Coronavirus (Non-Politics)

[Mad Cyril]

How are you feeling this week?

Better but still a little run down at times.

 

[Member]

Better but still a little run down at times.

hopefully that will lift soon, it does sound like it can linger a bit. Hope your household is doing ok.

 

[Holy Joe]

Any IT gurus have a view on the use of Excel in the covid testing / track and trace IT solution.

I'm not a guru but seems a little amateurish

 

[Mad Cyril]

Any IT gurus have a view on the use of Excel in the covid testing / track and trace IT solution.

I'm not a guru but seems a little amateurish

Behind many large organizations there is a web of excel spreadsheets.

It's not excel that is the problem - it is the manual nature of many of these processes.

 

[londonblue]

Behind many large organizations there is a web of excel spreadsheets.

It's not excel that is the problem - it is the manual nature of many of these processes.

Personally I'd disagree. I wouldn't use excel for such an important task. That kind of data should be held in a database of some kind, not in a spreadsheet. To me, that is a very amateurish way to hold data. Especially as it would take half an hour to create a table in a database and then to import the data from Excel.

However, I suspect the entire track and trace process is being built on the fly because of time constraints and for that reason I completely understand why they've done what they did. If you're not au fait with a database system then, in the interests of time, you'll default to what you know and what you can do quickly.

All that said, the likelihood is that this is an honest mistake by a low level civil servant who is mortified by what they have(n't) done. They would have made the same mistake where-ever the data is held.

 

[Mad Cyril]

Personally I'd disagree. I wouldn't use excel for such an important task. That kind of data should be held in a database of some kind, not in a spreadsheet. To me, that is a very amateurish way to hold data. Especially as it would take half an hour to create a table in a database and then to import the data from Excel.

However, I suspect the entire track and trace process is being built on the fly because of time constraints and for that reason I completely understand why they've done what they did. If you're not au fait with a database system then, in the interests of time, you'll default to what you know and what you can do quickly.

All that said, the likelihood is that this is an honest mistake by a low level civil servant who is mortified by what they have(n't) done. They would have made the same mistake where-ever the data is held.

But the problem was not with excel - the problem was with the process.

A cutting edge database implementation with manual steps in the process would still be just as risky.

 

[londonblue]

But the problem was not with excel - the problem was with the process.

A cutting edge database implementation with manual steps in the process would still be just as risky.

Indeed. That is why I said Excel was probably used in the interests of time. If you want a proper database with bells and whistles (which is the right and proper way to do things) then you'd have to accept that it would take a lot longer to build. Nevertheless, it is still wrong (and amateurish) to use Exel.

 

[GNH]

My daughters year at school is being sent home for two weeks...

Same for us now, Son's entire primary school year group isolating for two weeks because of 1 confirmed case.

This is going to be fun

 

[londonblue]

Two teachers at my son's school have tested positive about a week apart. At the moment they seem to be keeping it do a minimum though.

I heard from my wife that someone has floated the idea of a 2 week half term including full lock down to get on top of things. Personally I think that might be a good idea. It's by no means perfect, but it would mean that no parents would need to home school and two weeks should be long enough to at least slow the spread and will hopefully not be too disastrous for the economy.

 

[Leigh_Seasider]

Two teachers at my son's school have tested positive about a week apart. At the moment they seem to be keeping it do a minimum though.

I heard from my wife that someone has floated the idea of a 2 week half term including full lock down to get on top of things. Personally I think that might be a good idea. It's by no means perfect, but it would mean that no parents would need to home school and two weeks should be long enough to at least slow the spread and will hopefully not be too disastrous for the economy.

Essentially this is what they’re doing in Scotland. They’ve said it won’t stop cases as every time you relax restrictions there’ll be a surge, but it’s buying time in readiness for winter. The Scottish government are also giving targeted support to the hospitality sector. Can see Boris following suit, especially in the North West and North East. Of course it matters little if people totally ignore advice but closing pubs at least stops a lot of social contact.

 

[Tinks]

This is quite an interesting read for those of you that would,like to read it

Ten things pharmacists should know about COVID-19 vaccines

Work towards a COVID-19 vaccine is progressing rapidly and new information is emerging every day. Here we aim to summarise the most important details of COVID-19 vaccine development from a pharmacy perspective.

www.pharmaceutical-journal.com

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

What should the body temperature show to be covid free heat range?
When tested 36.3 seems to be my normal.

 

[Tinks]

What should the body temperature show to be covid free heat range?
When tested 36.3 seems to be my normal.

We gauge a high temperature as being 38 or above in practice

 

[Sandbach Shrimper]

Two teachers at my son's school have tested positive about a week apart. At the moment they seem to be keeping it do a minimum though.

I heard from my wife that someone has floated the idea of a 2 week half term including full lock down to get on top of things. Personally I think that might be a good idea. It's by no means perfect, but it would mean that no parents would need to home school and two weeks should be long enough to at least slow the spread and will hopefully not be too disastrous for the economy.

And then what happens after two weeks...? The original lockdown was supposed to be a short-term measure to stop the NHS being overwhelmed (which it never was), and we've not even come out of it properly. What is the exit strategy?

 

[Sandbach Shrimper]

Today's prize for COVID derangement goes to:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1315083285383401472

 

[Benfleet A1]

Today's prize for COVID derangement goes to:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1315083285383401472

Yeah, if someone could be kind enough to pop this Beachmilks pinned tweet up on here please, I would be much grateful.

 

[londonblue]

And then what happens after two weeks...? The original lockdown was supposed to be a short-term measure to stop the NHS being overwhelmed (which it never was), and we've not even come out of it properly. What is the exit strategy?

You know that for sure do you? You should have been talking to a consultant anaesthetist friend of mine who was working about 18 hours a day running from one patient to the next intubating as he went. I have never seen/heard him so stressed and close to breaking point in the 25 years he's worked in the NHS, and that includes going back to the bad old days of being a student/newly qualified doctor sleeping at the hospital.

He and his colleagues tried to refer patients to the Nightingale hospital in Docklands only to find that it was closed to new patients even though it had less then 1% of its beds occupied. Why? Because the Nightingale hospital didn't have the staff to cope with more patients. He and his colleagues were therefore treating patients in corridors. But, of course, they weren't overwhelmed. It was all in a day's work for them.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

The NHS might have been able to survive the initial covid wave and has learnt much about dealing with, and prevention of etc BUT trying going to a GP, check out waiting times for all treatments, critical or simple neccesity.
How many will die early from other illnesses because of treatment delays.

 

[Tinks]

It was a very big and rapid learning curve for all of the NHS I have to say and like everyone there was a certain amount of fear attached too.
From experience and from talking to lots of my colleagues it was the unknown and the fact in the beginning trying to get the right PPE was the biggest issue so, I would say yes the NHS was overwhelmed.
If you were qualified you had to provide all your experience as there was a possibility that people were going to be moved to areas that were short. For me luckily that didn’t happen but I will highlight that I have never been so busy and was actually working extra hours.
I hope that for all we do not have another high intensity of it all but, at least we get weekly tested now

 

[Mad Cyril]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1315083285383401472

Making a mockery of Careless Whisper.