The Fallout from Covid 19

[ssfc72]

I has got to be tough for the nurses and support workers at the hospitals and nursing homes, to do their normal work duties and have to wear all the protective PPE gear.  Wearing this extra gear would be making their physical chores, very hot for them to do.
I think the provincial government needs spend some money, right now, to bring in additional temporary support staff, during this COVID event, to help ease the work load of the care givers, who are having to wear this hot PPE gear.

[Jason]

It's interesting that a lot of staff in LTC homes are part-time or temporary workers. You can tell this because the government had to make an order to require staff to work at only one home at a time for the length of the crisis. These workers deserve full-time if they want it and higher income. There are some nurses but most of the LTCs are staffed by personal support workers (PSWs).

My wife was a PSW and she had similar duties except that she went to people's homes to keep them from having to go to an LTC. She had no job security and barely made better than minimum wage. The organization she worked for was private. They are paid very little for what they do while nurses are paid very well for doing similar jobs. Nurses have more training especially in diagnosis and triage but they both have to do duties that nobody wants to do like bathing, changing diapers, cleaning up accidents, rotating patients, managing and bandaging bed sores, emptying commodes, stuff that would make most of us vomit. Then add seasonal flu and pandemics like this and they reach the breaking point. What has scared a lot of staff at these homes is that they don't even have PPE gear or they have to constantly reuse the gear that is meant to be tossed. It's little wonder that COVID-19 has spread in these homes. They weren't equipped. The hospitals weren't originally either with rationing of gear but they had next to nothing.

You're right that it's hot, even the most basic of gear, the face masks. When I was able to go out a few days ago for the first time in a couple of weeks, I wore a mask, not for myself but to protect other people, just in case. I was only out a couple of hours but I couldn't wear a mask the whole time and that was just a surgical mask and not a very good one at that. I definitely wouldn't argue against the province spending more to hire temporary staff and they need to supplement their existing pay. I believe that Quebec has mandated $2 more per hour in pay. They're also losing a lot of staff who have either contracted COVID-19 themselves or going home because they're afraid of getting it because there isn't enough protective gear.

[fox]

....
They are paid very little for what they do while nurses are paid very well for doing similar jobs. Nurses have more training especially in diagnosis and triage but they both have to do duties that nobody wants to do like bathing, changing diapers, cleaning up accidents, rotating patients, managing and bandaging bed sores, emptying commodes, stuff that would make most of us vomit.
....

Actually, not all PSWs do these "nasty" things. My sister is a part-time PSW in a home in the Minneapolis area. She didn't do any of these things. She took seniors on walks, helped them with meals and did some shopping with them. More like a companion; no bathing, diapers, etc. I don't know if there are equivalent PSWs in Canada; maybe they are not called PSWs. My sister isn't doing that right now. Her job was suspended who Covid-19 hit. She thinks that the seniors she looked after are suffering as a result. They were rarely visited by family members, who often didn't live in the area, so the PSW was as much of a friend as a helper.

[ssfc72]

I am also impressed at the way the stores that are open, are implementing procedures to minimise the spread of the COVID virus, while in the store.
Someone has been very clever to come up with the idea to mark the floor surface at 6 ft intervals to help people keep 6 ft apart, the use of arrows on the floor to help create on way traffic in the aisle and the rigorous cleaning with disinfectant of the store doors and the checkout conveyor belt and credit card terminal numbered buttons, the limiting of the number of people in the store that are shopping, etc.   

[Jason]

I find them quite inventive, too. But I think the procedures were suggestions from the Ministry. There are guidelines posed on their webpages for COVID-19. Posters, too. Even ones that residents can put on their doors or windows to show support to healthcare workers. That's why multiple stores have almost identical procedures. Some have just been slow to bring them in so it hasn't happened altogether, at least not in Peterborough. Have you just been in stores in Lindsay or Peterborough, too? I've only been in a couple so far but seen those same things.

What do you mean by credit card terminal numbered buttons? The debit pads I've seen look the same to me. So glad we have tap, btw.

[buster]

The Main Ingredient does not allow anyone into the store. This is where I get flour and yeast for breadmaking. You simply email in your order, and wait for them to call. You are met outside the front door. You pay (or you could have prepaid on line) with a credit card or debit card, and walk away with your goodies.

Very nice system.

[ssfc72]

The terminal that you stick your credit card into, and enter your PIN, to pay for your purchase.

What do you mean by credit card terminal numbered buttons? The debit pads I've seen look the same to me. So glad we have tap, btw.

[Jason]

The terminal that you stick your credit card into, and enter your PIN, to pay for your purchase.

I know what you were referring to but didn't understand how it had changed.

[Jason]

The Main Ingredient does not allow anyone into the store. This is where I get flour and yeast for breadmaking. You simply email in your order, and wait for them to call. You are met outside the front door. You pay (or you could have prepaid on line) with a credit card or debit card, and walk away with your goodies.

My friend Pauline works there. She was telling me about the system. The Bulk Barn near where I live has a system where they only have one person in the store at a time and a staff member goes around putting whatever you want into bags but stays six feet away. Not sure if you can pay in advance.

Do you know that you can get your groceries online, Buster? You can order them, pay for them and then pick them up or have them delivered. Superstore does it and No Frills too although they might just be pickups. You have to do it well in advance, about 10 days lately.

If you're ever in urgent need of something, let me know, too. I don't mind grabbing any essentials you need between regular shops. I've had people help me while I was in self-isolation and even outside it so I like to pay it forward. And I like you - I'd hate for you to get it.

[buster]

"You have to do it well in advance, about 10 days lately."

Apparently you can get same day or next with Sobeys in the north end. $15.

We still shop. The worst that can happen is that it will kill me.

[Jason]

"You have to do it well in advance, about 10 days lately."

Apparently you can get same day or next with Sobeys in the north end. $15.

We still shop. The worst that can happen is that it will kill me.

Have you checked it recently though? I started getting my groceries via pickup right when the recommendations to avoid crowds and social distancing kicked in, before the state of emergency was declared. Then, I only had to do it a couple of days in advance. Now all the slots fill up fast. But charging $15 might put a lot of people off of ordering.

I'd rather not you die from it. And there are many ways to die, gasping for breath while our lungs fill with mucus is not one of them I'd entertain. It'd be like drowning. I've contemplated suicide many times over the years, but never that way.

Stay safe. Get grandchildren, friends or youngish neighbours to get you stuff. It's not just you. If you get sick with it, you'll be putting other people at risk before you end up in the hospital. I don't want to tell you how to live your life but I wouldn't like to see you gone. So as a friend, I urge you to self-isolate. Now I'll shut up about it.

[Jason]

Actually, not all PSWs do these "nasty" things. My sister is a part-time PSW in a home in the Minneapolis area. She didn't do any of these things. She took seniors on walks, helped them with meals and did some shopping with them. More like a companion; no bathing, diapers, etc. I don't know if there are equivalent PSWs in Canada; maybe they are not called PSWs. My sister isn't doing that right now. Her job was suspended who Covid-19 hit. She thinks that the seniors she looked after are suffering as a result. They were rarely visited by family members, who often didn't live in the area, so the PSW was as much of a friend as a helper.

Well, whether they do those things or not depends, I believe, on the homes they go to or the type of firm they work for that is sending them out (i.e. some might specialize in specific services). My wife also took them shopping, made meals, watched tv with them and so on. Are you sure it's a PSW, and yes, it's a Canadian term. Personal Support Worker. Their duties can vary widely and they might be called different things. There are college certificates for becoming a PSW but it's not required. There' also called health care aides, long term care aides, nurse aides personal care aides and so on. Let me just say she's one of the lucky ones that she doesn't have to do that. Or maybe she just has chosen not to do those duties and somebody else does. It all depends on the clients you serve. My wife served the ones that had the most needs, they didn't go out shopping.

http://www.onip.ca/personal-support-worker/

My wife started helping to take care of her mom from a very young age who was diagnosed with rapid onset MS, which is possibly not the exact term. But she started getting it very young (about 24) and it progressed very quickly to the point she couldn't talk intelligibly. At the age of 8, the family doctor told Nora that she was going 'to have to grow up now' to help her mom. Her mom ended up in a wheelchair and she had to take care of everything for her, and then her grandfather. By 18, she couldn't do it anymore and her mom went into a hospital for LTC and her grandmother who was quite sick when into the hospital where she died. My wife had to 'pull the plug', as it were. Because of her experiences, she found it easy to become a PSW and do the job because she had done it most of her life for them. They called her a health care aide but it was the same thing as a PSW generally.

[Jason]

I has got to be tough for the nurses and support workers at the hospitals and nursing homes, to do their normal work duties and have to wear all the protective PPE gear.  Wearing this extra gear would be making their physical chores, very hot for them to do.
I think the provincial government needs spend some money, right now, to bring in additional temporary support staff, during this COVID event, to help ease the work load of the care givers, who are having to wear this hot PPE gear.

They must have read your post, ssfc.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/04/18/team-of-toronto-doctors-and-nurses-fill-in-for-personal-support-staff-at-nursing-homes-hit-by-covid-19-outbreak.html

[ssfc72]

The 'last cruise ship on Earth' finally comes home
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52350262

A nice article on the MSC Magnifica's sailing, before and during the evolving COVID virus.

[Jason]

The 'last cruise ship on Earth' finally comes home
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52350262

A nice article on the MSC Magnifica's sailing, before and during the evolving COVID virus.

Great read! Thanks for sharing. The last part was a bit ominous and was something I've been thinking about for awhile. With this wave still doing and likely 3-4 waves before the vaccine, cruise ships will likely be put on hiatus for a more than a year. Will the industry recover when it's over? And not just because many cruise companies will likely go out of business but because of all the bad press and the from what we now know, the elevated risk. If you didn't have any passengers with COVID originally embark the ship and they didn't pick up while going ashore, the being on a cruise ship would be the safest place for you. But just one case with the close quarters on cruise ships and it can spread quickly before they know what's hit them, as we've seen. Passengers that were quarantined on-board with those those sick will not refer friends to cruises and those seeing the stories in the media may  never come back.

It's one thing we really haven't given a large amount of thought to here. It's not just businesses closing their doors or going bankrupt. It's that it will take months to years for those types of businesses to start up again and people will get used to doing without them. And they'll be wary of going to them. I believe that 2020-21 will be a turning point in how people spend their recreational time.

You'll see a lot more people being like Fox and Buster and going on hikes or other more solitary adventures than going on trips on airplanes and cruises and even conventions, cinema, opera, plays and so on. Anywhere that people would be grouping, long after the restrictions have eased, will decline. This virus will change the psyche of people that went through it. It's certainly not anywhere near as tough but it may take until the next generation before 'normality' as the PM put it, returns. Parents will be telling their kids too young to remember or yet unborn about the pandemic that took the world by storm and how they couldn't go out to the show, to the bar for a drink, or even just visit a group of friends because of it.

I know that, personally, and maybe I'm just different than most, will never look at washing my hands or touching things or getting in groups of people ever the same way again. I was never one for going out but I did go out to the movies once or twice a year and used to go to computer conventions. I may not do those things again or if I do, there will be a tiny part of me thinking about the potential hidden enemy on surfaces or in the cough or sneezes of people around me. Our society just got a lot more precarious.

On the plus side, maybe people will finally release that we're not invincible that lives are important and we will build a global and local community in ways different than before, online mainly. And we will recognize, perhaps, the dangers of climate change and that we need to do something about it because we're not invincible and neither are our children or grandchildren or the friends with children or our nephews or nieces. We may just solve climate change but less people boarding planes, cruise ships and travelling even by car to other countries or just outside our counties. And whole industries will change as a result. We may not need oil as much anymore and industries providing it will no longer exist or be on the decline. Alternative energy sources could become viable and even sought after. Call me an optimist but with every crisis, there is opportunity. And I hope it's an opportunity to change. Because pandemics won't go away, there will be more of them as the planet gets warmer and as populations increase.