Are my village overreacting?

[charliesmithers]

Small village - started an emergency group - they’re looking for wardens for each street to check each house daily for symptoms (by knocking on windows apparently), people with medical training eg CPR, doctors, nurses, farmers (for food), people who know how to fish, those who have been in the military before and people with skills such as joinery, electrics and firefighting .

They seem to believe that we will be entirely alone from now on, we have to assume there are no services left in society and no contact with other villages and towns - and that as a village we will eventually have to form our own separate civilisation .

These are actual words - that have been sent via social media to lots of us . A leaflet through the door last night saying much the same .

Same group have told us to avoid handling any mail, cardboard or paper from anywhere as it’s very dangerous, all animals, food that’s not been cooked to a certain temperature (so no bread, raw fruit or veg), water that isn’t sterilised or boiled and have told us that our pets and other animals are a danger to us all and should be actively avoided, confined to indoors and washed daily in water .

They’re asking for fire fighting stuff , overshoes, medical equipment, PPE, rubber gloves and rubber trousers, Wellington boots and tools for survival .

Apparently this is all just very good sense . It’s being actively shared amongst the 1000 or so of us who live here - many of whom are either very elderly or families with young children and very, very frightened as it is .

Would I be wrong to contact the group who are doing this and tell them to can it for a bit, or are they quite right? As far as I can tell there is no evidence for any of what they are saying . It sounds like something out of a post apocalyptic film !!

Do you have a local police community support officer you could let know about this? It's blatant panic- spreading and needs to stop.

You will have to live around these people in the future.

Are they burning effigies or has it moved on to igniting people in wicker cages 'up the rec'?

One of my mum's friends has taken early retirement and lives in a village with a pub and a community run shop/post office. The older volunteers are dropping out as they want less contact and mum's friend (late 50s) is now doing two days there a week to help it continue to run. That seemed suiltably altruistic.

It’s mass hysteria - total madness. And absolutely dangerous for society.

Send your dog to stay with a family member somewhere else, OP.

Or a poster saying - I have symptoms, do not enter . I’ve seen that on several groups though

Because a closed front door doesn't say that clearly enough?

I'm trying to imagine my stress levels if I had cooped-up small children in the house and then strangers knocking on the window outside. I would be seriously unimpressed!

Doesn't say "do not enter", I mean, not the symptoms.

Wow that’s like something out of one of those creepy psycho films

Some of it makes sense & would be useful/comforting!

Lots of it is NUTS! Better that though than people ignoring the guidelines & organising parties etc

The tone of the message seems to be alarmist, but why would a community not take some of the more sensible measures?

I've moved to a small town in a European country. The nearest major hospital is 30 minutes away, so there are defibrillators located at various points in the town. The local Red Cross holds regular, free CPR and First Aid courses which are well-attended. There is a local app for people to sign up to if they have been trained and would be available in case of emergency - essentially they are volunteer first responders.

There is a Fire Station with two tenders. It is staffed entirely by volunteers (similar to the RNLI lifeboats in the UK). They can begin dealing with local incidents until assistance arrives from the large town or from other villages.

The Coronavirus epidemic has resulted in the whole country going into lockdown. Some of the young people in the town immediately set up a grocery and medicine delivery service for the housebound, co-ordinated by the town council. The local trades have central contact numbers anyway - e.g. all the local plumbers take turns being on call in case of emergencies.

If you look past the alarmist language and the less practical ideas, you'll see a number of sensible initiatives that are common in other places - and dare I say used to be common in towns in the UK too. When they say 'there are no services left' surely this is already the situation in many rural communities across the UK - e.g. no emergency services, miles/hours to the nearest hospital etc.

I'd forward it to the police and ask that they have a word with whoever is behind this because it sounds like someone's having a breakdown and putting the mental health of everyone else in the village at risk. They've seen too many apocalyptic films.

Fucking hell.
Yeah someone official needs to be contacted about this.
It is not following official guidelines and is seriously causing unnecessary panic.
Think some of them are most likely getting off on their own self importance.

How tedious @SuckingDieselFella

Im not scaremongering by stating what I've personally read. I haven't started a thread ordering everyone they must must must burn all their mail and every item they receive by post have I.

I've said what I'm doing and that it takes a minute to wipe things down as my DH is in a high risk category.

People like you make me sick, you make unfounded accusations of scaremongering even if people share with others the steps they chose to take in a reasonable way. Because none of us know, even Public Health England, as they stated "no perceived risk" ie they've got not data to back it up so it could be a risk for a health category like cancer survivor (my DH), so it's hardly an excessive step to increase cleanliness.

Anyway I'm carrying on doing it and others can make their own decision with out you trying to censor free speech. I'm not forcing anyone to take my word for it.

We have the same in our housing estate, the type that need to be organising and instructing everyone, making up rules and hell mind you if you comment back that it is probably not advisable to have the self appointed team of volunteers meeting in the local tiny café - have you heard of social distancing?

Latest idea is we (1,600 households) have allocated time slots for walking the streets for exercise 🙄

This makes me think of the village in fuzz.

@SuckingDieselFella

Last I looked the post office was not qualified in the transmission of infectious diseases.🙄

From WHO
It is not certain how long the virus that causes COVID-19 survives on surfaces, but it seems to behave like other coronaviruses. Studies suggest that coronaviruses (including preliminary information on the COVID-19 virus) may persist on surfaces for a few hours or up to several days. This may vary under different conditions (e.g. type of surface, temperature or humidity of the environment).

If you think a surface may be infected, clean it with simple disinfectant to kill the virus and protect yourself and others. Clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water. Avoid touching your eyes, mouth, or nose.

Several actual specialists (rather than businessmen with a commercial interest) have said

2/3 days on glass
3/4 days on metal
9 days on paper/cardboard

All outer cardboard is going straight in the recycling bin. Everything inside is getting wiped done with bleach(1:4) /dettol or dettol wipes lots of hand washing or 70% alcohol hand gel.

You can’t be too careful when you have an ‘at risk’ person in your life. IMO

Agreeing that it sounds like a mental health crisis and that the leaders need to be reported to the authorities. Do not open your door to these freaks.

But how long can the new coronavirus linger on surfaces, anyway? The short answer is, we don't know. A new analysis found that the virus can remain viable in the air for up to 3 hours, on copper for up to 4 hours, on cardboard up to 24 hours and on plastic and stainless steel up to 72 hours. This study was originally published in the preprint database medRxiv on March 11, and now a revised version was published March 17 in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Another study published in February in The Journal of Hospital Infection analyzed several dozen previously published papers on human coronaviruses (other than the new coronavirus) to get a better idea of how long they can survive outside of the body.

Source: www.livescience.com/how-long-coronavirus-last-surfaces.html

Tell me how I was scaremongering by reporting fact @SuckingDieselFella. We all need to be aware this Corona virus is a novel strain, so until the scientist have gathered sufficient data, it remains a risk and we need to take care.

@sunshinecake

Handling post is fine!

Based on what, exactly?

@daisychain01. You carry on 🌷. But use dettol or bleac mixed at 1:4. Your average cleaner/anti bac doesn’t kill CV. KEEP YOU & you DH safe.
Sucking Diesel & the like running around all the threads telling people off for taking precautions won’t be there for you if you get it, so it’s safe to ignore their baiting.

Lol @AmelieTaylor that was my thought when I first read that, along with, well the Post Office would say that wouldn't they

Thank you for that reassurance @AmelieTaylor we're already on a knife-edge as it is x

Look out for huge wicker man shaped structures being erected....

The person who has just emailed me to privately suggest we do something similar is a doctor working in our hospital... makes me think perhaps it isn’t such a crack pot idea.

People who know how to fish 🐠

Is there somewhere to fish actually in the village or are they proposing someone is sent away to go catch the fish elsewhere.

I'm surprised they haven't proposed a nice big wall around the village to keep others out.

Could it be some bored teenagers stuck at home, making amusing pamphlets...?

Do you live in Eyam OP?