From day one of mask wearing in Spain all sales people eg fuel attendants etc told customers it was to protect their customers not themselves. Customers took the message and soon we could all see the risk takers ie those with no mask.At least he's told the truth.
The UK healthcare leadership got it it wrong. Really wrong.
They asked the wrong question: "Does a mask protect the wearer?" (To which the answer is: "Not much.") Whereas the question should have been: "Does wearing a mask protect everyone else from the wearer?" (To which the answer is: "Hell, yes!")
More death sentences will be handed out by His Majesty the Grim Reaper if this Economy gets any worse, its on it's knees, no taxes through Business and employment equals Austerity that has not ever been witnessed ever. As others have already alluded to its a massive balancing act that I do not envy any leader or Party to have to make. Avoiding this Virus is simple, stick to the fucking rules and don't be a dick which I am afraid is difficult for most.
It all takes some explaining. The government has borrowed more than £100bn in two months and the national debt ratio is bigger than the economy’s annual output, but investors don’t care a bit.
Orthodox economic theory says rising budget deficits lead to rising interest rates because the financial markets get nervous and demand a higher price for lending to the state. Not these days. There have even been examples of investors paying for the privilege of lending to the British government.
Hayfever maybe.As I suspected, my test case back negative this morning. Something is making me get out of breath when talking though. I am normally fit and healthy with no underlying conditions that I know of.
The track and trace system seems to be next to non existent from my experience.
My dad received a positive result first thing Monday morning. It was a shock as he's 74 and has been basically shielding for three months. He went out once last week to drop something off with someone who we found out tested positive afterwards. We sent him for a test as he did develop a cough over over the weekend but it still knocked us for six when the result came through.
Anyway, it's 51 hours since his text came through and nobody has contacted us regarding track and trace. That's over two days lost. It took three days for the guy I think he caught it off to be contacted by a tracer. That simply isn't good enough. The country needs to come out of lockdown but the preparation to keep people safe isn't in place. We're being led into a very dangerous situation to appear to keep up with other countries but the people tasked with leading us out safely are failing us.
As far as my dad goes the track and trace failure hopefully won't do too much damage. I'm staying with my parents so we've had to quarantine and aside from seeing one person who he caught it from I phoned the newsagent where he bought a paper this weekend myself to notify them. There isn't anyone else to tell.
I would urge everyone to be careful and to tell their loved ones to be careful too right now. Please don't be going about your business believing there is a system in place to manage the spread. There isn't. And please stick to distancing and handwashing. My dad's guard dropped literally once in three months (and outdoors too) and that's all it took.
Sorry to hear about your dad and your family’s situation. I hope he is better soon.
Health prevention is always better than cure so anybody taking extra risks because they have been told track and trace is effective and place needs to give their heads a wobble. We have been told repeatedly that social distancing and washing our hands thoroughly is the main defence and it’s better to wear a mask out in public.
I have been critical on this thread about the poor local public health involvement that is needed as part of an effective test, trace and isolate System. I do think that some other parts of the UK (eg Northern Ireland where they maintained test and trace IIRC)! are in a better place and English Regions are playing catch up on track and trace.
Yes it definitely feel like there needs to be more organisation at local level. With regards to our situation we have two people within half a mile of eachother that have tested positive in the space of two days. It seems to me like it would be a good idea if people in the area were warned about that. I think most people would respond to news that there's been a couple of cases in their immediate vicinity by voluntarily cutting back on their movements (or exercising extreme caution if they can't stay home)
The guy my dad caught it off is a total moron who has been all over the place in the weeks leading up to his test so it wouldn't surprise me if there are more cases around here.
I definitely have friends whose guard has dropped of late. It's just natural because there's been this prevailing sense that were getting back to normal. Even the news has been saying stuff like "independence day" regarding reopening. Telling us there's a world beating track and trace system in place was a v irresponsible thing to do in my opinion. I agree people shouldn't use that as a cue to go wild but it does create a perception that there's a framework in place within which we can think about going out more etc
I think my experience has definitely been a wake up call to people I know because they know how strictly we've been living since March.
Good post and I agree. Local communities should be notified when local people have the virus.
For example, I have heard several times from Government Ministers (and I only see the press conference once or twice a week) that the CEO of Leeds Council is working alongside Dido Harding to localise the response to Covid eg by ramping up local authority and public health involvement. I live in Leeds and I have never heard or seen a picture of this guy. It seems like another tick box exercise.
FWIW, I volunteered for the NHS Responder roles and I didn’t get any calls as there were far too many volunteers, real-time to the people needing help. I would have been happy to help with track and trace (and I’ve done things like get people’s shopping on my own initiative). There were over 750k NHS Responder volunteers IIRC. The assumption that the number of cases got out of hand for local track and trace capacity is only a reality for the leadership of the Covid response who had a lack of imagination.