I’m starting to actually be scared for some of you. Please stay safe, wash hands, etc. I mean, there isn’t a whole lot one can do but if you don’t have good insurance or a job with an understanding boss/good employee policies, please take care.
I'd like to point out that while guaranteed sick leave on full pay *may* be limited to ten days in the UK (? frankly I don't know) but statutory sick leave is 28 weeks at about £95 pw and most people's employers offer more far longer. My sister was given a year when she was seriously depressed, on reduced pay, but not as little as £95 a week, and then six months where she worked part time but was paid full time. So many employers are considerably more generous, and in the UK at least, it should not be necessary to put yourself and others at risk in order to keep receiving an income while quarantined. Although people on low hours contracts or self employed are in a different situation.
It seems likely that good old-fashioned nursing techniques are going to be more effective than anything else while we lack any sort of drug or vaccine, which is a bit yikes as it seems to have gone out of fashion. The things in modern life to clean properly if you're sharing with others are keyboards, remotes, phones and door handles, as those are always the things that come up with enormous bacterial loads in shared spaces. When my son is staying I wipe down taps, handles (remember the loo handle) every time I go into the bathroom - to protect him from us, not the other way around! Hand washing properly with soap and water is more effective than gel or handwipes.
It seems to me that the fear around at the moment could actually be quite positive, in terms of making people aware of the things they do which affect other people. Ali has been at meetings where people have revealed they've got a high temperature, or have been throwing up or think they have mumps, when they know he is immune supressed and there are at least two pregnant women in the department (who will be naturally immune supressed). They don't think in terms of other people on the whole. This is making them think.
The most dangerous part may come when people have had the infection and it wasn't too bad *for them* and then they become blase about it. People tend to be very selfish about judging whether things are a problem for them, as is seen by the number of nurses who think putting on a pair of latex gloves will protect from infection. It may protect *them* but it doesn't protect the patient unless they have thoroughly washed their hands and put on sterile gloves.
I'm confused about the advice from various places to keep your immune system supported with vitamin c, vitamin d and various antioxidants. Does that work for those who are deliberately immune suppressed I wonder? Or does it undermine the reason they're taking immune suppressants in the first place? I have a friend with lupus as well as my son with Crohn's, and it's difficult to get nuanced information.
From the Guardian article that Innula posted "it’s likely that health officials and the public in much of the world remain unaware or unconvinced of the danger this virus poses." That's the scary bit.
