Puddy Galore

I’m going to see what you can get on prescription for gluten free stuff and see if I can get my GP to do me an emergency prescription. They took so many prescription items off us coeliacs though, I think you can only get flour now. At least you can make some bread up. I cook all my own meals because of my condition and I could not even get any mixed beans (pulses). What makes me laugh is I bet half of these people panic buying can’t usually be bothered to cook up their own meals but as the ready made convenient stuff is gone, they have started on other stuff.

Could I make a heartfelt plea to all food retailers on here - supermarkets or otherwise to watch the gluten free stuff? It seems the panic buying has set in with gluten free stuff. My Waitrose order - as Sainsbury’s seem to have thrown me under a bus, can get through to no-one, is missing my gluten free bread and my gluten free breakfast cereals. I now have 4 slices of gluten free bread and enough breakfast cereal for a few days - I was one of those people who didn’t strip the supermarket shelves. As a coeliac I can only eaten gluten free stuff or am very poorly. There is always the possibility it is coeliacs panic buying but I somehow doubt it. No bread or no breakfast cereals = no breakfasts for me coming up if I can’t find gluten free stuff. How selfish can people be.

I don’t know but I just wonder whether this is to do with coding. I was for a while trained to do clinical coding. Each hospital admission in the UK is coded clinically with an ICD10 code and, if appropriate an OPCS4 treatment code if a procedure or procedures were undertaken. It is quite an involved role. The primary code recorded is the condition primarily treated in hospital as indicated by the treating consultant. Codes in secondary positions will record associated co-morbidities. Haven’t coded for many years so I have no knowledge whether a written procedure has been laid out for recording COVID admissions yet. There is not likely yet, I would have thought, a specific code created yet for the virus underpinning COVID. I just wonder whether some countries are recording cases under the reason for admission, i.e., if a patient is admitted with exacerbation of COPD although COVID may have caused the exacerbation of the existing COPD, it is actually COPD that is recorded in the primary diagnostic code. I didn’t do coding of deaths so cannot comment on those.

The jury is out on Spanish flu. Might have been a USA source but a British Army camp is also a possible source from what I read, unless, of course, I misunderstood that. You can educate me here on how the USA were responsible for legionnaire’s disease. I genuinely don’t know about this? However, the point is surely with modern understanding of hygiene on how disease spreads (whatever the pathogen - virus, fungi, bacteria etc) cramming animals (some also on the worlds most endangered list) dead or alive into crates stacked on top of each other is not a modern view of health and hygiene - I’m sure you can see that with your educational background into prions etc? Have you seen the photos of animals being butchered alive one after another on the same work surfaces with the same utensils? There is surely no excuse for this in a modern world especially with the worldwide repercussions we are now witnessing? The photo’s are horrific and so remind me of scenes from Deadwood and Hell on Wheels

This post will not go down well but I partly agree here. Absolutely not going to get into any politics but will simply observe the known historical fact that other countries have had to pay a price for their actions in the past - Germany did following WW1 and WW2, Iraq was subject to scrutiny over possible WMD and other countries have faced sanctions for all manner of issues down the years. When all this is done and dusted the very least to be done is an assurance backed up by evidence that China has shut down these wet markets and can tangibly demonstrate that they are actively keeping the lid on them. If that means international inspectors then so be it. I shall certainly in the future be watching the country in which items were made and avoiding appropriately.

Easier said than done though. Have done mums shopping for her online now for over 3 years and pay up front for deliveries with a delivery ticket. She’s 88 now but sadly I cannot even get to speak to anyone at all at Sainsbury’s just to make sure they have her flagged as vulnerable customer and cannot find one free delivery slot. We do a smaller shop in Waitrose and she has rung the local Waitrose store we use and thankfully it seems they will deliver to her so I sense a change of allegiance coming on here when all this nightmare is through.

I helped a Senior Surgical Registrar with an upper GI cancer audit. I collated so much data on so many patients for this. It really was depressing perusing all those notes and by the end of it every time I burped I was convinced of the worst ....

Essential Oils as Antimicrobial Agents—Myth or Real Alternative? WWW.NCBI.NLM.NIH.GOV Herbs and the essential oils derived from them have been used from the beginning of human history for different purposes. Their beneficial properties have been applied to mask unpleasant odors, attract... I’ve mixed an air mister spray up - tea tree, clove oil, eucalyptus. If it doesn’t do any good as an anti-viral I figured it cannot do any harm.

Drugs can be used to dampen an immune response down. See post a few pages back from Matty007 who posted about a drug that can reduce the activity of (I think it was interleukin 6). I take hydroyxychloroqine to dampen my immune system due to autoimmune disease.

As others have said, the damage caused is the body trying to fight off the virus. I’m sure the virus world hasn’t clubbed together in an effort to come up with a master plan to kill us off. They are simply part of the biodiverse world we live in. Hooman’s don’t have a divine right to inhabit the planet!!

Just a question for those who understand these issues far more than I. Why are they not suspending stock market trading with the tanking of markets around the world? Can I rest assured once this virus nightmare is over, when ever that is, the markets will recover?

Those of us who highlight this often get slammed for this viewpoint and no doubt I will be again. However, it so very true. It is not about blame culture per se but about taking responsibility for what actions you take or have taken and the wider effect it has on others around you. Only when you acknowledge what events led up to cause a catastrophe can you take steps to ensure, as far as possible, it isn’t repeated for future generations. This viral nightmare has sadly and unfortunately almost bought the world to its knees socially and economically not to mention the havoc caused on health services trying to deal with unprecedented illness and death. When this is all over and the damage to peoples lives, livelihoods and businesses are evaluated and realised, the world needs to address these cultures, however unpalatable they find it to challenge, to try and mitigate against such a scenario in the future. People can blast me all they like, it won’t change my point of view, which I am entitled to. We cannot go through all this again

I agree entirely, brilliant and so level headed. Thank you so much Matty007 for your time and effort in compiling these posts. ,

I thought they may take a look at this as a possible option to boost bed numbers. Many private hospitals have contracts to provide NHS services so NHS standards are embedded in private hospital practice.

Nope, although if I had SKY sports I guess I would have missed live F1 races, have got used to not seeing the races live since its departure from terrestrial TV.

My veterinary practice staff had a shocking flu type virus just before Christmas as well. The vets, nurses and receptionists were quite ill. They were each off work for days when poorly with it and then when they did return to work one or two simply hadn’t got over the viral illness and needed a second spell off work to fully fight it off. It does make you wonder.

Well, unless I’ve missed something somewhere along the line, is it not sort of where this nightmare most probably began?

Neither am I.

Snap, I’m coeliac and did wonder if the non coeliac panic buyers would start on the gluten free stuff.... they may yet! I’m really sensitive and can't tolerate oat based gluten free stuff so am very careful what I buy. At £3.50 a loaf though non coeliac panic buyers might think twice

Sorry but my anger and complete distain is currently channelled towards where this whole viral nightmare originated from.

Absolutely spot on. I realised this morning I’m almost out of soap! I’ll put it on the Waitrose shop but will be surprised if they have any. If not, I’ll be dipping my hands in Anistel disinfectant on a frequent basis I have plenty of alcohol gel and have the ingredients to make more up.

As daft as it sounds, my real panic at the moment is whether vets will be available during any lockdown. I will ask when I go next week what emergency planning for service provision is in hand. I sort of suspect that some sort of emergency service will need to be available somehow at the local vet hospital, at least that is my hope. I have a very old ailing cat, which we live with day to day and I know an emergency will erupt one day and another one who ironically suffers with an on-going viral infection and sometimes he needs some assistance.

This is what worries me. I have done my Sainsbury’s shopping online for 3 years now and if I struggle to get deliveries I’ll be well pee’d off with it. One would hope that supermarkets will increase the number of deliveries available.

I haven’t panic bought anything yet but have stocked up on cat litter, mainly because I’m always at the end of the bag before I order more. However, for me any urge to start thinking about panic buying, in pure response I have to say to what I am seeing going on with regard to this, is driven by these questions. (1) do we have any idea when we will be put into lockdown? (2) what does lockdown actually mean and entail - will we be told to stop in doors literally like a curfew or is local travel within the immediate neighbourhood permitted? I hope so as I sometimes have to go and fetch one of naughty cats back from his favourite haunt. (3) how long are we likely to be in lockdown so to speak - 2 or 3 weeks or potentially longer (4) will all shops close down or will supermarket home deliveries continue as long as shopping can be left outside and direct contact between delivery man and customer avoided? Any views or knowledge on this?