Ring-a-ring o’ roses,A pocket full of posies,A-tishoo! A-tishoo!We all fall down.

For those of who you who don’t know this nursery rhyme, either because your parents were highly protective and didn’t want you facing stories about pestilence and disease, or that you are from overseas , it was apparently referring the plague that swept Europe on many occasions starting in the 13th Century.

Doubts are cast upon this interpretation as the rhyme did not appear until the mid 19th Century. Yet the myth remains. None of this really relates to my post. Moreover, I am not convincing myself that I should be writing about it all apart from it gnawing away at my inner most thoughts. It, being Covid 19, Coronavirus, the ‘Crisis’ or whatever either title our esteemed media chooses to call it depending upon their focus for the day.

I don’t want to go down the line of listing the annual death tolls of car accidents(approximately 1800 in the U.K.),murders (approx 15,000 in the USA), and approximately 12,000 people died in Spain of infectious diseases in 2016. But do we stop driving, visiting the States or holidaying in Spain ?

The next 2 images are taken from The Times, 29/02/20, Essay by their Science Editor on the Coronavirus.

I am in no way denigrating the significance of the current virus outbreak. People have and will continue to die as a consequence of being infected. But this does not equate to some of the irrationality that is being displayed . Because of my job , I spend a lot of time on the car . I listen to a lot of radio and some of the calls I find completely bonkers. This may come as no surprise as many who ring ‘phone ins’ are bonkers. The following examples are bang on the nail , so I may have not got the quote word perfect but the sentiment does not differ.

Caller.…I was going to visit my daughter in Madrid .

Host.…why there are no infected carriers currently in Madrid

Caller…that’s not the point …..

Caller…I have cancelled a flight to visit my daughter in Bali

Host….but there are no reported cases in Bali…

Caller…yes but it’s in Asia

Enough of all this . I think everyone will have come across similar stories andhave their own opinions to the validity of people’s decision making processes.

It is a major problem, if no other reason than we are constantly being told it is . Still doesn’t explain why the world has been deprived of its stock of toilet rolls. But I would really like someone to explain to me what role of the worlds central banks intend to play. Interest rates have been reduced, funding has been promised, extended tax deferments,quantitive easing suggested and whole load of other pretty complex tools, yet to the small business what help is any of that.

If the consumer cannot go out or will not go out to buy, if they can’t go on holiday or travel , if they can’t earn their wages, if they loose their jobs, if there is no product or service to sell , wont go to restaurants, festivals, movies, and sporting events, all these proposals will just become deferred debt . When the time comes for that debt to be repaid, they will have no money to pay it, as their businesses will have gone pop.

So after the sneezing, and we have all fallen over , wiped ourselves down , got up, everything will be well in the garden. It may well be the case but may I suggest that after we have all become practised hand hygienists , we go easy on those toilet rolls…