Pointed out that R in the South West was driven by poor infection control at Weston hospital
^ interesting article about R being driven by hospital infections & community spread being seeded & re-seeded by hospital staff & lack of social distancing.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/12/exclusive-one-five-hospital-coronavirus-patients-caught-illness/
Evidence supporting this from is from PHE, the NHS, SAGE and Nervtag ... but since it's published in the Torygraph (possibly the only ppl who hate BoJo more than The Guardian!) it'll no doubt be ignored.
"There are growing fears that the behaviour of health and care workers – who are often working in crowded and stressful situations – is driving up the [R] rate.
Members of the New and Emerging Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), which advises the Government, are concerned that workers who observe social distancing rules in public behave differently "backstage".
One said: "There is a good bit of anecdotal evidence that the hospital staff are rigorous with infection control on Covid wards when they're doing Covid-related work. But as soon as they come off the wards, you get stories of 10 doctors clustering round an X-ray viewer without any regard to social distancing or masks or anything like that.
"People will sit round and they will have their coffee, and the language that some hospital staff used is that it's 'more like home than home'."
At a webinar late last month, senior officials expressed similar concerns. Dr Chris Moran, the deputy national strategic incident director for Covid-19, told fellow managers: "I've witnessed, and I'm sure you've all witnessed, that actually healthcare workers have not necessarily been the best at managing social distancing."
"PHE guidance said all staff should adhere to social distancing wherever possible, and ward practice should be reviewed to minimise close contact between groups of staff for prolonged periods and congregation at nurses' stations.
Previous advice had said "social distancing of two metres should be facilitated wherever this is possible", without making any reference to staff. "
"It follows growing concern that coronavirus is spreading within hospitals because Britain failed to introduce basic measures, such as masks, routine staff testing and strict social distancing, which have helped to contain the virus in other parts of Europe.
The instructions follow the infection of 100 staff at Weston General Hospital, which forced its closure to new patients for two and a half weeks."
"Last week, Sage members warned the Lords science and technology select committee that the situation was putting the rest of the country at risk of a second wave.
Professor John Edmunds said: "These are not completely separated epidemics… they seep back out into the community, probably largely through healthcare workers or care home workers who are picking up the virus themselves, unfortunately, bringing it home, and potentially infecting their family members and others."
.... it's much easier to finger wag at people doing perfectly legal & low risk activities such as visiting the beach with their household members than address the real problem areas.