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Cat in the Hat 🐈‍⬛ 🎩 🇬🇧 Profile picture
@_CatintheHat
Oct 6 • 24 tweets • 11 min read • Read on X
COVID INQUIRY

I’ve posted a number of tweets from the Inquiry hearing on 16 Sept.

This was the day that Dr Lisa Ritchie took the stand. She chaired the IPC Cell which wrote the Covid infection control guidance for UK hospitals.

I’ve collated all the tweets in this thread 🧵
Just to give a little background, Dr Lisa Ritchie is nurse who specialises in Infection Prevention & Control (IPC).

She is currently Head of IPC at NHS England.

Her title is Dr because she has a PhD, but she is not a medically qualified doctor.

dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-new…Image
In this clip, Dr Ritchie explains how the IPC guidance was based on the ‘consensus’ of IPC Cell members…

…but no formal votes were ever taken to confirm the consensus position and it was up to the Chair (her) to summarise what she believed to be the consensus of the group.
In this clip, Dr Ritchie is asked whether the fact that doctors wearing higher quality PPE were dying at lower rates & were infected at lower rates, did that not indicate that it was necessary to spread the use of higher quality PPE more widely to other areas?

Dr Ritchie: “No.”
Counsel tried again, putting forward a very logical argument:

If doctors performing high risk aerosol generating procedures (wearing FFP3 masks) had LOWER infection rates than drs working on wards, does that not indicate that the higher quality masks were helping protect them?
When confronted with data around the high number of hospital-acquired (nosocomial) Covid infections, Dr Lisa Ritchie explained that it was practically impossible to disentangle the causes & routes of transmission because it’s so ‘multifaceted’…
Here Dr Ritchie explains why she thinks patients should never wear FFP3 masks…

…and her reason is because valved masks ‘leak’ out infectious particles.

But she neglects to mention that the FFP3 masks used as standard in hospitals don’t even have valves!
In this clip, Dr Ritchie is shown a document she herself had co-authored some years previously on the IPC guidance for SARS-CoV-1.

This document supposedly formed the basis for the Covid IPC guidelines…

…but there were some rather important differences in the guidance.
In this clip, Baroness Hallett intervenes to point out the absurdity of Dr Ritchie’s argument.

“If SARS-CoV-1 was meant to be guiding the initial IPC guidance for Covid, why on earth didn’t it?”
Dr Ritchie was then shown an extract from another witness’ statement (Prof Beggs, expert witness on Covid transmission).

In Prof Beggs’ report, he states that, by Sept 2020, there was sufficient evidence that Covid was airborne to justify precautionary measures.
Dr Ritchie is then asked whether the IPC Cell had ever a point where they collectively thought that airborne transmission was a significant threat & needed to be guarded against with FFP3 masks being used…

Dr Ritchie: “No.”
It’s also worth remembering the social media campaign which was being run by the NHS England back in 2021.

“If someone has Covid-19, they breathe it out in particles… particles that hang in the air like smoke.”

Now tell me again that they didn’t know it was airborne… 🧐
In this clip, Dr Lisa Ritchie explains how, even today, despite all the evidence to the contrary, she STILL believes that the predominant mode of transmission for Covid is droplet & contact.

(Reminder: Dr Ritchie is still the Head of infection prevention control for NHS England)
An extract from the IPC Minutes (Sept 2020) sheds further light on Dr Ritchie’s reticence to change her position:

“If you wanted to change the guidance itself, it would need a very careful narrative as it would be easy to give the impression that we got it WRONG the first time.”
In this clip, Dr Ritchie explains the explains the importance of the hierarchy of controls, and how mitigations like engineering controls (which include ventilation & air filtration) should be prioritised over individual protections like masks…
However, when she was asked about the membership of the IPC Cell who defined the IPC guidance, she reveals that there were NO members with any expertise in engineering/physics, despite the importance of engineering controls in the hierarchy of controls.
The article below investigates the shocking chain of events which led to the government downgrading PPE for healthcare workers from FFP2/3 respirators to surgical masks, ignoring the science on Covid being a “High Consequence” & airborne disease.

bylinetimes.com/2023/08/17/beh…Image
As a result of this decision to downgrade PPE to ineffective surgical masks, thousands of doctors were left over-exposed and under-protected.

This heart-breaking report from the BMA chronicles the debilitating effect that Long Covid has on many doctors.

bma.org.uk/media/7318/bma…Image
Meanwhile this is the current IPC guidance from NHS England:

▪️If healthcare workers have Covid symptoms, they don’t need to test & should still go to work.

▪️If they go against guidance by testing & it’s POSITIVE, they should *still* go to work & just wear a surgical mask. Image
You can read more about the IPC Cell & how their flawed decisions have left thousands of healthcare workers unprotected from Covid infection, paving the way for high levels of onward transmission to other patients, colleagues & their own families in @SafeDavid3’s blog below ⬇️ Image
Dr Ritchie’s session at the Covid Inquiry is available on YouTube here:

MORNING SESSION (from 1:33:00):
youtu.be/m1c5AYORCH4

AFTERNOON SESSION:
youtu.be/OMA1uAk0F_U

You can also find a full transcript of her testimony here (from text block 62):
covid19.public-inquiry.uk/wp-content/upl…
If you’ve made it to the end of my thread, well done!

You might also be interested to read this thread which contains key excerpts from Prof Susan Hopkins’ (Chief Medical Advisor at UKHSA) evidence at the Covid Inquiry, specifically the aspects relating to guidance on PPE. ⬇️
One last thing…

This is the Covid Policy at the Inquiry:

🔹Symptomatic testing requested
🔹Ventilation delivering 8 air changes/hour
🔹4 HEPA filters
🔹CO₂ monitoring with action triggered whenever CO₂ reaches 1,000ppm

Do they know it’s airborne? 🤔

covid19.public-inquiry.uk/wp-content/upl…Image
…and did the government know it was airborne when they launched this ⬇️ public awareness campaign titled “STOP COVID-19 HANGING AROUND” back in Nov 2021?

When you start joining the dots, it’s very disturbing to realise how flawed the entire IPC decision-making process was.

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More from @_CatintheHat

Cat in the Hat 🐈‍⬛ 🎩 🇬🇧 Profile picture
Oct 6
Back in Nov 2021, the govt released a campaign across digital channels, radio & newspapers highlighting how Covid particles are AIRBORNE & hang in the air like smoke.

The campaign was titled: “STOP COVID-19 HANGING AROUND”

Below is one of the short films from the campaign ⬇️
More details about this nationwide campaign to “STOP COVID-19 HANGING AROUND” can be found at the link below:

gov.uk/government/new…Image
Unfortunately, Grant Shapps blocked the “STOP COVID-19 HANGING AROUND” adverts on public transport over concerns it might scare people.

One source said “the smoke analogy was ill conceived because buses have sealed windows & it could confuse passengers”.

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…Image
Read 10 tweets
Cat in the Hat 🐈‍⬛ 🎩 🇬🇧 Profile picture
Oct 3
Earlier this year, Economist Impact convened an international Advisory Council to reach a consensus on how Long Covid should be defined, understood & addressed globally.

The Advisory Council have now published their (unanimously ratified) Consensus Statement on Long Covid.

🧵 Image
Introduction

Without a concerted effort to develop a standardised framework for long Covid, the global community's ability to understand and address this condition will remain limited, posing ongoing challenges for individuals, healthcare systems and society. Image
Drawing on expert insights, the Advisory Council identified five critical points of consensus on how to tackle some of these challenges.

1. Nomenclature
2. Definition
3. Policy
4. Research
5. Symptom Management

The consensus statement covers each of these in turn…
Read 10 tweets
Cat in the Hat 🐈‍⬛ 🎩 🇬🇧 Profile picture
Sep 29
This is the Pupil Attendance Ladder from a school in Essex, England.

Just read the words written alongside each attendance threshold. 🤬

Schools are making ZERO attempt to reduce the spread of illness and yet the children themselves are blamed when they are repeatedly off sick. Image
Attendance data shows that the primary driver of pupil absences is ILLNESS.

In 2023/24:

▪️49% of all pupil absences were due to ILLNESS.

▪️Pupil illness absence accounted for 3.5% of all possible sessions in England.

▪️Pupil illness absence was 40% higher than pre-pandemic. Image
But it’s not just pupils who are affected by this trend… it’s teachers too!

In 2022/23:

▪️2.6M teacher working days were lost due to ILLNESS.

▪️Teacher illness absences were 28% higher than pre-pandemic.

▪️Spend per pupil on supply teachers was 22% higher than pre-pandemic. Image
Read 8 tweets
Cat in the Hat 🐈‍⬛ 🎩 🇬🇧 Profile picture
Sep 18
This is Prof Susan Hopkins, Chief Medical Advisor at UKHSA, explaining why she doesn’t think that FFP3 masks should be recommended (instead of fluid resistant surgical masks) in hospitals - even when there is an accepted risk of airborne transmission.

🚨Paging @trishgreenhalgh
It’s then pointed out to Prof Hopkins that, in the IPC Cell Minutes for 22 Dec 2020, the representative from PHE had stated:

“Our understanding of aerosol transmission has changed. A precautionary approach to move to FFP3 masks whilst we are awaiting evidence should be advised.”
Counsel then asks the million dollar question:

“You told us this morning that the evidence was weak that FFP3s protected more than FRSMs (surgical masks)…

…if that position is right, why here is a representative of PHE recommending FFP3?”
Read 5 tweets
Cat in the Hat 🐈‍⬛ 🎩 🇬🇧 Profile picture
Sep 17
This is Dr Lisa Ritchie who was the Head of Infection Prevention & Control for NHS England & Chair of the IPC Cell.

In this video, she explains why patients should never wear FFP3 masks - even if they are known to be highly infectious or if they are clinically vulnerable…

/1
The rationale she gives is that FFP3 masks have valves which the infectious particles can ‘leak’ out through.

Surely the obvious next question is:

So why don’t they recommend UNVALVED FFP3 masks for infectious or clinically vulnerable patients?

/2 Image
Even more bizarre is the fact that, just 20 minutes earlier, she had been shown a document which she herself had co-authored.

This document included IPC guidance for SARS-CoV-1 and *supposedly* formed the initial basis for SARS-CoV-2 (Covid) IPC guidance…

/3
Read 7 tweets
Cat in the Hat 🐈‍⬛ 🎩 🇬🇧 Profile picture
Sep 13
@NHSConfed Hi @NHSConfed @ConfedMatthew

Did you investigate the impact of Long Covid in driving the numbers of people dropping out of the workforce due to long term sickness?

There are 2M people in England & Scotland suffering from Long Covid…

…or 2.2M if you extrapolate across the UK. Image
@NHSConfed @ConfedMatthew Of those affected by Long Covid, around 1 in 5 (19.2%) report that their symptoms are so debilitating that their day-to-day activities are severely limited.

That’s 381,000 people in England & Scotland…

…or ~412,000 if you extrapolate across the whole of the UK. Image
@NHSConfed @ConfedMatthew Another important point is that 29% of those with Long Covid reported that their chronic symptoms had started in the LAST year.

ie. Nearly 1 in 3 people currently suffering from Long Covid are NEW cases which started since the previous ONS Long Covid report in March 2023. Image
Read 17 tweets

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