Opinion: Apportioning the responsibility for a mishandled pandemic

A mishandled pandemic

Through several news stories, one begins to see the fundamental issues with how the Coronavirus pandemic has been handled by certain governments and how the infection and death rates have been reflected as a matter of consequence.

This especially with the admission of Prime Minister Boris Johnson to hospital last night for further tests having not shaken off the symptoms he acquired 10 days before. The real condition of the Prime Minister is subject to conjecture but generally immaterial. My comment on that matter is that all the best of my humanity wishes him well, yet there is nothing of his principles, his virtues, or his policies regarding the pandemic that persuades me to feel more that way. [BBC News]

Our sympathy towards a situation of human frailty should not automatically confer absolution from culpability and responsibility for the way the UK government has failed to grapple competently with this pandemic in scaling up tests to determine who is infected, in providing protective equipment to NHS staff, some of whom have unfortunately succumbed to the COVID-19 virus and in acquiring sufficient treatment facilities as ventilators.

Michael Gove confirms death of seven NHS workers fighting coronavirus [Evening Standard]

Indecision cost too many lives

A study puts the mean duration from the onset of symptoms to death at 17.8 days, the range being between 16.9 to 19.2 days. Whereas, from the onset of symptoms to hospital discharge with the patient having been through the worst of the disease to recovery is 24.7 days with a range of 22.9 to 28.1 days. [Estimates of the severity of coronavirus disease 2019: a model-based analysis - The Lancet]

The UK was finally asked to lock down on the 23^rd of March 2020, that is 14 days ago, going by the data capture today at COVID19Info.live, 4,948 people have lost their lives to the COVID-19 virus, people who otherwise might well be alive if this virus had not complicated their underlying conditions and sped them to their demise.

These are the people who inadvertently took it on the chin as Boris Johnson suggested we should in early March and were knocked out. The loved ones who we have lost before their time.

Blog - Thought Picnic: The vulnerable to be martyred to the Coronavirus in the UK

People make up these numbers

That would imply the 625 people who have died in the full day of yesterday, the 5^th of April were infected somewhere between the 17^th of March and the 20^th of March, by inference, if the UK government had acted a week earlier on the 16^th of March, there is a likelihood for each day from the 31^st of March, 3,529 lives might have been saved. The UK breached the 100 mark on the 26^th of March with 115 deaths. [COVID19Info.live]

This could link up with the well-attended Cheltenham Festival that ran from the 10^th to the 13^th of March and the Liverpool FC match with Athletico Madrid with visitors from Spain on the 11^th of March.

This is information we cannot ignore because too many individuals, people with names who through unfortunate happenstance died lonely deaths in hospital and had no immediate family at their funeral ceremonies.

Stripping off our human dignity

In the story of two COVID-19 victims, Pastor Landon Spradlin, 66, was survived by his wife and four daughters, an entertainer and evangelist, he was recently attended at the Mardi Gras, yet when he died there were two guests at his funeral and none of his immediate family. Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, 13, himself had parents and siblings, none of whom were at his graveside, he was buried by strangers. [BBC News] [ITV News]

The Coronavirus, in life and in death dehumanises us and strips us of all human dignity that decisions are being taken for reasons that do not essential protect life and more towards rationing treatment and intervention depending on assessments of viability determined almost unilaterally by GPs as seen in letters informing the aged and extremely vulnerable of decision not to attempt resuscitation if they should fall ill.

Blog - Thought Picnic: From chills to thrills in health updates

We were adequately forewarned

The argument of the benefit of hindsight is moot as we all had the warning signs from China, the extreme measures taken were indicators and as it swept into South Korea and then Italy, our government was not oblivious, just unpersuaded and caught flat-footed. Including in the US, we had almost a 2-month lead time and it was squandered valuing the economy over human life and the atrociously untested policy of herd immunity with a vaccine does not exist for a virus we know little about.

The lockdown has its usefulness, but the emphasis should be on social distancing rather than on people filling up parks. This considering many might just live in apartments without outer spaces as balconies or gardens. Obviously, going out should not be for the leisure of it, but for essential activity.

The responsibility is with the government

What would save the NHS the most is the social distancing and the equipping of the NHS staff with protective kit, the widespread deployment of testing and kitting intensive care units with ventilators to manage respiratory distress. There is enough space for us to keep our distance of 2 metres and maybe more, but I see a surreptitious ploy to deflect attention from where the problem really is, the incompetence, the ineptitude and the lethargy of Boris Johnson’s government.

We should not be inured into just seeing the numbers with recognising that the statistics are made up of individuals, people like you and I, over 4,000 families grieving the loss of loved ones over and above the nominal death rate, in the space of a month. That is why I cannot absolve my government from this somewhat avoidable human tragedy.

Suffocated by ultracrepidarians

The wisdom of madding crowds

Never have we needed a surfeit of expertise in these trying times, people who have not just an idea of what they are talking about, but are ready, willing and patient enough to take the time to inform and educate to the point that others begin to understand and grasp the basic knowledge of things.

It’s been difficult to navigate the deafening cacophony of those in captivity of the Dunning-Kruger effect, those who have not even conspired to dilettantism that enter the fray to pontificate and postulate as authorities in subjects where they have no schooling but are so opinionated to the point that experts are relegated to the inconsequential or forced into the feigned balance of pitching their vocations against novices. Ultracrepidarianism is rife.

Conspiring conspiracies

With the Coronavirus pandemic, the person we probably need most to shut is President Donald Trump, he needs to get out of the way and let the experts take control. He speaks like an idiot, spewing a multitude of jumbled words redolent of someone who has done nothing in a long time to improve his faculties. [Jolted by Her Own Illness, Pandemics Scholar Gains Insight into Botched COVID-19 Response - Scientific American]

Excerpted from Scientific American

Hitching a ride on the Coronavirus bandwagon, 5G technology has now branched out into a deluge of conspiracy theories promoted by every useful idiot from religious leaders through politicians to celebrities.

I cannot begin to repeat or perpetuate much of what I have read or heard, only that the ignorant and illiterate have become willing hosts of propagating the contagion of pseudo-science, fables and incredulous stupidity with property at risk of destruction and possible loss of life and livelihood. They have become the personification of a virus. [The Coronavirus Collection: Conspiracy Theories – Snopes] [5G Conspiracy – Snopes]

The church online

I guess the only respite I had was in the celebration of Palm Sunday, we have reached the end of Lenten season and entered the Holy Week. Quite inauspiciously, we have now completed 2 weeks of the intended 3-week lockdown to expire on Easter Monday. There is a likelihood it would be extended. [Palm Sunday - Wikipedia]

The etymology of quarantine is Venetian of the 14^th to 15^th Century spoken in the northeast of present-day Italy, quarantena meaning 40 days anglicised to quarantine of which the Lenten period is also 40 days. [Quarantine – Wikipedia]

Yet, what a relief it was that I would able to attend the online Palm Sunday eucharistic season of the Manchester Cathedral, streamed life on Facebook from the homes of the clergy presided over by the Dean of the cathedral. There is a daily morning (09:00) and evening (16:30) prayer service streamed live too. [Manchester Cathedral – Facebook]

Experts of mercy

In a week suffused with the excess of illusory superiority, hubris, and cognitive dissonance almost presenting as schizophrenia, here were people not given to the eschatological incomprehensibility of those of another creed, but with humility, patience, service and love for their congregation led us in worship, adoration, and celebration of the day.

Was I glad to see so many clerical collars? We must be thankful for small mercies. In other news, I joined the Labour Party on the 19^th of January, the day before the close of eligibility to elect a new leader. That contest is over, and Sir Keir Starmer was elected, my choice for deputy leader came second. It is my hope that the Labour Party that I have voted for since 1992 now has the opportunity of becoming a party of government after 4 straight electoral losses. I wish Sir Keir, every success. [BBC News]

Hairy lends to hairless ends

Late growth spurt

My beau, just like the Jack Sprat of the nursery rhyme fame could not grow a beard, yet I like his wife just needed to leave it there, and so it grew wilder every day for 10 weeks. Grizzled and wizen, the highlights gained the kind of prominence of men of a certain age.

As I had written before, I dared to believe I would have no beard, I was in my late twenties when it began to show and having not shadowed my dad in grooming, I had no idea what to do with it apart from remembering he used Magic Fragrant Shaving Powder as a chemical depilatory and Old Spice as an aftershave.

The former didn’t work for me, I still came out in razor bumps and the latter was best left to that generation. After many experiments, I settled on the Gillette Fusion5 Razor that I have been using for over a decade. This became necessary when I began to show signs of male pattern baldness and decided it was best to shave both my head and face at the same time.

I can’t remember when 

Glee and plea

I rarely ever had more than a week’s growth before a shave because once that hair grew to a certain length, it became irritating. Now, my beau has this vision of a bearded and hirsute man, a younger Teddy Pendergrass figure, I could never imagine myself becoming, but I humoured him through the slight incapacity of illness to recovery, his excitement leaving quite bewildered.

Now, I had suggested ways in which he could acquire a beard, the stray threads under his chin never numbering more than 6 and that would have followed a hormonal surge of testosterone. Maybe he could graft it from elsewhere. Plastic surgeons can come up with interesting ideas if you want it bad enough.

Falling away to sticking there

When I underwent chemotherapy a decade ago, my consultant assured me that it was unlikely I would lose my hair, that was true, he, however, did not inform me that I would lose my fertility. Though in a life and death situation, you are probably thinking of surviving than procreating.

Then one morning, the moustache falling over my upper lip and stick up my nostrils was too much of a bother, the fine comb I used to groom the sideburns and beard seemed to up and leave for Bulawayo and I was left with no other option before my face became a Medusa of dreadlocks.

I produced a furball, not as a cat might, but good enough to roll up and put in the post with instructions to apply super glue and stick the ball as is directly on his chin. His wishes coming true out my selfless sacrifice of follicular hari-kari. Together, we would have switched faces.

Furball

For posterity sake, there is an evolution of hair, from when I can no more remember to what makes me feel a bit comfortable.

The Before

The Aftermath

Thought Picnic: Stop listening to those pandemic conspiracies

A marketplace of pandemic chimaeras

Yesterday, I had forwarded to me a WhatsApp message recording of a jumble of conspiracy theories that linked the Coronavirus, to China, to 5G telecommunications, to a new world order and the need to retain Donald Trump as the US President.

In these unsettling pandemic times, an environment of exploitation opens up for all sorts of activity, conspiracy theories are rife, peddlers of snake oil remedies makes even more outlandish claims, eschatologists reveal hair-raising visions of a precipitous end to the world, confidence tricksters engage to persuade you in a direction you’ll rather not go, you adopt new practices that contribute more to uneasiness, stress, and strain.

Tales from the crypt

Yet, what one needs is a sense of calmness and peace, the ability to relax without being overwhelmed by the terrifying news cycle, the worry about immediate issues, or the fear of an uncertain future.

The WhatsApp message was full of jumbled thoughts, bad science, stark ignorance, and too many fallacies to count. I had to upbraid my friend for not using his rational and logical thinking to consign the nonsense to inconsequential trash. Yet, to the unsophisticated, this appeals to their itching ears, it all sounds believable, it becomes their facts and it beclouds their outlook, heightening suspicion and diminishing trust.

The cult of mesmerised

When so persuaded, they expect you to be carried along with their winds of fantasy, if you resist, you risk losing the presumed respect they had for you. Having been deluded, it is almost like they have joined a cult of mesmerism and are behind a veil too thick and impervious to you being able to reason with them. They seek like minds with whom to reinforce their new insight.

In enough numbers, they can easily constitute a mob, like the arsonists who set a telecommunications tower alight in Birmingham having been implicitly instructed to go out and destroy the gathering of a menace ready to take away their view, status, standard and comforts in life. The sinister powers about to change the world into ways you cannot begin to countenance or accept. [Government slams 'baseless' conspiracy theory that 5G is linked to coronavirus – The Mirror]

They believe then commit

The words of Voltaire easily come to mind when these conspiracy theories gain traction, “They would can make you believe absurdities, will make you commit atrocities.” In times like this, one must be vigilant and sophisticated, be ready to debunk the absurd, question the assertions to the nth degree and do not let up without good answers. Mind what you believe that you will be convinced to commit.

Find incontrovertible sources, check the credentials of the purveyors, don’t be easily persuaded, read up on this not that well understood and don’t be unsettled by crazy fables that seek to capture and disable your rational mind.

Maybe it is best to give the new cycle a break, give little heed to the social media rumour mill and if you’re to be persuaded of anything, seek out the views of reputable experts, scientists, or professional. When a former director of public prosecutions said the teller at a car park thought COVID-19 was a global conspiracy, you could only resist the urge to laugh derisively, you might just muster a sense of pity too.

The guy who collects money at a car park just told me that COVID-19 is a global conspiracy involving 5G, the CIA, Mossad, KGB & the Chinese Secret Service
He should know

— nazir afzal (@nazirafzal) April 3, 2020

#Coronavirus: Can commendable competence emerge from astonishing incompetence in the UK?

It’s damning incompetence all round

Every day appears to be overcast with a Coronavirus cloud, in the news, in our cities, in our limitations and expectations.

In the middle of this pandemic what is becoming obvious is the need for competence in government with the wherewithal to grapple with a complex and complicated issue that is presently impacting on lives in unprecedented ways. [The Irish Post - Virus crisis reveals Boris Johnson's astonishing incompetence]

It is literally impossible to deploy the kind of glib political spin that has been the stock in trade of the people who constitute our current UK government headed by Boris Johnson. People need answers to questions to which the usual obfuscation or verbosity with sophistry will not pass the muster. [Yahoo! News - Coronavirus: Two-thirds of Brits think the government has badly handled COVID-19 testing]

The numbers are real people

Today, the UK registered the 4^th highest global death toll of 569 in the last 24 hours of people who succumbed to the COVID-19 virus bringing the 7^th most deaths of 2,925 in a country that comes the 8^th in the number of confirmed cases of 34,006. In the numbers and percentages game, there is a fatality rate of 8.6% and a recovery rate of 0.5% where China and South Korea have recovery rates of 93.7% and 58.4% respectively. [COVID19INFO.live]

Screen captured from https://covid19info.live/

To suggest that the management of the pandemic in the UK has been abysmal would almost be forgiving, look at the statistics as each an individual, each person named and their survivors accounted for constitutes probably in a majority of cases an avoidable tragedy visited upon UK residents and citizens by their own leaders.

Before we lose the context of what is happening in our country, we need to refresh our minds with what Boris Johnson said in early March.

Is death so insignificant to them?

“That’s where a lot of the debate has been and one of the theories is, that perhaps you could take it on the chin, take it all in one go and allow the disease, as it were, to move through the population, without taking as many draconian measures.”

“I must level with you, level with the British public, more families, and many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time.”

Blog - Thought Picnic: The vulnerable to be martyred to the Coronavirus in the UK

These are the people who when the Prime Minister allowed the COVID-19 to move through the population with taking draconian measures like the lockdown, took it on the chin and died before their time.

You can only wonder how many more will take it on the chin before the government really does come to grips with this pandemic by scaling up tests for the infected and all frontline staff acquires and distributes PPE to all that need it at the point of contact with the public, and ensure hospitals are adequately equipped with ventilators at the point of need.

I still hope for better

I want to believe that this government can rise to the occasion as they are the ones in charge with the responsibility for which they must ultimately be held accountable. Their need to be truthful, honest and scrupulous cannot be overstated or we would lose confidence in them. [Reuters - Under pressure, UK government promises 100,000 daily coronavirus tests]

People are dying daily and much as one can readily blame them for criminal carelessness and the recklessness that has unnecessarily endangered lives our of lethargy, inertia and unpreparedness, one would hope they are more aware of the gravity of the task ahead of them to find the means to excel beyond their heretofore cack-handed gross ineptitude. I wish them all the success and there can be no refuge in excuses anymore.

Chasing waterfalls of life

Delivered from drowning in waterfalls

From the song Waterfalls (Lyrics) by TLC comes the refrain.

Don't go chasing waterfalls,
Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to,
I know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all,
But I think you're moving too fast.

[]

When I saw the lyrics beyond listening to the song, I did wonder about the many waterfalls I have chased and fallen over the edge into a ravine, breaking somethings and because I cannot swim, I would have probably drowned.

Then Prince reminds me with “Let's go down 2 the holy river, If we drown then we'll be delivered.” [The Holy River – Prince Vault]

Blog - Thought Picnic: Find your holy river in which to drown

If I will be delivered, I can afford to sail on rivers and lakes, even the open sea and oceans, if I did fall over a waterfall, I will see rise from what all assumed was death to live strong. There are too many examples of where three letters could have led me to my resting place.

The reckless and careless things that have looked to pitch milestones in my story are hammered out of sight for the billboards for triumph through adversity. Something to meditate on, on the rivers and lakes, I can go boating, kayaking, or canoeing, over waterfalls, I probably want to go hang-gliding than falling over the edge in the thundering roar of cascading waters.

I am grateful for life and opportunity that comes my way unexpectedly and that is the stuff of a storied life. A hope and fearlessness of whatever lays ahead including waterfalls will not be the end of the story.

Thought Picnic: From chills to thrills in health updates

Singing of life

There was a time I was in a church choir just before Christmas, my croaky voice landed within the baritone range with the likelihood that if I had voice training, I might well have improved the range without straining my voice box.

[]

For me today, I could either be singing ‘Good Christian men rejoice’ and ‘As with gladness men of old’, it is not Christmas, but I have had that state of mind. My Christian faith is a source and wellspring of hope and strength that I cannot relegate to insignificance. It gives me the ability to see beyond the inconvenient, the uncomfortable, the disturbing, and the difficult or seemingly impossible.

Banishing the anxiety

The muddled messages of the government about the extremely vulnerable needing shielding from the Coronavirus left me in a quandary that I was expecting a letter from the NHS informing me of my vulnerability and the need to stay indoors for 12 weeks. [GOV.UK]

Visiting the website today, I notice the cohort I belong to had been removed from the list, but that is not before I realised the full gravity of what the government was planning for those who are extremely vulnerable. In one of the worst expressions of an intention regarding the health outcomes, some people in Wales received letters that led one of the recipients to say, “It was like having my death warrant being sent by the grim reaper. It made me feel worthless.” [WalesOnline]

Asked to give up already

The intention, for the people with vulnerable conditions, if they did fall ill due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus or they had a deterioration in their health due to their underlying conditions to stay at home to be cared for by friends and family, not to call 999 for emergency services whilst agreeing not to be resuscitated if they stop breathing or their heart stops. The people were to grant prior absolution to medical professionals from following the Hippocratic Oath.

It is one thing to initiate discussion on your personal end of life care, it is another for your own GP to inform you that they will fill in a DNACPR (Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) form on your behalf because the state has decided the limited resources and personnel in a pandemic we were poorly prepared for makes you expendable.

Courtesy of WalesOnline [Link]

Reading the letter sent a chill down my spine, the prospect that if anyone falls gravely ill that no medical heroism would come to your aid, rather you’ll be left to expire. The thought that when I had the January, what could be cured with a few doses of antibiotics would have refused me until the bacterial infection presents sepsis resulting in agonising death does not bear thinking of.

From despair to great relief

This in my view is the culmination of the mendaciously, heartless and evil herd immunity madness that the UK government proffered on the 12^th of March. Allow the vulnerable to be strafed by the Grim Reaper without respite, their martyrdom a glowing statistical sacrifice to the greater good of giving up their places in the health service to the presumably more deserving because they are younger, healthier and maybe still have more to contribute to society. Such is what makes cynics of a more caring humanity.

Blog - Thought Picnic: The vulnerable to be martyred to the Coronavirus in the UK

This morning the British HIV Association published an update, the first line was the summary and answer to many anxieties about vulnerability. “So far there is no evidence for a higher COVID-19 infection rate or different disease course in people living with HIV (PLWH) than in HIV-negative people.” [BHIVA]

Even better personal news

A few hours later, I got a call from the specialist nurse from my hospital, as my consultant had sent me a tweet that my scheduled appointment for the 3^rd week of April will be by telephone rather than a visit to the hospital. We had a discussion regarding the results from my last visit in October if there were any changes to my condition and how I was faring in my broader life.

One piece of information that would have determined where I was in the vulnerability spectrum was the CD4 count, it was the highest it had ever been from a nadir of 20 to over 400. For the past decade, it had struggled to stay in the 300s and now it had breached a somewhat magic figure. That made me really happy and glad.

Obviously, that was because I have been religiously taking my medication which keeps the viral load undetectable, but I also think the beginning and growth of a romantic relationship has contributed in no small measure to my sense of wellbeing. I have my Brian with an I to thank for that. There is a life to live out there, a world of abundance to thrive in and love of inestimable value to appreciate, cherish, and enjoy.