Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion
- Thread starter Sasaferrato
- Start date
Ms Ordinary
randompointlesschemistry
I really hope this is leading up to advising masks to be worn in indoor office spaces by autumn / flu season.
I've been back into work for a few weeks now (anyone not vulnerable or reliant on public transport was expected in & we do actually need a core of office-based staff) & with the best will in the world, inevitably people are not really distancing.
It feels ok at the moment - it's a small office with big windows & easy access to outside space & (partly due to there being large no of office-based smokers) & half the usual number of people - but I am not looking forward to winter when the windows shut & the crappy heating/"AC" comes on.
Frustratingly, the guys at work are actually really compliant with the mandatory stuff - wear their masks like lambs on the train & in shops - but seem to have such solid faith that BoJo is a good sort doing his best (!) that they won't do anything before it's officially required
Supine
Newt Member
8 / 08
The 808 drum machine is used at quaranteen raves to give the kids a kick.
Plus 303 + 808 + 909 = 2020. It all becomes clear now.
mr steev
magic thought wizard
Yeah, I read that somewhere too. That a regional lockdown isn't necessarily going to go on council boarders or whatever, and a Sandwell one could quite possibly include parts of Brum and Walsall
BCBlues
Lend us a Twenner
Dudley and Wolvo too.
mr steev
magic thought wizard
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
souljacker
innit
I really hope this is leading up to advising masks to be worn in indoor office spaces by autumn / flu season.
I've been back into work for a few weeks now (anyone not vulnerable or reliant on public transport was expected in & we do actually need a core of office-based staff) & with the best will in the world, inevitably people are not really distancing.
It feels ok at the moment - it's a small office with big windows & easy access to outside space & (partly due to there being large no of office-based smokers) & half the usual number of people - but I am not looking forward to winter when the windows shut & the crappy heating/"AC" comes on.
Frustratingly, the guys at work are actually really compliant with the mandatory stuff - wear their masks like lambs on the train & in shops - but seem to have such solid faith that BoJo is a good sort doing his best (!) that they won't do anything before it's officially required
I was at an office last week which had a good policy. Basically, if you're at your desk, you can have your mask off but as soon as you get up to make a coffee or go and chat to someone else, you had to put it on. It worked really well and seemed sensible but was helped by there being so few people in that your desk was miles away from anyone.
Regarding people waiting for BoJo to tell them what to do, as far as I'm aware he has. He's told offices to be Covid secure but hasn't really defined what that means. So any decent company should be putting in various measures and getting people to comply.
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
I suffer, you all suffer.
elbows
Well-Known Member
There is some documentation regarding covid secure guidance, but I have a vague memory of reading loads of it and not coming away with anything worth mentioning here. It didnt leave much of an impression so I will resort to guessing that it was full of empty platitudes, as this seems like a safe bet.
souljacker
innit
Exactly. It's up to the offices and, IMO, the unions and the workforce to make sure things are safe.
hash tag
Reaching out
He is also a man of the people, inhe.
hash tag
Reaching out
Travel insurance is invalid. The stresses of trying to get home as people in Spain are finding out. With cancelled flights, it could cost some a small fortune to be forced into extending their stay and a small fortune trying to buy a flight home.
Many of those there just want a relaxing holiday on the beach. Not.
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
Travel insurance is invalid. The stresses of trying to get home as people in Spain are finding out. With cancelled flights, it could cost some a small fortune to be forced into extending their stay and a small fortune trying to buy a flight home.
Many of those there just want a relaxing holiday on the beach. Not.
I have to admit my sympathy for these people is limited. Holidaymakers anyway. I know people who were stranded in Spain for months of total lockdown after going home to visit family etc, but that was first time round where it wasn't forseeable.
elbows
Well-Known Member
I dont blame people for wanting a holiday, and they were encouraged to believe it was not a completely unrealistic proposition. My sympathy diminishes a bit when the individuals take what has happened personally, or are totally caught off guard by what has happened, but again they have been fed mixed messages for some time and some people dont need much encouragement to turn their hopes into beliefs and justifications.
I'm still glad I encouraged people to try to take a mental break from the pandemic as much as possible in the summer, (without forgetting the new behaviours that are required) but thats in great part because I expect we'll need recharged mental energy (and vitamin D I guess, not a subject I know much about yet) to get through the winter. And even if winter doesnt live up to worst case fears, people will till be nervous that it might, and thats an inevitable drain in itself.
I'm still glad I encouraged people to try to take a mental break from the pandemic as much as possible in the summer, (without forgetting the new behaviours that are required) but thats in great part because I expect we'll need recharged mental energy (and vitamin D I guess, not a subject I know much about yet) to get through the winter. And even if winter doesnt live up to worst case fears, people will till be nervous that it might, and thats an inevitable drain in itself.
elbows
Well-Known Member
Do those that follow independent sage know whether they mention sewage-based surveillance much? As I mentioned recently I have not followed the output of that group at all yet, and I do plan to start at some point before autumn but I'm not quite ready yet. I guess it bothers me that I dont routinely see any obvious pressure for the government to get such a sewage system in place ASAP, and I end up thinking this all the time now that we are in a stage where local and regional measures are being taken in response to the other test-based data we do have.
platinumsage
HaveMyPassword123
Sewage testing has been happening since March, and is being expanded.
Sewage monitoring is the UK’s next defence against covid-19
Researchers have pioneered wastewater analysis and are now contributing to a nationwide programme, reports Chris Baraniuk For the past few months, scientists in the UK have been quietly poring over samples of British faeces. Researchers at a handful of universities around the country have been...
elbows
Well-Known Member
Sewage testing has been happening since March, and is being expanded.
Sewage monitoring is the UK’s next defence against covid-19
Researchers have pioneered wastewater analysis and are now contributing to a nationwide programme, reports Chris Baraniuk For the past few months, scientists in the UK have been quietly poring over samples of British faeces. Researchers at a handful of universities around the country have been...www.bmj.com
Excellent, thanks, a fair bit firmer than the last time I heard about it, which was scientists promoting the technique and talking about the need to turn it into a proper system nationwide.
If anyone hears more about the programme in this country in the UK at any stage please do mention it here. Because as per that article you linked to, the authorities are still being rather coy about much of the detail:
A few weeks have now passed since then but for all I know something more may have been said publicly that I simply havent noticed yet.
I got stuck with the ash cloud in 2010. Luckily was somewhere cheap as it wasn't covered by travel insurance.Travel insurance is invalid. The stresses of trying to get home as people in Spain are finding out. With cancelled flights, it could cost some a small fortune to be forced into extending their stay and a small fortune trying to buy a flight home.
Many of those there just want a relaxing holiday on the beach. Not.
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
"Hands, knees and bumps a daisy".
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
In Swansea here, and I was out and about today.
In shops, there remains a pretty low level of mask wearing generally (10% to 15% or so?
)People are pretty good at distancing, including queueing where necessary.
And they have been all along here, but masks aren't much of a thing at all yet, from what I've seen-- the rules in Wales about masks aren't in place, mostly.
But I've been thinking for a while that mandatory masks in shops (as well as on buses**) can only be a matter of time.
**Mandatory in Welsh buses since last Monday -- 27th July
Workplaces? We'll have to wait and see what Drakeford next announces
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scifisam
feck! arse! girls! drink!
elbows
Well-Known Member
We need facepalms from outer space to save the human race,
About face for the disgrace, win the race in last place,
World beating fleeting credibility, testing patience on a scale not since since 1983.
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