Coronavirus outbreak

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Mr Celine

Discordian
So now Charles has caught it, is displaying mild symptoms "but otherwise remains in good health".

The bit I have difficulty understanding, is this:

""The tests were carried out by the NHS in Aberdeenshire, where they met the criteria required for testing."

while nurses and doctors on the front line getting symptoms have to self-isolate, because there aren't enough test kits!

Could someone please explain it to me?
More to the point, why is he putting additional strain on Aberdeenshire's NHS resources? Has no one told him to go home?
 

MarkF

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
By that argument, everything can , arguably, be essential just now

That’s not an argument that’s just stupid!

There’s a lot of people in a world of financial hurt just now but that doesn’t justify the contact and risk attached.

I do hope your bathroom doesn't spring a leak tonight and you find your leccy keep tripping out. Some things will be essential.
 

marinyork

Resting in suspended Animation
Location
Logopolis
I think I'm going to stop reading anything related to testing as it is just making me angry. Most countries in the western world seem to be saying we will make ridiculous promises about PCR testing and fail to deliver day after day.

A thought experiment. Say you were an essential employer. Say you have antibody tests you applied to the entire staff.

12.5 % tests come back true positive
12.5 % are false negatives
12.5% are false positives.
62.5% are true negatives.

You isolate positives (25%) of your staff for a week. You repeat a week later and a week later.

This test is horrendous as it has as many false negatives as correct. You take into account those who are negative but have symptoms and isolate them too.

Your sick rate is 30% before the test exists.

Do you use the test? If your sick rate is lower than 30% what are the trade offs? If you apply social distancing and protection even for those who have tested positive and isolate what are the downsides?
 

Duffy

Über Member
I do hope your bathroom doesn't spring a leak tonight and you find your leccy keep tripping out. Some things will be essential.

Of course SOME things are, not everything however.

The argument made was purely financial, what price would you put on possibly infecting somebody?
 

tom73

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
surely anything on the trolley gets on your hands then on the shopping too?

they way I'm looking at it is this... assume your hands are contaminated and try to avoid spreading it to the trolley or the stock. Of course you'll come back and say "don't go shopping then" :whistle:

No I won't

What about the stock already on the shelves ? or for any other stuff you maybe touching ? As soon as you start to pick anything up or touch anything it's now own your gloves and so on and so on.
We don't live in a 100% sterile clinical environment but a socially clean one.
This virus is no laughing matter it's true but it's not all that cleaver in the outside world.
Gloves are not magic they don't kill the virus.
Hot water and soap will so just wash your hands as given in advice and if unsure then do it anyway.
Just keep it simple and wash your hands it really is the best way
It maybe simple but it's effective.
 

MontyVeda

a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
No I won't

What about the stock already on the shelves ? or for any other stuff you maybe touching ? As soon as you start to pick anything up or touch anything it's now own your gloves and so on and so on.
We don't live in a 100% sterile clinical environment but a socially clean one.
This virus is no laughing matter it's true but it's not all that cleaver in the outside world.
Gloves are not magic they don't kill the virus.
Hot water and soap will so just wash your hands as given in advice and if unsure then do it anyway.
Just keep it simple and wash your hands it really is the best way
It maybe simple but it's effective.
stop saying gloves aren't magic... I'm not claiming they are so stop implying it... thank you. :okay:

edited to add... I'm also not saying that gloves are a viable alternative to hand washing. so you can stop implying that too.
 
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Mike_P

Guru
Location
Harrogate
surely anything on the trolley gets on your hands then on the shopping too?

they way I'm looking at it is this... assume your hands are contaminated and try to avoid spreading it to the trolley or the stock. Of course you'll come back and say "don't go shopping then" :whistle:
I'm thinking if I use one of those self scan devices and put the items straight into my own bag do I actually need to use a basket or trolley.
 

DCLane

Found in the Yorkshire hills ...
I'm thinking if I use one of those self scan devices and put the items straight into my own bag do I actually need to use a basket or trolley.

I've been carrying my own bag / box and using self-scan for a couple of weeks now. That way I'm not touching a basket and a wipe touches the screen, not me, which is then binned.
 
I do hope your bathroom doesn't spring a leak tonight and you find your leccy keep tripping out. Some things will be essential.
Yes but the point was - Double glazing replacement s probably isn't essential.
 

vickster

Legendary Member
Yes but the point was - Double glazing replacement s probably isn't essential.
What if it was all ordered and paid for 6 weeks ago and it's just become available. Granted it's not essential but I would think that many companies don't have storage for large numbers of units?
There's also a risk that in the current situation they may go out of business before fitting and thus monies paid could be lost :sad:
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Gloves are not magic they don't kill the virus.
Hot water and soap will so just wash your hands as given in advice and if unsure then do it anyway.
Just keep it simple and wash your hands it really is the best way
It maybe simple but it's effective.
"there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong." — HL Mencken

How the fark do you expect me to wash my hands in the middle of a food shop? There just aren't enough hand sinks available, especially given the small size of shop toilets means even those in the biggest food shops are now one/two-at-a-time else 2m distance isn't preserved.

Gloves are very much second-best but better than nothing because, used consistently, they mean the hand touching the stock isn't touching your face. Similar to scarves/buffs which will probably do fark-all against a sneeze, but prevents you touching your face unthinkingly.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Reading your post and wondering about the legal duty to deliver profit that you mentioned.
I'm aware that the USA tends to have more "predatory" business practices but wondered if things were similar on this side of the pond.

A quick Google led me to this interesting article:

https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog...egal-duty-to-maximise-profit-or-to-avoid-tax/
Indeed. I'm well aware of what the current Companies Act and its predecessors said because I've been part of three social enterprises which have had to subvert that clause deliberately by stating at the outset that we consider member benefit to include primarily non-financial matters and long-term views.

As that blog article notes, it's not an absolute duty, but I don't see a solid defence in those clauses against an accusation of not maximising member benefit if an MD obeyed the PM's request when the shareholders wanted the business to stay open until ordered otherwise. In that situation, (1)(f) is clearly not a defence, (b) to (e) are debatable and we'll see whether (a) would have been a solid defence when we see what the long-term consequences are for Wetherspoons and Sports Direct having tried to stay open, but I'd bet they'll suffer no obvious consequences.
 

marinyork

Resting in suspended Animation
Location
Logopolis
Another thought experiment. There is enough antibody tests to test only one person in every household in the UK before the end of wave-1. Who in your household do you test? The most vulnerable one? The most economically active? The healthiest? The one that goes outside most under current guidelines?
 
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