On this day in 2020...30th August.
Keith Wright
Writer - Author of the Inspector Stark series of crime thrillers - winner Independent Press Awards 2021. Inactivist. Supporter of NFFC.
Extract from the book,
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??KeithWright2021
SUNDAY 30TH AUGUST 2020
Facts and figures.
UK data:
Sunday 23rd August 2020 – 1,041 new cases. 6 deaths within 28 days of testing positive.
Monday 24th August 2020 – 853 new cases. 4 deaths.
Tuesday 25th August 2020 – Tech difficulties reported by the government website and no data available.
Wednesday 26th August 2020 – 1,048 new cases. 16 deaths.
Thursday 27th August 2020 – 1,522 new cases. 12 deaths.
Friday 28th August 2020 – 1,108 new cases. 12 deaths.
The Globe theatre.
India hit a record for new cases in a single day on Thursday when they reported 75,760. This puts them with the third most overall cases in the world behind the USA and Brazil respectively.
India also reported 1,023 deaths, making their total 60,742.
South Korea recorded a record-high number of new infections, albeit a relatively low 441 compared to other countries including our own. South Korea has been praised for managing to contain the virus far better than any other country in the world.
Indonesia has passed 3,000 new cases in a day, for the first time. Two factories have had to be slowed down after outbreaks, one of which is a Suzuki car plant. Indonesia has the highest death toll in Southeast Asia with 7,169 fatalities and the second-highest number of cases at 165,887.
Coronavirus hospitalisations have increased in Spain with the latest surge of new cases they are experiencing. More than 1,514 coronavirus patients were admitted to hospital in the seven days up to 26th August 2020. 102 were placed in intensive care.
In a bid to stem their continually rising cases which their P.M. has described as an ‘undeniable surge,’ France has made mask-wearing mandatory in Paris from Friday morning at 8 am.
Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that the virus will get worse in the coming months and life will not get back to normal until a vaccine has been developed.
?‘This is a serious matter, as serious as it’s ever been, and you need to carry on taking it seriously.’
Ms Merkel also said that Germany will not fully repay debt incurred by restricting society’s movements and propping up the economy, until 2058! Staggering.
According to Johns Hopkins University, there have been over 24 million cases recorded worldwide so far and 825,700 deaths (Thursday 27th August 2020).
Switzerland, Jamaica and the Czech Republic have been added to the quarantine list from 4am last night (Saturday). Visitors from these countries must quarantine for 14 days if entering the UK or returning through our borders.
?Daily news.
Seems reasonable.
Deborah Cohen for BBC Newsnight reports that a leaked document from the government suggests a ‘reasonable worst-case scenario’ would mean 85,000 deaths across the UK this winter due to COVID-19. Restrictions could be re-introduced but schools would stay open. Any such restrictions would be expected to be in place until March 2021.
The report is clear that it is ‘a scenario’ not a prediction, and the data is subject to ‘significant uncertainty.’
Wobbly lid.
For now, at least the UK is managing to keep a wobbly lid on a simmering pot. The quarantine measures, face coverings, and the lock-down measures in those areas of the country that have high thresholds are no doubt helping.
Some progress has been made, and restrictions are to be lifted in parts of Greater Manchester, Lancashire and West Yorkshire as cases have decreased. These are:
Bolton, Stockport, Trafford, Burnley, Hyndburn, parts of Bradford (excluding Bradford city and Keighley Town), parts of Calderdale (excluding Halifax), parts of Kirklees (excluding Dewsbury and Batley).
The lifted restrictions allow over one million people to mix with family and friends outside their household, in line with social distancing and for certain businesses, including bowling alleys and indoor play areas.
Leicester is to remain with the additional restrictions for at least another 2 weeks as cases remain high, seemingly through non-compliance, compared to others where progress has been made.
?Sunday newspaper headlines:
Johnson faces Tory wrath as party slumps in shock poll.
?– The Observer
Top Tory launches TV rival to ‘woke wet BBC.’
?- The Mail On Sunday
PM’s culture wars divide Britain warns Davey.
?– The Independent
Bombshell tax hikes to pay for virus.
?– The Sunday Telegraph
Sunak plans triple tax raid on the wealthy.
?– The Sunday Times
Love Island Stars cash in on Covid.
?– Sunday Mirror
Virus: Next 6 weeks are critical.
– Sunday Express
?A load of hot air.
A revolutionary approach to creating a vaccine is progressing at Cambridge University. Why is it revolutionary? It seeks to use synthetic DNA which is administered by a single jet of air through the patient’s skin rather than using an injection or tablet.
It seeks to vaccinate against coronavirus leading to COVID-19 and other non-specified diseases that transfer from animals to humans.
The vaccine is called DIOS-CoVax2.
Cambridge have created libraries of computer-generated anti-gen DNA structures which aim to train the immune system so that key parts of the virus exterior are targeted to produce a good anti-viral response. If the immune system targets the wrong part of the virus structure it could create an adverse reaction by the body which would create a dangerous over reaction.
These immune responses involve neutralising both antibodies that block the virus and T-cells.
Innovate UK, the government’s ideas agency provided funding of ￡1.9m for the collaboration between Cambridge University, Southampton University and Cambridge based company DIOSynVax.
Aisha Zahid at Sky News spoke with the leaders of the study: Dr Rebecca Kinsley from Cambridge University who said.
‘Our approach - using synthetic DNA to deliver custom designed, immune selected vaccine antigens is revolutionary and is ideal for complex viruses such as coronavirus. If successful, it will result in a vaccine that should be safe for widespread use and that can be manufactured and distributed at low cost.’
Authors note: How extraordinary is this? The pandemic has shown the different spectrums of the human race's limits and capabilities, from superb brilliance in science such as this to idiots refusing to wear a mask and calling the whole thing a hoax. It seems a pretty wide spectrum.
All at once I saw a crowd…
Yesterday (Saturday) saw a host of demonstrations around Europe protesting that the virus is a hoax. Thousands attended a rally in London. The ‘Unite For Freedom’ called for an end to ‘government lies.’ They assembled in Trafalgar Square claiming that the virus is a ‘hoax’ and a ‘scam.’ Needless to say, face masks were scarcely evident.
Police in Berlin disbanded a mass protest in Germany calling for easing of restrictions. Crowds were estimated at 18,000 and 300 arrests were made.
In Paris, hundreds rallied to protest against the new mask rules. Other protests occurred in Vienna and Zurich.
High risk, low pay.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has revealed that a payment of ￡182 will be given to low-paid persons in high-risk areas if they are contacted by track and trace and told to self-isolate. It is an extra ￡13 a day. Apparently, people are refusing to self-isolate as they apparently cannot afford it.
?Family life.
Consult a Barista.
One of the frustrating things of this current hiatus period is that there is nowhere to go with my children if the weather is poor. The cinemas, or coffee houses and restaurants still hold some trepidation.
However, for the first time, I went to a Costa Coffee shop. I was meeting my son, Harry, for a catch up. It was different, let me say that. I was a little early, so I went in on my own initially. The queue spacing was good, but the service was extremely slow which I assume was down to the extra vigilance of table cleaning taking away from the barista activity. You wore a face mask to make an order and took it off, naturally, when you had your food and drink at a table.
There were only three tables outside which would have been my preferred option. The people on these were there for the long-haul and seemed to have chained themselves to the tables. I can only guess they are still there complete with sleeping bag.
I sat at a table inside. I had taken anti-virus wipes to run over the table but as I was in a nook I wondered if any floating germs might accumulate in the area. I also used my hand sanitiser and smeared a bit on the plastic top of my coffee cup where the barista had pressed it down. Madness, isn’t it? Unsettled I went outside and found a bench.
‘Mork calling Orson, come in Orson.’
When my son arrived, we queued outside and a woman approach and stood right up my backside. No mask was being worn. The conversation went like this.
Me:?‘Do you mind backing up a bit?’
Her:?‘I know what I’m doing I’m on the spot.’
Me:?‘No, that is the arrow in between the spots. The spot is behind it.’
Her:?‘Oh, yes. Anyway, I won’t give you coronavirus because you have a mask on.’
Me:?‘No, I won’t give you coronavirus because I have a mask on.’
Her:?‘Oh, yeah.’
In fairness, she did dress back to the correct position. My son had gone and taken a seat for us in the middle of this; no doubt embarrassed at me challenging the lady. I always thought brain-surgeons wore a mask in any case?
Roundhead.
After being served, I went through the table wiping and the hand sanitiser routine with Harry. As we were next to a window, I spotted movement at a table outside. We managed to secure it promptly, and although we had to go through the wiping down routine again, it felt much more comfortable in the open air. I guess I am a bit extreme; maybe it is writing the diary and knowing the ‘ins and outs’ of it. If I get the virus, I don’t want to have to look my children in the eye and tell them it was because I was cavalier.
I can tell you this - that in the 3 hours or so I was there, I never heard any laughter.
I can’t wait for normality to return once vaccine and/or therapy makes the impact of the disease less deadly.
Quote of the day.
‘Strange how paranoia can link up with reality now and then.’ – Philip K. Dick.
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‘Coronavirus – 2020 Vision. The road to Freedom Day.
A complete diary and events of the COVID-19 pandemic.’
- Keith Wright.
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.
?PART 1 covers the lead into the virus and the first wave taking us in and through the (first) lockdown. 16th March 2020 to 3rd October 2020.
?PART 2 covers the second wave by the mysterious UK/Kent variant, the Christmas debacle, second lockdown and the race to develop a vaccine. 4th October 2020 to 2nd February 2021.
?PART 3 covers the third wave, the Delta (Indian) variant and the roll-out of the vaccines taking us through the many hoops to get to the so called ‘Freedom Day.’ 3rd February 2021 to 19th July 2021.
This book series 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.
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If you are affected by any issues raised in the book contact:
The Samaritans or check local charities.
?DEDICATION:
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.
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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:
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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