Dear Fellow UK Citizens

The UK government now needs to get as far ahead of this virus as it possibly can. And that means recognising where the outbreaks are all going to be from here on in, and putting a dead stop to them. There are other outbreak sources of course, but we cannot think of a better hideout for this pathogen than the tens of thousands of supermarket queues forming all over the UK.

Can you?

And this means time is running out. That's time to buy in extra ventilators, time to put testing in place for all (esp NHS staff), time to analyse which treatments of the infected work best, and time in the medium term to find a vaccine.

We cannot possibly slow down the infection rate if supermarkets remain open as they are. Line upon line of innocent victims, all huddled together in aisles and checkouts from Lands End to John O'Groats.

That's why every UK supermarket and corner store should now close their doors, and become local distribution centres instead.  The big chains need to buy in massive server capacity to handle millions of new online orders, and arrange delivery time slots. Hard but do-able.

Then, we need a Dunkirk-style call up of the nation's van drivers to deliver it all. We have the road networks. We could easily have all the vans needed. We certainly have the fuel. All we need now is leadership.

Benefits:

1) The number one source of all the outbreaks to come (namely, supermarket queues) could be all but halted 

2) Human face-to-face contact would be brought to an absolute minimum

3) All panic buying would be stopped

4) Pensioners and the disabled won't stressed trying to shop for themselves

5) The food supplies can then be managed and distributed fairly, street by street, home by home

6) All the usual non-essential items people are currently clogging up our national supply routes with can be halted

7) Everyone will have a balanced (if limited) diet for the time being

8) No-one will starve

9) Most importantly, we buy TIME to save lives

Drastic? Absolutely. But we see no other way of controlling the speed of the spread. In summary, all UK supermarkets urgently need to become distribution centres. If you agree, please make sure you sign and SHARE this petition. Every second counts...