covid-19
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It’s Still Airborne!
My previous post – It’s airborne – response to Minister for Public Health discussed the impasse in making headway in improving the safety of air in hospitals and other healthcare settings in order to reduce staff sickness and the number of people who get infected, sometimes dying, attending healthcare. The following quote sums up the Continue reading
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Midwinter Update on the Covid Inquiry and more
Covid Inquiry The last three weeks have been very busy at the inquiry with 48 witnesses plus opening and closing statements from core participants crammed into twelve and half days of hearings. Issues covered included: As usual Jim Reed has done a good job in producing weekly podcasts overviewing the proceedings – listen to podcasts Continue reading
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It’s Airborne! Response to Minister for Public Health
Update 9 February 2025. The Minister for Public Health was sacked yesterday and also suspended from the Labour Party. This was not for his stance on the airborne transmission of Covid, but for a series of offensive WhatsApp messages written in 2019. It is a remarkable coincidence, or perhaps something slightly sinister, that on Friday Continue reading
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In the Eye of the Storm
As the Covid Inquiry is about to begin module 4 hearings, and nearly two weeks into 2025, the NHS, is as predicted, overwhelmed with patients suffering from flu and other viruses and illnesses. As well as truly distressing stories from the front line this has brought the usual flurry of misinformed pieces spouting the benefits Continue reading
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Happy 2025?
The approach of the five year anniversary of the start of the Covid-19 pandemic provides an opportunity to reflect on the previous year and look forward to the new. In my blog post Happy 2024 I called for far more proactive public health communication about the dangers posed by Covid-19 and better preparedness for the Continue reading
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The Covid Inquiry: Reflections on the Healthcare Module
The final hearing of the longest module of the Covid Inquiry, module 3, took place on 28 November 2024. This part of the Inquiry covering healthcare in England, Scotland, Wales and Norther Ireland, heard from 96 witnesses in total, and considered nearly quarter of a million pages of evidence. It has been a rollercoaster ten Continue reading
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Further Narrowing of Entitlement to Covid-19 Vaccines proposed
Yesterday the Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation (JCVI) set out proposals for who will be entitled to a free Covid-19 vaccine booster in 2025 and 2026. Whist entitlements to the spring booster remains largely unchanged, there is a very significant proposed narrowing of who will be able to get a vaccine booster in Autumn Continue reading
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UK Heath and Security Agency (UKHSA) Make up the data!
On Thursday 10 October the UKHSA announced plans for a series of weekly updated graphs about so called ‘winter viruses’, based on data that is already available. So far so good – there is nothing wrong with presenting data more clearly in graphic form. Except it was not OK. The post has now been removed Continue reading
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Covid-19 Autumn Booster Campaign
My previous post, Submission to the Treasury on forthcoming budget and spending review was highly critical of the plans for the 2024 Covid-19 Autumn booster campaign, particularly the further narrowing of entitlement to a free vaccine, including the exclusion of informal carers and household members of the clinically vulnerable. However, one of the issues that Continue reading
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How to Avoid Catching Covid
This blog is a revised and updated version of my previous blog on this subject which was published May 2023. The vast majority of the population of the UK have had at least one confirmed or suspected Covid infection. This reflects the fact that governments and authorities have allowed the virus to rip by failing 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 