Yet another new blog

I'm watching and reading about the after-effects of Covid 19. These involve people who apparently recover well but are left with terrible after-effects that ruin their health and their lives.  Here are some people I know about:  One woman (38), a health club instructor, a Zumba, yoga and Pilates teacher, was leading classes 44 hours a week. Now she can't work. Another woman (31), a professional dancer, has contracted a severe form of Guilain-Barre. After 4 months she can walk again but her future is uncertain. A PE teacher (35) is still off work after 5 months, although he has never taken sick leave in 12 years. The first person I described here is self-employed. The other two are covered by employers' and state health schemes. I hope they all make a good recovery and suffer no long-term ill-effects - or end up on benefits long term. That's no life for anyone.  But I'd suggest that nobody of any age should take it for granted that they can "ride out" the v

I'm going to make a wild guess here.  I am the only person in the UK who read a bit about the pandemic before this one (the so-called Spanish Flu of 1918) and realised there would be a a Second Wave of Covid-19 about 6-12 months after the First Wave. I must be the only one because how else would you explain the fact that the UK government wasted the entire summer doing nothing very much by way of planning for the Second Wave? Or listening to the medical, research and public health people? Or even warning people that the pandemic wasn't over?  There is a phenomenon known among secondary teachers as "So what did you think would happen next?" Adolescents are not good at working out the consequences of their actions. So if you pour a can of juice over the guy next to you and a teacher sees it, there will be consequences. And definitely not the kind you want. But you tend to forget that in the heat of the moment.  I used to define adolescence as any age from 12 to 23. Stup

 In a way, I should be happy that the British Tories are too thick to organise themselves.  I'm reading right now about movements in the USA that are openly or covertly supported by Donald Trump and the Republican Party and their hangers-on.  Boogaloo is the new one.  You can read about it here: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/whitmer-conspiracy-allegations-tied-boogaloo-movement-n1242670?fbclid=IwAR3cwWJLptngSLlDmEUzEVU8L50VsxUfGvSn6vu870_WdUjvLbo_nDOHDuE Americans are good at making up names like this.  Apparently, Boogaloo is another right wing militia group. Some of its members were involved in the planned abduction (and murder?) of the legally-elected governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer.  Sometimes, Republican politicians fail to reveal themselves because they're too scared to declare who they really are and what they really stand for. These days Republicans like Trump are worse than any right wing militias: they are happy to unleash gun-toting nutters on their f

Four months ago, I saw on Facebook an "ad" for a research project: <<The research is conducted by clinical psychologists at the University of Oxford and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. The research is approved by the University of Oxford Central University Research Ethics Committee (R69638/RE001). It is funded by the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre.>>  The research is looking into how people's mental health is being affected by Covid-19 and it asks for volunteers. If you're interested in taking part, please don't contact me. Google one of the organisations above.  I agreed to take part back in May. I filled in a long and detailed questionnaire, and now the researchers are back to ask more questions, albeit in a slightly shorter questionnaire, thankfully. I'm guessing here, in a totally amateurish way, that their first bit of research maybe gave the researchers reasons to do a follow-up - in other words, they found grounds for furt

It's partly about visits to people in care homes. Visits are limited right now because of the pandemic. A small number of relatives (about 40, I see on the BBC website) want more freedom to visit. I wonder how many people live in care homes. Is 40 a representative number?   It's awful, this. And I would love to have some guidance on it. I'm not looking for political guidance - I regard both the Scottish Government and Dr Donald McAskill and Robert Kilgour (on behalf of care home owners) as offering political advice.  The issue for me is people. We all know people who have relatives in care homes. They want what's best for them and they are afraid for their relatives' future in this pandemic. At the same time, people want to visit their relatives and we know it's good for them to have visits.  And at the back of everyone's mid should be the understanding that eventually we will all approach the stage where we will need to be in a care home.  How do we manage

 Here's a Commonwealth joke for you: Q What's bordering on insanity? A Wales and Scotland. No, I don't think England or English people are insane. But they are definitely getting a bad press.  I don't believe for one minute that England is populated by right-wing crazies, staging demos in Brighton to fight off the hordes of furriners trying to get there in wee boats from Europe. Ignoring advice to wear masks and observe safe-distancing.  Nor is England overrun by Covid protesters marching around Trafalgar Square, waving placards and claiming the virus is a government plot or a conspiracy by the Russians and the Chinese to attack 'British' freedom. They too refuse to wear masks and observe safe-distancing - oh, and, of course, they take their little kids with them, thus putting them at risk. Action that would have social work at your door if you were living in Leicester or Bolton.  And England is definitely not full of people who can't see a day off coming wi