Corona Virus Lock Down 'Rant' Thread.

[IslandPink]

Bloke next door is having his car valeted for the second time in 3 weeks, by some bloke who came round in a van.

[steve s]

Black and Asian people may not survive as well as white folk, perhaps, if so, may be due to socio- economic factors... it has been suggested.

That's the only thing they can think of. Doesn't fit the doctors and consultants though, does it ? Vitamin D, I will keep banging on about it. It's one of the few things we could do right now that would save lives.

I've been taking vitamin d and some large over 50s multi vitamin since you highlighted it.. I've been feeling good in myself since. I stopped taking them for a couple of weeks in March.. I could tell the difference in how I felt.

[JohnG]

I've been on the Vit D as well, and drinking increased amounts of fluids as well as hot beverages, and been slat water gargling every few days.
I had chronic neck pain, for a few years, since the Lock Down I am taking part in, the Chronic Pain has disappeared completely.
It is a amazing freedom, Bloody Marvellous , as the Sleep has improved tenfold, as I do not wake up, with the need to give the neck attention.
I will settle for this as a outcome of the temporary change of lifestyle.

[Michael L]

email from The Good Law Project

Dear Friend,

The Good Law Project has received leaked guidance from an NHS hospital trust that reveals doctors are being told they are not required to put COVID-19 on death certificates.

If doctors are being gently discouraged from reporting deaths as COVID-19, we have no way of knowing if the government figures on deaths from coronavirus - the daily in hospital figures as well as the weekly ONS figures - are accurate.

The Good Law Project has instructed lawyers to write to the NHS hospital trust today, asking them to clarify the guidance urgently. But so far we’ve only seen the guidance from one trust. We have no idea if hospital trusts up and down the country are issuing the same guidance.

For that reason, we’re calling on the Health Secretary Matt Hancock to take urgent action to ensure all suspected deaths from COVID-19 are recorded properly. Will you join us by adding your name to the petition?

[simon]

I lost a colleague to COVID 19 this morning. As we've been working from home for over 3 weeks I wasn't even aware he had it.

He presented symptoms 3 weeks ago and was admitted to hospital over a week ago. On Tuesday he showed signs of improvement but went downhill on Wednesday, passing away today. He wasn't in my immediate team, but he was part of our family and it feels pretty close to home.

[Ali Tait]

Sorry to hear Simon. A work colleagues' mother in law was a victim last week.

[IslandPink]

Yes that's sobering news, Simon.

Dr. John Campbell has pulled a couple of blinders today :

An extensive review of March ONS statistics including the percentage of people who have died 'with' Covid-19 and those who died 'from' Covid-19 :


A further review of Vitamin D evidence, more than I knew before - despite being pretty well -informed about the subject ! :

[simon]

Yeah, I think it being the first person I know to die of it, and only the second person I know after Paul (that I'm aware of) that has had it, is what's been such a jolt today.

How are you now Paul?

[Mike H]

Yes sorry also Simon,

Vitamin D, I will keep banging on about it.

Still taking mine!

[Max N]

Sorry to hear that Simon.
My Dad had to go into hospital for something else, not COVID. He tested negative on admittance, developed a temperature, was tested again and was positive. But since then has been asymptomatic. We're keeping our fingers crossed for him. Currently waiting to hear today's update from the hospital.

[simon]

Thanks chaps. Fingers crossed indeed for your dad Max.

[Greg]

Yes, Max, hoping all will turn out for you and your family.

I’ve been following various news channels today and it is clear the comments of some medical and scientific experts has the journo’s starting to turn on the government and question their competence in the management of this crisis, mainly around acting too late, a soaring infection and death rate that is likely to be the highest in Europe and the lack of PPE for our brave front line NHS staff and Care Home workers.

Furthermore, the COVID-19 testing currently available requires people, including our NHS and Care hero’s to travel many miles to a test centre where they are having to join long queues to have swabs taken. Sometimes it is so busy, people, including our essential Medical and Carer staff are turned away.

What I actually question is the competence of our Civil Service to act on the instructions and directions Government ministers give them to set up what is needed that can function efficiently and capably. I’m inclined to think that Dominic Cummings may have a point and our Civil Service is in need of a major make over. The F&CO are also under criticism for their incompetent management of the return of U.K. citizens from abroad when other European Countries seem to be managing the issue well. In a previous occupation, about 18 years ago, I had a couple of roles where I had to work closely with F&CO personnel. My experience was that they were totally up themselves, had no concept of human compassion, were grossly incompetent, made many mistakes, some of which brought a threat to the life of victims I was working to support. It seems to me, nothing has changed. I feel that were we to have a competent and strategic Civil Service, we would be in a better place today.

In the meantime, it seems the original discriminatory policy of ‘Herd Immunity’ has not gone away and remains the backstop; the bottom step on the stairs where we continue to sit.

[JohnG]

To achieve Herd Immunity there is a requirement that 60% of the population has contracted the illness for the effectiveness of the condition, to be seen as beneficial to the control of the Pandemic.
With the present percentage of the Population being declared as having contracted the illness, Herd Immunity seems a long way off,
and the loss of life that will be incurred, to achieve the 60% is looking at a calculation no one would want to disclose.
It is vital to find a Vaccine, I don't see Herd Immunity being promoted too often from now on, as the gruesome figures are becoming more widespread as to the true meaning of the strategy.

I also have heard that in 2016, the Authorities carried out a Emergency Training Experience, to prepare for a Pandemic.
The outcome in relation to PPE Requirements was to rely on a Supply Chain and not to Stockpile.
With a Global Pandemic, the Supply Chain can't deliver, hence the deep concerns about the lack of supply.

[Greg]

Well John, you are right about the herd immunity thing, but because I am a sceptic, I regard the herd immunity back stop as being the actual government policy backstop and probably we (under Government direction) won’t achieve anything better in the meantime. Yes, the loss of life will be enormous. I am yet to be convinced that anything the Government is currently doing will move us away from that population fatality.

[Ray P]

Sorry Greg but your sweeping Daily Mail-type generalisations are almost amusing - and yes I am, I work for the MOD. At the working level the civil service is actually pretty like society as a whole and not unlike a lot of what you see in businesses, mostly good but with some bad, mostly hard-working but with some lazy, and so on. I'm sure it was similar when you were in the constabulary.

Over my career and particularly in the last decade, our populist era, I've seen our elected representatives, and their entourages, increasingly politicise the civil service, and that is ultimately to the detriment of the country. Dominic Cummings, who is of course unelected, doesn't want to reshape the civil service for any reason other than to progress his own agenda - he sees checks and balances as blockers - but just isn't quite as brazen about it as the bloke across the pond. I work with some incredibly talented and innovative people who get the job done very professionally in spite of the shit that gets thrown at them as 'Civil Servants'.

As for shortages of PPE equipment and the like, you need to look to our politicans, rather than civil servants. The simple fact is that they have systematically stripped the resilience and flexibility out of the UK in the name of free market capitalism and the current situation has found it out. The Germans and French, for example, don't have that same 'quick buck', 'know the cost of everything, value of nothing' mindset and are better placed than we are to respond to the Covid situation and other emergencies.

Looking broader than Covid-19, there's a certain irony in the allusions to WW2 sentiments in the Queen's recent message because if it were 1939 now we would lose - you couldn't build 22,000 Spitfires with Hedge Funds and Call Centres or rely on the Chinese to churn them out quickly and on the cheap for you. I would like to think that maybe there will be some re-balancing of that in the aftermath of Covid.