Coronavirus: Advice from ME organisations

TiredSam said:
Anyone who has to go shopping
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One possibly useful tip I have not seen anywhere is that picking the timing of shopping (in a general supermarket at least) can greatly reduce the numbers of people there, and hence presumably your exposure risk (though surfaces will probably still be quite risky, especially late at night after a day's worth of customers have been through).

I often go late in the night or at the crack of dawn anyway, in the last/first hour of business, because there are just a lot less people there, and a lot less waiting time in queues.

Also, if you go during sunlight hours and need a trolley, see if you can find one that is sitting in the sun in the car park. Direct sunlight is a powerful disinfectant. (No guarantees though. :whistle: )
 
Adrian said:
I was wondering if people are self iscolating and avoiding shops (basically living off food that lasts well) then perhaps supplements may be worthwhile due to a limited diet?
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A lot of staple foods are fortified with vitamins. I very much doubt there is any need. I used to look after many people with arthritis who had pretty limited diets and vitamin deficiency was not an issue. I think it is much more sensible to eat a bit of fruit and veg now and again to be honest.
 
Merged thread
Even though this was developed for people in Ireland, there's lots that is applicable to caregivers everywhere.
Creating a Backup Plan:

Covid-19 and Family Carers
....
It is vital that family carers develop an emergency/backup plan which can be used if a family carer cannot provide care in the home. We have collated some information here which may be useful for family carers in planning for such an event. ....
​
https://www.carealliance.ie/Covid19

[Thanks to everyone who worked on this!]
 
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Sean said:
One possibly useful tip I have not seen anywhere is that picking the timing of shopping (in a general supermarket at least) can greatly reduce the numbers of people there, and hence presumably your exposure risk (though surfaces will probably still be quite risky, especially late at night after a day's worth of customers have been through).
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Before I had ME I used to go to the supermarket at lunch-time. No right-thinking German goes to the supermarket at lunchtime, so I usually had the place to myself.
 
I just went online to order our next supermarket delivery from Tesco (UK). We can usually get a delivery time slot in the next day or two. On their website there were no slots at all available for the next 3 weeks and no booking slots available after that yet. Luckily my daughter decided to try their App on her phone, and got a slot for one week away.

And I'm glad we have been stocking up over the last few weeks, so we have enough food for about 3 weeks anyway. Our plan was to do a normal sized shop for delivery from a local supermarket from now on about once a week to keep us always a couple of weeks ahead. That looks like it might prove difficult. Oh well there's always Amazon.
 
Trish said:
I just went online to order our next supermarket delivery from Tesco (UK). We can usually get a delivery time slot in the next day or two. On their website there were no slots at all available for the next 3 weeks and no booking slots available after that yet. Luckily my daughter decided to try their App on her phone, and got a slot for one week away.

And I'm glad we have been stocking up over the last few weeks, so we have enough food for about 3 weeks anyway. Our plan was to do a normal sized shop for delivery from a local supermarket from now on about once a week to keep us always a couple of weeks ahead. That looks like it might prove difficult. Oh well there's always Amazon.
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snap. I just tried to do the same. And there were (among a lot of things) no loo rolls available.
Also the local shop only had a delivery yesterday and many things were already sold out. madness.
 
I sorry if this isn't in the correct thread not sure where else to put it, but I hope someone is pointing out to the DWP that they need to be looking at stopping reassessments for people self isolating. Home visits from assessors & going to an assessment centre both puts vulnerable people at risk. No doubt they'd be less than unhappy about that. I appreciate they need to assess new claimants somehow but how are they going to avoid making people risk their lives in order to get their money?
 
Jonathan Edwards said:
I think that is a bit misleading These are just drugs being investigated. Nobody nows if they have any value at all. They are not for clinical use.
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Well there must be something in it, ribavirin and interferon beta have been "under investigation" for coronavirus since 2013 and the ECDC say they have been initiated against SARS-COV-2.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23594967

You would have thought they would have an idea by now. In vitro is promising and they would presumably not be trying them if there were contraindications or signs of uselessness in vivo.

Lets hope they come up with some helpful advice on a relevant timescale.
 
lunarainbows said:
I have seen that in China and Italy, drugs are being tried on a compassionate basis and within trials as well.
Will this happen in the UK, at least until the trials are finished? (I fear the answer may be no.)
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Properly controlled trials should be set up but I suspect that bureaucracy will get in the way. The real problem is that the service is so flat on its back that nobody will have time to even think of setting up trials. If the policy had been to lock down and slow things down realistically then these things might have got set up.
 
Sly Saint said:
ME Association
1 hr ·
The ME Association and Dr Charles Shepherd have released a new statement regarding COVID-19. We urge you to read this information provided:

https://www.meassociation.org.uk/…/me-association-guidance…/
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Dr. Shepherd from the ME Association:
Finally, there is all kinds of misleading and sometimes even dangerous advice appearing on the internet claiming that high dose vitamins and supplements are an effective way in reducing the risk. There is no scientific evidence that any drug, vitamin or supplement will reduce the risk of catching this infection or can be used to treat this infection.
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@Tom Kindlon
 
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I'm a bit confused about how much risk there is in just walking about outside and passing other pedestrians on the pavement. I've gone into social isolation but am attempting to stop myself going nuts by at least getting out of my flat.

But am I putting myself at risk?
 
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