Monday, 11 May 2020

Yup, as I already said.

For example here.

From the BBC:

People working in social care in England and Wales have been twice as likely to die with coronavirus as the general working-age population, Office for National Statistics figures show.

But [NHS] workers have been no more likely to die than other workers.


People in care homes and care workers have been treated as the poor relatives in all this*. Yes, a couple of hundred NHS workers have died, which all goes into the "NHS as heroes" myth, but if you look at the actual numbers, strip out the retired NHS workers who were press-ganged back into service and died*, in deaths/100,000 workers, nurses and doctors have the same (surprisingly low) chance of dying of COVID-19 as the general working age population.

So it appears that very few NHS workers were infected "in the line of duty", or at least no more than anybody else who gets infected while commuting or at work.

* Two actual bloody outrages, if you ask me.

30 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, that's a terrible attitude to take. The irony being, Tory voters are most likely to end up in care homes in the next few years (once all the UKIP voters have shuffled off).

Graeme said...

Any evidence of that, Bayard?

Sobers said...

The worst attitude towards care workers was shown by the sainted NHS itself, by moving thousands of untested patients from hospitals back to care homes, in order to clear the decks for the expected tsunami of Covid-19 ones. That one decision alone will have cost thousands of lives and undoubtedly killed many care home workers.

Lola said...

Sobers. Exactly. Remember, it is the Nationalised Health Shambles.

Robin Smith said...

Yes, we reported this at the beginning. Maybe its because they take all the recommended precautions

Mark, please add these thousands to the list.

Robin Smith said...

Bayard - in my experience anyone possessed with a political world view of any kind falls under your description

Bayard said...

"Any evidence of that, Bayard?"

See Sobers' comment below mine, also a complete absence of any concern for care workers expressed by the government during this crisis, plus articles ad nauseam in the Daily Mail and similar newspapers showing their attitude to immigrants, foreigners and poor people in receipt of state aid in general.

Sobers said...

"See Sobers' comment below mine"

How is my comment against care home workers? Its against the middle class leftist a-holes who manage the NHS who couldn't care less about the problem they were dumping on the privately owned care home sector, including all its workers, they just wanted all the beds emptied and didn't a f&ck about the care home workers, or indeed the elderly patients. But the NHS are all angels right?

Robin Smith said...

Bayard, do you work in the industry?

Lola said...

S. I have anecdotal evidence of that locally.

Bayard said...

RS, if you mean the care industry, no.

Bayard said...

Sobers IANAT (T for Tory) so I was pointing out that your first comment offered evidence of the Tories' disregard for care workers, now amplified by your second comment, for which thanks, in case anyone didn't get the implication that the NHS management tended to have Tory attitudes as well.

Thwack! said...

My son is a care worker in a home in East Anglia. He was recently evicted by his landlady with 1 weeks notice simply because of his job and proximity to coved19. In between his 8 and 12 hour shifts he attempted to find new accommodation but was turned down several times when his occupation was mentioned. So much for heroes! PPE:Carers were asked to fashion aprons from bin bags when proper aprons ran out. Yes residents have returned from hopital with/shortly to develop covid symptoms. No there are no testing kits available. Is this a wind up? Am I a troll? I F£££ing wish.

Robin Smith said...

Bayard, I'm curious. What industry are you and those you're close to in, or came from?

Sobers said...

"NHS management tended to have Tory attitudes as well."

You'd be hard pressed to find a single Tory in the NHS management.

Robin Smith said...

Sobers - I used to be energy manager at Wokingham Borough Council. It contained the full spectrum of quasi-religious politics. Particularly at executive level. Sure, they used to fake the planet saving for the salary

George Carty said...

Didn't Lewis Goodall explain that Britain's care homes turned into Covid-19 death traps in part because the infection is being spread by care workers who are employed via agencies to work at multiple sites, and who don't dare take time off work even if showing symptoms because they don't get sick pay and are often on zero-hours contracts?

Bayard said...

RS, I'm not sure what it's got to do with anything, but I have always worked in the construction industry.

Bayard said...

"You'd be hard pressed to find a single Tory in the NHS management."

A shame, really, because they'd fit right in, it seems from what you say.

Robin Smith said...

Bayard, I'm trying to understand your intense responses.

Robin Smith said...

Bayard, forgot to mention - I've seen many cases during the plague, where people will leverage their relations' medical or care work professions - not on this occasion though?

Mark Wadsworth said...

@ Thwack, yes, that is the sort of impression I got from a care home worker I was chatting with recently.

Lola said...

@Thwack and MW. #metoo. Long chat with one who made those points and gave some other intelligence as to the 'quality' and 'accuracy' of the entries on death certificates.

Robin Smith said...

So are the care home workers - complicit - in the deaths of those they infected?

Given:

1) they were not being forced to turn up
2) they were getting paid for it
3) they were aware of the risk

I dont think it rationale to pin anything on the authorities for explicit acts of individuals

p.s. I've done zero hours work and signed the contract fully aware it was my obligation to comply with that free choice agreement. When there were indiscretions I protested. When the protests were ignored I resigned. No issue

Bayard said...

RS, at the time of posting I was wound up by something some senior Tory twunt had said.

Robin Smith said...

Bayard, understood and thanks for the clarification

Bayard said...

RS, later on I had calmed down, but if I had deleted my comment, many of the following comments would not have made sense.

Robin Smith said...

Bayard, I hear you.

Its hard to ignore them.

I dont find any difference between any political sect though in that respect, fundamentally. Its just a competition for votes from needy losers

Everything is driven by their ego, but they dont reslise it because saving the planet gives the ego so much power

People need 'helpers' to become free from helpers, not to need more reliance on helpers. Sadly few of those guru's exist

George Carty said...

As well as ensuring that care home workers are entitled to full sick pay and work at only one care home, would it also be prudent during pandemics to actually lock them inside the care home for the duration, as has been the policy in Malta?

Mark Wadsworth said...

GC, yes.