Professor Adrian Martineau, Queen Mary, London, (vitamin D)
The BBC interview with Professor Richard Ennos is at
Prof Richard Ennos Speech, Edinburgh is at
BBC Radio 4 – schedule –
Information on the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme
Today, colloquially known as The Today Programme and BBC Radio 4 Today, is the BBC’s long-running early-morning news and current affairs radio programme, broadcast on Monday to Friday on Saturday on Radio 4 and produced by BBC News. It is the highest-rated programme on Radio 4, and one of the BBC’s most popular programmes across its radio networks. Consisting of in-depth political interviews and reports interspersed with regular news bulletins, as well as Thought for the Day, it has been voted the most influential news programme in Britain in setting the political agenda.
Information on the coronavirus or Covid pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The virus reached the country in late January 2020. As of August 2020, there have been 318,484 confirmed cases and 41,366 deaths of confirmed cases, the world’s fourth-highest death rate per capita among major countries. There were 56,770 deaths where the death certificate mentioned COVID-19 by 31 July. More than 90% of those dying had underlying illnesses or were over 60 years old. The infection rate is higher in care homes than in the community. There is large regional variation in the outbreak’s severity. In March, London had the highest number of infections while North East England has the highest infection rate. England is the country of the UK with the highest mortality rate (number of deaths per capita), while Northern Ireland has the lowest. Healthcare in the UK is devolved to each country.
The Department of Health and Social Care launched a public health information campaign to help slow the virus’s spread and began posting daily updates in early February. In February, the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, introduced the Health Protection (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 for England, and hospitals set up drive-through screening. The Chief Medical Officer for England, Chris Whitty, outlined a four-pronged strategy to tackle the outbreak: contain, delay, research and mitigate.
In March, the UK government imposed a stay-at-home order, dubbed “Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives”, banning all non-essential travel and contact with people outside one’s home (including family and partners), and shutting almost all schools, business, venues, facilities, amenities and places of worship. Those with symptoms, and their households, were told to self-isolate for 7 and 14 days respectively, while those who were extremely vulnerable (those with certain illnesses) were told to shield themselves. People were told to keep apart in public. Police were empowered to enforce the measures, and the Coronavirus Act 2020 gave the government emergency powers not used since the Second World War.
It was forecast that lengthy restrictions would severely damage the UK economy, lead to millions of job losses, worsen mental health and suicide rates, and cause “collateral” deaths due to isolation, delays and falling living standards.
All four national health services (NHS Wales, Northern Ireland, England and Scotland) worked to raise hospital capacity and set up temporary critical care hospitals. By mid-April NHS Providers, the membership organisation for NHS trusts in England, predicted it could now cope with a peak in cases, and it was reported that social distancing had “flattened the curve” of the epidemic. In late April, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the UK had passed the peak of its outbreak. Daily cases and deaths slowly declined through May and June. The total number of excess deaths in the UK from the start of the outbreak to mid-June is just over 65,000.
NHS England announced that testing in NHS laboratories would increase from testing. The test consists of taking a sample from the nose, throat, deeper lung samples, blood or stool, and transporting the packed samples to the listed PHE regional laboratory designated for the referring laboratory region.
Scotland were developing their own contact tracing system, with contact tracing being done by telephone rather than an app. In February drive-through testing was set-up by NHS Lothian at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh.
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