On this day in 2020...5th June

Extract from the upcoming book,

 ‘Coronavirus – 2020 Vision

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

- Keith Wright.

?KeithWright2021

FRIDAY 5TH JUNE 2020

Facts and figures.

40,261 deaths in the UK overall in hospitals and care homes that have been tested.

357 deaths reported yesterday.

5,214,277 tests have been completed or dispatched.

283,311 have tested positive.

207,231 tests were posted or completed yesterday.

1,650 tested positive yesterday and are new cases.

7.080 people are in hospital with COVID-19.

The ONS data shows that there are 5,600 new cases each day, which has come down but is still high at 39,200 per week.

The UK has the second-highest death rate in Europe pro-rata when the figures are taken per million of the population:

Sweden – 385.4 per million population.

UK – 235.7 per million population.

Portugal – 168.5

Belgium -120.5

France – 99.9

Ireland 71.5

Poland – 69.5

Netherlands – 69.2

Romania – 65.5

Italy 55.2

Daily news.

Facing up to it at last.

The British Medical Association has said that the wearing of face coverings on public transport does not go far enough and should be extended to include all areas where social distancing cannot be guaranteed. This was later followed by The World Health Organisation recommending the same. It was a little more specific by saying face coverings for all and surgical face masks if you are over 60.

Author’s note: You will be aware, dear reader, that I have been of this view from the get-go. If a face-covering protects other people, then if everyone has to wear one, it necessarily follows that everyone is more protected.

The WHO throws in a different context. It implies that surgical face masks are more effective than face coverings by suggesting over 60’s only should wear them. Surely, we must all wear surgical grade face masks then? Young people should be protected if at all possible, and they are still going home to parents and grandparents. Might it be a lack of availability? Or is it, as I have suspected, withholding public advice merely because the world is short of PPE?

A side note is that free face masks will be given out at London Bus stations and Tube Stations in the initial stages.

There are reports that deaf people find facemasks a problem as they cannot see people’s mouths to lip read. Not something I had considered. Had you?

Not plane sailing.

British Airways are threatening to sue the government because of the intended quarantine measures due to be brought in on Monday. Ryanair has agreed to support the legal action also. British Airways has told its staff it is losing ￡178 million a week.

Double standards.

Around 20 protestors were outside Dominic Cumming's house, blocking the road, lying down, staging a ‘die-in,’ and generally farting around.

One of the placards reads,

 ‘Over 50,000 dead while you’re playing king of the castle.’

The problem is, they are turning a pretty odious man into a victim.

I wonder if the Cummings protestors moved on to The Black Lives Matter demonstration, and breached social distancing with the thousands afterwards? How many of these young people are going to be infected? How many of their family members will, in turn, die because of their well-intentioned but na?ve, demonstration?

It is heart-breaking and worrying. It is likely this could spread and send the r number up, and then they will be demonstrating against the government not handling the crisis well enough. Hold on; I’m getting dizzy.

Ten out of ten.

A positive story, to keep us going: the BBC tell us about Richard Hanson, 66, who spent 35 days in a coma after catching coronavirus when holidaying in Tenerife. He was also treated for pneumonia and kidney failure as well, yet he has now left the hospital. It is unclear what effect this will have on him going forwards, but it is a blessing he is still with us.

According to John Hopkins University data, almost 2.9 million people have survived the virus worldwide.

 5 pm Press Briefing. – Matt Hancock. Secretary of State for Health.

Hog-tied.

This is the first time a minister has appeared at the briefing on his own with no expert. There is still, no sign of Professor Jonathan Van Tam since his comment that the COVID rules related to all i.e. Dominic Cummings. Is he hog-tied in a cupboard somewhere?

It is announced that all hospital visitors and out-patients must wear face masks from 15th June 2020. All staff must wear them at all times, not just when in the COVID ward.

Author’s note: This seems 4 months too late. What I cannot understand is why you need a mask in the hospital, on a bus, and the tube because you cannot guarantee social distancing, yet you can go to a shop without a face covering. It is about time this was changed ahead of the opening of non-essential retail opening on 15th June 2020.

Demonstrably risky.

Mr Hancock mentioned that he was aware that further demonstrations are due to take place this weekend, but coronavirus is still a huge threat. He said that people must not attend large gatherings; this is to protect your loved ones, not just you.

Redoubling

Journalist Hugh Pym asked how Mr Hancock felt when we were told that 20,000 deaths would be a ‘good number’ in March, and now here we are with 40,000: double that figure.

 Mr. Hancock said he would ‘redouble’ (unfortunate term), his efforts. He wanted the focus to be on keeping the r number below 1.

Author’s note: Studies at Oxford University and Public Health England are reporting that (aside from hospitals and care homes), some parts of the Northwest and Southwest are believed to have an r rate above 1.

Mr. Hancock said that there are many different studies and surveys, but he has to go through the ONS and SAGE for his data. They are saying the r rate is between 0.7 and 0.9.

Family life.

I have spent the day writing and finalising various projects as I continue with the diary. I am plotting my 5th book, which has changed again, even from yesterday. This is normal, of course.

I had a phone call from my daughter’s teacher to discuss my feelings on Lily returning to school on 15th June 2020. I mentioned I had seen the comprehensive instructions and maps etcetera and that the school seemed to be taking it seriously. As long as the children keep washing hands and social distancing as much as possible then, I would not object to her return.

It is a dichotomy I am not comfortable with, complicated by other family factors. It was a nice courtesy afforded by the school, however.

Quote of the day.

‘You cannot demonstrate an emotion or prove an inspiration.’ – John Morley.

 ?KeithWright2021

‘Coronavirus – 2020 Vision

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.

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.

 Diary entries gathered from an array of publicly available visual, audio and written sources and merged to give a holistic and creative editorial view.

 Glossary and source lists are available at the end of the book.

 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 Denghi 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.

Anticipated release date July 2021.

?KeithWright2021