A lot of people have been coming up with wonderful options for reducing virus transmission. So I crunched some numbers.
According to the briefing today there are around 1 in 150 people asymptomatic. What does that mean for us – well it would suggest there are 2 MacDonalds with an asymptomatic infector handing out food. It means there are around 750 Tesco deliveries each day from a driver or packer that is an asymptomatic infector.
I had been wondering if testing of people like that would make a difference. But lets be honest – even if these companies have poor hygiene it is unlikely to be a big driver of infection.
Today was my drive the car day (at least once a month I give it a tour of the village to heat up the oil, charge the battery and rotate tyres). So I took the chance to look at all the open take away places in the village. Virtually all of them had staff taking precautions (Busy Bee looked best). It was clear to me that even if the staff were asymptomatic it would be a challenge for the virus getting passed on (that is if the customer follows the guidance of plating up at home and washing hands).
However there were two where none of the staff were wearing any protective gear, and one of them had somebody eating in. The good news is that COVID would be the least of my worries in those two places.
But the message is the same – the real safety is all about how we all behave, not about rules and regulations.
Everybody seems to think “the government should”, but in reality “you should”.
Why do I say that? Well, I have had to replace my toilet seat during lockdown. Try writing a set of regulations that allows you to get a toilet seat delivered (only if you need it, not if you are just redecorating). Then stretch those rules to everything. The pandemic would be over before we finished reading the rules.
I’ve often thought the law has been becoming too prescriptive, and I think this is a good example.
The 10 commandments are a good example of simple, basic rules. “Thou shalt not kill”. Do we really need to be any more specific than that? Yes there is deliberate murder, accidental death, but do we need to separate them to know if it is right or wrong – maybe we need to discriminate when it comes to what actions you take with somebody that kills.
But there is that other one – “Don’t lie about people”. I just wonder how many of us manage to get that one right on Facebook.