Sweden thinks that the rest of the world are wrong with coronavirus lockdown tactics and are going about their business as usual, this will be interesting to see.
Here's an odd one... just had a call from engineers wanting to come and do outdoor monitoring on a subsidence claim at my elderly Mum's next door. They will be driving here (not sure where from), but would that really be deemed as "essential" travel? I asked them not to come (we are being uber careful with any visitors to hers or ours, as I am her primary carer)...
I am finding this argument about the risk of transmission of the virus via Boris’s letter completely ridiculous and paranoid, regardless of whether you personally think it’s a waste of space or not. Like an election campaign, to get a message across requires repetition, repetition, repetition, using many forms of media, from leafletting, billboards, TV, newspapers to the internet and social media. The fact that many people are still not ‘getting it’ demonstrates it’s necessity.
As a foreigner living in Spain, I would have appreciated a similar letter here. We buy a Spanish and Catalán language version of the same newspaper maybe every fortnight, to catch up on news and practice our Catalán. We don’t have local analogue TV - the signal is non-existent. We have dodgy satellite internet and watch UKTV. We live in a remote, rural area. We were aware the virus was spreading in Spain, but found out about the lockdown accidentally, because we happened to buy a car the day before it happened and were greeted by the very worried car showroom staff in gloves, made to use a hand sanitiser and were greeted by an elbow bump, not a handshake. If we hadn’t have done that, we could have sailed blissfully unaware for days, then been confronted with it when we ventured out for our weekly SM shop. There is huge confusion on the web and lots of fake news, so an official letter with a link to an online source for updates would have underlined the seriousness of it all.
if you really wish to feed your paranoia, just watch the recent ads by supermarkets unloading and shelf-stacking supplies not wearing protective gloves or masks. Then picture all those mucky gloves as people handle and replace goods on the shelf, placing dirty shopping bags in their trolly, grabbing the end of it, not just the handle, to manoeuvre it. If we are talking surface contamination, sanitation and quarantining of your weekly shop is far more critical to stopping the spread of the virus.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Similar here @Nollie. No local TV but good Sky and Freeview. However, we do get a monthly English newspaper letting us know what's going on in France and I do listen to the radio which has had plenty of public health announcements and ads and info from the big SMs. Don't read either British or French papers.
Being president of the patch club means I've also had official communications from the council about stopping social gatherings even before the lockdown and the Ministry of the Interior has regularly updated info on its website and an email newsfeed.
Measures to spread information and advice - and I don't mean internet conspiracy or other false info - are to be welcomed. Paranoia, selfishness, stupidity are to be condemned. Common sense and calm are what's needed now.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
To further underline the need to get the message across to all sections of society by as wide a means of communication as possible, report in the Guardian today:
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
He's right. A letter in English won't help households who don't read English, or those teenagers who only read what's on the latest trendy social media platform and don't listen to anything their parents (or other adults) tell them. They need to work with community leaders and with bloggers (or whatever the latest thing is) who teens might listen to.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Let me do this bit by bit to see which bit you don't actually agree with.
1) You have been told to wash your hands. Why? Because surfaces can and do get contaminated. True?
2) People who wear gloves protect themselves from the virus, not others. Gloves can and do carry the virus and can spread the virus to other surfaces. True?
3) The life expectancy of the virus on different surface types is not at the moment known. It appears to have a different expectancy depending on the surface. True?
4) Part of the point of the lockdown, apart from attempting to stop person-to-person contamination, is also to stop transmission via surface contamination. True?
5) A postman is susceptible to the virus from multiple quarters - of which - the mail may harbour the virus via surface contamination as may the doors and letterboxes they touch. They wear gloves to protect themselves from this virus. True?
6) If surface contamination was not an issue at all, there would be no need for hand washing or glove wearing apart from direct viral contamination (ie coughing into your hand). True?
7) Any item from outside your known 'safe' area, is potentially contaminated. That is why the goverment said 1). True?
I'm not certain that any of what I have said above shows any form of paranoia.
Dove said she handled post cautiously. My cousin who I spoke to this morning said she had seen a circular put in her outdoor postbox and was going to simply bin it and then wash her hands. Are those paranoid actions?
Let me ask you - do you assume that your post is risk free and after touching it, then are wiling to touch your food or touch your face? If you do think it is risk free - why is your postie wearing gloves (see point 5)?
OK - so, if you think the points above (1-7) are True (and if not, which ones do you think are false?) then to send 13 million (apologies - I think I got this wrong - the number seems to be 30 million ) letters carries a risk doesn't it?
I think someone else raised a similar issue here - and oddly no one batted an eyelid - I recall a question being raised about whether a gardener could still work on other peoples' properties and the subject turned to how they got paid - and if by cash, that that envelope - and the contents- could be then contaminated. Was that also then paranoia?
As for the question of how people are contacted - I think there's a confusion between people knowing the message and ignoring it and people not knowing the message. Totally agree that there will be some people who don't have a phone, don't go on the internet, don't have a radio, don't read a paper, don't talk to others who do know, don't have a TV - but why do you think they will then read letters from politicians? I think there are people, that no matter how many times they are told, will think they're exempt or immune and carry on regardless.
Marvin.
As I seem to have upset various people with this (again - as people seemed to also think that my earlier post on SM shopping was paranoia) - I promise I won't post again on this thread! Huzzah you all shout.
Krups is sending a courier for my piddling coffee machine. They said he will bring a box and packing, I can then pack it and hand it to him with a note saying what is wrong with it. I wrote back . Better idea. I have the original box and packing (in the loft) . I will duly pack it. When he comes, ring the bell, stand back 3m. I will bring the box out and then shut the door. He can take it away.
Posts
As a foreigner living in Spain, I would have appreciated a similar letter here. We buy a Spanish and Catalán language version of the same newspaper maybe every fortnight, to catch up on news and practice our Catalán. We don’t have local analogue TV - the signal is non-existent. We have dodgy satellite internet and watch UKTV. We live in a remote, rural area. We were aware the virus was spreading in Spain, but found out about the lockdown accidentally, because we happened to buy a car the day before it happened and were greeted by the very worried car showroom staff in gloves, made to use a hand sanitiser and were greeted by an elbow bump, not a handshake. If we hadn’t have done that, we could have sailed blissfully unaware for days, then been confronted with it when we ventured out for our weekly SM shop. There is huge confusion on the web and lots of fake news, so an official letter with a link to an online source for updates would have underlined the seriousness of it all.
if you really wish to feed your paranoia, just watch the recent ads by supermarkets unloading and shelf-stacking supplies not wearing protective gloves or masks. Then picture all those mucky gloves as people handle and replace goods on the shelf, placing dirty shopping bags in their trolly, grabbing the end of it, not just the handle, to manoeuvre it. If we are talking surface contamination, sanitation and quarantining of your weekly shop is far more critical to stopping the spread of the virus.
Being president of the patch club means I've also had official communications from the council about stopping social gatherings even before the lockdown and the Ministry of the Interior has regularly updated info on its website and an email newsfeed.
Measures to spread information and advice - and I don't mean internet conspiracy or other false info - are to be welcomed. Paranoia, selfishness, stupidity are to be condemned. Common sense and calm are what's needed now.