Small beginnings
Thursday, 16 July 2009
Predictions of a pandemic had become so common – and so often came to nothing – that the reports in March 2009 of Mexicans falling ill from ‘swine flu’ first only merited a paragraph or two in the papers. But by today the World Health Organization has now declared a pandemic and the disease is truly global. What was at first treated with humour is now treated with nervousness as the first people in the UK die from the disease and, despite government assurances, parents pull their children out of school where there is even a rumour of swine flu.
Patient Zero
Monday, 3 August 2009
Who was the first person in the world to get swine flu? Experts are divided between a six-month-old child in Mexico and five-year-old Edgar Hernandez. But Edgar is the one who has caught the attention of the world media (well, babies are more difficult to interview) and Edgar even has a statue of himself.
The statue is called Nino Cero – Little Boy Zero – and it stands in Edgar’s home town of La Gloria, Mexico. It may be doing some good. It’s starting to attract tourists to the small town, no doubt giving a welcome boost to the economy. But others are unhappy at their town becoming infamous as the place where swine flu started.
Mass of Separation
Thursday, 6 August 2009
I am grateful to Channel Four blogger, Dr Peter Stott, for bringing this to my attention. It is the Mass of Separation from the 13th Century and was a series of instructions to sufferers from leprosy. Strangely, the instructions are equally valid today for avoiding the spread of swine flu. Just shows how little our understanding of viruses has grown in 700 years!
MASS OF SEPARATION
“I forbid you to ever enter a church, a monastery, a fair, a mill, a market or an assembly of people.
“I forbid you to leave your house unless dressed in your recognisable garb and also shod.
“I forbid you to wash your hands or to launder anything or to drink at any stream or fountain, unless using your own barrel or dipper.
“I forbid you to touch anything you buy or barter for, until it becomes your own.
“I forbid you to enter any tavern; and if you wish for wine, whether you buy it or it is given to you, have it funnelled into your keg.
“I forbid you to share house with any woman but your wife. I command you, if accosted by anyone while travelling on a road, to set yourself down-wind of them before you answer.
“I forbid you to enter any narrow passage, lest a passerby bump into you.
“I forbid you, wherever you go, to touch the rim or the rope of a well without donning your gloves.
“I forbid you to touch any child or give them anything. I forbid you to drink or eat from any vessel but your own.”
It comes back
Friday, 7 August 2009
Should we be happy/relieved/cautious over the latest swine flu figures that show only 30,000 new cases were reported last week (compared with 110,000 the previous week)? I keep hearing the catchphrase from BBC4’s docudrama, The Forgotten Fallen, in my head: “It comes back”. Which is of course what Sir Liam Donaldson and others keep saying.
Welsh whisky
Saturday, 8 August 2009
There appears to be a story doing the rounds in foreign newspapers and websites that Welsh whisky is a miracle cure for swine flu.
Now even the Welsh would admit that it takes a brave person to drink Welsh whisky and it may be responsible for many things but miracle cures ain’t one of them.
It seems this story got started when a Russian sports team was visiting Wales and they were advised to drink whisky as a way of avoiding getting swine flu. And from this small beginning the internet rumour began.
Where there’s muck...
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Swine flu may be pretty frightening but it’s not going to stop some people making a quick buck.
How about swine flu T-shirts, the swine flu fridge magnet, or even the swine flu hat? All are available online.
Tamiflu humour
Friday, 21 August 2009
An old joke revamped for the swine flu era... Doctor: “Take this Tamiflu and your swine flu symptoms will be gone in a week. If you don’t take the Tamiflu your symptoms could take seven days to disappear.”
A cliché exposed
Saturday, 22 August 2009
My concerns over the trite phrase “underlying health problems” (UHPs) being trotted out every time someone dies from swine flu have been borne out. It has become almost a journalistic cliché – no-one simply dies of swine flu, they all have “underlying health problems”. My suspicion is that people in authority are using this as a way of reassuring the public that swine flu is not dangerous; people can relax – they weren’t ‘ordinary’ people who died from swine flu, they were deeply ill in the first place. Alarm bells rang in particular when a Northern Ireland soldier Lee Porter died from swine flu and it was said he had UHPs. The Belfast Newsletter interviewed his family who strenuously denied he had UHPs. It adds that Lee was: “Employed full time for the Northern Ireland Fire Service, he had been involved with the Territorial Army since the age of 18 and had also progressed to the rank of Company Sergeant in the Army Cadet Force.” So in fact he was incredibly fit – surely a more important news story that someone of his ilk can be brought down by swine flu than someone with UHPs?
Burying victims in the catacombs
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
Someone posted on the comments section that Exeter council had drawn up a plan to put “all the bodies” from a swine flu epidemic into the catacombs below the city. It sounded so ridiculous I could only assume it was one of the Friend of a Friend stories. But it turns out to be absolutely true.
It’s probably a bit over the top in the ‘worst case scenario’ stakes but where to store the bodies is a genuine issue if the pandemic is at the top end of the scale. And in cold caves is probably as pragmatic a place as any.
Lack of swine flu data is a scandal
Sunday, September 6 2009
It’s appalling that the details from official sources are so sparse that I am having to do this. It’s difficult to see what this secrecy achieves – except suspicion that the government is hiding the true situation. The public should be given as much information as possible.
It’s difficult to pick out the worst offender but I’m going to have a go anyway: Newham University Hospital Trust. The good work of reporter Susan Smith on the Newham Recorder enabled the paper to discover that someone on their patch had died of swine flu. The Trust grudingly confirmed the fact but the most telling line in Susan’s story is “Newham University Hospital NHS Trust will not reveal the gender of the patient.” For goodness sake, why not? This nonsense – the lack of data – has got to stop.
One-fifth of flu deaths ‘healthy’
Thursday, 17 September
Last night’s Panorama didn’t reveal many new facts but it did confirm what I had been told earlier by the Health Protection Agency – that the majority (four-fifths) of swine flu victims have those so-called Underlying Health Problems. That leaves one-fifth who are perfectly healthy. It’s a worrying figure which recalls the ghost of the Spanish flu of 1918 which seemed to “like a good fight” (in the words of the recent docudrama on TV).
Black Death v Swine Flu
Saturday, 19 September
“The ‘hushing-up’ system is in sanitary matters about as dangerous as anything can well be” – The Lancet, 1870.
I’ve moaned on many an occasion about the lack of any helpful details on swine flu deaths. The website Straight Statistics shares my exasperation and points out: “When a British soldier dies in Afghanistan, we know within days the sex, age and region of residence of the fatality, together with the immediate cause of death. How different it is for swine flu.”
Actually, there’s a more stark example than the parallel with soldiers dying in Afghanistan: I can find out more details about people who died during a visit the Black Death to Cumbria in 1598 than I can about swine flu in 2009. For the Black Death I can tell you how many died, their names, where they lived, the precise date of their death, sex, occupation, partner’s name, social class and whether they were buried in the churchyard or out on the Fells. No ages are given but it would be easy to work these out by checking with the baptismal records. In contrast the information given to the public about swine flu deaths in modern Britain in 2009 is: the number of deaths and... er, well that’s it really.
The more bizarre headlines
Monday, 5 October 2009
Swine flu is not a laughing matter but here are some of the more bizarre swine flu headlines that have caught my eye...
No Swine Flu deaths in Botswana
Canadian Aboriginals get body bags after asking government for swine flu help
Is St Thérèse of Lisieux spreading swine flu?
Prisoners Got Drunk On Swine Flu Gel
Now they want to ban handshakes
Media spreading virus of fear.
The nature of the beast
Friday, 23 October 2009
I think Dr Ruth Hussey has put her finger on the nature of the swine flu beast in her latest bulletin. The North West Director for Public Health said: “It seems that although the total number of people catching the virus is going up slowly overall, the complications people are experiencing are severe.”
In the early days of swine flu, we were expecting many people to be ill and many to be seriously affected or killed. But it seems rather than this strain of pandemic is affecting many – most not seriously at all – but others it is singling out for a particularly severe attack.
Why? What is it about those who are being worst affected? There seems no common denominator – you can be very healthy or have severe health problems; you can be young or you can be old; you can be male or female. But Dr Hussey’s observation perhaps gives a clue to how best the NHS can form a strategy to tackle swine flu in the next few weeks – a concentration on the large minority who are going to need very specialist treatment to get them through it.
The anti-vaccine militia
Sunday, 1 November 2009
The vaccine against swine flu has always had its opponents but since it’s not compulsory it’s never really had any raison d’etre.
However, a group calling itself The People’s United Community have gone into Birmingham hospitals putting up posters and handing out leaflets attacking the vaccine. “Swine flu is not the biggest danger. It’s the vaccine.” say the posters.
Not surprisingly their campaign has incurred the wrath of health officials who point out that a) They’re wrong and b) 89 of the 137 deaths from swine flu so far might have been avoided if the vaccine had been available earlier in the UK. How many more deaths might therefore be caused by inaccurate information persuading people not to take the vaccine? Healthy debate is one thing. Irresponsible scare-mongering is another.
Strange goings-on in Ukraine
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Type ‘swine flu Ukraine’ into Google news and you’ll see unfolding some extraordinary events. Nearly 70 people have died from swine flu according to the authorities (in the UK the total is 135 so I’m not sure why that’s worried them so much) but they’re closing schools, universities, banning public meetings and you can’t buy a face mask for love nor money.
Some Western commentators are bemoaning that the Ukraine is asking the world for help but not giving any deatils about why these 70 people died or any background information (Good grief! They should try getting information about UK deaths – it makes the Ukraine look like a role model in openness!).
How bonkers is this?
Saturday, 7 November 2009
The latest swine flu death in Scotland is of an adult from the Ayrshire and Arran area. Authorities are not releasing the gender “for reasons of confidentiality”. Has this country gone completely bonkers?
Thursday, 16 July 2009
Predictions of a pandemic had become so common – and so often came to nothing – that the reports in March 2009 of Mexicans falling ill from ‘swine flu’ first only merited a paragraph or two in the papers. But by today the World Health Organization has now declared a pandemic and the disease is truly global. What was at first treated with humour is now treated with nervousness as the first people in the UK die from the disease and, despite government assurances, parents pull their children out of school where there is even a rumour of swine flu.
Patient Zero
Monday, 3 August 2009
Who was the first person in the world to get swine flu? Experts are divided between a six-month-old child in Mexico and five-year-old Edgar Hernandez. But Edgar is the one who has caught the attention of the world media (well, babies are more difficult to interview) and Edgar even has a statue of himself.
The statue is called Nino Cero – Little Boy Zero – and it stands in Edgar’s home town of La Gloria, Mexico. It may be doing some good. It’s starting to attract tourists to the small town, no doubt giving a welcome boost to the economy. But others are unhappy at their town becoming infamous as the place where swine flu started.
Mass of Separation
Thursday, 6 August 2009
I am grateful to Channel Four blogger, Dr Peter Stott, for bringing this to my attention. It is the Mass of Separation from the 13th Century and was a series of instructions to sufferers from leprosy. Strangely, the instructions are equally valid today for avoiding the spread of swine flu. Just shows how little our understanding of viruses has grown in 700 years!
MASS OF SEPARATION
“I forbid you to ever enter a church, a monastery, a fair, a mill, a market or an assembly of people.
“I forbid you to leave your house unless dressed in your recognisable garb and also shod.
“I forbid you to wash your hands or to launder anything or to drink at any stream or fountain, unless using your own barrel or dipper.
“I forbid you to touch anything you buy or barter for, until it becomes your own.
“I forbid you to enter any tavern; and if you wish for wine, whether you buy it or it is given to you, have it funnelled into your keg.
“I forbid you to share house with any woman but your wife. I command you, if accosted by anyone while travelling on a road, to set yourself down-wind of them before you answer.
“I forbid you to enter any narrow passage, lest a passerby bump into you.
“I forbid you, wherever you go, to touch the rim or the rope of a well without donning your gloves.
“I forbid you to touch any child or give them anything. I forbid you to drink or eat from any vessel but your own.”
It comes back
Friday, 7 August 2009
Should we be happy/relieved/cautious over the latest swine flu figures that show only 30,000 new cases were reported last week (compared with 110,000 the previous week)? I keep hearing the catchphrase from BBC4’s docudrama, The Forgotten Fallen, in my head: “It comes back”. Which is of course what Sir Liam Donaldson and others keep saying.
Welsh whisky
Saturday, 8 August 2009
There appears to be a story doing the rounds in foreign newspapers and websites that Welsh whisky is a miracle cure for swine flu.
Now even the Welsh would admit that it takes a brave person to drink Welsh whisky and it may be responsible for many things but miracle cures ain’t one of them.
It seems this story got started when a Russian sports team was visiting Wales and they were advised to drink whisky as a way of avoiding getting swine flu. And from this small beginning the internet rumour began.
Where there’s muck...
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Swine flu may be pretty frightening but it’s not going to stop some people making a quick buck.
How about swine flu T-shirts, the swine flu fridge magnet, or even the swine flu hat? All are available online.
Tamiflu humour
Friday, 21 August 2009
An old joke revamped for the swine flu era... Doctor: “Take this Tamiflu and your swine flu symptoms will be gone in a week. If you don’t take the Tamiflu your symptoms could take seven days to disappear.”
A cliché exposed
Saturday, 22 August 2009
My concerns over the trite phrase “underlying health problems” (UHPs) being trotted out every time someone dies from swine flu have been borne out. It has become almost a journalistic cliché – no-one simply dies of swine flu, they all have “underlying health problems”. My suspicion is that people in authority are using this as a way of reassuring the public that swine flu is not dangerous; people can relax – they weren’t ‘ordinary’ people who died from swine flu, they were deeply ill in the first place. Alarm bells rang in particular when a Northern Ireland soldier Lee Porter died from swine flu and it was said he had UHPs. The Belfast Newsletter interviewed his family who strenuously denied he had UHPs. It adds that Lee was: “Employed full time for the Northern Ireland Fire Service, he had been involved with the Territorial Army since the age of 18 and had also progressed to the rank of Company Sergeant in the Army Cadet Force.” So in fact he was incredibly fit – surely a more important news story that someone of his ilk can be brought down by swine flu than someone with UHPs?
Burying victims in the catacombs
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
Someone posted on the comments section that Exeter council had drawn up a plan to put “all the bodies” from a swine flu epidemic into the catacombs below the city. It sounded so ridiculous I could only assume it was one of the Friend of a Friend stories. But it turns out to be absolutely true.
It’s probably a bit over the top in the ‘worst case scenario’ stakes but where to store the bodies is a genuine issue if the pandemic is at the top end of the scale. And in cold caves is probably as pragmatic a place as any.
Lack of swine flu data is a scandal
Sunday, September 6 2009
It’s appalling that the details from official sources are so sparse that I am having to do this. It’s difficult to see what this secrecy achieves – except suspicion that the government is hiding the true situation. The public should be given as much information as possible.
It’s difficult to pick out the worst offender but I’m going to have a go anyway: Newham University Hospital Trust. The good work of reporter Susan Smith on the Newham Recorder enabled the paper to discover that someone on their patch had died of swine flu. The Trust grudingly confirmed the fact but the most telling line in Susan’s story is “Newham University Hospital NHS Trust will not reveal the gender of the patient.” For goodness sake, why not? This nonsense – the lack of data – has got to stop.
One-fifth of flu deaths ‘healthy’
Thursday, 17 September
Last night’s Panorama didn’t reveal many new facts but it did confirm what I had been told earlier by the Health Protection Agency – that the majority (four-fifths) of swine flu victims have those so-called Underlying Health Problems. That leaves one-fifth who are perfectly healthy. It’s a worrying figure which recalls the ghost of the Spanish flu of 1918 which seemed to “like a good fight” (in the words of the recent docudrama on TV).
Black Death v Swine Flu
Saturday, 19 September
“The ‘hushing-up’ system is in sanitary matters about as dangerous as anything can well be” – The Lancet, 1870.
I’ve moaned on many an occasion about the lack of any helpful details on swine flu deaths. The website Straight Statistics shares my exasperation and points out: “When a British soldier dies in Afghanistan, we know within days the sex, age and region of residence of the fatality, together with the immediate cause of death. How different it is for swine flu.”
Actually, there’s a more stark example than the parallel with soldiers dying in Afghanistan: I can find out more details about people who died during a visit the Black Death to Cumbria in 1598 than I can about swine flu in 2009. For the Black Death I can tell you how many died, their names, where they lived, the precise date of their death, sex, occupation, partner’s name, social class and whether they were buried in the churchyard or out on the Fells. No ages are given but it would be easy to work these out by checking with the baptismal records. In contrast the information given to the public about swine flu deaths in modern Britain in 2009 is: the number of deaths and... er, well that’s it really.
The more bizarre headlines
Monday, 5 October 2009
Swine flu is not a laughing matter but here are some of the more bizarre swine flu headlines that have caught my eye...
No Swine Flu deaths in Botswana
Canadian Aboriginals get body bags after asking government for swine flu help
Is St Thérèse of Lisieux spreading swine flu?
Prisoners Got Drunk On Swine Flu Gel
Now they want to ban handshakes
Media spreading virus of fear.
The nature of the beast
Friday, 23 October 2009
I think Dr Ruth Hussey has put her finger on the nature of the swine flu beast in her latest bulletin. The North West Director for Public Health said: “It seems that although the total number of people catching the virus is going up slowly overall, the complications people are experiencing are severe.”
In the early days of swine flu, we were expecting many people to be ill and many to be seriously affected or killed. But it seems rather than this strain of pandemic is affecting many – most not seriously at all – but others it is singling out for a particularly severe attack.
Why? What is it about those who are being worst affected? There seems no common denominator – you can be very healthy or have severe health problems; you can be young or you can be old; you can be male or female. But Dr Hussey’s observation perhaps gives a clue to how best the NHS can form a strategy to tackle swine flu in the next few weeks – a concentration on the large minority who are going to need very specialist treatment to get them through it.
The anti-vaccine militia
Sunday, 1 November 2009
The vaccine against swine flu has always had its opponents but since it’s not compulsory it’s never really had any raison d’etre.
However, a group calling itself The People’s United Community have gone into Birmingham hospitals putting up posters and handing out leaflets attacking the vaccine. “Swine flu is not the biggest danger. It’s the vaccine.” say the posters.
Not surprisingly their campaign has incurred the wrath of health officials who point out that a) They’re wrong and b) 89 of the 137 deaths from swine flu so far might have been avoided if the vaccine had been available earlier in the UK. How many more deaths might therefore be caused by inaccurate information persuading people not to take the vaccine? Healthy debate is one thing. Irresponsible scare-mongering is another.
Strange goings-on in Ukraine
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Type ‘swine flu Ukraine’ into Google news and you’ll see unfolding some extraordinary events. Nearly 70 people have died from swine flu according to the authorities (in the UK the total is 135 so I’m not sure why that’s worried them so much) but they’re closing schools, universities, banning public meetings and you can’t buy a face mask for love nor money.
Some Western commentators are bemoaning that the Ukraine is asking the world for help but not giving any deatils about why these 70 people died or any background information (Good grief! They should try getting information about UK deaths – it makes the Ukraine look like a role model in openness!).
How bonkers is this?
Saturday, 7 November 2009
The latest swine flu death in Scotland is of an adult from the Ayrshire and Arran area. Authorities are not releasing the gender “for reasons of confidentiality”. Has this country gone completely bonkers?
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