Coronavirus (Covid19) Corner

[Marilyn]

I used to make little patchwork quilts for premature babies to be wrapped/ buried in....but there was never such a daily demand as you now work to, and it was never as real or keen as what you are catering for. I truly respect your effort.

[Tizer]

Maz, I hope you've also seen the news about 99-year-old `Captain Tom' who has now raised £14 million pounds for the NHS!

Here's some positive news about ventilator supply...
`Coronavirus: Ventilator built by Airbus and F1 approved'
`The first new medical ventilator to treat people with severe symptoms of Covid-19 has been approved in the UK. Hundreds of the Penlon Prima ESO2, which is an updated version of an existing model, are expected to be built for hospitals over the next week. But the consortium of major firms that helped to develop it hopes to make about 1,500 a week by the start of May..'.LINK

[Stanley]

And the Dyson one is said to be set for approval this week.
Talking to a friend of mine who works in a care home. I asked how many Covid cases they had and she said nobody knows because they aren't testing, she reckons if they did the results would be horrendous. Instead all patients are confined to their rooms.

[Cathy]

War hero Captain Tom Moore (99) deserves to be awarded a knighthood. 472, 352 supporters (and counting) have already signed the Petition on CHANGE.ORG.
They are hoping for 500,000.

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[Stanley]

Susan is to be tested to see if she can go back to work. Dead simple you'd think, have a swab at the surgery..... Oh no, she has to go all the way to Leeds and be tested at a drive through testing station.

[Big Kev]

Susan is to be tested to see if she can go back to work. Dead simple you'd think, have a swab at the surgery..... Oh no, she has to go all the way to Leeds and be tested at a drive through testing station.

Friend of mine, in Barlick, had to go to Manchester Airport for her test. 72 hour turnaround for the results.

[Tizer]

`Bruises on feet ‘could be sign of coronavirus’, Spanish doctors claim' LINK

[Stanley]

I don't know what the turn round time is Kev, just seems a hell of a palaver for a test that can only say if she is infectious or not on the day of the test!
Tiz, perhaps they could have just looked at her feet.....

[PanBiker]

Local surgeries I can accept as most are closed but it makes you wonder why they can't do the tests at say Skipton General or Nelson Community Hospital or Yarnspinners?

Just been over to Oddies in Colne to pick up some fabric for scrubs. Oddies normally only supply wholesale but are providing smaller lengths for the home sewers supporting the NHS. Sally ordered 25m on the phone, paid for it by card and we had to ring them once in the car park and they brought it out to us and put it in the car. Royal Blue cotton for the use of, should make 8 full sets of scrubs plus surgical caps from the smaller offcuts. Not including the time of course but around £8.00 per pair. Less than half the price the NHS normally pay for them.

Filled up with cheap petrol, (£1.05 from Sainsbury's) on the North Valley roundabout while we were there. Should see us through well into to summer with a bit of luck.

[Tizer]

From what I've read in various places the test is only done by qualified medical staff and it isn't simply a dab at the inside of your nostril. Look at photos of the test being done and you'll see the swab is on a long stick. It's poked through your nostril to the back of your throat and twirled. Then the other nostril. Notices say it's not unpleasant but that seems to be debatable, according to reports of some who've had the test. I'd be interested to hear what Susan can tell us or anyone else who has direct experience of the actual covid swab test. Once it's done the swab has to be packaged correctly and sent by an approved delivery service used for medical materials to a site that has the analytical equipment. This consists of sophisticated instrumentation and special reagents. Keep in mind that the specimen is potentially dangerous and has to be treated as such.

This is the guidance and standard operating procedure for COVID-19 virus testing in NHS laboratories:
LINK

[PanBiker]

All three of the reasonably local sites I quoted have fully qualified medical staff. I am sure a quarantined corner of all of the establishments could be made to take the test and deal with the correct handling. If they can do them in a drive through situation in a car park, I would have thought that larger local medical establishments could cope.

[Big Kev]

From what I've read in various places the test is only done by qualified medical staff and it isn't simply a dab at the inside of your nostril. Look at photos of the test being done and you'll see the swab is on a long stick. It's poked through your nostril to the back of your throat and twirled. Then the other nostril. Notices say it's not unpleasant but that seems to be debatable, according to reports of some who've had the test. I'd be interested to hear what Susan can tell us or anyone else who has direct experience of the actual covid swab test. Once it's done the swab has to be packaged correctly and sent by an approved delivery service used for medical materials to a site that has the analytical equipment. This consists of sophisticated instrumentation and special reagents. Keep in mind that the specimen is potentially dangerous and has to be treated as such.

This is the guidance and standard operating procedure for COVID-19 virus testing in NHS laboratories:
LINK

My friend, who had the test, said it made her 'heave', not very pleasant at all apparently...

[Sue]

`Bruises on feet ‘could be sign of coronavirus’, Spanish doctors claim' LINK

Or in my case clumsy gardening

[Stanley]

I've asked Susan the question Tiz, I'll report back when I hear from her.
Is everybody getting a turn at being 3 Podium Man? I saw a business minister start to tell us everything they had done and that it was all the fault of the experts if anything had gone wrong and switched over to Youtube....
Then I see an expert saying we did too little too late and predicting 40,000 deaths.
I see Grant Shapps is in trouble for saying nobody with any sense would be booking a holiday. A Minister of Transport who doesn't understand how the travel industry works....

[plaques]

Just been over to Oddies in Colne to pick up some fabric for scrubs. Oddies normally only supply wholesale but are providing smaller lengths for the home sewers supporting the NHS. Sally ordered 25m on the phone, paid for it by card and we had to ring them once in the car park and they brought it out to us and put it in the car. Royal Blue cotton for the use of, should make 8 full sets of scrubs plus surgical caps from the smaller offcuts. Not including the time of course but around £8.00 per pair. Less than half the price the NHS normally pay for them.

Sally is doing a magnificent job. It takes a lot of effort and determination to keep production at this level for any length of time.

Would it be possible to have a limited 'diversion' from the OG 'donate now' to go into the purchase of material etc. ?

[Tizer]

I mentioned a while ago that it's not safe to assume that someone who has had covid-19 and recovered will be immune to the virus. The UK government gets a lot of flak for not having done much testing but they've rightly been cautious. An unreliable test is worse than no test. Here is more on that topic...
`Coronavirus: Double warning over antibody tests' LINK

[PanBiker]

Sally has been a machinist since leaving school at 15. She went straight into factory work on piecework at Peter Blacks in Skipton. They made slippers for the large retailers and Sally would do her bit on the binding about a 1000 times a day. She earned about three times as much as me when we were saving up to get married and came out with around £60 a week. If she worked over on a Friday and maybe went in Saturday morning she could make her wage up to around £100. When I was out of my time at 21 and field and bench servicing TV's and domestic electronics I was earning £21 per week. She continued sewing over in Barlick at various firms after we got married and has sewn, curtains, cushion covers and bags in her time. She was a stay at home mum when the kids were little, I continued to pay her stamp. She went to college at night and got some GCSE's, maths, English lang and lit, and she learnt to type and got her RSA qualification. Didn't go back to sewing again for a living but made a lot of the kids clothing which saved us a fortune.

Second donated bolt of material turned up this morning, another 12 metres and we have a friend who is waiting to take delivery of more that he has bought for the cause. That will be delivered up as and when. 10 meters of the Royal Blue went to another friend in Barlick who is also sewing. Surgical gowns seem to be in short supply and she is looking to see if she can find the spec for them. If they are doable she will look for a pattern. She generally sews in the morning then goes for a walk in the afternoon. I have a bunch of mixed output, scrubs, laundry bags, surgical hats to iron and more drying on the line which will come my way next.

The government has slipped up in only using major manufacturers to supply the PPE. There are hundreds of smaller firms perfectly capable of producing thousands of units but many have been shut down under the current rules. There was a spokesperson for a consortium of garment makers who said they could ramp up and be turning out stuff in a matter of days if they were asked. Their staff are willing to come back into work but are sat at home doing nothing, a total waste of resource.

[Stanley]

It sounds like a complete Horlicks Ian. Give my love to Sally!
Tiz you were asking about the test. Susan says " The swab has to get to your tonsils and the up your nose. I can’t say it was pleasant but it was OK. They also tested Mick as he was from my household."
They had a bit of luck on the way home.... "On the way home we stopped at a chippy that I had spied on our way into Leeds, it was still open so we had fish & chips. The fish was delicious and he gave us 20% discount for being key workers- I still had my work badge clipped to my cardigan from being tested, so we felt like we’d been on holiday for the day".

[Stanley]

It becomes obvious that there is a dire situation in care homes and we get silly rhetoric about a 'ring of steel' being flung round care homes. Never mind the spin and fine words, just do what should have been done in the first place, fund and support social care. Don't forget the people in care at home either!

[plaques]

Reading one of those advisory e-mails on the coronavirus, as one does in these times, the opening statement left me a little confused. It stated that the virus was a protein therefore not alive. Its structure being such that it had a wax coating and being delicate would degrade quickly if not absorbed into a living cell. Its life could be further shortened if the wax was removed, ie; hand washing with soap etc. I thought the current science had changed stance on the idea it was living and had DNA structure and could mutate as this current virus is said to have done. This mutation probability takes it into a different ball game with future problems. What does the Team think?

All this may be a bit academic in the present circumstances where the first priority is to keep away from the little buggers as much as possible.

[PanBiker]

Our comrade Omar tipped up last night with the material he had ordered. Another friend has rung and is donating some sheeting which will be dropped off today. Morning shift is sewing as I post. I am up to date with my ironing so am planning the installation of my replacement smoke alarms which came last week. Different make so a new start.

Lets see how far the governments container load of PPE goes. Only nearly four months into the pandemic so not before time.

[Stanley]

Not going anywhere Ian, latest report is that the shipment is delayed..... So much for using a cheaper manufacturer. For God's sake, get the home industry in on the act!

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on deficient PPE supplies and the government response.
One thing struck me... "England's deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries, meanwhile, said the UK remained an "international exemplar" of pandemic preparedness, adding there had been challenges but the government was "always looking ahead".". Really? What evidence does she have for saying this?
News also this morning that representatives of health providers have issued a statement saying that what they need is deliveries not promises of deliveries that don't happen. They have asked for the government to stop talking and start doing. One has to have sympathy with them.
Reports that one supplier of face masks has increased the price from 40p to almost £2 as they become scarce.

[Marilyn]

"England's deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries, meanwhile, said the UK remained an "international exemplar" of pandemic preparedness, adding there had been challenges but the government was "always looking ahead".

My dearest Stanley “ international exemplar” your country IS NOT.
When will you get the message?!
Australia has had 71 deaths.

71 deaths....think about it.

[plaques]

I think it was part of Andrew Marr's show the lady under question said that they thought that the immune system had a very short memory of this particular virus. ie: you could catch it again. The good news was that they would be using a virus type in their vaccine that promoted a longer immune response but only time will tell. She was talking about a year or more. Always look on the bright side.