Personal Blogs

In a time of such unprecedented measures being imposed on the global population, I came across a few pieces of very poignant observation, which I think everyone could benefit from, before making uninformed comments about Corona Virus Disease 2019, (previously known as “2019 novel coronavirus”) There is no treatment for it, despite all the rubbish you read on social media,"There's so much noise, everybody wants to have a point of view." (Stephen Fry, 2020), it's the 'experts', people should be listening too, not ill-informed panicky jittery rubbish proliferated on social media, "But the fact is, if you listen to the scientific advisers, they almost always begin every sentence, with, 'we think', 'it's possible', 'maybe', 'perhaps', 'we don't know, but', that's how experts talk, people who really understand it." (Stephen Fry,2020) — "Prof Christine Jenkins, chair of Lung Foundation Australia and a leading respiratory physician, told Guardian Australia: At the moment there isn’t any established treatment apart from supportive treatment, which is what we give people in intensive care. " (Graham Readfearn, 2020) "Experts, like the rest of us, have no access to infallible truths in unprecedented crises. The stakes could scarcely be higher, but the scientific bets being laid involve judgments, not certainties. The government, advised by Sir Patrick and Prof Whitty, believes that drastic action to suppress coronavirus could store up bigger problems down the line, when measures are relaxed. Therefore, they judge the least-worst outcome for the country will be a managed epidemic which peaks gradually, so that the NHS is not overwhelmed, and creates “herd immunity” to what could become an annual virus. There is also concern that forcing people into more isolated lives too soon could be counterproductive. Sir Patrick has predicted that the epidemic’s peak in Britain could still be 10 to 14 weeks away; too much isolation too soon could lead to coronavirus “fatigue”, causing people to revert to old ways at precisely the wrong moment." (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/13/the-guardian-view-on-science-and-coronavirus-no-certainties-just-judgments,2020) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-51995797/coronavirus-stephen-fry-s-take-on-managing-anxiety References: Readfearn, Graham. (2020) ‘Coronavirus: what happens to people's lungs when they get Covid-19?', Guardian, 22 March[Online]. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/22/coronavirus-what-happens-to-peoples-lungs-when-they-get-covid-19(Accessed 22 March 2020). BBC (2020) BBC News [Online]. Available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-51995797/coronavirus-stephen-fry-s-take-on-managing-anxiety (Accessed 22 March 2020).