Highly pathogenic avian flu, H5N1 Bird Flu, has infected a worker in Texas, only the 2nd known human infection in the U.S. since the pandemic began, in 2022.
This directly follows an outbreak of H5N1 in Texas dairy cattle that has already spread to other states. Already, billions of birds have died in this pandemic, both domestic chickens & turkeys, as well as wild birds. It has not yet mutated into a form that is transmissible from human to human. However, gaining the ability to transmit between mammals, particularly farm animals, could be a step in that evolutionary direction. And its case fatality rate may be as high as 50%
Today in Labor History March 30, 1930: Three thousand workers, mostly African-American, began construction on the Hawks Nest Tunnel in West Virginia. The employer cut costs by failing to provide safety equipment. Additionally, bosses forced the men to work 10-15-hour days, often at gunpoint, without breaks and without masks to protect themselves from the silicon dust. Consequently, hundreds of workers died of silicosis. Possibly over 1,000 people, one-third of the entire workforce, died from silicosis, in one of America’s worst cases of mass workplace mortality.
Eyeballed what the contractors are doing today and the not-wearing-PPE apparently causes massive postnasal drip. (pro tip: if a substance causes massive respiratory symptoms, generally you should be wearing PPE and there's not enough ventilation).
Long Covid: Health staff go to court for compensation - https://www.bbc.com/news/health-68479912 "Nearly 70 healthcare workers with long Covid will take their fight to the High Court later to sue the NHS and other employers for compensation." should sue the tory fatcats that sold useless #PPE too
"We can wrap you in a full-body suit of neoprene, heat-resistant rubber. Or we can raise the temperature in Cosmo's office to 98.6 degrees - which is probably what we'll have to do, because the neoprene would suffocate you. "
Used a 3M P100 with Multi Gas Vapor canister for this job.
"3M Multi Gas/Vapor Cartridge/Filter 60926 P100 may be used for respiratory protection from certain organic vapors, chlorine, hydrogen chloride, sulfur dioxide, chlorine dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, methylamine, formaldehyde, or hydrogen fluoride, and non-oil and oil particulate concentrations up to 10 times the Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) with half facepieces or 50 times PEL with quantitatively fit tested full facepiece masks. "
I can't see anyone doing this without full protection, that stuff is really quite potent.
Thousands of frontline workers may have died unnecessarily from covid due to federal governments failure to provide PPE according to New study. Majority were low wage, black. Hispanic or immigrant workers
Billions lost to fraud and error during UK's pandemic spending spree - https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/nao_pandemic_fraud_data/ if £59 billion can just be written off, why on earth is Starmer worried about spending £28 billion on important green projects? makes no sense... #PPE
Tens of Billions in Government and Council Pandemic Spending Unaccounted For as Local Authority Auditing Scandal Worsens – Byline Times #ppe#corruption#fraud
Good Law Project.
Today we can reveal – after a six month freedom of information battle with the Cabinet Office – that Michael Gove greased the wheels of Unispace’s £679m PPE deals. Details of how they were able to secure a place on the unlawful fast-track scheme have been hidden – until now.
At least £3.67m worth of PPE supplied by Unispace was unusable in an NHS setting.
And we thought the Michelle Moanalot scandal was bad enough.
£680 million!
Old Govey seems to have had a bit of a thing for putting cronies into the VIP lane. Wonder what it was worth to him? Not that I would ever suggest there was any such impropriety. Oh no…
This new system will begin to be rolled out in 2025.
Hopefully, the Tories will be dead by then but ...
The DWP is to begin continuous surveillance of the bank accounts of all pension credit, universal credit and employment and support allowance claimants using powers under a bill currently going through Parliament. The department has said it intends to use its new power to force any third party to pass on data to them.
@Geri@juneussell@peterbrown@Wen@mxtthxw if Mone did what is alleged, then Gove is at least equally guilty. Giving priority for #PPE contracts to #Conservative party donors – if that did happen, and it seems to have – is as corrupt as it's possible to be.
Every thing I learn about #Horizon convinces me of the truth of the idea that if you want software that works reliably and securely, you want it written by a queer neurodivergent furry anarchist in Rust rather than in Java by a multinational approved government supplier with a whole boatload of ISO certificates and Enterprise Best Practices documents.
People hate computers because they really actually do genuinely suck.
@tommorris Trouble is, that's roughly what Dominic Cummings said when told that the UK needed lots of #PPE very fast. And see how well that worked. All those ISO certificates and best practices are there for a reason.
And no, insourcing won't fix it either, because then you get a giant government department that only ever does Govt IT the Govt way. It is completely insulated from the rest of the industry and sees no need to change.
Perhaps most clearly this is a Q. for the legal system that has facilitated & aided Mone in her attempts to avoid scrutiny of he profiteering from #Covid, while getting in the way of Bates seeking (and now starting to gain) justice.
Anyone out there with technical expertise (like academic / trade / scientific qualification) on #Covid#Covid19#Mask technology, specifically about sealing, pressure, airflow, path of least-resistance, and silicone #PPE masks, like #3M#Respirators etc, please get in contact - I have a couple of specific questions with regards to long-term solutions for immune-compromised folks, and they're not questions someone trying to sell me a mask solution is able or willing to answer. Thanks.
'The New European and Good Law Project believe The Guardian, The Mirror, Byline Times, The National, Tortoise – and a number of freelance reporters – have also spent time, money or both dealing with defamation threats connected to their reporting of PPE Medpro.'