It seems to me that this statement from the British Medical Association, issued yesterday, is worth sharing in full:
The political significance of this can't be overstated. To date the medical profession has been notable for its quite remarkable compliance in the face of the problems created by government inaction.
Doctor after doctor has also been willing to go onto television and say things like 'The NHS will always be there for you' when that is not true because the government's policies guarantee that it cannot be.
Now the medics are making it very clear that they will not accept responsibility for what is going to happen this winter, and that if the NHS fails - as is very likely - and that many people die as a result - which is also very likely - or suffer considerably - which is more likely still - then they will not accept the blame.
This is vital. Doctors are now learning that they are being scapegoated by ministers. Worse, they know that ministers are deliberately turning the public against them. Many are suffering abuse, or worse, as a result. There is only one reasonable response to this, and that is to counter-attack, and often.
We live in a political environment where ministers are deliberately choosing to do nothing because they want to deny that the state has the power to act, even though it can, and should. In place of action they set up people - usually experts if migrants are not available for this purpose - to blame for the consequences of their inaction. It is time for all - migrants, experts and others - to fight back and say that the failures of government are its alone to account for.
I think we will be seeing this happen much more often now. The NHS is our biggest employer, and rightly so. Very few people do not know someone who works for the NHS. As a result they will hear the stories that those NHS employees will be telling of how impossible it is to cope with the demand that has arisen through no fault of their own, and of the abuse that they are getting as a consequence. My hope is that populist narratives tackled now will not survive the telling of the truth.
It is only a hope. But it is one that we have to believe in right now.
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The simple fact is that the more people who catch COVID then the more who will need hospital treatment and the more who will die. And the more who will suffer long term health impacts. And the more people who will catch it from them. And the greater chance for an even mote infections variant.
Yes, vaccination has changed the numbers since this spring, but we have lost our early lead over other countries, and it is not a magic bullet. The bulk of deaths – a hundred a day in the UK for two months – are still in the older age groups. (About 100,000 of the approaching 140,000 deaths are in the cohorts aged 70 or older, but around 3,000 in those aged under 50.) But the older cohorts are the ones where 90%+ have two vaccinations (99% in some areas). And they all need boosters. Why is that going so slow? There are still millions of people who are not vaccinated.
And why has the rollout to secondary school children been so slow? It is almost half term. At a colleague’s children’s school they had nearly 30 positives on one day in the last week.
The government has been too slow three or four times already. They are doing it again. To get in front of this highly infectious virus, we *have* to take action when it feels too early, and we *have* to take action which feels disproportionate.
It is pure idiocy to refuse to learn from your mistakes but instead to insist on making them over and over again.
88% of those over the age of 60 now dying of Covid are double vaccinated
Presumably why so many people are shrugging their shoulders and casting aside their masks. Evidently they see this as their “new normal” which they will simply “have to live with for years to come”. The fact that they could change this and have a responsibility to do so just isn’t there in popular discourse. How to change this is the great challenge.
Were they in need of a booster? Was there anything else medically ‘wrong’ with them?
Does it matter?
You do realise co-morbidities include things like eczema – which are irrelevant?
And since the vast majority have not had boosters – me included – is that an issue?
They are going slowly because all along they have been following behavioural science rather than science as most of us think of it, or so I believe. Javid said as much yesterday. If we don’t wear masks, and keep our distances, changing our own behaviour of our own volition, they will be forced to make us.
I think you really are amiss
Independent sage follows behavioural science to say what needs to be done
It is the government ignoring it
I suggest noting what Stephen Reicher has to say. You are really nit giving him the credit genus die
On Tuesday this week, Starmer refused to demand the immediate implementation of Plan B, maintaining his position that it is his primary duty to not rock the government boat. Over 40% still support the government. That is the background of your hope that Tory sectors, such as the doctors, will allow their intellects and professional expertise to prevail over political tribalism. I share your view that this will happen more frequently but the need for coordinated, coherent, intelligent opposition remains crucial to give focus to disparate pockets of progressive voices.
I do not understand what Starmer thinks he is accomplishing with the odd stances he takes. Does he actually know what he is doing?
Destroying the labour party? I know quite a few people who have left because of his odd stances.
In jest I posited what I thought was a completely mad conspiracy theory- that Starmer was an MI5 plant. It feels increasingly less like a conspiracy theory. I can find no other explanation for his utter focus on destroying the Labour party and refusing to be an opposition.
As people are probably aware, we in Scotland are operating under different regulations regarding Covid restrictions, and they are still in place. Whether this will be enough to keep the level of infections, and hospitalisations, at a lower level, only time will tell.
The other advantage we have is that the S.N.H.S have more doctors, nurses, and other health board staff, per head of population, than the other countries of the U.K. Even with these advantages, our health service is still under enormous strain, so I can only hope that it can cope this winter.
My wife and I have both had our booster jag, along with the flu vaccine, and I can only say that the organisation was superb. If this is indicative of the arrangements throughout Scotland, then the prospects of at least keeping the pandemic to a lower level, must be good.
The medical profession has been fighting the government over this. Is just that MSM has been ignoring them. It hasn’t just started. Have you watched The People’s Covid Enquiry and seen how many nurses and doctors have given evidence to it?
https://www.peoplescovidinquiry.com/who-we-are
https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/15/peoples-covid-inquiry-what-must-happen-now/
There have been nine evidence sessions with Michael Mansfield chairing the panel.
Sorry, but I am married to a doctor and she has monitored this very closely and they have not been fighting
The change now is very significant
Of course you note an exception
But that is now becoming commonplace and that is very significant
Do you not think it would be worth reading The People’s Covid Inquiry and seeing what has been said?
You are insulting a lot of doctors by saying they are not fighting back, particularly those on Independent Sage.
No I am not
I watch a lot of independent sage. Some of them follow me. Of course I am not insulting them. I think they would wholly agree with me. Indeed that is exactly what their commentary suggests. They have been fed up by supine commentary from royal colleges etc and at last it us ending.
And if you knew about independent sage you would know most aren’t doctors
Sorry, but I think I am right and I am not insulting anyone
I would just ask you to read the list of doctors involved in The People’s Covid Inquiry, some of them very senior and well known. It seems a shame that you and your wife have not noticed this before.
Your wife is a doctor. I am one of the over-70s who has had covid and ended up in hospital on oxygen. In fact I went into hospital wth an aortic dissection, and caught covid while on a heart ward, along with three other elderly patients, all of whom had been double vaccinated.
There were staff there who had caight covid in January or February and were still suffering from the after effects, but having to work twelve hour shifts.
Could you and your wife not get things like this out there, as you are very well known ?
I have already offered my sympathy for your illness but to be candid anything called The People’s Covid will not be noticed as a doctor led inquiry
Why not celebrate that doctors are fighting back instead of making utterly pointless accusations?
It’s called the People’s Covid Inquiry because that’s just what it is. It isn’t just doctors, but there are a lot of scientists, doctors, nurses, people who have lost family members, and people like Michael Rosen, who nearly died of it himself.
It doesn’t have the name doctor in the title, I assume, because of all these other groups of people. It was started by KONP, a group determined to stop the government selling off the NHS, and another group which should be better advertised.
Off to have lunch now with Weownit, a similar group.
I was hoping that you would suggest to people that they look at the covid inquiry, but never mind.
Sorry I have mentioned before that I have had covid. That’s what it does to you, makes you forget things.
Stealth privatization and deliberate under-funding is a sure way of dismantling the NHS. From where I’m sitting, it very much looks like the government have used this pandemic to spread discontent towards our NHS and its working.
Doctors the length and breath of this country have tried to warn the masses, but whilst they are up against popular media, they will only be seen as agitators.
I noticed yesterday that the BBC called the BMA ‘the doctors’ union’. I’ve never heard it called that before. An interesting change of language, presumably designed to set people against anything they say.
It is
But that’s like calling my institute a Union….
I’m not sure that analogy quite works. The BMA does not set exams or certify qualifications, or regulate or discipline its members, like for example the ICAEW still does.
The BMA is really just a representative body. It describes itself as “the trade union and professional body for doctors in the UK”. https://www.bma.org.uk/
Or see “BMA as a trade union” – https://www.bma.org.uk/about-us/about-the-bma/how-we-work/bma-as-a-trade-union
Closer perhaps to the Law Society or the Bar Council as representative bodies for their members, now the SRA and the BSB perform the regulatory functions (as the GMC does for medical practitioners). But would the BBC call the Law Society “the solicitors’ union” or the Bar Council “the barristers’ union”?
You’re right….
Better
Had not heard of the People’s Covid Inquiry. All very interesting. The government don’t give us the full truth about the pandemic and mainstream media are reluctant to give us any information which challenges the government’s agenda. Surely the People’s Covid Inquiry, chaired by Michael Mansfield, a leading human rights barrister is an excellent opportunity to provide the evidence needed to challenge the government and fight for the NHS. Thank you jenw for the links about the Inquiry and thank you Richard for your very informative blog.
I have noticed that there is so much talk of Plan B, but I haven’t heard Plan A yet … from anywhere.
In my logic, plan B follows plan A, but are we now to assume that Plan A is the status quo, which is to follow government advice once you are infected or been in contact with an infected person?
Or is it a secret or nonexistent?
It just doesn’t make sense.
Plan A is the current incoherent government mess
Labour say they want to make this work
That makes no sense to me at all