Post Archive by Year

Families could soon be on the ‘frontline’. They may be called on to give drugs to relatives dying in community settings during the pandemic. Ben Bowers and colleagues at Cambridge University outlined their role in this startling new strategy in … Read More

Covid reveals its secrets very slowly. One of its latest ­revelations is that it causes blood to clot and form ­thromboses. We’re discovering it’s more common and more severe than we ever thought. In the BMJ, Jacqui Wise draws our … Read More

One of the rules of ­business is, “Don’t overpromise”. Don’t lead your customers and ­clients to ­believe you can ­deliver the goods when you know you’ll miss your deadline. If you do, all you’ll end up with is a disappointed, … Read More

As we all know, the classic symptoms of Covid-19 are a new continuous cough, fever and shortness of breath. These symptoms would qualify you for a swab test, but people all over the world have displayed other symptoms too, according … Read More

Quite rightly we’ve been ­concentrating on saving the lives of thousands of people threatened by Covid right through the pandemic. But with numbers of new cases ­falling, hospital beds emptying, and figures of those who’ve died reassuringly descending, it’s time to … Read More

Almost every move ministers have made during the Covid-19 pandemic has been ­garlanded with the phrase “we’re following the science”. Really? Early on there were some decisions that glaringly weren’t following the science  For instance, on March 12 the Government … Read More

One of the most distressing ­aspects of the Covid-19 ­pandemic we’ve had to suffer is not being able to say goodbye to our loved ones when they die. Many people see this as a restriction of our civil liberties. But much worse … Read More

The readers in the 70+ age group who wrote to me complaining about staying in lockdown till there’s a vaccine must be feeling mightily relieved.  As of today, they can go outdoors, even meet up with members of their family … Read More

We mustn’t let the pain and shock we felt when we learned about the ­disastrous state of our care homes slip from the public memory, nor from the minds of politicians. It has taken the Covid-19 pandemic to reveal how … Read More

Few people know that a quarter of patients needing ventilators to treat Covid-19 also need ­artificial kidneys to support their renal function. But are there enough to go around? We were short of ICU beds. We were short of ventilators. … Read More