David:
How long is a piece of string? No one in government knows!

Over seventy? Lots of folk in that demographic and not nearly as privileged as yourself!

Should I succumb to covid-19, I'll do what I can for myself, given our hospital has one ICU bed. And may not have even one ventilator?

Folks needing ventilation usually are choppered out and according to one of the (Irish) doctors manning care flights, old folk placed on ventilators in such circumstances, do not return?

The local alternative is palliative care!? And even fewer folk survive that? Well, we are old, had a fair innings and are now just a costly burden on a massively impacted budget bottom line!

How long will it take to recover?

Depends on whether or not we are governed by bipartisan pragmatism and with nothing off the table or hidebound ideologues and their idiotic coal-fired agenda.

Bipartisan pragmatism will see us adopting Great Depression recovery strategies and the cooperative capitalism model that not only got us out of the deep dodo, but ushered in a period of unprecedented post-war prosperity and a far more unified, egalitarian society.

We wait for the boffins to get an antiviral that's fit for purpose, and get that into maximised 24/7 production and all the health workers, teachers, emergency workers and the vulnerable covered, while we get a well-tolerated vaccine in play/available.

Even then with everyone once again gainfully employed and we far more self-sufficient and self-reliant than now?

We will need a full decade or maybe two to get a full recovery!

Getting shot of all the robber barons and the paper shuffling, profit demanding middlemen would be of immeasurable assistance!
Take care and stay safe.
Alan B.

You and the others who must always whinge, even if articulately and after the effort of putting pen to paper at OLO..

We get it, you know it all, dislike government and won't hold the Cha-neese accountable.

Always appreciate alternate views. Can't accept a word of yours and the gang of trolls who infect the 'inter-web'

This bloke missed his calling. He should be writing drama for the ABC to waste millions on producing & putting to air. This piece is anti government & melodramatic enough to suit their rubbish very well.

Okay, I'm confused.

This bloke is saying he is more likely to die from guilt than the virus?

What rot.

Half of the patients who entered ICU in northern Italy didn't survive. The cut off age for a respirator when they became scarce was 70. In Spain it got as low as 65. There was a hell of a lot of anguish among the medical staff having to make those decisions.

Speaking to a doctor at a large hospital in a town near me there are protocols for various levels of stress on the health system. The most serious has the cutoff age at 60. So if things get really bad respirators will be removed from patients over that age based on a survivability criteria and given to a younger person. The patient will then be sedated to ease their end of life.

This is what we risk happening in our country. We have the great luxury here of being able to self isolate and hibernate businesses yet people are not grateful.

Grow up mate.

Good onya Dave. Hang in there mate.

I'm part of a poetry group, here in the provinces. So here is a cheering poem I sent to fellow "poets" yesterday. Its by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lehrer who had an extraordinary "poet" career from being a mathematical genius, who worked at the Los Alamos nuclear weapon center and the NSA, before becoming a comic, singer-songwriter.

Tom's stll kicking at 91. Here's his poem:

"I Got It From Agnes" (various versions since 1953).
Here’s the Video of Tom singing it http://youtu.be/6WHSVOVLmNY

"I love my friends and they love me
We're just as close as we can be

And just because we really care
Whatever we get, we share!
I got it from Agnes
She got it from Jim
We all agree it must have been
Louise who gave it to him

Now she got it from Harry
Who got it from Marie
And ev'rybody knows that Marie
Got it from me

Giles got it from Daphne
She got it from Joan
Who picked it up in County Cork
A-kissin' the Blarney stone

Pierre gave it to Shiela
Who must have brought it there
He got it from Francois and Jacques
Aha, lucky Pierre!

Max got it from Edith
Who gets it ev'ry spring
She got it from her daddy
Who just gives her ev'rything

She then gave it to Daniel
Whose spaniel has it now
Our dentist even got it
And we're still wondering how

But I got it from Agnes
Or maybe it was Sue
Or Millie or Billie or Gillie or Willie
It doesn't matter who

It might have been at the pub
Or at the club, or in the loo
And if you will be my friend, then I might
(Mind you, I said "might")
Give it to you!"

Cheers Pete
http://gentleseas.blogspot.com/

Dear plantagenet,

Thanks for that.

Sound like there was a whole bunch of 'clapping' going on.