Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[Catfish Blues]

Not sure if anyone else who actually works in the NHS can confirm this, but I know of at least one person who got a text off an unknown number telling them to go to a particular location and get tested. It was only a few phone calls that confirmed it was actually the NHS getting their own staff member to go to a test centre.

My other half is a nurse and knows of two or three people who've been tested because they're specialist staff currently isolating. As far as I know, there wasn't any confusion on the comms, but that could just be that different areas are doing things differently.

However, joined up comms isn't something the NHS is well known for, so what you're describing wouldn't surprise me. What we all need to understand is that mistakes will be made in all areas of the NHS. People are doing things they've never done before, and though there'll be plans in place for large flu outbreaks, this is on a different scale. If people learn from those mistakes and change what they're doing accordingly, then that's really the best we can hope for.

 

[peteblue]

Only a few million, we shouldnt have bothered.

/s

@peteblue

It’s a balance. People are trying to make out that millions in the U.K. would have died and that is patently not the case. Sweden is still learning but has about 250 deaths, we have 6x their population on full lockdown but have 10x the number of deaths. What does that tell us. We won’t know what was right or wrong until it’s nearly over....

 

[LinekersLegs]

I think if everyone wore them it would be a good thing. It would have to work on a i am protecting you, you are protecting me basis.

While instead of looking at people wearing masks as weirdos, it would be scornful not to have a mask.

My only concern is that mask hygiene is important.

For example ive seen people around the community with masks on and ive seen them taking them of getting into their cars, they grab the front of the mask and pull it off over their face, contaminating their hands and face. You should never touch the front of a mask after use as this is the most likely infected area of a mask, you pull it off by the strings at the back away from your face and wash your hands.

Or ive also seen people pull it off with plastic gloves on, touching and potentially contaminating their faces. That is nothing a bit of education or a 3 minute youtube video wouldn't sort out, as well as how to sanitize and dispose off your mask.

I think the WHO are afraid of that part and the general public to be honest how to actually use this stuff safely, take it off safely and dispose of it safely, there is as much risk of contamination in taking it off and disposing as there is not actually using it, but its not rocket science either, people aren't stupid.

So i think there would need to be a call for the community to wear masks by governments like recommending social distancing, backed by some education on mask hygiene - simple stuff really.

I think it could make a big difference, especially when the community get a bit more closer to reality - going back to work etc, using public transport, shops etc. But id say we wont be seeing it for a while, governments definitely dont want the general public in the medical supply market place.

If this research is true then it would further support the usage of masks by everyone

 

[roydo]

I read an article this morning that suggested that the daily mortality rate will go up for the duration of this, but the yearly rate will not change much and possibly go down, because it's reckoned that 60% of those that die from covid 19 will likely have died within 6 months regardless, so obviously a higher percentage over 12 months, the explanation of the yearly death rate going down was given as the social distancing putting an early end to flu season, people not getting into fatal car crashes, work place fatalities, those combined with those who god Covid 19 would likely have have died from their underlying condition anyway will see the actual mortality rate not change much.

Thats been my take on this for a few weeks. Its horrible, but this is accelerating the death rate of many who most likely wouldnt see the year out anyrate.

In a way, and again, just posting feels terrible, I "hope" I am right.

 

[summerisle]

Bus was packed today, me and one other person, nobody on the return journey. The bus companies must be losing a fortune.

 

[peteblue]

@MarcelsGoat was quoting your post, where you said who they had blamed for the business loans thing?

It is the Banks responsibility to issue the loans. It is the governments responsibility to provide a guarantee. The Government have done their bit and businesses are complaining about the banks. So no one has shifted any blame, it is with the banks. What he’s done tonight is remind the banks that their businesses were bailed out from going under a while back......

 

[Twinkletoes123]

30 ventilators FFS!

 

[Catfish Blues]

because it's reckoned that 60% of those that die from covid 19 will likely have died within 6 months regardless

That's partially right, but the number you're using is wrong.

I forget the exact numbers, but, if you're in your 80's, you have something like a 10% ( or possibly a bit higher ) chance of not seeing out the next 12 months, so it'll be closer to 10% or 20% rather than 60%.

Also, it's not as simple as saying "Your nan was old, so might have died anyway", you're talking averages here. So yes, some COVID related deaths may well not have seen out the year, but you can't tie it down to specific people.

It's also possible that the shielding of 1.5 million vulnerable people will mean that some of that group who might otherwise have died, will now live because they're less likely to be pick up a less serious infection than Coronavirus, which could still have been enough to kill them.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

all combined? If so if anything that makes me think 563 is an even more depressing number.

You tell me

 

[peteblue]

My other half is a nurse and knows of two or three people who've been tested because they're specialist staff currently isolating. As far as I know, there wasn't any confusion on the comms, but that could just be that different areas are doing things differently.

However, joined up comms isn't something the NHS is well known for, so what you're describing wouldn't surprise me. What we all need to understand is that mistakes will be made in all areas of the NHS. People are doing things they've never done before, and though there'll be plans in place for large flu outbreaks, this is on a different scale. If people learn from those mistakes and change what they're doing accordingly, then that's really the best we can hope for.

In the military it is said that the best laid plan rarely survives the first engagement......

 

[Bruce Wayne]

My other half is a nurse and knows of two or three people who've been tested because they're specialist staff currently isolating. As far as I know, there wasn't any confusion on the comms, but that could just be that different areas are doing things differently.

However, joined up comms isn't something the NHS is well known for, so what you're describing wouldn't surprise me. What we all need to understand is that mistakes will be made in all areas of the NHS. People are doing things they've never done before, and though there'll be plans in place for large flu outbreaks, this is on a different scale. If people learn from those mistakes and change what they're doing accordingly, then that's really the best we can hope for.

The wife just had an email that the head of her trust has been tested (as presumably as his family). Oh, and secondment will be commencing next week, and whilst Tesco et al find it in their heart to give staff a bonus, NHS staff get bugger all apart from a clap.

 

[LinekersLegs]

It’s a balance. People are trying to make out that millions in the U.K. would have died and that is patently not the case. Sweden is still learning but has about 250 deaths, we have 6x their population on full lockdown but have 10x the number of deaths. What does that tell us. We won’t know what was right or wrong until it’s nearly over....

Who forecasted millions with no intervention? The Imperial report was ~500k in UK and 2.2 million in US iirc

 

[Catfish Blues]

In the military it is said that the best laid plan rarely survives the first engagement......

It's technical term is FookUpThenFix.

The trick is in minimising the original fook up, which it seems the govt failed on, but [a] lets not go down that road on here yet ( but it mustn't be forgotten ) and (b) at least they didn't just carry on regardless and are in fix mode now.

 

[Tin-Tin]

Not enough equipment, not ordering ventilators etc, now this.

Looks like they are still going along with their herd immunity strategy but just not saying it out loud. Not one reporter is calling them out

 

[Paris]

It beggars belief we didn't act quicker'
Back to the issue of testing for coronavirus in the UK - the subject of several questions from journalists at today's Downing Street briefing.
The government has made it "a lot harder" for the UK by choosing to delay the introduction of widespread testing and buying more ventilators, a GP and former MP says.
"For us to be arriving at the party a bit late in terms of widespread testing... I've not really followed the logic of that," Dr Phillip Lee said.
The former Lib Dem MP said the government should have reacted back in January when he says it knew that the illness was going to have a significant impact on lung function in some cases.
"It beggars belief that we didn't act quicker. We'd done an exercise, we knew we had these challenges."
Downing Street says the first batch of 30 new ventilators produced by a consortium of companies will be delivered this weekend, with "hundreds more" to follow in the coming weeks.

I certainly agree. I'd love to know what shaped UK government policy, my inclination is they believed the staggeringly erroneous and corrupt advice offered by the WHO.