On this day in 2020...19th August

Extract from the book,

?‘Coronavirus – 2020 Vision.

The road to Freedom Day.

The complete diary and events of the COVID-19 pandemic.’

- Keith Wright.

?KeithWright2021

?*OUT NOW*

?WEDNESDAY 19TH AUGUST 2012

Facts and figures.

Travel guide.

A quick note on Brazil. The situation there continues unabated with 19,373 new cases and 684 deaths in a 24-hour period on Monday. Total deaths now exceed 108,000.

Spain’s surge in cases continues. On Monday the country reported 1,833 new cases in just 24 hours, which is more than three times last month’s average. Last Friday they broke the record for new cases in 24 hours with 2,987 confirmed.

Three coronavirus cases have been confirmed at Olympique de Marseille, one of France’s top football clubs. There is talk of the Ligue 1 football season being postponed which is due to start on Friday.

France is to make the wearing of masks in all ‘shared and enclosed’ workplaces, compulsory from 1st September 2020.

Finland’s Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, says she has mild respiratory symptoms and is self-isolating again, for the fourth time.

Ireland has decided to ‘significantly’ tighten coronavirus restrictions after seeing a spike in cases. They will be in place until at least 13th September 2020. Prime Minister Michael Martin said,

?‘We’re now seeing multiple clusters throughout the country, in people’s homes, in multiple workplaces and in a number of other social settings.’

Ireland’s stricter measures include limitations on outdoor gatherings to 15 people, weddings down to 6 people from the previous 50, restaurants closing at 11.30pm, don’t use public transport, but if you have to you must wear masks.

Birds of a feather.

As for the UK, I think it is fair to say that we are currently in a reasonable state. It is interesting to see how some people react to this on Twitter. Below is an exchange pertinent to this:

‘UK:

99.94% survived Covid-19

00.05% died with Covid-19

00.01% died of Covid-19

Now the pandemic is over, and it was nowhere near as severe as Prof. Ferguson’s dodgy modelling, the Coronavirus Act and all associated regulations and restrictions should be repealed immediately.’

The above was the tweet that started a thread with various others weighing in and twittering like ‘good uns.’.

‘The number of deaths registered in England and Wales has fallen below the five-year average for the eighth consecutive week.’

‘Yep, it’s between 0.067% if everyone has had Covid-19 and 12% assuming that the only cases are those that have been tested. It’s probably near the bottom end of that scale.’

‘And that is only good if the death figures are really Covid and not seasonal flu or other illnesses. If the numbers are fudged the number comes down even further.’

‘There is no logic to your calculation as not everyone in the UK has had the disease.’

Authors note: The low death rate is terrific news, and everyone is itching to get back to some normality; me included. However, this attitude is wishful thinking because the measures taken are impacting the situation and removing them is likely to send the r rate ballooning again.

Also, there is a clue in the word ‘pandemic,’ as we can see that other countries are struggling, and it would not take too much, nor too long before we joined them. The only way out of this is and has always been, by vaccine or therapy, preventing severe illness and death.

?Daily news.

Noel.

Baroness Dido Harding has been appointed the head of the government’s new National Institute for Health Protection, replacing and merging Public Health England. She is currently head of the much-maligned Test and Trace organisation in the UK.

Critics have pointed out that Baroness Harding is married to Conservative Party Member of Parliament John Penrose who sits on the advisory board of think tank 1828 which calls for.

?‘the NHS to be replaced by an insurance system and for Public Health England to be scrapped.’

Eating out.

To help the restaurant business get on its feet the government started the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme whereby customers can eat out at any one of 85,000 locations for 50% of the cost on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The government reimburse the restaurants with the outstanding 50%.

Cafes, pubs and restaurants have submitted claims covering more than 35 million meals in the first two weeks of the scheme. The Treasury said that the number of people to have benefited from the scheme is the equivalent to half the UK’s population. The Treasury anticipate it will cost ￡500 million but will be invaluable in protecting jobs.

I’m special.

You would think by now that there was some understanding of the need to comply with restrictions to keep control of the virus. Yet the news is pitted with people thinking they are somehow special and none of this applies to them.

In Blackburn, one of the hotspots for coronavirus in the country, police had to break up a party of 100 guests at a wedding at Waheed’s Buffet and Banquet Hall.

In Greater Manchester the police had to act when 50 guests attended a wedding. This was merely one of 54 reported breaches of coronavirus rules in Greater Manchester alone between 3 pm and 11 pm on Sunday.

Deputy Chief Constable Ian Pilling said,

?‘Can you imagine a vulnerable loved one not being able to get through to 999 when in an emergency because our phone lines are tied up with people reporting illegal parties? It’s this serious.’

Quote of the day

‘It’s funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands, and they’ll do practically anything you want them to.’ – J.D. Sallinger.

??KeithWright2021

?

CLICK HERE TO VIEW:

This day-by-day factual and complete account of events throughout the coronavirus pandemic, written as it happened, gives incredible insight into what life was like during this tragic and historic pandemic in the United Kingdom and worldwide.

It includes facts and figures, government initiatives, news events, moving individual accounts, and the horrific consequences, as they happened each day.

There is also a daily, personal slant on what life was like for the author and his family during what threatened to be an apocalyptic event.

It reveals all humanity in its idiocy, compassion and brilliance; the key elements, significant dates, statistics, human stories, tragedies, government strategies, the twists and turns, the humour and the obtuse.

The coronavirus will define this generation and identify these times, like other rare global historical events such as the bubonic plague and the World Wars.

This book is something to show your children and grandchildren when they ask you what it was like during such a frightening time. It can also be used as a point of reference for historians, commentators, and educators. It is also merely for posterity.

Were you alive? Do you recall it? Do you remember our Prime Minister almost died with Covid-19? Remember, the Queen saying ‘we’ll meet again’ during lockdown? Surely you recollect the EU conducting ‘an act of hostility’ towards the UK to get their hands on our vaccines? The thirty police officers fined for having a haircut, or the first man in the world to be vaccinated being called William Shakespeare from Stratford Upon Avon!

The whole world was plunged into chaos, with death, suffering and economic disaster. How did we cope? How did all of this happen? According to Keith’s wife, Jackie, it was ‘all because a man ate a bat.’

?Keith Wright previously worked leading Corporate Investigations for a global pharmacy retailer. He has worked on major Crisis Management Incidents alongside senior executives impacting across the world of pharmaceutical product management.

Critically acclaimed crime novelist, and former CID detective, Wright moves from fiction to a factual account of arguably the most historic natural event to blight humanity in modern times.

He has four children and lives in Nottingham, England, with his wife, Jackie.

??All rights reserved ?Keith Wright 2021

Copyright?KeithWright 2021

?If you are affected by any issues raised in the book contact:

The Samaritans or check local charities.

?All information believed correct at the time of writing.

??This book is dedicated to those who have lost their lives and the extraordinary bravery of front-line NHS staff, key workers, carers, and everyone who, in their own way, have contributed to help others. We are grateful, and we thank you, wholeheartedly.

?Author’s note.

My mother's first husband was killed in World War 2. His name was Arthur Smith. When I spoke with her about it, which, with hindsight, was too infrequently, she said he wasn't a fighter; he was a gentle, kind man, thrown into a hell with which he would struggle to adapt. He was an infantryman who died doing his duty for others, near Geel in Belgium, pushing through from the D-Day landings in 1944.

I use this as a loose analogy for our NHS heroes in the front line. These people are not emergency workers such as the police who are used to conflict and danger, nor are they like firefighters physically battling a fire and saving lives. These are people who have a caring disposition. (Not that the police and firefighters, don't care, bearing in mind that they risk their lives on a daily basis, but you see the point I am making).

?NHS front-line workers are sensitive to the human condition and understand the nuances of helping another human being survive illness and injury. They are also people who have now seen the effects of COVID-19 and the nightmare conditions it engenders. Every fibre of their being is focussed on kindness and caring. Yet they have to find peculiar courage. The courage to risk their own lives and possibly even their families lives to treat others every day. Not only do they have to wear a surgical mask, but they have to display the mask of quiet reassurance, professionalism, and positivity, despite their fears. They have to fight with decisions like holding a hand of an infected dying patient when your COVID instinct dictates you surely must not do this.

Dear reader, this is real courage. I hope they are well looked after once this is all resolved, and they receive counselling to help them recover from this incredibly traumatic time.

?BEFORE WE START THE DIARY. WHAT WAS IT ALL ABOUT?

?As I commence this diary, this is what is known; our knowledge will grow over the months and years.

?Coronavirus is a respiratory virus discovered in 2019. In lay-person terms, it causes the lungs to clog up, inhibiting the oxygen supply to the blood, and eventually causing organ failure. Its potency is in how virulently contagious it is. Coronavirus is the virus that leads to the disease COVID-19.

It is believed to be a zoonotic illness, meaning it jumped species to infect humans. Researchers believe the most likely source is the Rhinolophus sinicus, otherwise known as the horseshoe bat which was consumed having been purchased from a ‘wet market’ in Hubei Province, China.

COVID-19 was originally known as 2019-nCoV. It stood for the year of its discovery - 2019, the fact that it was a new (novel) virus (n), and it came from the Corona Virus family (CoV).

?The name was changed to COVID-19 when it became a pandemic. The World Health Organisation had to allocate a name for the disease that did not relate to a person; a group of persons, an animal, a geographic location, was pronounceable, and relatable. Beyond this, the formal name for the virus given by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses called it the 'severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2' or SARS-CoV-2, because it is related to the virus that caused the outbreak of SARS in 2003. For the avoidance of doubt, it will be referred to by the name everyone uses; COVID-19 or ‘Covid.’

Early analysis of the virus suggests that two main strains exist, designated L and S. The L strain appears to be more prevalent (70% of cases); however, it is the S strain that is the ancestral version. L strain appears to be the most aggressive and spreads quickly. It should be noted that this is a new virus to humanity, and we are starting from absolute scratch in our understanding of it. Even as knowledge grows, the chances of mutation are possible, if not probable, and suddenly all bets can be off.

?The coronavirus is transferable by hand to mouth from surfaces or contact and close proximity with someone affected. As with all such viruses, it is also spread by droplets, contact, or airborne particles. It causes a continual dry cough, breathing difficulties, and some aches and pains. Latterly we discovered a loss of taste and smell was also a major symptom. It is a mild to moderate condition for 80 per cent of those who catch it. However, older people and those with underlying illnesses are at a much higher risk of death. As the disease progresses, we see more and more younger able-bodied people in intensive care and dying because of the virus. The World Health Organisation state that 3% of those contracting it will die. There is no cure and no vaccine.

The virus uses its outer prongs to lock on to a living cell. It then inserts its genetic material (RNA – Ribonucleicacid) into the cell. Once inside, it hijacks the machinery of the nucleus of the cell to make numerous copies of itself. It then destroys the cell, and the copies burst out and spread, to do the same thing to multiple other living cells and so the cycle continues, with the virus growing and multiplying exponentially.

The incubation period in a human can be anything from 0-15 days. Some people are asymptomatic and are oblivious to having caught it. Most people's immune system mounts an appropriate response, and they begin to feel better after around 5-7 days after a debilitating flu-like illness. In some people, the immune system goes into overdrive and starts attacking the lungs and other organs and the coronavirus. Infection can cause pneumonia, breathing difficulties, and further organ damage. In others, the immune system cannot cope, and they die. Some can appear to have overcome it and then deteriorate rapidly and die in a day, often with hypoxia – lack of oxygen. Some have been in a coma for 60 plus days, yet still, survive, but forever scarred and impaired.

It is reported that the first case of the disease was presented by a 55-year-old man in Hubei Province, China, on 17th November 2019. It spread and was located in Wuhan Province, China, a month later, in December 2019.

Other theories have emerged around the virus' origins:

• The eating of a diseased bat (or Pangolin) at a wet market. (This seems initially to be the most likely. ‘Pangolin and chips please, no vinegar.’).
• A leak or intentional dispersal from the biological warfare lab situated in Wuhan, China.
• It began in a region south of Wuhan as early as September 2019. Cambridge scientists are exploring the September theory by tracing pathogens. This earlier outbreak could have been carried by humans well before it mutated into a more lethal form.
• Others suggest that traces of faeces in Italy’s sewerage show the virus earlier than it began in China in the summer of 2019. This was later corroborated by research into blood samples of cancer patients taken in early October 2019 which had COVID-19 antibodies present, which means they would have had the disease in September 2019.

Regardless of the exact trigger point, the coronavirus was initially thought to have arrived in the United Kingdom on 28th February 2020, and the first confirmed case being on 31st February 2020. In August 2020, samples by the University of Nottingham discovered that the earliest person to contract and then die with the virus was a 75-year-old woman from Nottinghamshire who tested positive on 21st February 2020.

It is now understood that a traveller returning from South Korea on 28th February 2020 most likely caught the virus in Nottingham rather than Korea as first assumed. Professor John Ball, one of the authors of the study, said ‘there was widespread community transmission of coronavirus’ in Nottingham in early February 2020.

In the UK, we have the National Health Service (NHS). This means that medical care is free at the point of need for all its citizens. The working population pay for this service through their taxes. Each country around the world has different healthcare systems, some insurance based. The NHS does not have any added complications around whether someone can afford to pay for their care through insurance coverage or otherwise.

Key players in the management of this crisis in the United Kingdom are:

Boris Johnson; Prime Minister,

Matt Hancock; the Health Secretary of State,

Dominic Raab; the Foreign & Commonwealth Secretary of State (deputising for the P.M.),

Rishi Sunak; The Chancellor of the Exchequer,

Professor Sir Patrick Vallance; the Chief Scientific Advisor and chair of SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies),

Professor Chris Whitty; the Chief Medical officer for Public Health England,

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam; Deputy Chief Medical Officer for Public Health England.

The virus has caused tens of millions of infections and millions of deaths worldwide, creating a global lock-down and an almost dystopian planet, of death and deserted streets, never before experienced in modern history. Some describe it as an apocalyptic disease. The fabric of society is changed with people told not to socialise and to stay at home. These changes have a massive effect on our way of life, the economy, and family interaction. What will life be like when we come blinking out of our homes in months or years ahead, assuming we survive, into a new world that is changed forever?

Our hope is for a vaccine, yet this is impossible for many months, probably years, if at all. Sadly, the world has been unable to develop a vaccine for any of the previous coronavirus such as SARS, (or even the common cold, which is part of the coronavirus family), so it would be remarkable if they manage to do so with this one.

Immunity after the disease is unclear. There is nothing to suggest that previous sufferers have immunity, nor for how long it will last if they do. There is even the danger of those recovering from COVID-19 gaining, something known as 'enhanced immunity.' This relatively unknown syndrome happens with Dengue fever, which means you get the disease far worse the second time.

I start this diary uncertain whether I will be alive to finish it or sustain it if I become one of the coronavirus victims. Will I be too ill to continue? Will I die? Things change day-to-day, and suddenly the future is more uncertain than ever before in my lifetime.

No one would have believed, a matter of a few short weeks ago, the changes that this vicious, dangerous pandemic would bring to our lives: the deaths, the uncertainty, the trauma, the separation, and the loss.

This book is intended to bear witness, record statistics, collate news articles, personal stories, front-line accounts, precis government briefings, and offer an intimate view of family life during this historic and tragic period in the year 2020 and beyond.

?

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?KeithWright2021