Covid TV updates.

Having just watched 5pm update today, a 'told you so' feeling came over me.

Nothing to do with Covid which is the whole point, more and more questions are being asked entirely unrelated to Covid, todays hot topic was football super league. Going back some months when the first media nerd asked such a question I expected the (PM or health minister, can't remember who) to firmly say 'this is not PMQ, it's a Covid update. Sadly the question was politely answered, a rod for their own back I mused at the time, sure enough more and more of these questions are being asked, give the media an inch and they'll take a mile.

One question(s) today was nothing to do with Covid at all.

Please ministers, start politely asking the media to stop high jacking Covid updates.

Bill D.

When I do watch Covid updates I turn it off when the questions start for the same reason's given by Bill

H

Yes I admit I started doing that, a temporary lapse tonight but which served to remind why I did start switching off.

Bill D.

But is last answer was just yes to something about him having an affair in his marital home.

Steve.

Question dismissed with the contempt it deserved in the context of the programme content which is supposed to Covid updates. If it was me in a ministers shoes I would have stopped that the first time the media tried it on, I think they have show remarkable tolerence towards the media considering the stupid questions they have asked from time to time (well every time really). One of the many tricks of the media I have observed is asking an unanswerable question.

Bill D.

A serious question that needs to be answered.

Does this Covid 'thing' survive on a copper / copper coating ?

Early in the pandemic there was interest in how long the virus survives on various sorts of packaging, and the answer is not long - hours rather than days. It lasts longer on comfy cardboard, up to about 48 hours, than harsher materials like plastic sheet. It really needs an animal host. I don't think Copper's anti-bacterial toxicity would upset a virus. However Copper sheet isn't virus friendly and is easily cleaned, so not a bad thing. I doubt Covid would last more than 24 hours on Copper.

The virus is mostly spread by people coughing, sneezing and spluttering on each other in confined spaces. We breath it in. It is possible to catch it by transfer, perhaps someone coughs on a parcel, and the recipient gets mucus on their hand and ingests it by rubbing their face or eating. The volume ingested matters, large doses are far more dangerous than small ones. Large globules are mostly blocked by masks and screens, and hand-washing and not touching one's face also reduce the risk considerably. Gloves aren't a bad idea.

I used to quarantine parcels overnight 'just in case'. Don't bother now, but I always wash immediately after removing the outer wrapping. Any viral matter on the inner contents of a package is likely to have died in transit.

Dave

My concern is that although subsiding in the UK at the moment, Covid is highly active elsewhere and mutating. . Winning one battle against Covid in the UK is not the same as winning the war.

Yesterday it became necessary to red-list India because they have a variant against which all current vaccines are much less effective. India isn't alone in having a nasty one; variants are appearing everywhere, some milder, others more potent. 4 of the 11 variants detected this year were found in the UK, not because this is a plague pit, it's because we have the infrastructure needed to identify them. Most other countries don't know if they have variants or not. The world has suffered 3 waves, and variants could cause more. The outlook isn't clear yet.

As of today the UK has red-listed 40 countries in hope of not importing new variants. For the same reason it is illegal for UK citizens to take foreign holidays, and many countries have similar or tougher restrictions. 'Entry to Australia is currently closed to most arrivals', including poms!

Covid restrictions aren't done lightly because they damage everyone. Necessary because the virus isn't under control yet. Covid doesn't care what people want: we are just dinner!

Don't know anyone who isn't thoroughly fed up with Covid, but that's no reason to relax. Do any of the anti-lockdown candidates have an alternative that's effective against Covid? Or are they only after your vote, and once in power will recommend drinking bleach...

Dave

Edited By JasonB on 21/04/2021 12:03:06

Genetics is a very inexact science because of the variables

There was a russian serial killer whose semen on victims came out as blood group AB while blood tests on him as a suspect made him a type A blood group

So he ran about for quite a while, getting picked up and released a couple of times at least

Mother nature is going to get to us at some stage, hiding only delays the inevitable

Places like Australia may end up totally isolated if the rest of the world jumps ahead with its level of immunity, flu evolves at an amazing rate

Countries who successfully isolate could end up like the American red indians before the arrival of smallpox

Edited By Ady1 on 21/04/2021 11:02:06

Yes, of course you're right. Sitting up close to an infected person in a confined space for any length of time will have much the effect as ingesting a large lump of snot! I was thinking of my retired-person exposure - mostly deliveries - rather than the people forced to crowd into trains, offices, workshops, or care homes. Or those who choose to fly or party!

Dave

Thank you all.

The question was a 'practical' one because , like many others, our ME club wants to open up to public running as soon as possible.

Of course the main problem is one of 'sanitising ' everything after every ride. If 'safe' handholds were 'copper pipe' that would help.

You can get stick on plates of a plastic that kills germs, not sure if that includes viruses. They put them on the doors at work, including the loo doors. Apparently they have now decided that wasn't necessary as they do so much clianing. If I have to go back to the office and they have taken them off the loo doors I'm going to call for them to be re-instated - nothing to do with covid.

I don't think there's a low-maintenance way of managing the virus. Instead, I suggest copying what supermarkets do about trolley handles, which is to provide customers with anti-viral hand-wash and wipes. These reduce the chance of viral gunk getting on handles long enough to transfer between customers.

I believe trolleys are also cleaned periodically by staff, who certainly clean surfaces thoroughly inside the store. No short-cuts - repeated anti-viral cleaning.

What's more difficult to copy is the supermarket 'one customer per trolley' rule: people shouldn't take the family shopping as a social treat, which is the value of public running.

In practice I think frequent cleaning will be good enough for open air public running provided the other lockdown rules are applied, whatever they happen to be at the time. With luck the virus will be controlled in the near future making it unnecessary to apply any precautions at all, but we are not there yet.

Seems to me government are confident enough to try a gentle return to normal with a reasonable expectation it will go well. However, lockdown will be re-imposed if the R number rises again - it's a gamble. With luck another lockdown will be more gentle, but it depends on the virus, which is doing it's own thing. Worst case, If a variant evolves such that vaccines have no effect, then humanities only counter-measure is keeping people apart.

Dave

If we keep people apart then covid will race ahead of humanities ability to resist its worst effects

The evolution of human resistance to disease is prevented by western governments, while at the same time poorer 3rd world countries become covid petri dishes helping the virus to leapfrog ahead of humanity at an ever increasing rate

Agreed, although here in France the testing for variants is very thorough. Figures are published by department regularly on the COVID tracking app. Here in dept. 66 we currently have 92.6 % of positive tests showing the British variant and 0.7 % South African and Brazilian variants. It shows how rapidly they can spread despite the restrictions on movement.

Russell

Spanish flu raced through humanity and then disappeared

It had killed off everyone it possibly could and there was nowhere left for it to keep going, no-one tried to stop it spreading, only basic flu variants managed to continue

Our MODERN approach is to isolate large pockets of humanity, thereby giving covid the opportunity to extend its lifespan for possibly decades

This could end up being a disasterous long term strategy

Not entirely true. Some history of the attempts to control it here **LINK** some lessons to be learned there.

Russell