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Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

I am surprised no one has mentioned the Sunflower Scheme here. I have heard that if for whatever reason you are unable to wear a face mask a Sunflower Lanyard
will highlight the fact that you have a "hidden disability". Anyone can get one though!
 
All staff except the manager wearing masks in Lidl this morning but still less than half the shoppers. Quite a few elderly not wearing them which is odd as we have a pretty old population (for London) and older people have been wearing them a lot more than everyone else. Most of Romford seemed to have them on but most people at that time are on their way to get a train or a bus.
 
I've avoided big supermarkets since lockdown. Went into local co op yesterday. The 2 staff on the till were both behind screens and neither wore a mask...I think that's ok. The 8 customers all had a mask on. That's ok. The 2 staff on the shop floor were the only people on the shop floor unmasked. Not ok.

The aisles are so narrow and the one aisle where you have to queue up in is the pet food aisle. Yesterday that involved 8 masked up customers standing socially distanced from each other, while 2 unmasked staff weaved in amongst us, huffing and puffing refilling shelves with bags of cat litter and maxi boxes of Whiskas. It's possible those 2 staff can't wear a mask... then put them somewhere away from their customers who have complied.
 
bimble said:
Yep I’ve heard the same.
The email says I may or may not have to test my own self (will find out when I get there). It does make me wonder, with all the home test kits, how many people actually do it properly if doing it properly is painful or at least very unpleasant? I’m rubbish at stuff like that, even removing splinters etc.
Click to expand...

I'm assuming that when they say stick it up your nose til you get resistance then twirl it round they say to do it for 20 seconds* to get you to do it for as long as possible, but not actually needing 20 seconds. 20 seconds is a looooong time to spend doing something so unpleasant to yourself.

*might have been 15 seconds.
 
elbows said:
The written instructions I have for the swab test (I'm doing it as part of a saliva test evaluation) say "Holding the swab in your hand, open your mouth and gently rub the swab over both tonsils and the back of the throat five times, for about 10 seconds (using a mirror may help you do this)."

I havent done it yet, not looking forward to it.

edit - oh there was a video too....

Click to expand...


I had one of those. it's nice that they put the hot doctor in casual clothes in his kitchen instead of scary lab and white coat.

for me the nose was definitely worse than throat. cos if you feel yourself gagging can just lift off the swab for a second while keeping it in your mouth until that passes then go again. but you ain't pulling it out your nose at all till the whole 20 secs twirling is done.

good luck!
 
quimcunx said:
I'm assuming that when they say stick it up your nose til you get resistance then twirl it round they say to do it for 20 seconds* to get you to do it for as long as possible, but not actually needing 20 seconds. 20 seconds is a looooong time to spend doing something so unpleasant to yourself.

*might have been 15 seconds.
Click to expand...
about four turns of the swab, thats all it needs. couple of seconds
 
Not sure why anyone's commenting on facemask use when it's not enforced until July 24th (ludicrous as that is). I'm guessing a lot of people are going to be like an old colleague of mine who when talking about wearing a bike helmet said he'd wear one if they were compulsory despite accepting wearing one when it was a choice would be likely to be a sensible thing to do.
 
S☼I said:
Not sure why anyone's commenting on facemask use when it's not enforced until July 24th (ludicrous as that is). I'm guessing a lot of people are going to be like an old colleague of mine who when talking about wearing a bike helmet said he'd wear one if they were compulsory despite accepting wearing one when it was a choice would be likely to be a sensible thing to do.
Click to expand...
Because like you said about bike helmets, the sensible thing is to do it now. Shops choosing not to recognise that are not showing any loyalty to customers or staff. They need to be doing everything now they can to inspire confidence. Or they'll just be another boarded up shop on the ever diminishing high street.
 
[
BCBlues said:
The argument that " other asthmatics cope" when wearing masks is ridiculous and stinks of DWP thinking when refusing claims for PIP etc, and is probably one reason why they lose so many appeals.
Click to expand...

I actually tried one of mine (although only for a minute) and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't too uncomfortable. I've ordered a couple of cloth ones though which I'm hoping will be even easier.

Not sure whether the point was made above but people with asthma re more likely to cough, too, so masks doubly important.

I hope LynnDoyleCooper uses more moderate language when he's talking to asthmatics away from urban ("total bollocks") but raised a good point about asthmatics not wanting to catch it that I'm tempted to share with asthma.uk . I'm not sure which are the many medical organizations are he mentions that say the vast majority of asthma & copd sufferers have no problem with masks, I've not seen that on the asthma.uk or lung foundation sites, though, who you'd expect would know.

If people do refuse to wear a mask by pretending they've got asthma they can always be asked to show their inhaler - they'd have to carry one if their asthma was that bad.
 
I've been wearing one too two sheds , the cloth ones seem to be ok but I still cant wait to get outside the shop and take it off.
I just hope people who cannot manage at all wearing one will not be treated like lepers.
 
I was in the supermarket this morning. One staff member with a visor, none others with masks. I was one of about 5% of shoppers with a mask. Things are going to have to shift a long way by the 24th
 
So there is some hope

The coronavirus vaccine candidate being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University induces a strong immune response and appears to be safe, according to preliminary trial results.

The early stage trial, which involved 1,077 people, has found that the vaccine trains the immune system to produce antibodies and white blood cells capable of fighting the virus. It also causes few side effects.

Professor Sarah Gilbert, co-author of the Oxford University study, described the findings as promising but said there “is still much work to be done before we can confirm if our vaccine will help manage the Covid-19 pandemic”.



Prime minister Boris Johnson said the results were ”very positive” as he congratulated the team of scientists working on the vaccine.

“There are no guarantees, we’re not there yet & further trials will be necessary – but this is an important step in the right direction,” he said on Twitter.
Click to expand...

www.independent.co.uk

Oxford coronavirus vaccine is ‘safe’ and produces immune reaction, first study results show

Vaccine candidate causes few side effects and trains immune system to produce antibodies and white blood cells capable of fighting virus
www.independent.co.uk www.independent.co.uk
 
Panorama on the UK response
www.bbc.co.uk

BBC One - Panorama, Britain’s Coronavirus Gamble

Panorama looks at how the government handled the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
Politicians from the prime minister down have assured us their response to the coronavirus pandemic has been 'guided by the science’. But the science has been hotly contested. The World Health Organisation urged countries to stamp out infections as soon as they developed, but the UK government's initial scientific advice said the route out of the crisis was for most of us to catch the virus so we could develop herd immunity.
Panorama reporter Dr Faye Kirkland asks whether this was a dangerous gamble with people’s lives or a sound scientific approach. Faced with a growing backlash and warnings that the NHS was close to being overwhelmed, politicians denied that herd immunity was the policy, and within a few days Britain pivoted to a new strategy – lockdown. Now, as we try to emerge from that lockdown, Panorama investigates what those early decisions could mean for our future.
Click to expand...
 
I was in Morrisons last night, I and one other punter were wearing masks, plus one member of staff. Probably 20-30 other shoppers and staff not wearing them.
 
Had a similar experience weltweit
Walked up my High St, it was incredibly busy and hardly anyone wearing a mask in all the smaller shops, the delivery guys all hanging out together, there were at least 12 of them and in CoOp there’s no longer a guard on the door and only 1 other person was wearing a mask and none of the store staff.
 
teuchter said:
I reckon the nation is going to just ignore the masks in shops thing and they'll quietly withdraw it.
Click to expand...

I think you're probably right. To my mind it doesn't help that one of the loudest advocates for it were the shop workers unions yet shop workers seem the least likely of anyone to wear them. Wevs.
 
Retailers could be using their prime time TV ad space to get the mask wearing message across now. They really don't seem to care enough. It's odd.
 
Teaboy said:
I think you're probably right. To my mind it doesn't help that one of the loudest advocates for it were the shop workers unions yet shop workers seem the least likely of anyone to wear them. Wevs.
Click to expand...
Every worker except the manager was wearing one in Lidl yesterday. Apart from one member of staff who has worn one throughout (and has an obvious comorbidity) it was the first time I'd seen any of them in masks. Given that they were all wearing the same kind perhaps Lidl have pulled their finger out and started providing them for staff.
 
zahir said:
Looking for someone to blame
www.ft.com

Inside Westminster’s coronavirus blame game

What went wrong with the UK government’s pandemic response and why? As an inquiry looms, the search for a scapegoat is on
www.ft.com www.ft.com
Click to expand...

This FT article just has to be read in full, I'd say :hmm:

If anyone wants some reminder (with a few new facts), about how utterly incompetent the Government has been right from the start of 'all this', there's a huge amount there ....... :mad:

Incriminating stuff .......
 
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