h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't know what other governments are reccomending but there are questions being asked about the UK governments advice to people who have had the virus.
This is from Dr. Rosina Allin-Khan who is MP for Tooting and still working at St. Georges Hospital.

Official UK Govt advice is to self-isolate for 7 days from when symptoms *start*.

The @WHO
insist that you can be infectious for 14 days after symptoms *stop*.

Why haven't the UK government changed their advice yet?

Being infectious and spreading the infection can be two different things*, though I will grant that throwing caution to the wind is going to be a bad practice in the face of this menace Also, I notice that during those two weeks you "can be" infectious. That doesn't clarify anything. You can also *not* be infectious. I"m sure most of us would rather have some way of knowing whether you are or aren't infectious. This will continue to be a concern until there's a vaccine, or until so many people around you have recovered that no one's catching the infection anyway -- assuming that they now have immunity.



*Obviously, you can't spread an infection if you don't have it to spread, but for more than a hundred years it has been standard procedure for medical people to wear face masks, as if they believed that the masks would reduce the chance of having infections spread form them to someone else, or vice versa. Even a bandanna will be effective a third of the time. So, if you were going to infect three other people, now you might only infect two. That's better than nothing, and it ill have to be good enough as long as better masks are unavailable for most people.

"Just read somewhere that a safe distance is 6 meters, not 2 or even 1.5"

Whereas I read 1.5-2m is to prevent conversational droplets from being transferred, and it is only if someone coughs on you that there will be a problem at that distance.

All very confusing - the advice from the UK government that kept me awake one night was the phrase "one form of exercise a day, for example a run, walk, or cycle" - that day I had walked uphill and then ran downhill... I'm lucky to be able to work at home, though, so I stay in except for those 10 minutes of fresh air.

"and it ill have to be good enough"...


Great typo.

My typos are infernal!

But thank you for your kind words.

I almost forgot: the Governor of Massachusetts prevailed on his friend, Robert Kraft, who owns the New England Patriots, top use his private plane and fly to China to get N95 masks from the Chinese. The plane returned this morning with 1.5 million masks, for the medical people who are tending to the people who are sick with Covid-19. The plane also dropped off a few thousand masks in new York State, which has had more confirmed cases of the virus (92,000) than China. New York City has almost 52,000 cases.

At the moment, there have been a million cases worldwide, with 50,000 fatalities. That is to say, a million cases that have been confirmed. It's likely that many people have had the disease without being tested. Some may not even have shown any symptoms. Or the symptoms they did show were not on the official list.

For instance, the photographer at the infamous Biogen conference on Feb. 25 had no symptom,s except that she could not smell anything. this happens to about 30 to 40% of infected people. But that's not enough to be an official symptom. A nurse in Massachusetts had the main symptoms, but his temperature was just under 100 degrees F. 100 degrees is the threshold for being told to self-isolate. He as willing to go into quarantine, but the medical authorities needed him for work. :-./

There was an item on BBC TV news yesterday about the distance - it has now been discovered that an uncovered sneeze can send some droplets 6m although the vast majority are within 2m.
They didn't compared with a covered cough or sneeze though.

I suspect there's more risk from touching contaminated surfaces, then touching face. Of course there's some concern about mask wearing, that people actually touch their faces more & may pass contamination from mask to face.

In UK, govt is now all about testing, which has a place, but is really too little too late - and there's no news of them doing anything to trace & isolate contacts. The really important aspect of suitable PPE for those at risk seems to be taking a back seat.

One of the big Boston hospitals is expecting a new machine next week: it sterilizes 80,000 N95 masks per day. It will supply sterile masks to hospitals in the rest of the state.

New London Nightingale hospital opened yesterday. Matt Hamcock, probably too early out of self isolation, crowd standing separated like Anthony Gormley statues behind him.
Afterward, appalling lack of social distancing as they all milled about looking at phones, packing up equipment etc. Along with Matt blowing his nose, rubbing his eyes.
Talk about do as I say, not as do I do...

Until yesterday, the CDC (U.S. center for Disease Control) was saying that masks are not effective. The yesterday, they told every American to wear one in public, if they had them. If not, any cloth covering will do.

It's all or nothing, at the drop of a hat?

I ordered five masks, but they won't arrive until May 1 or thereafter. I may have a bandanna somewhere, but I'm not sure where it is. A pocket handkerchief? Not sur eif I have that either.

I suspect that an inappropriate mask, or one inappropriately used is possibly worse than none at all.

I'm not sure what to make of the health Secretary who has been sick.

http://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-health-secretary-matt-hancock-says-very-unpleasant-covid-19-saw-him-lose-half-a-stone-11967829

He's brave, noble, or fatally stupid. Time will tell which is the case. He self-isolated for seven days, then went on TV and attended the opening of new makeshift hospital. Well, the thing is that, when things do go seriously wrong with the virus, it can wait until the twelfth day, which Matt hasn't gotten to yet. It;'s not clear how long a person is infectious after recovering. Might Matt be spreading it by going out in public? People at the hospital opening said that he was blowing his nose and not looking all that well. That may all be innocent, of course. It's a time of spring pollen, and he might have hay fever. Only about 5% of COVID-19 sufferers have head colds, but it's not impossible.

Anyway, this just feeds my sense of gallows humor. The health Secretary is sick, the lifeguard drowned, the fire station burned down, the town librarina has gone blind, that sort ofmthing.

Social distancing worked in 1918, when Philadelphia tried it. Philadelphia didn't try it, and had twice the death rate

http://www.clickorlando.com/features/2020/03/18/2-cities-handled-this-health-crisis-different-the-results-couldnt-have-been-more-opposite/

This is a technique with a successful track record. The only catch is that the virus being fought is somewhat different. We don't know how much it's different, because finding out will take time we haven't got.

Philadelphia and Saint Louis have long since recovered from whatever economic grief they suffered during the time. Eventually we will be able to look back on this and evaluate this time as well. But we can't do it yet.

When I look back to mid-marchi n my own state, I see these things:

1. The, we were doing very little testing of people for the virus. After eight or nine days, testing was greatly ramped up, and is probably still being increased.

2. There was not enough protective gear for the medical workers. They had to wear the same mask throughout the day, rather than switching to a sterile mask after each patient. Two solutions are either here or on their way: The owner of the New England patriots American football flew a private plane to China and bought 1.4 million top-grade masks, and brought them back to Massachusetts a couple days ago. The second solution is a machine that can sterilize 80,000 such masks per day. That machine will arrive this coming week.

3. The early stages of the social distancing were not too rigorous.
a. Restaurants were discouraged from having more than a certain number of customers inside, and no lines outside waiting to come in.
Before long, restaurants were banned from serving people inside. They could now offer takeout items. Even this has moved on a bit. One Chinese restaurant I know has closed completely, for the safety of their employees. Some of the remaining places that offer takeout have horrendous lines (Starbucks), or require online ordering in advance.
b. You could hold a meeting as long as no more than 250 people were present. As for the meetings, a lot of organizations stopped holding meetings at all. Ten is the new maximum number of people that can gather. The Massachusetts Legislature has gone to an online verison, even though the Constitution bans it. Too bad!
c. You could shop at grocery stores as much as you wanted, without restrictions on the number of people in the store. This is still the same way at some stores, but Whole Foods has employees stationed at each entrance. As soon as one shopper exits, another one is allowed to enter. There are markers on the floors telling you how far apart six feet is.
d. Should everyone wear masks? Don;'t be silly, the Center for Disease Control said. They're ineffective! Suddenly yesterday we Americans were told that everyone of us ought to be wearing a mask or other face covering. All except Donald trump, who insisted that it's purely voluntary, and that he himself will not be wearing one. (Neither was Boris Johnson, and he caught the virus!).

We will see what stages we go to after this...

Sadly, the sun seems to have reappeared in the sky, so a lot of Brit's are now behaving like complete jerks, and it looks increasingly likely the UK will push itself into complete lockdown, no going outside for any reason. No doubt the same idiots who gave this useless government will be both the ones causing this change in restrictions, and blaming others for it, after the event... Meanwhile, outside the capital, and big citys, people seem to be behaving far more socially responsible, and observing the social distancing, etc.... Meanwhile death total rises; but I'm still unsure if that really* is a total; is it just hospital covid-related deaths?

Well it's up to local councils. I live in a seaside town. The council has closed ALL the carparks along the coast as well as the toilets which means no grockles. It's become a ghost town.

There are two kinds of Stooopid at the moment.
People who go out partying and ignoring the social distancing,
and then there are the curtain twitchers, local councils and some Plod, who are intent on harrassing everyone for the sake of it, when they are sat in the sun, well spread out, not causing a problem and very unlikely to pass on any virus.

[BB]

Some good news for a change: an 106-year-old man in Iran has survived the virus

http://www.republicworld.com/world-news/rest-of-the-world-news/106-year-old-becomes-oldest-survivor-of-coronavirus-in-iran.html

Of course this could be a hoax, but until it's demonstrated as such, let's enjoy it.

Glad to hear it, there have been a couple of press reports in the UK of tough old blighters who have been in intensive care and managed to recover.
Good for them, I hope the continue to enjoy themselves.

I've heard of people in their late seventies who had mild symptoms and then recovered quickly and completely.

We're all different. I swear that the wide variety of symptoms for this disease have me wondering if it's more variable than the scientists realize? If you get hit with a mild version, you'll be all right.

Still, when the experts examined the elderly who died in Italy, 99% had underlying factors that weakened them. So, evidently they got the same virus. No cheating with mild versions.