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Increasing calls to improve protections against Covid in Healthcare
The last week has witnessed increasing calls, including from the BMA and RCN to improve safety measures to prevent the spread of Covid in healthcare settings. This follows on from a statement by WHO which classified Covid variant JN.1 as a variant of interests, which is being assessed. This was further fuelled by the publication… Continue reading
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The ONS Winter Covid-19 Infections Survey is published! (updated 12 and 20 January 2024 – see end)
UKHSA published the results of the Winter Covid-19 infections survey this morning 21 December. It paints an awful picture of soaring Covid-19 infections across England and Scotland. It is estimated that about 1 in every 24 had Covid at the week ending 13 December, with infections highest amongst younger adults and in London where it… Continue reading
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Vaccination against COVID-19 – Where did the UK policy go wrong?
In 2020 and 2021 the UK Government were keen to boost that they were world leaders in rolling out vaccination against Covid-19. It now seems like a very long time since those heady days of early 2021 when vaccination centres sprung up in the most unlikely of places across the country, staffed by NHS staff,… Continue reading
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The BBC Strikes Again: Complaint
This morning the BBC ‘struck again’ with an article on their News Website about Covid. Whilst the article does acknowledge that Covid is continuing to make people ill, sometimes for weeks, the BBC continues to avoid bringing in leading immunologists to comment. And they continue to cling onto the idea of achieving some kind of… Continue reading
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The ONS Winter Covid-19 Infection Survey – update
A previous blog ‘The new winter infection survey: light at the end of the tunnel” discussed proposals for a new slimmed down, more limited version of the previous infections survey in order to track the levels of Covid this winter. According to the ONS statistical release calendar, the first results were due to be published… Continue reading
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Is there an Immunity Debt?
The last few weeks have seen a frenzy of media reports about the clusters of pneumonia cases amongst children in parts of China and in the UK and elsewhere as well as a general rise in infections which the media has variously labelled’ long cold’, ‘new Covid’ and similar. These apparent rises in infections has… Continue reading
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Preventing Hospitalisations and Deaths – Antivirals
Antivirals are a key method of preventing clinically vulnerable people from being hospitalised and/or dying if they are unfortunate enough to catch Covid. Antivirals are often used in hospitals but drugs such as paxlovid are also available for some lucky people to use at home, although they need to be used in the early stages… Continue reading
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The Covid-19 Inquiry : Module 2 : Early November update
Last week was the start of what proved to be the most high profile week of public hearings of the inquiry so far. Several high profile figures appeared including Dominic Cummings. In this blog I briefly discuss the extraordinary nature of the hearings before moving on to discuss two key issues: 1. the lack of consideration… Continue reading
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Is Sweden a Shining Example?
A great deal has been written about Swedens approach to the pandemic. Indeed, critics of compulsory lockdown tend to grasp at the Swedish case as an example of how we should be approaching pandemic management in the future. But how good an example is Sweden? In an interview in the Telegraph recently, Jenny Harries, Head… Continue reading
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Protecting the Clinically Vulnerable in Healthcare settings
It is not rocket science to work out that healthcare settings are potentially dangerous places where Covid and other viruses can spread. Over the course of the pandemic measures aimed at making healthcare safe have been removed with the result that many clinically vulnerable families avoid attending healthcare settings in person. This blog discusses some… 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 