Lxxx

And that is an issue because...? If they are residents of the island the government needs to accommodate their travel back home by putting in place suitable procedures upon their return.

It would be refreshing to see some leaders emerge from this to take the tough decisions needing to be addressed and build a micro nation fit for purpose for the years ahead. It's going to take strength of character and thick skin to withstand the attacks from all quarters of vested interests but it's necessary. I'm not optimistic but we can but hope.

I remain flattered by your continued, yet slightly unnerving, interest in me Pongo.

Pipe down soft lad. The border is closed yes and should remain closed. However for some people who didn't make it back it wasn't their fault, they were just the unfortunate victim of circumstance.

Not quite as simple as that. They weren't warning people the border was going to be closed for weeks at all. I know of a few people in far flung destinations who tried to change their flights to earlier ones but there was no availability and other airlines that may have been an option had either stopped flying, pulled capacity, changed routes to accommodate transit countries changing policies or had no availability either. The whole world went into a state of panic a few weeks ago and it stretched the infrastructure of the planet in a whole number of areas, not least transport and travel. As always it's the keyboard warriors who don't travel much that shout the loudest.

You've got a point.

No worries about rent or mortgage, meals made for you, gym on site, heating paid for, send out for extra supplies that aren't available from the prison shop and if rumours are to be believed you can put a drugs order in too. I'm sure a few more weeks of stress and no income will cause quite a few more people to be contemplating a life of crime.

Completely pointless statistic. Why do people feel it necessary to jump on here and post arbitrary stats without any context.

It's not just that you have to have a functioning society to come back out to. Otherwise you have to drastically alter what your new version of society looks like and managing peoples expectations of it will be the struggle.

I think they will to some degree. It's not in the nature of a human to be cooped up like a battery hen. Clearly we're all different and we all have differing breaking points but lots of people will develop anxiety issues which won't be calmed by staring at the same wall week after week. Logic and reason don't often follow as they should when placed in an alien situation which is stressful. I'd hate to be in central London right now, for example.

I appreciate your almost pathological belief that humanity has got science off to a tee and it's just a matter of time before our labs come to the rescue. Makes me wonder how humanity and nature evolved for millions of years in the presence of billions of viruses before we came along with our grandiosity. Viruses mutate and evolve on a consistent basis, it's notoriously difficult to find a flu vaccine that is effective year on year for example because of this. Humanity has to evolve with the planet we share it with, you can't lock everything down just because our belief we have all the answers doesn't work fast enough.

Yes I know a few that were stricken for months and still have breathing issues and a wheeze from it. Unheard of for so many to have been struck down so violently and to still be feeling the effects months afterwards.

I think that's a fair point.

It's rather ironic that one thing that is certain to have a negative impact on your immune system and put it into a flight or flight mode, at a time when you need it to be at it's strongest and most robust, is a belief and fear you are going to contract a killer virus. I see it in my own family. Most people are obsessed with negativity and develop an irrational fear of an invisible enemy, even searching out news which will reinforce that belief.

You don't know that the virus will continue to spread, that's an assumption. Viruses mutate all the time and their virility can diminish as they encounter an environment that has built up a resistance to them. There's so much uninformed opinion being passed off as fact on a virus that was unknown not so long ago. No-one knows what path it will take but we hear and read what will and won't happen with some sense of surety all the time.