Live in the time of Corona - the WHY section
Why, as a frontline clinician, am I offering personal suggestions about Covid-19 safety tips?
Official guidance about Coronavirus 2019-20 from national governments and public health bodies has altered many times. This is understandable, in light of the rapid progression of a new virus across the globe.
UK guidance has taken longer to take shape or become effective, than many consider reasonable. This perception of delay or inadequacy is based on a comparison with actions taken by other similarly affected countries, a disparity with @WHO guidance, and a logical interpretation of available facts and science.
I have prepared this set of suggestions for the reason above. I am not writing these as part of my clinical role, which remains subject to policy from Public Health England (@PHE_uk) as well as that at my employing NHS Trust. My twitter timeline on @bloodysurgeon charts the ongoing difficulties both public and professionals continue to raise daily regarding aspects of the UK’s covid-19 response. These include lack of sufficient testing of NHS staff, lack of contact tracing, absence of an antibody test… and most importantly, scarcity, confusion and general dissatisfaction with regards to personal protective equipment (PPE). None of these are trivialities. The lack of testing means that we do not know who among colleagues is symptomatic; the science says more than 50% of spread of coronavirus-SARS-Cov-2 originates from people without any symptoms, i.e., those who are clinically well and who are at work, including in primary and secondary healthcare settings. The absence of contract tracing means we cannot realistically hope to get a firm grip on the epidemiological spread of the disease - it will reduce our current lockdown, in my opinion, to a sticking plaster that will come off and reveal that we have done very little to tackle the cause of the underlying wound. Without an antibody test, we cannot determine which persons who already recovered from Covid-19 are now most safe to take on the highest risk exposures in treating severely ill coronavirus patients.
The last point is particularly germane in light of the ongoing PPE difficulties. I will write a separate piece about PPE, but evidence of the nature and scale of the problem is all over social media for you to inform yourself.
At an individual level, I have advised my immediate family, friends and neighbours from early March 2020 about #covid19 safety measures. In light of our current coronavirus strategy, I feel it appropriate to share my suggestions with the general public. These are recommendations intended to increase your own safety, that of your family, and that of your community. Please read, interpret and apply them according to your own judgement. Please recognise that these are my personal views rather than those of the organisations I work for, or societies and bodies of which I am a member.