What the papers have been saying in the week ending May 16th
Amongst the high profile initiatives to acknowledge the significance of the covid-19 crisis and the work of key workers to help people who are affected, we read that leaders of the Christian Churches and the Jewish Faith in the UK have been making joint pilgrimages to hospitals for prayer and to give thanks: https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/chief-rabbi-among-faith-leaders-to-go-on-mini-pilgrimages-for-key-workers/
The very grim reality of the situation and its significance for older people comes from the statistics that only one percent of covid-19 deaths have occurred to people aged 50 or less – On the other hand 59% of deaths have been aged 80+ (less than 5% of the population) https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/may/13/pensioners-34-times-more-likely-to-die-of-covid-19-than-working-age-brits-data-shows. Other vulnerable groups include the poor – identified in previous weeks. This week poorly paid men are singled out for comment: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/11/manual-workers-likelier-to-die-from-covid-19-than-professionals
Care homes have special consideration:
- death rates in care homes have begun to fall https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/11/hopes-raised-for-end-to-covid-19-crisis-in-uk-care-homes-as-death-rates-fall
- there are many stories of the effects of separation from family amongst care home residents, despite the heroic and imaginative efforts of staff to keep spirits alive: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/14/isolated-uk-care-home-residents-fading-away-say-staff-and-families
- there has also been reflection on the massive impact on the care home population which will soon be realised, as we take stock including reference to the concept of ‘harvesting’. Though this is sometimes caricatured as politically conceived, it seems fairer to acknowledge that it is nature which is operative here. Perhaps more could have been done to protect individuals and certainly staff, but the virus was always going to be most lethal amongst the frailest and most vulnerable. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/12/was-harvesting-in-care-homes-a-de-facto-policy
Further insight into the grim realities of deaths in such numbers come from
- gravediggers in Nigeria where numbers are so great that space to bury the dead has become scarce. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/may/11/we-depend-on-god-gravediggers-on-frontline-of-kanos-covid-19-outbreak
- And rabbis in this country have had to modify their practices https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/14/my-rabbis-tools-now-include-a-phone-uk-jewish-burials-changed-by-covid-19
Other perspectives:
- Stories of individual deaths, and feelings within families that people have not been given true value and respect are impressive and moving. Maybe they can have an effect for something better in future https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/12/rory-kinnearsister-protect-vulnerable-coronavirus-rory-kinnear
- David Hunter – Richard Doll Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine at Oxford University – articulates the alarm which many have felt in response to the dramatic announcement of changes to national discipline: the positive encouragement for people to return to work when the risks remain high for many people, especially poorly paid male manual workers https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/11/boris-johnson-advice-coronavirus-spread-work
- an historical perspective from Thomas Piketty points to changes in society which followed previous pandemics, moving toward greater equality and mutual care. Those were dreadful times but maybe the story encourages hope https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/12/will-coronavirus-lead-to-fairer-societies-thomas-piketty-explores-the-prospect
- maybe: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/13/state-collapse-social-order-coronavirus-britain
- we learn also that there is more mental illness being declared to services. Hardly a surprise https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/16/uk-lockdown-causing-serious-mental-illness-in-first-time-patients
- and we read that payment for the costs of the pandemic will include reduced free transport for older people in London. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/may/15/transport-for-london-faces-3bn-funding-gap-despite-16bn-bailout-income-journeys-coronavirus. So: the loss of the triple lock, the loss of free TV – older people are indeed vulnerable
- beyond covid-19: we read that poorer older women are more likely to be depressed by changes to the pension scheme: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/13/women-in-lower-grade-jobs-hit-by-pension-change-at-greater-risk-of-depression
But on a lighter note we find that a correspondence on alternative uses for tights has begun. It began with their use to secure saplings Wife’s tights don’t mark the bark | Brief letters
So far we have these helpful hints: they can be used to shield cherries and other fruits from pigeons, as an emergency fan belt, to store onions, ear pieces for fabric masks, filter the water in a down pipe to a water butt, strain redcurrants when making jelly. There will be more. My mum wore nylons and their uses were part of our family culture.
David Jolley
