By allowing then to travel in the same van they'll be worse off than on public transport, if you can't maintain social distancing then you should have a second vehicle or not travel in the van.

Originally Posted by: GeeTee

By allowing then to travel in the same van they'll be worse off than on public transport

Absolute hornswaggle - public because the transport is accessible to all, works van because access is limited to employees

Can we please stop trying to find reasons as to why not and apply a little pragmatism.

Fire crew - all in the same cab, Ambulance crew - both in the same cab, Police - where not solo will be two or more up in a vehicle

As to putting people in masks - PHE are still minded to advise against this there being no benefit

Why does everything have to descend to wrapping people up in (what is currently non-existent) PPE?

It was suggestion not an absolute you must, there are a lot of people confused over the social distancing and whether or not they can be the same sapce. If they can't separate the best they can do is to protect themsleves and from spreading it further.

It's not wrapping anyone in cotton wool I thought suggestions were welcome and not to finger wagged for trying to help.

If people are genuiely trying to get to work the best we can do is help each other, you could have just come out with your views.

...p.s. social distancing will not be possible for every occasion, e.g. going to the toilet?

My view is that they would be better off in a works van because:

1) it is not accessible to the general public so less bodies in the seats

2) the cleaning of the interior is under the control of the employer not reliant upon some depot based activity

3) people "at work" are supposed to be non-symptomatic so not coughing and sneezing everywhere

Invert the above to identify why public transport will make them worse off.

Thank you one and all for some measured great replies much along the lines I was thinking arent we supposed to be reducing to things as the LOWEST practicable level hence if both people in van dont have symptoms sure the chances of catcjhing it from each other is very small at best.

Regarding the mask point again i agree as I saw that many times masks do not protect BUT heard today all the doctors and nurses are suing FFP3 which all our guys use anyway and have face fit tests so was only saying this as a practiciable measure travelling to work for 1 hour.

At the end of the day chaps we are all trying our best inthese uncertain timmes but MUST keep realism and perspective in all we do.

Alan

Spud, the test is to what is "reasonably practicable" NOT what is "practicable".

Not nit picking - too many commentators are trying to promote a reaction that is to do what is "practicable", ie. technically feasible.

Part of the problem of the mixed messages that are so prevalent at this time.

Spud, it might be what you and I have been brought up on, but the messages circling are mostly far from representative of a proportionate response.

Starting with "Stay at home except when it's Absolutely Necessary". Followed by "It's fine for Construction to continue" (without even any get out clause to limit that to construction projects which will clearly aid the national response to Covid - which might include a new hospital or even an extension to a toilet paper factory).

The UK, devolved and other Governments just refuse to admit that they are actually juggling economic and health priorities - by introducing limited restrictions the curve will be "flattened", but then as soon as restrictions are eased somewhat, we should expect numbers to increase again, with two or more peaks. So as soon as anyone suggests that e.g. life can return to normal by Easter or that we will "beat this" in 12 weeks, you should realise that they are telling untruths.

If we did actually ALL stay at home unless absolutely necessary, all that would happen is that the upsurge in cases would slow and then surge again later.

So the pragmatic approach is to plan for a series of peaks that the health services can just about cope with (albeit under enormous strain). If Government admitted this, the pronouncements would be more likely to sound credible.

The last bit of Roundtuit's posting can be translated as working out a strategy to extend the period during which enough of the population get the disease for "herd immunity" to emerge.

The challenge is making sure that the strategy is such that the NHS etc can just about cope with each of the peaks.

It's also about balancing economic and health issues.

This morning Michael Gove came up with the classical comment "how do you put a value on life?"

Well, it's something that is done routinely through the application of the Value for Preventing a Fatality (VPF) or various severities of Injury (VPIs) when making investment decisions in the public sector, or a variant QALY, quality adjusted life year in the healthcare sector.

The current value of VPF is approx £2m. This is NOT an official secret. You can find it on the Department for Transport website.

Originally Posted by: A Kurdziel

What has not been made clear and I believe that this on the BBC website, is that the model for deaths from the virus (SARS-CoV-2) does not calculate the additional deaths ie as the majority of people who have died in the outbreak already have some underlying condition, a significant number, perhaps the majority, would have died from some respiratory infection in the coming months anyway.

My understanding is that at one stage the government were using the seasonal flu additional deaths (i.e. after subtracting the 'would have died anyway' figures) alongside the C19 total deaths (i.e. not subtracting the equivalent from the C19 figures) in their statements.

But you didn't expect politicans to start talking scientific sense just because of a global pandemic, did you?

I'm in two minds about this - if misleading 95% of the population saves a few hundred thousand deaths, is that such a problem?

For work many people have to travel in this pandemic situation but keep a distance from other people this is Only solution till now.