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Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

Harry Smiles said:
At my wit's end. Latest message from a family member linking to this and obviously, because I'm don't want to discuss it, I've just fallen for the state hype. And the bloke isn't a crank, he's just made enough money to be able to whistleblow in an industry, where no-one else will
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Can we keep conspiracy stuff off this thread please, there's other places for it, and this thread is important for factual stuff and discussion imo.
 
On the Marr interview, amongst digging his heels in over school closures and hinting at more restrictions to come, Johnson said there has been a "stubborn" epidemic in Kent and parts of London due to the new fast-spreading virus variant.

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Since when has "Kent and parts of London" included Essex, Buckinghamshire and East Sussex? Does he really not know what's going on and how bad it is in the south east? Is he in denial? Is he playing it down? Or did he just mis-speak?
 
hash tag said:
Hey people do not go out celebrating tonight, stay home, stay safe says the Standard in one headline.
In the next, come see Patti Smith live tonight at Piccadilly! :confused: :facepalm:

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I'm posting this far too late to stop anyone making the trip down to Piccadilly Circus on Thursday night.
but FWIW this was cancelled. sanity prevailed. you can still view the thing on YouTube but on Weds they announced on advise from the Met it wasn't going to be on the big screen there.
pretty irresponsible of the Standard not to update their headline & article when the organisers announced that the day after.
 
The Nightingale hospitals should have been opened a week or two ago using agency staff if need be (not necessarily in high risk areas, but maybe filling in so that better trained staff could be moved into critical areas) because there is already crisis in admissions in a lot of areas.

My OH had a massive asthma attack on Wednesday and I had to call an ambulance (please trust me that I do not call an ambulance on a whim, it was an emergency, his inhaler wasn't giving any relief and he was struggling to breathe) - we were EXTREMELY grateful that an ambulance arrived but it was 40 minutes which is a long time when someone is struggling to breathe - then there was no bed for him so he couldn't be admitted (which would be usual for observation overnight in this circumstance), instead he had a nebuliser on a trolley and was sent home with a prescription for oral prednisone (normally when this happens he is admitted and given IV steroids). Our local hospital was full, they took him to A&E at a different hospital.

There is already massive strain on hospitals, now is the time to open up the Nightingale units and draft in as many people as possible in nursing or auxilliary care roles. They need to stop saying they will do it if it is needed and admit that it is needed.
 
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Epona said:
The Nightingale hospitals should have been opened a week or two ago using agency staff if need be (not necessarily in high risk areas, but maybe filling in so that better trained staff could be moved into critical areas) because there is already crisis in admissions in a lot of areas.
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I suspect that that resource has already been drained. I don't work on the ward side but in the labs and there are very few qualified experienced staff out there to fill vacancies. I would imagine it's exactly the same for nursing staff and heath care assistants etc
 
Callie said:
I suspect that that resource has already been drained. I don't work on the ward side but in the labs and there are very few qualified experienced staff out there to fill vacancies. I would imagine it's exactly the same for nursing staff and heath care assistants etc
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Aye but my OH was a nurse for 20 years and hasn't been asked to do any shifts. He probably shouldn't due to being in an at risk group himself, but I don't think everyone who could be recruited has been asked. I'd go and do auxilliary care or cleaning if I was offered a wage to do so,
 
Spandex said:
On the Marr interview, amongst digging his heels in over school closures and hinting at more restrictions to come, Johnson said there has been a "stubborn" epidemic in Kent and parts of London due to the new fast-spreading virus variant.

View attachment 246811

Since when has "Kent and parts of London" included Essex, Buckinghamshire and East Sussex? Does he really not know what's going on and how bad it is in the south east? Is he in denial? Is he playing it down? Or did he just mis-speak?
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I was curious why he came out with such an obvious untruth, but the simple reason just hit me: in a feat of backwards logic reminiscent of the Andropov era Soviet authorities, because the schools are only closed in Kent and parts of London, then only Kent and parts of London are badly affected.

Being able to get away with this kind of shit is why he loves to go on the Marr show. Any heavyweight journalist would notice and pull apart his misrepresentations, half-truths, logical twists and outright lies.
 
Callie said:
I suspect that that resource has already been drained. I don't work on the ward side but in the labs and there are very few qualified experienced staff out there to fill vacancies. I would imagine it's exactly the same for nursing staff and heath care assistants etc
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It certainly has around here, according to my SiL, who despite retiring in 2019, before returning to the lab last year to help out p/t & finishing again in Dec. 2020, and is now back again, as she volunteered to go on the 'bank staff' list, it's the same across all the hospital, they are bringing in all the bank & agency staff, yet are still struggling.
 
Callie said:
Sorry for the thread derail but has he signed up for NHS professionals/bank? Not 100% sure how well it's run but I think trusts are looking to bank staff first where possible.

Might be worth contacting any trusts he has worked with previously to see if they can have him on their bank?
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He hasn't signed up for anything because he was carted off in an ambulance 4 times last year due to severe asthma and cannot work in a high risk COVID setting. Also he was treated like shit as a nurse and never wants to go back.

I would go and do cleaning or low level unqualified stuff in a hospital though. I have trouble lying at interviews though and would struggle to make out that it was my dream job - but fuck yeah I can do pretty much anything for a living as long as I don't have to take my clothes off.
 
LynnDoyleCooper said:
No safety, no work!
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Those wondering what this refers to: No Safety No Work

It's worth remembering that the Labour Party, the unions, the well meaning players of civil society cannot be relied on to do these things for us. That notion that politics is what you wish people in authority would do for us holds us back. Politics is what we do, and only what we do changes anything for the better.

We in the ACG do a lot with the resources we have. But we can neither mobilise the working class nor do we want to. It has to mobilise itself. That’s direct action. We can only agitate, militate, discuss, make ideas and ways of connecting available. And that’s what we do. But if the class isn’t ready to run with it, we can only work to help it gain self confidence.

(*my personal take).
 
Most recent SAGE paper on children, schools and transmission.

The key finding, from an ONS/UoMan analysis, is that children were more likely to be the index case in a home - in other words, introduce the virus in the home setting. Children under 12 are around three times more likely to be such than adults (17+) whilst 12-16 year olds are seven times more likely. In a given household, under-17s are more than twice as likely as any of the adults to infect others in that household.

Additionally, a LSHTM/PHE infection survey found that "there are numbers of staff and students attending school with evidence of current infection" ie staff and students with symptoms/recent contact with infected cases are failing to self-isolate accordingly.

Key points of immediate relevance to the coming week:

"accumulating evidence is consistent with increased transmission occurring amongst school children when schools are open, particularly in children of secondary school age (high confidence)."

"multiple data sources show a reduction in transmission in children following schools closing for half term, and transmission rates increasing again following the post-half term return to school (medium confidence)."
 
andysays said:
Could you remind us what this S44 thing is please
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Basically if a workplace is unsafe then a worker can, legally, refuse to work until it is made safe.

Unions are legally prohibited from organising/promoting S44 as.a strategy to withdraw labour, but they can advise members on what S44 states and how they can use it. As I said on the other thread whatever the faults of the NEU (and there are plenty, danny la rouge is absolutely right that it cannot be left to the unions) it is pushing at the (legal) edge of S44 - and good on them. Hopefully other unions will follow suit.
 
2hats said:
Most recent SAGE paper on children, schools and transmission.

The key finding, from an ONS/UoMan analysis, is that children were more likely to be the index case in a home - in other words, introduce the virus in the home setting. Children under 12 are around three times more likely to be such than adults (17+) whilst 12-16 year olds are seven times more likely. In a given household, under-17s are more than twice as likely as any of the adults to infect others in that household.

Additionally, a LSHTM/PHE infection survey found that "there are numbers of staff and students attending school with evidence of current infection" ie staff and students with symptoms/recent contact with infected cases are failing to self-isolate accordingly.

Key points of immediate relevance to the coming week:

"accumulating evidence is consistent with increased transmission occurring amongst school children when schools are open, particularly in children of secondary school age (high confidence)."

"multiple data sources show a reduction in transmission in children following schools closing for half term, and transmission rates increasing again following the post-half term return to school (medium confidence)."
Click to expand...

That matches my local anecdotal evidence - some three/four weeks ago; older kid brought the infection back from local secondary school, rest of the family were infected very quickly (two adults and another sprog). The father was already working from home, so was isolated from colleagues, not sure about his wife. A pattern that has been repeated around the area, but also with adults also spreading via one or more of the local employers. Local testing seems to be picking up many of these cases, not sure how well the isolations are going.

The guy who brought our food delivery late last night said that many people visiting their shop are not fully following the "hands : face : space" guidelines and the staff are now getting infected. We were especially careful at wiping down the items after that nugget of information ...
 
redsquirrel said:
Basically if a workplace is unsafe then a worker can, legally, refuse to work until it is made safe.

Unions are legally prohibited from organising/promoting S44 as.a strategy to withdraw labour, but they can advise members on what S44 states and how they can use it. As I said on the other thread whatever the faults of the NEU (and there are plenty, danny la rouge is absolutely right that it cannot be left to the unions) it is pushing at the (legal) edge of S44 - and good on them. Hopefully other unions will follow suit.
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Q - S44 of which act / CoP, please ?
 
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