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.

@Meadowblossom

My 80 year old dad died of COVID the week before Christmas. To all of you saying let’s just cull the vulnerable and let the young and fit carry on - I think you are despicable.

I’m sorry about your Dad. It is despicable of people not to isolate properly or to not take tests when they know they should. Our Christmas has been a disaster so far but we are following the rules. It’s incredibly frustrating but I don’t see any other option.

[quote Poppiesway1]@borntobequiet exactly. I work in NHS, we’ve got whole departments closed, half our team are off with Covid, we’re skeleton staff. But if the knowingly positive staff came in and spread it around to vulnerable patients and staff there would would be uproar. If people had isolated as they were meant to it would have been over with a long time ago.[/quote]
It wouldn't have been over.
Its endemic.

And not when theres planes arriving everyday from abroad with new variants all the time. Isolation itself isnt going to get rid of this.

@Blubells

Maybe the 7 day isolation rule should be scrapped for those who feel well enough to work?

I suspect it will be eventually - the same as if people go to work with colds and other viruses as long as they feel well enough to do so.

The only reliable way to exert some control over highly infectious illnesses is isolation, as has been recognised for centuries.

You can't control a virus.

[quote Blubells]@titchy Are you hoping that Covid will eventually go away?[/quote]
I accept it probably won't. But people also have to accept being responsible. Which given by this thread they're not.

No one in their right mind with flu turns up for work to spread their flu around to vulnerable people. The same should apply to covid - esp as it's more severe than flu normally is.

But apparently it's fine to spread covid.

@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.

But how would 'restrictions' help?

No one in their right mind with flu turns up for work to spread their flu around to vulnerable people

Lots of people have the flu each year and have no idea that they have the flu virus. We only recognise that we have flu when we are so poorly that working isn't on the agenda in any case.

www.westernsussexhospitals.nhs.uk/news/know-77-people-flu-no-symptoms-can-still-pass/

@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

So you’re alright then Jack? What about the people in the office who go home to CEV loved ones?

@Katya213 please get a PCR before you go back

@borntobequiet

So if someone tests positive with Omicron but feels well enough to go to work and goes, infects three more people, one of whom has a mild infection and feels OK, one of whom is ill enough to have to take two weeks off and one of whom develops Long Covid and has to be signed off long term sick, how is that an improvement? (Numbers for illustrative purposes only.) The only reliable way to exert some control over highly infectious illnesses is isolation, as has been recognised for centuries.

Exactly. It's a pain, but this really is the only way to curb the spread (other than much nastier restrictions).

@BeLessMe ok then, tell us what is the alternative? Do you really think we just shut down society forever and everyone sits indoors until death? No? Because that is unfortunately the only thing that would maybe protect those who will eventually succumb to covid anyway. No different to the millions of people who die from flu, cancer and other illnesses and deaths each year. We cannot completely destroy society, watch people lose their houses, jobs, mental health, livelihood and continue to not properly educate our children, who by the way were being abused during lockdown at unprecedented levels (along with DV)

Yes, maybe in rainbow land where everything is shiny and happy and money grows on trees shutting down the country indefinitely would work, but in reality you have to be pretty dense to even consider it a viable option.

So if someone tests positive with Omicron but feels well enough to go to work and goes, infects three more people, one of whom has a mild infection and feels OK, one of whom is ill enough to have to take two weeks off and one of whom develops Long Covid and has to be signed off long term sick, how is that an improvement? (Numbers for illustrative purposes only.)

But the numbers are not an afterthought, they're the crux.

@Blubells can you link where you read this to please?

Here you go: it was originally on the BBC but a quick google search came up with this:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10339555/amp/Two-thirds-new-Covid-hospital-patients-England-tested-positive-admitted.html

What about the people in the office who go home to CEV loved ones?

What's the alternative?

Unfortunately Covid is here to stay and as a society we need to develop immunity through vaccination and exposure to covid.

Unfortunately there are lots of dangerous viruses that affect the CEV.

I wish there was solution..?!

@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

But it's always been a mild illness for most ,and it's positive that Omicron appears to be 50-70%milder ,but just because you or I may have a mild illness ,we can't guarantee whoever we pass it onto will have it mildly .

So you’re alright then Jack?
What about the people in the office who go home to CEV loved ones?

It's not about "me" being alright, it's about the NHS and other organisations having enough staff available to help the CEV (and others) when they need it.

And all of it is just a possibility at this stage, based on the assumption evidence will show that this is now a much milder illness, much less of a risk to everyone. If that's not correct then of course relaxing isolation rules is not possible.

For very vulnerable people any kind of cold or infection can lead to complications, we can't protect them from everything, but we can try and provide services to help them when they need it. Currently we're close to not being able to do that, not because of widespread illness, but because of isolation.

It always amazes me that posters call for lockdowns without any suggestion.to any form of exit plan. What do these people actually want to happen? How do we protect vulnerable people from covid forever? Genuinely please enlighten me because it's clear vaccinations don't stop the spread of covid entirely and neither does it protect people. So if we must save every life and protect every person from getting it until the end of time, how do you envision that?

we can't guarantee whoever we pass it onto will have it mildly

This is true for every single contagious illness. I've been in hospital with colds which triggered an asthma attack, I have colds that trigger chest infections that caused respiratory difficulties. If I wanted to avoid all that I'd live away from family and friends and society in general - but who would choose that?

No one in their right mind with flu turns up for work to spread their flu around to vulnerable people.

But they do! Every single year. Plenty of people get the flu virus and are asymptomatic or just have minor cold symptoms like a sore throat, sniffles and a cough.

But we don't test everyone for flu, so nobody knows they have it for certain unless they end up in hospital with it.

The same should apply to covid - esp as it's more severe than flu normally is.

See above. We don't test asymptomatic carriers for flu so thousands of people will be spreading it without realising it. The same will, eventually, apply to COVID.

Maybe the 7 day isolation rule should be scrapped for those who feel well enough to work?

And make things worse by spreading the virus? Bonkers idea. But probably a Tory bot testing whether we'd put up with it.

The Tory policy way back in March 2020 was "Let it rip" or in a softer version "herd immunity." That's what the national government has always wanted to do, and I reckon that's what they'll do in England. They couldn't care less about actual people being ill.

So if we must save every life and protect every person from getting it until the end of time, how do you envision that?

We cannot, unfortunately, prevent every single death - we'd have ban driving, alcohol, risky sports, lockdown forever etc. As a society we need to decide what 'an acceptable level of death' is compared to the costs of saving those lives.

Ah, a Tory bot. Ok. That's new

NHS worker here, and it's not just Covid that is taking out the workforce, it's seasonal flu, feverish colds, plus the mighty Norovirus and Clostridium Difficile.

I worked Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with a severely depleted crew two of us and no, I'm not looking your applause or banging saucepans. It has ALWAYS been like this in winter in the care sector.

I'm NHS currently off as son tested positive Christmas Eve I'm.waiting on PCR results which I sent Christmas Day still nothing. I feel bad my colleague is having yo take on extra because I'm off but I had to cover all last Christmas and beyond because everyone was off with Covid. Not much I can do about it. Note Managers etc are all off on the Christmas leave, nit a thought for everyone having to work over Christmas though

@Autumndays123

And to those harping on about cancer patients and such - there are an awful lot of illnesses which can lead to the death of cancer patients, normal flu included. We have never shut down the entire country to stop cancer patients catching flu, for very good reason, it's not a viable option and quite ludicrous to even contemplate.

I've said it before and I will say it again, people need to starting taking responsibility for their own health. That means if a vulnerable person is worried they will catch covid, they make a decision on how to manage that risk, whether that be getting on with life as normal, or never leaving the house again - that is up to them. Expecting the whole country to sit indoors indefinitely so very few individuals are protected until most likely as soon as restrictions ease again is not a logical way to run a nation.

This is so easy to say when it is not you.