There will come a day when we will look back at this time, and shudder, for all sorts of reasons; the political incompetence and dishonesty, the sheer number of tragic deaths, the challenges to returning to something like normal life, whatever that means.

One of the things that would help greatly, is if it became mandatory to be tested, all across the world, we should be throwing money at the creation of millions of free ‘test-yourself’ kits that people can use at home, still sending the completed test to the local health authorities for confirmation.

Now that most of the developed world is at home, programmes of information broadcast constantly the state of the pandemic, and the projections of those in the know. There’s no excuse for ignorance of the expected response by the public.

I would also like to see mandatory testing of “key-workers”, (of which I am one), to establish ‘virus free zones’ for key workers, and weed-out those who are solely asyptomatic spreaders of the virus, as well as those who show symptoms.

Without this measure, how are we expected to work, day-in, day-out, with the stress of not knowing until it’s too damn late, who has and who hasn’t, got the dreaded lurgi?

There are other questions in my mind, like; why are the markets behaving so abombinably? Traders and shareholders should realise that everything needs to be put in some kind of stasis for the moment.

Currency values could be frozen temporarily, and all trade in currencies suspended until people are out buying normally again. This could actually be done, but it probably won’t be, and a few unscrupulous people are going to get very rich indeed, off the back of this global crisis.

The mentalities need to change, I’m not advocating political and social collectivism, as such, though more cooperation by markets, regulators, and governments, toward the same, non-catastrophic economic situation for the countries affected that have any fiscal weight in the first place, would be very welcome at this stage.

A commitment to saving economies, rather than allowing traders and shareholders to, at least potentially, benefit from disaster, these would have to be initiated in the markets themselves, by those who can calm the situation, and who have the power to suspend dealing in currencies until recovery has been reached, this is one of the things that’s needed.

The more pathetic, and sometimes outright lunatic aspects of human nature have made themselves apparent at this time too, reactions by those incapable of formulating a serious thought about the situation we face. This also demonstrates an absence of appropriate learned behaviour, which reflects badly on the current state of western education and social mores.

The idiotic “coronavirus challenge” being the prime example.

An Italian Dr, working in Piedmont , but who shall remain nameless at his own request, said that in his ICU, 56% of patients are over 70, but that the youngest of his critically ill patients, is just 20 years old, with no underlying medical conditions. He also said that people between 35 and 60 make up the other 44% of his ICU patients.

The more of us that test positive but are asymptomatic, or get a very mild illness, and can recover fully, and then go on to volunteer to help, the better.

Economic accountability, for those who play their part in the destructive effects this is having on national economies, has to be part of the public and political conversation in the aftermath of this pandemic. If not, then look forward to the upswing in commodity prices becoming the new normative pricing for those products.

The race for a working vaccine, one that is “one size fits all”, will ensure massive strides in the studies of virology and epidemiology, and subsequently, new products to keep us safe from the viruses we know about.

I need to add, I have been bemused and amused, in probably fairly equal measure, by the official advice to “stock-up” on some consumer items, and from the same mouths, condemnation of “panic-buying”. The difference between the two being; ‘stocking-up’ means buying a bit more of the tinned and dried foods each time you shop; “panic-buying” means buying several trolley/shopping-cart loads every time you shop.

Cities have become eerie places that echo with sounds one would not normally have heard above the everyday din of traffic and people, I would suggest that some people are going to want to permanently leave the city they live in, for a more isolated and much smaller community.

The thinking is; that this situation, of lockdown, will go on for much longer than civil authorities are currently willing, and in many cases, able to admit. Look forward to spending most, if not all, of the summer months in lockdown, as we attempt to deny the virus new victims, thereby bringing its presence among us, slowly to an end.

My advice, such as it is, to the world at large, but especially to governments around the world, is; TEST, TEST, TEST, & TEST AGAIN.

Let’s make the invisible enemy visible, and by doing so, defeat it.