The UK had a fairly small but significant COVID wave over early Summer due to the arrival of the FLIRT variants. As expected it then dropped down during the last few weeks of the English school Summer holidays, but it has started to creep back up already. No rest for the wicked.
This peak and drop was reflected in hospital admissions with COVID, which peaked in England in July at their highest level since January, but fell by 45% in August.
The latest round of the UK COVID Inquiry has begun, focussing on the impact of the pandemic on healthcare systems - and the reality for all of those involved. The humans.
It will look at patients, NHS staff, and delivery of healthcare - including vaccinations, management, GPs, backlogs and Long COVID.
Chair Baroness Heather Hallett we must learn from the inquiry, otherwise the next pandemic will "bring with it immense suffering and huge financial cost, and the most vulnerable in society will suffer the most".
Proceedings began with a 20 minute "impact video" featuring patients, families, the NHS staff and other caregivers.
Author and broadcaster Michael Rosen was shown discussing his time in intensive care.
He recalled being asked by staff to "sign a piece of paper to let us put you to sleep".
When he asked whether he would wake up, he was told he would have a "50/50" chance.
I think that probably gives us all a sharp slap of reality.
They're all people.
Staying with the COVID Inquiry, and the fallout from it...
"The report Behind the Masks; Corruption red flags in COVID-19 public procurement identifies 135 contracts that we believe carry a high risk of corruption. Altogether, these contracts represent a staggering £15.3 billion of public funds—nearly a third of all pandemic procurement by value. To put this into perspective, that figure is almost equivalent to the entire annual Home Office budget."
Transparency International UK have released a report into COVID pandemic spending.
Over the first 3 years of the pandemic the UK spent £41.8 BILLION on the response.
£4.1bn was given to suppliers with political connections to the Tory party. Many of these contracts did not go through 'due diligence' checks and and instead were fast tracked through the infamous 'VIP' and 'high priority lanes' which have since been deemed illegal.
The Department for Health wrote off £15bn on unused personal protective equipment (PPE), COVID tests and vaccines. This includes at least £1 billion worth of substandard unusable PPE.
We weren't told about at least 141 high-value contracts (worth a total of £5 billion) until a year after they were awarded – far beyond the 30-day legal requirement.
They wasted our money, and now we are in a financial hole it will take years to climb out from.
In "more reports to tell us how messed up and underfunded the NHS has become" professor Lord Darzi has completed a report on NHS, which will be used to inform the government’s 10-year plan to reform the health service.
(Spoiler, it's pretty damning.)
Lord Darzi is an independent peer and practising surgeon with 30 years’ experience in the NHS, so he isn't someone sitting in an office talking about something he knows nothing about. He examined over 600 pieces of analysis from DHSC, NHS England and external organisations during his investigation.
Lord Darzi says he's shocked by what he's found out, not only the state of the NHS, but also the nation's health as a whole.
Key points include:
- NHS and other healthcare staff are working harder than ever, but productivity is going down and patients are waiting far too long, far too often.
- Operational processes are overwhelmed. Care, nursing and clinical staff spend hours trying to find beds using out of date I.T., or discover beds and wards have been axed, leaving patients spending hours or days waiting in limbo for the care they actually need.
"In the last 15 years, the NHS was hit by three shocks - austerity and starvation of investment, confusion caused by top-down reorganisation, and then the pandemic which came with resilience at an all-time low. Two out of three of those shocks were choices made in Westminster."
- The "top down" approach has to end, and care needs to be put back into the hands of NHS staff and patients (too many managers and not enough actual healthcare).
His 3 main recommendations for change are:
1. We need to move from analogue to digital and create a smooth, intelligent digital service...
Paperwork and computer data don't work well in unison (details of one of my failed operations still only exist on paper in a hospital storeroom, so looking at my computer files or even my paper notes suggests it never even happened). By investing in technology there are a million possibilities for spotting oddities, risks and illnesses we don't need to miss, sending out letters, appointments and requests, organising schedules and appointments, and then medical staff can get on with their real jobs.
2. We’ve got to shift more care from hospitals to communities…
We have become too reliant on hospitals for things which should be cared for before that point. Social care, health centres and GP's are a much better place to catch ailments early when they aren't so serious or expensive to deal with, or prevent them happening at all.
3. We’ve got to be much bolder in moving from sickness to prevention...
We need to look long. Short term sticking plaster solutions might give great looking headlines, but don't actually help anyone. A great example is teeth. No-one can get an NHS dentist, but bad mouth health can lead to, or increase risk of, Cancers, heart disease, strokes, premature births, dementia, pneumonia, kidney disease, low self esteem and depression, and about a million other things. Prevention is always better than cure.
Lord Darzi makes the point that just throwing money randomly won't fix this, but the NHS still has a heartbeat and can recover.
"It took more than a decade for the NHS to fall into disrepair so it’s going to take time to fix it. But we in the NHS have turned things around before, and I’m confident we will do it again."
Teachers in Scotland have voted to accept a new pay offer of 4.27%. Teachers in England accepted 5.5% in July, they accepted 5.5% in Wales this week, and in Northern Ireland they came to an agreement in April.
We hear lots on the news about Western countries at war, or countries with which our Governments have close arrangements, but less about poorer nations. Civil war broke out in Sudan on 15th April 2023, when Government, military and paramilitary forces began fighting.
"Currently, 3.6 million children in Sudan are acutely malnourished, with 730,000 suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
The ongoing conflict has exacerbated food insecurity, making it increasingly difficult to deliver essential nutrition and health services to vulnerable populations."
World Health Organisation (WHO)
In light of the Mpox outbreak in DRC and beyond, today the World Health Organisation announced they've established an access and allocation mechanism for over 3.6 million pledged Mpox vaccines, plus treatments and testing. They believe if the correct people are targetted, this outbreak can still be contained and halted before it spreads worldwide or kills many more people.
It is incredibly hard to get any sort of clear figures regarding Mpox, as many of the patients and medical staff involved do not have access even to basic testing. All they can really do is count all known or suspected Mpox cases, including more severe Clade 1 and endemic Clade 2. All evidence suggests the mutated (easier to pass human to human) Clade 1b variant is responsible the current outbreak.
Moderna are currently working on an mRNA Mpox vaccine. First round lab-based trials have been successful and a phase 1 and 2 human trial is now underway.
The HPAI H5N1 (Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza) outbreak in US dairy herds continues, and you may have seen in the news that a human patient in Missouri has been diagnosed with H5N1, but has "no immediate known animal exposure" - no contact with dairy herds, poultry or wild birds. They are the 14th human to be infected with H5 variant bird flu virus in the US this year. So far we still have no indication there is human to human transmission, but obviously that is what all the scientists are watching for. This patient could simply be a random one-off, the needle in the haystack.
The current total infected dairy herds stands at 203 across 14 states.
California is still the only state which appears to be taking a proactive approach. They are bulk testing tanks of milk, and revisiting infected herds to look at whether any of the herd were sold to different farms prior to positive tests, and whst equipment or staff moved between infected and other farms. They are actively looking for H5N1 in order to stop the virus spreading. It means their stats don't look great right now, with 8 infected herds reported in the last 2 weeks, but ultimately it has to be the sensible thing to do.
Remember kids, if you don't test, you are only pretending you don't have cases
"The polio vaccination campaign in south Gaza has concluded with over 446,000 children being vaccinated since the start of the campaign on 1st September.
Five health facilities will continue offering polio vaccination to make sure no child is missed.
We are grateful to the families for their cooperation, and to all vaccinators and health workers for their dedication.
Continuation of humanitarian pauses is key to complete the campaign successfully across the Gaza Strip. The preparation for the start of the vaccination campaign in northern Gaza are ongoing.
The children in Gaza deserve lasting peace, not just polio vaccines."
Dr Tedros, WHO.
After a child became severely ill and Polio was discovered in a water source, they moved quickly. WHO vaccinated 446,000 children in under 10 days. 44,600 each day. That is staggering, well done to whoever organised that.
The UK NHS has rolled out their new RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) jab. RSV causes breathing problems and hospitalises 20,000 of our most vulnerable people each year. Pregnant women and older adults aged 75 to 79 will be offered the jab along with your flu jab.
On 10th September it was World Suicide Prevention Day. This is a subject which is very important to me and my family, so some of the images included reflect that. Every person is important, including you. The world is better with you in it.
It is the weekend - hurrah! It's just over 2 weeks since I fell down the loft stairs and I still cannot sit straight due to my swollen and bruised derriere - so let that be a warning to you. Thankfully I can sit in the car without a pillow now, and I no longer look like I'm attempting to smuggle a couple of beach balls, so normality is returning. I think I've earned a treat, and I think you have too - don't forget to spoil yourself. I've got some luscious deep conditioner to put on my hair tomorrow evening, and I'm going to light a fire and watch movies in my pyjamas. We moved house 5 weeks ago and have hardly had a moment off since, so it'll be a welcome break. A treat doesn't have to be expensive or complicated, sometimes it just has to be what you really need.
Have a good weekend, I'll be back in a couple of weeks...
Be Careful On Stairs. Start Preparing Your Home For Winter. Save The NHS.
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Sources:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
Images
Rsv image
https://x.com/UKHSA/status/1830628776289481197?t=oZQn9yJoaU0TPoNnTk565Q&s=09
World Suicide Prevention Day Images
https://x.com/MindCharity/status/1833369815224094943?t=vA4UzKl5EWsB67eDi8-4nQ&s=09
https://x.com/mentalhealth/status/1833445261823156669?t=vA4UzKl5EWsB67eDi8-4nQ&s=19
https://x.com/chris_davison1/status/1833462839144570908?t=BxsGlb9UWkDXWMMkZrQ16A&s=19
It can't be the best of times forever, nor can it be the worst of times forever.
You WILL be missed.
Needing help doesn't make you unusual, and it definitely doesn't make you a burden.
We can spend infintely longer worrying about something than we can spend doing it.
No-one can cope with everything at once. Nibble at it in bitesize pieces.
You are enough.
The world is better with you in it.
I can give you a million reasons to stay, but you have to be able to see they are true.
Hospital admissions and cases
https://x.com/chrischirp/status/1834288960459166114?t=PRsujm9zcWRTdnsK5YcdSg&s=19
https://x.com/ActuaryByDay/status/1834152226069099003?t=ZXzVvSwN3S8jTRZGZPF4kw&s=09
Covid inquiry
Covid inquiry: Author Michael Rosen
https://x.com/MichaelRosenYes/status/1833082766172315720?t=BTG9vI57bhNYMASn1AEncQ&s=09
https://www.upday.com/uk/covid-inquiry-michael-rosen-says-he-was-given-50-50-chance-of-survival-in-intensive-care
https://www.upday.com/uk/uk-covid-19-inquiry-to-examine-impact-of-pandemic-on-healthcare
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cm2n3vp24jet?page=3
Campaigners highlight corruption concerns over Covid contracts
https://www.upday.com/uk/campaigners-highlight-corruption-concerns-over-covid-contracts-as-inquiry-returns
Lord Darzi NHS report
https://x.com/BBCHughPym/status/1834107850739581209?t=Gl0uWP6M6okQfkcZi11Nwg&s=09
Oral health
Teachers
https://www.upday.com/uk/teachers-vote-to-accept-improved-pay-offer
Sudan
https://x.com/WHO/status/1833179958610370772?t=8YKCqOoptLfBb0D854rSDg&s=09
Mpox
https://x.com/HelenBranswell/status/1831348249950564848?t=HlyhNayCu6NzGjmQ1lPSZA&s=09
https://www.who.int/news/item/13-09-2024-who-and-partners-establish-an-access-and-allocation-mechanism-for-mpox-vaccines--treatments--tests
Bird flu pandemic warning amid case with no animal exposure
H5N1
And thursday Helen Branswell's opinion
https://x.com/HelenBranswell/status/1834276697790673233?t=MHY9UJlIzcHdB2GmAUogHg&s=19
Bird flu latest:
https://x.com/HelenBranswell/status/1834293820441133149?t=ntoKnCPjiiMkS1w2nqSl7Q&s=09
Polio vaccination, Gaza
https://x.com/DrTedros/status/1833139192479494319?t=0YAY5KiBNZaF_HT9NlNekw&s=09
https://x.com/DrTedros/status/1831251117935595998?t=_4P1Y26ixscOVL7DQSH2Ng&s=09
now add measles
https://www.statnews.com/2024/09/06/gaza-polio-measles-vaccine-drive-who-unicef/
RSV
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