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This is a very ignorant question from me, but is a single particle of virus enough to get infected, or not? And if not, why not? I'm wondering how to interpret the advice about 'close contact' being 15 minutes at less than a metre etc. and the idea that less intense contact is probably less...

@Jonathan Edwards - is this likely to be a safe treatment, in the sense of the plasma (or antibodies or whatever, if anything, they're extracting from it) not carrying other infections?

Sorry if I've asked this before (rubbish memory) but isn't the 18 months idea based on the estimated time to a vaccine, and isn't that a reasonable position? I think that was also the strategy recommended in the 'hammer and dance' article.

I did see an ad, but when I looked at a demo on YouTube I thought it would be well beyond anyone not used to the Internet. You don't just switch it on and have a simple interface, unfortunately. Massive tech opportunity for a business, I'd have thought.

That's very interesting. Do you have any thoughts about what sort of mechanisms?

Boris Johnson just announced that everyone has to stay at home and that non-necessary shops must shut (finally!). https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-52000039

I'd like to see some gadget as simple as a landline that offers online video calls for elderly people who aren't familiar with the Internet and wouldn't know what to do with a computer even if they had one (and it's too late to sit next to them and coach them now). I'd buy my mum one like a shot...

Thanks for posting that (here's the link). It's the most terrifying and most hopeful thing I've seen, and it's very clearly written and actually a good read - the 'hammer and the dance' title for the idea is both a simple explanation of the concept and very memorable. It's got me convinced...

I'm sure I won't, just as I never get invited for a flu jab. I'm hoping that they'll publish the contents of the letter so that we can all see it.

Is anyone actually seeing other people in the UK wearing masks on the street? I'm not, in my local area, but a friend says that she sees lots in the city centre where she lives.

Do we know how GP practices are coping? Are they also becoming overwhelmed?

Cafes, pubs and restaurants being told to close tonight in the UK: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51981653 About flipping time...

A family member had to go to A&E yesterday and then was sent on to another department in the hospital for a vital scan. She said the waiting room was rammed, and she was stuck there for three hours. When the consultant came in to call somebody, she heard him mutter to the receptionist that...

Does anyone know how being able to test only 25,000 people a day in a population of 66 million is going to help? Presumably it would be some sort of targeted testing? Don't we need to be testing everyone?

On the TV news, I keep seeing people in protective gear spraying pavements in some countries with what is presumably disinfectant. I'm wondering why? I can understand cleaning things that people might touch, but why the ground?

Just heard the issue raised on the BBC news (can't remember which channel or whether it was TV or radio).

This situation is horrific, both for the public and for the NHS staff. Does anyone know of any campaign to get this changed? It's sheer madness.

It's not so much that we say 'pem' as that in the UK, we don't generally use full stops for acronyms (as in 'UK'), though some organisations do use them. In the USA, full stops are more common (I think most Americans would write 'U.S.A.'). On MEAction.net, I got several hits for 'PEM' but none...

In the UK, it's 'PEM'.

Several reports on the evening news of parents taking their kids out of school, either because the kid has a health condition such as asthma, or the parent does.