I am reminded of a Dave Allen sketch from the 1970s that portrayed a white South African vicar demanding to know why a black man was in his church. "I'm cleaning the floor!" " Okay then. But don't let me catch you praying!"

Look, you can have low taxation or you can have functioning public services. You can't have both. Lots of people, including the UK government, seem to have forgotten this fact. Taxation isn't theft. It's the foundation of society.

"..the Lord said I was hungry and you told me I could make a meal for 30p, I was a stranger and you said 'fuck off back where you came from', I was sick and you said we should replace the NHS with private health insurance..."

This needs serious attention. The role of some Christian Churches and the spread of US right-wing mash-up of faith and politics looks to be coming to the UK. See also articles about Paul Marshall. Thankful that Senior leaders are telling a different story. @quietriotpod.bsky.social

Interesting discourse. Resident doctors offered at the alter of flu. Their fault not limited hospital bed capacity. Not lack of universal free vaccination. Not lack of structural preventive measures against airborne viral spread. Not fear of angering the anti-masking ideology. It’s resident doctors!

Please sign and share to make healthcare settings safer for clinically vulnerable, immunocompromised and chronically ill people. Unless we want to live in a health supremacist society...? petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74... #ChronicIllness #Disability #PwME #LongCovid #Cancer #MEcfs

Oh, and if you want to read about the reality of masks and airborne transmission, look no further than this... doi.org/10.1128/cmr....

23. We remain in a scenario, entrenched by past actions, where any changes are met by the right wing press as an attack on our freedoms. It's a simple matter of balanced consideration. Question is, do we want to remember these lessons, hard-learned by 100s of 1000s of deaths?

22. Remember the flu waves in 2020/21? No, because they didn't happen, despite not acting against airborne transmission. The rebound wave in 2022 could have been mitigated by ramping up vax, masks, clean air, but no, that's not "normal". There's no humane sick pay either.

21. Ultimately, we need Govt, public health, and public opinion to cause a paradigm shift where we start taking infectious diseases seriously. Why do we tolerate "winter pressures" EVERY YEAR?! They are predictable AND preventable. The investment would more than pay for itself...

19. Put it this way, countries in SE Asia have embraced this philosophy for good reasons, as @globalhlthtwit.bsky.social rightly points out, relentlessly. They coped with SARS1, SARS2, avian flu, Nipah, etc...they know their onions! Just compare the death rates, folks. 20. Immunity debt, no.

18. Needless to say, the Healthcare/NHS IPC refusal to act against airborne infections is a nonsense. People would be less upset if you admitted your mistake, apologised, and took action now. Reintroducing mask mandates, too late, wrong masks, and piecemeal just compounds this.

17. Think "Swiss Cheese" - no single measure is enough on its own, no single person will effect change at scale. BUT, individual acts can have both good and bad consequences. Balance risk, vax status, time spent, ventilation, the activity in question, and who else is there...

16. What we need is information regarding risk (ventilation ratings, prevalence, etc) and to drop the ridiculous persecution of those who act to both protect themselves and others. This is a trivial act, a minor inconvenience, you don't know who you're sitting next to on the bus.

14. The narrative that "masks don't work" not only denies physics, but is clearly biased towards fatalism, individualism, and libertarianism. How convenient to have something you don't like rubbished by "experts"...I mean, come on folks... 15. We don't mostly need "mandates"...

11. Airborne viruses include, but are not limited to: SARS2, influenza, RSV, measles virus, M-Pox (likely)... 12. Yes, virus particles are smaller than mask pore sizes, but aerosol particles are NOT. 13. Masks aren't sieves, they r multi-layered & chemically/physically optimised.

9. Respirator (FFP2/3) masks, well fitted, DO protect the wearer as well as exerting source control. Surgical masks and, to a very limited extent, "face coverings" will restrict/protect from droplet-borne viruses. 10. Airborne transmission means FFP2/3 masks are gold standard.

7. Specifically, mask RCTs are inherently flawed, source control must be considered alongside protection. 8. RCTs can't account for complex behaviour. 8. Meta-analyses & systematic reviews are defined by their selection criteria, study weighting, and evidence hierarchy/idolatry.

6. Masks are key NPIs, all the more critical due to lack of clean air. 7. Respecting the impact of infection on fellow human beings and awareness of NHS capacity is not "panic". 8. Awareness that millions of vulnerable folks don't have reasonable adjustments is also not "panic".

2. COVID now adds to disease burden in an unpredictable, perennial way. 3. We maddeningly restrict access to vaccines without considering the wider and long-term costs of disease. 4. Nothing has been done nationally to improve indoor air quality. 5. Vaccines and NPIs synergise.

So, to those who say "masks don't work", cite the flawed Cochrane report, insist upon an unfeasible RCT, accuse folks of panic, and undermine public health on social and mainstream media during a flu/RSV epidemic... 1. Seasonal viruses may be "normal", but they do immense harm.

Wearing a mask is not a political statement It’s either an act of kindness or of self defence (and often both)

Reform UK Ltd gets 92% of its funding from climate change deniers and fossil fuel corporate interests

if we had not closed half our or general and acute beds if we did not have the 2nd lowest bed base per 1000 in the OECD if those beds were not full of people waiting community services but fit to leave if we had not decimated public health, primary care and community nursing no crisis to see

blame Streeting for the flu stuff because the last flu season was bad so they knew this was coming, they also track from the southern hemisphere, if there are stock issues etc, this is on him as there is enough stock from the manufacturers and the fact the vaccine programme is not robust is on him

If handing someone their arse, was a video clip

Operations and treatments cut back as NHS orders England hospitals to save money. Thousands of patients could have to wait longer for treatment. Misery, premature death to meet arbitrary fiscal rules, appease bond markets, failure to tax the rich.

If you’re not thinking about what people actually want and need, and you prioritise pomp over dignity, then you need to have a little moment of reflection. Poverty is horrible, not an opportunity to live out your Victorian philanthropist fantasy and feel all toasty with goodness.

Streeting’s ‘NHS Plan’ - more of same- which means less. Guess he is hoping more people will just ask ChatGPT www.bbc.com/news/article...

This year's decision to restrict access to the #flu vaccine was profoundly stupid & yet l doubt anyone will be held responsible. It was as clear as day that an NHS crisis would result. Why are we so badly governed? Treasury bean counters without the ability to think through the full consequences?

The disability minister has refused to apologise after misleading MPs about concerns over nearly £2 billion in new cuts to disability benefits. www.disabilitynewsservice.com/minister-mis...

During the #Bradford Council meeting on Dec 9, the local Conservatives proposed to cut Council Tax Support for the most vulnerable in the district. Green Councillor Matt Edwards (@greenmattbfd.bsky.social) had this brilliant reply:

I find it appalling that no one bothers to wear one in a medical setting. Just back from seeing the GP re my buggered up knee, and I was literally the only person wearing one.

I’m masking up in public spaces as I do every winter. Scared of this flu wave - a little for me (I’d get through it - probably- but not great for MS, asthma, Graves Disease) - but mainly passing it to aunt who is asthmatic, has atrial fibrillation & is desperate for her ablation procedure in Jan 😬

I'm so sick of this it's ridiculous. This information isn't from a fringe group. It's mainstream knowledge everywhere but in #ukhsa who have ignored the big bloody uk #covidinquiry. Why are we in the dark ages?

I suspect 99%+ in the UK don't know what FFP2/FFP3/N95/etc are. Health staff sometimes wear thin, loose surgicals, so many presume they're the best masks. 😟 Current head of UKHSA told the COVID Inquiry last year FFP3s and surgicals give the same protection! 😩 Public Health here has failed us all.

It is so frustrating. I have friends who are amongst the few masking, confident that their surgical masks are protecting them. It does not make it easier to suggest they need better masks when this is what we are being shown in Scotland: www.nhsggc.scot/nhsggc-encou...

FFS. What's wrong w these people. It's not "mysterious", it's "barely ever been funded, subject to prejudice (including misogyny), and therefore we have virtually no knowledge".

If you are going to wear a #mask in public this Flu season, and we urge you to do so, please make it #FFP2 or #FFP3 and not a cloth or surgical mask. #N95 or #N99 for those of you in USA.

Just saw a dog piss on one of these Uber Eats drones in Hyde Park

please take this seriously and mask up in public, especially around vulnerable people www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

OK, I get it that the UK government doesn't like telling people what to do, but if you ask people to "consider" wearing masks if ill, maybe you need to offer a bit more guidance on what factors to think about? Recall "stay alert" during the pandemic, which left everyone confused.

3) More info about the research can be found here:

Happy #HumanRightsDay! Starmer has chosen to mark it by... kicking off negotiations on how to water down our human rights 🤯 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... The ECHR protects all of us, so we should all be worried about changes that amount to "human rights... except for those people"

Starmer: we’re the economically serious party, the grown-ups in the room Also Starmer: we’re happy to hit the economy by up to £10 billion to appease racists.

It's noticeable that the people who are now angriest with Keir Starmer's Labour government are those who voted for it. And they are right to be. This has been his primary achievement. So where on earth does he think Labour voters will come from, next time round?

Oh shit, it's Stylish But Illegal Monkey Day

New Home Office impact assessment finds that cutting skilled and social care visas will cost the UK up to £10 billion with a central estimate of -£5.4 billion. It would be good if this got even a fraction of the coverage devoted to the endless debate about boats, flags and Turkish barber shops

Six-week study of 67 students in four classes, 1047 saliva samples -> "Prolonged exposure in shared, poorly ventilated spaces, which potentially includes several infectious sources, drives respiratory virus transmission more than close contact." www.nature.com/articles/s41... HT: Emily Martin