faustus wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 2:28 pm On bog roll - we also needed some and the only stuff left was the recycled stuff we normally get, so it's stockpiling to luxuriously soft and strong standards around here...

It is weird how people have singled out bog roll as the must have item. Don't they know each sheet has 2 sides* so that doubles the usage. I can see that if you are at home for 2 weeks you'd need to have enough to get through but how many sheets do they use at a time?

I had good old fashioned normal flu over Christmas a couple of years back. I spent 5 days either in bed or laid on the sofa watching non-stop episodes of Railroad Alaska. I don't recall eating much over those 5 days and I would only have needed a handful of sheets of loo roll to have got through them.

* information provided by Stu in an old thread

My parents are in their 80s and both have some pretty serious health issues. They've pulled the plug on any sort of social interaction, are having their groceries delivered in bulk and have stocked up for three months

Frankly, they're terrified and I don't blame them. We're all seemingly relaxed about the reports that the death rate is low in the young and well ... but what about the old and infirm.

No more jokes please. This is serious.

the elderly may be the greatest risk but the overwhelming majority of those infected, in that ge group, will still survive - that is from the chief medial officer for NHS england said to reassure you not crticise your concerns

My parents are in their mid 80's. They live in the west of Ireland and there's no confirmed cases there yet. The virus is already spreading through untraceable contact, so in effect it's already out of control. It's now a matter of when, not if.

The whole thing is very bad news.

No more jokes please. This is serious.

I agree, have parents in a similar position as many of us will have. I'm not avoiding travel and risk situations for my own health concerns but for the ability to help them w/o being a risk (as far as it's possible to know for sure). But we still make jokes about some of this which I don't think it undermines more serious concerns. Hope none of my flippant comments have been taken that way, apologies if so.

+1 to what James said.

My parents are old, knackered and don't look after themselves (and my dad has respiratory issues).

Many other friends and relatives who're in high risk positions too.

But.....I think being able to chuckle in the face of death is a very positive trait.

Though totally understandable that person X doesn't feel the same way or feel like joking about these things.

No wrong answers as long as we're all sensitive to each other and follow the 'don't be a dick' general rule

I'm fairly sure I'm next in line to get it.

I live metres over the border from Northern Italy with a massive (until now) influx of Italian ski traffic on a daily basis, with my back issues I've been back/forth countless times to the doctors, physio and multiple hospitals in the last month and finally the community here is so international that's it's kind of odd that there's not been a local outbreak yet.

Just for the record I'll be staying put if/when self/enforced-quarantine is in place - I'll manage more enforced inside time on top of most of the last six weeks

But until then I'm popping out for a quick, gentle back healing tootle on the bike (before stopping off at the supermarché for toilet roll and fisticuffs).

(before stopping off at the supermarché for toilet roll and fisticuffs).

Can't you all just use snow for a while yet, to prolong the loo roll stocks?

jameso wrote: ↑Wed Mar 11, 2020 11:02 am

No more jokes please. This is serious.

I agree, have parents in a similar position as many of us will have. I'm not avoiding travel and risk situations for my own health concerns but for the ability to help them w/o being a risk (as far as it's possible to know for sure). But we still make jokes about some of this which I don't think it undermines more serious concerns. Hope none of my flippant comments have been taken that way, apologies if so.

My Mum has terminal lung cancer and is chair bound requiring 3 unavoidable carer visits a day. Probably the UK's most "at risk" individual ever.

I take the piss out of her on many occasions and Coronavirus gives me even more material. Her life would be even more crap without the odd injection of humour. It's rare to see humour with malice. Don't think there is any malice on this thread

I must admit i have been pretty flippant about it especially living in Norfolk with no cases yet and working in a small office of 14, especially when i saw a guy last night coming out of Tesco with 2 slabs of coke in cans, a whole cardboard tray of Pot Noodles, 2 slabs of Carling, beans, soup and the rest of his trolley covered in toilet roll.

But i kinda had a moment of sobriety yesterday, i have a 10 year old daughter with T1 diabetes, and had an email from Diabetes UK stating that of the chinese deaths, it would appear 19% were diabetics and a large number in Italy too, it kinda becomes a little more real then. So i have cancelled trips to London and elsewhere for work and anything else "non-essential". I think you can be cautious without being daft.

One of our guys has a liver condition. He gets the at risk messages from the NHS. We’ve told him to work at home forever until it is gone.

2 slabs of coke in cans, a whole cardboard tray of Pot Noodles, 2 slabs of Carling, beans, soup and the rest of his trolley covered in toilet roll.

Amusing disconnect between risk of virus vs risk of crap diet/lifestyle ..

Dave, I thought about your mum not long ago when the TNR postcards started coming in. My OH had a moment when she saw a few looked like they were from Italy, like how long they needed to be left on the mat before I picked them up

My concern is also rising a bit. Partly because work is taking it a lot more seriously, but mainly because our baby is due in 6 weeks and we'll be in Royal Berks hospital near/bit after the expected peak. Obviously the hospital will have high bio-security, but it's an unwelcome risk at what is a fairly all-consuming time!

Hopefully on a flight back home tonight and then facing 14 days of self isolation.
Sure I’ll be fine as I’m in a low risk group, but it’s concerns for others who aren’t that fortunate that make me less flippant than I may have been before.

Having seen things first hand over here I’d be getting prepared for the whole of the UK to be in lockdown within the next few weeks, if things follow on the same trends as below:


Again I’ll be ok as I can work from home, and work are quite generous with regards to sickness, but many others will have it harder.