While there’s much more to life than football, it’s fair to say the coronavirus crisis has affected a huge number of fans up and down the country, leaving many of us to realise just how much our weekends relied on that precious 90 minutes.
One man who’s been left to rue the timing of this global pandemic is Saleh Ali – a Sydney-based Newcastle fan who’s dream of attending this month’s Premier League clash with Sheffield United was taken away from him after 3 years of saving.
After contacting the blog to reveal his story, here’s what he’s had to say:
“We booked a Europe trip in June last year for March 2020 and have been saving up for 3 years, not knowing a virus will hit the entire globe.
“I came all the way from Sydney Australia with the wife to live the dream and walk through the doors of St. James’s Park – but in the end I couldn’t even get a look from the inside.
“We traveled to Norway, then Switzerland with no troubles, we had Italy booked and cancelled it since the virus got really bad there, so we went to Spain.
“We then landed in Newcastle on the Thursday thinking the game was still on.
“We were ready for a match day tour and to watch our beloved Toon against Sheffield United, then on the Friday my dreams were shattered, with the announcement that all Premier League matches were suspended.
“We also had a match day tour of the stadium which was also cancelled due to the virus. As a result, I didn’t even get the chance to see St. James’s Park from the inside.
“I did the stadium tour of the Camp Nou in Barcelona, the tour of Manchester United, Tottenham, Arsenal and Wembley but not Newcastle. I was able to visit other stadiums – but not the one I really wanted to see.
“I just don’t understand why they didn’t allow me to do the stadium tour when I was able to do others.
“I’ve been a faithful Newcastle fan for 15 years and stay up to the early hours to watch every match of ours.
“The only reason we booked this trip was for this game and I didn’t even get to see how the stadium looks on the inside.
“Honestly, I can’t put in words how devastating this situation is as we’ve come a long way to only have it shattered 24 hours before the game.”
Absolutely devastating for Saleh, showing how this virus can crush dreams and ruin plans when it’s not taking lives.
It’s fair to say absolutely EVERYBODY has been affected by this crisis in one way or another, but Saleh’s story is gutting in more ways than one.
We sincerely hope to have him back at St James’ Park in the not too distant future!
Must be hard to find football stuff to write about Olly. Sorry for this lad and his wife. They seem fans of football and not only NUFC judging by the fact they did the stadium tours. Some lads from Chicago have been to England to watch NUFC. Americans. One even stayed in Consett. I warned him, but he stayed there anyway 🙂
The national newspapers have gone all nostalgia as there really isn’t much news. You can only comment on the state of the PL season so often without repeating and regurgitating.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
On the Merson article. He makes sense a lot of the time but I think he has got himself trapped into playing the fool. He cant really have it both ways, but he tries to. With that Giant Balloon Heed I suppose he has to play the clown, but he is not as daft as he looks.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Yeh, it’s not easy mate!
Re. Saleh and his wife, he’s been a NUFC fan for 15 years and gets up in the middle of the night every week to watch our games! He’s definitely a toon fan, just went on other stadium tours to make the most of a bad situation after SJP shut their doors.
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
Olly: I wasn’t questioning the fact he is a NUFC fan. I see it over here in Chicago with the lads I watch games with. They really don’t have an explanation for why they support NUFC as most got into it post Bobby Robson and 1st Keegan. I think they wanted to go against the grain and not just be another Liverpool or Man U glory chaser. They certainly got their wish then by choosing the Toon as there has been very little glory for us in the last 50 years.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sorry mate, misread your response!
Takeover rumours are back… 😯
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
Sounds like they had a trip to Europe anyway but without the depressing site of being bored to death watching NUFC…
Anyway, in other news I see the Telegraph are running a story that the PL have now been informed that the club is to be bought by Saudis with 80% ownership.
Two reasons why this is probably *****:
1) I saw the PL CEO say a few weeks ago that the PL new owners process was the most secretive and discreet process in football. If that’s right why is this out?
2) PL were also informed about BZG and we all know what happened there…
Although I do believe this crisis has put a different slant on purchasing football clubs.
Stuart79(Quote)
Is it a coincidence that this has come after a rather, er, bad week for Mike Ashley…
Stuart79(Quote)
But…. It is so NUFC to be bought by the Saudi’s during a oil price crisis in which the Saudi’s are burning through their reserves like there’s no tomorrow!
Stuart79(Quote)
*** not the takeover again!!! I am used to The Chronic fishing for clicks but The Telegraph are usually more reliable. It is not even Luke Edwards, it is 2 of their senior writers doing this now.
The last one seemed credible and turned out to be sh!te. Now we start with this again FFS.
The only thing that even has my attention in this is that Ashley might want to pad his bank account and get rid of the NUFC distraction as he is messing up in the PR and business department at the moment.
Those of us who have watched him at NUFC for 13 years wonder how the hell he became a billionaire in the first place.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge35EQtCWQA
😀 😆
KIMTOON(Quote)
Be just my luck that we get taken over and i croke it from covid 🙄
KIMTOON(Quote)
Anyway, not gonna happen really is it. Timing makes no sense other than the fact that, as Stu says, jabbas had a bad week. 😉
KIMTOON(Quote)
So the live animal markets are back up and running in China !!!!!! 🙄 , no lessons learnt then.
KIMTOON(Quote)
And how Fecking thick is Jack Grealish . Someone needs to send him the link to that song i posted.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Jabba’s share price has dropped from 380 to 190 in one month… That’s about a billion quid!
Stuart79(Quote)
Covidshame is a new and real thing for idiots like Grealish .
KIMTOON(Quote)
😆 😆 😆 😆 😆
KIMTOON(Quote)
If my maths are right that’s a £600m loss for Jabba so far.
Stuart79(Quote)
Have to go out for Milk, bread and fresh produce 🙁 feel like i’m about to run the gauntlet .
KIMTOON(Quote)
Watch you don’t get shopped yourself Kim. Someone rang the police to complain a neighbour had been for more than one walk! People are rubbish.
georgio(Quote)
What if you have a dog?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I am not really understanding all of the rules. Chicago Transit is still running which means buses and metro type trains. Restaurants are delivering, but not seating. Amazon food delivery was down for 3 days but is back up, so I put an order in.
I am not even saying the rules are wrong, just that you would think trains and buses would be considered high risk.
Yesterday was as quiet as I have seen it here. I live within a couple of hundred yards of about 20 restaurants and bars and it is usually bustling when the weather breaks in Chicago because people have gone stir crazy over the winter.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Productive outing got food i needed for me and a neighbour , i also got much needed latex gloves for lews carers and anti bac hand wash and paper hand towels all of which i had run out of, at my local iron mongers who is doing a roaring trade.
Arms hanging off now as i combined the above with my daily walk ,heavy shopping bags, good work out. 😀
KIMTOON(Quote)
I see the club have placed employees on furlough leave.
Stuart79(Quote)
what a shame for that lad.
well my girl looks like shes picked the virus been sent home,she says crews are going down like nine pins,ime only hoping she only has it mild
icedog(Quote)
KIM glad you got what you and lewis needed,stay safe mate
icedog(Quote)
Ice, So sorry to hear about your girl, that’s both our girls poorly then 🙁
Not sure if Hazel’s is Covid or not, what ever it is it’s made her unwell, hopefully your lass hasn’t got it and that she gets a test asap being on the front line.
We are living in a scary world now and it will be a long time until we are anywhere near normal again i fear.
KIMTOON(Quote)
The more I think about what the club have done to employees the more it pisses me off. Why have they not included the players in the furlough? They’re the ones who can afford it ffs! Doing what they’ve done will probably save the club £100k a month. For a club that’s turning over nearly £200m that’s really not a massive number. I’d also like the club to make a statement. It’s amateur hour! Charnley said in his email “it’s to safeguard the future of the club”! Really? Talk about tearing people like absolute morons…
Stuart79(Quote)
Stu, the owner his minions and how they operate are an utter disgrace, i’m not even shocked anymore.
KIMTOON(Quote)
The voiding the season crowd are not thinking straight. There are many ways to finish the season even if we didn’t start up again until August. The players would have had a long rest by then so we could have the end of this season and start of next run concurrently.
You can make a lot of room by scrapping a few international breaks and the winter break. Then play a few more mid-week games.
As long as this virus runs its course and peaks when experts say it will then there are pretty easy solutions that the chicken littles like Rio Ferdinand should consider.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Then there’s the tournament idea where players are isolated in training camps and play games at neutral venues. I am not sure why it should be neutral venues because there are coaches and they could do it like they did not so many years ago and all get on the bus and play cards.
I don’t think it would be that difficult to find the camps as we have hosted the Euros and put a World Cup bid in very recently. They must have had an idea of where they would put up the National teams so they could use those.
I just think it is jumping the gun to call to void or cancel the season before April has even begun. Are they still isolating in China?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
It may sound trivial for me to be talking like this but it is a football blog after all.
That said, my best wishes go to Icedog and Kintoon for their daughters and that if it is Covid-19 that they are in good enough health to recover quickly. Arteta and Hudson-Odoi recovered very quickly but it seems to hit people differently.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
If the moaners are saying there is not enough room to fit in the end of the season then have a look back to the old First Division. That had 42 games. And The Championship today has 46 games. So how is it not feasible to play the remaining 9 games as long as this breaks by July or August?
It might require putting a 1 year hiatus on the league cup and cancelling or truncating a couple of international breaks but it is easily doable.
You could also do away with the group stages of The Champions League and go straight to knockout. That would cut a few games. That’s all about the money anyway as the 2 top seeded teams in each group almost always go through.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Then you have the pre-season friendly tours and tournaments to spread the popularity of the game. Cancel all of those. Nobody is going to want to travel to China anyway. Have a few domestic kickabouts if you want a break between seasons but as I said the players would have had plenty of rest.
There are actually many ways to finish this season with the proviso that Covid-19 does not go on for 6 more months.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
There will inevitably be some revenue reduction but that might cut back on these stupid transfer prices. Exhibit A – Joelinton. But also, how the hell is Pogba supposedly worth 120 million given his form and injury record? He has been a “project” his whole time at Man U playing 1 good game in 3 but having obvious talent. His stats look OK but if you dig deeper a lot of the goals come from penalties, and we all know Man U get plenty of penalties. It is like saying James Milner is a great attacking midfielder because he scores 7 or 8 penalties a year. I love Milner but he is not an attacking midfielder.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Finally, there are just too many pundits and journalists so opinions will be all over the shop on how to end the season. A lot are just publicity seekers as well like Martin Samuel and Robbie Savage so they will say things for effect.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I didn’t want to comment on the takeover but it feels different this time with Caulkin and 2 senior Telegraph journalists saying it is close. The last time the most respected NUFC journalists kept quiet because they knew something but couldn’t say.
I think this has a lot to do with Ashley wanting to get out of the public spotlight. He is being hammered in the media and doesn’t seem to have his defenders anymore like Rio Ferdinand.
Not counting any chickens.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
If it does happen, would we keep Bruce and Nickson? There will be at least a transition year, especially with everything going on. Then you would have questions of which of our players are good enough to keep if our aim is better than mid-table?
If they are serious and ambitious the obvious thing to do is to throw a lot of money and big transfer budget at Julian Nagelsmann. If not him, hire the whole Ajax front office and manager.
But I am getting caught up in all this again. I said I wouldn’t but Caulkin has been right more times than not in the past.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
PL clubs in talks about deferring 70% of players wages. This is another reason why Jabba is now more than ever motivated to sell. He can probably see that he will need to put more money in due to the Coronavirus. He won’t fancy that.
Stuart79(Quote)
The Times also reporting that NUFC officials have sent paperwork to the PL notifying them of proposed takeover. But the group also want reduced price due to Coronavirus.
Chronicle still saying no bid and things not moved on since January.
Suppose we will know more in four weeks time.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stuart: I don’t see how the PL could defer 70% of players’ wages. The players are paid when they are injured so I don’t see self isolation as much different. And each player has an agent and they would have to all agree.
I can see why the clubs want to do it because their income is pretty much frozen until this passes but how would it work in practice?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Stuart: just read that all Barca 1st team have agreed a 70% pay cut. Not sure if it is a deferral. I am actually shocked they got the Agents to all agree so the PL proposal may have merit.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The players imo should club together to pay the Additional 20% of their wages that the gvt are paying after being furloughed. It’s not like they’re skint and can’t afford it – even if they reduced their wages by 70%. Unless you’re a young un. But I also fail to understand why NUFC who are supposed to be financially healthy (one of Jabba’s boasts) can’t pay people’s wages after two weeks of no football. Charnley’s words about safe guarding the future of the club is just pure rubbish.
Stuart79(Quote)
Chronicle are saying there are a growing number of people wanting the cancellation of the PL on “moral” grounds. I assume that they are saying that because of the worldwide health crisis that it would be frivolous and disrespectful to resume the football. I don’t understand this view.
I don’t mean to be callous, but with people cooped up in their homes having a distraction may be exactly what is needed. As long as the player safety can be guaranteed I don’t see the reasoning. The TV is on a regular schedule, admittedly with news only about one issue. Are we supposed to cancel Netflix as well because we cannot have entertainment whilst people are dying? And football is supposed to be entertaining.
My argument is the sooner we get back to normality the better and having live football will help raise spirits. I don’t think I am in any way making light of this situation by wanting the season to resume and don’t see this “moral” argument as holding water. I think the 2 – people dying and football being resumed – are totally unrelated.
And it is not like playing games behind closed doors would be taking away resources that could be used elsewhere.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
That man Martin Samuel is doing more ****-stirring in the Daily Mail. He is saying some PL execs want the season to resume in early May because the broadcast contracts end July 16 and are watertight and all games have to be played by then. According to him the PL would lose millions if this doesn’t happen. I am not sure if he checked with their lawyers but I and sure an extension could be brokered if both sides agree. I am also sure that this is just one of many proposals being discussed in this evolving crisis.
Of course the Below-the-Line comments then go bonkers calling it all about greed and how dare they even think about football when people are dying.
I give it a zero percent chance of resuming in early May but that doesn’t stop Samuel with his self promoting hyperbole.
June at the earliest if it not cancelled. That’s 8 weeks away and plenty of time to assess the situation. Just hope the moralisers and **** stirrers don’t force the PL’s hand and bully them into a hasty cancellation.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
This takeover looks like it might be real this time. I really think the bad publicity is something Ashley would like to avoid and owning a PL team puts him in the spotlight when he is being hit from all sides. And if he really believes in what he is doing at SD then he could get cash to buy shares at a very discounted price.
Then there is the other side of the deal. The 300 mil for NUFC is a drop in the bucket to the Saudis whose fund is said to be valued at 300 BILLION. It is sportwashing they want and it looks like Stavely might have persuaded them that NUFC has potential to be the next Man City. I think she will want to be Chairman and to take money out, a bit like Levy at Spurs.
It is all logical except I have no idea why the Reubens want in.
BUT, the last deal with BZG looked genuine to start with as well. On the other hand Caukin etc were deathly quiet for a long time on that one and have maintained that there has been real interest now.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric, I agree about the takeover. Caulkin is respected and well connected to Staveley. He said previously he wouldn’t say anything until there’s something substantial to say. I do genuinely believe this is as close as we’ve been but the caveat is always this is Mike Ashley…
But it makes sense this time. Timing wise anyway. He doesn’t know how football will be effected. It might mean clubs need to rely on a benefactor more and he’s not up for that. His main business is suffering unprecedented decline in value and that’s not going to get better for at least 3/4 months. Can they survive or will they need a bail out from shareholders? I think he will need some liquid money… His biggest saleable asset is the club. I think he will take Fraser Group private when the share price drops low enough.
Lee Ryder still clinging to the “he hasn’t received a bid” line like it’s the most important thing in the whole process. Jabba doesn’t need an official bid. Lawyers will have likely agreed a price and Jabba will have said yes or no. That price will be in Heads of Terms and then Sales Purchase Agreement is the final document. Why Ryder is making such a song and dance about a bid is beyond me.
In truth I believe we’re close but then as always this is Jabba so it’s not done until it’s done.
Stuart79(Quote)
Oh and the chairman of the Saudi PIF Yasir Al-Rumayyan has set up a company in the UK called NCUK Limited. Very easy to do but also a pre requisite for anybody wanting to purchase shares from another company.
Stuart79(Quote)
It would be ironic if Ashley has to accept a lower bid because his other businesses are in trouble after all his p!ssing about. He made a massive mistake with the Dept Stores. I said as much on here about a year ago. I hadn’t been in a Dept Store in about 10 but went into a very famous one last year in downtown Chicago and it was dead at peak time of day.
Last time this happened to Ashley was the financial crisis when he wanted to sell but there were no bidders. His stock price had plunged and eventually recovered but retail has changed since then. Amazon is eating everybodies lunch and there is no saving the high street shops except boutiques and specialists. He doesn’t even own the buildings at HoF.
I also said the Dept Stores would become multi use in towns – flats, bars, wine stores, real restaurants and not just cafeterias in their basements as they are now. Maybe Ashley can oversee that but it takes time. Meanwhile they are losing money hand over fist.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I think the stars have aligned to make Ashley sell this time as long as he gets a decent price. In this situation I would say that would be 250 million.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I am going to repeat what I said that it will be interesting to see what they do with Bruce and Nickson if this happens. My guess is they will keep them on as a transition unless they promise the earth to Nagelsmann or Poch. Remember Man City kept Mark Hughes on and made the statement signing of Robinho but not many else.
Even in this health/economic scare I think NUFC is worth 250-300 million to someone who wants to do some sportswashing. There are no other clubs available with our stadium and fanbase and we still get attention even though we have been **** for years.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
You just have to look at how many of our games were televised as feature games. That only stopped after Brucie played dire football for half the season and I think Sky’s numbers were hit by it, and they decided our games weren’t worth it anymore.
But for years our games against the top 6 have been shown live.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric, I agree. But, but but… It’s Jabba! He really won’t want to be seen as being forced into anything.
Stuart79(Quote)
The big difference this time is that it has to be the seller that sends details to the PL. This is an open admission from the club that something is in the offing. We’ll see.
georgio(Quote)
Apparently the squad has lost up to 25% of its value since the coronavirus. Another reason Jabba fancy’s selling?
Funny that it might be a virus that gets rid of a parasite.
Stuart79(Quote)
That’s just BS from a firm called CEIS that use stupid algorythms to calculate values. The article about loss of value is in The Chronic but they also calculate that Pogba is now worth 31 million 🙂 As much as he is inconsistent that is just comical.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
You know what day it is tomorrow – April 1.
I can guarantee you that some fool on twitter will:
– try to make an April fool joke about Corona Virus
– try to say that the NUFC takeover has gone through and we will have a transfer budget of, er… $500 million.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
This virus really will change football – especially the finances. Every sponsor will have been negatively impacted financially by this. Supporters will be poorer. Clubs will be poorer. This isn’t hyperbole – it’s fact.
Imo perfect time for a wealthy person/country to buy a club. If they can invest money where other clubs relay on normal income streams then the gap can be narrowed quicker.
Stuart79(Quote)
Only we could be sold in the middle of a global health scare. Hard to be cheerful and celebrating when so much death is all around. 🙁
Still don’t see it happening, would you sell your house now, value will be much less.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Turns out the PL clubs cannot vote to void the season, so all of this pontificating from the likes of Ferdinand and Brady was just hot air. Article in the Chronic says would need cooperation of EFL who have already voted to extend the season and the FA. So, these video meetings the PL Chairmen are having will be to discuss how best to complete the season.
Since everything is so uncertain, I think they will stand pat for now but I think the chances of a May 1 resumption are zero and they will meet again to extend again.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric, it looks like the clubs will have to pay back £750m if they don’t finish the season. They’ll fit it in even if they have to play everyday for a couple of weeks. Is there a more insular industry in the world?
Stuart79(Quote)
I definitely think the Club executives should be working on ways to finish the season. They can do this whilst still having sympathy for the victims of COVID-19. I think they can walk and chew gum at the same time!
Yes, there are bigger things than football but why do they have to shut everything down to mourn. Under normal circumstances with a death from natural causes you would have a funeral and then everybody would get on with their daily lives. I just don’t get these people saying it is disrespectful or whatever to talk about other things like football when there is a pandemic.
The Mail asked their reporters what should be done for the season and the very first one started in with the “there are bigger issue than football” meme. I stopped reading there because I knew there would be continued moralizing from him and others that would just get on my nerves.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I mean, it is valid for the Executives to be talking about finishing the season in the context of player and fan safety during this crisis. To present alternatives and be ready to go when this current health scare breaks. And it will.
So, in my opinion the right thing to do is to prepare with player safety foremost in mind. Have a plan. Or have several plans depending on how this thing develops. That is sensible and not disrespectful.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
And even though a lot of vulnerable people (and others) are self isolating, the world has not completely shut down. I had delivery of 2 separate food orders yesterday and today. I also had an Amazon delivery that I ordered last Friday. So, some businesses are working on keeping open. Why not the PL?
If they can work out a way to play games safely I think that would lift spirits.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Illinois just extended the lockdown to the end of April. Everything points to a June resumption of football at the earliest. I still think the Chairmen did the right thing by only extending the PL shutdown to May 1 though as they knew they could always extend again.
I am just glad they do not have unilateral power to shut it all down or void the season and this fact alone will encourage dialogue and not knee **** reactions like we see in some of the press and from idiots like Rio Ferdinand.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I think the idea of a kind of World Cup type competition to get the games down ASAP. Based at 3/4 grounds. No team can play at their home stadium so that would stop supporters turning up in their thousands. Put them all on TV so we can watch them.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stuart: I think that is doable. They could definitely isolate the squads in places that have training facilities. They had a World Cup bid recently so they must have had places in mind for the foreign squads. Aren’t there like36 teams at the WC now so must know where to put 20 PL teams up.
The logistics don’t seem that difficult to me either. You have a 25 man squad and you insist on a skeleton support staff. That is not too many people to test before every match, but you start by testing BEFORE they are sent to the hotel/training facility where they remain isolated.
It is not ideal, but then again everything at the moment concerning getting this season done would be a compromise.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I think at the South Africa WC Capello had the England squad virtually isolated at their hotel so I don’t think this would be unprecedented or too onerous for the players. A month in a luxury hotel and playing a bit of footie after going stir crazy self isolating. How about that lads? I think most would be happy and if some refuse to play then fck em.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
But let’s not forget, there isn’t just the PL. we’d need to do it for 71 other clubs too. It would be hard work.
Stuart79(Quote)
Some football officials now saying season may not resume even until june or after. Many meetings this week and hopefully they defer a decision. June 1 is 8 weeks away and many things can change. I knew in my gut that even June was optimistic unless it was a WC type arrangement as Stuart suggested and I said so yesterday.
This is a fast moving situation so who knows what will happen but I still think cancellation would premature. They have to explore the options as things progress.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I also reiterate that I totally disagree with people who say you cannot think of anything else whilst this crisis is going on. Of course you can and you can plan for when it will lessen or end.
I haven’t been outside in a week so I really am taking this seriously. I also don’t like to preached to by moralizers. I have just watched a couple of episodes of Mr Bean. Am I not supposed to laugh because there is a pandemic? Anybody making fun of the current crisis should be slapped down but I think I should be able to watch Netflix or read Catch22. What else am I going to do? I am stuck in the house by myself because I have been single for about a year.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I did have conference call on Friday with a couple of mates. We would normally meet in the pub but we each cracked open a couple of beers and bullshItted for an hour. What are you supposed to do. I am already acting like a hermit, should I also be a totally miserable hermit only watching fcn Piers Morgan?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Everybody stay safe. This is bad for mental health as well as physical health. I think we all need to mitigate that if we can, even to the point of looking for distractions. We cannot just think about corona virus 24/7.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Not playing anything down but US health officials said yesterday that the total number of deaths in the US from Covid-19 could reach 100,000 to 250,000. Staggering numbers but there were a total of 2,839,205 death in 2018 before any of this was around. I am not saying there is an overreaction, really I am not, but you can put it into context.
Not sure how any politician could contextualize it as they would be shouted down and probably lose their career by people saying they were making light of the situation.
Number of deaths in the UK in 2018 = 541,589
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric, I’m not 100% sure how you solve it without being prepared (however horrendous it is) to have deaths. Even if only one person still has the virus this whole thing will start up again. We need a vaccine or we will be going round in circles.
Anybody who believes China has solved the problem are living in cloud cuckoo land.
Stuart79(Quote)