Who?
Who can we blame for this in the UK?
Who is infected and who is not infected? We don’t know.
Who can we believe when it comes to guessing a route to a post-Covid-19 world?
What?
What exactly is Covid-19?
What is the ‘right’ approach – herd immunity or flattening the curve? The world jury is still out on that one.
What Covid-19 performance metrics (cases/deaths/vaccines/the ‘R’ number) will trigger lockdown unlock processes?
What long term impacts on people’s health and lives will be caused by weeks/months of social isolation?
Why?
Why did this happen? Malevolent Chinese Government forces at work? ’Wet’ animal markets in China? A plot by Bill Gates for world domination? Take your pick.
Why was the UK Government so unprepared for dealing with a pandemic?
Why did the UK Government seemingly ignore World Health Organisation global pandemic alerts in January and February 2020, and react too slowly in March 2020?
Why do some infected with Covid-19 die? Others are sick and recover? And others apparently display no symptoms whatsoever?
Why did we start testing and tracing and then stop doing it?
Where?
In my body, my house, my street, my town, my city, my country – and in fact everywhere?
When?
When can we all have our lives back?
When will it end? Will it ever ‘end’?
When will all UK citizens be tested for having, not having or having had Covid-19?
When will a Covid-19 vaccine become available?
When will all UK citizens be vaccinated for Covid-19?
When will the Government spout Covid-19 numbers I might believe?
When will I next visit a pub and enjoy a pint with friends?
Which?
Which businesses might survive Covid-19?
Which scientists and academics should we trust with their theories, proofs and evidence?
How?
How will we rid ourselves of Covid-19?
How many people are actually dying from Covid-19 – in hospitals, in care/nursing homes and at home?
How many people have died or are dying of serious non-Covid-19 illnesses/diseases because Covid-19 measures have taken priority over beds, staff and equipment and curtailed treatment/operations?
How long might immunity last after recovery from Covid-19?
How might society change after Covid-19 is brought under control? For better or for worse?
Can We Rely on Anyone’s Numbers?
+ 81,661 tests for Covid-19 carried out in UK on 29 April 2020 (Prime Minister). But 36% were retests, (DHSC)
+ On 30 April 2020 Covid-19 test target (set by Health & Social Care Minister on 1 April 2020) number of 100/000 UK Covid-19 tests/day was not met.
+ 674 people died of Covid-19 in the UK on 29 April 2020 (Prime Minister). But data from all the 11,300 UK care homes will not have been included. It takes some 10 days for ONS to collect and count all deaths recorded on Death Certificates for any one day.
+ As of 28 April 2020 there had been 21,678 Covid-19 deaths in the UK (John Hopkins CSSE). Clearly not accurate, as up to date care home/nursing home/at home deaths not included (ONS).
Covid-19: 17,756 ‘Extra Deaths’
Extra deaths attributable to Covid-19 and the date at which the outbreak took hold is being analysed by Dr Rodney P. Jones of Coventry University. The most recent data is for 17 April 2020 and includes:
UK: 17,756 commenced on 6 March 2020
London: 3,991 commenced on 21 February 2020
‘The unintended consequences of Covid-19 may be worse than first appreciated’.
More at:
http://www.hcaf.biz/2020/Covid_Excess_Deaths.pdf
Mortality monitoring throughout Europe data source:
Thanks to Roger Steer of Healthcare Audit Consultants Ltd for this information.
We Need a State Owned UK Care Organisation – Free at the Point of Use
The Covid-19 pandemic is posing the biggest threat to the UK’s survival since World War 2. If we survive Covid-19, we must re-organise ourselves nationally to fight subsequent pandemics and give us all a better chance for sustainable lives, health and happiness.
There must surely be a single business model for delivering care in the UK. A singles state owned and run public service free at the point of use. Care includes Primary healthcare, Secondary healthcare, mental health, community healthcare, social care, care homes, hospices, nursing homes, palliative care, Public Health, GPs, consultants, pharmacies and support staff. All the people and all the bricks and mortar in England, Scotland. Wales and Northern Ireland to be included.
Large London Hospital Rejecst Using NHS Covid-19 Wembley Test Centre
The Royal Free NHS foundation Trust runs the Royal Free Hospital, Barnet Hospital and Chase Farm Hospital. It employs 10,000 staff. In a long article in ’The Guardian’ of 29 April 2020 it was reported that the Royal Free had declined to use the NHS Covid-19 Test Centre set up in the IKEA car park in Wembley. The Royal Free is swabbing its staff at work and sending samples to the Frances Crick Institute for analysis. Reason quoted by the Royal Free for adopting this approach include Wembley Test Centre results having been lost and the hospital having no faith they would get an accurate result. It says the chain of command is opaque and the centre is not run by clinicians but is run by Deloitte – a firm of accountants.
Complaints about Covid-19 test Centres by other NHS Hospital Trusts and NHS staff around the country include five hour queues, delays causing cancellations, leaking test vials, wrongly labelled samples and lost test results.
There was no competitive tendering for contracts to set up and run the 30 Covid-19 UK Test Centres. (This trashes the CCGs procurement requirements of the 2012 Health & Social Care Act). Outsourcers who mopped up these Test Centre contracts include Boots, Serco and Sodexo.
£60,000 ‘Life Assurance Scheme’ for Grieving Families of Front-Line NHS Hospital Staff and Social Care Workers Killed by Covid-19.
More questions than answers.
+ Exactly who will receive the cash? The closest relative?
+ Is this cash offer being rushed out to head off any possible legal action by loved ones who feel the NHS/Government failed in its duty of care to keep NHS staff safe at work? One does wonder what the small print on these Scheme contracts might say about cash acceptance if no litigation.
+ The veracity of cause of death statements on Death Certificates. Doctors at one NHS Trust have been told there’s no need to list Covid-19 on Death Certificates of Covid-19 patients (‘inews’ 17 April 2020).
+ Why £60,000? Just how was this figure arrived at?
The First Ten Medics to Die on the Covid-19 Front Line were Black or Asian
This fact released by the British Medical Association is further amplified by the Sky News research in mid-May 2020 that 70% of the first 54 front line health and social care workers to die of Covid-19 were from the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities (BAME).
BAME people make up 44% of NHS medical staff. However the 2011 Census tells us that the BAME population in England and Wales makes up just 14% of the population. The UK’s Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre revealed that 35% in a study of almost 2,000 Covid-19 patients were from BAME backgrounds.
Lots of reasons being postulated to explain the heightened dangers of Covid-19 to members of the BAME community. NHS England has issued guidelines to try and shield BAME NHS staff where possible from Covid-19 exposure. Research on the BAME Covid-19 profile is being undertaken by UK Government and by Middlesex University.
