Author Archives: Donncha

I started writing about what’s happening with Covid-19 on St. Patrick’s Day this year and I said I was writing for future me. While it’s impossible to capture everything I see and experience this post my cousin shared on Facebook (author unknown) covers most of the major events of the last month.

Sharing this for my future self ??
Schools and Creches close 12th March 2020
All pubs and clubs close 15th March.
No St Patricks Day Parade
Lockdown begins in Ireland midnight 27th March 2020
Fuel prices dropped a record amount (now €1.12/litre)
Self-distancing measures on a rise.
Tape on the floors at food stores and others to help distance shoppers 2m (6ft) from each other.
Limited number of people inside stores, therefore lineups outside the store doors.
Non-essential stores and businesses mandated closed.
Parks, trails, entire cities locked up.
Entire sports seasons cancelled.
Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events – cancelled.
Weddings, family celebrations, holiday gatherings – cancelled.
Funerals limited to children/parents/spouses of deceased. No other family or friends.
No masses, churches are closed.
No gatherings permitted.
Don’t socialize with anyone outside of your home.
We are to distance from each other.
Shortage of masks, gowns, gloves for our front-line workers.
Shortage of respirators for the critically ill.
Panic buying sets in and we have no toilet paper, no disinfecting supplies, no paper towel no laundry soap, no hand sanitizer.
Shelves are bare.
Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and PPE.
Government closes the border to all non essential travel and makes it mandatory to self isolate for 14 days when returning.
Fines are established for breaking the rules.
Fines for those price-gauging others.
Stadiums and recreation facilities open up for the overflow of Covid-19 patients.
Press conferences daily from the Government.
Barely anyone in the street or on the roads.
People wearing masks and gloves outside.
Essential service workers are terrified to go to work.
Medical workers are afraid to go home to their families.
Many people placed on leave and unable to work with the government paying 80% of their wage.
They say it started in Wuhan, China at a seafood market. Hundreds of thousands affected, dead, dying, critically ill. Many recovered.
This is the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic, declared March 11th, 2020.
Why, you ask, do I write this status?
One day it will show up in my memory feed, and it will be a yearly reminder that life is precious. To not take the things we dearly love for granted.
We have so much!
Be thankful. Be grateful.
Be kind to each other – love one another – support everyone. ??

From Facebook post, author unknown.

Not everything there is accurate and obviously what is, only applies to Ireland. There isn’t a strict 14 day quarantine on people arriving in the country. People are asked to self isolate for that time but there’s no follow-up AFAIK. We’re all self-isolating now anyway.

The PPE that arrived from China turned out to be ill fitting, too small and of poor quality. I hope subsequent shipments were better.

A Facebook post by a nurse described all that was wrong and upsetting about it.

A SHOCKING MESSAGE FROM A VERY CONCERNED NURSE:

Hello
I’m wondering if you’ll post this message. I’m a nurse in one of the largest teaching hospitals in the country.
Today I and my colleagues came to work and were supplied with the three quarter sleeve gowns shown on tv to look after Covid patients.
We put up a huge battle with our manager who insisted that the gowns offered adequate protection and were standard now countrywide.
Infection control just told us to practice our hand hygiene even more thoroughly and wash our arms.
We were put in the most awful of dilemmas. Some of us resorted to taping our arms up to the sleeves of the gowns. ( it doesnt work, the tape split and was difficult to remove safely)
The rest of us continued to protest until a small supply of proper long sleeve gowns were found. Those who protested more loudly were given the gowns. Those who were afraid of overpowering management relented and had to wear the short sleeve gowns.
Today was a fucking nightmare.
The very managers marching us into covid positive rooms will never have direct patient care.
We know they wouldn’t dare put themselves at risk but it’s ok to put our lives and our families lives at risk.
Senior consultants are protesting over poor quality PPEs and the use of surical masks with Covid patients but even their voices go unheard over the suits in management who have business degrees but who have absolutley no qualifications in looking after patients or in infectious diseases.
I’m telling you this because the truth needs to be told. Jesus I thought we were at rock bottom before but never more so than we are now.
We are forced to wash goggles after each use. (Not enough to go around.) We are told that surgical masks are fine even when pts are coughing terribly and are on nebulisers. (Not enough FFP3s in supply)
And now we are given gowns that either have no sleeves in them or we have the option of plastic gowns that only cover the front of our bodies. Our upper chest area and backs are completely open.
Every nurse, doctor and healthcare worker who provide direct care to covid pts in Ireland is terrified right now. The stress alone is killing us.
We all have families to go home to.
We are all aware of the now high level of covid positive staff in our hospital and yet they continue to force us into wards and rooms without adequate protection therefore risking our lives and the lives of our loved ones.
What infuriated all of us even more this evening was the director general of the HSE, Paul Reid stating that the PPE’s “just look different”.
The fucking neck of the man. Who does he think he’s fooling?
Would you send a riot policeman into a riot wearing a straw hat and tell them it just looks different?
It’s an insult to all our intelligence and it’s placing a huge amount of lack of trust in management at a time when we should feel confident that they’ll keep us safe.
Some of us are now in tears in work. All of us are petrified. None of us are sleeping well. We are all willing to care for Covid patients, that’s our job but for the love of God provide us with the equipment to do so. Don’t let any of us risk lose our lives doing so.
We may be considered angels but we are all highly qualified medical staff with families who we love dearly and we are being forced to do the unthinkable.
The rest of the worlds healthcare workers wear hazmat suits with covid patients . We don’t have that luxury but for Christs sake please please don’t let them take chances with our lives by forcing us to wear shoddy PPE’s.
We are all worth so much more than that even if they don’t think so.
Thank yo for letting us tell the real truth.

An incredibly stressed nurse on behalf of all my incredibly stressed colleagues on the frontline.
(Ps I aplogise for my use of bad language.)

My friend David works as a nurse in Wales. He and his colleagues face the same issues with PPE.

The Falkland Islands reported their first case. They were one of the few regions on the planet without one.

Many countries now want people to wear a mask when they go outside. The American CDC recommends their use. There’s a “no sew” mask you can make yourself but it might not be that effective.

Using masks is unlikely to be of any benefit if you are not sick.

Sick people will be advised by their doctor when to use a mask. Healthcare workers need masks and other personal protective equipment to protect them from infection during their work.

On the other hand you can be infectious for several days without symptoms so wearing some sort of mask that stops you breathing or coughing particles in an enclosed space like a grocery store might be worth it.

Meanwhile the 5G conspiracy nuts are burning down 5G towers in the UK thinking it’s causing Covid-19. Here’s a video. Check out the replies.

Also, Kirstie Alley questions who is behind releasing the virus. Argh!

This Covid-19 vs average cause of death graph is frightening because Covid-19 accelerates so fast.