Life on the front line.

[mickd1961]

Was listening to a good discussion yesterday at work. A number of consultants were talking about the recent turn for the worse regarding Covid-19 here.As Ireland is about to introduce more stricter restrictions...it is becoming clear to the medical profession that two main points seem to be in play now.
1. Apathy to the ongoing pandemic.
2. The long Covid-19 implications from a medical/business point of view.

The first is well documented by now...people are fed up and want to return to normal....they have done what has been asked and lets move on...While apathy may very well grow i the world population.....it means nothing to the virus....it will continue spreading along side indifference to it.

2. This I found the most interesting...it appears that there is mounting scientific and medical evidence that people who were infected with mild symptoms early on, are just as likely to suffer severe after effects from the disease as someone who was actually in an ICU setting and on a ventilator...This is becoming clearer each day as more and more evidence comes in from GPs up and down the lands...It seems it may very well be, behind the sudden shift away from the herd mentality that seems to be in vogue for a while in some places...

Younger people and by default healthier people are presenting with symptoms akin to relapses months after an initial mild infection. More worrying is the fact that many people have never been tested and have endured the mild symptoms early on and so thee for are not even registered in the actual numbers. These include increased effort at breathing for simple tasks, liver function issues and headaches taste and smell not returning and elevated fatigued symptoms, to mention just a few signs...Here we are talking about healthy young people for the most part...Many are unable to return to their normal work practices or have to do reduce hours....many months after a mild infection..
Governments are likely to have to address this as the evince grows. I know recently the UK put £10M into help...I believe this is not even a drop as this develops..

So it has started to become evident that a herd immunity is not without huge risks, seeing as many people could be economically unable to return to proper work. This is not shown up in the death column.
It can be seen as a worrying development at this stage in the pandemic...A bit like realizing that the WWII was not going to end after a few months of endurance...

One last thing I have noticed as well...which is different from last March.....now with testing and tracing......if anybody is contacted regarding been in close contact with an positive indivual...you now have to isolate for 14 days....Only this week we had a patient that had been cleared of the disease only to be quarantined after somehow contacting the disease....in one fell swoop...4 members of our staff had to go into isolation....the following day at least two other staff members had tested positive from community transmission...
This is taking a huge toll on our bedside staffing numbers.......Last March...when testing was scarce...many has symptoms but had to carry on working as the wards were filling up and no one was been tested.....
Cant' do that today.....an interesting winter ahead for sure...

I really feel for you lot in the NHS who are having to deal with this Dubs.

The problem is though that instead of one leak that we’re trying to plug, this disease is creating a colander with too many holes and not enough fingers.

I still see no other way around this other than to ramp up health provision and staffing to deal with it until maybe a vaccine is created.

The actual death rate is staggeringly low at around 0.012 across the whole planet so the mathematics involved in wrecking the world economy do not make sense.

A new respiratory unit and the requisite number of staff to be able to cope within a huge number of additional destinations throughout the country may be the only way forward.

You talk of “apathy” which is in effect “battle fatigue” throughout the country........it will be this that brings things to a head.

As humans we are not conditioned to living like this and the dam will burst over the next year.

[phild]

I really feel for you lot in the NHS who are having to deal with this Dubs.

The problem is though that instead of one leak that we’re trying to plug, this disease is creating a colander with too many holes and not enough fingers.

I still see no other way around this other than to ramp up health provision and staffing to deal with it until maybe a vaccine is created.

The actual death rate is staggeringly low at around 0.012 across the whole planet so the mathematics involved in wrecking the world economy do not make sense.

A new respiratory unit and the requisite number of staff to be able to cope within a huge number of additional destinations throughout the country may be the only way forward.

You talk of “apathy” which is in effect “battle fatigue” throughout the country........it will be this that brings things to a head.

As humans we are not conditioned to living like this and the dam will burst over the next year.

If the Government are so insistent that infections/deaths are to go through the roof this winter than as Mick says simply increase funding capacity and a start could be to reopen/build/create more Nightingale hospitals. They built the last lot quick enough. But my suspicion is they know they wont be needed because capacity will be there anyway. Let's face it the numbers of deaths are not like the heights of April /May and the NHS did cope and also managed to introduce some nice dance routines on TicTok although i admit that may be a rather unfair comment and shouldn't be applied to all NHS workers.

[Dubbag]

If the Government are so insistent that infections/deaths are to go through the roof this winter than as Mick says simply increase funding capacity and a start could be to

Are you aware Phil that opening beds is not the answer on its own...an ICU nurse takes time to train up...unless you would like a complete idiot pushing buttons or not, on the life support machine of your loved ones?
Hopefully all the extra cases wont turn into the numbers expected and that most of them will just have mild symptoms for a while and then recover.....
But the after effects are not to be taken lithely either...A number of my work colleagues have not returned to work 7 months later...Still struggling to go about a normal life...