Main Coronavirus / Covid-19 Discussion Thread

[BrickTamland]

I do nights in a supermarket and only last night did it become mandatory to wear masks

 

[vegster]

I do nights in a supermarket and only last night did it become mandatory to wear masks

For staff ? or, for staff and customers ? ... Just saw this on the BBC, I do shop mostly at Morrisons and I have seen many cases of people wearing no mask or wearing them incorrectly. Mostly shops are afraid even to enforce their own rules, witness the abuse of disabled or parent with child parking spaces that goes on. Up til now people have not been confronted in case they lose a customer... but, if they lose customers through Covid....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55618408

 

[dsr-burnley]

I wasn't advocating 24 hour mask wearing just that people living in a home where one or more people are regularly not at home, most likely for work purposes, it would make sense for people in those households to wear masks around their homes. Most infections are transmitted indoors and anything that helps cut transmissions can only be a good thing. Encouraged that the government is likely to ban sitting on benches outdoord as this is not deemed as exercise and is considering ending the allowanmce of meeting one other person outdoors for exercise as this is obviously being heavily abused.

The bolded bit is utterly wrong. For example, I know someone who lives alone but needs carers to come in to get him up and put him to bed and do his shopping. If the carers stopped coming, it would cut the risk of transmission, but he would die. Is that a good thing?

It's an extreme example - it's meant to be. But you are continually looking at coronavirus as if it is the only thing which could possibly matter and anything else is irrelevant. Other things matter too. If we save one old person's life so they can spend two more years lying in bed and in pain, is that worth a million jobs? No it isn't. There is a point at which the damage done by reducing the pread exceeds the good it does, and you never seem to acknowledge that.

I certainly hope you are wrong about banning sitting down. Again, there may be advantages to the public good if old people drop down with a heart attack rather than sit down for a rest, but I struggle to see what they are. Extreme again? Maybe. But to ban retired people from sitting down to look at the view in case they have an outdoor conversation? It's absurd. Especially in winter.

And about exercise. Again, I fail to see any benefit in making a law that a woman who works during the day must take exercise alone at night. Are there not dangers in lady joggers running alone? I don't know how many people have been killed directly or indirectly by two joggers running together, but I suspect it's a lot less than by say two supermarket staff having a chat. To ban it make women either take no exercise or take it alone, is foolish and dangerous and counterproductive. Like it or not, there are evil men about who would love to see women exercising on their own at night or in secluded beauty spots.

 

[dazzer6666]

The bolded bit is utterly wrong. For example, I know someone who lives alone but needs carers to come in to get him up and put him to bed and do his shopping. If the carers stopped coming, it would cut the risk of transmission, but he would die. Is that a good thing?

It's an extreme example - it's meant to be. But you are continually looking at coronavirus as if it is the only thing which could possibly matter and anything else is irrelevant. Other things matter too. If we save one old person's life so they can spend two more years lying in bed and in pain, is that worth a million jobs? No it isn't. There is a point at which the damage done by reducing the pread exceeds the good it does, and you never seem to acknowledge that.

I certainly hope you are wrong about banning sitting down. Again, there may be advantages to the public good if old people drop down with a heart attack rather than sit down for a rest, but I struggle to see what they are. Extreme again? Maybe. But to ban retired people from sitting down to look at the view in case they have an outdoor conversation? It's absurd. Especially in winter.

And about exercise. Again, I fail to see any benefit in making a law that a woman who works during the day must take exercise alone at night. Are there not dangers in lady joggers running alone? I don't know how many people have been killed directly or indirectly by two joggers running together, but I suspect it's a lot less than by say two supermarket staff having a chat. To ban it make women either take no exercise or take it alone, is foolish and dangerous and counterproductive. Like it or not, there are evil men about who would love to see women exercising on their own at night or in secluded beauty spots.

Agreed - have a very real example - my next door neighbour is currently sadly in the very late stages of palliative cancer care and has various medical staff and carers turning up 5-6 times a day. They have, in fact, brought Covid into the house and now her husband (who would be utterly incapable of looking after her) has been tested positive - despite being elderly he’s not doing too bad, just a few breathing issues.

Difficult to see how having carers coming into the home could have been avoided. She didn’t want to go into hospice care.

 

[KZNSeagull]

I do nights in a supermarket and only last night did it become mandatory to wear masks

Which one? It has been mandatory for staff in Tesco for months

 

[KZNSeagull]

For staff ? or, for staff and customers ? ... Just saw this on the BBC, I do shop mostly at Morrisons and I have seen many cases of people wearing no mask or wearing them incorrectly. Mostly shops are afraid even to enforce their own rules, witness the abuse of disabled or parent with child parking spaces that goes on. Up til now people have not been confronted in case they lose a customer... but, if they lose customers through Covid....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55618408

I don't think it is a case of losing customers, it is to save the staff from unnecessary abuse, now that security staff seem to have disappeared. But I have to say that the response from supermarkets during this lockdown has been shite so far.

 

[BrickTamland]

Which one? It has been mandatory for staff in Tesco for months

Brighton. It’s been mandatory for customers and day staff, but not for nights despite that side of things being ramped up to minimise the amount of people on the shop floor during the days. Some nights there’s 30 ish staff on the shop floor.

 

[BrickTamland]

I don't think it is a case of losing customers, it is to save the staff from unnecessary abuse, now that security staff seem to have disappeared. But I have to say that the response from supermarkets during this lockdown has been shite so far.

Working for next to minimum wage, in not the best of conditions I don’t think it’s fair for the staff to have to be enforcers imo - should be full time security staff at the door dealing with it.

 

[KZNSeagull]

Brighton. It’s been mandatory for customers and day staff, but not for nights despite that side of things being ramped up to minimise the amount of people on the shop floor during the days. Some nights there’s 30 ish staff on the shop floor.

Oh ok, we have been masked up day or night, not that there have been a lot of night shifts going on but we still mask up when we start at 4 or 5am.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I wasn't advocating 24 hour mask wearing just that people living in a home where one or more people are regularly not at home, most likely for work purposes, it would make sense for people in those households to wear masks around their homes. Most infections are transmitted indoors and anything that helps cut transmissions can only be a good thing. Encouraged that the government is likely to ban sitting on benches outdoord as this is not deemed as exercise and is considering ending the allowanmce of meeting one other person outdoors for exercise as this is obviously being heavily abused.

I have arthritis in my left foot so when I walk along the promenade I try to walk for a mile, then sit on a bench for ten minutes before walking the mile back. I suppose I will have to halve my exercise which, apart from going to the doctors is the only time I get out.

 

[wellquickwoody]

When we were in lockdown, outdoor public seating was off limits, as were childrens playgrounds, oh, and we had a curfew from 8pm to 5am, and I had to have a permit to go to work.

 

[atomised]

School are reemphasising that they only have sufficed capacity for children of critical workers workers with no alternative childcare

 

[happypig]

Working for next to minimum wage, in not the best of conditions I don’t think it’s fair for the staff to have to be enforcers imo - should be full time security staff at the door dealing with it.

Supermarket workers have to enforce age limits on fags and booze. In smaller places, like my local Co-op, there are no security staff, just a couple of people, one on the till and the other one doing the shelves. 90% of the time they are both women. They've had occasional issues with young herberts trying to buy booze and getting shirty when refused.
The problem lies with the government not making it mandatory in law, instead having a wishy-washy "you should, unless you can't" approach; they should be "£200 fine for refusing to wear a mask or prove exemption". Sure some would "get away" with it but it would send a message that it's no longer tolerated.

 

[BrickTamland]

Supermarket workers have to enforce age limits on fags and booze. In smaller places, like my local Co-op, there are no security staff, just a couple of people, one on the till and the other one doing the shelves. 90% of the time they are both women. They've had occasional issues with young herberts trying to buy booze and getting shirty when refused.
The problem lies with the government not making it mandatory in law, instead having a wishy-washy "you should, unless you can't" approach; they should be "£200 fine for refusing to wear a mask or prove exemption". Sure some would "get away" with it but it would send a message that it's no longer tolerated.

Yeah that’s kind of my point though, we already deal with all of that, plus much more now, making us targets for abuse isn’t right.

 

[crodonilson]

Good to see Nikki Sturgeon and her gang toughening rules for Scotland. Click and collect only now allowed for absolutely essential retail, must be outdoors and with a booking system in place, takeaways on their last warning too - only allowed for collection outdoors through a hatch or doorway, possibly a full ban on takeaways coming and statutory guidance that all people who were able to work from home in March last year must be able to work from home now. Hopefully England will follow suit but I won't hold my breath.

 

[dsr-burnley]

Hopefully England will follow suit but I won't hold my breath.

That's a shame, because holding your breath is a very good way of avoiding the virus and I believe will be introduced in Tier 6.

 

[The Wizard]

Some people are genuinely stupid, what impact will closing a click and collect or some of this nonsense mentioned? It just kills the thousands of businesses that are just managing to scrape by offering deliveries/collections.

The government and media have managed to deflect all blame onto the public whilst letting those high up get away with the true problem which as with the first wave is spread within hospital of already sick people and care homes, but guess what? No one is talking about that because everyone is talking about some people going to a garden centre or meeting up in a park.

I can’t believe people don’t see it.

 

[Sussexscots]

Some people are genuinely stupid, what impact will closing a click and collect or some of this nonsense mentioned? It just kills the thousands of businesses that are just managing to scrape by offering deliveries/collections.

The government and media have managed to deflect all blame onto the public whilst letting those high up get away with the true problem which as with the first wave is spread within hospital of already sick people and care homes, but guess what? No one is talking about that because everyone is talking about some people going to a garden centre or meeting up in a park.

I can’t believe people don’t see it.

Yes, there seems to have been little focus on, or discussion around, the issue of nosomical infections.

Between August and November these accounted for 25% of all Covid cases in the Brighton and Sussex University hospital trust area.

 

[A1X]

That's a shame, because holding your breath is a very good way of avoiding the virus and I believe will be introduced in Tier 6.

"Mr Hancock's very cross. I think you all need to spend the next 2 months WOO."

 

[beorhthelm]

The government and media have managed to deflect all blame onto the public

if public are catching an infectious disease caught through close proximity, when told to not get close to other, who is suppose to be to blame?

of course no click and collect is not the answer, which is people not flouting the rules and going to each others homes, meeting up at the park and so on.