Coronavirus precautions: Has the world gone mad?

[Bletchleyite]

Well, surely it can unless you've blocked all the vents in your car?

If a mask mostly blocks it, the pollen filter most likely will.

Accidentally touching the other car would be most likely to.

 

[MotCO]

I strongly suspect that the 1 in 1,700 number is within the whole population. Take out those that are not mobile within the population (like Care Homes, still the main source of infection) and the probability drops much more possibly to 1 in 4,000. Therefore, with more people washing their hands, keeping some distance, wearing masks the risk drops even more.

Precisely. It is all about being vigilant at all times, and being conscious of where and how you could be exposed to the virus. Don't drop your defences. Raves, protest marches etc where the 2 metre rule is not being followed and not wearing face masks as appropriate is asking for trouble.

 

[Richard Scott]

If a mask mostly blocks it, the pollen filter most likely will.

Accidentally touching the other car would be most likely to.

I imagine even if someone who's got the virus touched the other car the UV from sunlight will deal with it fairly quickly?

 

[island]

Good point. In which case is the insurance industry thar stupid?

It just doesn’t want to go bust facing millions of no win no fee have-a-go claims in the years to come.

 

[ashkeba]

I imagine even if someone who's got the virus touched the other car the UV from sunlight will deal with it fairly quickly?

No. That appears to be another social media myth.

Fact check: Sunlight does not kill the new coronavirus

A claim widely circulated on social media says sunlight kills the new coronavirus. We rate this claim false.

eu.usatoday.com

Only levels of UV light much higher than what is in sunlight can kill viruses

 

[Bletchleyite]

Temperature, however, does, and the body of a car is rather warm on a hot day.

 

[ashkeba]

If a mask mostly blocks it, the pollen filter most likely will.

Accidentally touching the other car would be most likely to.

I think pollen grains are much bigger than coronavirus and the masks now being required reduces the range it goes out instead of protecting the wearer and cars do not filter the output of their vents do they?

 

[ashkeba]

Temperature, however, does, and the body of a car is rather warm on a hot day.

Who says? It appears that the car body would need to be hot enough to make coffee before it would kill it.

Coronavirus can survive exposure to high temperatures, study shows

The coronavirus may not be killed by high temperatures, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of Aix-Marseille in France were unable to nuke the virus by placing infected African …

nypost.com

Both settings saw the virus replicate even when exposed for an hour at the 140-degree temperature, researchers said.

To kill the virus, it took 15 minutes of exposure to 197.6-degree temperatures, the report said

 

[Bletchleyite]

I think pollen grains are much bigger than coronavirus and the masks now being required reduces the range it goes out instead of protecting the wearer and cars do not filter the output of their vents do they?

The virus doesn't float around on its own (nor would a single virion be enough to cause a viable infection), it's in droplets, which are likely to be bigger than pollen (which does float around on its own).

 

[Steveoh]

Something I can't quite get my head around. Sadly for my child the outbound actitives week scheduled for July has been cancelled which in the current climate is not a shock. What was suprising was how long it was before it was cancelled.

Anway taking a step back, a course designed to challenge young people, build team work, develop sensible attidues to risk etc has been cancelled due to a risk which is surely much, much smaller than the activiites they would have been undertaking had the course gone ahead.

 

[MikeWM]

Something I can't quite get my head around. Sadly for my child the outbound actitives week scheduled for July has been cancelled which in the current climate is not a shock. What was suprising was how long it was before it was cancelled.

Anway taking a step back, a course designed to challenge young people, build team work, develop sensible attidues to risk etc has been cancelled due to a risk which is surely much, much smaller than the activiites they would have been undertaking had the course gone ahead.

Possibly insurance? I know a lot of private schools are keen to open but are having insurance issues.

Maybe we need a general virus disclaimer, that we agree not to sue someone if we get any viruses while on their property/activity. I'd happily do one of those if I can go ahead and do stuff as a result. (or it could be even easier, a new all-purpose sign like 'items in car park are left at owners risk', that sort of thing). Apparently Trump is doing that sort of disclaimer for his political rallies that he's trying to restart (!).

 

[Huntergreed]

Something I can't quite get my head around. Sadly for my child the outbound actitives week scheduled for July has been cancelled which in the current climate is not a shock. What was suprising was how long it was before it was cancelled.

Anway taking a step back, a course designed to challenge young people, build team work, develop sensible attidues to risk etc has been cancelled due to a risk which is surely much, much smaller than the activiites they would have been undertaking had the course gone ahead.

One perhaps not obvious side effect of this massive national overreaction we've had is that we're teaching our children, which is the future of this country, that it's correct to blow risks completely out of proportion.

How can we expect society to ever move forward if people are afraid to take risks. Businesses would never start, people would never fly anywhere, it's sad to think that this may happen, and yet this is (indirectly) what we're teaching our children to do through our completely out of proportion nationwide 'fear' of this virus.

 

[Scrotnig]

we agree not to sue someone if we get any viruses while on their property/activity

I doubt anyone could ever prove they got the virus in a specific place to start with.

 

[MikeWM]

I doubt anyone could ever prove they got the virus in a specific place to start with.

But we've heard all the stories about one person spreading the virus at a church, or a nightclub, etc. However true or not they may have been, it isn't hard in today's society to see people trying to sue the church or nightclub or whatever, for being insufficiently 'safe' [1].

[1] Is it just me, or is 'safe' rapidly becoming the most pernicious, wretched word in the language? I'm having to resist the urge to groan (or worse) every time someone says it now.

 

[Enthusiast]

Is it just me, or is 'safe' rapidly becoming the most pernicious, wretched word in the language? I'm having to resist the urge to groan (or worse) every time someone says it now.

No it isn't just you. Life is not safe and any government, shop or organisation saying they are taking measures to keep people "safe" from this virus is being disingenuous. People can take reasonable precautions. That's all they can do, with the vulnerable groups taking the most precautions and receiving the most support to help them do so. Destroying the economy for a generation, jeopardising the education and life chances of around six or seven million children and almost closing the NHS to non-Covid patients is not keeping people safe.

 

[Huntergreed]

No it isn't just you. Life is not safe and any government, shop or organisation saying they are taking measures to keep people "safe" from this virus is being disingenuous. People can take reasonable precautions. That's all they can do, with the vulnerable groups taking the most precautions and receiving the most support to help them do so. Destroying the economy for a generation, jeopardising the education and life chances of around six or seven million children and almost closing the NHS to non-Covid patients is not keeping people safe.

It genuinely feels like this is a “game” or “joke” to our government at points. “How long can we convince the population to follow overly precautious restrictions without them questioning it?”, and sadly they’re most definitely winning.

In all seriousness however I do think a change in perspective is needed. The focus needs to shift from solely on the suppression of the virus to reopening the economy in a safe and sustainable way, which at the moment is only briefly touched upon .

 

[scotrail158713]

Something I can't quite get my head around. Sadly for my child the outbound actitives week scheduled for July has been cancelled which in the current climate is not a shock. What was suprising was how long it was before it was cancelled.

Anway taking a step back, a course designed to challenge young people, build team work, develop sensible attidues to risk etc has been cancelled due to a risk which is surely much, much smaller than the activiites they would have been undertaking had the course gone ahead.

Very true - I’d never have thought about it like that. However it does show how everything has been blown out of proportion.

 

[Richard Scott]

But we've heard all the stories about one person spreading the virus at a church, or a nightclub, etc. However true or not they may have been, it isn't hard in today's society to see people trying to sue the church or nightclub or whatever, for being insufficiently 'safe' [1].

[1] Is it just me, or is 'safe' rapidly becoming the most pernicious, wretched word in the language? I'm having to resist the urge to groan (or worse) every time someone says it now.

Along with the word 'hero'. Seems everyone is a hero now when they just do their job or what's the morally correct thing to do.

 

[MotCO]

In all seriousness however I do think a change in perspective is needed. The focus needs to shift from solely on the suppression of the virus to reopening the economy in a safe and sustainable way, which at the moment is only briefly touched upon .

That is the real conundrum. There are reports of a second lockdown in Peking, China, and we need to avoid that since that could deal a second blow to our economy. How can we reopen the economy without people thinking that the panic is over and precautions are no longer necessary?

 

[Silverlinky]

It genuinely feels like this is a “game” or “joke” to our government at points. “How long can we convince the population to follow overly precautious restrictions without them questioning it?”, and sadly they’re most definitely winning.

In all seriousness however I do think a change in perspective is needed. The focus needs to shift from solely on the suppression of the virus to reopening the economy in a safe and sustainable way, which at the moment is only briefly touched upon .

Sadly there are far too many out there who have been brainwashed by the media. The Government has been reducing lockdown measures slowly but surely for weeks, yet there are many people who say we are going too fast, its not safe to reduce to 1m, its not safe to send the kids back to school, its not safe to do this and do that. When has the media ever really pointed out that only around 1 in 1800 people in the country are carrying the virus at any one time, and you're probably more likely to get knocked down crossing the road than you are of picking up Covid.

I do wonder why some people get out of bed in the morning...it must be almost too dangerous to do that too!

The negative media does not point out that there were only 30 odd deaths recorded both yesterday and today, instead playing on the 40000 plus total figure and throwing in that the true figure might be 60000.

Lowest number of deaths since before lockdown was introduced, lowest number of new cases since before lockdown was introduced, lowest number of people in hospital with the virus in 3 months, only 7% of ICU ventilator beds in use, there's plenty of good news out there....but the media will not report it.

 

[Silverlinky]

That is the real conundrum. There are reports of a second lockdown in Peking, China, and we need to avoid that since that could deal a second blow to our economy. How can we reopen the economy without people thinking that the panic is over and precautions are no longer necessary?

See, there again, sensationalist reporting.

Actually only a small part of Beijing has been locked down, affecting 21 residential communities and 90000 people in total. Yes 90000 people out of a population of more than 20,000,000

 

[JonathanH]

The negative media does not point out that there were only 30 odd deaths recorded both yesterday and today, instead playing on the 40000 plus total figure and throwing in that the true figure might be 60000.

The media also point out that the number of deaths is the same as it was in mid-March, just before the number rapidly increased.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

The constant fear-mongering must be having an effect. This person queuing outside Primark in Birmingham clearly believes it’s REALLY dangerous out there....

 

[MrTurbostar170]

Saw on the local news this evening a report of a blind woman who apparently got too close to one gentleman, who seemed to have been carrying around a 2m pole with him!

 

[Darandio]

The constant fear-mongering must be having an effect. This person queuing outside Primark in Birmingham clearly believes it’s REALLY dangerous out there....View attachment 79581

Exactly the same as the bloke dressing in a similar fashion here at certain times over the last 12-15 weeks. The need for celebrity and gain retweets/likes is incredible.

 

[Enthusiast]

The media also point out that the number of deaths is the same as it was in mid-March, just before the number rapidly increased.

But the number will increase as soon as people begin behaving normally again. Everybody needs to accept that the virus will not go away just like that. The government's task is to convey that message to the population, protect the vulnerable as far as is practically possible but, most importantly, get the country back to work, back to doing what it does and back to behaving normally. The current restrictions are unsustainable on so many grounds. They cannot continue and they certainly must not be re-imposed if they are lifted. The lockdown achieved its purpose of protecting the NHS from being overwhelmed - it never came close. NHS managers have had time to get their backsides into gear and make arrangements to further deal with the outbreak. The last task the government has is to remove the fear of God they have managed to instil in the population which has led to episodes as described above. Then the madness might stop.

 

[Huntergreed]

But the number will increase as soon as people begin behaving normally again. Everybody needs to accept that the virus will not go away just like that. The government's task is to convey that message to the population, protect the vulnerable as far as is practically possible but, most importantly, get the country back to work, back to doing what it does and back to behaving normally. The current restrictions are unsustainable on so many grounds. They cannot continue and they certainly must not be re-imposed if they are lifted. The lockdown achieved its purpose of protecting the NHS from being overwhelmed - it never came close. NHS managers have had time to get their backsides into gear and make arrangements to further deal with the outbreak. The last task the government has is to remove the fear of God they have managed to instil in the population which has led to episodes as described above. Then the madness might stop.

That's sadly not going to happen unless there's a very drastic and sudden shift in focus (which I doubt there will be, but I can hope!)

The government seem absolutely hellbent on getting deaths down to 0, cases down as low as possible, R below one forever. I do think that if deaths start to trend upwards again they'll just lock us all in again, without considering the economy or mental health or education or anything else at all.

I'm genuinely starting to fear for the future of this country, and I never thought I would ever have to say that.

 

[Silverlinky]

That's sadly not going to happen unless there's a very drastic and sudden shift in focus (which I doubt there will be, but I can hope!)

The government seem absolutely hellbent on getting deaths down to 0, cases down as low as possible, R below one forever. I do think that if deaths start to trend upwards again they'll just lock us all in again, without considering the economy or mental health or education or anything else at all.

I'm genuinely starting to fear for the future of this country, and I never thought I would ever have to say that.

I don't agree!

The figures and the gradual decrease in cases and deaths suggests they are taking the right course of action. Nothing done so far has pushed the R figure (for what its worth) back up to 1.0

Cases are on the decline, deaths are on the decline, cases which lead to death are also much much lower than they were at the start of this.

They've tried to open schools but (mainly lefty) councils have blocked this from happening, they've allowed meetings, outdoors singularly, then in groups of six, now we have "bubbles"......as for the economy, tried to get people back to work, now trying to open shops and businesses on a staggered scale.

Quite how anyone can say they are doing nothing is beyond me.

And there are still plenty out there who think we are moving too fast! Plenty who would be happy to be "furloughed" forever, with their kids off school so they can go to the beach or the shopping centres as many times as they want!

 

[6862]

The government seem absolutely hellbent on getting deaths down to 0, cases down as low as possible, R below one forever. I do think that if deaths start to trend upwards again they'll just lock us all in again, without considering the economy or mental health or education or anything else at all.

My fear too. Freedoms given up once so easily will likely quickly be taken away again with little resistance.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

The constant fear-mongering must be having an effect. This person queuing outside Primark in Birmingham clearly believes it’s REALLY dangerous out there....View attachment 79581

And yet that person goes out!
If I were that worried, a trip to Primark would not be at the top of my list of priorities.