COVID-19 — Coronavirus

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Can anyone recall how we ended up using a two metre distance rather than the WHO recommendation of one metre?
Going to one metre distancing would surely simplify a fair few of the anticipated hurdles to come.
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public
You can reduce your chances of being infected or spreading COVID-19 by taking some simple precautions:

  • Regularly and thoroughly clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water. Why? Washing your hands with soap and water or using alcohol-based hand rub kills viruses that may be on your hands.
  • Maintain at least 1 metre (3 feet) distance between yourself and others. Why? When someone coughs, sneezes, or speaks they spray small liquid droplets from their nose or mouth which may contain virus. If you are too close, you can breathe in the droplets, including the COVID-19 virus if the person has the disease.
  • Avoid going to crowded places. Why? Where people come together in crowds, you are more likely to come into close contact with someone that has COIVD-19 and it is more difficult to maintain physical distance of 1 metre (3 feet).
  • Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth. Why? Hands touch many surfaces and can pick up viruses. Once contaminated, hands can transfer the virus to your eyes, nose or mouth. From there, the virus can enter your body and infect you.
  • Make sure you, and the people around you, follow good respiratory hygiene. This means covering your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze. Then dispose of the used tissue immediately and wash your hands. Why? Droplets spread virus. By following good respiratory hygiene, you protect the people around you from viruses such as cold, flu and COVID-19.
  • Stay home and self-isolate even with minor symptoms such as cough, headache, mild fever, until you recover. Have someone bring you supplies. If you need to leave your house, wear a mask to avoid infecting others. Why? Avoiding contact with others will protect them from possible COVID-19 and other viruses.
  • If you have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, seek medical attention, but call by telephone in advance if possible and follow the directions of your local health authority. Why? National and local authorities will have the most up to date information on the situation in your area. Calling in advance will allow your health care provider to quickly direct you to the right health facility. This will also protect you and help prevent spread of viruses and other infections.
  • Keep up to date on the latest information from trusted sources, such as WHO or your local and national health authorities. Why? Local and national authorities are best placed to advise on what people in your area should be doing to protect themselves.
 
ganganvince said:
Yes but what also will be taken into account going forward is the vast majority of the excess deaths are elderly who would have died naturally over the coming months meaning once we get the virus under control the excess could turn negative for those periods not overall.
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You can't say, well they would have died anyway. Everyone's going to die.
 
Gaylord du Bois said:
Can anyone recall how we ended up using a two metre distance rather than the WHO recommendation of one metre?
Going to one metre distancing would surely simplify a fair few of the anticipated hurdles to come.
Click to expand...

I mean how much of a difference does that really make? I'd rather be safe than sorry - what tasks become 'easier' with 1 metre as opposed to 2...?
 
Fame Monster said:
You can't say, well they would have died anyway. Everyone's going to die.
Click to expand...
That's not what I said. excess deaths is a figure taken over a period of time that does not take into account cause it is pure data. My attempt was to explain that we have lost a lot of elderly people who would have appeared in the data later on the year therefore that could skew the figures.
 
Bazzmand Show said:
I mean how much of a difference does that really make? I'd rather be safe than sorry - what tasks become 'easier' with 1 metre as opposed to 2...?
Click to expand...
Staffing levels spring to mind. Cafes, bars and restaurants too. Reducing to one metre would make a considerable difference to capacity restrictions.
 
ganganvince said:
That's not what I said. excess deaths is a figure taken over a period of time that does not take into account cause it is pure data. My attempt was to explain that we have lost a lot of elderly people who would have appeared in the data later on the year therefore that could skew the figures.
Click to expand...

No I do get your point. I was making a more general point.
 
kevin horlocks wand said:
I agree with a lot of that . The government are going to have an incredibly difficult job of getting people to come out of lockdown.

we have watched in the media the horrific scenes in Italy and think it won’t be like that here and then we have seen the deaths rise here

the messaging from the government and media has been deaths, deadly, horrific , unprecedented. Stay in your house , we are all going to die. Building hospitals to cope with the deaths . Story after story of deaths .

then this week they are going to say ok now back to work .unless they can back this up with credible science and data a lot of people are going to be very anxious about returning to any form of normality for the foreseeable. Boris ain’t going to get an economic bounce back anytime soon because they have done a umber on us telling us for the last few weeks how deadly this is .

they can say all they like we are on the downward curve now but when people see 600 daily deaths then they will Make their own kind up .
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Be under no illusion; this virus is deadly and the public needed to take that message on board. It is not like seasonal flu as it is far more contagious and affects young and old alike, albeit with varying symptoms.

However, we have had 6+ weeks in lockdown and reinforcement of the social distancing measures which should be sufficient for most people to change their behaviours, which if followed, will protect them to some degree.

The lockdown cannot stay in force indefinitely, it’s causing too much harm to the economy but that aside, if this virus is going to be around for at least another 12 months, we have to learn to live with it, until a viable vaccine is found.

That is why it is crucial that the government get it right on how the lockdown is to be lifted and ensure they deliver a clear message as to the procedures to be followed. Common sense on the part of the public is also required but there will always be idiots out there who think the rules don’t apply to them. The rest of us will just have to give them a wide berth if they’re anywhere near us.

Whilst the powers that be are reluctant to sanction the use of face masks, they must be mandatory on public transport - possibly for all public places such as retail outlets, basically, anywhere the public use a confined space. Whilst they cannot totally stop you inhaling air droplets from an infected person nearby, logic tells you that they will offer some protection, which is better than none.

IMHO I think the reluctance to go down that route is because they feel they’d have to provide them free of charge as they do in other countries. I may be wrong on that but I cannot see why we won’t go down that route (unless they’re still going for herd immunity), but surely providing masks would be the cheaper option if if it instals confidence in the public to venture out and get the workforce up and running again?

I don’t accept the rationale that it encourages you to touch your face or it would mean people wouldn’t see the need to maintain the requisite 2m distance, as most people are far more sensible than they give us credit for.
 
Perhaps the lower figure of flu deaths can be attribute to more people taking up the flu jabs during the winter? Seems to be advertised more and more each year.
Hard to disentangle all this tbf.

It’s even busier out there today. Can see traffic lightly building up (though it’s also a case of road construction back at it...which in some respects makes sense).
 
Gaylord du Bois said:
Can anyone recall how we ended up using a two metre distance rather than the WHO recommendation of one metre?
Going to one metre distancing would surely simplify a fair few of the anticipated hurdles to come.
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public
You can reduce your chances of being infected or spreading COVID-19 by taking some simple precautions:

  • Regularly and thoroughly clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water. Why? Washing your hands with soap and water or using alcohol-based hand rub kills viruses that may be on your hands.
  • Maintain at least 1 metre (3 feet) distance between yourself and others. Why? When someone coughs, sneezes, or speaks they spray small liquid droplets from their nose or mouth which may contain virus. If you are too close, you can breathe in the droplets, including the COVID-19 virus if the person has the disease.
  • Avoid going to crowded places. Why? Where people come together in crowds, you are more likely to come into close contact with someone that has COIVD-19 and it is more difficult to maintain physical distance of 1 metre (3 feet).
  • Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth. Why? Hands touch many surfaces and can pick up viruses. Once contaminated, hands can transfer the virus to your eyes, nose or mouth. From there, the virus can enter your body and infect you.
  • Make sure you, and the people around you, follow good respiratory hygiene. This means covering your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze. Then dispose of the used tissue immediately and wash your hands. Why? Droplets spread virus. By following good respiratory hygiene, you protect the people around you from viruses such as cold, flu and COVID-19.
  • Stay home and self-isolate even with minor symptoms such as cough, headache, mild fever, until you recover. Have someone bring you supplies. If you need to leave your house, wear a mask to avoid infecting others. Why? Avoiding contact with others will protect them from possible COVID-19 and other viruses.
  • If you have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, seek medical attention, but call by telephone in advance if possible and follow the directions of your local health authority. Why? National and local authorities will have the most up to date information on the situation in your area. Calling in advance will allow your health care provider to quickly direct you to the right health facility. This will also protect you and help prevent spread of viruses and other infections.
  • Keep up to date on the latest information from trusted sources, such as WHO or your local and national health authorities. Why? Local and national authorities are best placed to advise on what people in your area should be doing to protect themselves.
Click to expand...

Tbf one metre just *feels* too short. Given everything its hard to trust WHO on this. One metre is nowt. Could probably feel someone's breath if you were facing them and talking to them from that distance.
 
twosips said:
Tbf one metre just *feels* too short. Given everything its hard to trust WHO on this. One metre is nowt. Could probably feel someone's breath if you were facing them and talking to them from that distance.
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We were doing one metre at the beginning. I get what you're saying but it's using up a vast amount of space if one is shown to be sufficient.
I wonder which other nations are using as part of their precautions.
 
ganganvince said:
That's not what I said. excess deaths is a figure taken over a period of time that does not take into account cause it is pure data. My attempt was to explain that we have lost a lot of elderly people who would have appeared in the data later on the year therefore that could skew the figures.
Click to expand...
Pretty sure the statisticians will produce a formula for working it out.
 
Rammy Blue said:
Pretty sure the statisticians will produce a formula for working it out.
Click to expand...
Think it depends as well on what you are doing, walking past somebody or even standing behind them in a queue 1 metre is probably okay, if you are facing them having a conversation, probably not. That said it seems to me older people especially have no concept of what 2 metres is and are probably standing closer to each other and nearer 1 metre anyway, looking at them in the queues outside our shops when they see a friend in the town.
 
Gaylord du Bois said:
We were doing one metre at the beginning. I get what you're saying but it's using up a vast amount of space if one is shown to be sufficient.
I wonder which other nations are using as part of their precautions.
Click to expand...

Didn't it come from droplet spray tests?

I suspect an element of it is predictive behaviour. Judging 2 metres is not going to be good, and it'll likely be nearer 1.5m a lot of the time. Making it lower would likely end up with a very small distance.
 
blueparrot said:
Think it depends as well on what you are doing, walking past somebody or even standing behind them in a queue 1 metre is probably okay, if you are facing them having a conversation, probably not. That said it seems to me older people especially have no concept of what 2 metres is and are probably standing closer to each other and nearer 1 metre anyway, looking at them in the queues outside our shops when they see a friend in the town.
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We're still a country that uses imperial measurements when we talk distances, so whilst 2 metres may be hard for some (especially the old) to imagine, 6 feet (and a bit!) probably isn't.
 
Further lockdown, couple weeks, or do we start to relax some of the measures on Friday?

Personally, I think another 2 weeks will be required, then we can begin looking at getting the schools back etc.
 
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