Coronavirus: Please use this thread for all COVID19 talk!

I work in a factory with over 3,000 others ......going to be interesting to see how they do it.

 

A different but similar agenda here in the Netherlands with public attitudes ranging from a few gung ho let's go nutters to the more cautious approach of those who took their kids out of school early and stopping all but necessary shopping and exercise before the government gave the "intelligent lockdown" call. We're very much in the latter, I'm 70 with some slight breathing problems and we'll continue our minimal contact regime beyond the official phased end to restrictions. Family and friends in the UK are following their own similar regime monitoring the virus numbers. All wary of the possibility of a second wave.
https://nltimes.nl/2020/04/21/netherlands-will-open-primary-schools-may-lockdown-measures-continue
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/20/will-there-be-second-wave-of-coronavirus-
Some good news, it's not all doom and gloom, the supermarket chains have discounted beer and wines and a friend who came back from India just before the **** hit fan gave me a bottle of Old Monk rum. The day is brightening up, we're of for a bike ride possibly along the canal to Delft. A cold beer or two welcome when we're back. Stay safe all.

 

It's hard. Another two months of lockdown is difficult to fathom. But so too is what you do if it goes boom again. Is the will there to shut it down for July and August, maybe longer? Doubtful; you just have to rely on people making sensible decisions, and, well...

 

I work on the railway. It’s bliss at the moment, only key workers using the train (and a few oddballs going who knows where).

Expecting a good % of office workers to carry on working from home, for the foreseeable.

There’s going to be a huge hole in the public transport budget after this. That’ll be interesting.

 

Continue this level of lockdown all summer, and the cost in terms of mental health, domestic violence, and lost livelihoods will have to be weighed against any benefits gained from suppressing the virus.

 

Yes of course but I can't help but feel that by the end of this month it will be causing more harm than good. I can't get behind the idea of 3 month lockdown personally.

Already missing an estimated 2500+ cancer diagnoses per week, that'll be 25k by the end of May. Never mind all the other factors.

 

Yeah, I'm not going to be downloading that.

 

One of the guys I used to care for, has Asperger syndrome and his “thing” is buses and, to a lesser extent, trains.
If you wanted to know what bus to take from South Chessington, where he lives, to anywhere in London, he knew the routes and where to change.
He is probably one of the oddballs still going out and about simply because he cannot be reasoned with in the same way that most people can.
The only blessing, with regards to being his live in carer, was that you didn’t need to accompany him, so it was a relatively easy job, if you could stop him from unleashing his explosive temper. That’s not to say that he is a danger in public, but understanding social distancing and self isolating wouldn’t compute with him.

 

Absolutely. It's why the time lost on the front end is so damaging...not only did it raise the death toll significantly, it also raises the stakes going forward.

 

Nor me.

 

My wife has just received an appointment for a scan on 27th May, but is already contemplating postponing it, on the basis that she “feels fine”.
We are living in scary times when someone is choosing between finding out if cancer has returned or potentially being exposed to the coronavirus.
I think a phone call to the hospital is needed to discover how they are segregating people, because past experiences of the scan means sitting in a small waiting room with, several others, for up to 40 minutes or so, (my wife has to drink a litre of liquid containing a contrasting fluid and can’t drink it very quickly) before being called through for the scan.
I can only help her weigh up the options and then support her decision.

 

Is it at the General or RSH? I'd still advise to go personally but can understand her anxiety with it.

There will be a lot in place and the only thing I'd say is that if they've given the appointment then they've decided that she needs it and they want her to have it soon.

Obviously I work for the trust and I'm not going to go into much detail on here but feel free to PM me if you want mate.

 

It’s at the General, Oncology on B Level, near the MacMillan centre.
I am hoping that she goes, as she is probably due for it to return, although, as her consultant keeps telling her, her cancer is not following any of the expected trends that are associated with it. Hence why he uses her as a test case for his trainees.
A phone call prior to the appointment will be essential, but one of her fears is that should there be a second wave, and she is having chemo, then she will be too weak to fight it off, were she to catch it. During the usual, for her, 6 chemo visits, her white blood cells are so destroyed that she needs, usually, 2 blood transfusions just to get her blood count up to a level to take the next dose of chemo, and that means more trips to the hospital and spending anything from 5 - 8 hours there.
Difficult choices.

 

So much for being a key-worker in the medical supply industry.
On Friday, I queued like everyone else, to go into a supermarket, having just left work only 20 minutes earlier. Then I realised I had my key-worker letter and company ID on me. So, for the first time ever, I went to a security guard and asked if I could go in. I didn't feel good about it, but I was really pushed for time, on this occasion. His answer was, "What is your pretence?" I explained. He didn't care. I asked him to read the letter, showing that I work in the medical supply industry, and to look at my ID. He wouldn't do it. So much for being a key-worker. Oh, and of course, I had been accused of deception too. That really improved my day.

Incidentally, shortly I have to go out and do the shopping for my 5 elderly self-isolators. I'm not looking forward to it. Dare I try my Letter and ID again?

 

Agree that it's difficult choices, and like you said it's sad that people are having to make these sorts of choices. At least you've both got a bit of time to weigh it up before the appointment, wish you all the best with it whatever you decide.

 

I'm only aware of NHS staff, police officers, firefighters and paramedics who don't have to queue.

 

It's only at certain times of the day isn't it?

 

All my co-workers show their IDs and don't queue. I have been very reluctant to do so. So reluctant, I've not genned up on the rules in detail on this.

 

I call bullshit on any of those being " priority" were all people struggling through this time it's just how it is. If someone bowled up flashing a letter/I.D and just walked in after I've been stood there like a mug for half hour or more, i wouldn't be happy and something would be getting said.

 

Yeah, we get a lot of regulars like that, often displaying a variety of obsessive conditions.

Generally they’re a pleasure to deal with, especially compared to the City workers whose sense of entitlement turns quickly to rage if their trains are delayed or cancelled.

Not looking forward to the “briefcase ****ers” coming back tbh.