BBC News and others are enjoying a number of stories about nurses and others allegedly wearing ‘clinical waste sacks’ in place of missing PPE items. Really?

The latest PPE story (link above) refers to medical professionals who continue to care for critically ill patients for 13 hours every day, having to resort to fashioning personal protective equipment (PPE) out of clinical waste bags, plastic aprons and borrowed skiing goggles.

12 or 13 hour shifts are the norm, so no story there.

As for clinical waste bags fashioned into PPE items, when was the last time you saw a cute pink waste sack like those in the photograph used for clinical waste anywhere in the UK, or elsewhere for that matter?

Another report showed nurses on a ward wearing what appeared to be a standard uniform, surgical mask, simple plastic apron, and Tiger bags scrunched up as head coverings. However, with no sound reason to wear any such head covering this was surely just another game to get their picture in the papers.

The same foes for the many videos emerging from social media into the mainstream news of healthcare staff in standard uniform each wearing apron, gloves and a face mask. One that had stuck in my mind had them holding up cards with quite sensible messages to viewers who must take their part in prevention of virus spread. However well intentioned, the waste of PPE items, currently in short supply, seems no more than stupidity.