COVID testing

Have been carrying out COVID19 testing at work today.  In the last seven or so days, we have lost four staff, but thanks to the way testing for COVID-19 has been improved, we have got two back already and one more is returning tomorrow.

But today we tested frontline workers.  I was one of the volunteers for testing and carried all (but my own) out.  Not all got tested, but some of us did as a way of the health service trying to find out how many people in the NHS are working but are asymptomatic carriers.

The procedure was uncomfortable and carried a risk of spreading infection in itself.  Also it was meant to have been carried out yesterday but we were not sent the samples.  And now it is a wait for the results.  Considering how we are monitoring temperatures at work now, I doubt that anyone will be found to be a carrier.

Vaccines Work

Vaccines work.  They have saved lives and reduced the burden of illness and disability.  We know this due to several things.  One is how Obama has harmed vaccination programs.  Another is the eradication of Smallpox.

Obama did many things as US president, Like Trump, some of this was good and some of it was not so.  When the USA assassinated Osama bin Laden in Operation Neptune Spear, they obtained information on this presence through a hepatitis vaccination programme allowing them to obtain DNA evidence of his presence.  Militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan started to attack healthcare workers who had been trying to eradicate polio and one of the reasons for this was the perception that healthcare workers were continuing to aid the USA.  Vaccination rates dropped and the rates of polio increased.  But when vaccination rates increased, the cases of polio fell.  Likewise, falling vaccination rates due to increasing unrest have resulted in more cases of polio in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.  To be fair to Obama, he cannot be blamed for all of this as extremists there have been spreading lies and fake news about vaccinations.  

My next example of how vaccinations work is smallpox.  Put simply, it is not seen anymore.  And that is thanks to vaccination.  Those who are against vaccination claim that there are other reasons for the end of smallpox, this including hygiene measures.  But while other diseases have continued in areas of poor hygiene, smallpox has been eradicated.

At present in the world, many are hoping that a vaccination to COVID-19 will be developed.  An effective and safe vaccine may not be possible though.  Even trials into this have been subject to fake news with reports being shared that the main volunteer into this has died.  If Dr Elisa Granato has, she has been able to speak from beyond the grave to state that she is alive!

RIP Dr Mirza

Sadly a local GP has died.  I had only met him a few times but was surprised to find that he was in his 80’s as I assumed that he was about twenty years younger.  Well respected in the area, COVID-19 got him.

My own exposure to patients has increased.  In the last week I have seen more patients in a face to face role than I did last month.  I do have access to PPE, this being a simple fluid resistant mask, a bin liner apron, gloves and if I feel it is needed, a visor.  We are taking temperature measurements at work from everyone daily, but have lost two others this week.  Thanks to testing, the symptomatic members of their households will find out if they are carrying the plague or not and hopefully they will be back soon.

With lockdown easing, I know that not only am I seeing more patients, but the numbers of those infected by COVID is to increase.  I know that others have faced much more risk than me, but I know that the odds that I face are getting worse.

Every time I go to work, I am rolling the dice and I have no desire to join Dr Mirza as another local healthcare worker who has died in this pandemic.

Anyway, he was respected and I am even more impressed with him now that I know how old he was. May he rest in peace.

Is it right for an unarmed jogger to be shot in broad daylight just for running on the road

In the UK, people can now exercise outside the home as much as they want.  Which will mean more joggers being out and about.  And in these times of the plague, some joggers are considerate and give pedestrians a fair bit of distance as they jog past.  Others, not so much.

In the USA, an unarmed man was shot when jogging.  He allegedly decided to assault an armed man who shot him.  This was a few months ago but this has come to the public eye as a video recording of the incident from a dash cam was released.  It just happened that the unarmed man was black and the men who killed him were white.  Well one man killed him, the other could be argued to be an accessory.  There is an argument by some that there was a racial element to this and the crime that took place was running when black.  But I think that race should be ignored.

Ultimately the question to ask is if it is right for an armed man to kill an unarmed jogger.  As you can see, some think that it is acceptable, stating that he had a criminal past and was seen in a building site before.  Interestingly, it has been argued that it was right to pull him over for he crime of assaulting the man who pulled him over.  That reminds me of the film Minority Report, but the choice of film name will probably cause offence to some as well.

Yeah but no but yeah. Not Vicki Pollard, but our Prime Minister, Boris Johnson

pic.twitter.com/k6Sr4Iac15

— realmattlucas (@RealMattLucas) May 10, 2020

We in the UK are lucky.  No matter how much our Prime Minister screws things up, we can always look to Brazil and the USA for leaders who are more incompetent.  And while the government has got some things right (such as sourcing ventilators and building the Nightingale hospitals), and may be right in the long term when it comes to the policy of herd immunity, it has got many things wrong, an example of this being PPE.

In hindsight, we could say that the government should not have built the Nightingale hospitals but at the time, this of making the decision, based on the information available, this was the right thing to do.  Also, while letting the public know how measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 were to be put in place in advance, we can now say that the 'leak' about how lock-down measures were to be loosened before this bank holiday weekend was a bad idea.  Let alone how alcohol appears to have resulted in worsening social distancing measures on VE day.

But last night, the television address by the Prime Minister was a shambles.  Letting employers know that people are to return to work literally the night before the change comes into effect was insane.  It would have been far better to let employers know about this before the bank holiday weekend so that they would have had more notice along with employees.  Saying that, while we were told that the changes are to take effect today, it now appears that they are not.  And the advice on who we can or cannot meet now, or is it in the future, is also unclear.

A good thing about the performance of the Prime Minister is that it has taken our attention away from the message to Stay Alert.  The message to stay at home to protect the NHS was been a simple one and due to this it is to be kept by Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  The change in message indicated that lock-down measures are to be relaxed, but due to the incompetence at which the message was changed to this unclear form, we should have been warned that the message would be shared in as incompetent a manner. 

There are ways to present a message to the nation.  This is one of them.  Boris should learn from this message how to present himself as a Prime Minister.  It is a shame we have a buffoon in charge when the man who should be Prime Minister is not.

I think I hate squirrels

Today was spent relaxing mostly.  After my post last night, my wife and I watched Kinky Boots. But it as late we went to bed and on waking this morning, finished it.  I loved it, and while the film was a predictable feel good film. I liked it for the quality of acting and the background in which the film was set.  It is not often that the topic of drag queens is in film, and while this does not match up to films like The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert and The Birdcage, it still was an enjoyable film.

I also after watched Clone Wars with my son, relaxed with my wife in the garden went for a bike ride, and started to watch Attack of the Clones with the kids.  My son decided that he did not want to watch it as he had watched it recently but watched the first part before heading for bed.  My daughter is now in bed so we may finish it tomorrow.

And I fed the birds, my wife had made some lovely sandwiches for lunch and we still had some left over from yesterday.  So the bread from yesterday’s sandwiches and the crusts from lunch went to the birds. I have some big balls as well so took them out to feed them.  Only to find that the squirrels had somehow managed to get into a caged feeder.  My wife and I had seen one running across the lawn with what appeared to be a bird ball.  I discounted it because there was no way into the feeder, or so I thought.  But they had managed to get into it, and take out the ball of food.  I hate the little gits, but I am impressed that they were able to do this.  Very impressed.

VE day

Today was VE Day.  I got to see the fly past by the Red Arrows, my son missed it completely but my wife and daughter got to hear it.  My wife was amazing and prepared an amazing lunch, and afternoon tea, which our street had in driveways and front gardens, most of us socially distancing while doing so.

We listened to music from the war, my son having had downloaded some music which we listened to before the music from one of our neighbours drowned it out.  As you can see, some dressed up much more than us, but it was lovely to see the street our like this.  Most of us do get outside for the 2000 Key Worker clap, which still touches me, but this lasted longer than a minute.

Afterwards my daughter and I went out for a walk which was almost an hour and while my wife attended her book club using Zoom, the kids and I watched The Phantom Menace.  I have not watched it in a while, and once I felt that it was not up to the standards of the original three films. I still think that, but it is much better than episodes seven to nine in terms of writing, just not in the direction.