Generic Virus Thread

[bannedfromHandV]

9 minutes ago, snowychap said:

This is really not the kind of stuff that ought to be coming out midway through a friday afternooon in 'emergency' regulations and without any debate or parliamentary scrutiny.

What are the criteria? If Hatt Mancock thinks it should be so.

Matt Hancock thinks?

[mjmooney]

A statistician, a virologist and an epidemiologist don't walk into a bar... 

[HanoiVillan]

from: https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/1278803791425482752

Maybe we should just start doing this? It seems like it wouldn't do any harm? Maybe Johnson could use his time being interviewed to show people how to wear one and explain why it might be valuable, rather than cringing because he doesn't think he looks good in it?

 

[Stevo985]

8 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

from: https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/1278803791425482752

Maybe we should just start doing this? It seems like it wouldn't do any harm? Maybe Johnson could use his time being interviewed to show people how to wear one and explain why it might be valuable, rather than cringing because he doesn't think he looks good in it?

 

It’s bizarre. 
 

I mean I assume we should have been wearing them all along. But I kind of give them the benefit of the doubt for early in the pandemic as I assume they were trying to keep as much PPE available for the NHS as possible. If the public were buying up masks in droves then it would deplete supply for healthcare. 
 

But surely that excuse has long gone. I don’t understand now why it isn’t being drilled into everyone that you must wear them

[mjmooney]

15 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

It’s bizarre. 
 

I mean I assume we should have been wearing them all along. But I kind of give them the benefit of the doubt for early in the pandemic as I assume they were trying to keep as much PPE available for the NHS as possible. If the public were buying up masks in droves then it would deplete supply for healthcare. 
 

But surely that excuse has long gone. I don’t understand now why it isn’t being drilled into everyone that you must wear them

Yep. They simply weren't readily available until quite recently. I finally got a home-made face covering because some woman in the village was making them and giving them away. Still in a minority in the supermarket on my weekly shop, but on my last trip to Morrisons I noticed they were selling manufactured ones at the checkouts, but in such a low-key display that I almost missed them. Why on earth don't they have them at the doors when you go in? Either to insist, or at least encourage you to use one? 

[choffer]

65,000 deaths. 

[bickster]

37 minutes ago, choffer said:

65,000 deaths. 

Old photo? (Brexit beers)

[chrisp65]

It needs to be firmly in the guidance that you have to wear a mask in some places or it simply isn’t happening.

There isn’t the background culture and acceptance, everyday people aren’t being deniers or awkward, they just feel self conscious about doing something so different, that at the moment, the majority are not doing.

It needs to be changed so those without a mask feel awkward.

In my limited experience, it’s actually unravelled to some extent for some people who just think all ‘normal’ rules are out of the window. I turned up at a prospective site in a Midlands High Street last week, walking down the street was as I expected, very few people wearing masks. They stood out as the few in queues for High Street shops. Almost no gloves, I don’t recall seeing any. You are touching doors and surfaces, wearing gloves can’t be that hard can it?

When I got to site, I was the only person from 6 of us that had mask and gloves. That bit I’d predicted from other sites. But I was also the only person that even had site boots on! We were looking over an empty building that’s been near derelict for a few years and had no electricity so was quite dark in places. People were wearing trainers. Because normality has gone and they didn’t think site ppe would be ‘a thing’.

People are just bloody weird and you absolutely cannot suggest or hope or trust in common sense.

Trusting common sense resulted in five people turning up to site without their normal ppe, never mind masks.

For me, having turned up in a mask, because nobody else had one, I took mine off. I felt ridiculous and we weren’t exactly sat in a small room chatting, so I took it off. The pressure should have been 3 or 4 people with masks making the 1 or 2 without feel awkward.

 

[mjmooney]

Gloves seem to be more controversial. Some say that if you touch the germs with your gloves, you still spread it to the next thing you touch, so you may as well not bother, just wash your hands regularly. Personally, I wear them at the supermarket for the same reason that I wear the mask - to protect others. I'm holding that trolley handle for up to half an hour. If I happen to be an asymptomatic carrier, I could be transferring the germs to the handle, so the gloves may at least prevent that. 

[chrisp65]

The gloves are a sort of prompt, they help me remember not to touch my face. I’m using thin site gloves so they are latex front and you can use your phone or touch screens etc.. Rotating quite a few pairs so once I’ve been somewhere they don’t get used again for a 3 or 4 days minimum. They go on to put fuel in the car, don’t wanna be touching the same fuel pump as the guy that’s just been to Greggs and nipped in to Wetherspoons for a piss and is currently using the costa coffee  machine in the petrol station. 

With gloves on, my instinct with an itchy nose or whatever is to use the material on the back of the glove, if I have to.

Without gloves, it’s quite amazing how often you touch your face.

It’s a habit I was already used to, the glove regime, due to some of the icky places I visit.

 

[snowychap]

 

[snowychap]

Thread:

including:

 

I guess all of this might be okay but it does look, at the very least, a little intriguing.

[Chindie]

There's something slightly pathetic about the desperate celebration of pubs opening.

[choffer]

2 hours ago, bickster said:

Old photo? (Brexit beers)

100% old photo. Did think of clarifying that but it kinda diluted the joke. 

[choffer]

An interesting thread. 
 

[welnik]

7 hours ago, mjmooney said:

Yep. They simply weren't readily available until quite recently. I finally got a home-made face covering because some woman in the village was making them and giving them away. Still in a minority in the supermarket on my weekly shop, but on my last trip to Morrisons I noticed they were selling manufactured ones at the checkouts, but in such a low-key display that I almost missed them. Why on earth don't they have them at the doors when you go in? Either to insist, or at least encourage you to use one? 

Get yourself back down to Asda Minworth (I know it's a long way). As you walk into the shop, they are right there in a big box! 

[Xann]

Quote

 

The Great British COVID-19 procurement scandal continues after a newly published contract revealed yet another business with little experience or expertise being awarded a multi-million-pound contract to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) to the NHS.

Design company Luxe Lifestyle Ltd was awarded a £25 million contract on 27 April to supply garments for biological or chemical protection to the NHS. According to Companies House, the business was incorporated by fashion designer Karen Brost in November 2018. However, it appears to have no employees, no assets and no turnover. 

Additional research into the company’s background using business information provider Endole revealed no evidence that the company has actually done any trading at all. It is not clear how a business with no experience in the sector is able to meet its contractual requirements to provide 1.2 million gowns and 10 million FFP2/KN95 masks to the NHS during a national crisis.

Brost was previously the secretary of another company called Belharra Limited that described itself as a clothing and footwear wholesaler, yet this was wound up around four months before Luxe Lifestyle Ltd was incorporated.

Brost however, set up another brand in March this year called Zazaboom, the products of which include handmade designer face masks costing £25 each, not NHS standard PPE. Brost has not responded to a request for comment. However, an anonymous person claiming to be a spokesperson for Brost contacted Byline Times after the publication of this article using mlilimited.com as an email address. After multiple requests, they refused to identify themselves or pass on contact details for the company or its directors.

This is not the first example of a business with seemingly little experience or expertise being awarded a major contract by the Government to supply PPE.

Byline Times has already reported concerns from senior industry consultants working within Public Health England (PHE), and specifically the PPE division, that procurement is a shambolic system of tenders, with no due diligence and poor management.

As the pandemic unfolded, and the use of highly specialised PPE increased exponentially, instead of contacting existing suppliers and then widening the reach to more than 150 established PPE suppliers in the UK, PHE panicked. It evoked emergency procurement procedures – regulation 32(2)(c) under the Public Contract Regulations 2015 – which allowed for the sourcing of goods without the formal tender process.

This is how a small and medium-sized business (SME) called PestFix with assets of just £18,000 was awarded a contract of more than £108 million for PPE. Another company called Excalibur, incorporated in January 2020, received an order for £25 million of N95 and KN95 masks. This company was set up by Biotechnology entrepreneur, Professor Sir Chris Evans. 

In addition, Conservative Party donors have also been found to be cashing in on PPE shortages during the crisis. In April, it was reported that haulage firm Clipper Logistics was appointed to be in charge of a new supply channel for personal protective equipment to the NHS. Its founding executive chairman is Steven N Parkin, a top Conservative Party donor who has attended Leaders Group meetings and donated just under £1 million to the party over the past five years or so.

 

Byline Times

It's not their tax money they're spunking, their cash goes to tax havens.

So what happens when we go too far into the red? It wouldn't be selling assets to the chums cheap like the Post Office, would it?

[Xann]

[Xela]

Pubs are open 

 

[theboyangel]

9 minutes ago, Xela said:

Pubs are open 

 

Not surprised at all. 

The masses have begun to descend on us down in the South West too regardless of the weather being dreadful and very little open.

I had a small hope that society would learn from the lockdown and become more patient, understanding and community spirited however it appears we've become even more selfish with a grander sense of entitlement.