Thread by @helenessex2

TW: my thread here talks about #Cancer #chemotherapy #Grief #Loss #COVID19 #forgotten500k #ClinicallyVulnerable if any of these topics are painful for you, this might not be a helpful thread to read. 🙏🏼 please sign this petition asking for #MasksInHealthcare

https://twitter.com/cv_cev/status/1646200145506189349

🧵 1/
Two years ago my mum died in hospital from v rare #chemo complications Bcs of covid rules we hadn’t been able to see her during her 3 wk hospital stay apart from briefly in her last 48 hrs on compassionate grounds. We had just come out of the horrific winter20/1 wave

2/Of course I wanted to see my mum prior to that though initially the gravity of her symptoms weren’t known. I WANTED her to be on a ward with restricted visits & mask mandates bcs I appreciated she & other patients on the oncology ward were very vulnerable…

3/seeing how hospital acquired infection of covid has now become such a big problem, it upsets me to think were my mum in this situation today, she’d likely have got covid in the a&e she 1st attended & the other wards she was in prior to oncology…

https://twitter.com/LawtonTri/status/1646455264466305025

4/The results of that would no doubt have been fatal & let’s be clear that it would have been a death frought with suffering & fear. For my mum to have been taken *early* in this way, when at the time we thought recovery was possible is hugely distressing. But this is happening

https://twitter.com/cc14_cc14/status/1642595078605615106

5/now hospitals announce no masks as something to celebrate. I see comments like Oh well, vulnerable people are about to pop off anyway (nope) so if death comes a bit sooner, so what, so be it. Does the sheer callousness of this notion not jump out at you?

6/I want to say to those people the what is that not all immune compromised ppl are at deaths door- but repeatedly, recklessly & unnecessarily exposing ppl to covid can result in severe complications. Even where ppl are in palliative care, to suggest it’s inevitable (&ok)

7/For covid to get to them, is not only wrong (we have tools to prevent exposure) it’s completely grim to suggest someone in their last stages/days of life should also have to contend with a covid infection and all the suffering & complications that inevitably will bring

8/To the if you don’t get covid here in hospital, you’ll get it elsewhere brigade, no, no that’s not the case, many vulnerable people are still shielding to avoid infection, there’s very little choice about needing healthcare #Forgotten500k

https://twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1641810903782891524

9/You’re disingenuously suggesting making life even more dangerous for vulnerable ppl is therefore justified- two wrongs don’t make a right. Levels of community transmission are too high- but they don’t have to be. It’s not a given. #COVIDisAirborne there are ways to ⬇️ risk

https://twitter.com/johnsnowproject/status/1644425523852898333

10/In terms of allowing more inpatients to become infected- in a health service we know is struggling to meet demand, how can it possibly make any sense to promote covid In hospitals? By not testing staff, by dropping mask requirements?

https://twitter.com/benking01/status/1646933077682167818

11/Not only will you ensure a constant number of staff absences due to covid illness, (& #LongCovid) surely covid increases the complexity &treatment for those pts already in hospital? Just think of how it would feel, to know you’re risking your life bcs, smiles not masks?

https://twitter.com/herebehumans/status/1646409562356871169

#Forgotten500k #StillShielding #MasksInHealthcare @BBCWomansHour @BBCHughPym @DrFrancesRyan @RachelCDailey #BeKind 🧵 13/13 end