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
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
