COVID19 - How it's affecting you

I wish they'd actually WEAR them!   

They aren't mandatory until the 10th.

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There has been a lot of unwise behaviour from people of all ages unfortunately.

There has been a lot of unwise behaviour from people of all ages unfortunately.

I agree.

Unfortunately the headlines from the USA about the dangers of huge new outbreaks are not modifying behavior enough to be sensible. If there is a new outbreak here who will get the blame, the government for relaxing rules too quickly or the folks who party like there’s no tomorrow.

Yay... New "gotcha". The disinfectant sprays supermarkets are using are scented and get on everything. So all the groceries come covered in perfume. Why can't there be a fragrance free policy for chemicals used in essential shops?? I understand the need, but that would be a good middle ground. (I would react to the cleaners too, but they are usually evaporated by the time I'd use the food.)

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They aren't mandatory until the 10th.

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So they have to wait for someone to insist? Sorry, but that is just idiocy.

Geez, your house is on fire. Are you gonna sit in the living room while the fire flashes over until someone tells you that you should leave the house? Oh, grandpa got burned up. It's the government's/fire department's fault that he died. They should have told us/forced us to evacuate.

Uh, no. 

Yay... New "gotcha". The disinfectant sprays supermarkets are using are scented and get on everything. So all the groceries come covered in perfume. Why can't there be a fragrance free policy for chemicals used in essential shops?? I understand the need, but that would be a good middle ground. (I would react to the cleaners too, but they are usually evaporated by the time I'd use the food.)

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Yeah. We were out of the staples, so I chanced a run over to Waitrose on Byres Road (figured it might be less crowded than our usual places). It was not crowded. There was a foot-pump operated hand sanitizer dispenser at the door (good idea). The scent on the stuff was overpowering. I've been home and have washed my hands twice in the last hour and they still smell like that stuff!

I usually am not terribly bothered by scents, but sometimes I am - my lungs close up. I'm definitely wheezing now!  You would think they could find one that doesn't have all the added scents?

Yeah. We were out of the staples, so I chanced a run over to Waitrose on Byres Road (figured it might be less crowded than our usual places). It was not crowded. There was a foot-pump operated hand sanitizer dispenser at the door (good idea). The scent on the stuff was overpowering. I've been home and have washed my hands twice in the last hour and they still smell like that stuff!

I usually am not terribly bothered by scents, but sometimes I am - my lungs close up. I'm definitely wheezing now!  You would think they could find one that doesn't have all the added scents?

And the issue is, when it gets on surfaces and hands it transfers to all the things those touch and fragrances are literally made to stick on surfaces and smell for a long time. Being allergic to fragrance prepared me well for Covid-19 distancing and virus transfer, but that stuff is just awful and you have no control over it. I carry a safe hand sanitiser after being forced to use one upon entry to my doctors office at the beginning of this that I was severely allergic to (lips swelling bad, I always also carry fast acting antihistamines). Before I always carried safe hand soap, so my purse just gets bigger. The issue of fragrance has been raised with all of these retailers, the government, train companies and so on, but until there's a lawsuit because it is actually discriminatory under the equalities act I don't think anything will change.

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I am so so sorry KFDancer!  I hope this will change! If you are feeling down just know you have saved my life in this process moving here so know that you have helped and continue to help so many! Just wanted to give you a pick me up! As for me, I was just hired for a second job at a lovely little independent cafe and  I swear two days after all stores were to shut. It will be a long time before they pick up and can rehire me so living on 19 hours with a visa due in Oct sucks!!!  Hope things get better! x

I'm finally seeing the foot and ankle specialist at the fracture clinic for the bone injured in February. It's being held in the main hospital with an A&E in our area. People aren't all wearing masks, many are putting them on their chins because its hot, none of the staff are social distancing and not speaking to the people wearing masks improperly (and in some cases it's been the staff), the waiting rooms are all full, and I've been here for over an hour so far waiting for an xray. Why are they holding clinics in a full hospital??? This is so incredibly dangerous and there are plenty of non A&E hospitals with xray equipment on site in this area. If I make it through today without catching Covid-19 I will be surprised given these conditions. Why isolate if they're going to put people through this for essential care?

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"Britain is the worst-hit country outside of the US and Brazil. But it STILL won't wear masks"
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/12/health/britain-masks-intl-gbr/index.html

Huh. Yeah, that kind of confirms our experiences. We were out for a short time yesterday. Actually saw at least a half-dozen people wearing masks. Out of maybe 100 we saw in our travels. Kind of boggles the mind, doesn't it? Young, old, I could discern no pattern of who was or was not wearing them, except that I did note that a lot of those wearing appeared to be foreigners (from their speech as we passed them). I remember back early in this all that we were both out walking back from the shop with our masks on and some guy driving by in a car heckled us for having them on. This was back when the R factor up here was estimated as between 6.0 and 8.0. (Yeah. What-an-ignorant-idiot.)

I'm still absolutely floored that people wait for some "official" entity to tell them what to do. And then they ignore the advice anyway. Perhaps it's because it's advice, and not enforced with stiff penalties. I don't know. Death wish, maybe?

The whole argument about "they said masks weren't important in the beginning so why are they now" should certainly not need to be asked. Everything I ever saw published was easily readable code for "There is a severe shortage of PPE, and officials are going to, regrettably, have to throw you schlubs under the bus to keep the supply available for medical personnel who they deem have the greatest need for them. You're on your own until there are enough to go around."

All this "new evidence" that's "recently come to light" about their efficacy has not been new evidence for at least half-a-year. I certainly remember reading about airborne particle transmission in several journal articles early in all this. (I used to work in a major research university, in the BioChem section, and listened to what the aerosol bio-chemical researchers were saying, as well. Perhaps that gave me an advantage. I had an unofficial basic course in airborne transmission of infectious agents.)  I guess it's like in WWI, when the UK govmt. didn't let on that there was only about a month's supply of food left in the country to keep people from panicking.

It's just.... bizarre.  And really unhelpful.

I'm still absolutely floored that people wait for some "official" entity to tell them what to do.

I've seen the same thing in the understanding of who is and is not supposed to shield themselves. The guidance clearly said if you were receiving treatment for cancer you were vulnerable and should shield. It also said you'd get a letter from your GP/hospital/the government letting you know the guidance applied to you. Of course with this government nobody had told the hospitals or the GPs who was on the big government list of vulnerable people or who was responsible for generating and mailing letters, so some cancer patients got letters and some didn't.

The number of posts on UK cancer patient forums with some variation of 'I'm undergoing chemotherapy. I've seen the guidance that says I should be shielding, but I didn't get an official letter from the government telling me to shield. Should I shield?' was staggering. If you've seen the information and understood that it applies to you, why do you have to wait for a letter from a government drone to confirm what you have already understood yourself?

"... officials are going to, regrettably, have to throw you schlubs under the bus..."

Excellent summary of Tory policy in general.

Camoscato - when they originally thought it was a respiratory only illness they also based that list solely on ability to mount an immune response or tolerate lung damage. My condition wasn't on it and when I questioned it I was told I only had a "moderate risk" and therefore had no access to help. Now that they know it attacks both the immune system and blood vessels, I've seen some anecdotal evidence that hypermobility is a common thread in many long tailers (as it is with CFS and fibromyalgia, and of course the hereditary connective tissue diseases). All of the people I know who caught it with my disease have been sick for over 100 days if they survived. I'm glad I went into full lockdown and got resourceful, but after the recent medical appointments feel like it was almost pointless. At the MRI facility Friday they weren't making people wear masks in the waiting room and the changing room was a tiny space. I couldn't skip those appointments, and they wouldn't let me wear my chemical filtering mask in the MRI room so I also had an asthma attack from the cleaning chemicals even though the notes I was allergic were all over my records. I'm still recovering from that exposure but at least the MRI is done. I don't really know what to do because it's clear that there aren't infection control practices in place any of the medical facilities I attended this week and if an asymptomatic carrier was among the people I encountered I definitely would catch it because of the amount of time I shared their space. It was 2 hours until I got the xray! This isn't OK and we have a PM telling us we just have to get used to being around it. I definitely won't be attending pubs or restaurants if that's how it is at hospitals. Sorry for the rant but it's been a rather upsetting and physically painful week.

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Camoscato - when they originally thought it was a respiratory only illness they ...

I've seen your posts enough to know you're getting substandard treatment, but I didn't mean to imply you or any other person in a vulnerable category should not have been shielding.

Nan wrote:

I'm still absolutely floored that people wait for some "official" entity to tell them what to do.

That's what I've seen, too, and that's what I was responding to. The guidance for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy was clear: shield. But many of the posts I saw from cancer patients on FB groups were some version of 'I know the government guidance says people in my situation should shield, but I haven't received any official guidance addressed to me, specifically, so I don't know what to do.'

They were not confused about whether or not shielding was the correct course of action, but they still they wanted something official to tell them what they were supposed to do, which I found ridiculous. My hunch is it's a British v US culture thing. Americans have been told for quite a few years they need to advocate and research health care needs for themselves in a way that is not promoted as much in the UK in my experience.

... after the recent medical appointments feel like it was almost pointless. At the MRI facility Friday they weren't making people wear masks in the waiting room and the changing room was a tiny space. {snip}... it's clear that there aren't infection control practices in place any of the medical facilities I attended this week...

I can only speak for my experience at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, which quickly converted in-person consultations to phone consultations, switched the location of blood tests to facilitate social distancing, ensured patient compliance with mask-wearing at in-person appointments that couldn't be done over the phone, and hasn't delayed or skipped any of the tests or scans I get to monitor the spread of my cancer. Having read of your experience and of other people on cancer groups, I realize how lucky I am to have Addenbrooke's close by.

Sorry for the rant but it's been a rather upsetting and physically painful week.

No worries, and I'm sorry things aren't going well. I'm not sure what I wrote that you think was derogatory, but whatever it was I didn't mean it that way.

Oh no, I didn't think it was derogatory at all! And I'm really sorry you're going through treatment at such a challenging time.

The shield list was absolutely incomplete and they didn't adapt it as new information on the virus came out. They're now making a two tier society and it's pretty infuriating. It feels like they want disabled and chronically ill people left in the dust, as usual for the Tories. And because so many people will only follow the government it means a lot more are likely to die or live with a lifelong illness.

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The protocols here in Glasgow were followed well by the NHS, during my last encounter.  Had to phone the doc, was triaged by phone. Was sent to an urgent appointment at the old Yorkhill Hospital (has a new name now that I forget, but that's what the cabbie used to call it when we went there before). Appointment was made within 10 days of the GP triage call. We had to walk the three miles each way (no going alone given how bad I react to medications).  Everyone there was masked. Nobody allowed in to the actual appointment wing who didn't have an appointment. Everyone was completely PPE'd up. Biopsy was done, and we walked home, medication in hand.  Questions were asked as to shouldn't we each be shielding, due to other health issues?  Told them neither of us received letters, but had been anyway based on each of our health histories. They were very surprised we hadn't been told to shield, but agreed we were doing the "smart" thing. Apparently "the system" can't handle "obscure" illnesses/diseases/conditions. 

Doesn't surprise me at all, really.