Work sending messages pleading for help

[whenwillthemadnessend]

My work has sent out an email this morning pleading for help today. I expect it will be
Like this for a few weeks now.

It's not an essential service likely but if my Work is doing it how are the essential services going to cope

This is why I think we will
End up with some restrictions soon.

I assumed this was required. We have always had to forward pcr test results ti employers and the school

@JohnSmithDrive

*You don’t get it do you

They maybe well enough to work but as they are isolating as they have tested positive then all they are going to do is transmit it to others

So in simple terms business of 10, 1 of sick, under your example goes in, infects 5 so then they become spreaders as well*

We do get it, it doesn't matter if what they are spreading is a mild illness

Exactly! My dd work not requiring testing 1 person had covid (found out once symptoms started) now 6 more are off. If that 1 had tested before shift potentially the others would still be in work

Apart from in the health service in some trusts, only someone actively infected needs to isolate in England IIRC? So it is not isolation, but infection that is the issue?

You're assuming that being infected necessarily makes you unable to work.

And yes i understand that by going to work infected, you're potentially infecting others. But the same applies to them - many will.continue to be well enough to work.

There are increasing demands from scientists to treat covid like a cold.

We will limp on and cobble whatever we can together. Those off work now with Covid will most likely be back at work after 7-10 days. Then we pick up the pieces and crack on.

Sadly there will always be people affected badly by any illness , we can't lock healthy people away indefinitely because of this.

There are increasing demands from people with little scientific or medical understanding to treat covid like a cold.

Fixed that for you.

Isolation is apparently 5 days in the US and this has been discussed here. Currently not happening but I suspect that’s probably political-because they only just brought in the 7 days they would look silly.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/self-isolation-period-could-drop-25804657

@borntobequiet I think you'll find there are indeed scientists with a sound medical understanding calling for isolation to be eliminated

For example:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2021/12/28/people-with-covid-should-be-able-to-go-about-normal-lives-15831377/amp/

I feel we are moving towards scrapping isolation completely, which is far more likely than a hard lockdown. Canada are already asking those infected to continue working in certain circumstances and both the UK and US are reducing the isolation period. This is a much better method than hard lockdowns for the rest of time, as people will have a (albeit brief) natural immunity for a period after being infected, meaning there is more probability of COVID dying out, far more probability than if we continuously lockdown.

Every death is sad, but death is unfortunately inevitable. Yes people are in hospital with covid (a very very small percentage of those infected), well more than half of which just happen to have COVID whilst in the hospital for other matters, but we can't just destroy the country to save the few. We've never closed the country to stop cancer patients or other vulnerable people getting a cold/flu, so why would we do it now? The fact some people want others to sacrifice their homes, business, jobs, children's education, mental health etc so some people can be protected is bonkers. What is worse is the people who think the country should lockdown indefinitely because they are just worried about covid which someone has actually said on this thread. The fact people want others to sacrifice everything to help their own personal anxiety is one of the most selfish things I have ever seen.

I'm fed up of people accusing those who want to continue with their lives of being selfish. We are no more selfish than those who refuse to take responsibility for their own health and rather than just making the personal decision to shield, think the whole country should give up everything for them. I can't even wrap my head around that kind of narrow mindedness.

To those screeching for lockdowns, seriously it's not going to happen, I recommend some therapy because it's not healthy to be in that frame of mind

Blubells Check out the Professors Twitter, he is madly rowing back after all the press coverage, possibly after so many others were pointing out not just the pressure on the NHS but also that he said last year that Covid would be over by March 2021. Like Heneghen his views don’t age well, because Covid was and remains unpredictable and as he says there is no easy answer. Personally I wish we would go with the scientific consensus, and not be steered by right wing ideology and populism and whichever outliers they can wheel out and quote out of context to support them

“ If health services are likley to come under such pressure that they could collapse then implementing control measures now would be the right thing to do. But tighter control measures carry a real risk, and not just to mental health, the economy, etc.”

“ So is it better to reduce the peak now but with the risk that because of waining vaccine immunity overall more people may suffer sever disease in the long term. That is what makes this decision so difficult. There is no easy answer.”

I think you'll find more people are off 'sick' where they have sick pay than people who don't get sick pay ie where I work. Nobody is of sick at the care home I work in, have a friend who works in retail where they are still paid sick leave and it is rife. Funny that.

Autumndays So who exactly are these vulnerable people you are saying should be locking themselves away? In my family we had Covid in March 2020 thanks to the government not taking early enough action to control the virus. None of us were hospitalised. We have an octagenarian with a history of respiratory disease and pneumonia who had a bit of a cough treated with antibiotics. I am immunocompromised and people with better blood counts than me were instructed to shield and I probably wasn’t only because my GP is useless and also failed to offer me vaccination early. I had it without symptoms and I am now part of a study that has already identified particles of DNA that account for whether you experience Covid mildly or severely. The reason there are healthy young people in ICUs now.

It is all very well making pronouncements on what you want the virus to be but Science is still finding out about the reality and as it is mutating all the time it is a moving picture.

Yes I've just had a look at his Twitter. I feel his views are very sensible and pragmatic actually.

@wentworthinmate

The worry there surely ... are there people who should be off but are not testing as they cant afford not to be paid?

[quote Covidworries]@wentworthinmate

The worry there surely ... are there people who should be off but are not testing as they cant afford not to be paid?[/quote]
Of course there are. People aren't going to isolate if it means them not being able to pay their bills.

I think you'll find more people are off 'sick' where they have sick pay than people who don't get sick pay ie where I work. Nobody is of sick at the care home I work in, have a friend who works in retail where they are still paid sick leave and it is rife. Funny that.

Are you suggesting that perfectly healthy people are taking advantage and staying at home collecting sick pay?

@wentworthinmate

I think you'll find more people are off 'sick' where they have sick pay than people who don't get sick pay ie where I work. Nobody is of sick at the care home I work in, have a friend who works in retail where they are still paid sick leave and it is rife. Funny that.

100% agree with this ! At my workplace staff who are on contracts are definitely sick more often, and for longer than those who work through agencies and who only get paid for the days they turn up. It infuriates me that we give good agency staff a contract, and instantly their sickness record becomes worse

11 off sick today in a team of 45
Think this will
Be at least another fortnight

@Blubells

I think you'll find more people are off 'sick' where they have sick pay than people who don't get sick pay ie where I work. Nobody is of sick at the care home I work in, have a friend who works in retail where they are still paid sick leave and it is rife. Funny that.

Are you suggesting that perfectly healthy people are taking advantage and staying at home collecting sick pay?

I think it's far more likely that when people know they don't get sick pay they work even when they're too sick to (and possibly spread infections, if not, drive themselves to burnout) than people who get sick pay 'taking advantage.

Hasn't that been one of the major problems with covid and isolation? Some people aren't isolating properly/haven't been testing because they can't afford the time off?

And then some people go on about these people being 'selfish'. Maybe the selfish ones are the employers who don't pay people properly/provide proper benefits.

It's been shown time and time again that employees who are treated well, paid well, and given proper benefits, work harder, stay for longer and are more efficient in the long term. It's amazing how this doesn't get through some peoples head time and time again.

The other issue is a lot of people don’t get paid time off if the kids are sick, 14 days for Covid and similar for chicken pox can send people into debt pretty quickly.

The government should allow provision for caters of I’ll children.

Same could be said of zero hour contracts DD is contracted 4 hours but works more like 25 - sick pay is limited to 4 hours.

The numbers will go up and the government will have to do something, they are leaving it as long as possible, so that the economy has a good Christmas, but when the numbers come in from us mixing over Christmas and hospitals start filling up, we will have a circuit breaker to get as many vaccinated as possible, so it takes pressure off the hospital admissions. The economy slows down at the end of January as credit card statements come in from Christmas, so it's perfect to have a break then without damaging it too much.

@Emilyontmoor

Autumndays So who exactly are these vulnerable people you are saying should be locking themselves away? In my family we had Covid in March 2020 thanks to the government not taking early enough action to control the virus. None of us were hospitalised. We have an octagenarian with a history of respiratory disease and pneumonia who had a bit of a cough treated with antibiotics. I am immunocompromised and people with better blood counts than me were instructed to shield and I probably wasn’t only because my GP is useless and also failed to offer me vaccination early. I had it without symptoms and I am now part of a study that has already identified particles of DNA that account for whether you experience Covid mildly or severely. The reason there are healthy young people in ICUs now.

It is all very well making pronouncements on what you want the virus to be but Science is still finding out about the reality and as it is mutating all the time it is a moving picture.

It is not for me to decide who is vulnerable and who is not. Surely that decision should be made by an individual? So for example (as it appears you're failing to grasp my very clear post) if person A feels anxious about covid and doesn't want to leave the house, then that is person A's decision. If person B in CV but decided actually, they want to live life as normal, then that is their decision. It's really not complicated is it?

Do you genuinely think that the whole country should be forced to lock down instead of the very small minority being given a choice of whether they want to or not? You can't be that selfish?

@ElleMac44

The numbers will go up and the government will have to do something, they are leaving it as long as possible, so that the economy has a good Christmas, but when the numbers come in from us mixing over Christmas and hospitals start filling up, we will have a circuit breaker to get as many vaccinated as possible, so it takes pressure off the hospital admissions. The economy slows down at the end of January as credit card statements come in from Christmas, so it's perfect to have a break then without damaging it too much.

They are doing something, reducing isolation and considering reducing it even more, after repeatedly stating the data doesn't support any restrictions.

It’s a bit much to make an assumption at this stage that everyone will get a mild dose of omicron. I’m 3rd trimester abs fully vaccinated but I’ll still a bit nervous about going back to school in January knowing that people will send their children in sick and plenty of teachers stagger in with ‘just a cold.’ It might not be ‘just a cold’ for me and my baby!

@Blubells

Apart from in the health service in some trusts, only someone actively infected needs to isolate in England IIRC? So it is not isolation, but infection that is the issue?

You're assuming that being infected necessarily makes you unable to work.

And yes i understand that by going to work infected, you're potentially infecting others. But the same applies to them - many will.continue to be well enough to work.

There are increasing demands from scientists to treat covid like a cold.

No, there are demands from some scientists, plenty of whom are talking outside their area of expertise and many of whom have been consistently wrong in their predictions throughout the pandemic.

Although I suppose even stopped clocks are right twice a day.