AS OUR NHS workers get ready to enter the gates of hell as Covid numbers peak, we all have an opportunity to ease their burden, and I’m not just talking about ‘space, face, hands’ – that should be a given by now. Working well above capacity, this is no time for any of us to end up in A&E due to our own stupidity.
After mentioning online I was laying pavers in the back garden as my lockdown project, I was quickly put right. A doctor replied: “Please Jake, don’t bother, I’m on duty this weekend and I don’t need the extra work.” While the doctor was joking, the sentiment was real.
I once had a chat with a radiographer and asked her what caused the majority of the injuries she diagnosed. I expected her to say sports, fights or inclement weather, but her answer was "Bins".
Many of us are addicted to climbing into our bins and jumping up and down to compact the rubbish. All too often this leads to a slip or fall and either a broken ankle or in some cases, leg or hip. So, along with staying out of your bin, here are a few more tips.
Stay off your bloody ladders. I don’t care how badly your drains are blocked with leaves, or how much those upstairs windowsills need painted, this is no time to be moving upwards unless you’re in a lift.
And as for you middle-aged men, panicking due to your waning libido and compensating by hurtling down hills on mountain bikes, entering white collar boxing competitions or jumping out of planes; don’t. I hear you can buy tablets online now.
Having lectured you all, I’m now convinced I’ve scudded myself and am doomed to some form of self-injury. A few things are certain, it won’t be due to ladder-climbing, bin-jumping, mountain-biking, boxing or parachuting.
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DO I support the British Monarchy? No. Do I think it was a good thing that the queen and Prince Philip, at 94 and 99 years old respectively, got the Covid vaccine? Yes. Do you believe those two statements to be mutually exclusive? If so, my advice is: Grow up.
Similarly, I don’t have a problem with billionaire Rupert Murdoch, aged 89, getting the vaccine. Just as class nor wealth shouldn’t be a bar to receiving the vaccine, neither should they be a short cut to getting one.
So far, supply based on need seems to be holding, at least in the UK. In Poland, there was uproar when their former prime minister, Leszek Miller, jumped the vaccine queue and received his ahead of the country’s health workers. It was also discovered the Medical Center of Medical University of Warsaw had vaccinated a number of Polish actors, composers and directors, supposedly to "promote the idea of vaccination against Covid-19 in Poland".
Many private clinics around the world have been inundated with requests from the wealthy for vaccination, with some being offered £5k for one shot. There are no reports of these bribes being taken as the Covid vaccine is only available through NHS care providers.
In fact – in a wonderful demonstration of karma – members of the one per cent club have put themselves at a disadvantage due to their jet-set lifestyle. As most aren’t domicile in any country, due to their aversion to paying tax, they aren’t registered with any national health providers, and as only national providers can distribute the vaccine, this means the world’s billionaires are coming up empty-handed in searching for one from their usual private health clinics.
I doubt they’ll be denied. So, if you’re the manager of a retirement home, keep an eye out for people offering a fortune to book in for a weekend, especially if they’re called Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos.
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I WAS struck at how many ardent Trump supporters suddenly discovered a backbone following lasts week’s disgraceful storming of the Capitol. Self-preservation is the obvious motivation for those Republican politicians who finally distanced themselves a matter of days before Trump’s departure from the White House.
That Twitter finally banned him will be seen as an action taken much too late. Trump moved Twitter from being a social media platform to an antisocial media platform, as he adopted it as his megaphone for hate speech, conspiracy theories and vitriol. Hopefully the fallout will result in all social media platforms finally being forced to abide by the same laws and guidelines as those imposed on television and print media.
