Skip to main content

Taking care of care homes?

The Leader of the Opposition, Keir Starmer, was right to question the Prime Minister on Care Home deaths. Our loved ones in care homes should have been kept safe. 

A new report today finds that the number of people dying from COVID-19 in care homes is double the figure given by the government.

The government's advice up to 13th March was that there were unlikely to be infections in care homes. This conclusion could not have been based on scientific advice. 



What logic were they applying?


There is no reasoning in science why a virus would behave differently because it is in a care home! A virus has no idea it is in a care home!

Did they think older people were immune if they were in care homes?

The government was slow to understand the problem we faced, slow to act, and still refuses to publish the advice it receives.

The consequence in our care homes has been catastrophic.

The government should come out of its self-congratulatory mode and start listening. The jingoistic bluster about being 'the best' should stop.

If there is to be a consensus on the way forward, then the government should stop the manipulation of statistics and be transparent about the problems we face.


In coming out of lockdown, the government is now advising people to wear masks. Previously, they had peddled the view that there was no evidence for their benefit. Yet, it was always plausible that they would help in reducing the spread of the virus, and the evidence that it would be so was available.

It is plausible that we might have slowed the spread more effectively had the government advice on masks been different.

Science can inform common sense. The two go hand in hand. Science rarely gives an exact answer. It is more often considering the plausibility of ideas rather than their absolute certainty.


Almost all the scientific advice used by the government is about plausible outcomes.

The government should now give clearer advice and instruction about wearing masks to help keep people safe as we move out of lockdown.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ian Duncan-Smith says he wants to make those on benefits 'better people'!

By any account, the government's austerity strategy is utilitarian. It justifies its approach by the presumed potential ends. It's objective is to cut the deficit, but it has also adopted another objective which is specifically targeted. It seeks to drive people off benefits and 'back to work'.  The two together are toxic to the poorest in society. Those least able to cope are the most affected by the cuts in benefits and the loss of services. It is the coupling of these two strategic aims that make their policies ethically questionable. For, by combining the two, slashing the value of benefits to make budget savings while also changing the benefits system, the highest burden falls on a specific group, those dependent on benefits. For the greater good of the majority, a minority group, those on benefits, are being sacrificed; sacrificed on the altar of austerity. And they are being sacrificed in part so that others may be spared. Utilitarian ethics considers the ba...
7 comments
Read more

Ethical considerations of a National DNA database.

Plans for a national DNA database   will be revealed by the Prime Minister this week. This is the same proposal the Tories and Liberal Democrats opposed when presented by the Blair government because they argued it posed  a threat to civil liberties. This time it is expected to offer an 'opt-out' clause for those who do not wish their data to be stored; exactly how this would operate isn't yet clear. But does it matter and does it really pose a threat to civil liberties? When it comes to biology and ethics we tend to have a distorted view of DNA and genetics. This is for two reasons. The first is that it is thought that our genome somehow represents the individual as a code that then gets translated. This is biologically speaking wrong. DNA is a template and part of the machinery for making proteins. It isn't a code in anything like the sense of being a 'blueprint' or 'book of life'.  Although these metaphors are used often they are just that, metapho...
2 comments
Read more

Prioritising people in nursing care.

There has been in recent years concern that care in the NHS has not been sufficiently 'patient centred', or responsive to the needs of the patient on a case basis. It has been felt in care that it as been the patient who has had to adapt to the regime of care, rather than the other way around. Putting patients at the centre of care means being responsive to their needs and supporting them through the process of health care delivery.  Patients should not become identikit sausages in a production line. The nurses body, the Nursing and Midwifery Council has responded to this challenge with a revised code of practice reflection get changes in health and social care since the previous code was published in 2008. The Code describes the professional standards of practice and behaviour for nurses and midwives. Four themes describe what nurses and midwives are expected to do: prioritise people practise effectively preserve safety, and promote professionalism and trust. The...
Post a Comment
Read more