Continuing the theme for a moment of one of the hidden costs of the pandemic (worsening symptoms and deaths due to the postponement or cancellation of urgent treatment for life threatening conditions, mental health crises etc), Independent health correspondent Shaun Lintern challenged the BBC this morning, tweeting: ‘BBC News this morning saying NHS intensive careContinue reading “Sunday 26 April”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Saturday 25 April
While people are still processing the news about Dominic Cummings’s attendance at SAGE meetings, it emerged via a confidential Cabinet Office briefing leaked to the Guardian that Ministers were warned last year the UK must have a robust plan to deal with a pandemic virus and its potentially catastrophic social and economic consequences. This leakContinue reading “Saturday 25 April”
Friday 24 April
A big news day – 19,506 deaths so far, moving up to the 20k thought shocking several weeks ago, but also the testing website closing within hours and the revelations about the alleged independence of the government’s scientific advice source. Amid continuing talk about ‘ramping up capacity’ for COVID19 testing, it was reported that theContinue reading “Friday 24 April”
Thursday 23 April
A big day today – it’s World Book Day, St George’s Day, Shakespeare’s birthday and Ramadan starts. I wonder how much these days mean to people. Obviously, none of these celebrations can take place in the usual way. For World Book Day, the custom of giving out free books will happen later and readers areContinue reading “Thursday 23 April”
Wednesday 22 April
Besides the daily death toll, another depressing piece of news is Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty’s view that the UK will have to live with some social distancing measures for the rest of the year. Today’s Guardian editorial paints a reactive rather than proactive picture of the government’s COVID19 strategy, presenting an analysis of what’sContinue reading “Wednesday 22 April”
Tuesday 21 April
This morning housing minister Simon Clarke was the latest junior minister to be found wanting by interviewers, including Piers Morgan – ‘savaged’ in the words of one source. On the PPE saga and the latest news that the Turkish supply still had not been released, Clarke made on the Today Programme what must be theContinue reading “Tuesday 21 April”
Monday 20 April
As we enter the 5th week of lockdown, the government issued two rebuttals to the searing Sunday Times article, one saying the article ‘contained a series of falsehoods and errors’, the second concerning a Financial Times story on efforts to source privately designed ventilators. On another rebuttal, Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth told the SophyContinue reading “Monday 20 April”
Sunday 19 April
The government’s COVID19 performance and the PM’s in particular were blasted this morning from a source unexpected (to me, because of the normally pro-Tory Murdoch ), the Sunday Times, which detailed the trajectory of missed opportunities and delayed actions. In Coronavirus: 38 days when Britain walked into disaster, the authors show how the PM missingContinue reading “Sunday 19 April”
Saturday 18 April
Today the UK death toll from COVID19 increased by 888, taking the total number of fatalities to 15,464 and we’re told there could be 40,000 in this first wave of the outbreak – terrible news all round. As the debate on PPE shortages continues, specifically focused on the likely shortage of gowns this weekend, Matt Hancock’sContinue reading “Saturday 18 April”
Friday 17 April
In case anyone thought the lockdown extension was to be three weeks only, Dominic Raab has warned that the measures could last into June as ministers came under increasing pressure to set out a detailed plan to ease the stringent restrictions. I wonder how much of this is a delaying tactic because there’s still noContinue reading “Friday 17 April”
Politics and mental health - the missing link? 