Last week's blog again generated quite a lot of feedback! We've read a lot of useful suggestions. Thanks everybody for the continued support!
Sadly, we didn’t make much progress on statistics this week. On the weekend, Zun got an idea about Unity’s Burst Compiler, and he spent much of the week trying to get it to work. The image below is a screenshot of that little project.
Like Zun, I’ve been working on a little voxel project. It’s teaching me a lot about Unity and programming! Here’s a GIF of the project.
Corona & the Netherlands
Last Sunday, I was driving in a rented van listening to the radio - something I seldom do. The news came on and it reported about Corona in Northern Italy and a rapidly rising number of infections. We had seen pretty terrifying videos from China, but China is far away. Northern Italy is only 11 hours of driving removed from us here in the Netherlands. I got a bit concerned.
In the following days, reports of Corona infections came closer and closer to home - soon arriving in German regions close to the Dutch border. Last weekend, people in the south of the Netherlands have been celebrating carnaval, and there were stories of Corona-infected Germans participating there.
Yesterday evening, officials confirmed the news: a Dutch person has been infected in the south of the Netherlands. He and everyone who he has been in contact with will be isolated.
That might be the end of Corona in the Netherlands, but it seems unlikely. The amount of infections outside of China is growing exponentially, and a handful of people have quickly spread the disease to many hundreds in countries like Italy. That first Dutch carrier has probably already infected others - who have also infected others.
Which means that right now, we might be on the precipice of a massive wave of Corona in the Netherlands. But there are a lot of unknowns in regards to Corona. What’s the exact mortality rate? Do only people with severely weakened immune systems die, or is it capable of killing healthy and younger people as well? Are Western nations with modern healthcare systems able to nip this in the bud, or will this eventually infect a large part of the population? Relatively mild scenarios are possible, but more severe scenarios aren’t unrealistic either.
[At this exact moment we learned about the second confirmed Corona infection in the Netherlands. It’s separate from the person in the south of the Netherlands, it’s somebody who had also visited northern Italy, and it’s a person who lives in Amsterdam]
Apart from the disease itself and its deadly consequences, there’s another problem. Systems are being disrupted. Supermarkets already face shortages of products like disposable gloves, disinfectants and rice. One of the biggest Dutch online retailers has pulled its advertising and raised its prices, fearing disruptions in the supply line from China. And of course we’ve seen footage of deserted cities where everybody is forced to stay indoors.
So we’re a bit anxious about the near future. Should we stockpile food and other supplies - and if so, how much? Should we already try to self-isolate as much as possible? They’re tough questions with unclear answers. We’d love to know how you’re dealing with this problem! I hope you understand that this news has been a bit disruptive to our workflow.
Bedankt voor het lezen!