Tuesday 3 March 2020
It won’t happen to me. (Nastco)
I despair that the general public has no clue how to act aseptically. It may be second nature to a medic but there is a clear, “It won’t happen to me,” approach going on in UK at the moment. The streets are slightly emptier, as are the restaurants I visit, but I see people still shaking hands, kissing, and touching their faces repeatedly.
This evening I sat in a restaurant downing a substandard dinner in preparation for a meeting that was soon to follow. I made sure to take a table as far away from any other diners as possible – the place was two-thirds empty – and I then looked at what my fellow gobblers were doing. There was a round table for three about ten metres from me, at which sat three men in their early fifties. They were talking heatedly. One was resting his chin on folded hands, mindlessly playing with the corner of his mouth. The colleague to his left was busily scratching his eyes with both hands, while for a moment the third fellow was well behaved. He sat with his hands entwined on the table before him, was otherwise bolt upright in his chair, and was talking without leaning towards his colleagues.
“That’s my boy,” I whispered, as I buttered a slice of bread.
My optimism was misplaced, as a moment later the third diner whom I had just praised made an enthusiastic wipe of his mouth with his right hand, a broad sweep from left to right. He then reached across to touch the hand of his colleague sat opposite, most likely to stress a point, and then brought his hand back to his own mouth and made a wipe again. Rarely have I seen such a perfect demonstration of disease transmission. All I could hope was that none of the three was a carrier of Covid-19.
They say the Pope’s cough had nothing to do with Covid-19 (AP)
Near the back of the restaurant was another round table, this time with a young man and woman sat opposite each other. Each was tapping furiously on a mobile telephone and neither was talking to the other. Unless they happened to be communicating by text. She was most likely Muslim, her tidy hijab in perfect place. He sported an impressive full-length beard. Outwardly, they were the perfect, millennial couple, but in this corona crisis my view was different. The woman kept idly rubbing her left cheek with her left hand as she sent one-thumbed messages with the other. He was doing the same and at one point tried to surreptitiously pick his nose. He glanced around, hoping no one would notice, caught my gaze and looked away guiltily.
“What precautions are you taking for your own protection?” I asked the waiter as he cleared my starter to make way for the main course.
The man looked at me puzzled, as if to say, “Precautions? What are they?” Then he understood, shrugged, and said, “What can I do?”
“You are on the frontline of infection right here,” I said. “People come in your door, they touch your handles and surfaces, they sneeze and slobber. You then move their plates from table to kitchen, sometimes even back again. If I was a virus, I would be in second Heaven.”
For a moment, I could see he thought I was joking. Then he understood. He shrugged again, as if to repeat, “What can I do?” and tidied my table as a distraction.
I had asked the same that morning, in another restaurant at breakfast. Again, the waiter had shrugged and appeared to wonder what I was meaning. Then he realised. Moments later I had seen him earnestly talking to a manager. Should I go again, maybe it will be different.
I have a friend, another medic who is also a single mother, who lives in the south-east of England, and whose son has recently come back from Italy’s Florence. That is where his girlfriend lives and they take turn and turnabout, a fortnight at a time, living between Italy and UK. When the son returned to England several days ago, he was asked to self-isolate. He has done that, living at home with his mother. The son remains indoors and self-isolated, while his mother goes out and wanders the local streets freely. That makes no aseptic sense.
Being a doctor at times like this carries many advantages, and also means you can do what your training and commitment dictate. It is one way of helping when society needs a hand. Others ascribe me greater powers than I actually possess. I am no infectious diseases expert but being medically trained, I am frequently asked if a friend can go to the opera, or is it safe to travel to an unpronounceable country, or should a child be taken out of school? The population is on edge, of that there is no doubt, and casting around for whatever advice it feels might give it an edge. I am not qualified to give advice on any of these matters. All I know, as a surgeon, is how to behave in an operating theatre or on a ward to reduce the chances of cross-infection. It is, after all, what I have done every day for many decades. Folk appear to believe that if I give my approval, then the shared responsibility means they are protected. That is simply not true, particularly with this new virus. Like me, they take their chances, whatever I might suggest.
Foreigners were attacked for no reason (BBC News)
To me it is simple. Avoid places where there are crowds of people. Walk if you can, rather than taking bus or train. If it is too far to walk, then cycle. If it too far to cycle, then drive. Put off that meeting if possible. Work on the first wave of a pandemic – for to me, that is what this is, even if WHO has yet to declare it – taking six weeks to peak and three months to decline. Reschedule your meetings until then. If you can, turn your physical meeting into a videoconference. Next week, I am doing exactly that when a visitor from Geneva has decided not to come to London, as her organisation has forbidden her to fly. Do not think you are being a superstar if you bend every rule to make a meeting, and travel to a far-flung land to show others it can be done. You could easily be a virus spreader without realising it. Work on everything and everyone being infected, including yourself, and you will not go far wrong.
The number of Covid-19 cases continues to rise, even if there are still more cases of normal ‘flu worldwide than of this new crazy virus. If I am to believe the news, whose readers sound more dramatic and death-like with each bulletin, the Pope has tested negative for Covid-19. Do I believe that? Sorry, I do not, but one cannot have a Pontiff with the virus. There was a social media post of a report on MCM (Make Comments Meaningful) to say that the Pope had tested positive for Covid-19, as had two of his aides, but that was rapidly denied and said to be a fabrication.
The shops are essentially devoid of hand gel, facemasks and toilet paper at the moment, so I have resorted to shopping online. My Amazon delivery of hand gel did not arrive today, which is when I had requested. I have ordered a full litre as a future precaution. However, I have received a message to say it should arrive tomorrow, or the next day, but I will believe that when I see it.
I heard today that a student from Singapore was attacked in Oxford Street on the basis that he might have coronavirus. The poor guy was left with a juicy black right eye and has claimed that the colour of his skin led to the attack. As best I can tell, his skin colour had nothing to do with it, but his nationality may have done. Either way it is daft to attack anyone for such a reason. First, a Brit can carry the virus just as easily as a Singapore national, second there is no way of knowing if he carries the virus at all as the test is not available on an Oxford Street pavement. Third, if you are minded to mug someone for no reason, you put yourself at risk of being infected simply by attacking. My best advice is to give mugging a miss.
What happens in China affects the whole world (Suzy Hazelwood)
The Covid-19 saga is certainly hitting economies at the moment and I can see that our government is worried. In some respects, I wonder why they are bothering. If they simply ignored the issues, a percentage of our elderly population would expire, quite possibly including me. That would work wonders for climate control, the young would carry on regardless, and the economy would keep going. It would be a toss-up between preserving people or the economy. The government has announced that at an anticipated peak, some 20% of the working population might be off work. I would have thought it would be greater.
The problem, I sense, is the interconnected nature of global trade. If something happens in China, it has an effect everywhere else. No country is an economic island anymore. The US has reduced interest rates today, to demonstrate that it wishes to support its economy. Some are saying that the reduction is too drastic. Gold, which shot up about a week ago, has declined slightly. I have no clue what will happen to it next.
What seems clear is that the UK needs its government to set the rules and we need to follow. There is a large amount of evidence of bad aseptic practice taking place at the moment. I see it many places I go.
For most, their head is deeply in the sand, and they are saying, “It won’t happen to me.”
It will.
