The Thin End

Following the PMs address this Sunday.  I have found no need to alter my earlier assumption that "the government strategy is to not have a strategy." I have come to the conclusion that the government doesn't have a strategy for easing lockdown and we, the public, are going to make it up as we go along. So, I hope you all have the appropriate skills to consider the risks. Why did the Prime Minister not make a statement earlier? He has added only confusion, where once we had clarity.  They are attempting to come out of lockdown by stealth, without testing, so we have no idea where the virus is. We have, instead, a vague ambition to increase testing. Meanwhile we will all be at risk if people are going out more and going back to work. The message was that we should stay at home and socially distance to 'save the NHS'. The truth of that is that it wasn't about saving lives, which is why initially the figures we were given didn't include deaths in care homes...

The virus vector for COVID-19 pandemic is a novel zoonotic coronavirus,  SARS-CoV-2,  most likely originating from bats.  One problem in combating the virus is that we know so little about it.  We don't know, for example, whether any immunity developed in humans will last, or how long it will last.  Nor do we know to what extent it jumps from species to species.  Is it possible that our livestock, or our domestic pets,  will become infected?   Whether SARS-CoV-2 can also infect other animal species is being investigated by various research institutes worldwide. The Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) started infection studies in pigs, chickens, fruit bats, and ferrets several weeks ago.  First results show that fruit bats and ferrets are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, whereas pigs and chickens are not. The susceptibility of ferrets in particular is an important finding, as they could be used as model animals for human infection...