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Grumpy woman mode here:
Unless one has lived in a cave for the past fortnight, its been mentioned on the news that our hospitals are at bursting point due to influenza, Covid, Norovirus and RSV.
Many doctors and health care specialists are 'asking us politely' to have our jabs if we're eligible. But better still the easiest thing is to thoroughly wash our hands (sanitiser will work for flu, covid and RSV but not Norovirus). Also use tissues and throw away and cough into a tissue or onto your sleeve (not into hands).
I'm fed up of seeing people leaving a public loo without hand washing, or not washing before preparing food etc. Coughing (often into someone elses face). They have learnt nothing from the pandemic.
I sat beside someone on a flight 2-3 weeks ago, and they coughed constantly, throughout the whole flight. It really made me uneasy and irritated. I know that many people are very anti-mask. But sometimes I wish Europeans had the same polite consideration for others as the Japanese, and wear a mask if they are going to cough repeatedly in an enclosed space.
The first thing I did when I got off that plane was wash my hands!
Indeed we all seem to have forgotten the basics IMO.
Let us not forget - there are more vulnerable people than you around.
In October, mrs_oab was nearly killed by someone coming to our house while 'feeling a bit unwell' and not saying anything. Cue covid and a near death experience, one which has changed mrs_oab's already fragile health permanently, so much so she is having to take retirement under grounds of ill health and is unlikely to head up a Munro or ride long distances again.
So if you are ill, stay away from others.
People have some disgusting habits. Service stations are the worse place to observe peoples bad habits! I've seen people coming out of the loo (after having a dump) and not wash their hands, people spitting at the entrance. Awful.
There is absolutely no excuse not to wash your hands. It' basics, real basics. God knows what else they don't do?!
@bunnyhop - peoples memories are short, they never remember and just return to the same old patterns of behaviour. As a species we learn very little.
@mattoutandabout - absolutely, i can't agree with you more on this! It's selfish to coughing and spluttering over other people. Again, basics and consideration.
As i get my shopping on the bike, i leave my gloves on when in the supermarket. Not sure if it actually help a great deal
Good point and the good news is that the world's most famous germaphobe will be leading the free world again next month :
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/07/donald-trump-germaphobe-1399258
He asks visitors if they’d like to wash their hands in a bathroom near the Oval Office.
Two and a half years into his term, President Donald Trump is solidifying his standing as the most germ-conscious man to ever lead the free world.
You don't need to convince Donald Trump to wash his hands!
Although luckily for him his hands are so tiny that the whole process is completed very quickly.
People are just dirty, and always have been.
People that don't wash their hands after using the toilet in a supermarket before doing their shop deserve a special place in hell.
Went to That London for the day last week and met up with a colleague from the Birmingham office - I knew she'd complained of a heavy cold and sounded rotten on Teams calls the week before, but she turned up still sounding like crap and I overheard her tell someone else she'd been ill for a fortnight then, sotto voce, that she couldn't taste anything either. She even admitted she didn't need to be there - that's a completely uneccessary return trip on the train and underground she's been unmasked and spreading her germs, she even went for a hug at the end of the day (I declined and went for a fistbump, then legged it before she jumped in the same lift). Made me quite angry - I'm jabbed and naturally immunised, but who could I pass it on to? Two negative covid tests since and no sign of a cold so I think I'm ok, but she messaged today to say her mum now has it. SO thoughtless.
public loos are a biohazard, i always use paper towel to open the door (or touch anything to be fair) in them. men are pigs.
Yep! People are disgusting!
And all that we went through with the pandamic, all the trauma, distruption etc. All you have to do is wash your bloody hands, please!
I'm an office based germaphobe. Sharing an office with a hundred folk, many of whom seem to have an aversion to the most basic hygiene. It is challenging!
Some people, they shit and go. They shit....and they just go, no hand washing. This just totally blows my mind! I have a blacklist in my head, of people I dislike, these shit'n'go's are automatically on the list, no matter how nice they are.
Japanese, and wear a mask if they are going to cough repeatedly in an enclosed space.
Just finished re- watching around the world in 80 days. It was filmed in 1988 and the underground scenes in Tokyo showed several people warning masks. Its been part of the culture for a very long time.
It did improve massively in COVID, but yes gone disgustingly bad now
The amount of men you see coming out of cubicles having had a dump and not washing their hands is disgusting
Always out the lid down before flushing a number two. I don’t like inhaling aerosols. My grandfather said in the navy you washed your hands before going to the toilet. With alcohol gel on ready supply, there’s no excuse.
Here we go again. Out come the covid karens trying to tell everyone else what to do.
Same on trains.
If it's not some absolute bellend watching videos or listening to music on their phone without headphones, it's someone sitting there hacking and coughing away.
Offices have reverted to the old "oh well I feel like shit but I'm coming in anyway" and then they spend all day at their desk downing Lemsip and looking for sympathy. WFH or take a day off sick you absolute tool!
I’m proud to be a Covid Karen, but, it’s the NHS staff who are asking us to do this, I wonder why?
It’s to help others and look after everybody.
what a flippin’ selfish world some of us live in.
whoops I answered to one of the trolls, how silly of me.
Although luckily for him his hands are so tiny that the whole process is completed very quickly.
Made me chuckle! Thanks Ernie.
Here we go again. Out come the covid karens trying to tell everyone else what to do.
Anyone know of a village missing an idiot?
looking at the state of the floor in that photo, did the previous occupant mistake it for the loo?
Anecdotal evidence with a sample of one person incoming.
Whenever I get ill, my partner invariable does too. She sees it as inevitable so we don't really change much around the house if one of us is unwell (usually me first, I'm the one that goes to places where it is more likely!).
This time around I started feeling rough the same day Mrs Rikks mum was taken to hospital - so I knew she would be going in to see a vulnerable person. I went what felt like very overboard. Coughing and sneezing into tissues always. Hands and face washed every hour or so in hot water with proper anti bac soap. Twice daily wipe of surfaces that were used regularly as well as handles etc. Minimal actual contact or proximity.
It worked.I probably didn't need to go quite so overboard but she's already got limited time left with her mum so I didn't really want to have anything reduce that further.
The thing I don't understand about public toilets is that I can wash and dry my hands all I like but in 90% of cases the fact that the door from the loos to the outside world opens inwards requires me to have to grab a handle to escape, a handle which could easily have been recently used by a dump and go merchant. I assume it is something to do with a design requirement not to have a door opening into a public area, but as a user it does feel like I am undoing my own good practice.
I find that my intense glare forces people coming out of toilet cubicles to wash their hands.
The secret is to maintain eye contact.
requires me to have to grab a handle to escape
I loiter by the door until someone comes in, then I make my bid to escape before the door slams shut.
Which is why I much prefer busy toilets.
You be horrified when you read this then.. 'microbial cloud'
[door] opens inwards requires me to have to grab a handle to escape, a handle which could easily have been recently used by a dump and go merchant
Really? I just grab a dry hand towel, a couple of sheets of toilet paper, or at worst use my sleeve
I loiter by the door until someone comes in
After staring at everyone coming out of the traps... you know were talking about toilet hygiene not cottaging? ;D
the fact that the door from the loos to the outside world opens inwards requires me to have to grab a handle to escape
This has bothered me for years! Fellow germaphobes!
I have a strong little finger. The little finger is used for pulling the door, only.
Also you need to think, most people grab it about there, go higher where msot people don't touch.
The secret is to maintain eye contact.
I'm not hanging around the gents and maintaining eye contact!
Totally agree—basic hygiene seems to have been forgotten by some! It’s frustrating seeing people skip something as simple as washing their hands, especially when we know how much it helps. If everyone made a little effort, like coughing into a sleeve or using tissues, we could ease the pressure on hospitals and protect each other. It’s not hard, people—let’s step it up!
So the place we had our Christmas briefing / night out had an issue with the water so we had portaloos, someone at the start of it, while sober had pissed up the wall of one of the loos ..... Why why why?
I've worked with a lot of filthy folks from all sections of society.
Here we go again. Out come the covid karens trying to tell everyone else what to do.
Another dirty git for the list.
I loiter by the door until someone comes in, then I make my bid to escape before the door slams shut.
Do you wear a facemask when you're driving the car alone, by any chance?
Another dirty git for the list.
Plus 4 more who liked the post?
My son came back from a week away recently. He and his mates had come down with something. Daughter and wife caught it, but I managed to avoid it (out at work more). I work at a Uni, and the ladies toilets are often a mess (according to colleagues) despite the regular cleaning from our cleaners. Plenty of females are pretty grim. No such problem in the gents, other than the occasional no flush of pee.
How many of you ride with a bottle on your bike when riding off-road? Most of my rides will at some point be on land with livestock grazing on it or where there are loads of dog walkers, I must admit to find it baffling that anyone would think that it is a good idea to drink from a bottle that is more often than not in the direct line of fire from your front wheel.
How many of you ride with a bottle on your bike when riding off-road? Most of my rides will at some point be on land with livestock grazing on it or where there are loads of dog walkers, I must admit to find it baffling that anyone would think that it is a good idea to drink from a bottle that is more often than not in the direct line of fire from your front wheel.
Many years ago...
A group of us from the cycle club went down to Dartmoor for a long weekend of MTBing. One of the guys had a cottage down there. Weather wasn't great so lots of splashy, muddy, gritty trails. On the second day, one of the guys came down seriously ill, really violently sick. We were genuinely very concerned for him but it wasn't food posioning cos we'd all eaten the same meals and we were fine.
No more riding for him but when he got home, he washed his bike, bottles etc and found a lump of cow/sheep shit wedged in the mouthpiece. Mystery solved. Also, massive eeewwwwwww.
Do you wear a facemask when you’re driving the car alone, by any chance?
Standard protocol if anyone else is likely to get into the car at any reasonably immediate point in time.
Animal germs are fine - never had an issue with my animal pee and poo covered bottles.
On a recent trip to a COVID/dementia ward I was chatting to the nurse about COVID testing and who's supposed to be doing what. She said she had tested positive for COVID and phoned in to let the boss know, they asked her if she felt alright and if so, just go to work as normal.
How many of you ride with a bottle on your bike when riding off-road?
Yes - with a flip up cover over the spout.
FFS have we learnt nothing about respiratory virus transmission from the pandemic.
It's airborne, not droplets/hands!
Ok some transmission from contact in some cases. Certainly norovirus. But colds, flu, coronavirus....
IT'S AIRBORNE!
MASKS and VENTILATION!
Ok some transmission from contact in some cases. Certainly norovirus. But colds, flu, coronavirus….
U OK Hun? Why the objection - there's a variety of illnesses at the moment, some airborne, some from 'heavier' particles and contact with surfaces/oral.
From original post:
But better still the easiest thing is to thoroughly wash our hands (sanitiser will work for flu, covid and RSV but not Norovirus). Also use tissues and throw away and cough into a tissue or onto your sleeve (not into hands).
Standard protocol if anyone else is likely to get into the car at any reasonably immediate point in time.
You drive around with a facemask on if someone will be getting in your car soon?
Really?
Just open the bloody windows for a few seconds - you know, fresh air. But you probably walk around wearing one in fresh air. Don't you?
Here we go again. Out come the covid karens trying to tell everyone else what to do.
Surely the best STW wind up of 2024.
I hope
Good point and the good news is that the world’s most famous germaphobe will be leading the free world again next month :
this is even more funny when you consider that Pete Hegseth’s view on washing his hands.
It is airborne. When people cough or sneeze if your near your breathing it in. I caught COVID a couple of days ago sitting in the front room with my wife. She was on the other sofa coughing and sneezing. I reckon that’s when I caught it. I had banished her to the guest bedroom but there was no getting away with it. We are a family of four I am the fourth one in the house to get it.
I agree on the hand washing but don’t forget about the airborne viruses. Long distance airborne transmission can occur in indoor settings with insufficient air replacement (BMJ). As stated up the thread very few people wear masks now. No one is isolating either. Only positive is it’s more like a winter flu as far as symptoms go. Probably a lot more serious if you have a compromised immune system.
the covid karens trying to tell everyone else what to do.
I didn't realise basic hygiene was woke leftist nonsense
I've had to pull (not literally) my apprentice for not washing his hands before going for a wee. We work in the chemical industry with phosphates, plasticisers, isocyanates etc.
Why would you endanger the most fun bit of your body and have the possibility of your round dangly bits going square shaped and rotting on the corners*? Especially when you are getting paid by the hour.
* Not an actual medical complaint.
I didn’t realise basic hygiene was woke leftist nonsense
Proper no nonsense geezers spit on their hands to clean them.
Not your pouncey water and soap (and probably hand cream too FFS) that bleeding heart lefties seem to need.
two places I now make sure I wash my hands afterwards are using petrol pumps and shopping trolleys, and when using those push buttons for opening the doors on trains I'll use my sleeve rather than my finger... the main thing though is keeping hands away from your face.
Surely the best STW wind up of 2024.
I hope
Given the poster, I doubt it. I haven't been keeping track particularly so I could be wrong, but I don't recall them ever making a positive post on the forum in the six years they've been here.
I’ve had to pull (not literally) my apprentice for not washing his hands before going for a wee.
Before getting to that point there would likely have been several door handles to which contamination could be transferred too. In our labs gloves are removed and hands washed before leaving.
Standard protocol if anyone else is likely to get into the car at any reasonably immediate point in time.
I haven’t done that for three years or so. I’m not sure if I’ve still got any masks in the car. Speaking as someone who’s been vaxxed at every available opportunity. Both flu and Covid.
And yes, I do wash my hands whenever necessary.
Just for the hard of reading- it’s been Health Specialists asking everyone to wash their hands thoroughly before handling food and using the loo. But it isn’t a hardship to do this when we get inside after being out and about.
You must have missed the wilding your garden thread, taking the train rather than flying, some interesting cycle touring routes and a generally socially responsible attitude in the OP's posts, Cougar. 😉
I use public transport quite a lot and sometimes I'm amazed when I don't catch the streaming cold off the person I've spent 14 hours sitting next to on a Flixbus. Then I'll have no social contact beyond shopping and catch Covid despite vaccination and already having had a dose three months earlier. Sometimes my immune system seems bombproof and others pathetic.
Today I cleaned the horse's feet then couldn't resist taking a bite out of the grubby apple rolling around in the bottom of a bucket of grubby horse brushes before feeding it to said horse which slavered on my hand. The apple was so good I picked another out of the bucket with a dirty slavery hand, rubbed some of the dirt off on my filthy riding jacket and munched it. I'll be fine.
Sometimes my immune system seems bombproof and others pathetic.
Can relate. My OH has been coughing the past two weeks, the kids have had colds, yet I've been fine, even expecting to get ill wondering why I haven't. Sods law my immune system will give up as soon I'm home from the last day of work before the festive break ?
Nora virus.... thats a fun few days, mainly down to basic hygiene or the lack of it.
You can maintain the strictest levels of hygiene and still easily catch norovirus if you come in contact with someone suffering from it. It's that contagious.
Someone with norovirus vomiting will release viral particles into the atmosphere.
Unless one has lived in a cave for the past fortnight, its been mentioned on the news that our hospitals are at bursting point due to influenza, Covid, Norovirus and RSV
It's winter. That's what happens every winter.
We've just had emails from our bosses about Christmas Covid on the rise, taking over our EDs.
I just checked our patient flow app. 60 people in our ED. One with sus Covid. There's more people in with broken toes than Covid. hahah
It’s winter. That’s what happens every winter.
No it doesn't, which is why norovirus for example is currently in the news :
The number of norovirus cases is not more than double the five year average every winter.
Spikes in highly contagious viruses such influenza, Covid, Norovirus and RSV can put enormous pressures on the NHS, and not least when several occur at the same time.
So minimising their spread not only helps individuals but also helps the NHS as a whole. An NHS which still has to deal with all manner of other things such as A&E and cancer cases.
I am surprised that this point still needs to be made.
Cougar and I are 'besties' (not beasties :O) )
Norovirus is pretty good at spreading to be fair to it. I think I had it once in my 20s: I wretched so hard I injured a rib or tweaked intercostal muscles for several months, and forever since whenever my immune system is activated I get an ache deep in my shoulders. Best avoided if possible.
No it doesn’t, which is why norovirus for example is currently in the news :
Mate Noro is in the news most winters. The "winter d&v bug". 2023 they called it the "Quad-demic". 2022 was the same. 2021 people were waffling about some virus thing called Covid.
2021: NOROVIRUS is surging across Britain with outbreaks of the vicious vomiting bug THREE times higher than over the past five years, experts have warned
So that's the last 3 winters of Quad-Demic plus this year... I cba to keep going further back to prove you more wrongerer? But maybe it would have been a tri-demic as maybe Covid wasn't really a known thing until Dec 2019 ish.
You drive around with a facemask on if someone will be getting in your car soon?
*my* car? Depends if i'm coughing and spluttering and/or if anyone else is going to be getting into it with me who isn't in the immediate family. (So i'll probably be coughing and spluttering on them quite a lot of the time. Or them on me.)
A car that loads of people are getting in and out of, quite often, yes.
Just open the bloody windows for a few seconds – you know, fresh air.
You really don't understand the first thing about airborne or surface transmission of viruses do you?
But you probably walk around wearing one in fresh air. Don’t you?
Depends if i'm going to be hacking my lungs up all over people or not?
Mate Noro is in the news most winters
So you are claiming that the UKHSA are actually lying and currently the norovirus level is no more than what you would normally expect this time of the year.
Well given that the choice is whether to believe the UKHSA or some random punter who claims to ride a MTB I think you can probably guess who I choose to believe, mate.
So you are claiming that the UKHSA are actually lying and currently the norovirus level is no more than what you would normally expect this time of the year.
No, that's not what I'm claiming. That's what you have written.
I said it's in the news most winters.
You're quoting Sky News ffs
You've gone a bit ranty and personal, so if and when you wind ya neck in and calm down we can continue this discussion.
"Random punter that claims to ride a mtb"..... haha..... Pot /kettle eh, mate? (46 years of riding bikes and over 2 decades working in healthcare so let's nip that in the bud, chap). x
So that’s the last 3 winters of Quad-Demic plus this year… I cba to keep going further back to prove you more wrongerer? But maybe it would have been a tri-demic as maybe Covid wasn’t really a known thing until Dec 2019 ish.
Shit hygiene in the UK is not a new thing I see.
Shit hygiene in hospitals, no less. 🙂
You’re quoting Sky News ffs
So Sky News are part of this conspiracy?
Random punter that claims to ride a mtb”….. haha….. Pot /kettle eh, mate?
How is it anything to do with pots and kettles? Unlike you I'm not expecting anyone to believe me, I am suggesting that they might perhaps want to believe the UKHSA who claim that currently norovirus cases are higher than the seasonal average.
Unlike you mate I don't have the slightest idea of the current situation so I am relying on information provided by organisations in the heath sector.
Maybe a strongly worded letter to the UKHSA pointing out your expertise based on 46 years of riding bikes and over 2 decades working in healthcare ?
Shit hygiene in hospitals, no less.
Yes, but also generally poor hygiene in the population as well. A colleague has norovirus wizzing around the kids school - following Thursday Christmas fair with all the adults in the place!
In response to the posts above about our water bottles getting dirty, Decathlon do a nice snap-on cover to protect the mouth piece for a quid or so.
Riding on bridleways, fields with live stock on and through farm yards I will literally be riding through sh1t at times. I started looking a few years ago for a solution.
Are the people arguing on this thread saying that they aren't washing hands or coughing into sleeves/a tissue?
A simple few easy things that we should all be doing, take little time and be part of everyday life, things that will help everyone.
Watching a man picking his nose in a car, another man wiping his dripping nose onto his hand and then picking up a shopping basket are the very people we need to wash their hands. Basic hygiene is not a hardship.
It’s been shown that one of the most contaminated things we use are mobile phones. Millions of people use them whilst on the toilet and don’t think anything about it and it’s one thing they probably never clean. How many blokes have you seen standing at a urinal with a phone in one hand when having a pee ( or the show offs that have two hand on the phone whilst peeing!!). Then washing their hands but going out and putting it the phone down on a table even in a restaurant and then eating. I’m sure lots of women do the same. I’m sure most of us have had a wee numerous times when out on the bike then called in a bakers for a sarny and eaten it without washing our hand. Or seen to a puncture, changing a tyre that’s been through all sorts of crap,literally and then in a pub for a pint or a cafe for a coffee without going to the toilet first to wash out hands. Probably most of us and not thought anything about it. Don’t get too hung up about it all our immune system is pretty robust or we’d never have survived as kids (who are probably the most unhygienic people on the planet when in school despite what you’ve instilled into them about hand washing)