Day 53 of self-isolation - a video on youtube

I paid my car tax, although I have no idea when I might get to use it again. But HMRC needs the money, to pay the airlines to keep running. Or something.

I used the rubber "plumber's friend" plunger to help a sink. A lot of dirt came out, and I have no idea where that could have come from, that sink is only used for hand washing.

The weather is taunting us. Other Bank Holidays are clouds and rain; this one is brilliant sunshine. I think it knows.

Bojo seems to be walking back his hints about re-opening the country. I suspect we'll be told we can walk for exercise twice each day instead of once, and there will be some other token gesture.

But I wonder what the reaction would be to, for example, hairdressers opening? I suppose there are many people desperate about their split ends and grey roots, but is it worth the risk? For months now, we've been told to huddle at home - reversing that won't be easy. I've missed my annual haircut, but it's a hardship I'm bearing bravely.

There's a video going round - I've been asked to watch it three times now. I suppose people are keen to be told "it was all a hoax". The video starts off with the interviewee telling us how she was arrested and imprisoned without charge - if true, that's a grave injustice. But then she moves on to telling us that the Covid-19 numbers are very exaggerated, because hospitals are paid $13,000 for each Covid-19 patient, so doctors are encouraged to diagnose that wherever they can.

The problem with that theory, is that it only applies to America. In the UK, for example, hospitals are funded by government out of taxation, and don't get any incentive for reporting Covid-19. And in the UK, reported cases are twice as high as in the USA. And likewise in other European countries. So much for that theory. And her other theories also don't stand up when I checked them. Also, the $13,000 isn't true, I checked it. Yes, US hospitals are being bailed out by Medicare, but that's because US hospitals are for-profit businesses and they've been told "Stop doing the operations that normally earn you money, and concentrate on the Covid-19 cases that you often won't be able to bill for". So, to keep going and pay their medical staff and for materials, they need a bailout.

The popularity of the video (apparently Youtube has banned it, but that's where I keep seeing it) must have some cause. And I think it's the wishful thinking that if only none of this were true.

If only.