them with information, even though the authorities KNEW they had come from the epidemic centre in China. I know it was before it was declared an epidemic, but some countries, including Canada WERE checking arrivals at airports, and insisting on self-isolation and steps to be taken if a traveller became sick after entering the country.

What is the result?

So far Canada has not had anyone come down with coronavirus who has not been in close contact with someone who has returned from China or Iran ......... and hopefully that will continue.

The UK has lots of "unknown" contacts.