COVID-19: Looking to the Future.

We really need to start talking about what happens after COVID-19, a bit like the post-Brexit discussions of a few months ago.

The World Health Organisation really needs to start acting positively against China and it's wet markets. The WHO needs to pressure them to improve hygiene standards in their country. We've already had reports that as China comes out the other side. the wet markets and their abysmally poor standards are coming back as well.

The WHO need to pressure China into closing those markets down, banning them and improving standards within the country. They need to re-educate the population that it's a pretty shit thing to have several wild animals in cages close together with humans. Especially when it eventually kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

Given that China started SARS and now COVID-19, the whole world needs to put some leverage on the Chinese government.

It's now no longer an internal Chinese problem, it's a worldwide problem. And the world needs to act.

If necessary sanctions need to be applied.

A secondary issue that has arisen out of the COVID-19 is the reliance on China as a manufacturer. When the crunch came, countries didn't have the manufacturing capacity to manufacture something as simple as a paper facemask or a plastic face shield within their borders. Such has been the reliance on China to produce EVERYTHING.

When it comes to health products, in the UK the NHS needs to investigate their supply chains and build in some resilience. No more should we depend on China for sub-standard products or for any healthcare products.

Hopefully this should be a paradigm shift for the world when it comes to healthcare supply.

Masks, face shields, ventilators, it appeared at the beginning that none of those were actually made within the UK.

That has to change.

And taking production and supply of those products away from China has to be the first step towards sending them a message that enough is enough. They need to change their ways.

COVID-19: Out of quarantine, but no masks.

Well, I've done my 7 days, feeling OK. The lodger seems to be OK too. He's decided to hole up at his girlfriends for the next few weeks.

I'm back at work catching up on the details of how things have changed over the past 7 days.

Certainly shopping has changed massively as shops are now restricting numbers.

As the news is reporting mandatory mask wearing in public, I thought I'd have a look at availability.

Amazon are restricting availability of all masks to hospitals or care organisations. So no availability there.

Checking eBay, there are plenty of substandard-looking Chinese import masks around. From reports in the press, there are a proportion of these that are not fit for use.

Those decent quality masks seem to be vastly overpriced from what they were only a fortnight ago.

Checking Screwfix and ToolStation for fume masks shows no availability.

So, the government may come out with a law for mandatory wearing of masks in public, but where the hell do you get them from?