Jump to content

Generic Virus Thread


villakram

Recommended Posts

1 minute ago, Dante_Lockhart said:

I wish more people in control of spreading the information were more like you. Concise, informative, not scare-mongering.

Everyone who reads social media is in a frenzy right now because Joe from Quarry Bank said we're all going to die unless we stay inside and shut the country down.

I think it's important to stress that I'm no expert in this, I'm only relaying information I'm told from qualified professionals - but my information is paraphrased and there is an error margin for mis-interpretation or forgetting a key detail in my posts.  As I said, this isn't my livelihood - I just happen to work at a hospital (I'm an Energy and Sustainability Manager) and we've been in constant contact with senior staff as how we can do our daily jobs.  I work for the FM team, so we have engineers/builders/plumbers/electricians onsite, who are required to go anywhere within the hospital to perform maintenance - as part of our companies duty of care, we maintain close contact with the Trust, but we work from their instruction.

I've come off Twitter etc (post election actually) because it turned into something I didn't want it to become - but I imagine you're absolutely right. 

As I said in my post yesterday after meeting the Senior Nurse - please take my advice for what it was, nothing to live or die by, but maybe just enlighten yourself a bit or get some information you'd not had before.  

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Apparently on a call with industry about manufacturing ventilators this morning, Boris described it as ‘operation last gasp’. 

Dark, but it made me chuckle.

 

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

You can't pin any blame on the Tories for what has happened and I wouldn't imagine the response to it would be any different if the government had red ties. What I will pin on the Tories is that they have been in power for 10 years and have decimated the public services that had they not have done so would have had half a chance of coping with this where as now they will have pretty much no chance. 

No government can be expected to run on the basis to be set up to instantly cope with something like this but the simple truth is our NHS is not able to cope during normal times and the Tories have made it that way over the last 10 years and for that they can be blamed.

Yep. Exactly what I said upthread. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

I think we need to be careful here about what "airborne" means.  I was told that the virus cannot be passed on through skin.  That is to say, someone with the virus touches another person (skin to skin), but the infected person has clean, none contaminated hands means it won't spread.  

Airborne is water droplets.  The famous letter is "F" or "Th" sounds - they project spit, but unless that spit lands in the mouth, eyes or nose of a non-infected person, they won't get it (hence my "sit in the back of the car" comment) 

We do know that if an infected person coughs into their hands, thus contaminating their hand, then touches a mental handle (for example), this strain of virus can remain alive for 12 hours - that's an unusually long time for a virus to stay alive, and it's because it remains alive out of a host for a longer period, that it's particularly more infective, hence why we need to be more careful.

What you have been told doesn't appear to tally with what, in that article, the WHO are reported to have said on the back of a new study in to how the virus can survive. This is understandable as the people who have passed on the information to you can only give you the latest information that they have which may not be the most up to date, given this is a new virus and they are learning all of the time (fits in with the Valllance/Whitty comments yesterday about research).

The first two paragraphs of the article:

Quote

The World Health Organization is considering “airborne precautions” for medical staff after a new study showed the coronavirus can survive in the air in some settings.

The virus is transmitted through droplets, or little bits of liquid, mostly through sneezing or coughing, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, told reporters during a virtual news conference on Monday. “When you do an aerosol-generating procedure like in a medical care facility, you have the possibility to what we call aerosolize these particles, which means they can stay in the air a little bit longer.”

This would suggest that these are remarks taken straight from that news conference.

Thus, I think there is a difficulty with you asserting that 'they won't get it' in the circumstances you outline above because this appears to be different from what the WHO are saying on the back of this new information.

Edit: Please don't take this wrongly as a criticism for imparting the information that you've been given at work (it isn't) as it's important and responsible to pass on that info but it does need to be done in the context that research in to (and thus the knowledge about) the virus is continually updating.

 

Edited by snowychap
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, snowychap said:

What you have been told doesn't appear to tally with what, in that article, the WHO are reported to have said on the back of a new study in to how the virus can survive. This is understandable as the people who have passed on the information to you can only give you the latest information that they have which may not be the most up to date, given this is a new virus and they are learning all of the time (fits in with the Valllance/Whitty comments yesterday about research).

The first two paragraphs of the article:

This would suggest that these are remarks taken straight from that news conference.

Thus, I think there is a difficulty with you asserting that 'they won't get it' in the circumstances you outline above because this appears to be different from what the WHO are saying on the back of this new information.

 

I think the key information in that snippet you supplied is;

"When you do an aerosol-generating procedure like in a medical care facility, you have the possibility to what we call aerosolize these particles, which means they can stay in the air a little bit longer." 

This was mentioned in the meeting yesterday, but myself and our engineers were categorically told "if these procedures are taking place, you will be told and you will be removed from the space in which it's being performed".  

Those air settings which you quoted will not affect the general public, because we don't perform things like airway suction, high frequency oscillatory ventilation, tracheostomy, chest physiotherapy, nebulizer treatment or sputum inductions, which cause droplet particles to form into finer, lighter particles which do stay in the air. 

Unless you're this guy;

Image result for vacuum man gif

Also, that article, which I've just managed to read, is related to healthcare workers and whilst obviously very important to consider their welfare - I can assure you that as FM's we've already increased the filters in the AHU's supplying any areas in which the procedures I noted above will have even less chance to contaminate any of the staff performing them.  

The staff have access to FFP3 face masks, with added anti-virus protection (Norton I believe..) and the masks used to perform above procedures have even higher filtration grades. 

Lastly, that article is good - but it's nothing we wouldn't expect research into for any new virus - it's standard practice :thumb: 

 

Edited by lapal_fan
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, PieFacE said:

This whole thing is just very surreal for me. I feel like everyone's lives are changing and this is having a huge impact, yet 'cos I work from home and sit in my office all day on my own and I have no kids, literally nothing has changed for me. Without all the noise from people worrying/panicking/gossiping at shared office spaces it just feels like whatever is happening is a million miles away.

Not complaining by any stretch, it just feels.... odd. 

I have kids but same situation, Im still out running and to be honest I live on the outskirts of Basingstoke so even if they lockdown Im not sure they are going to be chasing me across farmland with their drones.

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The deputy chief medical officer:

Quote

 

“But, yes, you’re absolutely right that we can’t say how long this will need to go on for,” he said.

“I don’t know if it could be a year yet. I think we are too far out to make those kind of predictions but I certainly think it could be several months.”

 

 

I can't imagine living like this for months :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

**** hell. 

 

sounds like my wedding in 2 months has no chance of happening then :( I know it would be the right thing to do to cancel etc and the consequences for other people are much more severe, but this is a real word removed. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Rodders said:

**** hell. 

 

sounds like my wedding in 2 months has no chance of happening then :( I know it would be the right thing to do to cancel etc and the consequences for other people are much more severe, but this is a real word removed. 

Getting married in the UK or abroad? :( 

A good friend of mine is supposed to get married in Cyprus in May, hasn't cancelled it yet and is hoping it goes ahead still. Must be devastating. :( 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From what I have read, the virus is relatively ‘heavy’. Whilst it is projected via a cough into the air (and could directly infect someone within 1 metre, much reducing at 2 metres), it quickly settles on to surfaces, active for up to 12 hours but that time is massively dependent on the type of surface and the immediate environmental conditions. I don’t think that qualifies it as an ‘airborne’ disease. Assuming @lapal_fan hasn’t coughed all over his car’s back seats, it seems a sensible and largely effective precautionary way to carry ‘at risk group’ passengers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, PieFacE said:

Getting married in the UK or abroad? :( 

A good friend of mine is supposed to get married in Cyprus in May, hasn't cancelled it yet and is hoping it goes ahead still. Must be devastating. :( 

UK, but honeymoon is Italy. Well, was, as soon as the flights go, I'll be cancelling the rest of that obviously. The big issue is my partners mum is 79 and immuno-compromised, and my mum only recently finished chemo and radiotherapy. My brother's wife, is currently 6 months pregnant, so you know key family couldn't attend if we went ahead under current restrictions. It's only just dawning on me it won't happen - probably, this shit has escalated so damn quickly. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

John Fowler quite a large holiday park company in UK has decided they are keeping their sites open and all facilities fully operational. I am sure this is all just part of the game many businesses will be playing with the Government and the need for the government to instruct them to close due to insurance purposes. Bit of a farce really.

Edited by markavfc40
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If places want to stay open then I support that. They'll be regularly cleaned and maintained. PEOPLE need to make sure it stays that way with basic hygiene. If everyone washes hands, sneezes into tissues etc... then everyone is good.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was recently released from my day job, so as to be a full time union rep. What a first couple of weeks! 😬 I've pretty much just been trying to keep it together, and stop the workforce having a full on meltdown. My job is pretty much to give as much information as I can to our members, and keep going till it's unavoidable for me to have to self isolate. I can do most of my day to day duties from home, but my face to face duties, and being on site for the members will eventually have to be put on hold. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

42 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

John Fowler quite a large holiday park company in UK has decided they are keeping their sites open and all facilities fully operational. I am sure this is all just part of the game many businesses will be playing with the Government and the need for the government to instruct them to close due to insurance purposes. Bit of a farce really.

You actually wouldnt believe this with everything going on..... but my sister in law (I've mentioned her a couple of times in this thread!). Actually booked a holiday to St Ives yesterday for around May time.... maybe there are many more of these people who are completely unaware of what's going on or likely to happen and are still booking holidays🤦🏻‍♂️ 

Just a thought, not disagreeing with what you have said btw

Edited by leighavfc
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...
Â