What is something you know because of your job, that would surprise others? (My example is gross, thread warning!)

[Mrmen1100]

It can be anything!!

I will start..

I am a food safety inspector (local authority) and have been for over 15 years, working in two large cities, and my current job in a smaller local authority. The same theme...

Food handlers do NOT wash their hands properly after using the toilet / before preparing your food.. lack of antibacterial soap in a toilet cubicle or in a kitchen is common place.... even when I am there, hands are not washed, it is an absolute bug bear of mine.

Preparing with raw meat then handling food ready to eat.. not uncommon

Handling cash / touching screens then handling food.. not uncommon.

Yes it does put me off eating outside of my house unfortunately 🙃

I have come across a LOT worse but this example irritates me.

Your turn!!!!!

That’s not the whole story though, in Scotland ( in the U.K. the last time I checked) pharmacists can prescribe antibiotics themselves for certain minor infections as part of the NHS Pharmacy First Scotland scheme, we have a separate NHS system up here. The pharmacists do have to have an additional prescribing qualification. I just got antibiotics for an ear infection 3 weeks ago after a chat with a local pharmacist, saves trying to get a GP appointment. Our prescriptions are free for everyone here as well.

And if your meds are a non standard amount? This is basically how it works in much of the UK except that the prescription is either sent to your chosen pharmacy or you can just get a print out and take it anywhere

Not from my job but just something I learnt in recent years.

In public places tannoy announcements asking for ‘Mr/Mrs to come to ’ are aimed at staff members.

i remember when I worked in Tesco it used to say ‘call Mrs Robinson’ when a card was swiped that had been reported as stolen.

i was at a train station once and they asked for Mr soandso (can’t remember the actual name) to go to the security office. I asked my friend who worked for the transport police what that was and she called me and told me to leave the station. Once I was out she said it was a high terror threat. I took a different route.

I’ve worked out at my gym that ‘can Mr Sticker go to the gym toilet’ means that a first aid response is needed.

there must be LOADS

Pharmacists can do this in the UK too and not just for antibiotics. Its called the Pharmacy First System. If you go to them and they don't feel that they should prescribe for you then, at least where I live, they have a direct line to whichever Gp service you are registered with and can get you a faster appointment

When I worked in the NHS, we had a similar thing as part of our lone worker policy. We used to visit patients at home unaccompanied and if we ran into trouble that meant that we couldn't end the visit and leave, we'd say of course we could stay, and say but we had to phone our base to tell them we would be delayed because otherwise the next patient would phone our base to find out where we were and we'd get into trouble...or something similar. We would use a particular name for the next patient that meant call the police. It was only ever needed once.

I didn’t know it applied to the rest of the U.K. that’s interesting for me to find out thank you. I was only replying to a PP who asked where someone lived as you could only get antibiotics on prescription in the U.K. when another poster said they had been to the pharmacist.

yes it all got a bit complicated. I don't think, in the UK you can choose what brand of prescribed medication you get on the NHS unless you have the agreement of the prescriber. Some people do have to avoid certain brands of a drug because of the other constituents can vary between brands. If you are getting your prescription privately, which you can also do in the UK then you are paying the prescriber to prescribe and then paying for the actual medication on top and you can ask for whatever brand you like. The prescriber will prescribe just by the generic name unless there is only one brand and you can take that to the pharmacy and ask for xxx brand.

Grapes are not washed before making wine. Spiders love them, so there is no such thing as “vegan” wine.

If the prescription is less than the box/bottle size then there will be waste (which you can return to the pharmacy for disposal) but less waste than entire prescriptions going to waste.

This. I've known people who've never read a book in their life, even as children, can't understand letters, just about deal with text messages and muddle through the best they can with other things.

The absolute truth about covid is that it's a very easily transmissible illness that is often asymptomatic and that kills a very tiny proportion of people that it infects. Deaths are higher in older people and those with underlying illnesses, but that's true of every single other infection on the planet, including colds. If you or you family got it you were almost guaranteed to be absolutely fine.

Messages that included red-coloured images of healthcare workers implying scary danger and death, implications that would kill your relatives, etc were all very obviously overblown and untrue. An honest message would have been - 'If you see your friends, you'll more than likely be fine, but it could possibly (not definitely by any means) lead to an overload of the healthcare system. Cutting yourself off from your support system, particularly if you are elderly or unwell, is extremely dangerous and could possibly be fatal, but we don't care about that because only covid deaths count.'

And how were you to know if any of that was true or not, when nobody worldwide really knew anything for a good six months into the pandemic? I find it hard to believe you can say you were in some way a party to "lies" in the messaging when the messaging was in any case so flabby and inept.

By the end of March 2020 it was 100% verifiably true that if you were between 20 and 50 and in good general health you had almost no chance of dying from covid. That is not what was communicated to the public and there were many people in that age group who believed they were personally in severe danger if they interacted with anybody.

I've had food poisoning twice that I could pinpoint to specific meals I've eaten out. Twice in my entire lifetime, and I'm now over 60. Once was something from a market food stall, and the other was catching salmonella on holiday in Africa.
So it is pretty rare, I'd say.

Given obesity and type 2 diabetes are rampant it is hard to imagine a huge swathe of the population being in good general health, and history has shown those people succumbed to the disease regardless of their age.

And in March 2020 it was not known or in general at all accepted that the disease was airborne, or capable of remaining suspended in the air for extended periods of time, easily allowing for airborne transmission in indoor settings.

Regardless of what you say, the evidence is that there is very very low risk to most people. The fact that you don't believe it proves my point really.

My point is that you cannot have known any of this in March 2020. Therefore, what you are saying about "lies" you were a party to in the messaging around Covid makes no sense. You are applying hindsight, ie.

It was known in March 2020. It wasn't 100% verified, but it was known.

Sausages also contain nitrates which become nitrosamines in the body. Carcinogens.

So your pharmacies are handing people more medication than they are prescribed and assume the person will just… return what they don’t need? Yeah that wouldn’t work in the UK. How does that work for controlled drugs? What about those that are dangerous when taken in excess? Or antibiotic resistance? Madness to just leave that up to people with no pharmaceutical knowledge

I guess people are generally good at following instructions on prescriptions over here, I've not seen any concern raised about this at least. Most of the time the container fits the prescription in my experience anyway as, for example antibiotics, the manufacturers seem to make box sizes for standard course length. But things like painkillers where the prescription is to use regularly for x days then continue as needed there is more likely to be leftovers (for instance I have most of the bottle of liquid tramadol leftover from DS's surgery that I need to return but he was in less pain than expected so only had a couple of doses) Paracetamol always comes in massive 100 pill bottle but its great when you get that as then you don't need to buy Paracetamol for a couple of years.

I think its possible to get medicines made up in dosette boxes though for more vulnerable people e.g. elderly with memory issues but for the majority of the population they are trusted not to be idiots.

@1AnotherOne "Inspector Sands" is a security code for railway stations but it's so well known now.
I've been in stations where they announce that the fire alarm is going to be tested but the sound includes a call out for "Inspector Sands".

True but... when I worked in McD's the smokers would come back off their smoke break and dip their hands in the vinegar in the gherkin jars to get the smell of cigs off their hands... vom

In March 2020, the number of deaths in parts of Italy were so extreme it frightened governments all over the world (and eventually the UK, after inviting a virus-ridden Spain over for football, etc etc) to go into lockdown. It was thought to be transmitted by droplets, hence all the wiping of everything. Fuck all was actually known about this novel virus in March 2020.