Day eleven in the big brother house

School is out for my daughter.  Technically it is out for my son as well, but he has yet to finish the work that they set him.  Which means that he will have to work into his holidays.

My wife has been reorganising the house and that has meant more recycling.  Not all can be recycled and we have been burning what we cannot recycle as our shredder has broken.  However a comment was made on the WhatsApp group for our road.  As shame, as technically we have to stop...

COVID19 and testing

This has been copied and pasted from Dr Rant on Facebook.  This is important to share as the government has claimed that it will test more.  I suspect that this will be testing for antibodies and from what I understand, while the test can give answers in 15 minutes, it can take up to 28 days to develop the antibodies which means that I will not be able to be tested before Tuesday which means that I will not be returning to work early.

Dear Readers. I've had a message in a bottle (stool sample bottle, actually) from BMS Rant, a distant relative who runs an NHS laboratory. This is regarding the Government's assumption that there is spare space in labs, and that they are all twiddling their thumbs...

"I'm so angry at the coverage regarding testing.  

Labs don't have spare space.  As a service, we have been understaffed and underfunded FOR YEARS.  We've been forced into consolidation of workload across 29 central sites as a result of a top-down re-organisation of pathology.  There are dozens of small labs across the country that have been stripped of the ability to carry out all but the most urgent of tests, resulting in the loss of lab space, expertise, equipment and staff!  Now take a stripped back pathology service and add a pandemic!  FUCKING MAGIC!  

Do you know why your COVID tests are taking ages?  They're being put in a van and taken to the local "big lab".  My local big lab is running the COVID tests for at least FIVE hospitals, and their attached local areas.  What the FUCK do you think is happening in labs like that?  I don't know the exact number of testing labs, but 15,000 tests across 29 sites is nearly five hundred a day, rising to nearly 1000 if we make good on the government's target.  And these labs haven't randomly acquired extra analysers capable of testing for COVID, or randomly acquired enough experienced BMSs to run brand new, technically intricate tests, or that they're not having to self-isolate, or going down with COVID themselves from handling these things.  The rest of the workload hasn't magically disappeared either!  

I'm lucky.  My small lab is in the process of being closed, so we have two analysers capable of testing.  The government haven't taken them yet.  But here's the thing - this is a brand new virus.  There are many different suppliers of test kits out there.  Your current analyser determines the test kits you can run.  And everyone and his dog wants COVID testing at the moment, so there are supply issues.  And even when you've sourced a kit for your analyser, you can't just run a test for a brand new virus without proving that it does what it says it does!  In other words: false positives and false negatives!  That process takes time and remember - we're stripped of staff, resources, time etc. etc. etc.  

My little lab is in the process of validating one test from one supplier right now.  But it might not work - after all, it's brand new!    It might be better to send stuff up to the big lab for a better result.  After all, what's the point in running a test that's going to call your COVID positive patient negative?  So which is worse - have a shit result now, or a safe result in 24 hours?  

Labs aren't lazy, or inefficient.  We're just as fucked as the clinical areas - trying to do our jobs safely and efficiently, after years of being squeezed and squeezed and having to do more for less.  I want to do my bit.  I'm desperate to contribute to this.  I didn't enter the NHS for the money or the glory.  But for FUCKS sake - I don't have spare, validated kits, analysers or trained staff in my pocket, and neither do those poor bastards, working flat out in the big labs.  Put yourself in our shoes before you take a massive shit on us!"

Day nine in the Big Brother house

Not much again today.  My daughter is still hard at her school work and my son and wife rearranged an unused corner of the house.  I am still watching Clone Wars with my son.  It is odd as the episodes appear to be out of order.  In addition to this, am coming to the end of the Friday Night Dinner episodes with my daughter. We are to run out of those on Netflix soon.

Yawn...

Day eight in the Big Brother House

Just a quick post before bed.  I was working from home today again.  When at work, Monday and Tuesday are my long days, which is important with the amount of work I get.  I am kept busy but have a clear run at paperwork.  Now I am working from home, it is a millstone around my neck.  It means that I cannot relax properly.

Saying that, it is nice to be with the family and I think that they are finding it odd to have me at home.  We did play Trivial Pursuit today and my wife and I attempted the quiz run by Jimmy Carr as well.

My son got to enjoy freedom as his quarantine has ended.  With him being the index case, he can now leave the house while the rest of us are still stuck inside for another week.  But he went off to the local shops and came back laden with supplies of chocolate.  Friends of ours have helped as well, two friends delivering shopping to our door which would have been too heavy for my son to bring, assuming that what they brought was in stock.

Day seven in the Big Brother House

Another day in the house.  My son gets to leave the house tomorrow, but the rest of us have to wait another week.  Saying that, we can go into the garden.

The grass is growing and our lawn mower is not working.  I have ordered a spark plug on Amazon and hopefully that is the issue which needs to be fixed.  If not, it is more of a wait until it can be sorted.

Today was quite boring for me, work work and work (from home).  My daughter is being quite diligent and my wife has been active as well sorting out things at her job.  The only person treating this like a holiday really is my son and we are going to have to address that soon...

Day six in the Big Brother house

A quick post as I would like to go to sleep soon.

I had done some learning about COVID on Saturday and in the evening we bought a delivery, the lady hurriedly leaving it on our doorstep when it arrived.  I also spoke to a friend who is ill with probable COVID19 who like me is not able to work seeing patients.  But he is will with it while I am in isolation because my son had a temperature and I feel fine.

Today has been another relaxing day, watching Star Wars with my son, The Clone Wars, and also my daughter has started to get into watching Friday Night Dinner.  I feel like my batteries are recharged for tomorrow but I need to get to bed for the work that tomorrow will need to be done.

And if I am lucky, testing will be made available to me to allow me to get back to work in a face to face role again.

Covidiots.

It will be interesting to see if Trump is able to avoid the blame for how COVID19 is to kill many Americans.  It would have killed many, but action taken by him would have bought time for more preparations to be made, and therefore for lives to have been saved, not just of the general public, but of those who are treating those infected.  Remember that after Ebola caused a more major issue because it spread to the west in 2014, the office used to co-ordinate responses to such issues was closed!

Here in the UK, we have an issue where there are concerns about the levels of PPE (personal protective equipment) which are available in the community, let alone, what is present in hospitals.  In addition to this, like all nations, the UK faces a shortage of ventilators, but unlike many others, missed out on the chance to get more.  What makes my blood boil, is that NHS staff would have better protection but Jeremy Hunt decided that we were not worth it.  While there are arguments that the preparation of the UK could and should have been better, there is no doubt that the NHS would have been in a better place to deal with things if not for the way it has been treated up until now.

What I find amazing though is the way that people appear to be denying the reality that is taking place in Iran, Italy and Spain.  Social distancing will save lives, and sadly, the economies of most of our nations will need to be stagnant for a while.  China will recover from this, but the concern there is for how long.  They are to enter a state of isolation and I suspect that they will hope that a vaccine or an effective treatment is found before it recurs there.  What I hope is that China will be able to help save the world.  If they are able to keep COVID19 from returning, they could be the force that allows the world to have more ventilators and more PPE.
Anyway, I am hoping that the testing that has been approved for NHS staff will allow me to return to work soon.  So long as the testing is found to be accurate.

It will be interesting to watch a disaster film in the future. Even now, we will be able to watch some and think "That is Trump" or "That person is just like a Trump supporter denying the effects of COVID."  And as you can see from the video, being a moron is not just confined to the young.