UK Column Nursing Correspondent Debi Evans launches a blog giving her weekly health news roundup.
The blog image is a statue of Asclepius, the ancient Greek patron of medicine.
Amazon expanding into healthcare
It won’t be long before an Amazon drone delivers more than your shopping! Healthcare is next.
Ambulances
With heart attack patients having to wait hours for ambulances and many paramedics off sick with Covid-19, our ambulance service is in total collapse and experiencing a continued surge in demand for emergency-response ambulances. Some local NHS Trusts are having to rely on volunteers to help out. To find out who, please see the section on ‘Community Responders’ immediately below.
Concerns have been raised about patients being trapped outside hospitals in ambulances in the summer heat; however, we appear to be using them as extra wards at times when hospitals have no beds and no way of freeing up any space. Is this because of increasing bed reductions, lack of social care to discharge patients into, or shortage of staff?
The questions we should be asking ourselves are:
1. Why is there a surge in demand for emergency-response ambulances?
2. Why, in July, are the hospitals overwhelmed?
3. Why, if (as we are told) most NHS staff are Covid-19 vaccinated, are they off sick with Covid-19?
Community Responders
“Want to be the heart of your community?”
The East of England Ambulance Service (EEAS) is busy recruiting volunteers to help it reach emergency calls in minutes. The drive would appear to be about to go nationwide.
So what do volunteers need to know before signing up? An intensive six-week training course will be provided, but it will cost you £30. Anyone between 17 and 70 years of age can sign up, and, as long as you are healthy and fit, can drive, pass a Disclosure and Barring Service check, can hold a hand and can reassure folk, you are good to go … but make sure your car is in good condition, because you will be using it!
The scheme is being piloted in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and parts of Suffolk. Is this the final nail in the coffin for the Ambulance Service?
Monkeypox
As expected, the World Health Organisation has declared monkeypox a public health emergency. The decision to declare is unusual, as the Emergency Committee was split nearly evenly in its voting on the matter. WHO head Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was called upon to overrule the split, and justified his decision by blaming the fast transmission, rate which met the criteria in the International Health Regulations. For this to happen, it must be an ‘extraordinary event’ that constitutes a global public health risk requiring a worldwide response.
The UK Health Security Agency (formerly Public Health England) has now secured more than 100,000 additional vaccine doses and has updated its guidance on contact isolation. The chosen vaccine is the smallpox vaccine Imvanex, made by Bavarian Nordic.
Let us be clear: monkeypox is caused by a virus similar to smallpox. It is not the same, and this vaccine is merely said to be ‘considered’ effective in preventing or reducing the severity of monkeypox (that said, I am not aware of any deaths from monkeypox). Imvanex is not licensed for specific use against monkeypox, but in the United States it received approval for this use from the FDA in 2019. It has been authorised by the European Medicines Agency for use as a pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis for smallpox. The patient information leaflet is here, with the ingredients and side effects listed.
More concerning, perhaps, is the warning of a potentially deadly monkeypox in children expected by the end of the year. As we see the fear ramped up, perhaps we should keep our eyes on this fast-moving story.
On a final note it should be noted that cases of Herpes zoster (shingles) also continue to increase as a Covid vaccine adverse reaction on MHRA Yellow Card data. It would be informative to know how many of those with monkeypox are Covid-vaccinated, as the symptoms—although slightly different—still can appear similar. Fortunately, Moderna has an mRNA vaccine coming down the pipeline. Covid-19 appears to get the blame for everything.
Dentists
New reforms to the NHS dental contract means that as of now, patients in England should be able to access improved dental care. But the devil is in the detail. Dental services are not dentists. Dentists will be paid for treating more complex cases, whilst dental therapists will now be able to treat patients on the NHS, providing fillings and sealants. This is in order to free up dentists for urgent cases. The training for dental therapists is 27 months. The basic training for a dentist is five to six years long, with many studying up to 11 years.
MHRA: Medicrime
The MHRA's June board meeting is now on YouTube. UK Column has transcribed the section on criminal enforcement and Chief Enforcement Officer Andy Morling's comments about what the agency intends to do to protect British consumers from illegal websites selling medicines. The buzzword for this is ‘medicrime’. Currently, one in ten of the British public are buying drugs online. It should be noted that the scope of medicrime also includes medical professionals who have used drugs to harm patients, such as the infamous evil Dr Harold Shipman, who has been estimated to have killed over 200 patients using diamorphine.
Andy Morling suggests a ring of steel be put around the UK—to keep us safe, of course. Meanwhile, doctors continue to give an experimental mRNA gene platform without scrutiny or question. I would urge everyone to subscribe to the MHRA's YouTube channel. The MHRA needs to know we are watching them.
Influenza
As UK Column has been mentioning repeatedly, there has been little mention of flu in the last two years. Has flu been here all along, or did it just fly off to Australia for a vacation? We never tested for flu (why would we?), so how would anyone be able to state definitively that when the symptoms of Covid-19 and flu are so similar? Currently, Australia is reporting an earlier-than-usual flu outbreak in the Antipodean midwinter, which is crippling the country's health system.
On 4 July, at the first-ever NHS Integrated Board Meeting, Steven Powys, Medical Director of the NHS, said an outbreak of flu in the UK would be worrying for the NHS and that he was keeping a ‘close eye’ on Australia. The jab season is about to be ramped up. Flu, Covid-19, monkeypox and probably polio will be the objects of this vaccination drive.
On 13 June, The Lancet published The Need for a One World Health Approach to Influenza. The article underscores the importance of ‘systematic sentinel surveillance’, which is a system whereby health professionals in specific geographical locations will complete surveillance forms in their areas. This is the most common method of tracking communicable disease.
Preparations are in place to deal with the perfect storm: Covid-19 with flu on top. Are we looking at a twindemic? All eyes down under.
Covid-19
As logged Covid cases rise in the UK—at the time of writing, 3.7 million—all eyes are once again on Australia again as its health service collapses under the weight of a ‘new wave’ of infections from the BA4 and BA5 subvariants of the Omicron variant.
The warnings are being taken seriously by the UKHSA and NHS. In the UK, all over-50s will be offered a fourth Covid booster, which is a U-turn from Britain's original plans to exclude the 50–65 age group from that extra injection. It would appear that all social care staff will also be required to take a further booster. The Covid-19 vaccination programme will, as far as I can discern, begin in earnest on 5 September and will continue to New Year's Eve.
The duration of immunity against severe Covid-19 after booster vaccination is not known. Although some waning in immunity can be anticipated, the degree of loss in protection, and over what period of time, are factors remaining to be determined. Estimates vary according to viral variant.
Five- to eleven-year-olds will also be offered Covid vaccination, despite advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and in spite of evidence clearly showing that children are at very little risk of becoming seriously ill or dying. Thus far, there has been a very low uptake of vaccines in this age group, so parents should not feel pressured into thinking they are alone or isolated in declining the offer. Similarly, pregnant women and the unvaccinated will also be targeted this autumn, according to the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts.
Covid-19 liberty restrictions could be reintroduced if a rising number of cases impacts upon NHS backlogs. Watch out for tests and masks to make a reappearance.
Exoskeletons, prosthetics, AI, the tactile internet
The tactile internet is now all the rage. Professor Hannah Fry, known to our viewers, has more predictions besides.
China
Bejing is the first city to impose a vaccine mandate of a new kind in China. As of next week, anyone wishing to visit a museum, cinema, gym, entertainment venue or any crowded place—apparently including places of worship—https://news.sky.com/story/chinas-first-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-to-be-introduced-in-beijing-12646826.
Cornwall
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit is planning to launch up to 17 rockets from Cornwall on the south-western tip of Britain by 2030. It will fire its Launcher One rocket from the spaceport at Newquay Airport as soon as September this year.
McDonalds and Burger King competition
As the UK Government launches an obesity campaign and the globalist network encourages us all to eat the bugs, it would seem the fast food outlets have other ideas. Both of the burger giants announced loyalty schemes where customers can exchange loyalty points for food. Other retailers similarly competing for custom include Subway, KFC, Greggs and Starbucks.
Managed happiness
Braunschweig Municipal Hospital in Germany has employed a Happiness Manager to support its staff. Who will buy your mother-in-law’s birthday gift? Constanze Jäger will take care of that and any other errand that you may need help with if you are a hospital employee. Who will organise your child’s birthday party while you are at work? Who will put on a leaving event for a colleague? Constanze can, and she will organise it for you. Just for your happiness.
First Movers Coalition, WEF, Bill Gates, climate change
The WEF and US State Department have reported more climate policy developments.
Biometric payments
Would you implant a tiny debit chip in your hand in lieu of a card? Forget fingerprints or facial recognition; biometric payment is being touted as the future.
Lyme Disease estimates ten times higher than reported
Lyme Disease appears to have been underreported at the same one-in-ten ratio as adverse vaccine reactions.
The World Health Organisation's Disease Outbreak News charts the latest outbreaks around the world
Rethinking medical devices
The MHRA has just published the response on future regulation of medical devices in the UK. This follows plans on how to reform the regulation of medical devices following Brexit. The MHRA sees our exit from the EU as an ‘unique opportunity’ to improve and strengthen regulation with regard to medical devices and in-vitro diagnostic medical devices.
These reforms will apply to all new technologies, including smart phone apps and AI hearing aids, wheelchairs, and insulin pumps. CEO Dame June Raine says:
As a regulator, our priority is to protect patients and the public and make it easier and quicker for patients to access the medical devices and treatments they need
On behalf of UK Column, I will be keeping a keen eye on this development. Medical devices include also wearables, smart watches, fitness bracelets and the like to enable remote surveillance via biosensors. The data from these sensors is far from protected. There is plainly a surveillance agenda behind this push, as with the US Space Force.
The MHRA—and its US equivalent agency, the FDA—are chartered to make decisions in the public interest. Political and media pressure should not be a driving factor in making regulatory decisions. However, it appears that this changed when—due to ‘pandemic conditions’—emergency use authorisation for Covid-19 vaccines was fast-tracked on both sides of the Atlantic. Trial News has recently published this article, revealing major concerns with vaccine batch identity and the race to authorise.
Medicine shortage
The crisis of Hormone Replacement Therapy availability has not gone away, and women are still struggling to obtain their prescription medications. Many are driven to buying off the internet.
Other countries are suffering medicine shortages as a result of the UK not supplying them with their orders. Of course, Brexit is being blamed. Does the UK want to control the whole world’s medicines?
Called to account
Former Police Constable Mark Sexton has demanded that MHRA CEO June Raine be arrested.
Professor Susan Michie: World Behaviour Supremo
Mask-loving Professor Susan Michie, who loves to be reminded what a devout and long-time paid-up communist she is, was just appointed Chair of the WHO’s Technical Advisory Group for Behavioural Insights and Science for Health. Her academic colleagues are tickled pink. It appears to be a role for life.
NHS
No-one will have missed the headlines this week that the NHS is in collapse and suffering severe staff shortages. Patient safety is being compromised, and it would appear that things won’t get better anytime soon. As we continue to see a rise in ‘infection’ and a possible early season of flu, the NHS will not be able to cope. From all the reports I am seeing, it is looking likely that mask mandates are soon to return.
The NHS has saved taxpayers £1.2 billion in just three years, while securing cutting-edge treatments for patients, by using its buying power to negotiate better prices for hundreds of hospital medicines. Well, that’s good isn’t it? Nothing to do with the apparent medicine shortage.
NHS tracker
Keep an eye on the waiting lists at this site.
Jeremy Hunt's latest
The former Health Secretary and now Chairman of the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee has a weekly patient safety newsletter. It makes no mention of serious adverse reactions to Covid jabs or to his promise to me to investigate serious reactions from Covid vaccines. Hunt writes:
Things look worrying but the lights are flashing amber rather than red. The government has accepted the JCVI advice that all people aged over 50 will be eligible for a fourth booster vaccine in the autumn. Covid cases continue to rise with the ONS reporting that 1 in 19 people in England in the week ending 15th July had the virus. The dashboard data for the last 7 days isn’t great either as cases have increased 25%, hospitalisations up 18% and deaths up 33%.
Paediatric Virtual Ward pilot
In what has been called a ‘trailblazing’ development, the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust in the West Midlands has trialled a paediatric virtual ward.
Trichomoniasis
A little known sexually-transmitted infection, different from chlamydia, appears to be on the rise. Trichomoniasis can cause the risk of becoming infected with HIV and can also cause serious complications in pregnant women.
Will this turn out to serve as another excuse to cover up possible Covid-19 vaccine serious adverse reactions? I would anticipate there to be more on this story before long.
Some inspiration
I finish with an amazing open letter to the MHRA and other regulators from 76 doctors from the Children’s Covid Vaccine Advisory Council, urging them not to follow America's FDA in approving the Covid-19 vaccine for infants aged between six months and four years.
