In 2020 lifeguards in Portugal were told to “try saving lives without entering the water"

Is this the maddest “covid” article ever?

In response to yesterday’s piece about a January 2020 article in Science, “Thorsten” left this comment:

Click here or the picture below to go to the the article he refers to:

This article is barely believable. It states that the Portuguese Lifeguard Federation has published a Covid-led set of recommendations, including:

• Guidance which “privilege the saving of lives without entering the water”.

• If lifeguards really have to go into the water due to the situation, they should use equipment that keeps them at a distance from the person in difficulties – such as a torpedo buoy or rescue belt, both of which have a two-meter cable”, he explained.

• If the ‘person in difficulties’ is in so much difficulty that they are already unconscious, Tadeia says lifeguards nonetheless should try their approach ‘backwards’, in order never to be in a situation where they ‘save’ someone face-to-face.

• “While the first lifeguard is effecting the rescue, the second – who is out of the water – must be equipped with all the PPE (personal protective equipment of gloves, mask and visor), as it will be this lifeguard that transports the person, always backwards, and concludes the rescue”, he added.

This is so absolutely absurd that I wondered if it was a spoof so I asked Thorsten to confirm whether anyone had actually seen this guidance.

My query and his response:

The National Maritime Authority guidance is here. I don’t speak Portuguese but I did a quick Google translate of this document, titled “Basic Life Support Algorithm for Drowning - Technical Guidelines”.

It does indeed include these words:

• Place the surgical mask on the victim. If you do not have one, you should cover the victim's mouth and nose with a cloth or towel.

• If there is an O2 kit available, you should connect the oxygen system. If you do not have an O2 Kit, never perform ventilation using the Expired Air Method (Mouth/Mouth; Mouth/Nose; Mouth/Mask, etc.)

Part of preventing the madness of the covid scam from happening again involves not letting people forget what unbelievably stupid things were done in the name of “stopping the spread”.

So…don’t forget. Keep on sharing.