Coronavirus - worldwide spread and control

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Barry said:
Someone just asked me this and I don't know the answer, especially as I gather the corona virus can survive intact for some time on all sorts of surfaces.

Could birds transport the virus from one bird table to another, and so to people, given people will obviously be touching the bird tables and food matter? The question is whether people should be feeding birds at this time, especially as their own food sources are becoming available at this time?
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Answering from a position of total ignorance: I'd keep feeding the birds, but just wash your hands. There are always going to be unlikely ways a virus could be spread and trying to avoid them all would drive people crazy. In three months time, you might be really grateful for the entertainment you get from those birds!
 
Sarah94 said:
Is it true that the UK death statistics is only counting people whose families gave permission for them to be included in the statistics?

If so, how far out do you think the UK death statistics are? We're currently supposedly at 759 deaths.
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From what I have read it seems likely that this is almost entirely a one or two day delay factor. It seems unlikely that a family would not agree.

It seems a strange rule - entirely unproductive. People have rights over their own medical information but I don't see why family should have rights that might interfere with public health recording.
 
According to the head of the Chinese center for disease control (a corona virus researcher with impeccable credentials: Oxford, Harvard) said that the biggest mistake the West is making is not wearing masks.

He said: The big mistake in the U.S. and Europe, in my opinion, is that people aren’t wearing masks. This virus is transmitted by droplets and close contact. Droplets play a very important role—you’ve got to wear a mask, because when you speak, there are always droplets coming out of your mouth. Many people have asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections. If they are wearing face masks, it can prevent droplets that carry the virus from escaping and infecting others.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...ly_2020-03-27&et_rid=630684169&et_cid=3263545
 
I’ve always thought this @shak8
My friend who lives in Dubai, said everyone there wears masks now for the coronavirus outbreak. Out on the street but also in the grocery shops, delivery drivers, packers etc. They also sanitise the street and surfaces there.

I note that in Europe and US this doesn’t seem to be anywhere near as much of a concern - wearing masks and sanitising streets/surfaces. Infact we’ve been actively told NOT to buy masks and wear them as they’re not useful.

Really early on in South Korea’s outbreak I saw them sanitising streets and surfaces on the TV. I think Europe and the US should learn from other countries about what has been helping / helped them. Edit: My friend was really struck by the fact no one is wearing masks here, and the same sort of precautions weren’t being taken here.
 
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lunarainbows said:
I note that in Europe and US this doesn’t seem to be anywhere near as much of a concern - wearing masks and sanitising streets/surfaces. Infact we’ve been actively told NOT to buy masks and wear them as they’re not useful.
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Essentially because we are short on masks right now, and the health care is in need of them.

shak8 said:
... Droplets play a very important role—you’ve got to wear a mask, because when you speak, there are always droplets coming out of your mouth. Many people have asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections. If they are wearing face masks, it can prevent droplets that carry the virus from escaping and infecting others.
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Yes, this, with the normal simple masks you prevent that you possibly infect others.
 
lunarainbows said:
I’ve always thought this @shak8
My friend who lives in Dubai, said everyone there wears masks now for the coronavirus outbreak. Out on the street but also in the grocery shops, delivery drivers, packers etc. They also sanitise the street and surfaces there.

I note that in Europe and US this doesn’t seem to be anywhere near as much of a concern - wearing masks and sanitising streets/surfaces. Infact we’ve been actively told NOT to buy masks and wear them as they’re not useful.

Really early on in South Korea’s outbreak I saw them sanitising streets and surfaces on the TV. I think Europe and the US should learn from other countries about what has been helping / helped them. Edit: My friend was really struck by the fact no one is wearing masks here, and the same sort of precautions weren’t being taken here.
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I think there are some mistaken beliefs about masks in the UK (I'm basing this on a conversation I had with others before covid-19 existed). Many people assume that masks primarily help to reduce the mask-wearer's own risk of catching something. But as far as I can work out the primary use of a mask is to prevent the wearer passing on their own germs with coughs, sneezes, breathing, and normal speech. (In reality I assume masks do both.)

In a healthy but selfish individual who only cares about their own health the idea that they might need to wear a mask is probably just considered weird and unnecessary.
 
I have no idea where I would buy a mask - no chance of being able to make one. I've seen pictures of stalls selling them in the far east and that is maybe the biggest difference, not attitude. I did look on amazon but they are all delivery by late April.
 
spinoza577 said:
Essentially because we are short on masks right now, and the health care is in need of them.

Yes, this, with the normal simple masks you prevent that you possibly infect others.
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Yes, I’m aware that was the reason why, but there was also the messaging that they were not actually useful - when they are. People I spoke to about it here have said to me they’re not useful, that was their understanding. And I had to explain about droplets as I had done some research into them. So the official line in the UK was not honest about this. I would have preferred honesty - it’s helpful but we don’t have enough so make sure doctors and nurses get them. That way people could also have made masks at home, cloth masks etc.
 
Mithriel said:
I have no idea where I would buy a mask - no chance of being able to make one. I've seen pictures of stalls selling them in the far east and that is maybe the biggest difference, not attitude. I did look on amazon but they are all delivery by late April.
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There are some cloth masks online eg Etsy. I bought a couple of them a week or so ago.
 
Keela Too said:
This is a video on Facebook (so apologies to those not on there). I LOVE the first bit, but am not convinced by his thought that fist bumps should replace hand shakes:

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not sure if someone has already asked this. Will delete if so.
I’d like to pass this on to our local residents and ratepayers newsletter editor. I’m not on Facebook but there will be plenty who are and it will be sent out by email. Can you give me something I can copy paste to send in this video to share?

I thought the whole “we got this” was a bit much but the generally interested and upbeat and generalised tone was really helpful, even in talking to people who are unconvinced.
 
To share the Facebook video, the link is
Code: 
https://www.facebook.com/MarkRoberYouTube/videos/216989136214688/

The link for his slightly longer (I don't know why it's longer) YouTube version is
Code: 
https://youtu.be/I5-dI74zxPg

so just copy and paste the version you want (some people aren't keen on Facebook so might be more open to the YouTube link.
 
Arnie Pye said:
I think there are some mistaken beliefs about masks in the UK (I'm basing this on a conversation I had with others before covid-19 existed). Many people assume that masks primarily help to reduce the mask-wearer's own risk of catching something. But as far as I can work out the primary use of a mask is to prevent the wearer passing on their own germs with coughs, sneezes, breathing, and normal speech. (In reality I assume masks do both.)
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The typical mask that only covers the mouth is quite poor at reducing the risk of catching an infection, since your eyes, ears etc are still exposed.

Some people say, but does it hurt to wear one? The answer is, yes it can hurt if those who need masks to stop the spread to others can't get them due to shortages.
 
Rosie said:
Yes that has been happening but we wouldn't have community spread if quarantine had been quarantine in first place. The virus was brought into the country, it didn't come from within. And so the responsibility was on quarantining those who were coming into the country. Hard job to quarantine so many people arriving. I think it would have been best to stop all flights in until preparation for quarantine were enough to house them away from the rest of the country. We wouldn't be in the position we are now.
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I think we all agree that some mistakes were made. IMO the worst one was giving people a few days notice of the 14-day self-isolation requirement. That requirement should have been applied a) earlier and b) with immediate effect. Giving advance notice resulted in all those thousands of people rushing back from all sorts of high-risk places just to avoid the self-isolation period - it wasn't even about closing the borders at that point, just about isolating. It was then the community transmission clusters were seeded. I'm sure there are a few other things the government would have handled differently with the benefit of hindsight. Hopefully lessons learned from this outbreak will be used to update our pandemic plans for the future.

Despite my criticisms I'm still relieved NZ acted sooner and more decisively than many other countries. We still have a chance to avoid the worst.

But that chance depends on what we all do from now on, as individuals. Social pressure is our best weapon here. The government can't put a police officer on every street corner to ensure compliance with the lockdown. It's up to us to do the right thing and to beg and bully those in our social circles to do the same.

It's even possible that if the government had acted sooner and more drastically, a larger part of the population would have thought the restrictions an overreaction and ignored them and we wouldn't have achieved any more than we have with the measures actually taken - without massive community buy-in there's no way of beating this thing. We'll never know for sure what might have been but anyway, there's nothing we can do about the past. Once the whole thing is over there'll be plenty of time to dissect and debate every decision made during the pandemic but right now the most important thing is getting things right from where we're at.
 
Andy said:
Ian Lipkin joins Vincent Racaniello to talk about his experience as a COVID-19 patient, and issues surrounding the disease and SARS-CoV-2 including limiting transmission, antivirals, vaccines, and much more.
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Snow Leopard said:
The typical mask that only covers the mouth is quite poor at reducing the risk of catching an infection, since your eyes, ears etc are still exposed.

Some people say, but does it hurt to wear one? The answer is, yes it can hurt if those who need masks to stop the spread to others can't get them due to shortages.
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Lipkin talks about wearing masks in that podcast.
If you want to jump to the section it's around the 32 minute mark.
Basically he says there is a dose response relationship between wearing masks and cases of infection. However it was not a rigouous scientific study more like an observation, but he never published it, mainly because he feared that healthcare workers would run out of masks.
That was my take on it, but well worth a listen.
 
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