General Chat

I definitely agree with your comments re skin, Sylvia, and also PM's, although after his recent handling of the bushfires situation Scott Morrison has actually shown some leadership in this particular instance.

Allan posted ..........

"Bare skin does have some slight germicidal property, but not probably enough to counter viruses"

..... and especially not if you then put your fingers in your mouth, up your nose, or in your eye, eg to take out a contact lens.

Yes, you in the UK have got an idiot for PM, so have other countries, eg the US and Trump.

Our PM isn't always with it either, BUT we learnt from the SARS epidemic in 2003 and the H1N1 in 2009, and those lessons have been used and proven to work. They are now written down, and every hospital, care home, emergency centre, and health practitioner either already have put them into practice, is putting them into practice, or is preparing to get upto speed with them ASAP.

I gather from what you are all saying that not only is Boris out in left field, but also so are your medical people.

Didn't you have SARS in 2003/2004? Didn't you have the H1N1 epidemic in 2009/2010?

Are your local health officers, Minster of Health whoever so far behind the ball that what they say doesn't take precedence over what Boris is or is not doing???

Ours were making statements, giving updates, and making decisions while Justin was out of the country in Africa. They tell him what to do! This is a health emergency after all, and medical people are dealing with it here. Are they not with you.

But it doesn't help to fearmonger ...............

I don't know how else to say it, but be sensible, wash your hands and face frequently, keep your hands away from your face, don't hug and kiss ANYONE, keep your distance from everyone, and self isolate if you start to feel sick and phone your doctor's office to find out what else you need to do.

Do not just walk into doctor's office, clinic or emergency feeling sick, you'll just infect other people.

Having worked closely with all types of Food Industries, I loathe the sight of plastic or vinyl gloves as they give the wearer a false sense of security. I've seen people wearing them going straight from handling raw meats to touching cooked/processed meats.

The rule with wearing gloves is that you change them as frequently as you would wash your hands, and especially before starting a type of process ie handle raw foods, change gloves then handle cooked; prior to going to the toilet remove gloves and when finished wash hands and put on new gloves.

Bare skin does have some slight germicidal property, but not probably enough to counter viruses

beware of dem supermarket trolleys......

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

So you're saying the experts are saying washing your hands is not enough...so what are you meant to do?!!

FYI we have a Clown for PM but it's been in place for so many years there's nothing really for him to do.

That said....it still doesn't get from the fact that just walking around will not get you the virus assuming you're not in a big crowd with someone coughing over you or touching you.

As for the gloves...assuming he takes them off correctly yes it would work but like masks most wouldn't take them off correctly.

I went into my little shop across the road from me tonight for some milk and a man came in that we knew he was wearing gloves that doctors and nurses wear to examine you he told us that his sugary had rang him up and told him to come in and collect his gloves he was fine four boxes with 500 in each box me being nosey asked him why he said he had a bad heart I don't know if all doctors are doing that but what a good idea and if their not then they should

Rollo inferring more needs to be done is only SAYING what has already been said by experts.

Would that we all lived in Canada eh. But we don't, we live here where we have a PM who even lies about what he did on his last hospital visit...amongst much else. I don't rate his ability to organise the proverbial 'party' in a brewery , let alone deal with a health crisis. :-|

Rambling...Rollo seems to infer more needs to be done...well your average person walking down the street is unlikely to catch the virus just by walking down the street. You may though touch something that has the virus on it, hence you wash your hands and don't touch your face.
From what we can gather soooooo many people in Europe didn't wash their hands AND when they felt sick went to their family doctor etc. There they weren't made to wear a mask and they were left sitting in general waiting areas. THAT'S how it's spreading so fast and unexplained.
Here if you went to the emergency room for instance before you even get into the building there will be a sign saying STOP if you have a cough or/and you've been out of the country put on a face mask. They're asking you though to phone ahead not just turn up.
ALL cases so far have been people recently returned from China and Iran and I believe one from Egypt. ...or in a couple of cases partners of people who have just returned. Only one person went around town for a week before going to the hospital and their places are being checked out and people warned. AGAIN though unless someone literally coughs at you you'll only get it by touching an infected surface and then touching your face. I believe only one or two have spent any time in a hospital all the others are at home in self-isolation.

The latest advice from our Provincial Health Officer is to ..................

take it easy, don't panic, avoid crowded places if possible, be sensible, stay home if you are sick and call the health line for information and help, self-isolate for 14 days if you have just returned from any of the affected areas, don't stockpile food and goods because it is sufficient to have enough for about 1 week at the moment

Her best advice was on how to wash your hands .........

......... wash your hands and face frequently, washing your hands as if you had been chopping jalapenos and need to change your contact lens

In other words .......... a thorough soap and hot water wash, scrubbing under nails, between fingers, etc, followed by a thorough rinsing.

One suggestion taught to small children in the past has been to wash your hands for the length of time it takes to sing Happy Birthday.


It does no good to go all doom and gloom .......... we KNOW this is survivable if common sense precautions are taken.

Canada survived the SARS epidemic, and learnt from it. We survived the H1N1 and used the lessons learnt from SARS.

All the advice we are being given now, and the preparations that are IN PLACE at hospitals, care homes, etc are all set in well-planned documents based on what was learnt from SARS and H1N1

Your problem in the UK is the same as in the USA and certain other countries ............... your authorities didn't get moving fast enough.

The UK allowed around 2000 people to enter the country in late January/early February without any testing, or providing them with information, even though the authorities KNEW they had come from the epidemic centre in China. I know it was before it was declared an epidemic, but some countries, including Canada WERE checking arrivals at airports, and insisting on self-isolation and steps to be taken if a traveller became sick after entering the country.

What is the result?

So far Canada has not had anyone come down with coronavirus who has not been in close contact with someone who has returned from China or Iran ......... and hopefully that will continue.

The UK has lots of "unknown" contacts.

It's not just what Rollo thinks, it's the advice given by what ever his name was from the WHO, earlier on our news, that the "wash your hands" strategy, will NOT be enough with the expected increase in cases. It has jumped from 51 to 90 cases today.

Closing down large events/schools/workplaces etc may be, and is an option.

I should imagine he knows rather more than the rest of us.

"If the govt remains determined in its "wash your hands and carry on" "

Well quite frankly that is really the only approach that and if you're sick stay home and phone the authorities for advice....quite what else Rollo thinks is needed is beyond me!
Wash your hands preferably with soap and water and do it correctly and don't touch your face.....but then what do we know we only lived through SARS.

Should the parliaments around the world be shut down?

In the House of Commons the members sit soooo close together all they need is one person attending with Coronavirus and they will all go down with it. ;-)

Your WA government is as bad as Britains.

One person saying DON'T shake hands and the other person saying SHAKE HANDS

People will do what they want.

'Hand Shakes' - no need to worry about this very rare activity in the UK. ;-)

I suppose that using feet instead of hands would defeet the whole process :-D :-D

Or air hand shakes...not sure if rolled up trousers legs will make any different to catching the virus :-)

There was something on TV last night, men passing each other on a stage to get to the microphone, some sort of press conference ........ and the men were touching forearm to forearm

Then there were photos online of men in China feet touching feet.

Something new for you, Allan :-D

We are fortunate so far in WA. there is one confirmed case and one death. Both were passengers on the Diamond Princess who were evacuated back to Oz.

On a lighter note, or perhaps not, I'm wondering what advice the Freemasons' Grand Lodge will offer re shaking of hands. We are also coming into the season of Installations. I may pass on attending those :-D

There should be limits on how much you can buy of things like that for sure.

So our count has gone up to 20 in this area but to put it in scale there's nearly 6 Million people in this area....