How awful for Marge’s friend! There were so many deaths like this. A neighbour of ours too and a friend’s dad. It’s impractical to have family visiting during such a situation but the alternative is just horrific both for family and those dying.
Another lack of foresight - some of the early failures in Australia’s management of the novel coronavirus pandemic this year could have been avoided if all levels of Government had been trained using simulated exercises, leading health planners have said.
Australia has not run a large-scale national pandemic exercise since 2008: Kevin Rudd was serving his first year as prime minister and the first iPhone entered the market and changed the way people communicate.
The experts say failure to continue pandemic practice exercises may have contributed to confusion in the early days of Australia’s response to COVID-19, including contradictory public messaging from national and local leaders and delays in launching communication tools.
It is all very well having pandemic plans written down but you need to practice.
I do find it exasperating that we are playing international “lessons learned” when we are bang in the middle of a crisis. Right now it should be about problem solving not pointing fingers. We are all to blame if it spreads.
A gentleman died from C19 the other day in the next village to me…he and his wife have both isolated diligently right from the start of the outbreak…their only contact with the outside world has been grocery delivery…left at the door and a daily newspaper…just shows you how infectious the virus is if you can get it like that.
Very true, Annie.
That is scary, Summer, very scary.
Tis isn’t it tabs…I suppose its vital to wash your hands and don’t touch your face even if you are isolating.
Hi
We are learning more and more about this virus every day.
As you say washing hands is essential, but also is general cleanliness.
It has been found 17 days later on hard surfaces, which is not good.
South Korea has found people being reinfected, so immunity is not a given,
Strange times for all of us.
Global Cases 2,407,600
Global Deaths 165,083
Mortality Rate 7%
(Flu Mortality Rate 0.1%)
Australia
Cases 6,612
Deaths 71
Critical 48
Cases per Million 259
UK
Cases 120,067
Deaths 16,060
Critical 1,559
Cases per Million 1,769
USA
Cases 764,265
Deaths 40,565
Critical 13,566
Cases per Million 2,309
It’s an International forum which means International discussions about problems surely? hardly finger pointing and certainly nothing to get exasperated about, it’s just chat.
Is there anywhere which records when countries went into lockdown?
That’s why I religiously wash my hands immediately I come into contact with the outside world. Heck, I even dispose of my plastic grocery bags.
This sounds OTT summer. I don’t think I could do it.
I go out twice a day for a walk, don’t touch my face, don’t touch anything. But when I get home I just relax, live life as normal.
Hi Bruce, I wasn’t talking about the forum but about public discussions going on in countries around the world including the UK. We currently have a media spat between our government and a major newspaper. Similar seems to be happening everywhere instead of recognising that most of the world was slow to react because it wasn’t declared a pandemic until March.
This is why I am so fussy about washing groceries or leaving deliveries for a few days. The other risk is getting too close to delivery drivers. I see people on tv opening doors and the driver is a few feet away. They have just touched the parcel or plastic bags as well as parcels from everywhere. It’s better to open a window if possible and to treat everything coming in as contaminated. The doorbell too.
In other countries they have been disinfecting streets and public places with sprays.
We had a virologist or somesuch on our local news who said spraying streets did nothing as the disinfectants don’t kill viruses.
Our bin men have warned us to clean our bin handles etc. as they touch 200+ bins a day.
They do kill the virus if they are the right type of disinfectants. There seems to be much conflicting expertise but the one thing that nobody seems 100% sure of is exactly how long the virus remains alive and active on some surfaces. Swim mentions 17 days being the upper limit. I’ve read from 7 to 9 max. But who really knows? Best to treat things as suspect for a good while and wash your hands a lot even if isolating.
I’m sure it’s been mentioned many times … what I heard … the virus is encased in an oily membrane that can be dissolved using soap. Dissolve the membrane and kill the virus.
I’d never touch any bin handle without washing my hands. It’s always been that way, not just because of the current virus scare.
Perhaps we will end up with all the survivors
being OCD because of natural selection!