New Year is a time for reflecting back over the last year and looking forward to the next 12 months. At a time when the world is in the grip of a fresh Covid wave, driven largely by the immune dodging JN.1 variant, and evidence on the damage done by Covid mounts by the day, this short blog looks forward to the next year and what we might do differently.
The respected John Snow project is a great source of information on Covid and their recent short piece on ‘Where are our Leaders’, provides an excellent summary of what needs to be done.
As many of us are aware, the lack of effective communication from central government and associated authorities has created plenty of space for various merchants of doubt, anti vaxers, anti maskers etc to thrive. Surveys from numerous countries show that most of the population are uninformed or more likely mis-informed. Meanwhile the amount of nonsense being spouted by the media, so called informed people and in some cases medical professionals is truly staggering.
And despite all the evidence of damage done to the body and the immune system by Covid infections, people seem not to want to acknowledge that the reason they are sprouting new illnesses, persistent infections or that their existing conditions have become worse, could well be to do with Covid.
Therefore the first thing that needs to happen is for governments to take the lead in informing people:
Governments need to step up to correct the record loudly. The quiet warnings issued by the World Health Organization and some governments about the ongoing risks of COVID-1922,23 need to become much, much louder. People need to be made aware of the potential harms of each and every infection, and in addition to providing accurate information and closing the knowledge gap that is allowing merchants of doubt to flourish, governments need to take urgent action to address the root cause of the problem.
John Snow project
The John Snow project continues:
The social, economic and public health costs of maintaining the fiction that we can live normally by ignoring COVID-19 are simply too high for this “business as usual” situation to continue and the rate of attrition is too high for this to be sustainable.
John Snow project – see above
And we need to do the following:
We need a concerted push for properly matched, updated boosters108; clean air policies; respirators to be made the standard in healthcare settings long-term and in everyday society when COVID-19 levels are high; a massive public information campaign to encourage regular testing and isolation to minimize cases and harm; and investment in next-generation vaccines and therapies that will reduce the threat posed by COVID-19. We also need massive investment in Long Covid therapies to help those already harmed by SARS-CoV-2.
This absurd pretense cannot continue. Many people already know it in their hearts. But who will be the leader brave enough to say it?
John Snow project – see above
These messages have been repeated in a number of New Year messages, including from the World Health Organisation, but none of them summarise it all as succinctly as the John Snow project.
What happens next will be interesting. From a UK perspective I am not particularly optimistic despite this being the day when people are meant to be. Even if they were so minded, the level of mistrust in our leaders is at an all time high. I am afraid I think it would take something catastrophic to happen to force the kind of changes that are required. I hope I am wrong.
In the meantime stay safe and have a good new year!
Over the next few days I will be publishing a blog about my aunt, who had she been alive, would have been a great advocate for clean air given her experiences as a TB nurse and her world war 2 service in India and the Far East. I will also be doing something I have been meaning to do for some weeks, which is to update my most read blog on ‘Avoiding Covid’.
Living on Plague Island 
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