Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Bairnardo]

Who are "the folk"?

It certainly does reading your daily ramblings.

Scientists. It was on one of the mainstream tv channels. Maybe a panorama type thing or similar. Fucked if I can remember the name of it but it was about the origins of covid and the research that goes into tracking this type of thing. 

Like I say, the gist was that it's always on the cards but doesnt actually happen very often, and its impossible to track all of the viruses and their behaviour because there is an almost infinite number of them 

 

 

ETA it might be called The Virus Hunters.

[The Moonster]

2 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

Scientists. It was on one of the mainstream tv channels. Maybe a panorama type thing or similar. Fucked if I can remember the name of it but it was about the origins of covid and the research that goes into tracking this type of thing. 

Like I say, the gist was that it's always on the cards but doesnt actually happen very often, and its impossible to track all of the viruses and their behaviour because there is an almost infinite number of them 

That doesn't really sound like scaremongering to me tbh, is that not the truth?

[Bairnardo]

That doesn't really sound like scaremongering to me tbh, is that not the truth?

More the singling out and trumpeting of one "this COULD jump from pigs and then IF it does, it COULD cause a pandemic" pathogen when the reality is that this is and has been since.... well forever.... the case for millions and millions of viruses.

Unless I am missing something more definitive, it's just selective reporting of a situation that has existed since time began.

[The Moonster]

Just now, Bairnardo said:

More the singling out and trumpeting of one "this COULD jump from pigs and then IF it does, it COULD cause a pandemic" pathogen when the reality is that this is and has been since.... well forever.... the case for millions and millions of viruses.

Unless I am missing something more definitive, it's just selective reporting of a situation that has existed since time began.

Ah, I get where you're coming from now. I don't think highlighting the reality of these viruses at a time like this is overly scaremongering, it should be seen as a good thing for me - look at the number of arseholes still peddling the "it's just the flu" nonsense. If programs like that help folk understand why and where these viruses come from then we might see a more level headed reaction to any future measures we need to take if another virus hits.

[pandarilla]

I think the numbers are so low that they would all come up as asterisks (less than 5).

I know that the last Covid-19 patient in Ninewells in Dundee was discharged 3 days ago.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/dundee/1403783/perthshire-man-is-last-coronavirus-patient-to-leave-ninewellss-icu-after-86-day-battle-with-disease/

Just to clarify, they didn't leave the hospital, just left icu.

It's still brilliant news. Ninewells covers a fair size area and to have no icu patients continues the good news.

I'm guessing the non icu patients will be split into those who have been brought in with serious symptoms - who might need icu - and those who left icu and are now recuperating in a normal ward before going home.

I'm pretty confident that this sustained positive period is giving our hospitals the chance to really sort out the infrastructure to make best use of facilities. The initial scramble to reorganise probably wasn't the optimum situation for what we have now, or for preparation for any spikes or second waves.

I've got faith that our health service will be getting sorted, and hopefully we'll cope better when new cases do appear.

[pandarilla]

Ah, I get where you're coming from now. I don't think highlighting the reality of these viruses at a time like this is overly scaremongering, it should be seen as a good thing for me - look at the number of arseholes still peddling the "it's just the flu" nonsense. If programs like that help folk understand why and where these viruses come from then we might see a more level headed reaction to any future measures we need to take if another virus hits.

The issue is that the folk that need to watch these programmes invariably don't - because they're ill informed f**k-wits.

And there's definitely an issue where some folk in society who are overly gripped by fear.

It's a near impossible balance - but i guess the more information that's out there, the better.

[ayrmad]

5 hours ago, Bairnardo said:

I seen a program recently regarding viruses. The folk on it basically said they are constantly monitoring animal viruses for the potential for one to make the jump and then subsequently cause a pandemic.

The gist of it was that there are millions of pathogens with the potential to do this at any given moment, and this has always been the case. Those attempting to monitor are swimming against the tide.

Scaremongering pish.

Watched the same, looks like it's just a numbers game, it's not if but when the next one occurs. 

[Paco]

This is alarming. The UK Government aren’t releasing local data on the vast majority of new cases, so it’s impossible for MPs/local authorities/scientists to see localised spikes or trends, until the point where the government will presumably give them a call and a bit of a heads up.

Today alone we’ve had Matt Hancock saying that knowing how many people were tested in a day is ‘not meaningful’ when a child could tell you it’s a key metric, and the government also don’t know how many test results are being returned within 24 hours as was promised to be the case 100% of the time by today, by the actual Prime Minister. But the government (read: Serco) don’t have a clue.

The use of statistics by this government is beyond disgraceful, it’s dangerous. Double counting of tests, counting individual gloves as pieces of PPE, saving a batch of postal tests to ‘hit’ the 100k testing target, removing international comparisons when it started showing how badly we were doing. It’s alarming that anyone trusts a single word they say, at this point.

I certainly wouldn’t be sitting comfortably if I was a Mayor in England, trusting this government to give a nice timely heads up if things begin to look bad.

[Cyclizine]

1 minute ago, pandarilla said:

I'm pretty confident that this sustained positive period is giving our hospitals the chance to really sort out the infrastructure to make best use of facilities. The initial scramble to reorganise probably wasn't the optimum situation for what we have now, or for preparation for any spikes or second waves.

I've got faith that our health service will be getting sorted, and hopefully we'll cope better when new cases do appear.

Yes, this is certainly what we're doing. I think most of us are fairly relieved that we did not get hit as hard as we were anticipating. Now we are trying to reconfigure our services for the pandemic era.

Our major issue is our bed numbers take a massive drop. New bits of the hospital meet the requirements, but the old bits don't. Getting back to routine elective surgery is going to take a long time as well. Theatre lists have to be shorter as each case takes at least 30 minutes longer than usual due to the PPE and cleaning requirements. It's going to take a long time to recover from this.

My main concern is morale at the moment. When this all kicked off, morale was excellent; we were all in it together. Now we've got Covid fatigue: we can't see a route out, people are frustrated about our inability to provide optimum services.

[Cyclizine]

Hospitals are set up into zones at the moment: Red and Green depending on known Covid status. There's some risk scoring about where you go when you're admitted.

Currently, we have no Covid patients in ICU, but the ones we have had were there for a long time. Many of the current Covid inpatients on the list are people we discharged, many of whom will have a long route to recovery after so long in the unit.

[Bairnardo]

See once our hospitals are covid free, will new cases requiring hospital care then be redirected to Louisa Jordan, minimising the chances of hospital transmission, or is that fanciful? Has it been effectively mothballed?

[Thereisalight..]

2 hours ago, madwullie said:

Should they not report those things? Do you not think they're pertinent as to what is going on in the world? Leicester especially. You should maybe try newsround if the real news is a bit much

There’s a lot of if’s, but’s and maybe’s in their reporting. I think highlighting positive news regarding Covid isn’t too much to ask rather than just focusing on the negatives  

1 hour ago, dirty dingus said:

What was the news like before the pandemic? Sweetness and light? If I remember it was basically about the impending WW3 with China, North Korea, Russia or Iran which has been put on hold due to the CHYNEEEZZZ KUNG FLU.

Tbh all I remember for the last few years was Brexit talk. It says a lot really when I’d rather that bombarding every news hour rather than covid

[Cyclizine]

3 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

See once our hospitals are covid free, will new cases requiring hospital care then be redirected to Louisa Jordan, minimising the chances of hospital transmission, or is that fanciful? Has it been effectively mothballed?

The Louisa Jordan was set up for a worst case scenario. It's essentially mothballed, as you say.

Any new cases will continue to be admitted and treated in permanent hospitals.

There's pathways for reducing in hospital transmission, which locally has been remarkably low. We initially thought we'd have up to a third of the workforce off, but in reality, it's been no worse than usual, PPE seems to be effective! We do have a reasonable number of shielding staff.

[The Moonster]

When something I'm watching bombards me with something I don't like I always watch it every hour on the hour just so I can be annoyed about being bombarded with something I don't like.

[Todd_is_God]

12 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

See once our hospitals are covid free, will new cases requiring hospital care then be redirected to Louisa Jordan, minimising the chances of hospital transmission, or is that fanciful? Has it been effectively mothballed?

On the Louisa Jordan, the owners of the SECC weren't charging rent initially, but I doubt this will go on indefinitely. At some point (probably quite soon after hospitality and entertainment venues can re-open in some capacity) i'd imagine they'd either quite like their venue back, or start charging rent to help recover some of the income they will have lost this year.

[Thereisalight..]

8 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

When something I'm watching bombards me with something I don't like I always watch it every hour on the hour just so I can be annoyed about being bombarded with something I don't like.

It’s hard to get away from it. News, radio, internet, folk talking about it when out and about. I listen to the news once a day like Ive always done. I’m certainly not watching it every hour of every day. Thankfully I have other interests to pass my time

[Thereisalight..]

1 minute ago, Todd_is_God said:

On the Louisa Jordan, the owners of the SECC weren't charging rent initially, but I doubt this will go on indefinitely. At some point (probably quite soon after hospitality and entertainment venues can re-open in some capacity) i'd imagine they'd either quite like their venue back, or start charging rent to help recover some of the income they will have lost this year.

All that sounds sensible. The owners of the Hydro/SEC have seemingly said it’s realistic to expect no gigs going ahead there until 2022! If that’s the case they’ll definitely need to start charging rent and rightly so IMO

[doulikefish]

Doncaster next hot spot seemingly

[MrWorldwideJr]

19 minutes ago, Thereisalight.. said:

There’s a lot of if’s, but’s and maybe’s in their reporting. I think highlighting positive news regarding Covid isn’t too much to ask rather than just focusing on the negatives  

They are though. The BBC News website is currently prominently carrying the story about excess deaths being below the five year average for the first time since March on their front page.

I'm not sure what you want the media or bodies like the WHO to do to be honest. The pandemic isn't over, whilst we are hopefully on a positive trend now there will be bad news stories along the way and when those happen they can't just be swept under the carpet. They have to be reported on and responded to. It can't just be a constant stream of happy Covid news in order to lift the mood of the nation from now on, that's not what the function of the media is. The Leicester lockdown story that you are complaining about today, for example, isn't 'if, buts and maybes'. Its a real thing thats happening. It obviously has to be reported on and talked about given that a spike in infections severe enough to lock down a fairly sizeable city is a significant event in the UK's recovery. 

[madwullie]

43 minutes ago, pandarilla said:

Just to clarify, they didn't leave the hospital, just left icu.

It's still brilliant news. Ninewells covers a fair size area and to have no icu patients continues the good news.

I'm guessing the non icu patients will be split into those who have been brought in with serious symptoms - who might need icu - and those who left icu and are now recuperating in a normal ward before going home.

I'm pretty confident that this sustained positive period is giving our hospitals the chance to really sort out the infrastructure to make best use of facilities. The initial scramble to reorganise probably wasn't the optimum situation for what we have now, or for preparation for any spikes or second waves.

I've got faith that our health service will be getting sorted, and hopefully we'll cope better when new cases do appear.


 

Well I've got a scan tomorrow which is the kind of thing that's been postponed, so hopefully that's a reflection of where the nhs as a whole is now. 

Apparently masks compulsory in hairmyres now.