Dr Sally Witcher Profile picture
Working for a safe fully #InclusiveNewNormal and not planning to stop any time soon. Founder @InclusiveNew. #Masketeer
Mar 15 16 tweets 3 min read
Ok @guardian. Why are you publishing this unscientific, damaging, discriminatory rubbish? Why the wholly misleading headline? Why on #LongCovidAwarenessDay of all days? You have some serious explaining - & apologising - to do 🧵
theguardian.com/society/2024/m… The ‘study’ this dreadful article concerns is pre-peer review & pre-publication, even as a pre-print.
Jan 19 10 tweets 3 min read
Landmark legal action – could be the first of many. Not just health boards but governments have failed to take Long Covid seriously – probably the biggest mass disabling event in the UK in our lifetimes - and it's still destroying lives. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla… Why are children still getting very ill from Covid & other preventable airborne infections? Why's nothing being done, though we now know Covid causes long-term bodily damage, dysregulates immune systems making it harder to fight off other infections, & reinfection makes it worse?
May 17, 2023 17 tweets 4 min read
No, @jasonleitch, the removal of requirements to wear masks, and in social care settings the personal choice to wear them, is about as far from ‘a good thing’ as it is possible to get. Please allow me to explain why. No, don’t thank me, you’re welcome! 🧵bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla… It’s not a good thing that people who are still clinically vulnerable will have no choice but to go into – even live in – unsafe environments where they run serious risk of being exposed to a life-changing/ ending virus. Whatever happened to the human right to life?
Apr 26, 2023 5 tweets 3 min read
Am shaking with rage & shock. @SMS_plc guy arrived to fit smart meter not wearing a mask despite me making v clear when booked that essential due to my high clinical risk. Said he was exempt. I said I was sorry but unfortunately that meant he wasn't able to come into the house & told him I'd made that clear when booking. He said I'd have to reschedule as he'd need to touch plugs, etc. I told him that was ok, Covid doesn't spread by touch [even if it did, easily rectified]. He insisted it was, I said no, in fact it wasn't, whereupon he angrily
Sep 7, 2022 24 tweets 8 min read
Yesterday was my last day as @TheSCoSS Chair. Public appointees are rightly constrained in what they can say publicly. Now I'm not, there’s a lot I want to say on a lot of things! Thought I’d start with a wee🧵on personal reflections on my time with SCoSS & things to look out for It’s been an extraordinary time since @TheSCoSS opened for business early 2019. Scottish social security barely existed except on paper. It’s sprung to life & learnt to walk, last week taking its biggest step yet with Adult Disability Payment replacing PIP.
Jun 14, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
📢 Calling people at high clinical risk, unpaid carers & people with Long Covid. On 23/6 I’m giving evidence to the Covid-19 Recovery Committee’s inquiry into the communication of public health information. What would you say to them? 🧵[grateful for retweets!] The session is on whether public health information about COVID-19 is accessible to and meets the needs of specific audiences going forward, including people in the shielding category and communities where there has been below average uptake in vaccination to date
Apr 28, 2022 21 tweets 6 min read
Dear @HumzaYousaf @DrGregorSmith @JasonLeitch @JohnHardenED Yesterday you published evidence you claim ‘clearly’ shows vaccines/new medicines mean there’s no need to retain the Highest Clinical Risk list, It’s far from clear to me. Please confirm my understanding 🧵 Evidence on vaccine efficacy consists of incomplete summaries of studies measuring different things using different methods, & includes studies that haven’t been peer reviewed. As you say “Many studies in this annotated bibliography will have several limitations”. Yes they do.
Feb 22, 2022 13 tweets 3 min read
Many thanks for the support & ideas in response to my ideas on a #InclusiveNewNormal. This summarises the strategic framework & key messages. I hope it’s a helpful contribution– far from the last word. It’ll need everyone’s commitment, creativity, determination – and coproduction The vision for a safe, fully #InclusiveNewNormal is for one which recognises our equal humanity, human worth, rights & freedoms. It’s one that supports all of us to live a good life rather than normalises frequent, avoidable death & long-term illness.