Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

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Chris O'Connor said:
It seems the shambolic preparedness for this pandemic was partly due to Public Health England (PHE) expecting the next real pandemic threat to be a new lethal strain of influenza where mass testing wouldn't be an appropriate strategy, as mass testing is seen as not that effective against strains of influenza given the different mode and rate of transmission of the flu virus strains.

Despite SARS, MERS and Ebola proving that that a new strain of influenza would not necessarily be the next pandemic, even if by far the most likely, the PHE never once considered mass testing as an appropriate strategy and have thus been totally unprepared and not set up to react to any crisis where it is.

The PHE were the principal input and central to advice given to the government, so despite warnings from the WHO that mass testing would be needed, there was a total lack of preparedness or logistics where the correct channels of supply to people who could make and supply chemicals were just not there, they were non existent.

This has been the huge failure in their strategy, it is one where the lack of preparedness caused by too much concentration on a new strain of influenza being the enemy, as it was far more likely given they do happen every year, and a reluctance to therefore spend millions of pounds on preparedness for something far less likely to happen has tragically cost lives. It left them in a position where it was almost impossible to react to a different situation and to get 'online' the help needed through existing channels. They were caught out and completely unfit for purpose at the time it was essential they were up to speed. It was possibly a pragmatic decision that has had disastrous consequences.
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But, but , but, surely it was Boris’ fault......
 
paultheblue said:
All he ever says it will be sorted next week.What is this big logistical problem he talks about?
If you have a warehouse full of the stuff
Just put it in vans and lorries and deliver it to the hospital .
My wife has a nurse out everyday to change the driver on her arm so they sit right in front of her for 15 minutes with no protection whatsoever. She has terminal cancer so if she catches it she is dead .
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paultheblue said:
All he ever says it will be sorted next week.What is this big logistical problem he talks about?
If you have a warehouse full of the stuff
Just put it in vans and lorries and deliver it to the hospital .
My wife has a nurse out everyday to change the driver on her arm so they sit right in front of her for 15 minutes with no protection whatsoever. She has terminal cancer so if she catches it she is dead .
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The care nurse has arrived today and they have all been told they must now wear masks and gloves. The reason they were not wearing them is purely because they just havent had any(no surprise I know).
I will be interested to see how long the availabilty lasts.
 
Bruce Wayne said:
We'll see how things go I suppose, but the outcome seems to be that she'll do tasks that don't require the certification, or the requirements will be waived and they'll chuck people in with a bit of a refresher. The very fact that she was contacted directly rather than via her current boss has me a bit worried that the acute side is not in a great place in terms of available numbers, so the 2nd option might be forced upon them. Please stay at home folks.
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In most of the emergency legislation brought in by governments they bypass much of the health and social care regulations and usual accountability in this "emergency", its all hands to the pumps. That inevitably leads to a situation your wife finds herself in, but this is becoming more and more the norm, is over here anyway.

What you have to expect and see is healthcare staff getting the virus and others having to self isolate after having contact with them. That takes huge swaths out of clinical teams, departments and specialist teams etc. I know testing of healthcare professionals hasn't been a priority in the UK and i think part of that might be the impact it will have on service provision. But i can tell you 25% of all virus cases in Ireland are health care professionals, a quarter of my team have got the virus or have had to self isolate in the past three weeks, it leaves a huge vacuum, hence situations like the one you describe.
 
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Chris O'Connor said:
It seems the shambolic preparedness for this pandemic was partly due to Public Health England (PHE) expecting the next real pandemic threat to be a new lethal strain of influenza where mass testing wouldn't be an appropriate strategy, as mass testing is seen as not that effective against strains of influenza given the different mode and rate of transmission of the flu virus strains.

Despite SARS, MERS and Ebola proving that that a new strain of influenza would not necessarily be the next pandemic, even if by far the most likely, the PHE never once considered mass testing as an appropriate strategy and have thus been totally unprepared and not set up to react to any crisis where it is.

The PHE were the principal input and central to advice given to the government, so despite warnings from the WHO that mass testing would be needed, there was a total lack of preparedness or logistics where the correct channels of supply to people who could make and supply chemicals were just not there, they were non existent.

This has been the huge failure in their strategy, it is one where the lack of preparedness caused by too much concentration on a new strain of influenza being the enemy, as it was far more likely given they do happen every year, and a reluctance to therefore spend millions of pounds on preparedness for something far less likely to happen has tragically cost lives. It left them in a position where it was almost impossible to react to a different situation and to get 'online' the help needed through existing channels. They were caught out and completely unfit for purpose at the time it was essential they were up to speed. It was possibly a pragmatic decision that has had disastrous consequences.
Click to expand...
Who created Public Health England? The Tories. It was the result of an unneccessary shake up of the NHS in England designed to increase the role of the private sector into the NHS.

All roads lead back to this government and its predecessor.
 
Bruce Wayne said:
She's been a community nurse for several years, but is highly likely to be deployed to clinical care on Monday, so she has no idea what equipment she'll have or what the situation will be like. At the moment, she's more concerned about the relative rustiness of her skills, so will probably spend the weekend swotting up and doing various assessments and stuff on me.
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My wife is in the same situation. She's a Health Visitor and whilst she's a registered nurse she's not been on a ward for ten years. Back then she was a nurse on the neonatal ward so her experience is not with adults. Right now she's not sure if or when she'll be redeployed but she's concerned about what she'll have to do, training, safety etc. Despite that she's still volunteering to do it because this of the type of people nurses etc are. They don't do it for the money. They do it because the care and want to help people. It's nice to see they are finally getting so recognition.
 
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