“Zoom Medicine” – the next NHS bauble
What chance do we have of ever getting our lives back when the PM is the main driver of keeping us locked down, for our own good! It’s as if he and ‘Our MSM’ are playing ping-pong (or should that be ‘whiff-whaff’?) by keeping that fear and hysteria going – for our own good, of course. It’s as if they’re all submitting to being ruled by the ‘experts’ governing ‘Our NHS’ whose explanations and proposals must not be questioned. ‘Getting back our sovereignty’ didn’t mean handing it over to unelected NHS ‘experts’!
This morning the main issues driving the ongoing fear & hysteria campaign are that ‘The North’ will go back into more stringent Lockdown, that test-and-trace efforts will be ramped up, even unto local councils doing it with their own schemes (link, paywalled), and that “Zoom-Medicine” will become the ‘new normal’ for patients and GPs.
It’s again all about numbers which must not be questioned, not when ‘Our NHS’ is ‘worried’. The astonishing thing is that the various MSM writers seem unable to interpret the official numbers even when they provide them in their reports. As for the PM – well, he acted ‘decisively’, didn’t he, so don’t blame him for that lockdown in the North – he’s only trying to keep everybody safe!
The ‘case numbers’ provided by ‘Our MSM’ show that the writers must never have heard of the concept of rounding up or down. Have you ever met a 0.3 person? I haven’t! See for yourselves:
“According to NHS Digital, towns with the most cases were Blackburn with Darwen, with 85.3 cases per 100,000 people, Leicester 57.7, Oldham 53.1, Bradford 44.9, Trafford 39.9, Calderdale 32.4, Rochdale 30.9 and Sandwell 27.5. The national average is 7.2.” (paywalled link)
Astonishingly enough, the authors of that article are actually referring to scientists (unnamed) who beg to differ. This is right at the bottom of their report, where they simply let those remarks dangle:
“However, some leading scientists said talk of a second wave was premature as most new cases were among those who had only mild symptoms but who were being detected through increased testing. They added that hospital admissions were still falling”(paywalled link)
‘Our NHS’ isn’t overwhelmed then? People are apparently not really ill – but must stay at home anyway? Is that why MPs in The North are allegedly ‘puzzled’, asking for more government guidance? Perhaps Andy Burnham, Mayor of Manchester, can help them:
“[he] said that people could still go to pubs with their support bubbles despite not being allowed to meet friends in private gardens.” (link, paywalled)
Funny, isn’t it, how it’s ok to congregate indoors provided you observe all the rulz, the mask-wearing and hand-sanitising and all that faff, but being outside is totally dangerous! It’s as if politicians, ‘Our NHS’ and the writers in ‘Our MSM’ believe that the air we breathe outdoors is simply heaving with CV-19 and it’s safe only indoors.
That’s magical thinking, just as the insistence on testing is. Getting a test doesn’t cure you of CV-19, and that fabulous tracing system also isn’t going to help because, it seems, tracing is running into difficulties. The ‘Head of NHS Test and Trace’, Baroness Harding (blimey, how the ‘heads’ in ‘Our NHS’ are proliferating …!) moaned:
“I urge everybody to get a free test as soon as you experience coronavirus symptoms and to follow the advice you’re given if you are contacted by the service. If we all continue to play our part, then together we can stop the spread of this virus.” (paywalled link)
Don’t ask how and where “we” can get a ‘free test’ when we ‘experience symptoms’ while being told to stay in quarantine for two weeks or ten days or whatever they come up with next. However, it seems that people aren’t happy to be traced, regardless of being told to ‘do their bit’:
“The latest figures from the Department of Health and Social Care, for the week ending July 22, show that 25 per cent of people who came into close contact with someone infected with coronavirus could not be reached by the service and asked to self-isolate. This was up from 10 per cent when the service launched eight weeks ago.” (paywalled link)
I respectfully suggest that people need to work and earn money (hello, Rishi – shouldn’t “we” do our bit to get the economy going again?) and are thus unwilling to be labelled ‘infected’ and lock themselves down. On the other hand, this latest government ‘advice’ looks like a proper hypochondriac’s charter:
“[..] anyone with a cough, fever or loss of sense of smell or taste will be told to stay at home for 10 days rather than seven. Health officials said those found to be negative will be freed from their confinement unless symptoms continue. Mr Hancock said the changes were a “precautionary approach”.” (paywalled link)
Note the choice expression: ‘freed of their confinement’ – that’s how they regard their ‘test & trace & lockdown’ exercise! It’s about depriving us of the freedom to go unless ‘Teh Test’ allows us to.
They ‘advise’ us to ‘do the right thing’ and stay at home but at the same time they are setting up the conditions for never getting a proper diagnosis because “Zoom Medicine” is definitely going to happen, according to Matt Hancock. It’s, after all, due to ‘lessons being learned’ from the Lockdown:
“In a speech to the Royal College of Physicians yesterday Mr Hancock said the health service must keep some of the operational changes that were introduced to cope with the pandemic. […] Ministers believe that remote consultations will lead to a better service for those who need face-to-face care by freeing up doctors’ time. Mr Hancock said: “The crisis has shown that patients and clinicians alike, and not just the young, want to use technology.” (link, paywalled)
This approach, this speech, is based on interesting numbers (sorry about using that word so many times!):
“In the four weeks up to April 12, 71 per cent of routine GP consultations took place remotely, with just 26 per cent face to face. In the same period in 2019, 71 per cent took place face to face and 25 per cent remotely, Mr Hancock said.” (link, paywalled)
I’ll just point out that, before Lockdown, one had to ‘see the doctor’ for virtually everything because “we” couldn’t be trusted to decide if we were really ill. But now, it’s all change at the surgery and “all consultations should be tele-consultations unless there is a compelling clinical reason not to,”(link, paywalled). First though “we” must use ‘web consultations’. Rest assured, ‘Our NHS’ “will be ready and waiting to see you in person, just as it always has been” (link, paywalled).
Meaning well in a most patronising way, Hancock actually said next that “We can’t patronise older people by saying they don’t do tech.” (link, paywalled). Indeed you can’t, but you’ll do it anyway because it’s easier than to accept that ‘older people’ are probably still keeping their streak of independence and are not keen on giving access to their private data to all and sundry. Note also that suddenly there’s no mention of GDPR, or of patient confidentiality, the reason my surgery gave me as to why they ‘don’t do emails’ – pre-lockdown.
There are critical voices pointing out that this might exacerbate the ‘health inequalities’ (paywalled link) which are the next item to clobber government with, but no matter: we need “Zoom Medicine” for the sake of ‘Our NHS’:
“That way care is easier to manage and the NHS can deliver a much better service. “Not only will it make life quicker and easier for patients but free up clinicians to concentrate on what really matters.” (paywalled link)
Yes, it’s for our own good! Email your ailments and use a webcam, to help ‘Our NHS’ and the clinicians to concentrate on what really matters – to them, not to you. This’ll also ‘help to blast off bureaucratic barnacles’ – as if! – and the few doctors who believe that seeing a patient face-to-face should now accept the brave new NHS world, according to the Times:
“Nobody is proposing that elderly or acutely sick patients be banned from seeing their GP in person, as some fear. While the difficult birth of the government’s tracing app for the coronavirus is a cautionary tale, we know that technology can make remote consultations work.” (link, paywalled)
What clarification – not! Onto the next health battlefield – the question of ‘excess deaths’, of which England had more, according to ONS numbers, than anywhere else in Europe. These are people dying of causes other than CV-19, many of whom died at home. Questions of ‘collateral damage’, perhaps caused by the hospitals and GP surgeries being in Lockdown, aren’t asked.
These deaths must somehow be our own fault, for being ‘in worse health’ than people in other countries, e.g. by being fat. “We” must learn from this, said Hancock, by doing “Zoom Medicine” because that’ll mean less bureaucracy (in yer dreams, Hancock!).
Apparently, ‘health inequalities’ can be dealt with by compelling – gently, mind! -everybody to allow ‘Our NHS’ to trace us, not just test us, for anything we might want medical advice for. Will we all be provided with ‘NHS smartphones’? Will there be a new NHS app, testing and tracing the activity levels and diets of the obese? And all this will be under one roof, the roof of ‘Our Sacred Cow’! Happy days!
You feared getting a socialist government under Labour? No worries – we’re on the way to getting a socialist country under ‘Our NHS’ without elections. Happy us!
KBO!
Blow this software. Anyone for carburretors ?
remember the Merlin
Is our cooperation being asked for, or are we being ordered ? ….. Think about that question for a moment, because it is most pertinent to this virus ! ….. I’m certainly no brainy guy. – I didn’t go to University, because I was starting a business ! – Probably due to that, Common Sense has been my life style, and there is the problem ! ….. Our Government has been taking advice from ”experts”, then bringing in ”law” to back the advice, then changing the details. – Our MSM jump on the confusion, and scare the devil out of folk ! ….. This is no way to run a corner shop, and definitely not the way to run a Nation ! – Oh yes, and the economy is going down the plug-hole too; nearly forgot that ! – I’m not a happy chappie !
Mike I agree, what an absolute chump Boris Johnson is, I just cannot take him seriously any longer. When is the next general election so we can get shot of this car crash of a government. We need an alternative party to vote for and we need it now, not tomorrow, next week, next month or next year, we need an alternative course of action to this utter nonsense, otherwise all our freedoms and civil liberties will go down the pan forever. I just cannot believe what I have just heard and read insofar as we have reached the limits to easing of lockdown until a vaccine is found which might be never. So we will never again be able to meet in a group of more than six people ever again, nor will people who get married ever be able to have a reception, nor will we ever be able to go to a theatre etc etc etc. It is truly mind boggling, and this comes on top of the governments ineptitude over the ever growing English Channel migrant scandal, which scarcely receives a mention anywhere, let alone from anybody in this shambles of a government. My message yo Nigel Farage is to cease making videos and brush down The Brexit Party, take it out of its hibernation and give this country an electoral choice. We cannot Johnson to get away with this unchallenged. Him saying sorry in cold tones is just not good enough in the circumstances.
Our government (note small g) made a rod for their own back in March when they encouraged the falsification of the death records; anyone dying and testing positive for Covid-19 became a “covid death”, regardless of any other serious medical conditions. Lie 1.
When one is caught out in a lie one has a choice…
a) Apologise and move on… but that would entail a loss of face.
b) Tell a bigger lie to justify the first one. That seems to be the preferred option.
Covid-19 is hyped by the media as a “deadly virus”. To a normally healthy person it isn’t. Our nhs managed to kill off many of my generation by moving Covid cases from hospitals to unprepared care homes.
So then we get “lockdown”… to “protect the NHS”, while keeping the airports and the Dover Dinghy Service open to all comers without any medical checks. No consistency there.
Now we have local lockdowns because of perceived “Spikes” in Covid cases. If one tests more people, then one must expect to find more cases. What they will not say is how many of these “New Cases” are in fact ill and need treatment.
The list goes on and on.
Our govt. has achieved in four months that which took Hitler and Stalin years and much bloodshed…a populationthat lives innfear… fear of being seen without a mask,,, fear of meeting a stranger… fear of having no job to return to… fear of debt for untold years to come, and coming shortly, fear of the “knock on the door”
I wrote a novel set in a future where the Global Union ruled, and national governments made only local minor decisions. Everyone was microchipped and had a Citizen Credit Rank scoring them for financial stability, criminal record, behaviour on social media, who their friends were, job performance, neatness of appearance, core values, attitude etc.. Rankings fluctuated on a daily basis, and your rank had to be above 45% to vote.
I really hope that’s not our direction of travel.
Sounds familiar.. Thevalueof british businesses has fallen a quarter,Gold up, silver up oil down Bur thatsanother story. Propert stable At the moment. All tell a story.which must not be told…Lemmings
And UKIP still don’t get it..
TGS, ….out of sheer frustration over what is presently going on in the country in terms of Covid 19 local lockdown, putting a hold on easing of restrictions and the growing curtailment of our civil liberties and freedoms, and the ever growing English Channel migrant crisis which is scarcely gains a mention from either the media or from our wretched government, and no obvious sign that The Brexit Party will be brought out of its hibernation any time soon, I ventured onto the UKIP website for the first time in many a month hoping to see a hive of activity. Depressingly what I saw and read was the total opposite. Virtually nothing is being said about anything of any importance. I went onto the UKIP Facebook site, where nothing has been written by the new leader since his shambolic speech in Parliament Square a month ago. Yes, there was a video about Abuse and Exploitation which drew 61 comments which is next to nothing. I l left that party in 2019 but it is all too obvious that it is now a total irrelevance. At the moment like a lot of Brexiteers and those who fear for the future of our stumbling democracy, I no longer have a political home. Truly truly depressing…….
It’s easierto die.
Have these people any idea, We ‘ve been thru ICT, calculators, Machine, SOAP, spectrum,BBC, Doing our own, Assembler, Fortran. Cobol, Windows 0 to several thousand . And its all crap. We are being TRAINED. not educated. Why bother. I suppose it has its attractions if you are a 9 year old retard.. Otherwise life awaits, and it isfabulous. andCV 19 is for us oldies.to clear out memories of better.
Pencil and back of the envelope works
Fortran and Cobol? They bring back memories!
Yes, those above plus I had learned algol, lisp, pascal and others. Variations of c are the order of the day now. Dont forget punched card ibm 4130 and punched tape – pdp/11.
Some years ago I counted up the word processing packages learned and used. I got to 14 and decided that was enough. Remember wps+? Still think wordstar was the best – most configurable. And all those spreadsheets – Supercalc by far and away best, and databases – never liked dBase – Condor easier but not a heavyweight. And then there was Harvard Graphics. . . .
Then micro$oft became top dog – no I don’t know. Their software was / is mediocre and regularly deskills all its users with a ‘new version’. Still using office 2003 (!).
You know Assembler TG? I’m impressed!