bren2k wrote:
The British Govt are terrified of relaxing lockdown but recommending face masks - because they know that their ineptitude in procuring them means that public demand would absolutely kill the NHS and Social Care supply.
It's another example of changing the guidance to suit the availability of supplies - as highlighted during the Panorama doc the other night.
Absolute rubbish.
Nothing to do with following WHO and scientific recommendations, of course? Oh no. Nothing to do with that.
Look, it's always seemed logical to me that although a crappy, ill-fitting mask will do next to nothing to prevent you catching an airborne virus, it could help prevent an infected person spread it by catching some of the infected droplets in their breath/sneezes/coughs. However, many scientific studies and WHO advice on this have been very clear from day one: unless FFP2/3 and professionally fitted, masks are mostly useless and therefore not required outside a medical/care environment. And that's before we even consider the lack of eye protection...
But - fast forward to the last few weeks and WHO advice has been gradually shifting based on a couple of studies in Hong Kong and other places, and if we're hoping to relax the lockdown soon it makes sense we take additional measures alongside social distancing, hand-washing etc.
And although I don't believe it was a factor bearing in mind face mask recommendations were already in place, so what if NHS supplies were prioritised? Do you not accept they are far more important in a medical or care setting? Or that if the government had recommended face masks, 67 million Brits all rushing out to buy all the masks they can find might have had pretty severely detrimental affect on supplies - which were already stretched beyond belief? Or in your brain is everything simply "Bojo and da Tories dun bad".
At the same time, you talk about ineptitude and complain incessantly of how the government/NHS struggled to maintain levels of PPE at times - well, so did you. Are you therefore inept? Shall we all slag you off in similar fashion? Multiply your struggles a million-fold and perhaps you'll get some idea of the challenges faced by NHS procurement, governments worldwide and probably 99% of general hospitals, doctor's surgeries and care homes on the planet. At least when you get hold of PPE you don't have 58,000 locations all demanding it. I think what I'm trying to say is, wind yer neck in: you, the NHS and the government are all doing the very best you can, and doing a grand job, in hugely challenging conditions.
Not that ignoramuses such as WIZEB would understand there's a lockdown in place. The law and doing his bit to help prevent the spread of the pandemic doesn't apply to him apparently.
