-TSS-

It must be painful for young people whose lives consist very much of things like festivals and concerts or other things where large crowds of people gather together. As for the rest of us, it is quite astonishing how quickly one adapts to these otherwise very unnatural circumstances and learns to deal with them accordingly.

I'm very much in two minds about this. On one hand, are we really this fortunate. On the other hand, are we just behind others and in for the worst later on. In Sweden they have chosen another way of dealing with the situation and they are keeping everything open. We in Finland are thinking the Swedes are absolutely crazy. They have had 1200 deaths while we in Finland up to date less than 100. However, the Swedes tend to fare better than us and it could be that by mid-June the epidemic is over for Sweden while it is just starting here in Finland. The total number of deaths would be lower in Sweden than in Finland. I really hope I am wrong on that prediction.

I'm glad here in Finland things haven't gone to the same level as they have in Britain. In Britain people are only allowed to go out for shopping and outside shops people are treated like slaves being told to queue and keep two metres distance before being allowed into the shop. Fair enough considering the circumstances but on top of that the police have started inspecting people's shopping whether this or that is really essential, which goes way out of line. How many people have the guts to tell the police-officer wanting to see their shopping to fuck off? In the shops the corridors are one-way streets so you can only move forward. If you realise you forgot something you can't turn back and go and get it.

No wonder the situation in NYC is especially bad. NYC is easily the most global city in the world with an extremely high density of population coupled with a lot of high-ranking people who keep on travelling all across the world meeting countless people in countless large mass-gatherings, shaking countless hands. On top of that there are certain demographics who have a more relaxed attitude towards recommendations of social distancing. In fact, they couldn't care less about such recommendations.

In the future it will be less appealing to cram into big crowded cities and pay ridiculous money in order to do so. Especially in countries where there is plenty of alternative available.

Difficult to say tbh. Some people say the Swedes are absolute idiots and/or lunatics. On the other hand, if you can't stop the virus sweeping through the population anyway you can just as well at least not wreck the economy

Here in Finland it was seriously proposed that the sale of alcohol should be stopped during the Coronavirus-crisis as the health system will be burdened enough even without people drinking too much. That idea was abandoned as it is obvious that then people who are dependant on alcohol would just turn to even worse stuff like lasol or other such things. Even though a lot of companies will go bust I doubt breweries will be the first ones considering how much beer people seem to be buying these days at the supermarkets. It was only this week when bars and restaurants were ordered by the government to shut down. There were some funny incidents how before the official order to shut down some bars were having anti-advertisements like saying that they are reluctantly keeping the Place open because if they decided to shut they wouldn't get a penny from the insurance but they pleaded people not to come.

As Boris Johnson and another member of his Cabinet have tested positive it kind of makes one think is it really in this day and age necessary to run a government of people gathering around some one table or do you need any parliament of people showing up in person in one particular building possibly after having travelled very long journeys in order to arrive at that building? With today's technology you could really have video-meetings of governments or parliaments.

Here in Finland the southern part of the country in which I live also has been separated from the rest of the country because the virus is more prevalent here and such a measure is taken to protect the rest of the country. In the past few days many people here have escaped to their second homes in the rest of the country because they think they are safer there, which is the ultimate show of selfishness as those more remote areas don't have the health resources to cope with a large amount of people falling ill.

I just went to my local corner-shop as there are fewer customers at any one time but still people don't seem to understand to keep the two-metre distance. At some time shops will have to make customers queue outside at two-metre intervals and let in only the amount of people who can keep the required distance. It's quite frightening how paranoid this thing will eventually make all of us.

No more handshakes after this. It will be especially difficult in some cultures where it is a form. The Southern-European greetings of kissing on both cheeks and hugging extensively will also be gone. It must be difficult to adapt not those customs any longer. I think good riddance all this too much touching other people. The Japanese have it right.

Viruses don't respect borders but when you keep borders open without any checks you really make things happen quicker than they otherwise would have happened or happened at all. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but it can be said that already in January there were alarming news coming from China and the WHO recommended quarantines of people coming from the risk-zones. Even here in Finland many idiots traveled to Italy in February when it was already known that may not be a wise thing to do.

Travel will never be the same again and a lot of airliners will go bust. Good riddance! I also have workmates are stuck in Spain at the moment because the borders are closed. They went there like four weeks ago when all this development was already for us all to see. You really must be a moron to have travelled to Italy/Spain in February. When they get back they'll have to go through a 14-day quarantine. That will be with all travel for some time to come even after the outbreak is over. Tourism is going to be totally destroyed.

The virus seems to be very democratic; it doesn't stop at the plebs. On the contrary, all the elite who travel a lot, who attend a lot of large gatherings, who shake hands and kiss ech other's cheeks countless times seem to be at a risk-zone. Prince Charles, the Monaco Prince, our former President, several celebrities(though some of them may be faking just for the sake of attention-seeking).

Alot of kneejerk-reactions against the Chinese because of the Coronavirus but yes they will have a lot of questions to be answered when there is time to ask those questions after the more important issue of tackling the virus has been dealt with.

I wonder what the long-term consequences of this crisis will be for the Chinese Criminal, sorry Communist, Party after western countries will look harder whether it is after all wise to outsource procuction to China because it is cheaper there. If the western nations start withdrawing from China the standard of living in China will also drop, which makes the position of the CCP more vulnerable. If people start dropping like flies in the USA because of this virus there may be serious consequences as there is already now a lot of talk that the Chinese are culpable of this, which is true, and they need to be brought accountable.

People are different. I as an introverted person have never had any problems of keeping away from other people. For some people that is something totally unthinkable. What is easy for some people is mental torture for others.

You think everything will return to as it was before when this crisis is over? I don't think so. Airliners are going bust because people are not travelling and even when the restrictions are lifted are unlikely to flock into countries like Italy or Spain.

Yesterday when I came home from work and walked through the town-centre where keeping a distance of several metres from other people I noticed that the pubs and bars which were still open had a lot of customers. That was a kind of a moment I lost my faith in people's rationality. Some people are just too extremely stupid beyond redemption. The bar-owners of course keep the bars open until an official order from the government to shut them because they need the money but the people who voluntarily go to the bars show some sort of Darwinian stupidity which may harm the rest of us too that they need to be isolated from the rest of the population. Because of people like that we will also ened up with a curfew. Fortunately, I work in what is considered a critical work which is logistics so I will evade the inevitable curfew by going to work as long as I stay healthy.

This virus will probably kill a lot of people, it already has, but with a 100% certainty it will bankcrupt several times more.

The virus has destroyed the Schengen-agreement and hence the credibility of the EU especially as when the crisis escalated the nation-states shut their borders one by one without listening to the EU. Freedom of movement across the borders was supposed to be like a force of nature against which it would be silly to fight against.

When I went to my local supermarket last Thursday and for some reason last Thursday was the day the majority of Finns realised it is time to get stocked up I noticed how the dry food shelves were completely empty and of course the shelves of toilet paper. However, the shelves of beer were full of the stuff, which really is a worrying sign. People are actually terrified. When people are terrified food is important and beer isn't.

After all, the things individuals can do for themselves is to make sure you have a few weeks supplies of food at home and stay indoors as much as possible. As long as water and electricity are running you'll be fine. If water and electricity stop you know the society has collapsed.

I have never before seen people wash their hands as conscientiously as during this week. Too bad it had to take a serious situation like this for them to understand that washing hands at least when you've been to toilet is a good idea. Hopefully they will stick to the habit when this crisis is over.

The health services in various countries have been designed on the supposition that a maximum of x % of the population is sick at the same time and that percentage is not very high. If it is exceeded the system becomes overwhelmed and it either breaks down or there will be sharp prioritizing, which means that some or even many people are told that they are not worth getting treatment ie not important enough.