If this doesn’t make you think twice about breaking COVID rules....

[Strawberrycreamsundae]

Then nothing will......🤬😡
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55479018

@ghoulbag yes but in his case it is from doing medical procedures, and he was wearing gloves.

@herecomesthsun

5 he is not a knob

That’s a matter of opinion. I say he’s a knob.

The virus causes the illness, but it is not a sentient entity and it cannot change its behaviour. But we can, we have free will, unlike an organism that exists only to reproduce, really.

@ghoulbag Go walk in his shoes.

He's a hard working doctor and no doubt a lovely person. But in this instance, he's acting like a knob.

@singingstones

IT IS THE VIRUS. IT'S WHAT THEY DO. He is supposed to know about science. I can't stand the fact the people are being blamed for spreading the virus.

It is people who are spreading the virus though? We know how it spreads and how to make the spread less likely. But every person with COVID has been infected by someone else, by touching something that has had virus left on it by someone and then touching their own eyes/mouth/nose, or by breathing in droplets which have come out of someone else. If you don't have any contact with someone with COVID, you can't catch it.

It's impossible not to spread it. Unless we literally have no human contact at all. He is talking shite.

[quote herecomesthsun]@ghoulbag Go walk in his shoes.[/quote]
Oh, I see you’ve renewed your understanding of metaphor.

Whether he is nice or not, he is really not helping. It's whipping up a mass hysteria over this virus which is getting out of control. What more does he want people to do? We've basically put our lives on hold for nearly 10 months. Some people have to work, schools are open, life has to go on in some way. To say we have blood on our hands is outrageous, he should control himself.

@singingstones

IT IS THE VIRUS. IT'S WHAT THEY DO. He is supposed to know about science. I can't stand the fact the people are being blamed for spreading the virus.

It is people who are spreading the virus though? We know how it spreads and how to make the spread less likely. But every person with COVID has been infected by someone else, by touching something that has had virus left on it by someone and then touching their own eyes/mouth/nose, or by breathing in droplets which have come out of someone else. If you don't have any contact with someone with COVID, you can't catch it.

The R number is made up of 3 parts, only one of which we can do anything about a) when and how long an infected person is contagious (unchanged between variants, and includes about 48hours of pre symptomatic spread about which we can do nothing, unless the person happens to be tested in that time) b) the secondary attack rate - higher with new variant - if a contagious person has contact with 10 people, how many would typically also catch it c) the number of people that a contagious person is in contact with.

We can do something about c), and we can do that irrespective of the characteristics a)& b) of the virus

I've just got back from getting meds and food and had people being abusive about how I'm murdering people, spreading covid, by refusing to wear a mask as its been proven by top medics in the news today.

Life is difficult enough for those medically/clinically unable to wear masks without him making it worse - I can have no care, no help and no support because of it. I'm severely depressed but can access no help.

At least I now know why it's ok for people to crowd around having a go at me and blaming me and I was responsible, clearly, for my family member dying as well.

Do not understand why schools are opening next week as normal in some parts of the county. All those who want them to be open, why? Surely nothing is more important than keeping everyone safe at the moment. I appreciate people need financial support in order to stay safe. We need decent leadership.

I wonder how many people this 'holier than thou' doctor has infected?

What more does he want people to do?

That's answered in the article. Don't have NYE gatherings

(Also wear your mask, keep your distance and wash your hands)

Seems a bit hypocritical to me.

If you aren’t staying at home and following the rules you’ve got blood on your hands.
But if your mixing at school, then that blood is worth it, so we’ll say that’s ok.

Make me actually take it less seriously.

Masks for the general public are thought to make a bit of a difference, but not much. The spread is not being cause by a lack of mask wearing. It's being caused because masks, along with Governement interventions, don't make enough of a difference to bring Reff

Nurses, doctors, hospital cleaners etc are all murderers then. My OHs aunt died in hospital from covid after catching it in there.

How can people spread a disease if they don’t have it.

All the people I know think we had this last December / January.

A fair few of them have been around people who have tested positive for Covid some as recently as early December and haven’t gone down with it again.

They aren’t going to be spreading this disease.

As for blood on their hands. Would you say that to your village newsagent who sells cigarettes. Cigarettes kill more people than Covid and not just those that choose to smoke. Why haven’t any government ever stopped the sale of cigarettes since it became clear they were a killer.

It's impossible not to spread it. Unless we literally have no human contact at all. He is talking shite.

It's not impossible not to spread it if you don't have contact with someone who is infectious. That's the point. A specific sequence of events has to happen for it to spread. Stay at home, keep distance from others, wear a mask, wash hands. All of that makes the spread less likely. As would a functioning test/trace/protect system but that appears to be too much to ask for, in England anyway.

At this point we're not going to be able to get rid of it or even do as well as the more successful countries. But you don't have to spread it.

I read this and have massive sympathy for an exhausted doctor but I thought ‘I wish I could reduce my contact. DH and I are secondary teachers, we have 2 primary aged DC. We’re in contact with over a thousand people a week with no PPE. He’s directing his anger at the wrong people.

@lljkk

I thought his comments were very hyperbolic. I had to switch station because my ire started to rise when he started ranting.

He basically implied that everyone who caught C19 was either a totally innocent victim or a desperately bad selfish person. No inbetween. Nobody understandably struggling with horrible decisions.

So yeah, his comments make me think twice -- but in opposite way OP wanted. I am sorry the man is stressed out but his guilt-mongering still backfires with me.

Wouldn't surprise me if someone comes forward to say the guy himself has not followed every rule perfectly since February. He's set himself up for it.

Agree 100% with this.

The thing is, we have the capacity from our modern understanding of science to manage this a whole lot better.

As a society.

I agree that includes the government.

And yes they should be following WHO guidelines for schools, and encouraging masks in schools, and isolating people who are positive and closing bubbles.

It is a real problem if we have distancing fatigue and let things slip. It doesn't help that the patients who are ultimately dying in hospital are sort of invisible to the people who might have infected them.

It doesn't make the chain of infection any less real though.

#Blame the government for their mistakes
#wear your mask

party at home?

He needs to direct his anger at our incompetent government.

@herecomesthsun

1. He is a very good doctor and a very decent man

1. He is working all hours to save lives

1. He is suggesting that we take responsibility for following as much mitigation as possible to save lives in this crisis.

1. He is seeing the aftermath of what happens when people- whole families - die and he is responsible for managing the over-stretched service that supports these people. Dying. Without visitors.

So I would certainly see the government as having a lion share of responsibility for mismanaging this crisis.

I would also suggest that we listen to this - very experienced and well-respected - ICU doctor and take away the part about social distancing, wearing masks and staying home etc.

I wish the government for their part would take heed properly too but we may be on a hiding to nothing there.

Absolutely this. It isn't a lack of critical thinking that makes me trust this man, it is precisely my ability to analyse stuff (as far as possible)that makes me think this man is telling us the reality. I doubt he's talking about the people who are social distancing etc but forced into unsafe situations, like the meetings outlined by a pp. He's talking about the people who don't care about anyone but themselves .

@ghoulbag

don't understand the last comment?

The emotive language could convince people, but I'm not sure it'll do much after all the emotional pleas there have been so far.

On one hand, I think he has every right to his anger and that some of it is because of people's risky behaviour -- though I point my own more at there being too few beds and how many hospitals have been torn down or otherwise not in service in the last few decades for this preference of large centralized hospitals. Living down the road from one that was torn down 4-5 years ago, I can't help but think it would be really nice to have those facilities rather than a construction site for more tiny box houses that aren't going to sell (it's literally next to another housing development that is such a bad fit for the area that they're still trying to sell places even though it was finished before that hospital was pulled down).

On the other, I think the "accept it's going to be "miserable" occasion this year" doesn't help anything. Calling something miserable doesn't tend to be a great way to encourage people to do it. I get its his anger talking, but that's not well thought out. Plenty of people do it quite cheerfully and have for many years. I love my at-home New Years plans and I find it weird we're still getting this idea that unless we're gathering in groups, we should be miserable touted. That things are going to be rough going forward and it'll likely be miserable in many places of work open tonight, yeah, but the 'occasion' doesn't need to be miserable for most at home.

The closest I've been to breaking the rules has been a handful of times of being in shops with another adult of my household. I know some think that makes me a shitty selfish person, if people want to add blood on my hands, fine, it's not the worst I've been called.