Comment // Health

Debi Evans Blog: 11 April 2023

I do hope everyone had a peaceful and happy Holy Week. Although the sun was shining, my car was frozen at 7.30 am on Good Friday! I hadn’t banked on that. It appears not everyone has had a peaceful Holy Week, least of all the Holy Land itself, where violence, protests and attacks have been taking place.   Back here in the UK, we are full steam ahead for the roll-out of the latest Spring Covid–19 boosters. Interestingly, my elderly mum, who has repeatedly informed our surgery not to send any more vaccine reminders, received a text today informing her that she had been ‘invited’ (interesting choice of word) to receive the latest dose of the ‘vaccine’ that isn’t really a vaccine. Please don’t all run at once. The text said:
Dear Mrs X, You have been invited to book your Covid–19 Spring 2023 booster vaccination. We do not know what type of vaccine we will have yet, but it may contain squalene. Please wear a mask when attending. Thank you. 
(The sentence in bold there was not added by me; the surgery actually sent that.) Perhaps the best idea is for all of us to throw away our old phone numbers, get new ones and not tell anyone other than trusted friends and family. If they don’t know our numbers, they can’t pester us. It’s a tactic I'm in the process of trialling, and so far so good. Now nobody has contact details for me at all, so it's easy to miss e-mails! Peace.  

Junior doctors' strikes

As you read this, the UK will be at the start of a four-day strike of junior doctors, a grade that accounts for 70% of doctors in the UK. As hospitals scramble to find qualified emergency cover, it is thought that over 250,000 appointments will be cancelled or delayed. The disruption will continue for at least ten days.   Visitors to popular holiday destinations are being asked to take their own medicines and contact their own GPs if they need advice, as local services will be overwhelmed. Who will you see if you should need emergency care this week? A doctor, pharmacist or nurse? There are no guarantees—we are living in uncharted territory.   

Bullying, blame and Birmingham NHS Trust

This story has sadly not surprised me; however, the reports of bullying and coercion within Birmingham NHS Trust are horrifying. Perhaps Birmingham is the canary in the coal mine and indicative of a culture of systemic bullying of patients and staff throughout the whole of the NHS?   Working at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, Dr Vaishnavi Kumar tragically took her own life after struggling to cope with being belittled at work. Her father, also a doctor, told Birmingham Coroner's Court that Queen Elizabeth Hospital was a “hypercritical environment to work in”.   As if that wasn’t bad enough, more stories of neglect, abuse and cruelty are emerging. Hannah Solomon described her dying mother’s treatment at Queen Elizabeth Hospital as “disgusting”. Hannah’s mum, Carmel Solomon, was receiving ‘end-of-life care’, but due to Covid–19 lockdowns, visiting was severely restricted.   Hannah became concerned when her mum told her she couldn’t reach her food or drinks and was having to pitch herself out of bed in order to access fluids. During her last days, when the family were called in, they were shocked to see her lying in a pool of blood. Hannah is far from alone, as Sky News reveals.   

Covid–19 injections for babies aged 6 months – 4 years

I am dismayed and horrified to report that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has recommended that British children who may be deemed ‘clinically vulnerable’ from the age of 6 months to 4 years should be offered a Covid–19 jab.   Young children are at very low risk of developing a serious illness from Covid–19. Children have strong resilient immune systems which, if allowed, work hard to give them all the protection they need for the rest of their lives. For more information about the thymus gland and T cells, please click here for an interview I did with Brian Gerrish.   However, the UK Government reports that ‘clinically vulnerable’ infants and children are seven times more likely to be admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit. I am still searching for the study or evidence that supports that bold statement. If any of you reading do happen upon it, I would appreciate sight of the paper. Thanks in advance.   “Should children be jabbed?” was a question I posed to retired Paediatrician Dr Ros Jones, and Psychotherapist Dr Christian Buckland. It soon became clear to me that every parent needs to ask the key question: Do our children need Covid–19 vaccinations? The answer you will hear is an unambiguous no. To date, over one million children in the USA have been jabbed at least once, courtesy of Pfizer/BioNTech.   Those who are unfortunate enough to be offered two doses of the injection won’t have to wait long. Parents will be sent ‘invitations’ in mid-June. Please note that the World Health Organisation has revised its guidance for administration of Covid jabs to children, now stating that healthy children and adolescents may not necessarily need a vaccination dose.  

Ivy League Covid–19 vaccinations

The Ivy League schools in the USA are what we could describe as the gold standard in education. Well-known names such as Harvard and Yale are among this crop of élite universities. However, it’s not just years of hard study with grade A’s in examination results and affluent parents with good connections that will open the door for you.   Today, in order to get accepted, students will need to be jabbed. Some universities are demanding their students have the latest new bivalent booster as a condition of entry, and students who have received four of the earlier shots will still need a new shot in order to continue with their course. This leaves me with one short question: why?   

Covid or flu?

A new ultra-thin sensor is being heralded as the ‘new test’ that can distinguish whether you have Covid or flu. Furthermore, it can give you a result within ten seconds. Do you care? Do you even want to know? Made from graphene and arranged in a hexagonal lattice pattern, this technology is intended to replace lateral flow tests. Thanks, but no thanks.   

The NHS underspend 

As most of our regular audience will know, I cannot resist a good board meeting. I watch them so you don’t have to. The NHS is no different from the MHRA: it regularly holds its board meetings in public, although please note that the NHS does have a private board meeting prior to its public one. I wonder if the MHRA does the same?   This board meeting was another occasion for grandees to pat each other on the back and offer mutual congratulations. If you haven’t watched one before, be prepared; you may need an anti-nausea tablet. I gleaned quite a bit of information from it, including the fact that the NHS has underspent its budget by £125 million this year.   I know you will all feel incredibly relieved to know that £100 million of that windfall has been ringfenced for vaccines. You heard it here first. Don’t expect to see a friendly face behind the desk of Accident and Emergency in the future; instead, you will be asked to log yourself in via an iPad. GP surgeries will be a thing of the past and e-consults the new normal.  

Avian flu

Let’s blame the birds! Apparently, seabirds are finally returning to the coast of Canada. Yet we are hearing that the risk of avian flu is skyrocketing. Whilst I admit there was a brief period here in the UK where the absence of seagull screeches was noticeable, it didn’t last for long and the gulls have been continuing to steal our chips as they always did.   However, it appears that scientists are very concerned that the spring migration of birds will fuel a spread of avian flu. According to a report by Radio Canada, biologist Andrew Lang warns that some birds will migrate normally despite being infected. Others, apparently, get extremely sick.   Could this be the start of the new winter ‘plandemic’ that the UK Health Security Agency and the NHS have been warning us of? France has ordered 80 million doses of avian flu vaccines, whilst in Japan there doesn’t appear to be room to bury any more birds, as they’ve run out of land.  

Pop-up hospitals

With over 100,000 vacancies in the NHS and staff leaving in their droves, one would wonder who will be there to look after us in future years. What incentive is there to join work in the NHS? With low morale, poor conditions and low pay, one can’t help but wonder why anyone would want to train as a doctor or a nurse.   Generation Medics will arrange a ‘pop-up hospital’ to come and show your primary school children what a career in health would look like, and it will even be tailored specifically to your needs. All age groups are catered for, so no-one is left out.   Being immersed in an NHS hospital scenario at the age of six is not my idea of a basic education, but what could be better than arousing early aspirations to a job with Europe’s largest employer? All that's needed is the classroom space, and Generation Medics will do the rest. Whether it is five one-hour sessions or five full days, they pride themselves on being able to inspire our youngsters.   Good luck, I say. As this service was previously delivered by the NHS and the Department of Education from the taxpayer, Generation Medics must be laughing all the way to the bank.  

Anxiety and paranoia

Are you feeling anxious? Perhaps others are saying you are suffering from paranoia? If so, look no further than the NHS App. According to a study, 10–15% (so as many as 10 million) of the British population suffer from paranoia/suspicious thoughts and may be in need of ‘help’. It is hoped that making an app easily accessible will encourage people to seek help early. But seeking help where? From a chatbot?   STOP is an acronym for Successful Treatment Of Paranoia and is a study to evaluate how people can manage paranoia using a phone app. Where do those ‘paranoid’ thoughts end up? Who hears them? Where are they shared, and with whom?  

Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV)

As the stories of those with vaccine injuries start to disappear from the mainstream media, it is interesting to see the newspapers running with a new deadly virus we should all be worried about.   The UK Health Security Agency and the Government's environment and rural ministry (DEFRA) have just published a qualitative assessment of the risk that tick-borne encephalitis virus presents to humans. Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) attacks the central nervous system and is deemed a ‘fatal disease’ if contracted. In the UK, infected ticks have been found in areas of the Thetford Forest, Yorkshire, and in the New Forest on the borders of Hampshire and Dorset.   Some infections can be mild with symptoms similar to flu; however, severe infections can proceed to meningitis or encephalitis, both being life-threatening conditions requiring emergency medical attention. Whilst the risk of infection is said to be low, we are all being urged to take precautions when walking in long grass and to keep our legs covered. Early symptoms include a headache, high temperature, nausea, vomiting, aching muscles and joints. What does this remind you of?  

Hybrid strain of monkeypox 1,000 times as lethal

Why would anyone want to experiment with a version of any disease only to make it a thousand times as deadly? This is exactly what is happening in the USA. A researcher at the National Institute of Health (NIH) is reported to be “tampering with multiple different strains of monkeypox in order to produce a super-monkeypox virus that is 1,000 times more deadly than the last one”.   The anonymous researcher is thought to be transferring genes from the rare but lethal Clade 1 (Congo Basin monkeypox) into the version currently circulating, known as Clade 2 (West African monkeypox). Is the NIH planning on releasing a lethal strain into the general population? Watch this space.  

Lynch Syndrome

Who has heard of this before? Probably not many, myself included. However, the NHS believes we have reason to be concerned. Lynch Syndrome is a genetic condition which is said to increase the chance of some cancers. According to the NHS, 1 in 400 people have the disease, with only 5% of its carriers aware of it. Anyone with endometrial or bowel cancer is being encouraged to participate in genetic testing in order to access ‘personalised cancer treatment’.   Please note: Lynch Syndrome does not directly cause cancer. It is thought that it leads to an increased risk of developing cancer, and in England around 1 in 100 bowel cancers are caused by Lynch Syndrome. Treatment using immunotherapies such as pembrolizumab (a monoclonal antibody) are the treatment of choice; they work by “binding the programmed death–1 (PD–1) receptor, potentiating an immune response to tumour cells”. Does that make you feel confident?  

And finally

Just as we thought SARS–CoV–2 was on its way out, it seems we're soon to encounter SARS–CoV–3, but I'll discuss this another day. In the meantime, question everything, including us. Do your own research and don’t be scared, just be prepared.   Until next week, Debi   But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief. 1 Thessalonians 5:4