The Covid-19 Thread

[Sly Boots]

same here - my gf is a primary school teacher and she is utterly baffled on the govt advice for office workers to stay at home while kids congregate ?
I think the plan to stretch it as long as they can to the Easter break and than schools will have an extra holiday, maybe 3 weeks.

This sums it up nicely

https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/soc ... 0317194616

I think the main fear with schools is that with many parents still having to go out to work to make ends meet, grandparents would have to be drafted in to provide care for kids at home, and obviously the older generation is the one most at risk from the virus. I feel that it's just delaying the inevitable though and expecting schools to close imminently. Here we have next week then it's Easter holidays for a fortnight, the way it's going I'd be surprised if they didn't just start the holiday a week earlier and make it last a week longer (at the bare minimum).

The message from the school is that the closure is only for today, but if people are having to self-isolate for two weeks I can't see staff shortages easing over the coming days, quite the opposite.

[Wrathbone]

I was half joking. As I said I will go and get food when the craziness starts to settle down. I have food for another 3 to 4 days.

What we saw is nature taking its course. We horde because we are scared

I completely agree - I don't blame anyone for being scared and the reaction is understandable. But clearly we can't continue collectively panicking to this extent for long or things will get much, much worse.

This is the exact time when the PM should be exercising great leadership to reassure people and implement measures to ease the panic. Instead we have Boris Johnson, and while he hasn't fucked this up (yet) as much as I thought he might, I don't feel reassured and my supermarket shelves are still empty. The Grand Plan appears to be throw a load of money at it from the Magic Money Tree that we were repeatedly told doesn't exist and then charge massive interest on the repayments to whoever's left at the end of it.

[Wrathbone]

I think the main fear with schools is that with many parents still having to go out to work to make ends meet, grandparents would have to be drafted in to provide care for kids at home, and obviously the older generation is the one most at risk from the virus.

This is the situation with my sister (primary school teacher with two school-age daughters) and my parents (both high risk, and have until this point looked after the kids for a couple of hours after school). They've all agreed that my parents should self-isolate now because otherwise it could literally kill them. My sister has had zero clarity from her academy school, who apparently are happy for teachers and kids alike to slave away in megasized classes until they're all infected or off sick. She's no idea what to expect in the next few weeks. It's almost a guarantee that her household's going to get coronavirus at some point, though, because as well as all the risk from schools, my brother-in-law is a police constable who obviously still has to work out in public. He has asthma too, so it's not going to be easy.

TL;DR, shit's fooked!

I, on the other hand, am locked away in my fortress of sweet, sweet solitude.

[Mantis]

I was half joking. As I said I will go and get food when the craziness starts to settle down. I have food for another 3 to 4 days.

What we saw is nature taking its course. We horde because we are scared

I completely agree - I don't blame anyone for being scared and the reaction is understandable. But clearly we can't continue collectively panicking to this extent for long or things will get much, much worse.

This is the exact time when the PM should be exercising great leadership to reassure people and implement measures to ease the panic. Instead we have Boris Johnson, and while he hasn't fucked this up (yet) as much as I thought he might, I don't feel reassured and my supermarket shelves are still empty. The Grand Plan appears to be throw a load of money at it from the Magic Money Tree that we were repeatedly told doesn't exist and then charge massive interest on the repayments to whoever's left at the end of it.

He hasn't "fucked up" yet per se. But his lack of leadership is exactly why people are still panicking. His answers at the daily conference yesterday were poor and he very much looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

Not many people seem to have much faith in this government.

[Achtung Englander]

Govts can always drum up huge wads of money in times of crises but this money has be accounted for one way or another. The world govts think there is enough investment capacity to soak trillions of dollars, pounds and euros in bonds but given the market has tanked 15% or so, there is not enough cash willing to do that. Most money now is either being held as cash or invested in high value commodities like gold. The yield on the bond market is worse than shares.

I suspect the only alternative is via quantitative easing, i.e. print money, but that has to be handled with great care due to its inflationary outcome.

I agree in that Bojo needs to be more assertive. The time for playing nice guy is not now. Tell it as it is and instruct supermarkets to limit stock per person. Sainsbury has already done that - all items are limited to 3 per person. Good idea. For that to be effective all supermarkets need to follow suite. This will dampen the panic. What you might see is that people will supermarket hop and buy same goods from multiple stores but a pain in the arse that will be.

[Mogster]

same here - my gf is a primary school teacher and she is utterly baffled on the govt advice for office workers to stay at home while kids congregate ?
I think the plan to stretch it as long as they can to the Easter break and than schools will have an extra holiday, maybe 3 weeks.

This sums it up nicely

https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/soc ... 0317194616

From the WHO there’s no evidence schools are a significant source of infection for CoV2. You close the schools and it causes a massive childcare problem. Parents that work in healthcare and other critical areas suddenly have to leave work to look after their kids. Worse they are dumped with elderly parents who are the at risk group.

What needs to happen is priority testing for critical workers including teachers so critical staff can return to work if they test negative for CoV2.

[Medicine Man]

Still ill. Not getting any better either. Fuck.

[Sly Boots]

Still ill. Not getting any better either. Fuck.

Ah man, sorry to hear that. Is there any facility for you to get tested near you?

[Medicine Man]

I don't believe so, the only thing I've been told is that if it lasts beyond 7 days to phone my GP. My main concern is that I work in a care home and although I felt fine up until Saturday the guilt of any potential destruction I may have unwittingly left in my wake is kind of eating me up inside.

In my defence the lack of information or advice coming from management has been shocking. I know for a fact there have been people with, at the very least, cold-like symptoms still at work over the last few weeks. A combination of staff not being able to afford time off and management needing staff to make up shifts has lead to quite the dangerous situation considering all the residents are over 70 with physical and mental disabilities. It's a total disaster of shambolic proportions.

Now wee Nicky has shut the schools, oh fucking joy!

[Mogster]

I work in NHS laboratory and we’ve had quite a few people off with colds that have led to chest infections since December. It does make you wonder.

[Mantis]

This whole debacle has highlighted quite aptly exactly which companies and businesses don't give two shits about their staff. Some are forcing people to go in with mild symptoms, other employees don't actually have a choice because of their financial situation and lack of support. It really wouldn't take much for the whole status quo to come tumbling down.

For those thinking of relying on delivery services and take away food, you may want to reconsider in light of Deliveroo's shocking treatment of their riders and the high likelihood that some of them are still doing the delivery rounds when they aren't feeling well.

[Raid]

So flour now seems to be the in-thing to horde, and I'm amused by the fact that in the face of an impending two weeks of doom, our nation all put on tall white hats, push bicycles up't hill and gently hum New World Symphony to themselves.

Matt Lucas may have just signed on to the most watched programme of the year.

[Alan]

Matt Lucas may have just signed on to the most watched programme of the year.

I had to google that to be sure and thats almost worse news than Covid. Harry Hill was bad enough.....

[Maturin]

It's eggs I don't understand. Why hoard eggs? They have a use by date, and it's not as if chickens are going to start refusing to lay them.

[Raid]

I can't say I've noticed an egg shortage in the three supermarkets I or my housemate have visited in the last week.