If you listened to the news and our politicians you would think that the word Covid had been banned from use. Four years ago the country was in turmoil as a result of Covid. Now, it is as if there is a determined campaign to prove that Covid no longer happens by simply pretending that it does not exist.
It does still exist. One of my sons, who does not live with me, happens to have it right now. That is unsurprising. There is, as Prof Christina Pagel, who came to public prominence over this issue, has noted on her Substack a new and significant wave of Covid going on right now. This is the data on hospital admissions:
Scotland still monitors wastewater for Covid. The UK does not. This is their data:
There is, as the evidence shows, a lot of Covid about, despite vaccinations. And, there are real consequences of that.
As Prof Pagel says on her blog:
England is in the middle of a large Covid wave, hopefully just starting the downward slope. Hospital admissions are lower than they were during 2023 peaks, and fortunately this wave came not long after the Spring booster campaign which will have protected many in our most vulnerable populations.
Although it's good that hospital admissions are nowhere near what they were at the pandemic's height, waves of infection are never good news. Many people will be off work while sick and some (perhaps 1-2% of infected people) will go on to develop new Long Covid. The percentage developing new Long Covid has come down because of vaccination and previous infection, but it is not zero and there are still few effective ways to treat Long Covid.
It is also self evident that Covid is in no way a winter respiratory bug - its behaviour is nothing like flu or RSV, the other main respiratory viruses that can cause severe illness and do every winter. While flu and RSV are pretty much confined to November to March, Covid waves can and do happen at any time of year. We are still in three to four waves a year, each causing some disruption to people's lives, employment and the NHS.
What she is not saying and which I will add are three things.
First, if Wes Streeting was as serious about healthcare as he claims, he would be talking about this and be demanding that there be data collected on it. It is a political scandal that this is not the case.
Second, if the government as a whole is serious about productivity it should be taking this seriously. It clearly is not, as no one is talking about it.
Third, it is absurd that the government ignores World Health Organisation warnings on this issue. They are, for example, suggesting that mask-wearing be mandatory on public transport, but no action is being taken on this.
We have, in that case, a new Health Secretary who seems unaware of one of the major reasons why we have a health crisis in this country and is happy to go along with the Tory propaganda on this issue, promoted to make it look as if Boris Johnson beat Covid. He did not. It has not been broken. Streeting needs to talk about Covid.
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A colleagues sons primary school is close to closing as the result of an outbreak
The whole world seems to have decided that ‘learning to live with Covid’ doesn’t mean altering our behaviour or built environment in any way, it means learning to accept much higher levels of illness in society.
I suppose the proven Covid outcome of reduced IQ helps significantly in accepting such an approach.
Much to agree with.
When do people go on hols? When do holiday flights peak? Is it possible that covid is amplified by mass travel?
I ask these questions because so of the charts suggestion correlation.
That is why Christmas is a mass spreader
I imagine the Olympics will be too.
One of our family had it a few weeks ago and was still testing positive on day 13.
Work were telling her she could come back after five days.
Both my wife and I also contracted it last month. I also tested positive for twelve days. I am more or less normal (for me) my wife has longer term effects and trying to get seen by a doctor. But that’s another story.
Get well soon
Surely it’s axiomatic that Scammer & Co are not going to engage with reality this should now be obvious. Take the affordable housing issue for example:-
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jul/12/labour-cannot-build-15m-homes-without-cash-for-affordable-housing-providers-say
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/11/first-edition-labour-housing-plan
How did we build so many homes postWW2?
This is a bit anecdotal, I haven’t read the book on the subject yet (Building the New Jerusalem by Paul Moldenberg), but my father’s recollections serve.
* Declare a national housing emergency.
* Charge local councils to find suitable land.
* Prohibit building for private ownership “for the duration”.
* Prohibit the sale of construction materials to the private sector “for the duration” except for proven repairs.
* Invite tenders from the private sector – make it Direct Labour.
* Pay the private sector an agreed price for completion to standard and time.
* End the emergency when appropriate but approve and supply materials to the private sector only on a “one-public to one-private” basis as needed.
Uses the powers of the State; was a policy from both Attlee and Macmillan; it puts nobody out of work; gets the job done; no artificial profit-pricing.
I’m just a dreamer…
But you’re not the ony one…
A lot of the homes were pre-fabs. Pre-fabrication? My aunt lived in one. She loved it. They were supposed to last about 10 years. They were still in use , to my certain knowledge in the 1970’s.
https://heritagecalling.com/2022/08/04/a-brief-history-of-prefabs/
Correction:
Building the New Jerusalem was written by Paul *Dimoldenberg*.
“Despite vaccinations”? -What vaccinations. I don’t know anyone who’s been offered one for at least a year and the cost, I understand, if you can find someone to offer one is prohibitive. And then, is the strain being vaccinated one that fits what’s going around?
I had an NHS vaccine in the last year
The guidelines state: COVID-19 is more serious in older people and in people with certain underlying health conditions. For these reasons, people aged 75 years and over, those in care homes, and those aged 6 months and over with a weakened immune system are being offered a spring dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
So if you are younger and healthy you weren’t offered one.
Very much agree, but the most troubling thing is that the supposedly independent professional @UKHSA is apparently part of what can only be described as a conspiracy – to downplay its presence, and to not say clearly the virus is airborne and that @WHO advice is to be cautious, to have clean air, to mask where appropriate, and to vaccinate more widely
Couple that with the BBC minimising and soothing pieces on their news website over the last two years – including their ‘health correspondents’ and we seem to be right in Orwellian territory of newspeak and Ignorance is Strength etc.
BBC have at least seen fit to ask if there is a summer wave – but only to reassure it doesnt really matter – despite several hospitals having reintroduced masks and restricted visiting. If they were doing even a minimal job of journalism – they would interview Christina Pagel, Stephen Griffin and or many others – but they just dont.
And the background is more sinister again – the Heritage Foundation in the US have promoted a world wide false narrative right from the beginning – ‘let it rip’ to get everyone infected to get herd immunity – against all the science before and since. And they had the ear of the govt from 2020 – meetings with Johnson etc .
The 400,000 extra people off work with long term sickness – is partly covid and its longer term effects on various organs of the body – cardio vascular and neurological damage etc.
Chomsky has written that getting tame ‘experts’ on board is part of it – Prof Hunter of University of East Anglia University is the most notorious at present – but there is a whole group who barely even query whatever govt decides to do or not to do. Must be something to do with funding, or prospects of preferrment – etc.
Apparently Andrew Gwynne MP who has been appointed public health minister has spoken about Long Covid etc… it will be interesting to see of he is brought into line or whether he will change this conspiracy of silence.
I expect he will have to tow the Streeting Starmer line – and nothing much will change.
Thank you for talking about Covid. I caught Covid in February 2023 and my life has not been the same since. I won’t bore you with all the details but I have come to the conclusion I have long Covid. For the last 18 months I have been part of a trial of a new Covid vaccine and my final visit to the clinic was a couple of weeks ago. I had a chat with one of the research team and I asked how the trial had gone and he outlined some of the problems. Covid testing is mainly done on hospital patients and the results show that Covid has not gone away and that it is not a seasonal thing. None of this has been reported in the main media and the spike in Covid cases which happened just before the election was not reported. Independent research has shown that 10% of people who have Covid go on to develop long Covid. The severity of the long Covid does not depend on the severity of the original Covid. A mild Covid infection could result in a severe long Covid and vice versa.
Having lived with long covid I can understand why people who have it are not able to go to work. They are not work shy they are ill and need a functioning NHS. It would appear that this will not happen under the new government. Covid is not the only issue which will be swept under the carpet.
God help us Tiny Tim
I had long Covid for about eight months in 2022/early 2023
It is a very real phenomena that left me well under par throughout that period
Just wait ’til H5N1 makes the jump to humans. Bird flu will make COVID look like a walk in the park. It’s not “if”, it’s “when”.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/100-times-worse-than-covid-experts-say-about-h5n1-bird-flu-pandemic/articleshow/109056379.cms?from=mdr
Good thing the government is so prepared, really does help me sleep at night…
I thought the most interesting part of this discussion is Derek Curless point that most Covid testing is done on hospital patients. I had something that started on Christmas Day 2023 and left me very much below par until the end of January. I don’t know what it was, it may have been whooping cough, it may have been Covid, but I wasn’t ill enough to see a doctor – being retired I don’t need a medical note. I don’t know where to get a Covid test, or if I would have to pay for it, or why I would bother doing so.
I am pretty sure that I am not alone in that attitude. So if Covid is still around, and it is pretty clear that it is, it is at very much higher levels than tests reveal.
Covid tests are £2 in our local pharmacy
I am told (by someone who has just returned and who caught covid from his sister there) that in Paris covid tests are free and are administered by staff.
Was just speaking to a member of our staff who caught COVID when I first did (March 2020) and her life has been ruined. She gets little support from the Long COVID clinic, and gets bounced between GP and hospital constantly. Working in a school, I’ve had it four times (confirmed) and once (unconfirmed). I have been left with mild deafness, mild hypertension and constant tinnitus. I’m a lucky one.
Are schools taking precautions? Are they hell.
I will be making a video on this ….
@ John Griffin
My tinnitus has worsened since Covid.
Information and assistance is here
https://tinnitus.org.uk/understanding-tinnitus/tinnitus-and-covid-19/tinnitus-and-covid-19-faqs/
I haven’t had any vaccinations.
Haven’t felt any flu type illness since omicron in late 21.
I also had what was the likely first one in January 20.
My siblings mother and relatives who have had the full series, and the extra flu vaccines have ALL had pretty severe infections in recent weeks and months. We are still trying to get tests and NHS scans for heart pains and various fluid blobs around their body – no diagnosis is being guessed at yet and scans are being delayed unless you have private medical insurance. They don’t. A scan is priced at between 500 and 2k!
Most people I socialise with have also suffered various illnesses.
The Euro Football gatherings obviously help spread anything that is going, in a room full of braying fans!
Expect the spike from the semis to start over the weekend and many will be just infectious that day and will not want to miss the game on Sunday.
Expect therefore plenty more infectionsof anything going by midweek. Don’t expect anything from this government except more bodies piled high; maximum privatisation of the remaining NHS and boot filling via the Medical and Pharma Industrial Complex’s. And War as brave Sir Starmztrooper is talking up in DC yesterday, as his first major policy announcement!
Plus ca change …
I must admit I always wear a mask when I go out and am especially careful on public transport. This has the additional advantage in that I have not had any colds.
I always wear a mask in a public place. I
just bought a N95 respirator masks which i highly recommend. I also carry a bottle of hand steriliser with me and wear gloves in public transport. I often get peculiar looks but it is better to be safe than sorry.
I wear masks when on trains. I rarely do so now in shops though. Perhaps I should.
You sorely should. Sadly shop workers are often exposed and sick of covid. It hits the least well off in society, and those are often those at the cutting edge of our low paod service sector.
What’s been happening in the UK and abroad is the complete and utter delusion that we can “live with Covid.” We’ve been actively encouraged to live like it’s still 2019, to travel, shop, work and socialise, to spend and behave like there’s nothing going on. To be honest, most people don’t notice what’s going on until you ask them about ongoing illness, early retirement, holiday plans curtailed yet again; the reply is a quick “but it’s not Covid” and so the denial continues. We know governments want to “grow the economy” and yet there’s a glaringly obvious flaw in this plan – you need consumers to consume, and they can’t do that if they’re incapacitated, unemployed, or dead.
People haven’t connected the dots yet although some are starting to wonder. You’d think businesses would have made the connection and implemented some long-term safety planning to protect their employees and their own financial interests? Aside from avoiding the immediate issue of sickness absence, businesses are affected by incapacitated staff who have expertise which cannot easily be replaced. There is a UKHSA-led block to disseminating knowledge to the public that SARS-CoV-2 can cause brain damage, major organ damage, circulatory damage, musculoskeletal damage and other long-term, likely incurable, harms. We worry about the “brain drain” of qualified, skilled and experienced people to other countries around the globe and yet we are ignoring the loss of knowledge, skills and experience as people struggle with the symptoms of Long Covid and who are unable to remain in the workforce.
We cannot continue to “live with Covid” like this: it’s not sustainable, we’re hastening our own demise.
Thanks
I have had it at least twice – March 2020 and December 2022 (we were still doing regular testing then in my choral world) – but I think possibly more. I have had tinnitus since the first time, plus reduced lung capacity and fatigue which was awful in 2020 -21 for many months and hasn’t entirely gone away. Also other health issues that appeared abruptly with round 1 and one or two extras with round 2, but haven’t been formally linked to CoVID as they could also be age related – I am a bit sceptical about that given the simultaneous onset in both cases. I don’t work full time now – and being past pension age, I don’t have to… but since CoVID #1 I wouldn’t have the stamina if I needed or wanted to (looking askance at some political figures my age or older who would be wise to look for a job share if they aren’t ready to retire).
Thanks
And go well
We totally missed the boat on seizing opportunities right at the start of Covid. It did not help that we were so critically unprepared with PPE of course. However, one of the things that should have been prioritized, during periods when businesses were closed, was to offer government grants to fit Hepa filters and UV lighting in pubs, shops, schools and all public spaces. Decades ago I remember that we had a shielded fixed UV lighting aray in the ED at Jackson Memorial and Hepa filters: this is not new tech! Yes, a huge investment, but it would provide genuine future proofing, because Covid and other viruses will return.
The second botched opportunity was that the government should have supplied the BBC with extra funding to create an entire new TV channel devoted to learning programs. Some of the learning material is already there c/o David Atenborough and several very engaging history presenters. This could have been filled in with creative programming to boost basic math and English skills. The ‘Bite-size’ presentations were pathetic, gimmicky as well as far too brief and fragmented to cover much essential learning.
Instead of hand-wringing over lack of laptops the government could have augmented our already world renowned BBC programing in multiple areas of learning. For some reason all the really interesting programs are relegated to late night on channel 4 when children are in bed; I am not sure why. If children in the outback have managed to learn remotely over the radio for decades, why not rely on the TV in almost every home? This programming could have been sold-on overseas; a really good investment in the future and in preparedness for another pandemic.
We cannot afford to ignore the harsh lesson of Covid and lapse into another extended period of complacency. The overuse of antibiotics, not just those prescribed by Doctors, but the ones prophylactically fed to animals that we consume. Another serious weakness is the lack of investment in researching and developing new antibiotics; Big Pharma would rather focus on the far more profitable ‘maintenance’ drugs. For profit healthcare presents a huge risk as those who are excluded from treatment represent the breeding ground for diseases that will wipe out millions. The NHS must remain accessible to all.
So much to agree with