Issue: 111 – 10 November 2020
Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine
This could be the only good Covid-19 news we have had in a very long time. Regulators have still not approved the vaccine though, but allegedly this will happen soon. According to DHSC guidelines issued in September 2020, the top priority list for those being given the vaccine is older adults resident in care homes and care home workers, 80 years of age and over and health and social care workers, 75+, 70+. 65+, and high risk adults under 65.
The Government has an agreement with Pfizer to buy 30 million doses, with 10 million due by the end of December 2020.
Very Steep Rise in Secondary School Covid-19 Infection Rates
The National Education Union (NEU) has analysed Covid-19 infection data published by the Office for National Statistics. The NEU states that Infection rates in Secondary schools in England are an astonishing 50 times higher since September 2020. In Primary schools the rise is nine times. The NEU maintains these figures clearly show that schools are engines for virus transmission.
The NEU recommends schools staying open only for children of key workers and for vulnerable children during Covid-19 lockdown. The NEU membership is 450,000 teachers, lecturers, educational support staff and leaders. More at:
As a postscript to this, when I researched infection rates across many Ealing neighbourhoods on 9 November 2020 the three highest rates were in neighbourhoods containing secondary schools – Northolt South (349 cases/100,000), Southall Green (310.1) and Cuckoo Park, Hanwell (280.9).
Hospitals are Breeding Grounds for Covid-19 Infections
On 9 November 2020, ‘ITV’ reported that of the 12,903 new Covid-19 cases between 18 September and 18 October 2020. 1,772 were acquired in hospital. Of the 700 new hospital cases in south east England, 23% were contracted in hospital.
It seems for all kinds of reasons hospital staff and patients are not being tested on a regular basis. By 20 November 2020, allegedly, all patient-facing NHS staff will be asked to test themselves at home twice a week with results available before coming to work.
Covid-19 Lockdowns Impacting the Mental and Emotional Health of Young People
The NSPCC AND Childline are both reporting increasing telephone and counselling sessions. Young people are increasingly presenting with feelings of isolation, anxiety, insecurity and eating and body image disorders. More at:
Is Covid-19 Population Testing (Mass-Screening of Asymptomatic People) in Liverpool Simply the Wrong Thing to Do?
80 test centres and 2,000 troops involved. This sounds expensive. But will it ‘work’? Professor Allyson Pollock, a recognised Public Health expert, has her doubts. On 3 November 2020, as part of the Government’s £100 billion ‘Operation Moonshot’, population-wide Covid-19 testing of asymptomatic people in Liverpool was announced. Eight test centres opened on 6 November 2020.
Professor Pollock has pointed out that this initiative is at odds with the SAGE advice of 10 September 2020 and with the current World Health Organisation (WHO) guidance. SAGE and WHO favour prioritising the rapid testing of symptomatic people, contact tracing and identification of infection clusters. Her concerns about the Liverpool pilot include:
- a diversion of public money and resources. The OptiGene tests have cost £323 million.
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the use of inadequately evaluated Covid-19 tests (direct LAMP test (OptiGene) and a lateral flow assay (Innova)
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WHO evaluations of similar tests suggest between 1% and 5% of people without infection may get false positive readings. (With 392,000 adults in Liverpool these false positives could number anything between 3,920 to 19,600 adults)
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there is no evidence demonstrating that Covid-19 mass screening can achieve benefit cost-efficiency
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smaller pilot studies should have been carried out first before launching a massive pilot study of 498,000 people. (Allegedly a pilot was carried out in Manchester and it was found that half of the infections were missed).
More at:
The ‘Sunday Times‘ of 8 November 2020 leaked that three towns would be added to the mass-testing project. One is thought to be in The Midlands and one in the south of England. This would add another 100,000 people to be regularly tested.
Reduced Support for the Homeless in Lockdown 2
During Lockdown 1 many homeless people were put up in hotels, hostels and other forms of accommodation. This Government funded ‘Everyone In’ strategy was deemed to be successful in saving lives and reducing Covid-19 infections rates during Lockdown 1.
Now it appears that money is running out to support the homeless and getting them off the street during Lockdown 2. Almost half of the night sleepers in London are foreign nationals and under the October 2020 post-Brexit legislation they could face deportation if found sleeping in the street.
One week into Lockdown 2
On day one of Covid-19 National Lockdown 2 (5 November 2020), I researched the following Ealing Covid-19 infection rates per 100,000 people. A week later I did this again:
Southall Park: 265.3 became 244.1
Ealing Broadway: 247.6 became 281.4
Acton Central: 147.8 became 113.7
West Ealing: 132.9 became 122.9
A very small sample I know, but in three out of the four neighbourhoods the rate had fallen.
Government’s Vaccine Taskforce Chair Spends £670,000 on Public Relations
Kate Bingham, Chair of the Government’s Vaccine Taskforce, has allegedly hired eight Admiral Associates public relations consultants at £167,000/year each. Ms Bingham, a qualified biochemist and venture capitalist, was hired by the Government in May 2020. She is married to Jesse Norman MP. Bizarrely she reports directly to Prime Minister Johnson.
Town/Hospital Based NHS Activist Groups Slowly Being Marginalised
Three main factors at work here. Firstly the demolition of local CCGs. In 2018/19 there were 195 of them. By 1 April 2021 they will all have been closed down and ‘replaced’ be some 42 regional CCGs. Secondly, the Covid-19 response National Lockdown 2 has shifted commissioning from local, through regional, to a national undertaking. Thirdly, Covid-19 has allowed NHS bodies and Local Authorities to remove citizens from any effective, real time involvement in statutory body public meetings. In Ealing, for example, virtual, public Council care meetings employ MS-Teams software in a restricted, unhelpful fashion.
NHS NWL EPIC
On 17 December 2019 In NHS North West London (NWL) a public engagement initiative called ‘EPIC’ was launched at a workshop. 80 people attended of whom 34 were ‘patients’. EPIC is being used ‘to gather public opinion about local and NHS activities, involving ‘local residents in shaping and co-producing our services’. NHS NWL EPIC has built a ‘Citizen’s Panel’ of 4,000 north west London residents. The make up of the panel is allegedly representative of the 2.5 million residents in the region. I applied to join this panel but my application was ignored. Another EPIC Citizen’s panel meeting – this time a virtual one – was held 27 October 2020. In this meeting the idea of a ’Patient Forum in each borough’ was floated. The local Healthwatch, the local Council and the local voluntary sector would be invited. No timescale was set and it’s obvious that the forums would have no statutory significance whatsoever.
Public Involvement Charter (PIC)
EPIC is also developing its own ‘Public Involvement Charter’ (PIC). The PIC has admirable intentions and ‘core values’ – ‘the right to be involved, influence, improving outcomes, inclusion, engagement as residents want, information and transparency’. And all this as ‘we move more towards the (non-statutory) Integrated Core System (ICS)’.
With all the generosity I can muster, I find the non-statutory EPIC, Citizen’s Panel and the Public Involvement Charter to be underwhelming, likely to be expensive and probably a complete waste of NHS and citizen’s time.
Eric Leach