SoapMactavish

You fucking love to see it!

Pickford looks like he’s about to burst out greeting.

So there is lots of published research telling you that masks work to reduce the risk of Covid. There is little to no published evidence that masks don’t work to reduce the risks of Covid. To say science is a matter of opinion just shows exactly how little you know. Science is proven fact. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it isnt. You think the virus spreads through water particles, it probably does however again the majority of spread is through droplets not particles which will be caught by any kind of face covering. At the end of the day however I know I’m arguing with a brick wall with the scientific knowledge of an overripe grapefruit. They truly do live among us.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33550400/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33571176/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33642918/ 3 published articles just from this year showing the effectiveness of masks in reducing clinical Covid infections. Show me your working that masks aren’t effective please.

Another interesting point perhaps for anyone with young kids is RSV. Now that is a virus I know a lot about. Given how the numbers of cases of it are going through the roof just now, and will only get worse once nurseries re-open, if I had young kids I would be being very careful about how I was behaving with regards to social distancing, minimising unneccesary contacts etc. Again though, I don’t have young kids so its not really my problem. Just a thought.

Solid argument. Except there are very few viruses carried by humans with a base infectivity rate of this one, or that actually cause any symptoms ever. If for example, my relative was on chemo/radiotherapy and basically without an effective immune system I’d rather the chances of the folk looking after them having Covid were kept as low as possible. Maybe thats just my crazy out of the box thinking though. edit to add; happily I’ve just been to see one of our ITU patients who was ventilated and is now awake. Very heartening. Thats my cigars moment of the day.

To clarify, I mean staff that are asymptomatic and not patients.

I feel like making NHS staff exempt from self-isolation is a recipe for disaster if there is a high likelihood they have been exposed to it. There has been asymptomatic cases at my place of employment.

i’M a sCiEnTiSt

Lanarkshire and Ayrshire in a similar boat.

Me: Degree in Virology and Immunology (with focus on respiratory viruses) Degree in Diagnostic Imaging Masters in Public Health You:

You were arguing that folk would be getting the virus from normal breathing, I get that. But normal breathing isn’t whats spreading the virus Its mainly spread through droplets, which happen when you cough or sneeze but also as you talk. ergo; if you wear a mask while you talk then you will be creating less droplets and therefore less likely to be spreading the virus. I had a quick shifty inbetween patients tonight in work and found 10 published papers showing masks reduce spread of various respiratory illnesses including covid. Thats a 2 minute google search. There is a degree of aerosol spread, a good bit more than HM Government would like to admit when they changed the guidance but FFP3 is only really making a difference when you are spending significant amounts of time in a enclosed enviroment with people who have covid. I would agree however that there is probably not much more to discuss as your ‘science background’ seems to amount to one of those chemistry sets you get for kids.

There absolutely is papers on the effectiveness of masks on droplet precautions, which is the principal route it spreads. Normal breathing doesn’t propel as many particles out from your lungs and into the air as sneezing and coughing. (Again there is plenty of scientific papers on this) Your lack of a grasp of this shows your lack of understanding of it. Oh certainly I couldn’t care what folk do outside of work. However if you come into my work and claim exemption for something like asthma or that it just doesn’t fly. I have a right to know the reason for your exemption as the person responsible for your care at that point. Working in a place where you actively see every single person attending hospital who are positive for covid it would not only be dangerous to you but a dereliction of care for me to allow you to swan around places where there are active covid patients.

Oh there certainly can be. But there is almost no physiological reason that folk can’t wear facemasks. There can however be mental health issues that preclude people wearing them.

I know, but one would like to hope you still would. I can’t imagine it being a full on thing where people are forced into it, but I would expect them to be asking folk and stuff. I’ve been pretty much ignoring these “aHm eXeMpT” folk this whole time and will continue to do. Also as someone who has a science background you can’t honestly argue that masks don’t work to reduce respiratory and other infections. There are literally hundreds of scientific papers to the contrary. The issue is and has always been compliance and wearing them properly.

I’ll have to agree to disagree with you about that. Same as washing your hands etc they will certainly be required by folk entering hospital. It would actually be a good thing as there has been a much lower rate of people getting infections in hospital with them. I’d be disappointed if the NHS buckled and just let folk do what they want inside hospitals. But coming from the same people who brought you ‘Don’t wear a mask as it’ll scare the patients’ in Late Feb 2020 I wouldn’t be surprised

I think in hospitals by anyone it’ll be as close to mandatory at it can be. Same likely with care homes, dentists, anywhere high risk really. Not in shops, pubs etc though.

I can see masks still being required in certain places.

Not really. Its not like something that you have instantly from the minute you get Chemo and you might not even know you have it all unless you were to get sick. We don’t routinely isolate these folk from anything. Its like people who were high risk and shielding during this who now aren’t. Also, people showing up in A&E with week old sunburn, cobweb in their eyes or shit like that doesn’t help.

Exactly. Number of kids with RSV/croup is a concerning indicator. Much like Cyclizine, we are missing something like 12 staff, because its much more rife in the community and people are having to isolate more.

Sorry! Neutropenic is basically someone without a functioning immune system, ususally due to chemotherapy or stuff like that.

funny that.

Its a basic infection control measure in the place you are probably most likely to pick the virus up short of walking into ITU. There is limited space in the ED’s due to having to still have red/green areas and the fact we are still getting significant numbers of Covid +ve folk into ED. You could still carry it and there may be folk in A&E who are neutropenic or on Chemo as well who are exceptionally high risk so its to protect them as well. This is likely to always be the case in hospital for the forseeable and to be honest its actually a good thing as it stops maw, paw and the entire family appearing in as some folk seem to do. (not a dig) Hopefully your wee one is okay.

The first wave was primarily male and in the elderly range. Second wave was predominantly 60 or younger. There were certainly people who are quite obese, but there were also a hell of a lot who were I would say were an average build or maybe slightly overweight. The thing with underlying health conditions is sure, you may have asthma or diabetes (just using these as an example) but if both are well controlled you basically live a normal life and lifespan. If you had something like brittle asthma you are in much more trouble. Interestingly I’ve personally not seen many folk in with Covid and COPD, which given how often these folk get chest infections is a bit weird. You also got folk in, particularly in the early days who were so critically ill but outwardly looked fairly well. I remember chatting to a wee old granny about her husband quite the thing and at the same time noticing that despite being rammed full of oxygen, she was only maintaining blood oxygen of 78%. If it wasn’t such an absolute c**t of a wee virus it would be fascinating.

I don’t think there was one for novel respiratory viruses on the scale it has developed into. Our plan and simulation runs in February 2020 were anticipating 1 patient, maybe, if we were unlucky (Lols ) Intubation for Covid is a last resort, there comes a point where there is no other way to keep someone from desaturating. However again, intubation with Covid has a horrendous mortality. I know of 2 folk from a few seperate large hospitals, out of maybe 100 to120 I’ve seen that have survived intubation and covid and been discharged home