Lung Disease and Social Justice: COPD as a Manifestation of Structural Violence @atscommunity @asthmalunguk @ATSBlueEditor /n atsjournals.org/doi/full/10.11…
The model of structural violence underpinning COPD contains five domains: 1)Avoidable lung harms 2)Diagnostic Delay 3)Inadequate COPD Care 4)Low status of COPD 5)Lack of Support: factors that make living with COPD more difficult than it should be /n

Updated guidance on shielding for the clincially extremely vulnerable. Includes: people with severe respiratory conditions including all cystic fibrosis, severe asthma and severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
@lunguk @BTSrespiratory
gov.uk/government/pub… 1/n "Shielding advice will not automatically be triggered by an area going into Local Covid Alert Level: Very High, but will be considered as an additional intervention, agreed by ministers under advice from local public health experts and the Chief Medical Officer or DCMO." 2/n

UK Committee on Toxicity report on vaping "In considering the comparison of E(N)NDS use with cigarette smoking, the Committee concluded that the relative risk of adverse health effects would be expected to be substantially lower." 1/n @ASH_LDN @lunguk
cot.food.gov.uk/sites/default/…, "Our assessment on e-cigarettes largely reinforces the scientific consensus to date on their relative safety, that while not without risk they are significantly less harmful than smoking." Professor Alan Boobis, Chair of the COT. 2/n

New coronavirus measures announced by @CMO_England :
1) Anyone with new onset persistent cough or high fever in themselves *or in their household* to self-isolate for 14 days.
#COVID19 1/n 2) Everyone: social distancing, avoid non-essential contact with other people & unnecessary travel.
3) Vulnerable groups - from weekend plan is for them to be shielded from social contact for 12 weeks. 2/n

So I sat through Jeremy Hunt's presentation about how he invented patient safety a few months back. It was slick and wierdly hypnotic. He cheerfully admitted that he'd done the talk about 80 times. 1/n This is nonsense of course: for example, Safety First was published in 2006 by Liam Donaldson the Chief Medical Officer.