100 signatures reached
To: The Scottish Government
MOBILISE SCOTLAND TO DEFEAT THE CORONAVIRUS
1) Re-start the mass testing programme throughout Scotland with immediate effect.
2) Begin contact tracing, with immediate effect.
3) Decentralise the organisation of the anti-pandemic campaign by investing responsibility in local authorities to conduct mass community based research programmes to assess the extent of infection within our communities, through the mobilisation of suitably equipped volunteers who could distribute and collect questionnaires and colour coded posters, as well as tools such as the Kings College symptom tracking app, https://covid.joinzoe.com/, which is producing a great deal of invaluable data.
4) Initiate a national program to draw in all firms, institutions, local organisations and individual households with the requisite skills and provide them with the resources to produce the much needed PPE, the lack of which is having a seriously detrimental impact in our attempts to control the pandemic.
(This petition has been drawn up by the Scottish Unemployed Workers' Network)
2) Begin contact tracing, with immediate effect.
3) Decentralise the organisation of the anti-pandemic campaign by investing responsibility in local authorities to conduct mass community based research programmes to assess the extent of infection within our communities, through the mobilisation of suitably equipped volunteers who could distribute and collect questionnaires and colour coded posters, as well as tools such as the Kings College symptom tracking app, https://covid.joinzoe.com/, which is producing a great deal of invaluable data.
4) Initiate a national program to draw in all firms, institutions, local organisations and individual households with the requisite skills and provide them with the resources to produce the much needed PPE, the lack of which is having a seriously detrimental impact in our attempts to control the pandemic.
(This petition has been drawn up by the Scottish Unemployed Workers' Network)
Why is this important?
The campaign to defeat the Coronavirus epidemic is being hampered by the serious lack of PPE that is available to our front-line health and care workers as well as the general population. To this end, we call on the Scottish Government to organise a national mobilisation in order to produce these much needed resources, through a national appeal and requisitioning of companies, small firms and institutions (as well as drawing in individual households with the requisite skills) to produce masks and scrubs, as has happened in other countries, notably the Czech Republic (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/30/czechs-get-to-work-making-masks-after-government-decree-coronavirus).
We further call on the Scottish government to initiate a campaign of mass testing of ALL frontline health workers, care workers, essential workers and the general population and of contact tracing, as has been successfully done in other countries, notably South Korea (https://www.wired.co.uk/article/south-korea-coronavirus). In the immediate term, if mass testing cannot be rolled out, then local authorities, volunteer organisations and mutual aid groups should be mobilised to undertake mass local research and knowledge gathering programs throughout Scotland, comprising local authority workers and suitably equipped volunteers who would survey their local areas to determine, on the basis of symptoms, the extent to which the pandemic has spread – this could be done, as was the case in Ballachulish (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEgy3lsH044&fbclid=IwAR0kJiq1PyJh9v5qDEcs0O9Qt76LRIycGb2NRHTlfYgtB6vYR5gvzCvc0JY), through the use of colour coded posters indicating the number of people in individual households who are exhibiting symptoms, as well as through the use of devices such as the symptom tracker being rolled out by Kings College, London (https://covid.joinzoe.com/).
We need these resources and information at the earliest instance, as the lack of certainty over who has the virus is not only hampering contact tracing, and thus our ability to defeat the pandemic, it is also having a huge impact on the psychological well-being of the nation, as is the lack of PPE available to our frontline heath and care workers, and the general population.
We further call on the Scottish government to initiate a campaign of mass testing of ALL frontline health workers, care workers, essential workers and the general population and of contact tracing, as has been successfully done in other countries, notably South Korea (https://www.wired.co.uk/article/south-korea-coronavirus). In the immediate term, if mass testing cannot be rolled out, then local authorities, volunteer organisations and mutual aid groups should be mobilised to undertake mass local research and knowledge gathering programs throughout Scotland, comprising local authority workers and suitably equipped volunteers who would survey their local areas to determine, on the basis of symptoms, the extent to which the pandemic has spread – this could be done, as was the case in Ballachulish (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEgy3lsH044&fbclid=IwAR0kJiq1PyJh9v5qDEcs0O9Qt76LRIycGb2NRHTlfYgtB6vYR5gvzCvc0JY), through the use of colour coded posters indicating the number of people in individual households who are exhibiting symptoms, as well as through the use of devices such as the symptom tracker being rolled out by Kings College, London (https://covid.joinzoe.com/).
We need these resources and information at the earliest instance, as the lack of certainty over who has the virus is not only hampering contact tracing, and thus our ability to defeat the pandemic, it is also having a huge impact on the psychological well-being of the nation, as is the lack of PPE available to our frontline heath and care workers, and the general population.
