Helen Ward
@profhelenward
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Prof Public Health, Imperial College. she/her. Social, genetic & environmental factors in health. Research & advocacy in long COVID, STI/HIV, inequalities.
London
Joined March 2011
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Pinned Tweet
Latest results from our REACT study published today in
@NEJM
Measurable cognitive deficits in people with
#longcovid
. Also (but less) in people who have recovered from COVID-19 symptoms. Link to paper and editorial in reply
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So I’ve changed my Twitter name to Professor in solidarity with
@devisridhar
and many other women who don’t have our status recognised in contrast to men.
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Madrid metro. Every. Single. Person. Wearing. A. Mask.
Spain- 15 deaths yesterday.
What is wrong with the UK? (214 deaths yesterday)
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It’s very sad that so many people have died, and so many more are desperately ill because politicians refused to listen to advice.
We said lockdown earlier, we said test, trace, isolate. But they decided they knew better.
There will be a reckoning, and it will not be forgiving.
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Ministers are virtually bragging about allowing 100,000 infections a day. Feels like a kick in the teeth for people who have
- lost loved ones.
- worked in the NHS
- long COVID
And for those of us who have worked our asses off to understand the epidemic to try & improve policy.
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It is very hard to understand or trust policing when you see their response to England “fans” in Trafalgar Sq and storming Wembley turnstiles, and compare that to the response to women peacefully demonstrating on Clapham Common earlier this year.
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Four people dead. Sad.
Meanwhile over 1000 people have died from covid in the last week, but it’s no longer news-worthy.
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I do not see how the professional advisers to the government can tolerate this. They must surely consider their own positions, or they are effectively condoning the disregarding of the rules that they have been advocating.
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Cases going up, hospitalisations going up, deaths going up. “Worst public health failure” not just historic, it continues. No surprise - same mask-sceptic at head of UKHSA, no investment in ventilation, govt message is all about individual responsibility not public health. 1/2
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I’m not against “opening up”, just please
- keep masks in shops & public transport to protect workers & vulnerable people
- ventilation to reduce risk in indoor spaces (eg schools, offices)
- vaccination +++
- test and isolate if symptoms
- sensible border controls
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Seeing a lot of folk tweeting about monkeypox. Some are experts on COVID19 but not all have experience of emerging disease outbreak investigation. So here are some thoughts.
- It’s not Covid
- Control will be different
1/n
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So sad. And makes important point, if "NHS trusts are serious about following the science then arguably they should be vaccinating cleaners and porters first".
Oxford study found they had highest risk (twice that of admin, & higher than clinicians)
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My message to public health leaders advising government:
How many new infections each day?
How/where were they acquired during lockdown?
What measures are you taking to reduce that spread?
Until you can honestly answer those questions it’s irresponsible to ease restrictions
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Letter from Sylvia Richardson, Royal Statistical Society President, on ONS & REACT
"Abrupt disruption of a surveillance system is wasteful, will make tracking of prevalence meaningless and will put in jeopardy the future health of the public"
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SoS does not understand prevention, he says - “every individual should make their own decision”.
The reason for wearing masks is to reduce transmission *to others* as well as to yourself. By not wearing them they are limiting the freedom of others, eg. vulnerable staff/members
“Take a look at the picture No 10 released yesterday. There is 33 to 40 people in that room, poorly ventilated, not one person is wearing a mask on the day you advise us to wear masks in a situation like that!”
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“winding down Covid testing and payments for isolation”.
As I said before - they’re ending legal requirement primarily to avoid govt/ bosses having to pay people to be off work. Would like to see advice on this from
@UKHSA
@CMO_England
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Coronavirus could hit the U.K. harder than any other European country. Here's what went wrong
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I am a Professor and Consultant Physician in Public Health. I and my family have had 3 vaccines to protect ourselves, each other, and the people we come into contact with, some of whom may be vulnerable to severe consequences if they catch COVID.
#getvaccinated
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I've seen some questions about how many people have "underlying conditions". In a random sample of 170,000 adults in England in Oct/Nov this year, 41% had 1 or more of these.
That's a lot of people.
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Please can someone show this to the government? As some of us have been saying for over a week LOCKDOWN now. Massive testing, isolate all cases and contacts. Stay inside, support the vulnerable.
What do you not get
@CMO_England
@uksciencechief
?
As promised, here is the updated figure with data from yesterday. You can see how the UK epidemic is closely following Italy's, with a 14-15 day lag and the same doubling rate. We need a national lockdown by Monday just to be as badly hit as Italy. Time is running out.
#UKlockdown
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Hard to argue with Anthony Constello: (govt) "strategy still appears to be about flattening the curve, rather than finding every case of coronavirus." ?linked to SAGE's lack of communicable disease control, social science expertise & lack of diversity?
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Thread suggesting that the heart of government - Cummings, Johnson, Gove & Hancock - are working closely with their tech friends to drive the epidemic response. Meanwhile experience-based public health and communicable disease control approaches have been neglected.
Why does the Cummings story matter? And what does it obscure? The real story is the huge transfer of government assets to private companies that he is overseeing under cover of a pandemic while restructuring the Cabinet Office into his &
@michaelgove
's private fiefdom
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This tweet from April expresses how I feel now. The current situation - overwhelmed hospitals, exhausted health workers and more families facing the death of loved ones - was not inevitable.
Again, politicians have delayed making hard decisions at every single point.
It’s very sad that so many people have died, and so many more are desperately ill because politicians refused to listen to advice.
We said lockdown earlier, we said test, trace, isolate. But they decided they knew better.
There will be a reckoning, and it will not be forgiving.
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If you only read one thing about COVID this weekend, may I recommend this from
@devisridhar
. Sensible public health, learning from what works rather that repeating the same actions and expecting a different outcome next time.
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Younger people were always more affected (they mix more) but not diagnosed when testing only available in hospital. Early on older had high proportion of diagnoses NOT cases. Our antibody testing shows highest prevalence in 18-34 yrs from March & April.
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PHE "say most people will be willing to stop work and self-isolate, even if they are prevented from earning a living" - and even if they have already had COVID.
I would love to see the evidence behind that statement, and whether it is still true after last weekend.
Government unveils Covid-19 test-and-trace strategy for England
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Why not use the next five days to vaccinate frontline healthcare workers, rather than wait until Monday to roll out the vaccine?
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So if you “choose” not to wear a mask on a train or in a cinema or lecture theatre, you make those public spaces less accessible to lots of vulnerable people. Vaccines have made a huge difference, but we still need effective public health protection & communication 2/2
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I am interested in the suggestion that school opening is dependent on vaccine roll-out.
Unless I am much mistaken until the vast majority of the population is covered, vaccination is not relevant to making schools safe.
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Clearly I have no common sense, what with my
@imperialcollege
rainbow lanyard and being chair of the
@ImperialBRC
equality, diversity and inclusion committee….
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Anyone on SAGE,
@CMO_England
@uksciencechief
like to explain COVID alert level "equation"? What are you advising?
Getting out of lockdown means reducing CURRENT transmission. But nothing from PM on hospitals, care homes, other hot spots. NOTHING. We need public health leadership
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As pointed out in a response , let’s not forget to include fight the racism as well as the homophobia. Both are rearing their ugly heads in discussions on
#monkeypox
and we must oppose them. Thanks
@truthisjustice2
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@austenelosta
@BritishCycling
I see it is a group campaigning for sustainable transport, and that does not fit well with oil money.
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@TanjaBueltmann
If we treated violence against women as terrorism, someone with these views would be seen as promoting hate. Misogyny have never been taken seriously as a violent ideology leading to hate crime.
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Message to the government- please rethink.
The people responsible for local public health are calling for a halt to the easing of lockdown in England
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“But if, in the final analysis, (Hancock)is adjudged to have had a good pandemic, he could well be seen as a leader in waiting”
On what planet could that be the conclusion? It’s been a deadly shambles.
And clearly Health Secretary not a job for a woman
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The rapid research in the UK that has shown the benefit of dexamethasone is made possible by the NHS and its linked network of research. Please don't destroy that by breaking up the NHS with further privatisation.
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Our findings support
@maitlis
from
@BBCNewsnight
People “with the lowest household income were six times less likely to be able to work from home... & three times less likely to be able to self-isolate”
UK population survey
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Third, transmission may occur mainly when symptoms are present. If confirmed, control is made easier by early diagnosis which can prevent widespread community transmission
- It’s not COVID19
- Control will be different
8/
@ChristoPhraser
@SRileyIDD
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My thoughts:
First, Don’t blame those who have the infection. Work with them and their communities to understand more and spread awareness.
- It’s not COVID19
- Control will be different. 6/
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Fourth, let’s not stigmatise, blame, panic, or fight amongst ourselves.
Let’s work together with good old-fashioned outbreak investigation methods plus state of the art tools for vaccines, surveillance & modelling, and we’ll sort this out.
What have I missed?
/ends
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The statements on testing policy and "exemplary" preparedness from Deputy CMO today were extraordinarily complacent in my opinion.
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Only in this post-truth-disdain-for-experts-Brexit dystopia would a government appoint someone with no public health experience to run a contact tracing system. And someone who was responsible for the Cheltenham Festival at that. The govt puts privatisation above everything.
So Dido H is doing a great job:
Why I quit working on Boris Johnson's ‘world-beating' test-and-tracing system
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Are the new measures being proposed by government this weekend, and being leaked through the press rather than formal channels, based on public health advice? If so please publish it.
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Who remembers the Corona van that came every week to deliver pop?
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It is a scandal - one that gets to the heart of the commissioning & regulation of labs and other services. We need an independent enquiry into this. NB - DHSC and test and trace are not independent.
THREAD on IMPACT OF IMMENSA SCANDAL:
Here are case rates in 10-14 yrs for the 13 most impacted English local authorities compared to all other local authorities.
The dodgy artificially low case rates are obvious as is massive increase in spread compared to rest of England 1/6
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This is the critical point. The “data grab” is linked to massive govt investment in Genomics England and Our Future Health to provide sequencing on 5 million people. Linked to data that is a goldmine. Would be Interesting to see the COIs of academics & politicians in this space.
What’s even more wild to me is Dido Harding’s role in all this. She makes a passing appearance in this newsletter because of her previous role as chair of Genomics England (after previously heading up NHS Improvement).
But this is what
#NHSDataGrab
is all about: it’s data gold.
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59% increase in COVID cases in a week
The easing of restrictions on 17 May included re-opening of indoor hospitality where workers are mostly low paid and unprotected by vaccination. No surprise that cases are rising rapidly.
Cases may mostly be mild but many will get Long COVID
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I’m no fan of British Empire and it’s awards - awkward when people I work with & respect are recipients.
I’m glad they’re happy, but I can’t ignore the association with Empire & it’s appalling legacy, or with Britain’s role perpetuating inequality at home & globally. Sorry 😢
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Look at the faces of his front bench - even they are looking embarrassed at the lies
This kind of level of dishonesty can now only be referred to as “Borisean”.
Well done again
@PeterStefanovi2
for calling it out and being the bulldog that never lets go.
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Second, don’t jump to conclusions about sexual, airborne, droplet/other transmission. We know it spreads by very close contact, but need rapid study of contacts to see exactly who is at risk, then isolate/vaccinate them.
- It’s not COVID19
- Control will be different
/7
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"London attack:Theresa May says enough is enough after seven die."Quite. Remind me who was responsible for security?
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@Daltmann10
It's a complete shambles. But utterly predictable, and yet many people still seem to give this incompetent government the benefit of the doubt.
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This is why many of us have been calling for professionals (scientific, medical and nursing leaders) to have their own channels for communication. We cannot have senior professionals being gagged by government and their aides.
The Chief Nursing Officer for England was blocked from appearing at the daily Downing Street coronavirus briefing because she refused to back Dominic Cummings.
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Well said Hassan, thank you. 👇🏼👇🏼 Refugees are welcome here.
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Gay men (some, not all) have good awareness of health issues, know how to access sexual health services with new symptoms such as a rash. This means outbreaks are detected earlier 4/
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I know I lose followers by tweeting “political” things. Sorry, but “professional academic me” - doctor, professor- is inseparable from the me that cares about justice, equality & health. And that means kicking out the Tories, stopping Brexit, supporting Labour, opposing racism.
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I do hope that when there is another election people remember what is happening now.
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Clarkson is a vile right wing misogynist. This is hate speech. He (& the Sun) should be condemned, boycotted & prosecuted for it. He is legitimising violence against women, specifically a woman of colour. I have no interest in the royal soap opera, but this goes way beyond that.
NO Jeremy Clarkson. Not on any level, in any circumstance, is it ok to write this stuff about any woman & absolutely NO to "everyone who's my age thinks the same"
No no no. We absolutely do NOT think the same.
Listen to the noise Jeremy. The crowds are chanting "shame on YOU"
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@trishgreenhalgh
I hope that all athletes have to quarantine properly on their return to wherever they are from, or this could be a global super spreader event of new variants.
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Some people think I’m a killjoy for not celebrating when colleagues are honoured with gongs.
Trouble is, the very good people getting them ends up as cover for a thoroughly corrupt system which “honours” (aka buys off) incompetent politicians like
#gavinwilliamson
. IMHO
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My thoughts based on some experience of emerging disease outbreak investigation (particularly in gay men).
Close contact - sexual and social - in dense networks can lead to multiple linked cases whether a bug is sexually transmitted or not. 2/
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Please RT!
Are you an epidemiologist, statistician or analyst wanting a new challenge? We need people to join the REACT team at Imperial, analysing repeated rounds of prevalence data from large community samples. Secondments, short/ longer-term contracts available. Talk to us!
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OK folks - time for a boycott. Disgraceful from Pret - no pay during breaks? Surely that has to be illegal.
Low wages & insecure contracts are one of the reasons why there has been a high toll if COVID19 in the UK. This is not how to “build back better”
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Reporting coronavirus deaths in people “with underlying health conditions” creates a disturbing narrative this is acceptable, and can make the young & fit feel reassured. Older people & those with long term conditions are people too and we aim to prevent these deaths
#COVID19
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Don’t want to be disrespectful, but what would he know?
That someone on their first day in a job knows the answers - one of the worst things about this political system.
The WORST error of leadership is a combination of being confident & incorrect.
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The decisions on school opening are a complete shambles. From all the emerging evidence of recent transmission under the tier system, they need to stay closed until cases start to decline.
Looks like we need a proper lockdown and proper financial support.
#WheresRishi
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Ooh - I’m verified. No more imposter syndrome for me.
(Does it count for REF?)
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So depressing
- Women always made responsible for men's harassment & violence towards them
- Protesters always blamed for results of aggressive policing
- Abstaining on a bill to ban protest means you don't mind
@Keir_Starmer
- get some active bystander training & DO SOMETHING
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People need to know that the numbers of cases and deaths cannot be reduced by vaccination in the short term. Only social distancing can do that.
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Spot on - lack of independence made it impossible to separate PHE from govt, but PHE get blamed while Hancock stays. Disgraceful.
“staff were employed as civil servants, & the organisation had no discernible independence, not even its own website”
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Some (not all or even most) gay men have social contact with lots of people. Lucky them. But it can lead to explosive outbreaks of new infections. 3/
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Three weeks of dither and delay on coronavirus that cost thousands of British lives
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@Dr2NisreenAlwan
JCVI cub-cttee minutes not available after January - so how would we know? We need transparency in decision making.
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@TomPMarshall
@devisridhar
Neither do I. But when the media - and meeting organisers - systematically use Prof for men and not for women it really p****s me off. (Sorry for the un-professorial language)
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There are other examples of (re)-emerging infections being identified early in gay men. In 2004-4 I led the investigation of LGV (lymphogranuloma venereum) in gay men in England. Others include shigella, hepatitis A, meningitis. 5/
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"The UN under secretary-general, Vera Songwe, said Hancock’s “success” in handling the UK’s pandemic response was a testament to the strengths he would bring to the role."
Have they not looked at the data and today's report? Expect lots of apps and contracts for mates.
Matt Hancock appointed UN special envoy to help Covid recovery in Africa
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The UK has done many things wrong in the pandemic, but it has been world leading in surveillance.
As the govt prepares to cut back on protections, a short thread on some of the contributions of
@ReactStudy
in detecting new waves and variants, vaccine impact & inequalities. 1/
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Repeated narrative
(a) show an example of the minority of people who flout the rules
(b) ignore failings of private contractors (testing, tracing)
(c) refuse to provide financial and job security to those who need to isolate
(d) blame the people not the govt for lack of control
And despite this, people’s compliance is still remarkably high. Non compliance is often because people *can’t* comply with the rules, not because they *won’t *.
#SupportToIsolate
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This is so moving. Who really knows what it feels like to have dementia?
Ex prima ballerina with dementia comes alive when she hears Swan Lake! Remarkable!
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I’m an atheist, so didn’t know the Catholic Church was so forgiving. If you were baptised a Catholic, you can marry & divorce a few times, have kids by some wives and some non-wives, lie, commit adultery... but it’s fine. Just don’t be poor or a woman.
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Our letter in
@ObserverUK
. Public health leaders condemn actions leading to loss of trust
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When you see the solidarity and compassion today from of so many people and organisations across the country in making free school meals available (thanks to
@MarcusRashford
), it does makes you wonder how the hell we ended up with this mean-spirited, corrupt & incompetent govt.
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Politicians doing reckless things is really unhelpful when we are all urging people to act responsibly to prevent transmission. Lets hope this does not turn into a super-spreading event.
Coronavirus: SNP MP Margaret Ferrier apologises for travelling on public transport after positive COVID-19 test
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I’m 65 today - such a relief to know what look and exercise regimen I should be aiming for.
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Sigh. Why did they let him in?
So not only is Boris Johnson too cowardly to turn up to Parliament to defend the sleazy corrupt government shenanigans of recent days.
He’s now irresponsibly parading round a hospital without a mask.
Patients and NHS staff deserve better than this.
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Universities and care homes seem to be assuming that they have rights to dictate the movement of their students and residents. When I last looked neither were prisons or detention centres.
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The damage these far right ideologues can do in their short time in office is appalling.
And with no mandate. Truss was opposed by the majority of Tory MPs, is in office thanks to votes of just 81,326 Tory members, and is opposed by 73% of the electorate.
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“From a scientific perspective, React, together with the ONS Covid infection survey, provided the UK with a level of awareness of the pandemic that was really exceptionally good,” according to
@mlipsitch
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Parents told to take children with COVID into school, workers told to go in even if they test positive - no surprise rates are going up. I know lots of triple vaxxed who are very unwell with COVID. Hospitalisations rising, some people will get disabling long COVID. 😠
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@dgurdasani1
Exactly what I thought - positive test numbers are meaningless and I’m not convinced they should still be on the dashboard. ONS survey should be the go to data.
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