OneGuyFromBarlick

He might not be a candidate for Strictly Come Dancing but he's a brilliant epidemiologist respected worldwide and we're lucky to have him.

Indeed but he is only telling folk to stay at home and wash their hands. You don't need to be a brilliant scientist to do that but you do need to appeal to the audience which is very varied.

David, My mind flew back to the Falklands as well! Ian McDonald was the dead pan to end all dead pans.....
What grabbed me yesterday was the fact that when fully operational the new 4,000 bed hospital at the Excel Centre will employ 16,000 staff. I thought we were more than that number short already! Where are the 16,000 coming from?

PanBiker wrote: ↑01 Apr 2020, 18:18 Indeed but he is only telling folk to stay at home and wash their hands. You don't need to be a brilliant scientist to do that but you do need to appeal to the audience which is very varied.

They should replace him with Stanley, he'd soon have them bleaching their pots as well as washing their hands!

I note this has raised the possibility of other symptoms...
`Coronavirus: Are loss of smell and taste key symptoms?' LINK

Stanley wrote: ↑02 Apr 2020, 03:32 Where are the 16,000 coming from?

I asked that question on here a while back. 'They' said that nurses would be moved down from the North then, which I thought was a bit optimistic. It was said to be up and running by yesterday, but it isn't. The thought of 4000 sick people in such a place is unimaginable.

Meanwhile the Gmex centre in Manchester will be another such facility so they say, with another such in Glasgow. 'They' will probably move the Northern nurses back then. If they ever went in the first place.

I'm not writing such things to appear clever, and I get what the difficulties are. I wish well to all who are doing their best in an almost impossible situation.

The Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow sites will not have the same capacity as the London site, nevertheless 4,000 is just a little more than a third of the entire population of Barlick doesn't bare thinking about.

I think the Excel, and presumably others, start with an inital capacity of 500 beds, which can be expanded. Non-medical staff are being recruited from the likes of flight attendants of virgin/easy jet etc.

(There may be too the PR aspects of activity over effectiveness)

Seems like an expansion of Territorial Army Capacity and Nursing Auxiliaries long term might be a neccessity.

Medical Staff can be sourced from a mix of re-deployment, persons can have medical skills in other areas (police, fire service , military).

At one time we used to have isolation hospitals, and it seems in the present system, the spread of contagious diseases is faster and worse in medical facilities between staff and patients, something is not working right, from cleaning to protective clothing , and effective isolation in and out.

I would also note that a number of infections have started in African countries partly from re-patriations of their nationals out of the UK. In times of virus or similar, there has to be a proper lockdown of international /interstate movement including isolation (in the absence of reliable testing) for 21 days or as appropriate exiting or entering a new geographical location.

Pluggy wrote: ↑01 Apr 2020, 14:29 Is it just me or is the bod doing the NHS Coronovirus "stay at home" adverts on National TV a real live wire (not) ?. I think he's maybe computer generated to be as depressing as possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cK02XwUogM

Having found the youtube version he has a name.

If he had not died recently I would have used the voice (and avitar of) Marvin the Paranoid Android. (actually there is probably enough audio to cut and paste the words)

Marilyn wrote: ↑01 Apr 2020, 05:43 .
Without being abrasive, and inflicting wrath, I wouldn’t say the government has run everything down to save money. What it points out, is that no society can afford a cradle to grave free health system in these times. Perhaps an AFFORDABLE co-payment system needs to be introduced after this and before the next pandemic hits ( eg coronavirus tests are not free here...well they are for some...but perhaps you didn’t know that).
Most of us pay compulsory health cover here. If you earn over a basic wage you need to have it.

Yeah, we have that in the UK too, its called Tax - maybe if at least a proportion of the tax bill to companies and individuals were hypothecated to health and shown on your monthly / weekly payment detail it might be better (or not, there could be many frivoulous demands for I've paid for it I should have if ).

chinatyke wrote: ↑30 Mar 2020, 05:00 A message from my mate, Peking Pete who is currently in Thailand and free to crack jokes:

The General Secretary of the National Union of Filchers, Intruders, Larcenists, Cat Burglars and Housebreakers (FILCH), Colin 'The Crowbar' Wilson, has today urged the government to provide emergency financial support to the country’s 30,000 burglars.

etc.

Aside from the on line criminals , many robberies etc are done to feed drug habits, there has been reports of persons dressing up as medical staff to break into hospitals , presumably to nick stuff (inc handgel) or drugs direct.

plaques wrote: ↑29 Mar 2020, 08:49 I'm still a bit confused by the rules on vulnerable people.
1) Those under 70 not classed as extremely vulnerable are limited to , one walk, shopping, car driving etc:
2) Those 70 and over are considered vulnerable, even if they are fit and healthy, should not leave the house. ie: isolation.
3) Extremely vulnerable, those who have received a litter telling them they are on the list should isolate.

For the over 70's there appears to be no difference between 2) & 3) except the promise of a food parcel.

I wonder how many over 70's of group 2) are following the rules to the letter.

Experience seems to be showing that ages below 70 should consider their needs to stay indoors too.

Group 3 is a double isolation in theory, but it is disappointing that Group 2 dont get a letter or a food parcel too since it is reliant on local authorities, who, lets face it, struggle to repair potholes effectively , an increased social care workload is not going to be managed well by all.

Big Kev wrote: ↑25 Mar 2020, 09:16 Trump (the orange knob of the apocalypse) has gone mad, he reckons the US will be back up and running by Easter. Good luck with that.

He later explained he was not trying to cause panic. In some ways I thought he had a mix of good sense in talking up light at the end of the rainbow, but too little action to ensure the reduction in the potential spread.

With Trumps mismanagement they will be lucky to get away with less than 250,000 deaths. He's another bloke I would not share air with.

We are pretty fortunate that our normal lifestyle although not exactly in the recluse class we are relatively isolated. When we do make a brake for it we try to pre-plan what precautions we should be taking. Social distancing, disposable gloves, single place shopping, doing without rather than hunting round. Every person you see could be your enemy, the rainy day is here gerit spent.

We are basically the same, not been to the supermarket for about a week not needed to. Later in the week maybe, see if they have re stocked on strong flour for bread aking. Freezer will be supplying our teas for tonight from previous batch cooking sessions. We do go out for a walk and have no problem in socially distancing ourselves from the occasional persons we meet. We are in green fields within 5 minutes of leaving home.

Sally has been perfecting her design of facemasks and will go into production for folk that want one. Government is about to change tack on the recommendation of this measure as it has been proved that they help mitigate the spread of the virus if you yourself are a carrier and who knows if you are or are not, no testing going on other than determining yourself if you are ill. In which case we would totally isolate.

I've just looked at the average number of deaths in the UK for week 12 over the last 5 years and it is approximately 10,500 people. It helps to put things in some sort of perspective.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulation ... ges/deaths

BBC reporter Fergus Walsh who says he has had no symptoms of the virus took an antibody test live. A film clip actually. He tested positive for Covid 19. If the test is accurate, he has had the virus and has antibodies to it in his blood.

I heard an expert today say that these antibodies may not appear for up to 28 days after recovery. I've also heard 4 - 7 days as well, so quite a possible time frame to span here.

He was unaware that he had it- so could have infected many people in the last few weeks.
Th good side of things - if he has had it, he may now be immune to it - (this is still unknown at the present, but is likely from other viral infections) and could return to society.

There may be many more in his position, and herd immunity may be a possibility eventually if the immune people can get back to work and break the chain of infection.

Matt Hancock the Health Secretary came bouncing back from his illness today. Some of the stuff he said made it sound as if the problem had started last week not months ago. He spoke of setting up a totally new testing industry from scratch. He set ambitious targets for testing which were less than Boris had already set, but said he supported those targets as well. Didn't say whether they were for antigen (swab) of antibody (blood) tests though, so he has wriggle room.

I heard a very convincing anecdote yesterday from some one who suspects they had it before Christmas - was ill, and recovered. Let's hope there are lots more, and a reliable test can confirm that soon.

PS. Wendyf - I take your point, but looking through the other end of the telescope - if you are the one who has it - those statistics don't seem that important.

Tripps wrote: ↑02 Apr 2020, 21:10 I heard a very convincing anecdote yesterday from some one who suspects they had it before Christmas - was ill, and recovered. Let's hope there are lots more, and a reliable test can confirm that soon.

On the 9th January this year I posted this in the Medical Matters thread:

"Notwithstanding my recent three week hacking cough which has now mended up."

At the time I felt wiped out with the constant coughing, cant remember having a sustained fever but did have night sweats. Makes you wonder doesn't it?

Indeed - that's what I'm doing a lot of. . .

now - Stop press.

On local TV news - Samba 2

This device which was made for other viruse, has been quickly modified to deal with Covid 19, and is said to give a result in 70 - 90 minutes. The accuracy from a throat swab, is said to be 100% for negative and 99% for positive.

They say they (20) are already in use at Addenbrookes, and many more are about to be supplied because a benefactor has done a buy one get one free deal. (Bizarre in the circumstances, but that's what they said).

Encouraging I'd say.

Supermarket was hell this morning. Managed to get a twin pack of kitchen sponges though!
No toilet paper, no paper towel, no tissues, no soap, no hand sanitiser, no flour of any kind, no yeast (dried or fresh). Pasta in very limited supply. Many shelves empty and I can’t even remember what was one on them. A lot of people wearing gloves and masks ( I wore my mask but hubby refused...we both wore gloves).
It was so depressing.
Signs everywhere saying “don’t upset our staff” .
I really don’t understand all of these shortages all over the world. They say there are warehouses full of stuff, so why aren’t basic items on the shelves?
Mind you, we won’t be starving any time soon. We may die of depression, but not starvation

I had to turn Matt Hancock off. What everybody wanted to know was what was the truth about testing. Was it true that only 2,800 out of 550,000 NHS staff have been tested? Is it true that the new super hub for supplies at Milton Keynes is mired down in problems? Are they going to take advantage of the live offers from smaller labs in the public sector like the ones Paul Nurse described yesterday and the the modified HIV tester that David mentioned that can do a full test in 90 minutes?
After 5 minutes of carefully rehearsed white noise I realised that there was no way we were going to get quick transparent answers so I stopped wasting my time, I will be able to read a report of what he said this morning. I was right, see THIS BBC report on the news conference, a lot quicker than sitting thorough the event! The politicians are still muddying the water by lumping the antigen and antibody tests together, this gives them wriggle room when they fail to reach their own targets.
Ian is quite right about soap and water. People seem to see 'hand sanitizers' as magic bullets. Far better to go to Shambles on the Square who have big bars of carbolic scrubbing soap dirt cheap and they make the most beautiful thick lather, they must be made using very good oils. I use it and put a drop of Dettol in the water as well. I think that perhaps does the trick!

"Sally has been perfecting her design of facemasks and will go into production for folk that want one. "

Ian, please ask Sally to put me down for two. Donation to Bosom Friends as payment?

I have already made ours...machine washable.

Stanley wrote: ↑03 Apr 2020, 05:16 "Sally has been perfecting her design of facemasks and will go into production for folk that want one. "

Ian, please ask Sally to put me down for two. Donation to Bosom Friends as payment?

I'll pass that on, she's doing them for free but a donation to the group would be welcome. I'll pop them on the windowsill when their sorted. She's back on piecework.

Good on Sally.
They do help, from what I read.
I washed mine after returning from the supermarket today. Mine has a Blue Wren on it...