COVID19 (sigh:sorry)

[lightnesspixie]

Today's Telegraph is reporting that should the number of confirmed cases of Coronavirus in the UK exceed 100 then 'everyone with any cough or cold or flu symptoms will have to self-isolate for 14 days'. How would this be possible in reality?! Surely that would be madness? You'd likely have ppl pretending to have colds and not going to work and the economy would be crippled? If you imagine the numbers this would involve even the genuine cases? What are your thoughts? Media hysteria? Good safety measures?

In China the govt is paying everyones wages who are self isolating.......can’t see that happening here?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

@PeppaisaBitch is exactly the reason that trying to contain the virus in the uk will fail once we get to community transmission. There are realllly good models that predict transmission of viruses and there's a reason they chose 100. People will have to start to give a fuck about each other if there's any hope. And also start to fucking listen to the public health officials trying to save us all.

if we don't pay wages then it will be catastrophic.....so people will just soldier on and hide symptoms

It seems like a good idea to me. Anything to slow the spread down while they develop a vaccine /understanding of how to treat it.

My children both have asthma and are very vulnerable if this spreads.

we have some global experts in epidemiology advising on this, we should be glad if the government listens. My work have told us that if we have to self isolate it won't count as sick leave for our records and we will still get full pay. That's a good supportive approach.

Sounds like your work have a good plan nevertwerknaked.

I’m self employed, so nobody to pay me if I can’t work for weeks.....

@SlowMoFuckingToes

Do you have any links to the numbers the NHS can test?

I read that China have stopped paying now as of the 14th Feb as they have been told they can go back to work. If they’re not at work they can take leave until it runs out then they’re unpaid. It was in a blog so I don’t have an official link to that info though.

I think some people are just inherently selfish & wouldn’t self isolate no matter what, but I think for the vast majority the difficulty will be knowing IF they need to!? and not being prepared to lose income/jobs by SI for every hint of a symptom. Especially when the list of symptoms hasn’t actually been made that clear.

As for the ridiculous comment about this not being serious. Do you REALLY think China isolated Wuhan for shits & giggles?

Makes you think that there should be some requirement for self employed people to be insured against this kind of situation, and of course for zero hours contracts to be scrapped.

I read that China have stopped paying now as of the 14th Feb as they have been told they can go back to work. If they’re not at work they can take leave until it runs out then they’re unpaid. It was in a blog so I don’t have an official link to that info though.

What are people reading? This isn't true at all. The chinese have imposed tighter restrictions. 60 million people are now confined to their houses since this is so serious. Entrances to housing blocks are now being guarded. In each household one person can leave once every three days to get food. All businesses are closed apart from food stores and pharmacies. Nobody is going back to work unless they work in a food store.

Plus the use of private cars has been banned indefinitely. Can you imagine if this happened in the UK.

Too many people in this country are self-centred and over-entitled which will put us all at risk.

A man locally developed a cough and fever shortly after returning from Vietnam, rang 111 and told to self-isolate, rang GP who reinforced this but he still wasn't happy as he was worried about his family so went to the local hospital. This country is fucking doomed!

That presentation is well worth a watch. I wish all the competitively unconcerned could be forced to watch it, it might help them to take a more responsible attitude.

I went round a friend's for coffee yesterday. She had visited her mum the week before. Her mum's air hostess friend had come back from Shanghai a few days previously, just before they cancelled flights.

They have all been unwell and she only told me this after making me a drink and I'd already been there about half hour. Her husband was in bed really unwell. Now I'm actually really scared and hoping it's just a coincidence and they've just all had a cold.

So your friend hasn't been to China. Your friends mum hasn't even been to China and this was over a week ago?! This is crazy. It's so much more likely that they have a cold. Which everyone has at the moment.

😂 I know! But in all fairness, the air hostess friend came down with it when she came back from Shanghai, gave it to friends mum, who gave it to friend. It's much more likely to be a cold, I know.

Although I'd have like to have known they'd all had a cold before going round there, anyway.

A few weeks ago they had only a handful of cases
This isn't true. Covid19 started in December in China and as they denied it and pretended it wasn't happening for a while, the number of cases were completely unchecked.

On 30 December he sent a message to fellow doctors in a chat group warning them to wear protective clothing to avoid infection.

Four days later he was summoned to the Public Security Bureau where he was told to sign a letter. In the letter he was accused of "making false comments" that had "severely disturbed the social order".

He was one of eight people who police said were being investigated for "spreading rumours" Local authorities later apologised to Dr Li.

In his Weibo post he describes how on 10 January he started coughing, the next day he had a fever and two days later he was in hospital. He was diagnosed with the coronavirus on 30 January.

It took 10 days for the whistleblower to catch it, a few days to be hospitalised and another 2 weeks for him to be diagnosed. And there would have been a lot of cases in the 10 days before he caught it while they were denying it. China didn't control the outbreak, they are controlling the result of it. Thankfully, the rest of the world have been able to control it from outset so it shouldn't reach the levels seen in China. But who knows?

This is why quarantine is important

Ebola has a death rate of up to 90% and lowest of 50% so even worse case scenarios on the current data are not as bad as that.

And we just dont know how the chinese are treating either. At the moment to this www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ of those who have an outcome the number dying is 14%. However that is unlikely to include mild cases they just dont know about so could very well be lower.

I thought the real concern was the critical rate being 20% so that is 1 in 5 needing hospital treatment and if huge amounts get it how on earth the infratructure can cope with that. Which is why it is important to self quarantine and self medicate through unless you really do need medical attention

It won't happen because of our sick pay rules. Most people cant live on SSP rules for two weeks.

Flu they will probably self isolate but unlikely for a cold.

It won't happen because of our sick pay rules. Most people cant live on SSP rules for two weeks.

What you need to think about it is the very real possibility that it might have to happen despite our sick pay rules. With a big enough threat from outside (a pandemic), it might have to. It's not safe to assume that it will be up to you whether or not you go to work with "just a cold". The social rules around the acceptability of being out and about with a sniffle could be about to change radically.

People who are worried about not being able to stay at home can take action right now to reduce the chance - do everything you possibly can to avoid catching even ordinary colds. Pretend you are immunosuppressed and be much much fussier from today about washing your hands, not touching door handles, keeping your phone clean. Make sure your kids wash their hands regularly.

If you work in a shop, insist that hand gel is kept by the till and something to clean keypads between uses. Let customers put their cards in and take them out themselves rather than taking their cards to put in the machine yourself.

Basically, if you don't want to be forced to stay at home with a cold, make a huge effort to avoid catching and spreading colds yourself.

People shouldn't have to quarantine for a cold though. It's not the same thing. And the point is not working for 2 weeks can seriously affect people. To the point where they lose their house, can't feed their family, end up in debt. Or lose their businesses. If you can't work and staff can't too that could devastate small business.
I would of course self isolate if I thought I could have Coronavirus but if I was sure it was just a cold I'm not sure I would.

Also sniffles is not a symptom of Coronavirus as it affects the lower respiratory system. Not runny noses.

Naturalbornwoman Over 3000 people in the uk have now been tested because they had reason to believe they might be at risk. Just 9 have tested positive. All 9 have either recovered or are recovering. The virus is considered stable so not mutating into something more infectious and/or contagious.

If this virus was truly cause for the mass hysteria going the rounds now then many more would have tested positive and some would have died. Scare yourself stupid if you wish but I'm not joining it until there is cause.

Its doesnt matter to me. Im self employed, no SSP anyway, and am old enough to have savings and no mortgage. Its not me I am thinking of. There are millions out there working their socks off to pay the bills. They cant stop for a sniffle.

And by the time symptoms appear it's partly too late anyway. Hence why people are being locked into quarantine for 14 days. Yes, better late than never, but its not going to have completely stopped their workplace being infected.

Scare yourself stupid if you wish but I'm not joining it until there is cause.

Why I am I stupid for paying attention to good quality information that is being given to our doctors? The recommended presentation isn’t scaremongering it’s an explanation of where we are now, what is known, known unknowns and what will happen next in various scenarios. It answers a lot of the questions and myths which are being posted on these threads. I prefer to be informed from reliable sources, rather than sticking my head in the sand or relying on rumours and the opinions of mumsnet posters. You do you.

Self centred? Does that include people on UC who would be sanctioned if they dont turn up to a Job Centre appointment. Despite how shit they may feel they WILL try to drag themselves down there if the alternative means a sanction and being unable to buy food OR toiletries which will help WITH hygiene.

Same with zero hours.

i'm sure there will be a plan for those in receipt of benefits!

According to the Guardian live feed on Covid-19 nearly half of China's population is now living with some form of travel restriction due to Covid-19. So that's about a 15th of world population. Anyone who thinks the same can't happen here if the threat is great enough is living in cloud-cuckoo-land. I'm afraid any government, of any political persuasion, has to prioritise public order over the rights of the individual. When the shit hits the fan you can be made to stay home. Curfews and quarantines are public order mechanisms. And any government will use them if necessary.