Cocooned Day 8
I am sick.
No, I’m not sick with the virus: I’m sick of the virus.
During the day, Herself likes to listen to the radio, and for the sake of companionship I leave her door open. I therefore hear the radio throughout the day. Normally it’s just a background drone and while I’m not interested in listening I still hear the gist of the programme.
During the evening I move in with Herself and we watch television together.
Now her radio station of choice is RTE Radio 1. For the last couple of weeks it had dedicated every single fucking programme to the virus and related topics. Worst of all is Joe Duffy in the afternoon with his phone in programme who revels in the virus. I hate his programme at the best of times but lately he is really pissing me off. He has taken to telling us to wash our hands at regular intervals but it comes out as a thoughtless drone which he just tacks onto the end of a sentence like some kind of new full stop – “Our phone number is 51551 wash your hands”. Fuck off Joe. You are a massive pain in the hole.
Last night Herself wanted to watch the Late Late Show on RTE. Naturally the entire show was dedicated to the virus. We had to watch an interview with a bunch of pilots who are part of a series of fights between here and China, picking up medical stuff. To listen to the interview you would swear these pilots had flown through heavy flack and fought off squadrons of fighters to get food into a besieged starving country. They were lauded as heroes and of course we had to have constant reminders of our medical heroes on the front line who are apparently saving the country.
Yes, I know doctors, nurses and other staff are working flat out to fight the virus and I do indeed admire them but we are going fucking mad lauding them. We had an evening where the entire country was to go out to the garden and clap in support of Our Heroes. What fucking good did that do? Next weekend we are to put lights in our porches in support of Our Heroes. What the fuck?
What about firemen, ambulance drivers and lifeboat crews who year after year risk their lives? What about the electricity crews who head out in the middle of a storm to work on live systems to restore our power? They too are heroes but never get so much as a single clap or a single candle.
You now that annoying little logo that stations stick on the corner of programmes to let you know what station you are watching, as if you were daft enough not to know? Well, I notice that RTE have changed their station identity.
What the fuck is that supposed to be about? Is it an order? Is it just a reminder that we are all stuck in the house, like we really need to be reminded?
Damn but I’m sick of it.
I’ve just about washed my hands with a long time friend from your side of the pond. Her constant bleating about staying home, the hero worship and everything else is grating. Nothing about any of this adds up for me and is mainly speculation. I play the game to keep my wife from slitting my throat while I sleep. She’s a redhead so she would. But I’m also at my wits end. Normally, I’m content not going anywhere. Usually if I head out it’s to play a game of billiards with a buddy or to wash my work grabbers because I’m banned from using the washer at home. I haven’t been following the hand washing rule and my hands now have skin on them again! Might even do some yard work today, as much as I don’t want to. It’s all raking and it’s mainly pine needles and dog shit.
I'm fed up with the heroes stuff. Some nurses are heroes, others are clock-watchers who do as little as possible when the sister is not watching (I speak from direct experience of having pursued an official complaint of neglect and having received an official apology). The majority of health care staff are not working in Covid-19 wards, many of them are never near a ward, many of them work in buildings that serve no clinical function.
Similar to the cop worship here. They’re not even in the top 10 of most dangerous jobs, while many are just there for revenue generation, but golly gee, we must back them 100% without question!
The Late Late show all about coronavirus! Whatever ever happened to the music? Where are the Dublin Legends? Where is traditional Irish music? Has it all stopped?
It's unusual to be expected to give the clap to a nurse, having spent many youthful years trying to avoid getting it from them.
The brain-dead and theatrical adulation thing is out of all proportion, they're only doing their jobs, for which they volunteered and for which they are adequately remunerated and more than generously pensioned. While the rest try to get by on 80% max (or even nothing at all), they still rack up the full 100%, plus plenty of imaginative overtime now the financial brakes are off.
Whatever about doctors and other support staff, I do have an admiration for the nurses. Having discovered first had that they are generally overworked [in normal times] and underpaid. So I do admire them and think they are doing a great job, but fucking clapping isn't going to help anyone.
yeah, its absurd innit.
I saw the Oz PM on TV being interviewed. A reporter asked him what is the basis for his decisions like putting the whole country under house arrest or wrecking the economy for years to come and his answer was computer modeling. The reporter then asked if he could see this modeling and the PM says that he can't and that he the PM hasn't seen it either because it is not complete. So we're going through all this based on an incomplete computer model.
Round here they're 'daft enough not to know'. My neighbour's daughter and her mate staying with them (!) have been in and out in her car more often than a fiddler's elbow.
I emailed the plod. They're going to have a word.
Silly bastards are entitled to kill themselves, but being selfish and arrogant and stupid (frankly like most under 25s) they're too dumb to realise that they'll spread it to other people and those people could die. Was I being over the top? No, I don't think so…
The simple answer is to steer well clear of idiots. Let Darwin do his thing.
Status of COVID-19
As of 19 March 2020, COVID-19 is no longer considered to be a high consequence infectious diseases (HCID) in the UK.
The 4 nations public health HCID group made an interim recommendation in January 2020 to classify COVID-19 as an HCID. This was based on consideration of the UK HCID criteria about the virus and the disease with information available during the early stages of the outbreak. Now that more is known about COVID-19, the public health bodies in the UK have reviewed the most up to date information about COVID-19 against the UK HCID criteria. They have determined that several features have now changed; in particular, more information is available about mortality rates (low overall), and there is now greater clinical awareness and a specific and sensitive laboratory test, the availability of which continues to increase.
On a forum I frequent.
I may have missed any threads that mentioned this, but does anyone here know of anyone who actually has this virus? I've worked for the NHS for 10 years. Eight 'up North', two in Cornwall and one in Hampshire. My husband's a teacher and he's the reason we moved around the country. Neither of us has heard of anyone who has it or has had it and we're still in contact with friends from around the country (I am still in contact with lots of nurses/HCAs/admin up and down the country).
I start my new job in the morning (Midlands) so should hear pretty quickly if anyone at the new place has heard of anyone who has it.
Cheers and best wishes in this bonkers time.
A good point. I certainly don't know of anyone who has it, but there again I admit that my circle of acquaintances is pretty small.