⚠️ IPC GUIDANCE

Newly-appointed Health Minister @AshleyDalton_MP has just responded to a question from MP @_Chris_Coghlan.

Chris asks when the NHS IPC manual will be updated to reflect the latest science on AIRBORNE transmission.

Let’s take a closer look at Ashley’s reply… The key bit is highlighted in yellow here:

“Should new evidence emerge that warrants updates, the guidance will be reviewed & revised accordingly by NHS England & UKHSA to ensure the highest standards of infection prevention & control are maintained across healthcare settings.”

“WHY ARE YOU STILL MASKING?”

The folks at the @TheWHN have put together a really excellent set of science-based answers to various questions about why you’re still wearing a mask.

(Even if you’re not still masking, you might be interested in the answers).

Let’s take a look…🧵

https://twitter.com/thewhn/status/1886896718618239051

1. “Isn’t the pandemic over?”

Short Answer: The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the emergency phase over, but that doesn’t mean the pandemic itself has ended.

(h/t @TheWHN)

I’ve been reflecting on this letter from Minister @GwynneMP ⬇️

The letter which says the government supports Dr Lisa Ritchie’s view that “Covid is not predominantly transmitted through the airborne route”.

I suspect there may be a little more to it than meets the eye… 🧐

/1 You see, here’s the thing:

Letters like that don’t get written in a vacuum.

Letters like that are usually drafted on behalf of Ministers by a civil servant who has expertise in the subject matter.

So I’m left wondering: who drafted it?

Who is advising Mr Gwynne?

/2

UK COVID INQUIRY

In this video, I’ve compiled crucial evidence from expert witness Prof Clive Beggs where he confirms:

🔎 Covid is airborne
🔎 Covid is predominantly spread via airborne aerosols (not droplets)
🔎 Breathing & talking generate significant amounts of aerosols. Here’s a little more detail from Prof Beggs’ testimony where he again confirms that the BULK of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is carried in the small airborne aerosols, NOT in the larger droplets which rapidly fall to the ground.

This is CRUCIAL for infection control purposes.

As Module 4 of the @CovidInquiryUK begins, attention turns to the Covid vaccines…

And it just happens that UKHSA’s annual accounts for 2023/24 have recently been published, revealing that a staggering £1.09 BILLION were wasted on unused vaccines during 2023/24.

🧵 For me, one of the most shocking things was in Autumn 2023, when the govt bought enough vax doses for ALL over-50s…

…but then decided to restrict eligibility, denying millions of people under the age of 65 the chance to be protected.

theguardian.com/society/2023/a…

This is the Chief Exec of @NHSEngland ⬇️

She’s “really worried about the toll that flu & other viruses are taking on our patients and on services across the NHS.”

Yet, despite the fact these viruses are mostly AIRBORNE, there are NO airborne infection controls in hospitals. 🧵

https://twitter.com/amandapritchard/status/1877072570714874310

Make it make sense!!

The Covid Inquiry module which specifically investigated the impact of Covid on healthcare systems ended just before Christmas and some very clear recommendations emerged…

WHY on earth have these not been made the absolute top priority and implemented?

It’s a real shame that comments on this thread ⬇️ have been shut down so I’m not able to respond to the reply from @SpeechAndLangUK about the impact of lockdowns on speech & language for children born during lockdowns.

Here’s what I would have said if I’d been able to reply… 🧵

https://twitter.com/speechandlanguk/status/1876642081676132477

I would have said how pleased I am that the doc they shared from @RCSLT acknowledges the major contribution of Long Covid towards the issue:

“Long COVID needs identified by SLTs included dysphagia, dysphonia, dysarthria, aphasia, cognitive communication disorder & dyspraxia.”

This situation makes me so angry.

It should NOT be the responsibility of individual NHS Trust CEOs like @Nickhulme61 to have to plead with the public to wear masks in hospitals.

There should be clear national guidance, as advised by the IPC experts at the @covidinquiryuk…

🧵

https://twitter.com/bbcnews/status/1874054677999845419

And it shouldn’t just be patients & visitors wearing masks… all NHS staff should be wearing them too.

And not just loose-fitting surgical masks…

…they should be wearing FFP3 masks which are the only class of mask acceptable to HSE for use against infectious aerosols.

https://twitter.com/_catinthehat/status/1860782909122121911

[10 Dec 2024] Opening Remarks from @DrTedros at WHO media briefing:

“We cannot talk about COVID in the past tense.

“It’s still with us, it still causes acute disease and Long COVID, and it still kills.

“The world might want to forget about COVID-19, but we cannot afford to.” Link to the full transcript of the WHO Director-General's (@DrTedros) opening remarks at the media briefing on 10 December 2024 can be found here:

who.int/director-gener…

It was announced this week that SIR CHRIS WORMALD has been named as the new Cabinet Secretary & Head of the Civil Service, one of the most powerful jobs in government.

I thought I’d take a look back at what we learned about him from his recent Covid Inquiry appearances…

🧵 In her Closing Statement at the end of module 3, the Counsel for Covid Bereaved Families for Justice UK gave a scathing appraisal of Sir Chris Wormald’s evidence, describing it as:

“…an object lesson in obfuscation, a word salad – so many, many words, so very little substance”.

💚 The Green Party have published a new policy calling for urgent action to tackle the ongoing waves of Covid which are causing so much harm to the nation’s health & economy.

Huge thanks to everyone involved in making this happen.

@AdrianRamsay @carla_denyer @ZackPolanski

https://twitter.com/grnsagnstcvd/status/1859876838518255868

The Green Party are absolutely right.

We cannot continue to ignore Covid.

Covid has not gone away, nor has it settled into a seasonal pattern.

The endless waves continue to batter the nation throughout the year - and even in the dips, remains at a relatively high level.

COVID INQUIRY: X Megathread 🧵

As module 3 of the @covidinquiryuk draws to a close, I’ve been looking back at what we’ve learned about how it all went so wrong with infection control guidance for hospitals.

This is a long thread, so please grab a cuppa & make yourself comfy… One thing that really stands out from the Inquiry testimonies is just how many professional bodies repeatedly raised the alarm about the inadequate infection control guidance in hospitals…

…and how their concerns were disregarded at every stage, with profound consequences.

COVID INQUIRY CONTRADICTIONS

🔎Did supply of PPE influence the IPC guidance?

Matt Hancock testified that the Covid infection control guidance *had* factored in the available supply of PPE, rather than being based purely on what was required to adequately protect NHS staff…

🧵 A similar account had previously been given by Laura Imrie, a member of the IPC Cell (the group responsible for writing the guidance).

She explained how lack of supply & the need for fit testing meant they weren’t in a position to be able to recommend wider use of FFP3 masks.

A Canadian teen is currently critically ill with H5N1 bird flu.

The really concerning thing about this case is that sequencing has revealed several NEW mutations which improve the virus's ability to bind to human receptors & increases its potential to spread between humans…

🧵 You can read a more technical summary of the specific mutations in the H5N1 sequence in the thread below from @HNimanFC.

Lots of interesting (and concerning) comments on the thread also.

https://twitter.com/hnimanfc/status/1857797498703618258

MHRA have finally approved the updated Novavax (JN.1) formulation for use in the UK…

…HOWEVER…

…Novavax have confirmed that this vaccine will *NOT* be available in the private market for purchase or distribution for the autumn 2024 OR spring 2025 season in Great Britain.

https://twitter.com/_CatintheHat/status/1857404181516018009

And the government also confirmed this week that Novavax won’t be offered at all as part of the NHS booster campaign either…

…even though it is now authorised by MHRA.

theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2024…

COVID VACCINE ELIGIBILITY 🇬🇧,
a thread🧵

JCVI have just advised that, going forwards, eligibility for Covid vaccination will be even more tightly restricted.

But the ‘bespoke cost-effectiveness assessment’ upon which this is based is heavily flawed…

gov.uk/government/pub… Before I dive into the issues, let’s just recap where we are…

In the UK, if you’re under 65 and not ‘at risk’, the last time you were eligible for a Covid vaccination was 2 years ago (Autumn 2022).

For most under 50s, it’s been 3 years since you were eligible (Autumn 2021).

.@lukethereporter, did you write this horrendous article?!

It’s packed full of misinformation. Please do better.

Read on and I’ll explain why… 🧵

dailymail.co.uk/health/article… In the article, you cite the Cochrane review as proving that masks make “little to no difference” to someone's risk of catching Covid.

Were you aware that the Editor-in-Chief of Cochrane confirmed that this is an “inaccurate & misleading interpretation”?

cochrane.org/news/statement…

🔥 Thank you to @mrjamesob for hosting an excellent session on LONG COVID on @LBC this morning.

Featuring @alanbarnard1 @lara_wong @EllaRobertaFdn & more.

You can listen to the full show on catch up (available for the next 6 days):
globalplayer.com/catchup/lbc/uk… In the first clip above, @mrjamesob mentions the headline that HALF of claims on the UK benefits bill will be for sickness by 2029.

This headline is from the Times yesterday (31 Oct).

Read the full article here:
thetimes.com/uk/politics/ar…

(Paywall free: archive.ph/GYeAM)

Less than 8 months ago, back when the Tories were still in charge, a Labour MP stood up in parliament to ask a VERY important question…

He demanded to know what assessment the government had made of Long Covid on the workforce.

That MP was Andrew Gwynne (@GwynneMP)…

🧵 Less than 4 months later, Labour won the election…

…and that MP, Andrew Gwynne, became our Minister for Public Health.

He was recently asked to answer a very similar question to the one he had posed back in March.

His reply was utterly disappointing.

questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questi…

A TALE OF TWO STUDIES…

Two studies have assessed how the cumulative risk of developing Long Covid increases with each Covid infection.

Both studies independently produced almost identical figures, showing that the risk of developing Long Covid rises to ~37% after 3 infections. 1️⃣ STATISTICS CANADA COVID-19 HEALTH & ANTIBODY SURVEY (Dec 2023)

According to this study, the cumulative risk of developing Long Covid is:

🚨15% after 1 infection

🚨25% after 2 infections

🚨38% after 3+ infections.

www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-006-… x.com/_catinthehat/s…

Let’s cut to the chase here…

1️⃣ NHS Staff Sickness Absences are still SIGNIFICANTLY higher than pre-pandemic.

2️⃣ The waves of NHS Staff Absences align almost perfectly with the waves of Covid.

If you want to fix the NHS, start by mitigating the transmission of Covid.

https://twitter.com/1goodtern/status/1850638766081523773

These charts are courtesy of @1goodtern who, as usual, has done some excellent analysis of the raw data.

His first thread is attached above.

Here’s his second thread which takes a look at the correlation between NHS Staff absences & the waves of Covid hospitalisations.

https://twitter.com/1goodtern/status/1850909112499933648