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Time to act: thread on why we need to close schools, borders, and ban all household mixing RIGHT AWAY.

To those arguing winter is always like this in the NHS: you are wrong. I faced four serious winter crises as Health Sec and the situation now is off-the-scale worse than any of those.

It’s true that we often had to cancel elective care in Jan to protect emergency care but that too is under severe pressure with record trolley waits for the very sickest patients


Even more worryingly fewer heart attack patients appear to be presenting in ICUs, perhaps because they are not dialling 999 when they need

Full credit to NHS for keeping cancer services open but in Wave 1 there was still a 2/3 drop in cancer appts: people didn’t come forward to GPs or want to go to hospitals, with many potentially avoidable cancer deaths. We hoped to avoid that this time but now looking unlikely.
@LordBryant454 @TheJimMajors @smutterbutter41 @FaithlessPheas1 @GoblinQChesh @MorganHanne @retep57 @amca1975 @EboiLeon1 @ardenking55 This grew out of control but here it is...

I grew up with a fundamental Christian mother and a "Catholic" father who didn't practice. We rarely went to church except for a couple of years when I was 10-14. During that time I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior (11) at a
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@TheJimMajors @smutterbutter41 @FaithlessPheas1 @GoblinQChesh @MorganHanne @retep57 @amca1975 @EboiLeon1 @ardenking55 Baptist Church. For a couple years I was a "good" christian and read my Bible and went to Sunday school. Then when I was 15ish we didn't go much anymore and I was what is known as a "luke warm" Christian until I got to College experimented with alcohol, drugs and girls a lot.
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@TheJimMajors @smutterbutter41 @FaithlessPheas1 @GoblinQChesh @MorganHanne @retep57 @amca1975 @EboiLeon1 @ardenking55 I college I learned a lot of science including evolution. After a couple of years of that I found a nice girl and started to practice my own fundamental Christian beliefs separate from any organization. This was when I was the most emersed in my faith. I didn't listen to
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@TheJimMajors @smutterbutter41 @FaithlessPheas1 @GoblinQChesh @MorganHanne @retep57 @amca1975 @EboiLeon1 @ardenking55 secular music. I read my Bible with some help of fundamental websites to get through the tough parts but never gave up my scientific knowledge. After a divorce and a career change to pharmacy school, a new wife and job my faith faded again.
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@TheJimMajors @smutterbutter41 @FaithlessPheas1 @GoblinQChesh @MorganHanne @retep57 @amca1975 @EboiLeon1 @ardenking55 One day at work (emergency department). We had a 3 month old come in, cardiac arrest. We did everything we could for an hour but there was no getting them back. It wasn't the first or last time I've had a child die at work but this was different for me.
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Very important long-read (only available in Dutch) in yesterday's Volkskrant, revealing the extent to which the Dutch Cabinet and the OMT (Outbreak Management Team), an ostensibly independent scientific advisory body, have grown entangled.
Some key points:


1/ As early as March of last year OMT-members were uncomfortable with the way then PM Rutte blurred the lines between policy steeped in political considerations, and scientific advise in his March 16 speech, discursively rendering the OMT responsible for political decisions.

2/ OMT-member Alex Friedrich, an early advocate for large-scale testing and masks, describes how dissent was not tolerated, especially after the Dutch gov't declared all OMT-advise as "practically holy," and says that politicians were using the OMT as "a heat-shield."

3/ He further tells of how international scientific consensus (masks, the role of children in transmission, presymptomatic infectiousness) was still up for debate in the Netherlands, all through the summer of 2020.

Friedrich: "Positions taken earlier were defended, instead of welcoming new ones [insights]." One of the worst things that can happen to a scientist, he says, "[is] that people start saying you're not a team player if you don't share the same position [on advice/insights etc]."
We’ve released our latest bulletin for deaths registered in England and Wales for week ending 8 January 2021 https://t.co/IwPoNzHUvu

These data have been affected by the Boxing Day and New Year’s Day bank holidays, and should be treated with caution.

The provisional number of deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending 8 January 2021 (Week 1) was 17,751.

This was 7,682 more than Week 53.

Please note: this sharp increase may be because of the New Year Bank Holiday
https://t.co/hfjsArBUyM


In the week ending 8 January, the provisional number of deaths registered was 45.8% (5,576 deaths) above the five-year average.

This increase should be treated with caution because of the bank holidays

Of the 17,751 deaths registered in Week 1, 6,057 mentioned #COVID19 on the death certificate (34.1% of all deaths).

This has risen by 2,913 #COVID19 deaths since the previous week https://t.co/i7g7eFBN8z


Of the 6,057 deaths involving #COVID19, 88.6% had this recorded as the underlying cause of death.

Of the 4,649 deaths involving influenza and pneumonia, 8.2% had these as the underlying cause
For those of you concerned about the "damage" done to the field and academic freedom by the push to cancel transphobes in philosophy, I have this to say


The above is from Gen. Sherman on what is necessary to restore the Union during the Civil War, the sentiment is apt for my position on philosophy: if we are to have an inclusive field and the structure of the field prevents that, then that structure must be destroyed. (2/n)

Now, I understand that this sounds harsh, but consider why it sounds harsh: so much of the pushback against transphobia in philosophy, and the recommendations made to address transphobia in philosophy sounds like "damage" to philosophy by established philosophers. (3/n)

And in response to that perception of damage or destruction, they push back hard to preserve the "integrity" of the field, regardless of the harm being done to the marginalized people who have to survive an inhospitable field that refuses to change. (4/n)

Now, this position was anticipated by Sara Ahmed in the following:

“Indeed so often just talking about sexism as well as racism is heard as damaging the institution. If talking about sexism and racism is heard as damaging institutions, we need to damage institutions.” (5/n)
Why are some Hindu RW handles praising Gandhi? Read following 3 slides.

They are offered mainly 2 my liberal friends, who do not yet realise, how Gandhi will be deified again, as an exemplar of Hindu thought, to annihilate Dr B R Ambedkar, & bring back a redefined secularism.

https://t.co/uMs33oOu2E


https://t.co/ADv9gvxSJK


India’s Right Wing intellectuals, both on the economic right & left, liberal or orthodox, secular or Hindutvawadi, have long sought to discredit Arundhati Roy, as an outdated Marxist.

So the third slide is addressed to these denizens. I will let her speak 4 herself.

https://t.co/lEUrqIJ54n