Virus

[Jackalope]

    Some observations from Middle Tennessee:
 
    Today we went on our first retail shopping excursion in several months.  I ordered some building materials from Lowes (a building material retail chain store) on- line, and had to go into the store to confirm the order.  It was Mother's Day with beautiful weather, and the store was packed with shoppers.  About 10% of the shoppers were wearing a mask and all of the Lowe's employees were wearing masks.  However some of the employees were wearing their mask over their mouths, with their noses fully exposed.  The cashiers were enclosed in plexiglass booths.  Shoppers seemed to be taking the social distancing thing seriously.

       They were out of stock of the main item that I needed(of course!), so we decided to take a ride to the next closest Lowes, about 30 miles away.  This second Lowes also had lots of customers, with about 50% wearing masks.  The employees there were all wearing their masks correctly.  I was in and out of the store within 10 minutes, with no one in line at the cashier, before or after my transaction.

        Being Mother's Day, we observed that most of the chain restaurants in the area had full parking lots.  We saw a Baptist Church with a full parking lot, they had just resumed services today according to a sign in front of the church.  Another church located a couple of doors down from our home has not resumed service yet, presumably because most of their congregation is elderly.  Road traffic seemed normal throughout the area.

     We saw a couple of kids birthday parties, held outdoors, complete with bouncy houses, etc.

     So in this part of Middle Tennessee, life seems normal.  We'll know better around Memorial Day, given the incubation period, whether Tennessee is actually overcoming this phase of the Chinese Virus.

[gadget99]

It is good to hear updates on how things are in different localities.

I have a bunch of friends and family living back in the states. Looking into the lock down in comparison between much of the US in relation to the UK I am amazed.

The UK lock down has been almost complete.

I get where some of my old Army buddies are coming from with concerns about civil liberties and such. But heck. The scale of the US lock down is minuscule in comparison.

Here are a few examples of what we have as a populace voluntarily for the most part been complying with.

1. Stay at home unless you are a key worker.
2. No unnecessary travel at all.
3. No gatherings at all.
4. You can leave home to do essential shopping and to exercise one a day.
5. When out you have to socially distance 6ft of separation. This is adhered to in all shops.
6. All social premises closed at the beginning of lock down and remain so. (Pubs, restaurants, hotels and such)
7. All non essential shops closed also. Clothing, appliance, gift and such shops remain closed.
8. If you want to get a taste of the scale. Go to a site like flightradar24 and look at the next to  nonexistent air travel in the UK compared to the US.

The list goes on.

Now with these measures. The medical system did not get overwhelmed. Stretched thin? Yes big time. But the peak was manageable. They are slowly starting to introduce relaxing measures this week. This is in concert with some new measures to monitor regions and cities for flare ups. Where flair ups occur they will tighten things down in those localities to keep it getting out of hand.

Before anyone stomps down and declares the UK as a police state now. Remember governments in democratic nations only govern by consent of the governed.

The British populace have a history of protesting violently when push to far. That is still the case.

What I do wish to point out. Is that the populace has really pulled together in this. Communities are closer and the old WWII spirit is back in a small way. Altruism and caring for those around you has become the norm.

Peace all.