Self-responsibility counts. It's very basic rules, nevertheless very important ones:
Don't expect the government to do this for you.
- Wash your hands throughly
- Cough and sneeze into a tissue or the crook of your arm
- Stay at home if you have fever and/or a cough
As far as I understand, this virus is believed to be not significantly different to infuenza for which many are not vaccinated. If anyone who thinks they have symptoms of the virus self-isolates (and then asks for a test) they will protect the rest of the population and allow us to conduct our business normally. If in addition we pay attention to personal protective hygiene, even better.
RMT said:26 February 2020
RMT Press Office
TRANSPORT UNION RMT has raised concerns again today at the lack of clear and consistent advise regarding the Coronavirus with the Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps. The union was prompted to write for the second time following an incident at Leeds Station yesterday.
In the letter, RMT general secretary Mick Cash said:
“I write with concern that I have not yet received a reply to my letter of 17th February 2020 requesting urgent advice regarding the coronavirus.
“As you may know there was an incident with LNER at Leeds Station yesterday when a member of the public boarded a train and then informed staff that he had been advised to self-isolate. This has led to LNER circulating their own guidance to staff, but this is only one company out of the many that operate in our transport network.
“Again I must stress that it is imperative that clear and consistent advice is provided by the Department of Transport as a matter of urgency given that our members are dealing with the health and wellbeing not-only of themselves but the travelling public across the transport sector. Without such guidance we will be forced to advise our members as best we can for the safety of all involved.
“I can only stress the urgency of the situation and again request a response at your earliest convenience.”
The 'no worse than flu' meme comes from taking the death toll in the first few weeks and then saying flu kills many more. Or by dividing the dead by the number infected, which isn't how a death rate is calculated (dead/dead+recovered).
Staying now in one of the countries first hit, but with near stable figures the last weeks, in fact Bangkok, Thailand: the effects are minimal to nil. many people wear facemasks (mostly of the type that is thought of as being ineffective...or complain that these are sold out or too expensive), often as the bosses want them too. What one does see more-even on entry to many citybuses, is a bottle of sanitiser to ´disinfect´ your hands with. I´ve also read on other fora that people fear the strangest irrational things: like handing tickets to inspectors (chipcards=multi use).
From what Ive read about Italy-hardest hit on the continent: same measures as China has taken, mostly isolating those areas, trains pass by without stopping. There will inevitably also be a an awful lot of politics trying to score some distant goal about it.
If it really should come to the worst, then as such this is not different from any large and sudden outbreak of whatever infectuous disease.
You should wash hands anyway.
Truth is the government don't really have any answers.
We are on our own.
The 'no worse than flu' meme comes from taking the death toll in the first few weeks and then saying flu kills many more. Or by dividing the dead by the number infected, which isn't how a death rate is calculated (dead/dead+recovered). This is a significantly more dangerous disease than flu, however there is the chance based on how it infects and the tissues that are affected that we in the west may be less at risk than Asians (lookup ACE2), this hypothesis would indicate the same for women Vs men which appears to be the case with the proportion of women affected being lower.
The Chinese didn't take measures affecting over 700 million people for a disease no worse than flu.
Calculating the death rate only ever works after the epidemic is over. The number during a epidemic are not comparable and only ever give you a vague hint.
... we are not really there yet, another month will tell us.
*If* it came to that sort of level it surely shouldn't be beyond our resources as a country to provide hand gel and face mask booths at all (major) underground stations (maybe closing minor ones)? (No one allowed on underground unless they use the gel and wear the mask; the mask is to protect *others*, not yourself, but that works if everyone wears one).
The *official* worst case scenario for the UK was released as 80% infection rate, 500,000 dead. It probably won't be nearly as bad as that, it was a very worst case, and quarantine measures might reduce the rate, but the figures I've seen indicate it is 5-7x more deadly than 'normal' flu. But 'normal flu' does have some at least semi-effective** vaccines for vulnerable people and medical staff.
...
Most rail staff are exempt from curfews when they are implemented due to the early and late nature (and often crucial nature of their work)"The interesting thing is what happens if things become really bad. Do staff members "desert" their post deciding the risk isn't worth it? What happens then is that the service will simply fall apart and very few trains will run. Frankly I suspect the service would have been shut down before that point."
If things get bad then there would be complete curfew and quarantine anyway so train staff would be told to stay home and isolate
Could you share the type of source the 80% infection rate comes from?
500,000 dead is around 1% of the infected population if my maths is still ok.
Coronavirus could kill half a million people and infect 80 per cent of Britons in a "worst case scenario", a Government document warns
On a slightly different front, there have been discussions on the radio both yesterday and this morning regarding sick pay for those self isolating. There was the representative from the business community (didn't catch who) claiming that business couldn't afford to pay those who were ostensibly fit for work but were self isolated because they had returned from a hotspot or had called 111 when feeling 'flu-like'. A comment towards the end of the article was that business might regret that as if certain workers just couldn't afford to forgo two weeks pay, they would ingnore the request to stay at home and turn up at work, which in some cases might unnecessarily spread the virus into the workforce resulting in much higher losses than a few weeks pay. Legislation enforcing self-isolation would also be ineffective as those who couldn't afford the pay loss would ignore the orders and just turn up for work.
I bet a lot of people on here go into work when they don’t really feel well because
- they don’t want to let colleagues down and make extra work for them
- not going into work would mean a huge backlog when they did go back
- they would have a loss of pay if they are an agency worker, or sick pay only kicks in after a certain time
To go on topic, maybe a train driver could be at less risk from others as they are isolated in the cab from the public, and could be issued with antiseptic wipes before their shift to clean the controls. Other public-facing employees, less so.
This outbreak is different to when people "don't really feel well" as it is a defined health hazard to many others, and there is an implied legal rsponsibility to not risk passing the infection on. Scotland has just declared COVID 19 a notifiable disease and it it likely that that will be the case across the UK when cases are registered here.I bet a lot of people on here go into work when they don’t really feel well because
- they don’t want to let colleagues down and make extra work for them
- not going into work would mean a huge backlog when they did go back
- they would have a loss of pay if they are an agency worker, or sick pay only kicks in after a certain time
To go on topic, maybe a train driver could be at less risk from others as they are isolated in the cab from the public, and could be issued with antiseptic wipes before their shift to clean the controls. Other public-facing employees, less so.
"From my observations, MRT passenger numbers are down by around 15%"
This is the biggest issue right now in the UK. It doesn't matter how many have it in some ways, but rather the impact that people COULD get it. How many transport organisation can even afford a 10% reduction in passengers for a couple of months?
Surprised that there's a fight over bog rolls in an Asian country - isn't the norm over there to wash anyway, with most loos being fitted with a hose of some kind for that purpose?
Er....no.
Perhaps that's more South East Asia than far East, then. It's definitely the case in Thailand, India etc.
Can't say I'd be fighting over bog rolls, I'd just switch to that method until they were readily back on sale.
Thread title now edited to reflect that.I note this Coronavirus / impact on railway thread now resides in the "General Discussion" thread, alongside non-railway matters.