Please write to your MP to try and stop this deportation of up to 50 Black British residents to Jamaica on Wednesday 2nd December Please use the following template. Dear xxxxx MP, Please would you support this appeal. Many of those facing deportation have been criminalised through social exclusion and a police and justice system which is deeply prejudiced. Repeated investigation shows the consequences of their deportation are likely to be exceptionally severe. Socialist Health Association.
MASS TESTING PROGRAMMES FOR COVID 19 USING NOVEL TESTS SITUATION Last week [November 9th] the government proudly announced a major expansion of the UK s testing programme to provide rapid access testing of asymptomatic people for COVID 19 [1]. They claimed this programme was : – a“ vital tool to help control this virus and get life back to normal “ a partnership between national Test and Trace and local public health directors ‘ to develop the evidence base on how testing with rapid reliable COVID-19 tests can be delivered at scale Liverpool has nearly completed a two -week “pilot” […]
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Attached is the advice / guidance just published by Public Health Wales’ TAC advisory group. It reports that infection and transmission rates are higher than previously thought, though the mechanism for this is not well understood. Preventive measures such as social distancing, hygiene, face masks for older pupils ( and encouraged in younger pupils) and ventilation must be instituted. Health education should promote good practice outside the classroom and school. The potential of asymptomatic testing should be considered. It argues that teaching is a low risk occupation and that school closures are a relatively weak anti-spread measure. In view of […]
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Recently the Chancellor Rishi Sunak won widespread plaudits for altering the terms of his financial support for workers whose jobs are under threat because of the restrictions introduced in response to the pandemic. The furlough scheme is back, leaving the workers affected with just 80% of their wages, rather than 67%. This was simply a tactical retreat. The government has clearly signalled it is conducting a ferocious attack on living standards but has had to recalibrate what it can impose right now. It should be clear that the scale of this attack on the living standards of the working class […]
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Issue: 111 – 10 November 2020 Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine This could be the only good Covid-19 news we have had in a very long time. Regulators have still not approved the vaccine though, but allegedly this will happen soon. According to DHSC guidelines issued in September 2020, the top priority list for those being given the vaccine is older adults resident in care homes and care home workers, 80 years of age and over and health and social care workers, 75+, 70+. 65+, and high risk adults under 65. The Government has an agreement with Pfizer to buy 30 million […]
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The Socialist Health Association is appalled by reports that Kate Bingham, who heads up Boris Johnson’s vaccine taskforce, has charged the government £670,000, for what is described as a ’team of boutique relations consultants.’ Each consultant is reportedly paid £167,000 a year – more than the Prime Minister. There appears to have been no formal process to appoint Bingham to chair Britain’s vaccine taskforce. This would appear to be a gross waste of public funds, which are desperately needed to fight the Covid pandemic. The Sunday Times reported that Bingham had shared government documents to investors at a $200-a-head virtual […]
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SHA Cymru fully supports the actions of the First Minister and the Welsh Government in their management of the current crisis resulting from COVID 19. During this time SHA officers have had opportunities to meet with a number of Welsh Ministers. We have been impressed with the sheer amount of work they are undertaking and by the collegiate and thoughtful style they have adopted. The decision-making process has been clear, evidenced based, and methodical. It stands in sharp contrast to the vacillation of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet. We take some confidence from this that Wales and its people […]
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This week North West council leaders and MPs wrote to the Chancellor asking him to set out plans for what comes next once this lockdown is over. We have been through so much change and uncertainty we deserve to know what lies ahead so we can plan. Today, Sunak announced that the furlough scheme will continue at 80% until March. We succeeded in pushing him to give workers what they deserve, not the 13% less that he thought the North was worth. This is what we can achieve when we work together and hold the government to account. Posted by […]
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We are writing to you in response to the apparently hurried decision to begin population-wide testing in Liverpool, as part of the £100 + billion ‘Operation Moonshot’, in order to “find positive cases and to break chains of transmission” (Government Press Release, 3rd November 2020). This announcement is inconsistent with the SAGE advice at its 56th meeting on 10 September 2020 that it had “high confidence” that “Prioritising rapid testing of symptomatic people is likely to have a greater impact on identifying positive cases and reducing transmission than frequent testing of asymptomatic people in an outbreak area”. This chimes with […]
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The results of a survey of PDA members reveals widespread occurrences of patients being unable to afford to pay for the medicines they need. The PDA is a member of the Prescription Charges Coalition, a group of organisations calling on the UK Government to scrap prescription charges in England for people with long-term conditions. Currently in the UK all prescriptions are free of charge for people living in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. However, there is a growing body of evidence which suggests that widening the scope of long-term conditions eligible for free prescriptions in England would bring about long-term […]
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Biomedical scientists in the frontline of Covid-19 testing at a Lancashire NHS trust are losing about £7,000-a-year because hardline bosses refuse to pay ‘the going rate for the job’. Unite, Britain and Ireland’s largest union, said that the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is facing a retention crisis as underpaid biomedical scientists are voting with their feet and moving to other trusts in the north west that pay the correct Agenda for Change (AfC) pay rate. Now the 13 biomedical scientists, who carry out vital tests once patients have been admitted to hospital with Covid-19, will be balloted from […]
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What Impact Will the Second National Covid-19 Lockdown Have On Reducing Covid-19 Deaths? This of course must be one of the key questions. Seemingly no-one wants to predict a future lockdown-induced death rate figure. It’s probable that the Covid-19 death rate will not fall in November 2020 as those about to die will already be infected, unwell and in hospital. Some have estimated that the lockdown might cut down the Covid-19 infection rate by up to 75%. But with hospitals filling up with Covid-19, patients needing care for cancer, strokes and heart attacks might have their treatment delayed or cancelled […]
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The Socialist Health Association is a campaigning membership organisation. We promote health and well-being and the eradication of inequalities through the application of socialist principles to society and government. We believe that these objectives can best be achieved through collective rather than individual action.
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