🧵 New research shows that stringent Covid restrictions significantly reduced excess deaths during the early pandemic. 2/ The study found that if all US states had adopted the strongest measures, excess deaths could have been reduced by 10% to 21%.

🧵 The #UKCovidInquiry's first report on 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 has been published.

While it addresses many critical areas, it missed significant issues faced by Clinically Vulnerable (CV) families. Here’s what you need to know...

1/ #CVAwareness The report’s focus on general preparedness overlooked the specific needs and challenges of CV people.

Our community faced unique risks and often felt abandoned in the early stages of the pandemic. Our exclusion from *this module* (M1) of the inquiry was a glaring oversight.
2/

🎉Happy #CVAwareness Day! 🎉

🎥 Please share your stories, masked selfies, and short videos ass a Quote Tweet of this one! We will all ♻️

4️⃣ years since Freedom Day!
Update your profile pic ⬇️

🧵 PLEASE RETWEET

https://twitter.com/cv_cev/status/1803320726688076146

4 years on, and we are in ANOTHER wave.

The constant risk of infection has made lives more difficult, and the damage caused by infection. We are still more likely to die and develop post viral conditions.

2/

1/ 🧵 Concerned about masked voting?

Our data, collected thanks to mask wearers during the General Election, reveals troubling issues...

#MyMaskMyVote😷 #CleanAir💨 2/ Disenfranchisement is real.

Voter ID checks varied significantly:
- 38% were IDed with a mask on
- 42% asked to de-mask indoors
- 26% removed their mask indoors
- 1% ⛔️ were disenfranchised ⛔️

#MyMaskMyVote😷

🟥🟨🟩🟪🟦GENERAL ELECTION '24🗳

We need your help🙏

TODAY
💌 Even if you have a postal vote:
Contact your Returning Officer to ask for reasonable adjustments for mask wearers

Some people will be caught off guard as the 1st GE with voter ID

TOMORROW
Audit Accessibility...
🧵 🗓 TODAY

Contact Returning Officers to ask for the following to make voting safer:

🪟windows / doors open
💨outdoor ID check
↔️distanced
😷masked staff
✅️covid tested

NB/ Screens for veil removal are not appropriate for airborne transmission.

2/
gov.uk/contact-electo…

💙Left is the SmartAir QT3
💜Middle is a 3D printer prototype
💗Right is the AirFanta 4Lite

A quick explainer 🧵

https://twitter.com/FitTestMyPlanet/status/1804346400777359518

If you do use one of these devices, it is worth knowing that whilst they have a net benefit, you really must be in the air stream to experience the most gains*.

* ..and that means being pretty close!

2/

🧚‍♀️As I sat in the hall during our Primary School assemblies, I used to watch the fairies dancing within a strip of light from between the curtains.

Little did I know...
1/🧵 ... that when they 'disappeared' that they were still there.

Or that the whole room was filled with them!

2/

Use of QALYs came up today at the Inquiry.

If you unfamiliar with the term, Wikipedia explains "Critics argue that the QALY oversimplifies how actual patients would assess risks and outcomes, and that its use may restrict patients with disabilities from accessing treatment."
1🧵 In this context, it might have been used to determine whether people with Clinical Vulnerabilities were worth protecting.

It was never used, not because they didn't try. They attempted it twice.

#CVAwareness
2/

😷 Safer voter ID checks, Hampshire trial

➡️ Equality Impact Assessments (and the Equality Act) must be *urgently updated* to consider Clinically Vulnerable people, and others who mask, 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 the General Election.

🚨 PLEASE 🚨 Repost this to MPs 🚨

1/ #MyMaskMyVote It was simple, easy, and a great start.

Many thanks to @EastleighBC 👏

STEP 1 (SHORT TERM)
✅️ Staff training
✅️ Outside ID check
✅️ CO2 monitor (at one polling station)
✅️ Main door open

2/ #MyMaskMyVote

𝗘𝗮𝘁 𝗢𝘂𝘁 𝗧𝗼 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗢𝘂𝘁

When did focus groups replace the need for appropriate Equality Impact Assessments?

#EOTHO was discriminatory at best (vulnerable people didn't benefit).

1/🧵
theguardian.com/business/2024/… "The documents reveal that polling for the Treasury in June 2020 found that only 13% agreed the government should create incentives for people to spend on eating out[.]."

Even the public did not agree!

2/

At the #CovidInquiry yesterday.

Our barrister @MaryRachel_McC reiterated @AdamWagner1's previous submission that Clinically Vulnerable people need to be considered as a separate equality group.

@Kim_LHarrison @ShaneSmith_Law
@SlaterGordonUK @DoughtyStPublic
1/🧵 The new needs of Clinically Vulnerable people, since the emergence of Covid, were not considered as public health measures were withdrawn.

Clinically Vulnerable people, to this day, are struggling to safely access:

💙 Healthcare
💜 Workplaces
💗 Schools and beyond...
2/

Yesterday was a very bad news day for UK people with poor immune protection against Covid.

The SUPERNOVA trial for the updated version of Evusheld is delayed, and so NICE is now not set to report until the end of February 2025.


1/🧵 nice.org.uk/guidance/indev…
People in this group include: transplant patients, whose immune systems must be heavily suppressed to prevent them destroying their new organs; or people with blood cancers.

Below are some further examples of high risk groups:

2/

🚨 Mask wearing became heavily politicised even before it was common practice in 2020.

Now, we are finding that even high-risk people face discrimination despite relying on masks as an essential measure to protect health.

1/🧵 #MaskDiscrimination
⬇️⬇️⬇️
clinicallyvulnerable.org/post/interview… ⬆️ In our first anonymous blog, a CVF member shares the challenges they encountered whilst job-seeking as a mask wearer.

Not all CV people are covered by disability laws, which enable 'reasonable adjustments' and even those who do qualify still struggle.

2/ #MaskDiscrimination

🧵This article flags some important issues faced by people with learning disabilities (LD), their experiences regarding Do Not Resuscitate orders.

🚨 However, for Clinically Vulnerable (CV) people (including those with LDs), several aspects of the article are highly problematic: By primarily discussing the impact on people with LDs, especially those who were not Clinically Vulnerable *which is important*, it inadvertently marginalises the experiences of Clinically Vulnerable people (most who don't have LDs but all are CV).

2/

inews.co.uk/news/politics/…

📢 It seems the BBC may not be pleased that Clinically Vulnerable people have shared video clips from Casualty and are now complaining.

Their potentially discriminatory (against us) content has now been removed from Facebook.

1/🧵

https://twitter.com/cv_cev/status/1768180056130527361

The content still remains on iPlayer.

2/

🚨 Andrea was DENIED her vote when new #VoterID laws clashed with her health need to wear a mask.

Her experience highlights one of the new barriers faced by Clinically Vulnerable people.

#MyMaskMyVote😷
🧵/1

https://twitter.com/andreabarrett__/status/1654083256021655552?t=lWrET84bmbJRxL41ig0K8A&s=19

Her situation isn't just about one election or one person. It's about ensuring democracy is inclusive for ALL.

In the post-Covid era, the UK government is ignoring the ongoing impacts on its most vulnerable.

#MyMaskMyVote😷
/2

https://twitter.com/ElectoralCommUK/status/1648697016111841286?t=-fd15H0AzjH97xmIdMYWxQ&s=19

Hi @BBCCasualty, your recent episode will contribute to the discrimination faced by people who are Clinically Vulnerable to Covid.

It concerns a character called Aishling, a lady wearing an FFP2 mask, who had isolated herself for four years.

1/🧵 Episode 4 - 'Trauma'

Aishling's "Covid anxiety" had resulted in her overdosing on anxiety medication and being unable to drive.

To assist this narrative, she was completely healthy and, therefore, clearly portrayed as a bit mad.

2/

⚠️ #SafeHealthcare

. *REALLY IMPORTANT THREAD *

#BREATHTAKING shows PPE used to protect staff.

Masks
💙Should tested be for "fit"
💜Be high quality FFP3 masks sealed around the face to prevent airborne infections
💗Be 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝘂𝗮𝗹 .@doctor_oxford explains, healthcare workers are not given FFP3s - even treating 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀. If CV themselves JOBS and LIVES have been lost.

There was 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 a policy to wear FFP3 to protect patients. So staff don't mask for uninfected vulnerable.

Lee-Anne, who has a Clinically Vulnerable family, has just spoken to @carolvorders about her experience - as her child was off-rolled (which is an illegal practice) rather than offering him a safe learning environment.

This is discrimination - education is a human right.

1/ She, and others like her, have saved the government money. She has to take the financial burden of educating her child.

@carolvorders noted parents and medics are asking for #CleanAir💨.

We are!!!

When we upgrade buildings for RAAC we MUST be improving ventilation.
2/

⚠️ Covid vaccine access likely to reduce from Autumn 2024 ⚠️

𝗧𝗟𝗗𝗥 : Potentially bad news for "such groups as 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 and 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗼𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝘂𝗮𝗹𝘀. Today's statement from the JCVI is jaw dropping.

What starts off as a seemingly innocuous announcement of the usual spring vaccine groups who are eligible for spring boosters veers off at the end with some bombshells.

This is interesting but also helpful.
"the ads may not have broken the rules"

Here are the rules:


Now we need to work out which rules we believe were broken and how... 🧵 asa.org.uk/codes-and-ruli…

https://twitter.com/hugx4pets/status/1753035534979526831

1. Social Responsibility (1.3)
The adverts are socially irresponsible, suggesting children with symptoms of illness, such as a runny nose or stomach ache (which may be symptoms of Covid or other serious conditions), should still attend school.