Worried about Cornovirus 30

[Angryrant55]

New thread.

If you're coming to Devon have some sense and respect for our massive elderly population.
Bring provisions. Our supermarkets are small, and fewer of them. For instance there are two in my town, one in the next town which is ten miles away, one in a town 12 miles away.
Total population of the areas is 88,000
Yes there are smaller stores, a few butchers, health stores, but we already can't get stuff.
Being rural is logistically harder in so many ways.
Deliveries, local staffing of a handful of surgeries.

Who is the woman who keeps coughing in the conference with the CMO and CSO - doing my head in!

Parker, surely people should have been making contingency plans at least a week ago when it became obvious schools would close? There's very little sense of personal responsibility about all this with everyone needing to be told what to do instead of using their intelligence. There will be some who have little in the way of choices though, I appreciate that. However, the parents I am talking about are able to keep their kids home before next week.

People can't afford to. Or are still in a state of disbelief or don't think it's that serious.

I've had a running battle with DH about it all week. He's been up to all sorts he shouldn't and is insisting DS go to school against my better judgement. DS has been very anxious and distressed this week as it is following a 9 year old telling him at the weekend that all the mummies and daddies were going to die. He's been in floods of tears and has been exceptionally clingy at night.

I've been trying to explain to him bit by bit that school is closing, all the shops are closing and he won't be able to see his friends again for a while because of the germs.

I personally would have pulled him Monday but its proved not to be so simple for his own mental wellbeing.

I'm trying to manage DH being a dick about it, DS being confused and anxious as well as my own feelings (im already effectively in isolation and trying to get my head around DS and DH being home together from next week when DH needs to work and DS doesn't get it at all). DH goes from thinking its a game where its fun to break the rules to bursting into tears himself when he allows himself to think about certain things.

I really needed the government to take the lead as psychologically its important in how people are acting and processing things.

I'm at my wits end tbh. Not slept all week.

RedToothBrush

Who is the woman who keeps coughing in the conference with the CMO and CSO - doing my head in!

I know, so distracting!

fuck fuck fuck question asked about PPE for NHS staff and he refused to answer.

Well, the houses in my town that sit empty for 10 months of the year are probably about to be occupied again. I don't think there's a confirmed case in our town or the surrounding ones at present. And London is a week ahead, they're almost definitely bringing the virus with them wherever they go

I don't even feel resentful really, it's just sad. And they won't face a warm welcome everywhere. People are passing on ways to keep stuff to locals and not the DFLs. On the plus side I found a local doorstep supplier of farm food that way and just got in on the last day of sign-up.

They're not even flinching when she's coughing. I bloody would be!

news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-mother-and-two-children-die-after-contracting-covid-19-in-the-us-11960155

Grace Fusco, 73, died on Wednesday night just hours after her eldest son Carmine passed away, the New York Times reports.

Rita Fusco-Jackson, the eldest of Mrs Fusco's 11 children, died just five days before.

And

Roseann Paradiso Fodera, Mrs Fusco's cousin and the family lawyer, said four of Mrs Fusco's other children have also contracted coronavirus.

She added all four are in hospital and three are in a critical condition.

And

The family lawyer added that she was unaware two of her children had died.

Nearly 20 other relatives are mourning while isolated due to the virus spread.

Ms Paradiso Fodera said: "If they're not on a respirator, they're quarantined.

Echoes of what happened to whole families in Wuhan.

This woman coughing is actually driving me insane. Why has nobody asked her to leave???

I bet it was the one who sat with both of them, her. Once was so bad..

*Her voice was so bad

@Maighdeann me too! I would ask her to leave!

Mark Di Stefano @markdistef
It's getting increasingly strange, from a communications perspective, to have background COVID briefings for the political journalists at 11am.

And then on-record afternoon briefings from the prime minister and medical experts at 5pm.

Official info pinging around everywhere.

Jim Waterson @jimwaterson
The “London to lock down imminently” story has been pinging around as fact since yesterday afternoon, so why wait until a pre-arranged briefing 18hours later to shut it down. If it’s not true, knock it on the head fast, just tweet out “this is not true” from @Number10press.

Lisa O'Carroll @lisaocarroll
They should move to crisis communications sooner rather than later. It's a different discipline with different purpose.

m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/coronavirus-london-lockdown_uk_5e7337d4c5b6eab779428871/

Jess Brammar @jessbrammar
After 12 hours of really serious rumours (which the PM refused to deny yesterday) of lockdown of London, which has had everyone I know scrambling to prepare for it, govt appear to have now ruled it out. How are they allowing comms to be this confusing?

I know numerous families desperately trying to get people either home to London or out of London ahead of "lockdown", in our house we have been madly trying to secure stuff we need for the coming new baby...they could have shut this down last night or first thing this morning

Journalists from a variety of newspapers getting increasingly frustrated, confused and irate at lack of government clarity.

No leadership nor strategy is what's rattling people as much as anything else.

We look like we are in headless chicken mode compared to other countries.

mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN2160RU?taid=5e73625a2a3ccf0001993db2&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A%20Trending%20Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter&__twitter_impression=true
Amazon shuts New York delivery station after worker gets coronavirus

Amazon.com Inc on Thursday said it was closing a small New York warehouse temporarily after one of its associates tested positive for the coronavirus, a move that highlights the operational risk it faces as the disease spreads.

The company said it has sent associates home from the delivery station with full pay as it sanitizes the facility, its first in the United States known to have a case of the virus.

And before anyone says my criticism of the competence of this government is partisan, its something very much coming from with Conservative ranks too

Alex Wickham @alexwickham
Govt getting a pasting from both wings of its own backbenches this morning

— Greg Clark says financial package is not enough, action must be taken immediately on wages — says state should pay them

— Iain Duncan Smith says benefits must be raised today and waiting times reduced

Now Bernard Jenkin piles in

Says Rishi Sunak's package from Tuesday is "simply not going to be enough"

Says Tory "diehards are lining up for far more radical measures... the govt must take note"

Urges the government "to say something today" to reassure people

Full blown protest on the Tory backbenches at the govt's economic response to coronavirus

Tory MP Peter Aldous says the govt must support payroll costs far more directly as other European countries are doing

Aldous says businesses will have difficulty accessing govt loans

Tobias Ellwood says the government has to pay workers' wages

Politico: EU regulator-contradicts-von-der-leyens-vaccine-hopes

"We would estimate that it will take six months or more before candidate vaccines are tested in larger clinical studies, and 12-18 months before a vaccine against COVID-19 is ready for approval,” an EMA spokesperson said Wednesday in a statement to POLITICO.

Just had an update from school about exams:

^Qualifications

The head of JCQ (joint qualifications board) which governs all exams (GCSE, A-level, BTEC etc.) has said:
-Students will get a grade this year.
-It is likely to be based on internal school based assessments.
-There will be external moderation.

• We don't yet know if this means schools will have to do their own additional assessments over the summer, but this is a possibility, so everyone should keep working as normal!

Uni Entrance:

Unis are currently considering 2 possible options:

1. Use a combination of predicted grades, personal statements and school based assessment to decide who to accept.
2. Give all students holding offers places^

That's not the exact wording used, but gives you the general gist of what JCQ/Unis are thinking.

What are the disadvantages of shutting down London (everywhere?) at this point I wonder? What will it make worse?

Lucy Fisher @los_fisher
Finally - some clarity from Downing Street on London lockdown rumours.

BUT those rumours appear to have prompted swathes of people to exodus capital - potentially accelerating the spread of virus.

As of yesterday more than 950 of 2,625 confirmed cases (36%) were in London...

There is no plan. No advice from above. The “from above” people have done a runner. I hope the pharmacist was just freaking out when he said he was literally going to lock himself in and keep dispensing. He sounded panicked and tired.

Seriously though - if your life depended on meds would you rather have a prescription dispensed by someone with COVID or no prescription at all? What a choice.

If the pharmacist has a face mask and gloves on and has cleaned his dispensary then he will
Be safe to keep dispensing I think?

I think most countries in the headless chicken mode to be fair because this is so new they dont really know how to handle it. The only thing is we havent learnt from the fact that in Spain/Italy everyone ran away

Does anyone know when they will announce the measures for the vulnerable in terms of the 12 week thing?

It really is shambolic but I can imagine they get new information all the time and chop and change their minds.

I said about a vaccine taking 1.5 years about ten threads back!

Afternoon all.

Had to take a step away from the thread for a few days. Not in the bets frame of mine. Things are now clearer.

Hope you are all keeping as well as can be in these troubled times.

Best wishes and un-mumsnetty love and hugs xx