[Info-vax] [Totally OT] Covid-19, was: Re: Creating an open source version of VMS, was: Re: OpenVMS Hobbyist Notification

[Simon Clubley]

On 2020-03-13, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
> On 3/13/2020 9:17 AM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>> 
>> Here in Northern England in the UK, there's a lot of low-level concern
>> but not a massive amount of panic buying yet (apart from the various
>> hand gels). There is some concern that the UK government is not reacting
>> strongly enough or quickly enough yet and there's a real feeling that
>> things could escalate out of control over the coming weeks due to that.
>> 
>> How are things in your part of the planet ?
>
> I follow US, Denmark, Poland and Italy pretty close.
>
> And the pictures seems very similar across:
>
> * Most orgs are ordering IT people and other "paper pushers" to
>    work from home
> * Many schools and universities are closed
> * Many places has put restrictions on public gatherings
>    prohibiting either >1000 or >100 people

The UK government hasn't started to implement proper "social distancing"
measures yet and that's starting to make some people nervous because the
argument is that by the time it becomes _really_ obvious such measures
are required then the effectiveness of such measures may be reduced if
only implemented at that time.

> * Travel had come to a total standstill: some countries
>    does not allow entry, companies are cancelling business
>    travel, airlines are cancelling flights, people do not
>    want to travel
> * politicians like to go on TV and pretend they can control
>    the situation
> * people are stocking up on supplies, but true panic is
>    rare
>

Outside of the hand gels, I've seen some small bits of panic buying
but I've not yet seen anything like what you see in TV reports from
the US when a hurricane is about to hit.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.