@whatsthepoint: Please be careful with the political commentary. It would be good to use the Edit or Delete button on your past few posts.
Back on March 1st, my sister’s fiancee called up a cruise line where they’d planned a southern European honeymoon cruise in June. He had quite a struggle. Basically he felt that the pandemic was going to cause cancellations across the board on vacation travel for more than half the year, so he wanted to cancel & get a refund. They were hesitant to do it, claiming they’d have to fine him like $1,500 because he was a few days over the cancellation time limit. They suggested he not cancel and wait to see how it plays out. Well, he refused to do that. Because he has dealt with cruise lines many times before (it’s basically the only kind of vacation he takes if it’s more than 5 days off), he suspected that if he waits and there is a mass cancellation, he may not get his money back for a very long time. And… he wanted to plan a different honeymoon vacation with that money. Well, he got it knocked down to $500. Next, the airline… I don’t know how he resolved it, but that was another battle he had to undertake.
I have to wonder if cruise rates will go up after this pandemic is over, or if they’ll be heavily discounted due to people fearing cruises for their close-contact nature…
Now I know Spanish!
@Th558: Please go back and delete your last post here:
General reminder:
Please keep in mind that political discussions and divisive comments are strictly prohibited in all areas of BLF, including off-topic discussions. BLF is fortunate to have a large international audience, and one way to make everyone feel welcome is by completely avoiding politics and nationalism.
Yep! Your going to disappoint all the doom and gloomers that see the end of the world. Just a couple of years back around 80,000 died in the US alone during the flu season. It happens and will happen again. Why this flu is different only the msm knows! https://www.usnews.com/news/health-care-news/articles/2018-09-27/cdc-80-000-people-died-of-flu-complications-last-season-in-us
Hahaha, this killed me.
For #1 the first thing I think of is “Fresh paint, don’t touch!” 
I haven’t read all 1,600 posts in this thread, but if the one you are referring to makes a political statement then yes, it’s out of line. Report it, and move on. Don’t quote it, and don’t further discuss it.
And just to be clear, I don’t have a policy for or against China, or the United States, or any other country for that matter. Users from all countries are welcome here as long as they follow the rules, whereas those who willfully refuse to follow the BLF Rules and insist on fomenting political/nationalistic discussions are not.
It is neither. Several hospitals in the US, being hit with shortages of personal protection equipment have been pondering how to make best use of their ppe. They may have to make decisions on this as gear runs lower.
@brad Please drop the subject and delete your posts on this page of the thread.
Edit: Thank you very much for quickly complying.
Coronavirus Rhapsody is awesome! I hope the creators don’t get sued by Queen. I kinda think it’s really a Public Service Announcement.
I think that’s what Vanilla Ice told the judge. It did not work out for him.
well,here in Slovakia we have some news-corona positive patients in home isolation carantena will be followed by their cell phones…To get the control over them…Very controversial step,but probably it can help…Many stupid people moved to Italy for skiing….I cant understand it.
But i have a question for everybody in this thread-what do you think?When this pandemic will be finally over,how will be our world change?
Or,will change anything?Or just measuring temperature on the airports?
Or is there anything deeper we have to change in our lives??Philosophical thoughts for my another single evening….
The UK no longer considers this virus to be a high consequence infectious disease. They’ve downgraded it based on the most current information available.
gov.uk
A meta-analysis of the data, posted on CEBM, has been used to estimate an infection fatality rate of 0.2% or less.
This will be the most defining and drastic event of the decade/generation (hopefully nothing worse comes along anyway). Similar to how the Great Depression, WWII, Vietnam/Cold war and social movements and 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan/Iraq in 2000s were for previous generations of Americans. The economic, logisitcal and political ramifications are massive.
I doubt international/air travel will be affected nearly as much as when security was massively increased due to terrorism/drugs, but that depends entirely on how soon we get a vaccine and how effective it is.
I am still so thankful that children are relatively unaffected by COVID-19 and that Corona-type viruses generally don’t mutate as quickly as something like influenza. After the tragedies of Zika virus what a relief that the very young will be relatively safe.
They are basically saying it's just the flu. Gives more credence to the many experts that were stating the world has over reacted to this virus. In order to save face, most countries are probably going to drag this out a little more, look red faced in the mirror and then move on with everything.
This is “funny” to see…
Looking to the “consideration” about Covid-19 VS the definition and classification of HCID…
And looking to the “rankings” (’cause everything today is about rankings…) where UK is the 9th country with most infected and the 6th with most deaths…
And looking to the measures taken after the 19th March, when that Guidance was posted.
It confuses me!…
Well, it’s not like they can venture out in public and leave their phones at home.
Oh, wait…
Ohhhhh, boy. No way to answer that without getting “political”.
Very short reply, then I’m out. Massive grab for power and control by The Authorities™. Red or blue, it makes zero difference. (9/11, school shootings, pandemic, any “crisis” will lead down the same road.)
Given the push for a “cashless society”, expect there to be demonisation of “dirty filthy cash”, and moves to ban it. Before, “only criminals insist on the privacy of cash”, but now, it’s a “public health issue”.
Expect less privacy of your personal medical records. Bad enough everything you do or have done, medically, ends up recorded at the MIB (Medical Information Bureau), now, more and more “agencies” will expect/demand access to everyone’s records.
Expect more control/tracking/facial-recognition/you-name-it to become more commonplace. How else are you going to track Corona Mary?
Ties to phones (as above), cars (plate-readers), internet usage, etc. will probably become more commonplace as well.
“When you want to beat a dog, you’ll find a stick”. Well, Hurricane Corona that’s sweeping the world is one Hell of a big convenient stick.
Go’head, hoot’n’holler now, but mark this post. Check back in a year or two. Maybe less.
’K, I’m out.
The British catching their apocalypse numbers mistake is calming things down. People are starting to rethink this global nightmare.
