Ok. Because I'm tired and my BS-repellent filter is already full, I'll just lob this out and then leave it:
What I see in the Guardian article is a "feel good" piece that highlights a small, scattered movement - a journalistic effort designed to give people something positive to think about.
It's right up there with banging pots and pans every Thursday to keep up morale. Very nice. Keeps things positive for people, which is entirely more tolerable than dealing with constant negatives.
I have no doubt that the scrubs being created by the groups in the article are very much appreciated, but it's
not enough or the NHS front-liners wouldn't be working in gear that I would think unsuitable for anything more serious than kiddie finger-painting and putting their lives at risk for it. Again, if this was a serious "movement" the NHS would be highlighting it, begging for it to expand, rather than trying to scrounge materials from overseas that they stand a good chance of being outbid for.
While a lot of people seem to spend a lot of time posting entirely too much personal information and too many photos featuring themselves on Facebook in a quest for emotional validation (
), and while they may or may not run across info on sewing scrubs, there are bound to be many more people who do not spend a lot (or any) time there who also have the available equipment and skill. Perhaps it hasn't occurred to them to go searching for info on how to do it. Perhaps they think there's something "special" about scrubs that mean they have to be produced by experts. (There's a lot of that here, it seems.)
What I would LIKE to see is a concerted, national (or Island-wide) public relations blitz
in the mainstream media. A recruitment drive. A seriously coordinated effort to churn out the items at massive scale. If there are no factories in this country manufacturing PPE (of the sewn variety) piecework shops could easily be up and running in relatively short order - much as piecework shops existed 100 years ago - since the sewers already have their own equipment.
There needs to be a centralized (or, regionalized, it doesn't matter) entity that sources the materials. If there's some way to pre-cut them in bulk, as they do in commercial garment factories, that'd be good. And a distribution network to take said pre-cuts to the seamsters and then pick up the product. The NHS already have the commercial-grade laundries available to sanitize them after repeated use.
Surely there are some now unemployed or underemployed logistics chain types who could set this up?
