I was thinking the whole Coronavirus thing had ‘gone away’ but my wife has just been told she’s got to cancel some of her clinics to start mass Coronavirus screening.

Interesting. Whereabouts are you?

Interesting. Whereabouts are you?

Cardiff, I don’t think we’ve even had a single case in Wales. She’s a wound nurse so it’s not really her area, not to mention it’s a 12 week wait to see her in clinic.

That certainly points to a strong suspicion among the powers-that-be that Covid-19 is already out and about in the community. Who is she screening? Walk-ins or randoms?

Best start stock piling.

Over 6k people tested still only 9 confirmed.

It’s a bit weird, certainly. You would have thought anyone admitted for respiratory illness over the past few weeks would be automatically tested, which would show up whether coronavirus was the culprit.

I’m somewhat surprised that we are still at 9 cases, given how contagious it is meant to be and beacuse we apparently had contagious people at large in central london.

P-jays info is at odds with the general ‘there’s nothing to see here’ response from authority.

I suppose it would be belt and braces to pick a few urban areas and test more widely as an indicator, rather than just test folk turning up at hospital with pneumonia. If it’s any wider than that, the leakiness of the NHS will make sure we know about it pretty quickly.

P-jays info is at odds with the general ‘there’s nothing to see here’ response from authority.

His info adds nothing either way. Absolutely no info what the reasons for this are or indeed any proof. Not saying your lying P-Jay but sometimes rumours aren’t true, it could misinformation from your wife’s work.

Well on the assumption it is true, ‘mass coronavirus screening’ certainly is at odds with the general message that no-one needs to worry unless they’ve been in affected areas or within a couple of metres of a known infected person.

As Martin says though, maybe its a more statistical thing to see if it is already undetected in the wider community.

Or simply setting up infrastructure so it’s ready to go. If you need somewhere to handle suspected cases that isn’t the foyer of an A&E department, then you need to allocate staff to it in advance.

Coronavirus: rolling out community testing for covid-19 in the NHS

When and if it arrives in greater numbers, then you need these things already working.

The advice and information from the WHO is quite clear. The vast majority of transmission is through airborne droplets, either inhaled, ingested or rubbed into the eyes. You need to be in close contact with an infected person for over 15mins to stand a greater than 5% chance of infection. Infections through transmission from surfaces, etc fall off a cliff when compared to direct transitivity as it’s a virus. The overwhelming majority of deaths have come from the old and infirm.

Or simply setting up infrastructure so it’s ready to go. If you need somewhere to handle suspected cases that isn’t the foyer of an A&E department, then you need to allocate staff to it in advance.

Exactly.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/phe-novel-coronavirus-diagnostic-test-rolled-out-across-uk

there’s very active surveillance rolling out into the community for sensible reasons as pointed out above, and nothing covert about this, including in Wales https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m698

…and though whilst on the one hand I’d like to listen to Funk https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00361-5

…if anyone wants to get worried, I’d note that so far there have been cases reported on every continent bar Antarctica, the luckiest continent with only one case reported (in Egypt) being Africa, particularly lucky given the extent of trade links and movement of people in both directions between Africa and china. On the other hand perhaps it’s not so much luck, as absence of diagnostic facilities in the African countries with closest links. [insert ‘we’re doomed, aye’ gif]

Hey ho.

But back to complacency – evolution tends to favour these things getting milder the further they spread (a slight variant in the virus that knocks you over is going to spread less than one that lets you get to the shops/office/pub) and there’s some evidence that this is happening in china right now. Today’s bmj again.

She’s a wound nurse

it’s a 12 week wait to see her in clinic

She mustnt be very busy. Most of my wounds have healed in half that time XD

She mustn’t be very busy. Most of my wounds have healed in half that time XD

She mostly deals with the very old / palliative. plus unpleasant but long term stuff like pilonidal sinus infections up to things like Necrotising fasciitis.

She has little interest in my cuts and bruises when I fall off my bike.

Don’t you go dissing pilonidal sinus wounds – I enjoyed mine so much I had two operations, both of which made local medical training headlines. There wasn’t a district nurse in Sussex who didn’t get to admire the additional hole in my arse!

Anyway, for proper panic, you need to pop over to Ukrainian SingletrackWorld
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51581805

She’s a wound nurse

tightly?

Lol.

There was mention of it on Inside Science yesterday on R4. This virus expert was on and explained (I paraphrase here) that it was passed on by bats as they had been around for 50 million years and so had been exposed to plenty of viruses and, because they are mammals, it wasn’t so much of a ‘species jump’ for them to pass it on to humans.

Don’t you go dissing pilonidal sinus wounds – I enjoyed mine so much I had two operations, both of which made local medical training headlines. There wasn’t a district nurse in Sussex who didn’t get to admire the additional hole in my arse!

Sorru, I know it’s horrible, I’ve heard all the stories and in some cases seen the pics, but be thankfully you didn’t have Necrotising fasciitis.

I was thinking the whole Coronavirus thing had ‘gone away’

off the front page of the forum for 4 days = fixed. 😁

Anyway, sorry “mass screening” was hyperbole on my part it seems.

She’s been tasked with visiting ‘at risk’ people at home, probably anyone who’s had to call 101 etc. I doubt it’s a ‘new’ thing, just the usual NHS delays.

From Private Eye:

Deaths in UK related to Covid-19 = 0.

Deaths in UK related to Love Island = 3.

I say we halt all flights from Love Island until they get things under control. Obviously we can organise an airdrop of fake tan and condoms to keep them going.

1.25million road deaths a year world wide . Of which 1750 are in the UK.

I’ve been stockpiling cycling helmets and high vis.

Anyway, sorry “mass screening” was hyperbole on my part it seems.

Well that’s just great I’ve lost the receipt for the plies of dog food and toilet rolls so I can’t take them back. Can you start another one so I can sell them to Kerley?

Downside of the Corona virus here in HK, so many hikers clogging the trails as its the the one place they can be seen to lose the masks. Otherwise we are surviving as its great riding weather (silver linings and all that).

I had no idea that the lab in Wuhan was so famous.

Well, it seems Lombardy is taking this seriously.

Innit

Italy v Scotland 6N (Women) canx and Torino v Parma canx too.

Well, it seems Lombardy is taking this seriously.

I suppose mass quarantine is worth a go, but I would be surprised if they managed to halt it from this point onwards. The volume of cases, and the fact they are popping up in Veneto with no apparent link to the original patient suggest that horse has already bolted.

I was in Northern Italy last week. That cluster of towns that are locked down is centred around Piacenza where my train stopped on the way to and from Milan; there are 2 cases in the region I was in and one suspected case in the town I was in.

I was ill this week, and my wife is ill this weekend, although we had flu like weakness we haven’t had coughs and sneezes or apparently any fever…

Super spreader

A nasty strain of Flu is a real worry for me, with aging parents, one of which is in Cancer recovery, and with work as my employer works with multiple health conditions, including chest related illness (COPD high on that list) I’d really rather not see a large scale pandemic.

For good measure we organise lots of events. Just to make sure there’s plenty of transmission routes.

I was ill this week, and my wife is ill this weekend, although we had flu like weakness we haven’t had coughs and sneezes or apparently any fever…

I hope you did your civic duty and went down the pub to spread it about a bit?

#typhoidMolly

I’m in B&Q buying fence panels.

I always knew that DIY would be the death of all of us.

I’m in B&Q buying fence panels.

That’s some very odd panic buying.

I was shown the instructions given to doctors about what to wear to protect themseves. It was layer after layer, two pairs of gloves and so on. I don’t know for how long you could operate efficiently under that lot, you’d boil in the bag.