gigilo
Senior Jockey
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- May 5, 2011
- Messages
- 9,701
Give it a rest? do me a fcuking favour i've hardy started..putting little question marks isn't going to stop me is it?
Coronavirus
- Thread starter Tabletop
- Start date
Give it a rest? do me a fcuking favour i've hardy started..putting little question marks isn't going to stop me is it?
Asserting that someone has an "obvious drink problem" without any proof or possibilty of proof borders on the slanderous/libellous Gigilo, so be a tad careful if I were you
I find this current government a fairly detestable and limited bunch but will cut them a deal of slack at present. One can argue until the cows come home that measures to combat the virus are not enough/too late/should be this/should be that...whatever, but as someone observed recently regarding Sunak's measures: 'this is a scale of state intervention that would make the most extreme socialist command economy blush' which seems about right
There is little evidence that our government's containment measures and civil support are any better or worse than those applied in other western democracies
My guess is that when Starmer (pretty surely) becomes Labour leader some form of unity government will be formed
I find this current government a fairly detestable and limited bunch but will cut them a deal of slack at present. One can argue until the cows come home that measures to combat the virus are not enough/too late/should be this/should be that...whatever, but as someone observed recently regarding Sunak's measures: 'this is a scale of state intervention that would make the most extreme socialist command economy blush' which seems about right
There is little evidence that our government's containment measures and civil support are any better or worse than those applied in other western democracies
My guess is that when Starmer (pretty surely) becomes Labour leader some form of unity government will be formed
gigilo
Senior Jockey
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- May 5, 2011
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Lets not forget this as well,about saving lives not money or economics the spending introduced were unavoidable Mcdonnell was already pushing sunak to do these things for days,surely tory voters should be seething on these spending plans,the plebs not working and kids in school,don't worry i know they are as see them chocca on forums..As to johnson having a drink problem ,well he must get millions of voters saying worse things about him everyday far worse than that all over twitter etc never mind a anonymous racing forum where far worse things are said than what i said on a weekly basis,he'd be very busy taking 10% of the country to court.That would be a triviality compared to the other numerous things his life has produced,,the list is endless..some examples i put up earlier people conveniently like to sweep under the carpet...day after day every week for months stuff like this russian report,Accurri so many i can't even remember them all..crazy so many are so compliant in this country.
the UK were invited to take part in the EU Ventilator Procurement Scheme. Confirmed by Matt Hancock on Question Time
"...we are invited to be part of that...we engaged with that process today".
UK initially said not taking part as we are not part of EU (although we were invited - and Norway also joined). Plus Johnson want a "global effort" !!!
Now it seems the reason we are now not taking part is because "mix-up in communication" "didn't get the e-mail" !!!
The latter is obviously blatant lie - confirmed by EU and also by Hancock's response on QT.
A few points :
>> This government's capability to lie effortlessly exposed yet again
>> It's one thing to lie about economic matters this is on a completely different level
>> If anybody dies in UK because of lack of ventilators I think this is going to explode in front of their faces - never mind the poor victims
Over and over again facts details hidden tory propaganda preferred don't question,don't say anything just accept errr no thanks.
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Is that the same kind of unity we had for 3 years in a hung parliament after the EU Referendum? There's no chance of a different government being formed.
Posters have applied this to me on forums over the years.
I think they spent so long assessing my writing style or syntax they decided I must be intoxicated.
I have also had the old 'what medications are you on' which I deemed even more offensive as it implies our health is a mere play thing to laugh at.
Luckily I have seen through them and their comments.
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tiggers1972
Senior Jockey
Things could be a lot worse.
The live daily Goverment bulletins could have involved Diane Abbot.
Let's just let that thought sink in!
The live daily Goverment bulletins could have involved Diane Abbot.
Let's just let that thought sink in!
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gigilo
Senior Jockey
- Joined
- May 5, 2011
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- 9,701
Documents show that officials working under former health secretary Jeremy Hunt told medical advisers three years ago to “reconsider” a formal recommendation that eye protection should be provided to all healthcare professionals who have close contact with pandemic influenza patients.
The expert advice was watered down after an “economic assessment” found a medical recommendation about providing visors or safety glasses to all hospital, ambulance and social care staff who have close contact with pandemic influenza patients would “substantially increase” the costs of stockpiling.
The documents may help explain a devastating shortage of protective gear in the NHS that is hampering efforts by medical staff to manage the Covid-19 virus pandemic.
Doctors are threatening to quit the profession unless they are properly equipped, and NHS trusts across England have been asking schools to donate science goggles due to the shortages, the Guardian revealed on Wednesday. The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has acknowledged “challenges” with the supply of protective material to NHS staff and has drafted in the army to get supplies to frontline workers.
In recent days, his department says, more than 15m face masks have been delivered to the frontline, including 24.6m gloves and 1.9m sets of eye protection delivered on Wednesday.
However documents seen by the Guardian suggest officials working under his predecessor resisted advice about stockpiling supplies of eye protection in case of a pandemic of this kind.
In 2015, what is now the Department of Health and Social Care tasked one of its independent advisory committees, the new and emerging respiratory virus threat advisory group (Nervtag), to review the UK’s approach to stockpiling personal protective equipment (PPE) for use in an influenza pandemic “to help inform future stockpile and purchasing decisions”.
Nervtag had been created the previous year to advise the government on pandemic influenza and new virus threats to the UK. The advisory group made a series of “formal recommendations” to the department in March 2016, which had been compiled by a subgroup of senior NHS clinicians and scientists, and agreed by the wider committee.
Asked what items of PPE would be required in a pandemic, the government’s advisers recommended “providing eye protection for all hospital, community, ambulance and social care staff who have close contact with pandemic influenza patients.”
They said the protection could be either visors or safety glasses, adding such equipment was necessary because there was some evidence of risk of infection via the eyes when in close contact with pandemic influenza patients.
However, according to minutes of a Nervtag meeting in June 2017, a health department official told the advisers to reconsider their advice as information had emerged about “the very large incremental cost of adding in eye protection.”
A minute from the meeting stated that “a subsequent internal DH health economic assessment has revealed that following these recommendations would substantially increase the cost of the PPE component of the pandemic stockpile four-to six-fold, with a very low likelihood of cost-benefit based on standard thresholds.”
The department asked Nervtag “to clarify the detail of their advice in light of the costings, and reconsider its recommendations against the strength of the scientific evidence of the ocular route as a source of infection, and the likely incremental cost-recommendations”.
The advisory committee then changed its official advice. The recommendation over protective eyewear was rewritten so that it instead told the department to buy enough eye protection for “exceptional usage” in higher-risk circumstances and when used with respirator masks during aerosol generating procedures.
According to a January 2018 minute, the update was made “in light of emerging evidence around cost-effectiveness, and the evidence around the incremental benefits of wearing eye protection.”
The DHSC is now scrambling to find ways to better supply hospital staff as it faces Covid-19, a highly infectious respiratory disease, with reports of doctors and nurses frantically trying to buy their own PPE and a particularly acute need for eye protection.
Advertisement
At prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, highlighted that the Healthcare Supplies Association had appealed to DIY shops to donate PPE. On Twitter, the association said it needed visors and protective glasses, tweeting: “Do we have to commandeer the stocks of DIY stores?????”
It is not clear at what level of seniority in the health department the Nervtag recommendations were considered back in 2016 and 2017. In a statement to the Guardian, DHSC said it would be incorrect to say ministers “intervened in this decision making”.
Hunt, who ran the department between 2012 and 2018 and now chairs the House of Commons health select committee, has in recent days led calls to better equip frontline staff battling the coronavirus. Last week, he told the BBC: “We must sort this out. We are asking people to put their own lives at risk on the NHS frontline...It is absolutely heartbreaking when NHS frontline professionals don’t have the equipment that they need.”
His spokeswoman told the Guardian: “Jeremy does not believe he was personally involved in decisions about PPE for NHS staff, but was acutely aware of the shortage of funds in the NHS budget which was why that year he fought for and secured an £8bn rise in the NHS annual budget followed by a £20bn rise two years later.”
However, the documents suggest the efforts by Hunt’s department to water down the advice on PPE impacted a round of procurement that was due to take place in 2017 to stockpile for a possible pandemic.
In addition to the discussions over eye protection, the documents also raise questions about the UK government’s policy regarding face masks for doctors, nurses and other health professionals dealing with Covid-19 patients.
In 2016, Nervtag advisers told the government that intensive care units (ICUs) should be designated “hot spots” carrying out aerosol generating procedures. Therefore, they said, a particular kind of mask known as an FFP3 respirator “should be recommended for all staff at all times in these areas when a patient with pandemic influenza is present”, except for some circumstances.
One intensive care nurse at a hospital in Yorkshire told the Guardian earlier this week she had had to spend £100 of her own money to buy a full FFP3 respirator mask online. In her unit on Monday, there were no masks or surgical gowns, another vital piece of PPE kit which has also been in short supply.
There have been other reports in recent days of NHS improvising in the face of insufficient PPE, with nurses in the Royal Free hospital in north London affixing clinical waste bags around their legs, while at North Middlesex hospital they have been tying plastic aprons around their heads.
Back in 2016, Nervtag advisers also recommended the government commission an update to its infection control guidance, which by then was seven years old. The guidance, they said, needed to recommend PPE usage “in line with the current evidence base and guidelines”.
In June that year, the department responded to Nervtag’s initial recommendations about pandemic stockpiling, saying work to reflect the advice was being prioritised and progressed. However, with regard to updating the control guidance to bring it in line with current evidence, officials replied: “This work is not considered a priority at this time and will be deferred for consideration at a future time.”
Frontline doctors and nurses have said recent changes to official advice in the UK have meant many NHS staff have been wearing far less protective gear than the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends when caring for Covid-19 patients. The WHO’s advice recommends wearing a visor and a respirator mask, whereas UK advice issued earlier this month recommended a standard surgical mask.
In its statement to the Guardian, the DHSC said: “As the public rightly expects, decisions of this nature are evidence-based and take into account a number of factors, including expert clinical guidance, cost effectiveness and practical consideration, such as shelf life and storage.
“The government has prepared and stockpiled for an influenza pandemic. The documents clearly state that the scientific evidence did not support a vast increase in procurement expenditure on face masks with integrated eye protection for pandemic influenza.”
Who knew ?
The expert advice was watered down after an “economic assessment” found a medical recommendation about providing visors or safety glasses to all hospital, ambulance and social care staff who have close contact with pandemic influenza patients would “substantially increase” the costs of stockpiling.
The documents may help explain a devastating shortage of protective gear in the NHS that is hampering efforts by medical staff to manage the Covid-19 virus pandemic.
Doctors are threatening to quit the profession unless they are properly equipped, and NHS trusts across England have been asking schools to donate science goggles due to the shortages, the Guardian revealed on Wednesday. The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has acknowledged “challenges” with the supply of protective material to NHS staff and has drafted in the army to get supplies to frontline workers.
In recent days, his department says, more than 15m face masks have been delivered to the frontline, including 24.6m gloves and 1.9m sets of eye protection delivered on Wednesday.
However documents seen by the Guardian suggest officials working under his predecessor resisted advice about stockpiling supplies of eye protection in case of a pandemic of this kind.
In 2015, what is now the Department of Health and Social Care tasked one of its independent advisory committees, the new and emerging respiratory virus threat advisory group (Nervtag), to review the UK’s approach to stockpiling personal protective equipment (PPE) for use in an influenza pandemic “to help inform future stockpile and purchasing decisions”.
Nervtag had been created the previous year to advise the government on pandemic influenza and new virus threats to the UK. The advisory group made a series of “formal recommendations” to the department in March 2016, which had been compiled by a subgroup of senior NHS clinicians and scientists, and agreed by the wider committee.
Asked what items of PPE would be required in a pandemic, the government’s advisers recommended “providing eye protection for all hospital, community, ambulance and social care staff who have close contact with pandemic influenza patients.”
They said the protection could be either visors or safety glasses, adding such equipment was necessary because there was some evidence of risk of infection via the eyes when in close contact with pandemic influenza patients.
However, according to minutes of a Nervtag meeting in June 2017, a health department official told the advisers to reconsider their advice as information had emerged about “the very large incremental cost of adding in eye protection.”
A minute from the meeting stated that “a subsequent internal DH health economic assessment has revealed that following these recommendations would substantially increase the cost of the PPE component of the pandemic stockpile four-to six-fold, with a very low likelihood of cost-benefit based on standard thresholds.”
The department asked Nervtag “to clarify the detail of their advice in light of the costings, and reconsider its recommendations against the strength of the scientific evidence of the ocular route as a source of infection, and the likely incremental cost-recommendations”.
The advisory committee then changed its official advice. The recommendation over protective eyewear was rewritten so that it instead told the department to buy enough eye protection for “exceptional usage” in higher-risk circumstances and when used with respirator masks during aerosol generating procedures.
According to a January 2018 minute, the update was made “in light of emerging evidence around cost-effectiveness, and the evidence around the incremental benefits of wearing eye protection.”
The DHSC is now scrambling to find ways to better supply hospital staff as it faces Covid-19, a highly infectious respiratory disease, with reports of doctors and nurses frantically trying to buy their own PPE and a particularly acute need for eye protection.
Advertisement
At prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, highlighted that the Healthcare Supplies Association had appealed to DIY shops to donate PPE. On Twitter, the association said it needed visors and protective glasses, tweeting: “Do we have to commandeer the stocks of DIY stores?????”
It is not clear at what level of seniority in the health department the Nervtag recommendations were considered back in 2016 and 2017. In a statement to the Guardian, DHSC said it would be incorrect to say ministers “intervened in this decision making”.
Hunt, who ran the department between 2012 and 2018 and now chairs the House of Commons health select committee, has in recent days led calls to better equip frontline staff battling the coronavirus. Last week, he told the BBC: “We must sort this out. We are asking people to put their own lives at risk on the NHS frontline...It is absolutely heartbreaking when NHS frontline professionals don’t have the equipment that they need.”
His spokeswoman told the Guardian: “Jeremy does not believe he was personally involved in decisions about PPE for NHS staff, but was acutely aware of the shortage of funds in the NHS budget which was why that year he fought for and secured an £8bn rise in the NHS annual budget followed by a £20bn rise two years later.”
However, the documents suggest the efforts by Hunt’s department to water down the advice on PPE impacted a round of procurement that was due to take place in 2017 to stockpile for a possible pandemic.
In addition to the discussions over eye protection, the documents also raise questions about the UK government’s policy regarding face masks for doctors, nurses and other health professionals dealing with Covid-19 patients.
In 2016, Nervtag advisers told the government that intensive care units (ICUs) should be designated “hot spots” carrying out aerosol generating procedures. Therefore, they said, a particular kind of mask known as an FFP3 respirator “should be recommended for all staff at all times in these areas when a patient with pandemic influenza is present”, except for some circumstances.
One intensive care nurse at a hospital in Yorkshire told the Guardian earlier this week she had had to spend £100 of her own money to buy a full FFP3 respirator mask online. In her unit on Monday, there were no masks or surgical gowns, another vital piece of PPE kit which has also been in short supply.
There have been other reports in recent days of NHS improvising in the face of insufficient PPE, with nurses in the Royal Free hospital in north London affixing clinical waste bags around their legs, while at North Middlesex hospital they have been tying plastic aprons around their heads.
Back in 2016, Nervtag advisers also recommended the government commission an update to its infection control guidance, which by then was seven years old. The guidance, they said, needed to recommend PPE usage “in line with the current evidence base and guidelines”.
In June that year, the department responded to Nervtag’s initial recommendations about pandemic stockpiling, saying work to reflect the advice was being prioritised and progressed. However, with regard to updating the control guidance to bring it in line with current evidence, officials replied: “This work is not considered a priority at this time and will be deferred for consideration at a future time.”
Frontline doctors and nurses have said recent changes to official advice in the UK have meant many NHS staff have been wearing far less protective gear than the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends when caring for Covid-19 patients. The WHO’s advice recommends wearing a visor and a respirator mask, whereas UK advice issued earlier this month recommended a standard surgical mask.
In its statement to the Guardian, the DHSC said: “As the public rightly expects, decisions of this nature are evidence-based and take into account a number of factors, including expert clinical guidance, cost effectiveness and practical consideration, such as shelf life and storage.
“The government has prepared and stockpiled for an influenza pandemic. The documents clearly state that the scientific evidence did not support a vast increase in procurement expenditure on face masks with integrated eye protection for pandemic influenza.”
Who knew ?
:lol:
Indeed as I said before , they couldn't decide on a Brexit position in over 3 years and they've taken that long to elect a new leader the world has come to end, so the idea that they would have been more decisive & organised etc etc than current lot is for those foaming at the mouth on here that think the tv outlet of the guardian aka the bbc is right wing and the morning star represents the 'middle ground'
And it's very long odds that liebour would in any way be handed any reins of power in any kind of 'unity' gov
When the dust settles on this, fk knows when though, I'd still say it's 1.01 that we'll be back to as to the last x decades where people want a grade A health service but still think someone other than them should be the ones who pay for it.
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simmo
Senior Jockey
It strikes me that if both sides think the BBC is biased, then they're probably doing a fairly good job of being un-biased.
I certainly find them to be so.
I certainly find them to be so.
What did Diane abbot do? Would it have been as idiotic as claiming proudly to have shaken hands with coronavirus patients only to catch coronavirus a week later, or support a plan of herd immunity. I would bet that her focus would have been on getting testing and PPE to healthcare workers who seem to be understandably the most vulnerable populatuon in this crisis. I would trust her to do that rather than focusing on how this crisis could be spun. The UK made its choice to back those defunding public services. The Tories are right to focus on spin to deflect from any criticism. Focus on 'what the other side would have done'. There a millions who will amplify it and deflect from their own deficiencies/incompetence.
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Euronymous
Senior Jockey
Are they **** biased. It's like when you watch a football match between two fierce rivals. A fair proportion of fans on each side are gonna be convinced the ref was against them.
These things are subjective but personally I don't see the bbc in line with Corbyn's momentum brownshirt dobbins but very much establishment centre left.
They have a pro eu slant and 70% of tory voters and members are very much not that which feeds into their anti bbc sentiment. The majority of Tory MPs were very much at odds with their voters and members on that subject but that has since changed.
Anyway re Corona it looks like Sweden is taking different approach to others
https://inews.co.uk/news/sweden-cor...hs-social-distancing-restaurants-open-2517991
They have a pro eu slant and 70% of tory voters and members are very much not that which feeds into their anti bbc sentiment. The majority of Tory MPs were very much at odds with their voters and members on that subject but that has since changed.
Anyway re Corona it looks like Sweden is taking different approach to others
https://inews.co.uk/news/sweden-cor...hs-social-distancing-restaurants-open-2517991
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gigilo
Senior Jockey
- Joined
- May 5, 2011
- Messages
- 9,701
Yep let them own it,let's see what happens, they've only been in three months and everything they do is off the scale wrong,lets see if they're waving their stupid union jack little flags and skidmarked underpants in 12-18 months time i'd go 1.0001 they have got a big shock coming to them..!!
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G-G
Senior Jockey
:lol::lol::lol:
jinnyj
Senior Jockey
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2004
- Messages
- 4,466
So in my village we have a WhatsApp group going to help each other out and I posted a couple of days ago to see if our local garden shop in town was still open as it sells our dog food and we’re going to be running out last week.
My immediate neighbours have just rung to say they have a bag of dog food their dogs don’t eat so we can have that and they’d drop it through our gate. V kind gesture. But further into conversation it transpires that their daughter, a doctor at Yeovil hospital and her family have all just tested positive for CV. And they were all down last weekend for Mother’s Day
The wife is also a former GP.....
I was annoyed at the time. Now I’m berludy livid! Especially as my mother has zero immunity due to Rheumatoid Arthritis. And they are still going into town whereas I would have thought they all should have gone into complete isolation? If daughters family are now with CV surely they were carrying it last Sunday?
My immediate neighbours have just rung to say they have a bag of dog food their dogs don’t eat so we can have that and they’d drop it through our gate. V kind gesture. But further into conversation it transpires that their daughter, a doctor at Yeovil hospital and her family have all just tested positive for CV. And they were all down last weekend for Mother’s Day
The wife is also a former GP.....I was annoyed at the time. Now I’m berludy livid! Especially as my mother has zero immunity due to Rheumatoid Arthritis. And they are still going into town whereas I would have thought they all should have gone into complete isolation? If daughters family are now with CV surely they were carrying it last Sunday?
The UK does seem to be exceptional in that they propose a 7 day isolation period rather than 14days as proposed by WHO. There are plenty of unfortunate and almost inevitable transmissions of the virus - people with symptoms carrying on as normal does seem reckless.
jinnyj
Senior Jockey
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2004
- Messages
- 4,466
Yes I have just thanked and then refused their kind offer over the wall and given reasons why. Husband replied “oh don’t worry, we’re feeling fine” Yes I may be being completely paranoid but my mother nearly succumbed to flu last year so I’d rather not have to go through worse.
Someone in my village phoned up yesterday and gave me a message for my next door neighbour and said I was to write it down and post it through their letter box. I said we were self isolating and weren't prepared to do that, to which she got quite angry. Thankfully I found my neighbours number and phoned them. All of our mail is going into quarantine. I even wipe the milk bottles over with bleach when they're delivered. I know I'm probably going a bit over the top with everything but I keep thinking of Eyam! Other than being old we're not particularly high risk but we're doing everything we can to protect ourselves so as not to be a drain on the NHS.
Diamond Geezer
Gone But Not Forgotten
- Joined
- May 2, 2003
- Messages
- 13,884
We began self isolating two days before The Festival with all good intentions. On the Wednesday Mrs DG started to go down with an infection so I had to dash to our pharmacist in a major superstore which at that time was heaving for some antibiotics. Then I discovered on the Friday her monthly prescription which we had ordered through Pharmacy2U so it would be delivered had also been sent to our local pharmacy so I had to go back in there again. On the Saturday she had deteriorated so after ringing NHS111 we were told to go to an out of hours doctor in Cheltenham General who in turn sent us round to A&E where we were for most of the day before she was advised to go home and given extra pain killers. On the Sunday she was even worse so I rang NHS 111 again and they sent an ambulance to us which meant letting two paramedics into our home. The said it was too risky to take her into the hospital and told her to take her painkillers more often.
Fast forward to Wednesday and I had to call the ambulance who this time rushed her into hospital but I wasn't allowed to go with her nor,I was told would I be allowed to visit.So would I ever see her again ?
Later that day I had a phone call to go and fetch her home as it was "too dangerous here" not withstanding the staff who had been with her had hardly any PPE. I had to go through a packed dept to tell them I had arrived and a member of staff wheeled her out to the car. Next day she was still very ill so this time we rang our practice and a GP prescribed more antibiotics which meant another trip into the supermarket, albeit a much quieter one.
We have now been self isolated for the last three days and thankfully there are signs of improvement in her condition but Lord knows how many people we have been in contact with in the last two weeks so I guess we wait now to see if anything develops. I have a slightly runny nose and a hint of a sore throat but no sign of a cough, can only hope and pray.
Luckily have been able to get slots for grocery delivery by having two or three accounts with them all and getting out of bed in the middle of the night to take pot luck attempts and luckily being online more or less at the exact moment they released them. Medication, papers and milk deliveries working OK, touch wood.
Fast forward to Wednesday and I had to call the ambulance who this time rushed her into hospital but I wasn't allowed to go with her nor,I was told would I be allowed to visit.So would I ever see her again ?
Later that day I had a phone call to go and fetch her home as it was "too dangerous here" not withstanding the staff who had been with her had hardly any PPE. I had to go through a packed dept to tell them I had arrived and a member of staff wheeled her out to the car. Next day she was still very ill so this time we rang our practice and a GP prescribed more antibiotics which meant another trip into the supermarket, albeit a much quieter one.
We have now been self isolated for the last three days and thankfully there are signs of improvement in her condition but Lord knows how many people we have been in contact with in the last two weeks so I guess we wait now to see if anything develops. I have a slightly runny nose and a hint of a sore throat but no sign of a cough, can only hope and pray.
Luckily have been able to get slots for grocery delivery by having two or three accounts with them all and getting out of bed in the middle of the night to take pot luck attempts and luckily being online more or less at the exact moment they released them. Medication, papers and milk deliveries working OK, touch wood.
And yet they still keep saying that NHS staff have been adequately protected. We keep imagining we've got sore throats and yesterday Mikes face looked a bit flushed. He did a big shop over a week ago so I'm counting the days till it's 14 days since he went anywhere. I had a nightmare in the night and woke up coughing which freaked me out! Having a delivery of fruit on Wednesday that I only ordered because our village needed 15 orders for a delivery. Now worrying as to who has packed the fruit/picked the fruit/delivered the fruit! Even though all the advice about drinking lots of hot water/gargling etc are said to be incorrect it still makes me feel better. And we're taking VitD, C and zinc. What a nightmare for you, DG, especially after being so sensible regarding Cheltenham. A lot of the trainers facebook pages are really cheering me up; horses out in the field, mares awaiting delivery of their foals etc. Grand National nostalgia page where we can bore ourselves silly talking about the race. Stay safe...
So long as you're not tempted to indulge in the numerous quack remedies doing the rounds, if it makes you feel good it's doing good is pretty much my motto; and hot water consumption seems unlikely to do harm, though too much water depletes the body of water soluble vitamins (B & C) and minerals
Between now and the end of September the UV in sunlight is strong enough to enable the skin to make Vitamin D, which is as good a reason as any to take daily exercise outside. Bare face and forearms exposed for only 10-30 minutes three times a week is sufficient, without suncream of course. The darker your natural skin the longer needed
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-d-from-sun
Plenty of evidence that vitamin D is necessary to maintain a healthy immune system and boosts anti-viral response. Here's a heavyweight clinical study to mull:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3308600/
Best to you and yours DG