MEDICAL MATTERS

[plaques]

Just in case people may be thinking I'm taking a rather flippant attitude to the Coronavirus outbreak take at look at this documentary on the 1918 Spanish flu. Spanish Flu Rather a long documentary 40 minutes and a bit frightening but it goes a long way to explaining why China when faced with the unknown took such severe lockdown actions. Thanks to China we know more about its severity and how to deal with it. Total lockdowns appear to be an overkill, there I go again, there are so many unintended consequences the cure may be worse than the disease. As much as I generally rail against Johnson I think the overall approach is about right. Keep the more vulnerable people out of the way until the mechanisms for dealing with the illness are in place.

Is it me being cynical again, The Football association has stopped a number of matches taking place. Is this to protect the public or to protect their investment in players?

[Tizer]

How could we ever accuse you of being flippant, Plaques?

Another web page to put things in perspective. This is a service done for the UK government and available to the public, being updated frequently. It shows the number of confirmed cases in regions of the UK on the map. You can zoom in then click on your area and a little box pops up at the top to give you the figure...
Covid-19 Dashboard

From this I can see that, as of yesterday, there were only 2 confirmed cases in my county, Somerset. Lancashire showed only 6 cases. I know there will be unconfirmed cases but this map data shows that going for a walk is still low risk as long as you out in the fresh air and avoid the busy places!

[Whyperion]

Checking my Grandfathers WW1 record, it appears he had Flu , before the end of WW1, was returned to medical hospital in England, recovered, sent back to the frontish lines, then kept on after armatice day for british army having fun (!) in Egypt and other bits of the Middle East being sent back to England in 1920. That doesnt get taught, or mentioned in schools or headline history programs.

[Whyperion]

Isn't Chinatyke originally from Yorkshire? Seems OK is just about the highest compliment that can be givem, somewhere above You''ll Do.

[Whyperion]

Checking my Grandfathers WW1 record, it appears he had Flu , before the end of WW1, was returned to medical hospital in England, recovered, sent back to the frontish lines, then kept on after armatice day for british army having fun (!) in Egypt and other bits of the Middle East being sent back to England in 1920. That doesnt get taught, or mentioned in schools or headline history programs.

Update, BBC2 Now just repeated a programme on the 1918 Flu Pandemic. Oddly I cannot think of anyone in my family that was officially killed by the flu at that time - I might get around to re-finding my date lists If I can find the on the computer to check dates and ages to see if any look to that time. (cannot see any as such checking on ancestry quickly - maybe a few in the wider family. The british doctor who has reported surviving the Covid-19 sympton seems to have stated yesterday that the fever temperature appears higher than influenza. I wonder if there is any effect on survival rates of Smoking , and a more ? healthy diet. My local Chinese medical shop has A board out suggesting number of herbal remedies can assist the immune sytem , etc . in these Covid affected times.

[Marilyn]

Don’t get conned Whypey.
Think how many Chinese have died in the past 3 months.
Get a money back guarantee...in writing and in English!

[Stanley]

P. Since when was humour a danger to public health?

[chinatyke]

Isn't Chinatyke originally from Yorkshire? Seems OK is just about the highest compliment that can be givem, somewhere above You''ll Do.

Born in Earby! "Seems OK" is like "not bad"

Another woman was there this morning. This Alzheimers is a wonderful thing, I make new friends every day.

[Whyperion]

Don’t get conned Whypey.
Think how many Chinese have died in the past 3 months.
Get a money back guarantee...in writing and in English!

Its good marketing= how many Chinese didn't die!

[Stanley]

A thought... Much emphasis on hand washing.... What about keeping nails well trimmed and short?

[Tizer]

`Coronavirus: US volunteers test first vaccine' LINK
`The first human trial of a vaccine to protect against pandemic coronavirus has started in the US. Four patients received the jab at the Kaiser Permanente research facility in Seattle, Washington, reports the Associated Press news agency. The vaccine cannot cause Covid-19 but contains a harmless genetic code copied from the virus that causes the disease. Experts say it will still take many months to know if this vaccine, or others also in research, will work...'.

The reason they are getting on so fast with this is that they're not using the traditional methods of making vaccine from the actual live virus but instead creating segments of the appropriate virus DNA and using that to trigger an immune resposne. Although the company is in the US it's a Scottish woman who is the lead scientist. As the our Chief Medical Officer, Chris Witty, said on yesterday's announcement, Brits lead the world in biomedical science!

It's worth listening to this 18-minute Profile of Professor Chris Whitty on Radio 4... LINK
The coronavirus epidemic is a growing crisis for England's chief medical officer. This week he has faced criticism from journalists, politicians and public health specialists. Mark Coles finds out about the life and career of Professor Chris Whitty. He is a physician, a plague expert and an epidemiologist. But that's just for starters. He has also studied law, economics and business. But how will he cope with a role in the bright political spotlight?

[Whyperion]

I am told Israel has a vaccine supposedly ready to go to trial but were being held back for some reason in getting international regularatory approval, I have not seen or looked for anything to verify this assertion.

[Stanley]

See THIS Daily Mail report on work done at the University of Queensland. They are talking about human trials in June. As Tiz says, not based on virus but on genetic code. Hopeful!

[Wendyf]

Well, Col is heading to Burnley for his cystoscopy, things still going ahead as normal there at the moment. I would rather he didn't but he wants to get it out of the way.

[Wendyf]

All clear, but they want him back again next year.

[Tripps]

This has been up for three hours, but the national media don't seem to have noticed. Quite how many thousands of people, from all over the world, are going to get home any time soon with current travel restrictions is a mystery.

Cambridge University closes down.

[Tizer]

All clear, but they want him back again next year.

Great news, Wendy, especially when there's so much else going on at the moment.

Tripps, I agree that many of the Cambridge students from other countries will face a major problem. It would be better if they could stay where they are now because they're unlikely to get back where they came from for a while.

My cousin's husband is driving to Sheffield tomorrow to bring his older daughter home to Somerset. She's in her final year and they might as well bring all her belongings because she won't be going back there now. A strange way to end your final university year - no exams unless they can do it remotely! His younger daughter was due to take her GCSEs this summer and she's terribly upset; she's lost her weekend restaurant job too. Both girls are bright and were expected to excel in their exams.

[Sue]

A thought... Much emphasis on hand washing.... What about keeping nails well trimmed and short?

Initial statements said that too, but it seems to have got lost over the weeks

[Marilyn]

Hubby and I are going to go to the dedicated “older persons/disabled persons” shopping hour on Saturday.
Heavens above...I reckon we will all look like a starter colony for a new planet!

[Cathy]

[Stanley]

Wendy, I go for mine on Tuesday. I shall check to see if it is still on. Great news for Col, I am expecting another 3 week BCG course later in the summer. I look forward to when it is just an annual check!
David, par for the course now, inside a week everything will be on lock down. Full headless chicken syndrome has arrived but not yet spread to hungry kids and people with no income.

[Cathy]

Stanley, interesting that you should say that about humour on Forgotten Corners
My last day volunteering at the Hospital in the switchboard/emergency reception area, a staff m ember was reading out an email to staff, from the nurses manager. It was reminding staff not to forget their sense of humour and pointing out that health care workers have a different sense of humour from the norm - it helps them cope. It went on to say that it comes from being surrounded by germs, disease and distress everyday. And with the Coronavirus to contend with as well, their stress levels will rise. And that even if most of the rest of the world is sent home, if health care workers are healthy, ‘they’ won’t be sent home to ride it out. They will be needed even more. So keep up your sense of humour.

[Stanley]

Thanks Cathy, exactly what I was trying to illustrate. And apart from anything else there is good research to show that laughter is therapeutic. So keep rolling the jokes out! (Black humour is just as effective!)

[Cathy]

Many times over my 7yrs volunteering in the switchboard office, the air has turned blue, but I have never batted an eyelid. 90% of the operators are female. They all go the extra mile for callers and some have been there
for 25yrs or more. They know the Hospital inside and out. I did s’bd for 10yrs and I understand their need to ‘vent’.
I wouldn’t cross any of them, haha.

[Stanley]