Journal into the unknown…(6)

Friday 20th March

Perchance to dream – that would be nice!

I had a really bad night last night. I couldn’t sleep and when I did drop off it was only for an hour or so. I can cope and I often function on less than three hours sleep, but I’m sure it is not healthy. Looking at the advice about mental wellbeing in these troubled times, they all seem to feature one thing in particular. Get plenty of sleep. What they don’t do is tell you how to do it. Well, they do, but I’ve not yet found anything that works for me. Occasionally, I go through a spell where I get maybe five hours sleep for a few nights in a row, but I can’t spot any common theme, rhyme, or reason.

Oh well, I’ve suffered from this problem for as long as I can remember, and it is always worse if I feel anxious. So being confined to barracks while the world goes to shit shouldn’t be causing me any problems, should it?

Anyway, enough of my whinging. What of the world this morning, I thought?

It seems as though this is the second consecutive day that China has reported no new domestic cases. Even if they are gilding the lily a little, that still has to be good news. There is all sorts of talk about treatments and vaccines, most of it Trumpish tosh, I suspect, but you never know.

The Government is turning out piecemeal bits of advice and guidance like confetti. Maybe it will all hang together, but given their track record…..?

In reality, there’s not a lot of positive stuff actually happening – this morning it all seems to be “jam tomorrow”. Certainly not a lot of that in the shops at the moment either, and what there is will be spread pretty thinly! Maybe things will pick up this afternoon.

Lots of young kids are no doubt enjoying a nice long weekend as the schools are closed, but I wonder how long that will last, as frazzled parents have to deal with even more frazzled kids and the TV channels revert to the worst of their school holiday, wall-to-wall, crap output that they so love.

A few small positives

I have been heartened by extensions to the use of concessionary bus passes locally, to the likes of the Supermarkets, the mobile phone companies making token offers, and Banks trying to take some sensible steps. OK, these may be based upon self-interest, but it does seem like enlightened self-interest to me.

The many community-led groups that have sprung up are making a difference in my area and that is great to see. My sister-in-law and her partner have done a bit of vital shopping for us and a neighbour picked up some milk for us through our apartment block WhatsApp group, so some of those links, both familial and neighbourly, seem to be working. I just wonder what will happen if/when things are tightened up or more people become infected and cannot help.

We remain pretty comfortable for the time being but there must be many folk out there who are truly bewildered by all this and who just don’t know where to turn. They need real, organised help and they need it now, not next week. A job for government there, I think. Time for them to stop playing to the crowd and, dare I say it, GET THINGS DONE!

However, the numbers say it all, or they would if anyone published them accurately and reliably

I’ve decided to drop the table of statistics that I was trying to build. I’m still building the numbers where I can but the input from official sources is becoming more patchy as it gets worse. Just saying, that’s all.

What I will do where I can, is to publish the days cumulative and increase figures where Government figures are available or, where they are not, I’ll try to fill any gaps. Official figures will be in bold type and any estimates will not be highlighted.

So, for example, figures published by HMG late on 20/3 show for the situation at 09.00 on 20/9:

Tested: 66976, Found positive: 3983, Deaths: 177, New Cases: 714

I believe this indicates a total increase in tests carried out of 10,755 between 09.00 on 17/3 and 09.00 20/03. It also seems to represent an increase in confirmed cases of 1357 and an increase in deaths of 73 over the same period.

The regular government update report no longer mentions a 2.00pm deadline and no longer reports the number of deaths in a timely fashion.

The most disappointing news of the day as far I have been concerned today, is to discover that my fears about the duplicity of the government were not at all unfounded, and that if they pronounce something, it is almost certain to be worth a shedload of scepticism. There are widespread reports circulating in mainstream media (not funny websites) that the Government’s own advisory group came to a consensus view yesterday that, rather than “turning the tide” in 12 weeks, a more sensible prediction would be 12 months. Perhaps the PM just inadvertently misspoke, to use a well-worn phrase in politics these days. I think it means, I lied and got caught out.

Après le deluge

After a period of drought, you’d expect a bit of a flood. Well, we would around these parts of West Yorkshire, and todays late afternoon/ early evening press conference threw out a whole host of measures that really look like actions, on supporting workers and employment, closing pubs, clubs, etc, closing schools, and so on. Big ideas, that deserve to be given a chance to work.

They really do need to be implemented though and not just talked about.

Time will tell but fingers crossed. This certainly looks better than the waffle that the PM is still promulgating about getting on top of things very quickly.

But with the Territorials being gathered and soldiers on horseback being drilled in plain sight at Woolwich who knows what’s coming next.

Must dig out an old album this evening – maybe Don McLean’s – Scary, Scary, Night!