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Strategies and speeds

29th June 2020 By

What the papers said week ending June 27 2020

The Windrush scandal remains unresolved but a new all-party working group hopes to get to grips where others have failed. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/22/windrush-scandal-cross-government-group-aims-to-tackle-terrible-treatment

There is real concern that decisions to ease the restrictions of lockdown are being made too quickly. There is mounting international evidence that relaxation is associated with an increase in the number of cases of Covid-19, and subsequent deaths – mostly amongst old people

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jun/24/end-of-hibernation-what-the-papers-say-about-englands-lockdown-easing

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/23/the-guardian-view-on-lifting-lockdown-riskier-than-it-needed-to-be

https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2020/jun/25/revealed-data-shows-10-countries-risking-coronavirus-second-wave-as-lockdown-relaxed

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/26/arizona-joins-texas-halting-reopening-amid-surge-covid-coronavirus-cases

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/26/swedes-rapidly-losing-trust-in-covid-19-strategy-poll-finds

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/26/more-young-people-infected-with-covid-19-as-cases-surge-globally

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/20/global-coronavirus-report-brazil-passes-1-million-infections-as-asymptomatic-cases-surface-in-new-zealand

We are faced with personal dilemmas as governments advise that social distancing can be reduced, and more and more aspects of social and commercial life are deemed OK, but experts are not always in agreement. Older people can make their own decisions, but choice is not so easy for those of working age, or school age

  • The scandalous approach in England to the discharge of patients who had Covid-19 to care homes has been deemed legal in court. Ethics is another matter. The phenomenon raises important issues about who is responsible for making individual decisions about what happens to patients: Government? Management? Clinicians? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/21/releasing-english-hospital-patients-into-care-homes-not-illegal
  • The consequences for residents and staff of the worst hit homes make disturbing, almost unbelievable reading   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/26/unacceptable-drop-in-care-at-kettering-home-with-12-covid-19-deaths

There are some reasons for optimism: a recent review by the Guardian mentions evidence of some benefit from anticoagulants, steroid and antibiotics in advanced cases: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/22/why-doctors-say-uk-better-prepared-for-second-wave-coronavirus

  • Trials are underway to determine the benefit of transfused antibodies – which are produced more strongly by men: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/23/male-survivors-of-covid-19-asked-to-give-plasma-for-treatment-trials
  • On the other hand, there are doubts whether such approaches will work in older people, who are most at risk from the virus. This has led to the counterintuitive suggestion that vaccination of young people will protect the old https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/23/covid-19-vaccine-may-not-work-for-at-risk-older-people-say-scientists
  • Any doubt that the virus poses greatest risk to older people is dismissed by the revelation that of the 40,000 plus deaths from Covid-19 in the UK only five (5) have occurred to individuals who are younger than 18 years. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/latest-on-coronavirus-outbreak/5-children-have-died-of-coronavirus-in-uk-study/1888903

Science: Doctors are reporting neurological and psychiatric complications of Covid-19 infections – these may be mediated by the effects of the organism on blood vessels and circulation

  • https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-brain/severe-covid-19-can-damage-the-brain-preliminary-study-finds-idUKKBN23W3IH
  • https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30287-X/fulltext
  • Another non-Covid study suggests that Irritable Bowel Disorder patients are twice as likely to develop dementia https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200623185240.htm

Other matters:

A large prehistoric structure has been discovered near to Stonehenge

  • https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jun/22/vast-neolithic-circle-of-deep-shafts-found-near-stonehenge
  • https://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue55/4/index.html

The internet claims the attention of the average person in the UK for a quarter of their waking hours. Older people are less transfixed. Poorer people may not have access to a computer and so they and their children are disadvantaged  https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jun/24/britons-spend-quarter-of-day-online-since-lockdown-says-ofcom

But travel restrictions have increased interest in cycling which must be good news for the health of the nation https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/26/bike-boom-uk-sales-up-60-per-cent-in-april-as-covid-19-changes-lifestyles

People: The author Michael Rosen (aged 74) has returned home, recovered from a severe Covid-19 – he communicated his experiences through his hospital stay with the media. His recovery gives hope for other older people who contract the disease https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/24/michael-rosen-home-from-intensive-care-after-coronavirus

Barbara Pointon – famously carer for her husband Malcolm through more than ten years of life with dementia, has died age 80 https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/news/2020-06-23/tireless-dementia-campaigner-barbara-pointon-has-died        Malcolm and Barbara

Filed Under: NEWS

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Speaking Out

There are some things which just have to be said.  We have to speak out because at the heart of the Christian message is our belief that God is not silent.  God has spoken through creation itself and the evolving universe; through the human story; through the dwelling of Jesus Christ in time; through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in each believer; through the inspiration of the scriptures; and through the wisdom and the teaching of the Church through the ages.

We use words all the time.  Words of welcome.  Words of wisdom.  Words of warmth.  Words of warning.  Words of wistfulness.  Our words are wasted if words are just words.   In the beginning was the Word.  And the Word was with God.  And the Word was God.  Through him all things came to be, not one thing had its being but through him.   The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word made things happen.

As Christians, as followers of the Word, we do something about what we have heard.  Our own best words are our actions.

Please tell us what you would like us to Speak Out about by contacting:  info@ccoa.org.uk

 

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