covid-19
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A late summer Covid 19 wave?
Summary Just over two months ago I posed the question ‘Has Covid 19 gone away? On the basis of the latest evidence the answer seems to be a no. The UK and a number of other countries appear to be witnessing a rise in Covid 19 to the highest levels seen this year, though the… Continue reading
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Further Restrictions on who will be offered a free Covid-19 Booster proposed for Autumn 2027
Summary On 16 July the Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation (JCVI) published their recommendations on who should be entitled to a free Covid19 booster in Autumn 2027. The proposals amount to a further significant narrowing of entitlement and would mean that only those living in care homes for the elderly, those people immunosuppressed using… Continue reading
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Vaccines and Therapeutics- the success story of the Pandemic? Covid Inquiry Module Four report
On 16 April Baroness Hallett published her report on the Vaccines and Therapeutics programmes following on from public hearings held in the early weeks of 2025. The overall message is that the programmes were a success, but there were also problems . Many of the issues encountered by clinically vulnerable families are picked up in… Continue reading
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Covid Inquiry Report On Healthcare Systems – Module Three
The long awaited Covid Inquiry report of the investigations into the healthcare systems (module 3) appeared on 19 March 2026 following on from ten weeks of public hearings held in the Autumn of 2024. This blog discusses the key findings and recommendations and outlines why this represents a major victory for the Clinically Vulnerable Families… Continue reading
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Early 2026 Update on the UK Covid Inquiry.
Last year was an exceptionally busy year at the Covid Inquiry. Public hearings were held on no fewer than six of the 10 modules. In addition the major report of modules 2, 2a, 2b and c on political decision making was published in November 2025. This short blog focuses in the main on what has… 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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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
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 