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Yet Another Winter NHS Crisis
The NHS is in the grips of another crisis due to infections, though mercifully, rates of Covid-19 infections are relatively low. Driven by flu, winter vomiting and RSV and other infections this was all entirely predictable. During the last week we have also witnessed the Chief Medical Officer warning about the impacts of infections on Continue reading
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The Impact of the Pandemic on Children and Young People : Module (8) of the Covid Inquiry
The module eight hearings ended recently after a busy schedule including an appearance by the former PM Boris Johnson appearing for the first time since Autumn 2023. This short blog outlines selected highlights from the hearings, focusing in the main on the interests of the core participant group, Clinically Vulnerable Families. The following video montage Continue reading
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The Covid-19 Autumn Wave takes off
After a period of relative calm the UK is now in a period of significant levels of Covid-19. This was of course inevitable. Without population wide mitigations and vaccination there are no signs of Covid-19 settling down into a predicable seasonal pattern of the type that some scientists were predicting back in 2022 and 2023. Continue reading
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The UK Covid-19 Inquiry – Children and Young People module
The eighth module of the Inquiry is set to begin hearing evidence on 29 September 2025. This is an important module which will consider the impacts of the pandemic on children and YP and seek to ensure their voices are heard in planning for future pandemics. There are a number of core participants including the Continue reading
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Autumn 2025 Covid-19 Booster Programme – please sign the petition
Earlier in the summer the government approved the Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation (JCVI) proposals for this Autumn’s Covid-19 booster programme which were published last November as discussed in a previous blog post. This is despite all of our lobbying about the wrongheadedness of the proposals and the inherent dangers of further narrowing access Continue reading
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How to Avoid Catching Covid – July 2025 update
The vast majority of the population of the UK have had at least one confirmed or suspected Covid infection but some people, including myself and my husband have never had Covid and many people have only had it once. In some cases this will be down to luck, or to some little understood aspect of Continue reading
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The Truth about Covid-19 – key points
I recently watched an excellent lecture given by Dr Nancy Malik, a specialist working in Sydney. It is aimed at her fellow doctors and seeks to impart a few of the most pertinent facts about Covid-19 and reinforces the message that doctors should have a duty of care to learn about Covid-19. Nothing in here Continue reading
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Test, and Trace : Reflections on Module Seven of the Covid Inquiry
Module seven of the Covid Inquiry is of critical importance as we know that having effective testing, tracing and isolate policies is one of the keys to managing down and suppressing viruses such as COVID-19. Indeed the fact that some countries were able to draw on their experience of and infrastructures put in place to Continue reading
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Is a new Covid-19 wave on the way? 25 May update
After a relatively quiet winter season for Covid-19 infections there continue to be signs that Covid levels in the UK might be creeping up in ‘fits and starts’. And the latest information is that the wave of Covid infections currently sweeping through China, Hong Kong and other parts of the Far East has arrived in Continue reading
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Achieving Change via a Multistage Strategy
As we enter the second third of 2025 many people feel powerless to carry on the fight for policies such as clean air in healthcare against a backdrop of the world around us continuing to pretend to move on from the pandemic. Indeed it sometimes feels as though all our campaigning has been to no Continue reading
GILLIAN SMITH About Me
I am a semi retired social researcher and have previously held a number of senior social research positions in Whitehall Departments. See an interview with me here. I live in a London suburb with my husband who has suffered multiple serious illnesses over the last few years. I myself am living with MND.
This series of blogs represent a personal, evidence based perspective based on living in the UK at a time when we are all meant to be ‘living with COVID’. Although I am a social scientist by training, I have worked closely with people from different disciplines throughout my career in order to present a complete picture of the evidence on specific policy issues. I am therefore scientifically literate but where I quote evidence based on research beyond my particular expertise it is always validated with relevant experts. I am a member of the Clinically Vulnerable Families group, though please note that the information presented here and any views expressed are my own. We are a friendly, supportive group and can be found via Facebook in private mode or in public mode via X (formerly twitter) Or BlueSky.Social
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Living on Plague Island 