Important message: Coronavirus and posts on HealthUnlocked

[Fran_Benson]

Dear members, we understand that there is a lot of concern at the moment regarding the coronavirus (COVID-19) and that there have been a lot of posts and questions relating to it and also sharing of information.

While we wish everyone to feel supported it would be helpful to restrict the comments to one thread per day. One of our admins or moderators will post each morning with the title Coronavirus post for Tuesday 17th March (or whatever the date is for that day).

This will be your chance to chat to others, share worries, seek reassurance or post something humorous that might put a smile on someone else's face.

However, please note, that in order to keep this site focused on PMR and GCA and to keep it factual we will be deleting separate posts made on the subject and asking the poster to repost in reply to the daily thread.

Also please note the following rules:

Please do not share information that is not from an official source. There are many urban myths and fake stories floating around the internet and it is not helpful to share them. We will remove them. Please refer to the relevant authority's website for factual information on symptoms, treatment and necessary action eg see NHS website if you are UK based.

Please do not share your political views about how the various governments are dealing with the virus. By all means if you're concerned about isolating for example, share that concern, there may be lots of wisdom here to help you. If you wish to discuss your opinions on your president or prime minister etc, then please discuss them on your own social media.

Thank you

Fran

[Hidden]

Thanks. And thanks to the mods.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Good plan.

Perhaps the CV posts of the last few days that are still open should be now closed to further comments.

[HeronNS]

Excellent idea. Thank you!

[GOOD_GRIEF]

So as the pandemic proceeds, and some of our members fall victim to the virus, you're going to restrict posts from members reporting their symptoms, diagnosis and experiences to a single thread?

And that's supposed to be adequate and/or useful to the membership?

[Hidden in reply to GOOD_GRIEF]

I am sure there is room for discretion, but it would be nice to have things in one place and tease out things that are informative. It's not just one... Its one everyday with people being asked to post some separately. Tbh... If I get the virus I am not sure I would be sharing until I felt better. And I suspect such thi gs would be flagged up. There's always pm too.

[Fran_Benson Partner in reply to GOOD_GRIEF]

The problem we have is that this is not a forum for coronavirus and our moderators are being swamped by posts. We don't normally allow off topic conversations so that the focus remains on PMR and/or GCA. However because this is not a normal situation we are trying to balance the need to keep this focused on PMR and GCA while recognising that people do want to talk about coronavirus.

I'm sure that many members will appreciate that we are trying to help but that we also have limited resources.

I should add that if someone with coronavirus wants to post about their PMR and or GCA in light of them having the virus that is a legitimate conversation deserving of its own post. What we're trying to keep together in one place is general conversation about coronavirus.

[Yellowbluebell in reply to Fran_Benson]

Definitely if someone actually has the virus we would not restrict them to the single thread. As.moderators we want everyone to be up to date but we are simply drowning in corona.posts. YBB

[Yellowbluebell in reply to GOOD_GRIEF]

Sorry but we are going to go ahead with this and we will post any new info on the daily bulletin. We are not restricting anyone as they will be able to post on the bulletin post and can discuss any symptoms or problems they have on there. By it being on a single thread it will be easy for everyone to find. YBB

[HeronNS]

I hope you do not delete the current posts, just stop replies, because there has been a lot of useful sharing on them.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to HeronNS]

I don’t think there is any intention to delete current posts - as you say there is lots of information on there - but they are now getting a bit unwieldy.

Plus if you’ve saved them - loads and loads of notification!

[HeronNS in reply to DorsetLady]

I've been deleting the notifications several times a day!

[Yellowbluebell in reply to HeronNS]

We get every single post and reply and my in box looks horrendous every time i look at it and i know pro is wading through hers as well. I have the advantage of not sleeping so have longer to read them all!!

[Hidden in reply to Yellowbluebell]

I have got to say I ended up switching notification off last night as I couldn't face the number as an onlooker. From experience I know mods try, and usually succeed in reading every post and reply, it is not easy on busy days.

[Yellowbluebell in reply to Hidden]

The last couple of weeks has got progressively manic with the pure number of posts and replies. One post i looked at today has way over 100 replies and still going. !!

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to HeronNS]

I had emptied my inbox before bed last night, at 9am this morning there were over 70 new ones, although there were some for the Patient.info forum, but as fast as I have gone through them new ones have arrived. I STILL have 70 - at nearly 6pm!

[HeronNS in reply to PMRpro]

I emptied my inbox last night. This morning I needed to locate an email from someone who was trying to organize a get together (to cancel my participation) and discovered there were well over 100 notifications from HU and I by no means "save" all the threads as you and the other mods do. 😲

[Hidden in reply to PMRpro]

Yikes!!!

[Yellowbluebell in reply to DorsetLady]

No intention to delete old posts.YYBB

[Yellowbluebell]

Its taken a while to sort out what would be best for everyone and also for the forum itself but hopefully this will mean people can find everything about the virus in one place instead of lost of different posts all over the place. YBB

[Constance13 in reply to Yellowbluebell]

Thanks. 💐💐🍀🍀🍀

[Yellowbluebell in reply to Constance13]

No probs constance. We had to do something before me and pro drowned in emails!! YBB

[Highlandtiger in reply to Yellowbluebell]

Yes, you've both been doing well but I was thinking it must be really really time consuming for you and you’ve both got other things to do in your lives! I think it’s a good compromise. 💐

[Yellowbluebell in reply to Highlandtiger]

Well if nothing else as pro is in lock down its keeping her out of trouble!! As for me i did think about asking the courts if we could fo trial by internet but not sure quite how well that would go down!! YBB

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Yellowbluebell]

Surely it will come up after today's press conference?

[Yellowbluebell in reply to PMRpro]

May do. Not sure anyone has thought about it!!

[Robinsnest72]

Thank Goodness! There is enough on the television and radio. I take this virus very seriously but cannot deal with overload

[Yellowbluebell in reply to Robinsnest72]

Thats how we were feeling!! YBB

[Telian]

Well said!