I've been called to work inthe COVID19 clinic for a month. I don't wish to bring anything home and infect my family. Is it worth it to camp outside my house? Or rent an air bnb?
Or strip naked before coming inside and showering?
Recommendations is to gown up and perform hand hygiene before leaving work.
if you're a health care professional, you shouldn't need our advice. You should know what's best for yourself.
getting extra advice or ideas is always good.
No idea.. Not an expert.
However I am very grateful you are going to look after people who are sick. Thankyou.
I stripped outside tonite and threw clothes straight into the wash machine. I had a particular rough day with Covid patients and threat of staff infection…. Crazy times.
Wear PPE and observe WHS and you'll be fine.
Some staff are showering at work, changing into civies, don't forget to swap shoes.
Do your PPE training OP. With correct donning and doffing there should be no covid on you whatsoever. Your hospital or clinic should be giving you a list of what to do post doffing, including taking off your clothes at work, bagging them, changing into clean ones, washing clothes once home and showering. You do not need to rent a hotel, you just need to do good hygiene like we do every flu season. Good luck.
1.if you can't afford hotel, Camp in your yard and has nice big tent with nice mattress is essential. casue Sleep quality is matter~~
i will say talk to some store, cause now travel bussiness is went down, Campervan car shoud be plenty. i think they might happy to help NHS Staff by now if you can prove the Association where you work.
2.check the route from your tent to shower room, make sure sterilization door knob+switch everything you touched after you used everytime!!! even the little items….
*bleach or alcohol whatever~
"if you and family have to share one bathroom"
but highy not recommmed.
3.Mesh Laundry bag can be handy to collect for you or anyone and less touched it.
This is a difficult time, and I would rather isolate as much as possible to ensure be safety for family.
Whatever job you're doing, you're putting yourself in harms way and I, for one, think that is worth a thank you from us all.
Keep up the good work, it is appreciated.
Can anyone confirm whether COVID is expected to disappear like SARS, or linger like influenza? All I found was this
https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2020-03-07/coronavirus-co…
The idea of flattening the curve (Option A) suggests that the majority will eventually be infected, we just want to slow the rate so that the sickest will have access to what they need.
I've heard other people suggest that we should be aiming to bend the curve (Option B) - i.e aim for no new cases by eliminating transmission, before/after vaccines are available
If option B is not possible +/- vaccines, then would it not be inevitable that OP's family gets infected.
To take it one step further (assuming option B not possible AND family are not high risk population), why not get it over and done with now whilst society is shutdown and isolated. Rather than wait and get infected later whilst society is running and have the impacts of sick leave on the economy.
Imagine we delay the spread initially, only to have another wave hit during winter because not enough people are exposed / immune yet. (is this a valid concern/logical reasoning?)
No one can answer your question with 100% confidence right now.
The reason why influenza stays around is because it keeps mutating.
For your question to be answered research needs to be conducted to find out how easy it is for COVID-19 to mutate in such a way that a new vaccine is required for various different strains of COVID-19.
Since no vaccine has been developed this question can't be answered.
Can only answer the last option.
It would not be conducive to the healthcare system or ones life to purposely get infected. Even if we are able to only target low risk populations, you are risking death at a relatively high rate - not ethical.
Even if it did not kill people who are young, fit and healthy (and it does), poor adherence to social distancing and isolation would certainly result in an outbreak. This is how pandemics occur and prolong. Hope this helps.
Heres the thing. The current situation allows for standard donning and doffing. As we head into flu season, with the virus as well as the increasing infection rates (slight flatlining), things are going to change quick. The current recommendation is to where cheap clothing and shoes, change clothes and shoes prior to entering the house. No hugs, no touching anyone in your family, hard to do with youbh children. Hot showers with soap, wash clothes immediately.
Now as I understand, the soap and shower, and washing of clothes is likely to remove all pathogens. There is a small chance that I leave something behind/ have caught it without any symptoms for some time. This is the risk here, and the reason why people are asked to wait for 14 days.
After discussion with my wife, it has been decided that she move in with her parents, which is Plan A.
Plan B, to purchase a unit to live in whilst I'm working as a way to self isolate, and turn it into a rental down the track.
Thanks for all your replies! It is appreciated.
I think plan B is better if it means that you don't have to commute to the clinic.
Plan A you will be putting your parent at risk. They are older so higher risk. Can you put a bed in the garage and your wife spend most of the time in the garage after work? I know the garage is not comfortable but at a time like these days, it is a temporary sacrifice
Assuming you do not live in apartment and have a garage
Is it possible to shower at work before coming home?
I work in ICU.
I scrub up, PPE and leave most personal belongings out of my reach/plastic bag.
End of shift I change, go home, launder clothes and shower. Shoes stay outside.
This isn’t perfect, but it is for this reason I have chosen to live alone apart from my family and do all I can to isolate from them.
Keep up the good work.
In Wuhan, China, what the government did was rent many nearby hotel rooms for doctors and nurses. Also doctors and nurses have to work as shift. They didn't go home during the outbreak. Doctors and nurses were in full PPE in hospital. There were 30,000 doctors and nurses from other provinces and eventually 0 infection rate was achieved.
I don't know what the government is doing here. Why doctor and nurses were advised not to wear masks. We already have many doctors and nurses got infected. Why we can't learn from precious experience. If the supplies are not enough, just face it and try to make more or order more, not saying it's useless.
The biggest problem I see in Australia is trying to ignore positive part of China, and enlarge the negative part of China. Yes I understand we need to follow American to consider them as enemy. But this is the serious outbreak. Isn't that contain it takes first priority?
in this news in Feb:
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-02/06/c_138758854.htm
A total of 21 countries and the United Nations Children's Fund have donated epidemic prevention and control supplies to China, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Wednesday.
We are proud that Australia is in the list. It give us a confident that China with the largest medical supplies manufacture will return help to us.
I'm not convinced of a zero infection rate anywhere.
Stats coming out of China is questionable at best. I didn't neg you btw.
But it's just common sense wearing wearing masks will be safer compared to when no one is wearing mask.
It was originally the Chinese government's ignorance, now it is the Australian government and general public's ignorance which have lead Australia into this pandemic. Borders should have been closed since Jan.
And recommending people to not wear face mask is irresponsible. People who follows the instructions just forgot to use common sense.
Sorry I didnt say it clear about the 0 infection. Its the number for medi workers from other provinces to wuhan. At the beginning of pandemic the infection rate for local works was quite large, before they know what it is.
Thats why I said we should no sacrifices our medical workers for test the fault again. We should learn from what other countries has learn. Only full PPE can reduce the risk!
Here is a vedio of the suits of how they achieve 0 infection rate in late stage.
The issue is that there are also reports:
It is interesting the maker of those thermometer guns indicated that was intentional and only occurred in export models to give "certain countries" false negative results. That maker wants to show some patriotism. I don't get the logic and I'm sure that's not Chinese government's intention (nor the issues with the testing kits and subpar masks). I suspect he was full of it and trying to spin it with patriotism rubbish. He only cares about money.
While it is clear the official Chinese government certainly want to help, there are some Chinese businessmen trying to take advantage of the situation and make money instead of actually help. That also makes us question the actual situation in China (i.e. are those businesses really only export subpar items overseas and keep the okay ones in China?).
There are things which China did well which other countries could learn from, but no doubt even China initially underestimated this virus (likewise for majority of other countries). It is better that China ensure that if they sent items overseas, they are quality items. Also, try to keep quiet rather than go out and advertise how well they've done on this. With the current situation around the world, let's not kid ourselves, it is a fail for China. So much damage has already been done around the world. Wuhan is back in lock down mode. Countries with very close tie with China are hit hard.
Also, a lot of people blindly assume our government is doing nothing. That's not true. The priority is ensure medical staff have what they need. Some people feel very strongly about wearing masks. The thing is, now we know there are some dodgy Chinese businessmen selling subpar masks, do you still feel safe buying cheap masks from China?
@netsurfer: Thanks for you opinions. I basically agree to what you said.
There is a good artical about this today.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-04/china-coronavirus-cov…
I would saying I can see Chinese government is adjusting their policy to assure export medical supplies meets some standards. It's not an easy step but the good thing is everyone is working harder towards it. It's human nature to chase largest interest, and as long as there are small percentage of people doing only for their own, it got worse. At this time we need governments both side to take actions to create health markets.
There is also another artical talking about the medical requirement battle
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-04/coronavirus-updates-n…
I hope our government working harder to make sure Australia get enough and good quality supplies as well. As I said Australia is one of the 21 countries that help China in Feb. I hope we can get more supplies back for now.(Which Italy already did. They get 10 times of face marks back in March because of their kindly detonate in Feb). It's just some right wind media try to make it looks like China steal Australian supplies, that looks hilarious and is not helping at all.
@pandasrandomchoice: The problem is some of those selfish businessmen are so selfish, in a time like this, it really shows how bad some human beings can be. What they did isn't just your statement of "It's human nature to chase largest interest". Their practices are unethical and wrong (they are potentially murdering people indirectly). In most countries, those people will be jailed immediately. A lot of big companies in other countries are being selfless (or pretending to be selfless at least). I'd like to think that there is still a lot of good in most of us.
Australia government are not counting on Chinese government or Chinese businessmen. At a time like this, it is not worthwhile to gamble on Chinese medical supplies on our medical professionals. Our government realised that weeks ago, if not earlier. While Chinese government most likely wasn't stealing Australian supplies (as that makes no sense), Chinese businessmen were. They were ripping Chinese people first (that's the irony - Chinese businessmen ripping off Chinese people) and now they are doing the opposite, trying to rip Australian people (and people in other countries) off.
While our media might not have provided the full story and could have unintentionally or intentionally manipulated people here, let's not re-manipulate people the other way either. Some really selfish businessmen had taken and still taking advantage of the situation. Let's not pretend one thing that the Chinese government did right is enough to overcome all their wrong doings. However, I don't think the Chinese government will take those dodgy businessmen lightly.
Also, our government already had Australian companies making masks and equipment (for our medical staff) and sourced materials or equipment from trusted sources. It is relying on Chinese companies to reduce costs in the past making us vulnerable at a time like this. Some Australian companies are helping out and making materials or products needed for hospitals.
Fool us once, shame on you, Fool us twice…. Better not be so gullible to trust Chinese medical supplies right now. It might be a small minority of those business people, but the damage has been done.
@netsurfer: Thanks You made many good points.
For some Chinese business man, they are selfish and greedy. Especially DaiGous. They bought all baby powers and send back to China. If there is a bait there will be a bite. You just cannot count on people to be not selfish. Especially business people. Is your gas provider greedy? Is your electricity provider greedy?
The Baby formula DaiGou problem has been in Australia for many years. Not only Non-Chinese hate it, but also Chinese. It makes the whole Chinese community looks bad. With profit, you cannot count on business people to not to do something. The only way to resolve it is by the government, by the legislation. However, it's the pain in the ass for many years, the government seems to be not taking any action. Even this time Australia ban the medical supply to overseas(to me his is just a politic gesture, the goods is actually coming from China start from March, when China recovered), it doesn't include baby formula. Do you know why? Do you know the motive that government doesn't take any action?
For Medical supplies that made in Australia, I hope you are right. In fact I hope all front line medical workers have enough supplies. Wish them safe.
I just want to say thanks. To you and to all the other medical staff on the front lines.
get air bnb, dont kill your family
sleep in a backpackers hostel which is cheap. Also i hear they like to party and dont care about getting covid19
every state should follow this:
South Australian frontline health staff will be offered "sanctuary" in a dedicated health hotel to better protect themselves and their families against the coronavirus.
The state government is in discussion with several hotels to provide centrally-located accommodation for doctors, nurses, SA Ambulance staff and other health care workers.
https://www.france24.com/en/20200403-french-politicians-accu…
if auatralian need masks, goveronment need to take actions ASAP. Stop accusing some non scene
Printing money to buy PPE sounds like something the Americans would do. There is nothing stopping other nations from doing the same. Just add more 000s to the printer queue.
Everyone is saying thanks with words but what else are they doing?
I have friends in their 20's and 30's who think it is more important to go out and hang with a mate or girlfriend than stay home.
I hear the noisu neighbourfood (bankstown) carryon late at night with a group of people, beeping their cars outside, family or not.
People just still calling it the flu and spreading misinformation.
I wish people would empathise for one second what it is like for the OP. To go to work, on edge every single bloody day and then go home and be shit scared they can infect their loved ones. Imagine the guilt - unintentional or not.
So people just stay home.
If you are super keen, you can do this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnF-bRmJY3g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dgGrkHKUts
What i do when i am rostered on for a covid shift in ED:
Where my own secondary pair of scrubs and either surgical crocs (like the loafers) or an old pair of runners
After the shift i go to the theatre change rooms remove scrubs and shoes and place in a large ziplock bag
Have a shower and wear civvy clothes to leave hospital
get home chuck the scrubs and surgical crocs in the wash do a quick cycle - and then dry for 1 to 2 hrs - that should decimate any inoculum
Repeat
If you don't mind saying what is your occupation?