Westminstenders: Events...

[RedToothBrush]

Events have taken over. EU / UK negotiation have been put on ice due to covid-19.

The US has banned all travel from Europe - apart from to the uk and Ireland - in a manner which is highly political to drive wedges.

The effects of leaving the European Medicines Agency may be much more serious than anyone could have anticipated.

There's a oil price war going on between Saudi Arabia and Russia which has further driven market fears led by covid-19.

There the crisis in Turkey with Syrian refugees which is also distracting the EU.

We are facing lockdown and economic turmoil over the next weeks and months.

Johnson is having his leadership moment with deaths projected to possibly exceed UK WW2 deaths.

We are desperately trying to recruit negotiators as it's suddenly become apparent we don't have enough to carry out all the trade deals we want.

The civil service will be stretched to its limited by covid-19. Yet we also have Brexit to consider.

Where next? How bad are things going to get?

Courtesy of the Science Museum:

Before the large scale manufacture of iron lungs, local hospitals had to improvise their own methods to help patients breathe when their lungs failed. This custom-built iron lung at Lansdowne Hospital in Cardiff, Wales was made by hospital engineers in the 1940s.

I hope no one tells Matt Hancock hospitals can build their own

Off topic, but am very pleased to find that the hedgehog house I installed last autumn has a resident, who has already been out and about judging by what he’s left on the “lawn”.

"pasta" was a nice touch there in your Chamberlain post DGR, 10/10 for effort

Following BJ. Statement.
His advice is changing again - with symptoms, we are supposed to stay at home for 14 days now instead of 7.
And of course his advice goes against the WHO, esp re testing.

He is the worst PM we could have had in those circumstances

He is the worst PM we could have had in those circumstances

But ... but ... Corbyn ....

Is bad taste still allowed ? Here's another song (from my own schooldays) ...

Don't forget that from now on we should just not be touching people, it's of vital importance that it was the second thing he mentioned. Like cruises for over 70s last week

The seven days thing never made much sense anyway.

I feel like this would have been good advice two weeks or even a week ago...

One of the key things tonight is the lack of bans. This means people can't trigger insurance where relevant. It's all only advisory at this stage.

"Rolls Royce is not going to start making ventilators. You're being spun, stop being naive."

I didn't notice anyone here being that naive !

At least Merkel knew not to ask Opel or VW etc !

We've been sitting around on the Rhine bank - just about everything else is shut down ! - and I kept being asked what the hell BJ is doing.

One guy is recently back from Italy and he kept saying "Boris ist ein Arschloch"
Useful phrase "Boris is an arsehole"

There was great concern that UK govt policy would kill more Brits than otherwise
In particular, bafflement & anger that they didn't seem to be actually doing anything of significance to savr people.

People here generally think Merkel and the German govt are doing a good job re CV, even though we all expect things to get a lot worse:

60-70% of Germans will probably catch CV this year, but the aim is to keep the number of cases always within what the hospitals can handle
We don't know if this is possible, but all agree this is the best strategy - a govt should do its best to save as many lives of its people as possible.

Ellesmere Ports Vauxhall plant shuts for 10 days due to lack of sales and lack of parts.

Do we have enough parts for these etch-a-sketch ventilators? We've got a factory here doing fuck all.

Anyone?

@Hermanhessescat , these patients are very often unstable and vulnerable - caring for them is not something that can necessarily be taught over a week or two, so ordering more ventilators is not the whole solution...
But this is exactly what the nurses in my Trust are being asked to do. They're being diverted from their usual wards and asked to start in ICU in the next week or so. They're terrified.

People can accept there may be a high number of deaths, when they think the govt has a sensible strategy and is doing all it can to minimise them

We read out the list of bans here after Merkel's speech:

All schools & kindergartens are shut until at least 20 April (14 of 16 states had already done this)

Closed all gyms (sob), brothels (one neighbour groaned), pubs (many groaned), museums, theatres, swimming pools, basically any public event

Restaurants & cafes can open, but must keep safe distance between customers - and close at 6pm
My fav local cafe owner was in the paper saying they'd all need the promised govt assistance soon.

Going for walks, jogs, cycling, riding etc all fine - but not in organised groups

People go to work as normal, but should WFH whenever possible
Most employees receive up to 6 weeks full pay if ill or must isolate, but govt will pay this for employees of small firms who can't manage this

Food shops, farm shops & supermarkets remain open,
Our chemist is letting in only 1 person at a time, maximum 5 people in the shop at any time

Horrifying responsibility for nurses having to work beyond their capability level - with lives in their hands

Also the student nurses who'll miss up to the last 6 months of training - poor buggers aparently won't even be paid
The qualified nurses will be too busy to supervise them properly,
so they'll also be thrown in the deep end.

Here in the UK it is all 'advisory' hence putting the onus on business to pick up the tab, and for those whose employers wont/cant allow wfh, well then they're fucked.

A ban on many things would at least allow those with insurance to claim on it...

People on the front line - from HCP to dustbinmen - need protection and they're not getting it.

Small businesses aren't getting it.

The vulnerable aren't getting it.

What a complete fucking shit show.

Oh and schools, although shut to most kids, will provide at least childcare for a long list of essential workers - runs into the millions.

"A ban on many things would at least allow those with insurance to claim on it..."

I wonder if insurance companies / large shareholders are among the large political donors ...

Sheesh - in an ideal world we need lots of all singing/dancing super whizzy ventilators - however surely even a ventilator built to 50yr old designs is more useful than nothing - finding the designs is probably the hardest bit.

(As for software etc - if HMG really wants to get newbies making super whizzy etc, you get the software, transducer designs, tooling etc released under a mandated licence - but silicone moulding is specialist.)

To be clear, Rolls-Royce Holdings is the aero-engine manufacturer who sold the Roll-Royce motor car company based in Crewe to Audi-VW, but held onto the rights to the name Rolls-Royce and the trademarked badge and spirit of ecstacy. Audi-VW assumed that would follow as the final part of the deal, but then BMW jumped in and bought the rights to the name. Audi-VW then jumped back and bought the trademarks. Negotiations ensued, until Audi agreed to sell the trademarks to BMW in return for the retention of the name and trademarks for Bentley, which is all that comes out of what used to be the Rolls-Royce car factory.

From MN threads, apparently insurance companies have said they won't pay out to e.g. nurseries who have to close
... because it might bankrupt the insurance industry

So those businesses adnd sel-employed who paid their insurance contributions will go broke instead

... unless the govt supports them with credit, compensation, sick pay etc as in other countries, e.g. Germany

"surely even a ventilator built to 50yr old designs is more useful than nothing"

Far far below current standard and would probably require more staff than the current ones to operate - staff who have never been trained on such obsolete gear

I suppose we could go back to leeches ....

I'm beyond horrified at the UK response. It's worse than in the US where at least the federal structure gives substantial autonomy to the states.

"The UK has simply pissed away any head start it had with this virus to concentrate on making sure the Sussexs got the message they're not welcome back every again."

Right at the beginning of this year, an Early Years online community that I follow sent out information from OFSTED about hygiene practice.

For some time, we've known that OFSTED are quite hot on hygiene, but this seemed really over the top. We were to ensure that children washed their hands on arrival, that we scrupulously cleaned regularly wherever they had been and there was even talk that, if one child sneezed, they all had to go to the bathroom and wash their hands.
We were advised to make sure we used plenty of hand sanitisers and hand wipes, too.
There was the usual exasperation - how were we supposed to do anything else with this constant hand washing? However, they were adamant that inspectors would be looking out for it.

It was posted at the beginning of January, just in time for the new term.

GingerPCatt if that is seriously the case I would be consulting your union reps. Our new starters have 8 weeks supernumary status so they can get to grips with the ventilators, haemofilters, specialist meds and just the routine day to day care of critically ill patients.
I suspect that the nurses at your trust will probably be allocated those ready to step down to hdu or the ward although even those patients can take a turn for the worse and some may have tracheostomies or central lines which many nurses may not be familiar with .....ironically we have had some really quiet periods over the last year or so and our own staff have been sent to the wards to cover sickness which has been a bit of an eye opener for many and caused huge uproar.
To be honest Critical care usually provides fairly good on the job training and support to its staff in my experience - it's one to one nursing in most units even for the less dependent patients -but I don't envy you

Well, not testing except in hospital - and not NHS staff - means that the number of new cases has halved

If they stopped all testing maybe the govt could declare victory?

Unfortunately deaths now total 55, but no need to mention that

Germany has 7,240 confirmed cases and 15 deaths - so the UK 1,543 cases is meaningless with 55 deaths