Coronavirus

[DK2019]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...rce=reddit.com

Coronavirus: Senior civil servant backtracks on claim UK’s failure to join EU ventilator scheme was ‘political decision’

[TeePee]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52374653

If a vaccine is possible and viable, then that's great. But it's still a long way away. We can't stay in lockdown that long. Getting back to work, while supporting those who self-isolate (by choice), remains the least worst option until a vaccine is available.

[matts-uk]

"TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s effort to distribute protective cloth masks in its coronavirus battle has been marred by complaints about mould, insects, and stains, fuelling further concern that the government has botched its handling of the pandemic. ."

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-he...-idUKKCN2240IT

[DanceswithUnix]

Virus must be cured before capitalism is cured :

https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/...20200422195701

[Jonj1611]

More funny is the cat story underneath it

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Another day,another lost e-mail:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...-in-four-weeks

Volker Schuster, the owner of the Merseyside-based chemicals firm EcoLogix, said he wrote to the cabinet office’s “Covid commercial response unit” offering to supply 10m FFP2 masks for frontline medics that would be ready to ship from China within a week. He said he submitted details of the masks, including their European CE certification, but only received a substantive response eight days later – asking for details he had already provided. By that time the masks had been sold to other countries.

Schuster’s MP, Bill Esterson, confirmed that he also contacted the office of the health secretary, Matt Hancock, to highlight the offer on 27 March but that he had never received a reply.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow cabinet office minister, said on Tuesday she had been inundated by manufacturers who had contacted the government offering to make or supply PPE but that she had heard nothing back.

Reeves also accused the government of prioritising “major fashion and clothing brands … over companies that may have been better placed to manufacture what is needed as quickly as possible”. Retailers including Burberry and Barbour announced collaborations with the government to help increase availability of PPE supplies.

Hancock said in the televised Downing Street briefing that the government was accelerating its response to companies but that officials were having to filter out approaches from firms which were not credible.

He said: “We’re always trying to improve the processes that we have in place to make purchases. We want to engage with all those companies who can help us in this national effort and we are accelerating the progress of getting back to all those companies with a substantive response. This is a fast-moving market. There is a global shortage … and that means we need to be as nimble as we possibly can.”

The infectious disease specialists, Landcent, said it could have distributed 6m FFP2 face masks to the UK if the government had placed an order when it first submitted an offer three weeks ago.

Arun Prabhu, Landcent’s co-founder, said its UK partner, EFDUK, had contacted the government at the end of March offering to supply face masks, testing kits and protective overalls. He said they received a reply expressing interest in face masks “three or four days later” but had heard nothing since.

“By now we would have supplied close to 6m face masks,” he said, adding that the firm had already shipped millions of Ply surgical masks to Austria, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Prabhu said Britain risked losing out to other countries unless it responded more quickly to credible offers. “There is a global demand but there is no lack of supplies – it’s just tapping into the right distributing partners. I would urge [the British government] to assign a special taskforce who are primarily focused towards procurement.”

Both EcoLogix and Landcent said they submitted detailed information on the specification of their face masks and that these met the UK requirements and were CE approved, meaning they meet EU standards for health and safety.

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/new...al-ppe-1812268

A Birmingham pharmaceutical wholesaler has reportedly been forced to ship millions of items of PPE abroad - after the government allegedly 'ignored' their offers of help.

Veenak International Ltd, which has a base on Coventry Road in Yardley, distributes pharmaceutical products across the UK and Europe.

The firm currently has around £5m-worth of PPE in its warehouses brought from China - the Daily Telegraph reports.

But - despite severe shortages of PPE kit in the UK - millions of surgical masks and respirators stored in Veenak's warehouses in Birmingham and London were last week allegedly transported on lorries to the EU.

The revelation comes as concern mounts over the lack of life-saving gowns, masks and visors for frontline staff.

[neonplanet40]

Who'd have thought that Westminster had such poor email service? It makes my outlook look mint....

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Who'd have thought that Westminster had such poor email service? It makes my outlook look mint....

Probably an outdated version of Outlook!!


https://www.ft.com/content/67e6a4ee-...3-e239799fa6ab

The coronavirus pandemic has already caused as many as 41,000 deaths in the UK, according to a Financial Times analysis of the latest data from the Office for National Statistics.

The estimate is more than double the official figure of 17,337 released by ministers on Tuesday, which is updated daily and only counts those who have died in hospitals after testing positive for the virus.

The FT extrapolation, based on figures from the ONS that were also published on Tuesday, includes deaths that occurred outside hospitals updated to reflect recent mortality trends.

The analysis also supports emerging evidence that the peak of deaths in the UK occurred on April 8 with the mortality rate gradually trending lower since, despite the 823 hospital deaths announced on Tuesday, which were sharply up on the 449 in the previous 24 hours.

The ONS data showed that deaths registered in the week ending April 10 were 75 per cent above normal in England and Wales, the highest level for more than 20 years.

There were 18,516 deaths registered during that period compared with the most recent five-year average of 10,520 for the same week of the year. There were similar patterns in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Nick Stripe, head of life events at the Office for National Statistics, said the figure was “unprecedented”, especially as the weather had been sunny and warm in the run-up to the Easter weekend.

This government really needs to get its arse into gear.

[DK2019]

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/p...wspaper-column

"“PHE was against German style mass testing and, when caught flat-footed, rejected help from commercial laboratories in providing those tests”

This is wrong. The UK was one of the first countries after China to rollout a diagnostic test. PHE published the protocol for a new test on the 23 January which meant any lab could replicate the test from that date. The roll-out of PHE’s COVID-19 diagnostic PCR test across the network of PHE and NHS laboratories is the fastest deployment of a novel test in recent UK history. The DHSC testing strategy is clear that PHE is responsible for Pillar 1 of the plan – which is ensuring that all patients in hospitals that need a test have been tested. We are working to the maximum of PHE’s laboratory capacity and this has meant that in addition to patients, NHS staff and other key workers can also be tested. Responsibility for what the Sun calls ‘mass German-style testing’ using the support of commercial labs is being taken forward by the DHSC and Office for Life Sciences."


“It was also PHE who insisted the British public would be protected by ‘herd immunity’”

PHE has never suggested herd immunity as a strategy to protect the public against COVID-19. We have not made any statements about herd immunity and nor have we advised ministers that this should be a policy objective.

[DK2019]

Probably an outdated version of Outlook!!


https://www.ft.com/content/67e6a4ee-...3-e239799fa6ab



This government really needs to get its arse into gear.

It's been soo long since the government have done anything competently that the gears have simply fused together.

[j1979]

the people who get bent.

Ohh my god is that where that saying originated? I only know it from the simpsons

There is a similar situation with healthcare workers wearing PPE. The masks are effective when all the other infection controls are being followed. When you take away the infection controls and leave the masks, the masks become a source of cross contamination that can be decidedly more dangerous than the disorder being treated. Health care workers "at work" operate within an enforceable health and safety culture regulated by the HSE (who have very sharp teeth). I do not believe we can assume masks used in the community, outside of the HSE remit, will achieve the same result. You have seen the number of one shot gloves littering the street discarded by the few in the community still moving around?

What defies logic is substituting the definite for the indefinite. Masks in the community MAY not be effective, is about what I said. I did not say they ARE not effective. My point is 'we' don't appear to know. The WHO do not claim to know. Qualified scientists do not claim to know. Sadiq Khan is not a scientist, he is a lawyer and politician (those bastions of truth and honesty).


If you wear a hazmat suit, that was previously worn by an infectious person and was not adequately sterilized, it's probably worse than not wearing one at all. The use criteria is significant.


The gif is an illustration of aerosol transmission. Cat already posted some papers about that.

I know what you mean and now I get what you were saying and agree with you! Ive seen a video on BBC of the health care worker taking off the full PPE garb for her break, taking off items in a specific order, washing hands at every step to avoid every possible mistake.

I've been very carful personally, but while in tescos about six weeks ago, at the checkout i coudln't get the plasic bag to open/separate, I pulled my mask down and licked my finger to get some purchase on the plastic bag, and imediatly knew what id done. I put my shopping in the car and went back in to get a can of premixed rum and coke in the vain hope, it would save me

So i see your point and agree 100%, i kind of suggested in previous posts with the "if used corectly" line, but like my stupid mistake, with an untrained person the mask might not be a help. I saw a guy who was biting his finger nails in Boots, while asking when hand sanitiser would be back in stock.

quote from the SARS 1 wiki

Many public health interventions were made to try to control the spread of the disease, which is mainly spread through respiratory droplets in the air. These interventions included earlier detection of the disease; isolation of people who are infected; droplet and contact precautions; and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), including masks and isolation gowns.[11] Studies done during the outbreak found that for medical professionals, wearing any type of mask compared to none could reduce the chances of getting sick by about 80%. A screening process was also put in place at airports to monitor air travel to and from affected countries.[12]

The big obvious diffenece of the SARS 2 coronavirus, is that the most infectious are not nessasarily very sick yet, so would be less inclined to stay home in bed and naturally avoid contact with other people outside their household.

You misunderstand. Demographic evidence is legitimate evidence none the less. People in London are much more susceptible is a mathematical fact. It is also a fact that some 90 years olds are less susceptible than some 20 year olds. So on and so forth. It is the picking on groups you don't happen to like that is criminal.

Discriminating against the protected attributes is the crime - you can end up in court if you do it. A democratic ethical choice, rather than anything scientific. Personally I think it is an extremely important principle that helps remind the scientific community of the slippery slope some scientists built in the 1930s, starting with eugenics and ending in mass murder on an industrial scale.

What's that?...It will be different this time...

I wasn't suggesting you were in any way discrimiating, so if it came across that way i apologise.

While you mentioned the over 90s i looked a few weeks ago at the netherlands death rates and those over 90 did have a higher recovery percentage than the over 80s, such a small sample though. Would be interesting if there were a load of nonagenarians with some immunity.

[j1979]

It's been soo long since the government have done anything competently that the gears have simply fused together.

or smoking gear

[Jonj1611]

Dyson says ventilators no longer required :- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52409359

[TeePee]

Dyson says ventilators no longer required :- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52409359

Also suggests only 2,500 of the available 10,000 were used. PPE shortage has been a worldwide problem, but aside from that that, this has been far less of a crisis than expected.

[sammyc]

Points to j1979 & matts-uk for having a civilized argument, imho. Nice to see.

[DK2019]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...treat-covid-19

"Dyson will not supply medical ventilators to help the NHS treat Covid-19 patients after the government told the engineering firm that its services were no longer required."

They only produced like 250 and probably weren't up to spec. I think everyone's just being polite about it. They were nowhere near capable of producing the quantity needed for the country either.

"A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “A number of devices are […] going through the necessary tests for regulatory approval. No decisions have been made on those devices and we will provide an update in due course.”

The government commissioned several companies to supply 10,000 brand new ventilators each, awarding contracts to Dyson, defence company Babcock and a Cambridge-based group called Sagentia, a subsidiary of Science Group.

But none of the companies has so far received regulatory approval for new devices

..............The only group to have secured regulatory approval and supplied ventilators to the NHS in significant numbers is Ventilator Challenge UK, a consortium of manufacturers that focused on scaling up production of proven devices, rather than building new ones."