Chat about Novel Coronavirus - 2019-nCoV - COVID-19

I get that from a disaster recovery perspective but it makes less sense from a people not passing on the virus to fellow humans perspective. Those in the office aren't separated, only those wfh so wouldn't you want the isolation period to be closer to the amount of time it takes the virus to manifest?

Anyway, just speculating - I would have though that if a firm can operate with staff wfh then why bother with anyone being in the office? Of my team we could all work from home indefinitely without any degredation of performance (probably the opposite). They will probably still go with the week shifts option because... well, who knows.

Brexit talks potentially delayed.
Second, Sunak says statutory sick pay will be available to anyone advised to self-isolate. They will be able to get a sick note through 111.

And, for those who do not qualify for sick pay, it will be easier to get benefits. They will be able to claim benefits from day one.

Temporarily, the minimum income level will be removed from universal credit.

For the NHS to cope, we needed to flatten the curve. We could have been far more proactive in at least four areas:

• requiring effective social distancing measures;
  
• far broader based testing, to identify and contain cases (to the scale of South Korea);
  
• foreign travel restrictions, or at least strong government advisory against unnecessary leisure travel;
  
• required 14 day self-quarantine of all international arrivals from affected regions (as has been implemented in China);
  
• advisory self quarantine of anyone with cold or flu like symptoms.
  
  

The alternative is waiting for the wave to hit then implementing the measures above, which is where I think we will end up. You end up with the same (or greater) economic impact, but with a far higher public health impact.

The following was understood in late January / early February:

• R0 was estimated above 2;
  
• There were known to be mild or asymptomatic cases that were unlikely to be detected, but that would lead to onward spread;
  
• It was estimated that testing would pick up, at best, 1 in 4 imported cases.
  
  

A containment strategy limited to testing people with symptoms from affected regions followed by contact tracing was self evidently doomed to failure.

Carrying on as normal and hoping it wouldn't happen here, in the face of the evidence, was crushingly stupid.

WFH is also tricky for lots of people even if their jobs allow it.

We have a load of grads in at the moment and they're in shared houses as they, funnily enough, can't afford their own place in London.

Many are having to sit on their beds to do work and conference calls as the prime spots (kitchen table or lounge) have already been taken by their housemates.

I was going to say, currently I can work from home if needed, but half a year ago the situation would have been a lot more difficult and just assuming everyone has a useful desk setup at home is just not based on an up-to-date assessment of the average Londoner's living situation...

Just read through this link - quite good, lots of graphs on the exponential raise in cases worldwide with projected cases etc etc.

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

Carrying on as normal and hoping it wouldn't happen here, in the face of the evidence, was crushingly and fatefully stupid.

I would say it's crushingly stupid to assume this is the government position. I'm fairly sure the trained, experienced epidemiologists making decisions for us know what they're doing better than anyone here

It does, but the practicalities of wfh means compromise. Team separation means not losing too many people at a time when someone gets infected.

Healthcare professional and civil servants advise, but politicians take the decisions.

If you think Government knows best then you may not have been following what has been going on in this country for a long time.

There is a balance between pure epidemiological response and behavioral psychology. Going hard too early risks people not believing the seriousness and/or getting bored of the restrictions and not following them when it is most necessary.
It's not 'carrying on as normal', it's waiting for the time when each action will be most effective, in the knowledge that actions are all only going to be able to slow things so much.

I'm no fan of the government (and I'm certain they will use this to cover multiple failures elsewhere) but it seems a reasonable, expert-led process thus far.

I’d also add that by practicalities I mean two parents being told to wfh, kids being off school trying to do lessons from home using Skype and not enough computers at home to go round, let alone private spaces to use them.

yes

2 week quarantine... If only we had an example where that worked. Would much believe it if i saw it...

The alternative is that there is a prolonged exposure that will carry on into next winter.

Full quarantine for a few weeks would save millions of live and billions of dollars. It would hopefully eradicate the virus (and loads of other human bugs with the same lifespan)

But to do that would take a world wide break...

Hong Kong, it’s proper quarantine too, accommodation provided by the state. Still getting cases but they’re mostly fly ins or close contact of fly ins.

When the vaccine comes, who’s paying for it? The NHS? How much is that going to cost, because I’m pretty sure the pharmasuitical (spelling) company’s aren’t just going to dish it out for free...

(As in I hope they’ve started saving up now...)

I get the practicalities.. I work from home at least a day every week. This is why I said "if a firm can operate".

I mean, if you can't practically work from home in such a situation then presumably working from home isn't an appropriate DR response. Otherwise you are talking about how much efficiency you could lose in either scenario and making a decision based on that.

Your last sentence sums up the decision process.

If you think Government knows best then you may not have been following what has been going on in this country for a long time.

Right, but we've also seen what happens when they cave to a frothy population fuelled by internet misinformation, in contravention of expert opinion.

Needs to be global...

This accurately reflects the situation in my view.
Gather together to greet the storm friends. We've got a long way to go... we're not even close to the end of the beginning.

regarding the government response : https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-11/keep-calm-and-wash-your-hands-britain-s-strategy-to-beat-virus

Also, if you have young children you can't just leave them to rampage and both just WFH, one of you needs to be parenting and the other working.

If anyone wants to know how to spot someone who’s infected, tune into Andrew Neil and take a look at Laura Kuenssberg. No way she wasn’t at that shindig at number 10 and no way she’s not ill.

Source?

His own experience?

It’s harder for him though, he’s smaller than your average toddler.