[Polyanya]

Breaking News
 Chloroquinone can help with Coronavirus. It's a quinine derivative.
 I'm torn between drinking more tonic with my Gin or just more Gin and tonic... ? Alcohol is a disinfectant - problem solved!


Breaking News
 Over 70's told to isolate.
 Supermarkets overrun with panic buying of Grecian 2000


New TV Series
 'Virus Ward'
 ..who should get the ventilator?
 Call 555-0911-1 to Nominale dave
 Call 555-0911-2 to nominate Jackie
 Call.....

Nice one! 

[Fleecewife]

Gosh there isnt much activity on here today is there, is TAS on lock-down as well? Just watched the 6.o'clock news, pretty depressing stuff isnt it - my husband is now working from home, I've been busy getting all my craft ready for the tourist season and it doesn't look like I'll be able to display anything as no punters will be allowed in! It is really getting serious, just hope we all get through it   

It's not that long ago that you said there was too many people in the world and bring on the pandemics. What is it they say "be careful what you wish for".


I too hope we all get through but I think we all have hard times ahead.

I had to go back and check and that was you Polyanya   0oh! Bad!  I thought it must have been one of the callous chaps from my memory (I own up to a sexist comment  )


Thinking about it, I expect our Earth has had a bit of a think herself and come up with the storms, earthquakes, tsunamis and floods in an effort to make us think harder before carelessly destroying her, then when that is clearly not working she's taken the decision to reduce her human overpopulation by pandemic.  It seems reasonable.
Being older than some (although not yet in my 70's) and with a dodgy heart and lungs, and having spent my working life as a hospital nurse so control of infection is second nature, I took the decision early on to cut contacts and to stay at home.  Thankfully, having a smallholding the change isn't great, and we can still gossip over the fence with callers.  I think we have enough supplies in for a while at least, and some young and kind friends have offered to bring in anything essential we need.  I am frantically filling my polytunnel and veg patch with as much useful food as I can, but it all takes so long to reach an edible size. In the back of my mind is the thought that if supplies in the shops are restricted, any excess can be shared with friends and neighbours, so too much is better than too little.
There are many older people on their own though, and we should all be aware who they are and see how we can help. There are also homeless people - who will care for them?
Mr F had the thought that Prime Minister Cummings had worked out that bumping off all the elderly, sick and disabled folk would ease the pressure on the NHS, save money from their pensions and Soc Sec payouts, and release a whole lot of housing, so a pandemic was good, then he suddenly thought again and realised that without the older vote, his pet puppy Boris would not be voted in, so suddenly we have to save the oldies    Being a cynic I feel that when we get right down to the bone, we're all on our own 

I can be heartless sometimes but I don't mean it Funny you being a nurse, I was too once upon a time and have done my fair share of wiping brows and patting hands as well as wiping other parts of the anatomy and I care hugely about poor folk, homeless or otherwise who are basically being left to cope. From on cynic to another   I bet Cummings and BoJo were wringing their hands in glee and putting the Social Care agenda at the bottom of the Action now tray  .

It was the wiping of the other body parts that very suddenly got to me one day!  That and the fact that most of the folks I was looking after were less ill than I was.  It was time to call it a day.  Skills I learned there stood me in good stead with smallholding as well as looking after a very sick spouse, so not a total loss    I had loads of fun too and satisfied the nosey parker in me     I'm glad I'm not doing it now, and I think I'm beyond being recalled as virus-fodder.  What about you?


Note that today's announcement is for LOANS - so you survive the virus and go to start the long haul to retrieve your business, only to find yourself now crippled by crushing debt, just when making a profit is still years away.  Cynic certainly 

[pgkevet]

I have a twisted sense of gallows humour'
What now for 3rd runway at heathrow?
Boris water cannon, feasabilty studies for a garden bridge, Millenium dome, Olympic games, HS2, Irish bridge.....Hmmm perhaps we should have built a hospital....
Now getting sensible one should say that there's many things that need doing and ya can't have everything. If it had been a major terrorist act then everyoe would be saying we need more police. If it was another drought they'd be saying more reservoirs etc.
I'd hope this would lead to a sea change in hedonism and consumerism.. but human nature being what it is we'll be back to profligacy and waste as soo as we can..

[alang]

Build more hospitals you say? That's not a problem. They can be built quite fast. Look at China for an example.

Staffing them is the problem. And until this country can stop nurses/doctor/dentists etc etc from passing their qualifications and then going straight into the private sector then nothing will change. I think there should be a mandatory 10 years in the NHS before you can go into the private sector.

Anyway on a different rant. Went into Tescos and Asdas tonight to find not one loaf of bread or pint(s) of milk. Fed up of this stupid narrow minded selfish hoarding that this nation is going crazy for.

[doganjo]

Build more hospitals you say? That's not a problem. They can be built quite fast. Look at China for an example.

Staffing them is the problem. And until this country can stop nurses/doctor/dentists etc etc from passing their qualifications and then going straight into the private sector then nothing will change. I think there should be a mandatory 10 years in the NHS before you can go into the private sector.

Anyway on a different rant. Went into Tescos and Asdas tonight to find not one loaf of bread or pint(s) of milk. Fed up of this stupid narrow minded selfish hoarding that this nation is going crazy for.

How did China build that so fast?  Will it stay up for years or fall down?

Have you tried your little local shop?  Plenty stocks in ours.  I got bread and milk yesterday

[pgkevet]

I think the chinese hospitalw as essentially a prefab..just needed a base to stick it on and power brought in. I did see a pic of the inside somewhere - a long dormitory of ventilators with nurses/techs in full body suits attending.
As to the staffing here... nurse training changed with gov stupidity to a uni course they needed a gov loan for - short sighted crap. For professions we end up importing staff for they should be free grants with a period of UK work to repay the taxman....

..buy, hey, what do i know?
One of our freezers just died. The one V uses. Fortunately V is useless at being tidy so i managed to get everything from that one packed into my freezer spaces because freezers are sold out too...

[honeyend]

Build more hospitals you say? That's not a problem. They can be built quite fast. Look at China for an example.

Staffing them is the problem. And until this country can stop nurses/doctor/dentists etc etc from passing their qualifications and then going straight into the private sector then nothing will change. I think there should be a mandatory 10 years in the NHS before you can go into the private sector.

Anyway on a different rant. Went into Tescos and Asdas tonight to find not one loaf of bread or pint(s) of milk. Fed up of this stupid narrow minded selfish hoarding that this nation is going crazy for.

I have no idea where you get this idea from, most of the medical professional I know worked long and hard for the NHS. I trained under the old system so I paid with my graft, less than what would be minim wage now. Now they are paying for their training, so many have to work another job while they train to live.
  Its hard enough recruiting staff, I am always astounded that some of our brightest want to become a doctor. being a junior doctor in a hospital is one of the hardest most stressful things, long days, long nights and sometimes fear of making a mistake takes its toil. Last time I was admitted to hospital there was a junior doctor literally on her feet all night, trying to put a needle in me at 7am in the morning, poor love was knackered.
 Most NHS consultants work their contracted hours in the NHS and do overtime with private work.
 There are not enough NHS workers because no one wants to do it, even private hospitals have problems recruiting staff.

[harmony]

Heard from a paramedic today that they actually think Covid19 has been circulating in the UK since about December having witnessed a significant number of flu cases that turned to pneumonia. 

Which is interesting because just before Christmas, I was diagnosed with double pneumonia after developing flu like symptoms and a terrible cough.  I didn't actually feel ill aside from joint ache for a couple of days, but was short of breath and exhausted.  When those "over the counter" tests are available, I'm going to go buy one to find out if I'm part of the "solution" (herd immunity). 

I didn't self isolate; well apart from the fact that the doctor told me to take a couple of weeks off work so as not to risk spreading the viral pneumonia and I'm not particularly sociable at the best of times.  I did keep away from my nonagenarian neighbour and when I went to visit my parents, I wore a face-mask the entire time (which I regularly changed).

If the paramedic is right and this has been circulating a bit longer than we've been told, then it's possible that some areas/communities may have had an earlier, less virulent strain which will potentially stand them in good stead with antibodies and mean that we've got a head start on herd immunity.  Let's hope so!

I have been thinking back to people I know who were pretty ill over Christmas and have been thinking that they possibly have already had the virus. One of the people was visited by her grandson and girlfriend (who live in China) in early December. It would be good to test some people to see if they have had the virus but I guess there is too many other people to attend to at the moment.

[SallyintNorth]

I caught a really nasty bug in Shetland at the end of September.  Fever, dry cough, aches, left me with shortness of breath for weeks.  I'd been wondering - hoping - that it could have been an early variant and left me with a head start on making antibodies :/  I shall choose to believe so anyway, though with considerably less justification than you, Scarlet.Dragon! 

[macgro7]

I'm thinking of all the Christmas presents and decorations that came into the UK from China in November.  It's possible that if some of them were contaminated by workers, then a weakend form of the virus could have been contracted from packaging or items received at that time.

It's supposed to die within 3 hours outside the body - we hope it's TRUE!

[Steph Hen]

I’ve read 12 hours survival outside the body but from media, not a sci paper.  Safest to assume everything is contaminated.

My mum also wonders if she had it over Christmas as her severe illness fitted Coronavirus. She’s still not recovered from whatever she had. She still has fluid on one lung and has coughing fits when talking for more than ten minutes. I hope she has some immunity as i believe is very high risk. 

[Fleecewife]

I'm thinking of all the Christmas presents and decorations that came into the UK from China in November.  It's possible that if some of them were contaminated by workers, then a weakend form of the virus could have been contracted from packaging or items received at that time.

It's supposed to die within 3 hours outside the body - we hope it's TRUE!

I think basically no-one truly knows.  Some sources say a few hours, some say a couple of days, some say up to a week.  However, Norovirus is known to survive for several weeks on surfaces, so just assume everything is contaminated.
For whether or not Coronavirus itself has been here for longer than thought, as it certainly has in Italy, I think we should all just assume we are susceptible.  No-one knows for sure whether we become immune after having it, and if we do for how long (think common cold and winter flu - both viruses but you can get them both any number of times.)  There was a similar virus going round in the winter of 2018/19 - very similar symptoms, but meanwhile the corona virus-to-be was still happily infecting pangolins in the forests of China at the time, so assume it's just a coincidence.
Stay safe 

[Womble]

Crap.

Just had a call from a client in Watford - they want a three day meeting next week, and it must be face to face.

What would you do, folks?

[harmony]

Crap.

Just had a call from a client in Watford - they want a three day meeting next week, and it must be face to face.

What would you do, folks?

I wouldn't go but by then London maybe on lockdown anyway.

[doganjo]

oup.  London is heading fro lockdown.  I wouldn't go but I'm in the vulnreable group.  If you do go don't use the train