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Singapore has a public health medical service which is on par with our NHS, and they seem to be successfully containing their outbreak. It might therefore be instructive to read their latest faq sheet.
Their Government handed out four surgical masks to every resident about a month or so into their outbreak, and their statement on masks reads:
“In the case of COVID-19, we know that the infection is spread through droplets. Wearing a mask will protect other people when someone with respiratory symptoms coughs or sneezes, as the mask would trap those droplets and prevent those droplets from spreading and disseminating.
As such, a surgical mask is sufficient for this case and fulfils the important function of preventing a spread if worn properly. The mask should be changed if it gets soiled or stained.”
I read that the Government will not be revealing the location(s) of the 36 new infections – obviously the Government still fear panic, and people fleeing from or refusing to enter infected zones. I had been putting off the full N95 mask wearing but I guess it has become necessary if universal mask wearing is not happening.
Btw I think Bob said that such masks do not have filters on their exhaust. Mine does, it may not stop aerosols leaving but would certainly stop any droplets.
It seems to take on a different ‘coat’ from each infected person as there have already been a couple of published ‘genealogy’ trees for the virus showing how the infection has gone from person to person. It seemed to be only some of the original infections that were stable.
Both China and Singapore made mask wearing compulsory (as VFM said to prevent the wearer passing on the disease during the period they are asymptotic). They now seem to be pretty much on top of their outbreaks. Will our Government of fools learn anything?
In Australia people are buying sufficient toilet rolls to last for six months, in my part of the world the panic buyers are a little more rational as they have grabbed all the packets of porridge oats. Not one packet to be seen in the local Tesco.
Perhaps Scottish farmers have started a rumour about its curative properties!
We are not concerned as porridge oats already formed a modest element in our Brexit emergency store.
[edit] Les I find midges an unpredictable insect in most places they eat me alive, in some however they leave me alone and feed on my wife. I’m sure I don’t complain as much as she does!
Re: the Twitter feed by the Cardiology Registrar. Isopropyl Alcohol (70%) is as effective as ethanol (gin strength). For those interested it works as follows:
70% is optimal for most cell types, especially those with a cell wall like prokaryotes. 30% water is added to make the solution hypotonic.
The alcohol disrupts the hydrophobic forces holding the phospholipids of the membrane while dehydrating any peptidogylcan of the wall enough to cause it to become less fluid/more brittle. The hypertonicity (achieved by adding water) causes the cell to swell and burst. (Bacteria are similarly affected but it takes longer)
Now I know what the Chinese are spraying in their streets, its Maotai – probably the most evil head-banging kerosene tasting alcoholic spirit ever distilled. Nothing could live in that!
In true conspiracy theory mode I suspect that the Intelligence Services do not like the thought of losing all the CCTV intelligence that they have come to rely on. The US have a similar attitude. Unfortunately I do not feel competent enough to search the German sites to find out what is the attitude of their Government to masks.
As said before closing schools cuts both ways. It probably eliminates a MAJOR local virus distribution source, BUT it cripples the health service.
I suspect we are now in the brutal min-max choices game. The first ones out of the blocks following covid-19 win. China and Singapore are obvious winners. The strategy of a quick burn has attractions but if ever the electorate in a democracy cottoned on that their Government could be so brutal takes us into uncharted territory I do not think that such a Western Government of Granny-killers could count on the police/military for support.
My bet is that this Government either dithers or leaps BoJo-like into stupid choices without considering all the details.
I’m happy to go with the flow.
I cannot comment on every mask, but reputable ones such as 3M have replaceable filters that can service most every duty from N100, through to oily particulates. They are however in short supply.
The following is purely educated guesswork on my part, based on many years spent living in Singapore.
My guess would be demographics. Like most Asian countries Singapore is moderately scared of its Malay Muslim neighbours in Malaysia and Indonesia, and during the 21st century they ran a deliberate policy of welcoming young intelligent Chinese in order to better balance (as they saw it) the percent of Chinese versus Malay versus Indian. They roughly doubled the population over ten years and I would guess knocked about ten years off the average age of the country. The other answer would be Chinese New Year – people go home for that two week festival and the period before the New Year was the time that (unknowingly) infection was rife. The young would have gone back to China become infected then gone home (mainly to immigrant Chinese ‘new towns’, without too many aged occupants. The New Year holiday probably stopped their mixing with the general population (its a stay at home drink Brandy and play Mahjongg period —winning and losing large sums of money in the process)
I’m not sure that Singapore has been using ECMO for the populace although their healthcare is good that sort of facility would only be found in the private hospitals. (Singapore health care is socialised, but you pay for your care – bit like France). That was a slight divert, as while I was looking, I came across this interesting medical detective story concerning their hunt for patient zero (the initial contact) in an infection cluster. Quite an interesting little story even if I have not answered Singapore’s use of ECMO as imo they are a closer model to our own NHS.
link to Singapore Cluster Story
It also shows that the Singapore Gov is much more expert than the UK in manipulating good stories!
One lie I fully expect to be promulgated by HMG is ‘It will all be OK if we can contain things until the Summer’. (That of course ignores that 28C is considered cold in Singapore, and Senegal isn’t exactly cool!) So when you hear the lie, just nod wisely knowing why it is told.🤔
I agree Steve, and that in a small but personal way is why HMG is down playing the risk, and another reason why HMG should be making you wear a cloth mask to “make your place ‘safe’ for the public”. The greater the emphasis on supposedly safe places, the more likely the public will continue to use them.
Although I am annoyed with HMG for not using people who could have advised on mass psychology, I do understand their overall strategy even if I think their tactics stink. We need to keep the country running as normally as possible even if this means that BoJo and the Beeb lies even more than usual.
Our own family strategy is to spend a modest amount on insurance — A smallish 14 day store cupboard of non-perishable foods (the Brexit backup), N95 masks and filters in case this area becomes a hot-spot , gel (actually IPA spray), Dettol wipes (sod trying to wash hands in the Tesco car park), zinc pills, and 24 chloroquine tabs to tide us through while awaiting any covid-19 test results. Other than the chloroquine tabs that is also how we have advised our adult children.
We will still holiday this year, probably around Oxford and walk the canal tow-paths/rivers between pubs. We will however skip foreign holidays as I suspect saving Brits will be bottom of any European objectives. Other than that we will take our chances (two to one on is not too outrageous) and not spend the kid’s inheritance by renting a cottage in the IoM!
[edit] catching up on your post , the Italians say that their high CFR is due to demography, like the Japanese they have a very elderly population.
As said before — if an old phart — we are doomed! Best do a Howard Hughes.
Retire from public life and rent a cottage on the Isle of Man. (£100/night seems to be the going rate), I guess a discount for a one year rent so say £25000 as an insurance policy if you are quick!
The cheapest, but slightly risky, option might be to locate a covid-19 hotspot and catch the virus while UK health care still exists.
Of course you could still just play the odds, Only 80% will catch the virus, and of these only 50% or so of our age group will be critical so there is a two thirds chance of not needing to do anything!
If Dave’s WireGuard comment hit you out of thin air – this article may help.
There is a specific how-to for the Pi here.
Sounds like Manx Telcom are getting lessons from BT in screwing up the Internet connection, I’ll bet that if he had a wired connection all would be well!
If the problem is recent and if he hasn’t fiddled with anything then it is possible that someone has set up something that is broadcasting interfering rf. Tell him to follow this guide to see if it improves the situation.
If I use BT as an example of a malign telecomm there have been frequent very short (1 to 2 minute) outages in this area as they accommodate Virgin sticking in fibre. This seems to make wifi throw a fit (when fixed ports are not being used) as DCHP goes wobbly during and after the outage and (I’m guessing) the outage is too short for everything to be correctly reset. As a result I get a ‘connected’ but no Internet showing. I have used ‘Fing’ on my phone (or laptop) to give me messages on these outages and used the info to berate BT, and in the mean time moved all my equipment over to fixed ports. That seems to have fixed the problem.
Dave will almost certainly have a more technical explanation for DHCP renegotiation and why that impacts the Internet connection, but I put it all down to malign efforts by BT and a carp BT router that does not hold a copy of the DCHP table!
I’m afraid that the BBC is no longer to be trusted, it is just a Government mouthpiece. Their consistent message has been in effect, stop worrying about it and do nothing that will damage the economy.
I think if you want to stir things up, a letter to the Daily Mail or Express might be more effective than anything else. However other than stir it up, it would not really help the situation. The population needs a measure of fear, but it would be counter-productive to scare the pants off everyone.
My concern from the outset has been that the mass psychology of the populace has been mishandled from the start. Concern should have been built slowly and the public slowly educated into better habits (I certainly go along with your wife’s strategy of using ‘soaps’.) Instead it was a policy of lies.
I think the Government should have put aside their concerns over surveillance and encouraged the wearing of masks. Even cotton ones would reduce onward transmission of viruses to a degree. The whole strategy should have been to run measures to slow the spread in parallel with the WHO containment strategy.
Although the Government message on hand-washing is correct, it is totally impractical in most situations and people realise this. (Where do you wash your hands in public places?). Better more practical advice should have been given e.g. if alcohol gel is not available, use Dettol wipes (they claim effectiveness) or similar to clean your hands after touching things that others may have touched. Keep wipe in a plastic bag that you carry with you, and bin when you get home.
Unfortunately we have a Government where their housemaids/cooks do all the work, so they have no idea of practical constraints or issues.
Looks like @vfm is correct, the US CDC recommends that health professionals wear eye protection link
It is however a bit of cause and effect as new patients are subjected to treatments that will probably cause the generation of virus-carrying aerosols.
(Note the CURRENTLY do not recommend the public wear N95 equipment)
Sorry, it looks as though the git hub link was screwed up. It should be:
https://gist.github.com/G-UK/ee7edc4844f14fec12450b2211fc886e
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