So, who thinks their plans may change due to Coronavirus?

[Mottie]

Anyone on here been affected yet or think they may be changing their plans due to the virus? We were going to have a short break in Derbyshire starting Friday 13th - not sure yet - was waiting for wife to get holiday request approved so luckily not paid anything out thanks to the laziness of her line manager. Recently booked a holiday to Barcelona in early July - Airport parking, flights, bloody expensive hotel and transfers paid for. I think that one might be cancelled - if it is, hopefully my insurance will pay out. Wife is going with friends for a short break to Spain in June (was cancelled and rebooked from last year due to the storms and flooding they had) - that may be a no go too. I have a fly-ride Spanish motorcycle trip booked and paid for in October so hopefully the epidemic may have finished by then so assuming I don’t die of it, that should still be on. Oh, I was also on the point of buying a years gym membership but with all that sweat about, I think I’ll give that a miss for now and I won’t be taking a train to work either - motorcycle for me from now on no matter what the weather!

The government are talking of one in five of the working population being affected by it. I can imagine it may be more if they start shutting schools as many parents will have trouble finding someone to look after their kids if they work and will have to take time off.

How about you - is it looking to impact on any of your plans?

 

[stem]

I'm supposed to be going to the Canary Islands in just over one weeks time. I'm not too keen on the idea of sitting in a plane sharing recirculated air with over 100 other people, or spending my holiday quarantined in a hotel. However, as the foreign office haven't as yet advised against travel there, if I don't go, I will lose the money. At the moment, I haven't bought any euro's just in case the holiday is cancelled, meanwhile the exchange rate has dropped.

This is par for the course for me though; the night before a holiday in Turkey they had massive floods in Bodrum [Sept 2015] and the hotel was flooded, but the flight still operated, because it was a 'package' I was able to get an immediate full refund and book something else.

On another occasion in 2010 it was touch and go for a holiday in Maderia. Floods had devastated Funchal. We did go this time, but then got stuck there because a volcano in Iceland spewed out ash clouds that grounded flights for several days. Thomson put us in a 5 star hotel and looked after us brilliantly. Those that had made their own scheduled flight arrangements were given a voucher by the airline, told to find their own accommodation each night, and return to the airport every morning to wait in case there was a flight.

The third occasion involved a breakdown of a plane in Mexico, and a fourth when on a coach holiday, a strike at Dover kept me stranded in Spain (both are a long story and I've written too much already)

So take two lessons from this:

1) Book travel as a package it's well worth it when things go wrong.

2) Don't take your holidays when I do

Joking aside though. Let's put this in perspective, loosing a holiday isn't that important. Coronavirus is something else. People are dying, and that will change a lot of future plans

 

[conny]

I work at a holiday village so potentially, each day I am at work, coming into contact with hundreds if not thousands of people.
If it happens it happens. Not a lot I can do except make sure I keep as clean as possible and stay away from someone who is coughing/sneezing.
As I wear nitrile gloves in my work I just need to wash more frequently between glove changes.

 

[JP_]

Maybe. I have a business conference in Brighton next month, usually around 3000 people from all over the world crammed into a few rooms.
Might not be able to avoid it, but might be pickier about the number of talks I attend ...

 

[JohnD]

I work at a holiday village so potentially, each day I am at work, coming into contact with hundreds if not thousands of people.

You'll probably be OK if you take sensible precautions like not being a smoker, not being a man, and being aged under 20.

 

[Ihavenojob]

I work at a holiday village so potentially, each day I am at work, coming into contact with hundreds if not thousands of people.
If it happens it happens. Not a lot I can do except make sure I keep as clean as possible and stay away from someone who is coughing/sneezing.
As I wear nitrile gloves in my work I just need to wash more frequently between glove changes.

Good thing with the gloves, as the virus can live on surfaces for hours or even days.
https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses

 

[motorbiking]

Doing a lot more Zoom video conferences and washing hands a bit more. Everywhere has run out of hand gel, so we are using 12% volume Peroxide diluted to 20 vol (6%) as its supposed to be good at killing s**t.

 

[Ian H]

I’m still getting my sex pond.

 

[transam]

I am. Changing nothing.

Onwards and upwards

 

[transam]

Daily telegraph editorial 29 Feb

Controlling panic is almost as important as fighting the discease
How ever much government emphasises calm there is always some frightening detail to be found on the Internet

Daily telegraph front page 29 Feb

Cironovirus your essential guide how to self isolate

an out break could leave one in ten in hospital

Mp hints at plans for Hyde Park mourge

 

[Mottie]

I’m still getting my sex pond.

A positive breeding ground for all sorts. Just don’t invite your Chinese neighbour round to share it especially if he’s got a sore throat and a cough!

 

[conny]

You'll probably be OK if you take sensible precautions like not being a smoker, not being a man, and being aged under 20.

Rules me out on all counts then! I'm a man, smoke and juuuust over 20! (in my dreams on that last one. LOL)

 

[JohnD]

women like to sneer at man-flu, but


"...The details of the 99 coronavirus patients admitted to a Wuhan hospital were written up, as protocol demands, without fanfare: “The average age of the patients was 55.5 years, including 67 men and 32 women,” said a Lancet paper published last month, which reported 11 deaths. It is an eye-catching discrepancy.

A picture is emerging of 2019-nCoV as a novel pathogen that disproportionately affects older men, particularly those with existing illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes. A similar pattern can be found in the statistics on Sars, which caused about 780 deaths nearly two decades ago..."

"...Some scientists are now convinced that these sex differences in clinical data reflect a genuine male vulnerability to coronaviruses, rather than a bias in exposure..."


"...Drilling down into the data, though, reveals that sex matters. One analysis of about 1,800 Sars patients showed a death rate for men of 22 per cent, compared with 13 per cent for women.

A 2019 study of 229 Mers patients showed it killed 32 per cent of men compared with 26 per cent of women..."

"...Females are also more prone to autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, in which the body attacks itself. This might be because women carry two X chromosomes (the X chromosome contains immunity-related genes, among others). From an evolutionary point of view, an easily triggered immune response might be connected to childbearing; one theory is that while some parts of the female immune system are dialled down to avoid rejecting the foetus, other parts step up to compensate..."


https://www.ft.com/content/a32e62b4-4be9-11ea-95a0-43d18ec715f5

 

[Ian H]

A positive breeding ground for all sorts. Just don’t invite your Chinese neighbour round to share it especially if he’s got a sore throat and a cough!

He would have a sore throat after being in there with me for a bit

 

[Ian H]

I’m sure it’s the Russians trying to destroy the Chinese economy.