Prof Christina Pagel

@chrischirp.bsky.social

67379 Followers 1330 Following

Prof Operational Research , @UCL_CORU, passionate about health care, women in STEMs, defending liberal democracy (!). Member of @independentsage, posts personal. https://www.trumpactiontracker.info/

summary of some key results on the vulnerabilties of scientific bodies
photo of my mother on her tramper in beautiful Langdale valley
Accountability for the health service will always rise upwards to politicians in a tax funded health system. But the bill hands them too much responsibility for its day-to-day management. For example, appointments of chairs and non-executive directors of local NHS bodies (who appoint their chief executives) have been managed at arm’s length of politicians since 2001.5 They will now fall to the secretary of state. The bill risks enabling excessive political interference that could cause harm—for instance, through political bias in appointing local leaders. Ministers must clearly articulate the expected benefits of these powers and stronger safeguards should be added—for instance, to keep some processes, such as appointments, at arm’s length. Ultimately, some split between policy and management should remain at the top of the NHS
Screen shot of the top bit of the BMJ article
I am not saying that Covid is over and we will never see another significant wave. I do believe that Covid is simply no longer - and has not been for a while - a public health emergency. There is far less surveillance now for Covid and people often suggest that the statistics only show how little testing is happening and actually far more people are getting infected. I cannot see how this view is consistent with the wastewater data that there is, which does not depend on people getting tested or people even feeling sick. I do wish we had a wider vaccination programme. Babies and young children remain vulnerable because when they first meet Covid they don’t have immunity from either a vaccine or a previous infection. This is why I wish the UK would offer Covid vaccines to pregnant women and to young children. I also wish the booster vaccine was widened out to more people, or was at least cheaper. I pay for it every winter because I would rather meet Covid exposure with more antibodies. The good news that as prevalence has continued to fall, it matters less as we are all simply less exposed to infection.
photo of Christina and her mother at her mother's citizenship ceremony
Cat sleeping in a box while it's raining outside
photo of cat half falling off an armchair, fast asleep