Lock up the over 70s

Be careful not to start to victimise/blame the 70+ folk. 'George' who hasn't been out of the house for weeks may well have got the virus from the Asda delivery man. And it's a complex business when you try to work out who should have priority for an intensive care bed. Should 'old George' be booted out of his if 'young Sal' is admitted in need of Intensive Care?

 

If things get really bad; as they are in Italy, Young Sal gets the bed if her chance of survival is highest.
And old George gets the bed if his chance of survival is highest.

 

Unfortunately we might end up in the position where those decisions need to be made. (Chance of survival) x (110 - patient's age). Highest score gets the bed.

 

Ah if only there was any football to talk about

 

Merit in Wayne Rooney's suggestion to finish season in September and then staggering next 2 European seasons to fit in with winter World Cup in Qatar. Chinese should mass produce ventilators as a goodwill gesture to the World.

 

Carrefore in France and IIRC a Danish supermarket chain have announced the same

 

I am 70 and am pretty much self isolating right now. I don't look a day over 65! I will be 71 in two weeks time. It is unclear yet about this strategy, whether it will be advice and asking people to do this, or trying to enforce it. The only contact I have with others at the moment is when I go to the local Asda and I keep pretty much away from people and use the self checkouts. I wash my hands thoroughly before I go, and as soon as I get back home. I am not using public transport. I sometimes go for a walk on my own round the local rec - no one else uses it much apart from the occasional dog walkers. The kids don't use the sports ground, or basketball courts. I am obviously not going to football matches. Meanwhile most other people have not changed their habits at all. I don't see why I should be prevented from carrying on as I am - my solo walks and trips to the supermarket are very low risk...and to be cooped up at home will not do my mental health any good. I have dragged out my old exercise bike and weights to keep fit - and I am wasting £42 a month on gym membership. I quit smoking 17 years ago, and no longer drink alcohol. and I am not overweight. I think I would have a good chance of surviving this ...

 

Scotland will not be following the same policy.
The Scottish government said it had no plans to isolate the elderly, and would instead "ask them to reduce social contact".
Jeane Freeman, Mr Hancock's counterpart in Scotland, said: "We don't want people who are elderly to be stuck in their homes alone not contacting anyone, with their families not able to be in touch with them and to help them" That sounds sensible to me.

 

See on the Ten o'clock news that a previously healthy 59 year old male has unfortunately
succumbed to the virus. I agree, that the elderly and those with a pre-existing medical condition
are those most at risk and to minimise picking up the infection, should rigorously
follow the guidelines by coughing into tissues, avoid shaking hands with others, standing too
close to others, using soap and hot water to wash hands for up to 20-30 seconds and use an
antibacterial hand gel etc etc.

As for going out, as others have said, it is advisable to avoid any place where large numbers of people
might congregate. Again as already said, for example, it might be worth ordering your groceries online.
Having said that, there's nothing to say that the person effecting your delivery is not infected and is not
aware.

We took delivery of a new microwave from AO.com last Tuesday. The driver who brought it looked as
though he was about to embark on an Apollo space flight, but as he rightly said, better to be safe than sorry.

With regards to self isolation for up to four months, that's a long time, but if it keeps others safe, so be it.
Fortunately there are a lot of quality open spaces in and around Barnsley and Wakefield re- Cannon Hall and
Thornes Park just to name two. In order to keep in reasonable shape, I can see folks parking up and walking
round the various areas whilst hopefully keeping any contact with others to an absolute minimum.

 

Why are we the only country going for the ‘herd immunity’ approach? Are we right and every other country in the world wrong? Seems unlikely to me.

Herd Immunity works by using vaccines, not by purposely infecting 80% of the population with a virus that’s less than 6 months old and we know basically nothing about, but that has an estimated mortality rate of between 1% and 3.4%. (FYI, at 80% infection rate, that’s anywhere from 500,000 to 1.8 million people dead). Even if you only infect the young, the mortality rate is 0.2% - 18-39 year olds make up 30% of the UK population. That’s 31,767 people dead. All working age people (not that that should matter)

Has everybody gone ******* insane? How can that seem like a viable option to anybody, let alone people that normally talk a lot of sense on here.

 

What you are describing is not self isolating. You're calling it that, but that's not what self isolating is. For whatever reason you've decided to socially isolate yourself, but not physically, so you're still going out and therefore still susceptible to infection, maybe the risk is reduced by your actions but not necessarily, there is no evidence one way or the other, but not allowing yourself any of the benefits of social interaction.

Not that I'm arguing you should self isolate at this stage. There has been no advice to do that if you don't have symptoms. But your definition of self isolation is not the same as the government.

I wish you well, but I question your actions, which may leave you feeling lonely and depressed and infected with this virus.

 

If you mean Nick Matthews he had underlying health problems .

 

I wish people would actually specify what the underlying health issues were.

 

Why not.? Everyone is in lock down here in Italy and that is now extended to Spain and other countries are gradually following suit. UK being an Island MAY be able to avoid this extreme but sooner or later it is entirely possible they too may have to take extreme measures.

Italy deaths to reported cases ratio (albeit in an ageing population and the majority of deaths from over 75s with underlying chronic health issues) is running at >7%

There are a number of regular food items we cannot get from the local supermarket as it is quite small (Most of these are considered non-essential e.g. Irish butter as Italian butter is very 'strange') Also prices at thee small supermarket can be as much as two or three time higher. We can only get certain items from Lidl and other items such as Tonic water for our mandatory gin from the supermarket in the shopping mall to which e usually go every fortnight but it is a 20 minute drive and outside our comune area.

The current law re essential items like food is we can only go to the nearest supermarket to buy staple products. A form must be completed every time we leave the house stating reason for journey. Police and Carabinieri are everywhere checking travellers and they sign the authoristation..or not! If you do not have the document or they consider the journey unneccesary you will be fined. Since there is very little traffic chance of being stopped, even on short journeys, is very high. Local reports stated 10 arrests/fines in one day for non compliance just in our area alone.

 

The issues that have lead to increased mortality include:

lung problems (including asthma)
heart disease
diabetes
high blood pressure
suppressed immune system
being male
using ibuprofen to treat the symptoms.

There are others, but these are the main ones.

 

You missed the main one... (although in part covered by suppressed IS. As you get older the less effective the IS becomes hence the increasing mortality rate in 60+, 70,+ 80+. Not known why males are more susceptible than females although it is probable that is one of the lines of research they are undertaking.
Take it from me getting old is one BIG underlying health issue!!

 

Our government are very secretive about the deaths. We don't need to know names of people but 'underlying health conditions' covers a lot of ground instead of being more specific so people with underlying health conditions know how at risk their own is compared to others.

 

Yes, you are correct. Age is a big factor. Very few children have had serious cases or the worst outcome, compared to a significant percentage of older adults.

 

I suffer from high blood pressure. I take Ramipril which causes me to have a nasal drip. This means I have a dry cough most of the time. One other thing the nasal drip makes me more susceptible to respiratory tract infections. I've had Bronchitis a few times.

What should I do?