I’ve already suggested:
- Mecial students being trained for specific CV treatments
- Vets being turned into doctors and their equipment being redeployed for humans
- Closing of Universities and redeploying students into a host of roles
- Everyone is suggesting using the army
In addition other strategies
Prisons
In the worst case scenario, we are not going to have enough beds. Therefore we should release all low-risk category prisoners for a couple of months and turn their prisons into hospitals.
Sale of Alcohol & other age-related goods
People delivering supermarket food to homes cannot be asked to ask for proof of id to verify age. As such, there is a strong rational to ban age-related goods from being sold. However it may be possible to permit it in specific casess where age verification can be done online via a means like a driving licence.
Reducing A&E need
I couldn’t find good evidence on the causes of A&E (except alcohol) so instead I’m trying to remember what are the commons causes.
We will be banning all social gatherings, which means pubs and nightclubs, so the level of drunken injuries will reduce. But we cannot afford to allow drunk injuries to then occur at home, so limiting alcohol sales may also be prudent for that reason.
Many A&E injuries are caused by sports, but organised sports should be banned or will be self-stopped
Car accidents are another big contributor. But if travelling is curtailed, then this may naturally drop.
DIY is another cause of A&E attendance.
Education
The Chief medical officer is not very supportive of the idea of closing schools. I personally thought it was a no brainer, but perhaps there are issues with the effect this has on the NHS as mothers tend to have to look after children, and perhaps the rest will be looked after by grandparents – who if anything ought to be kept away from children who are very likely to pass on CV.
But it’s pretty obvious that any large gathering like an assembly needs to stop.
However, we still ought to attempt to limit the spread of CV within schools. One simple approach is to keep each class separate from all other classes. This ought to be easy in a primary school but could be very difficult in a secondary school when pupils are streamed to take a variety of mixed subjects. Fortunately, those taking mixed subjects are probably largely old enough to look after themselves. So, the best strategy may be to have strict segration of classes in schools and either put older pupils into “single subject” classes or they will have to be schools remotely.
Another simple approach is to simply close the schools for the “summer break” when the crisis hits and to re-open them during the summer “break” to let pupils catch up and to take exams.
This however isn’t the perfect solution, because CV will still spread between pupils in a class, and then within families to other pupils in other classes in the school. So, another refinement is to “surname” segregate pupils. That is, all people with the same surnames share a very limited group of classes (perhaps doubling or trebbling years). That will dramatically low the spread.
Workplaces
Companies should be following a similar approach to education. Workers should be prevented from co-mingling and large gatherings such as using work canteens should end. Also where possible companies should encourage people to break the pattern of a “normal day” and to travel at times of lower demand on the transport network
Stop Public transport
Where possible, people should avoid public transport. Instead, it would be sensible to car share. As such, most parking restrictions in towns and cities should be temporarily suspended.
Public gatherings
At the moment there are ~150 known cases and probably ~600 unknown. As such there is one infected person per 100,000 people. For obvoius reasons no one should be attending any indoor event with more than 100,000 people. But even an event with 10,000 means there is a 1 in 10 chance of being in the room with someone with CV. Next week the chances are 1 in 10,000 and the week after most large schools of 1000 pupils will likely have one person infected in them.
Medical Doctors & Nurses MUST start wearing face masks
There is a great reluctance amongst doctors to endorse the use of face masks, but we have to ignore them, and think of what is best for the patient, and what is best for the patient is not doctors & nurses either being ill from CV or worse spreading it. As such we are going to have to mandate that medical staff wear face masks even if they protest strongly about it and come up with lame medical excuses why they are immune to CV. (It’s always the same people have no problem insisting that others take health seriously, but as soon as they have to wear protective equipment, there is always a host of reasons why accidents never happen to them).
Isolate the elderly?
There is a rational for the elderly to self-isolate. But I strongly suspect from the elderly people I know, that they will not do so. Instead they will “self-isolate” by only seeing their own grandchildren and daily gonig to the shops to get the paper.
