Corona Virus COVID-19 Government Not Helping.

I saw the other day that if Coronoa virus does spread and people suspect they have the virus, then they should self-isolate and stay indoors and reduce or eliminate contact with others.

For working people the problem is many companies don't pay sick pay. So what do you do?

Do you self-isolate for two weeks and lose two week's pay (and possibly end up not paying rent or mortgage for that month), or do you carry on working and risk spreading the virus to your work mates and their families?

If the risk to health is so grave, the Government really need to step in and underwrite the lost wages of those genuinely suffering from Corona infection. Better to state now that Government will pay people to stay at home and will compensate companies so that they can pay the wages of workers having to isolate themselves.

Spurious claims can quickly be eliminated because the test can be done quickly on anyone presenting flu-like symptoms. Basically you get flu, phone 111, they send out a team to test and then 2 or 3 days later you get the nod to crack on and go back to work or to self-isolate.

The bad news is you've probably infected a bunch of close contacts already, but at least the spread is contained and not increased.

But I know if people know they will lose pay, they will continue to go into work.

This is especially true of retail workers who are amongst the lowest paid and worst protected regarding sick pay. They will be amongst the workers only just staying above water and paying the monthly bills. They will not have any savings able to carry them over a month or two of isolation. The infection rating of a COVID-19 carrying shop worker is way over the standard. They have the ability to infect a huge number of people.

Shop workers may be the worst infection risk, but then Nurses and Care workers have regular contact with very poorly people: the people most at risk of dying from a COVID-19 infection. And care workers, again are not paid sick pay and are low paid, sop they are also likely to work from month-to-month and just about pay the bills.

As I stated earlier, IF this outbreak and it's repercussions in terms of infection and mortality, then the Government need to be proactive and make sure those infected people stay away from the rest of us.

Better a Government support scheme than the images coming out of China of people being dragged kicking and screaming to plague wards.

Boeing 737 Max: A 'Plane Made by People That Don't Know How to Make 'Planes?

After the two crashes of the 737 Max and it's subsequent grounding, it would only be right and proper that the FAA do due diligence and go over the aircraft with a critical eye.
After all, was there anything else along with the MCAS system that Boeing slipped past the regulators?

Well, it seems the FAA are unhappy with a number of aspects of the 737 Max. Obviously MCAS itself appears poorly implemented, but the modifications to MCAS threw up other issues with the flight control software systems.

Now it appears the FAA have concerns about the routing of wiring within the aircraft. Given that the 737 is design that has been made since the 60's, how have Boeing not just routed wiring in the same old locations?

The more that comes out about the 737 Max, the more it appears there were several departures from previous 737 iterations. Yet Boeing is on record making out that the Max is just the same or as similar as possible to previous versions.

It makes you wonder if the people involved in the 737 Max project had any experience with the previous models. Did Boeing sack everyone and put new inexperienced team on the job? Did the team have any experience in making an aircraft before? What seems certain is that there are many aspects of the 737 Max that the FAA weren't aware of and are unhappy with now they are coming to light.

Novel Corona Virus (COVID-19) Update

So Novel Corona Virus (2019) has an official title now: COVID-19. Not as snappy as NCoV but hey, officialdom isn't renown for it's snappiness...

So, an update: The Southampton school was deep-disinfected because some kids had a cold when they came back from Singapore. Fair play, better safe then sorry.

Mr Super-spreader has been given the all-clear and sent home. He's no longer infectious. Hopefully.

There's a prisoner in Bullingdon jail that is suspected of having the virus after being shipped over from Thailand. We'll see how that pans out.

A bunch of people (apparently foreign tourists) in London are in isolation at St. Thomas' after having flu-like symptoms after coming back from the far East.

So, thankfully it appears the UK is on top of the situation.

Thankfully we closed down direct flights from China some days ago. I was surprised to see a video that insinuated that the USA hadn't closed down air links to China. A bad move, considering anyone can walk through the border without symptoms but still be carrying the virus.

Even indirect flights might be a risk as it's a way of subverting the bio-security afforded by the closure of direct links.

I've actually got a car part coming from Hong Kong. Hopefully it'll be in the post long enough so the virus won't be a risk factor. ;-) Maybe I'll give it a wipe with a disinfectant wipe, just in case...

But hopefully as we reach the limits of the quarantine/incubation period, the UK will emerge COVID-19 clear.

Then we just nuke China... sorry, I mean hopefully the Chinese can get on top of the virus and get back to normality.