Cathy Gardner’s court victory for care home victims
I wrote this column for next week’s Midweek Herald, just before the Neil Parish story broke
Not once, but three times, the government issued policy instructions in 2020 which broke the law because they knowingly exposed vulnerable care home residents to the risk of Covid – causing many avoidable deaths. This was the judgement handed down by the High Court last week in the landmark case brought by my formidable friend Dr Cathy Gardner, an East Devon Alliance councillor in Sidmouth and former EDDC Chair, whose own father was one of the victims.
Yet rather than apologise for their failings, the disgraced former Health Secretary Matt Hancock and the serial-liar prime minister Boris Johnson doubled down on the very claim which the judges had definitively disproved in their judgement, that they ‘didn’t know’ that people without Covid symptoms could transmit the disease.
The judges pointed out that the government’s own Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir Patrick Vallance, was one of many experts who had publicly highlighted the danger of asymptomatic transmission of Covid well before the government issued the first of its fatal policy instructions – which forced care homes to take hospital patients without their having been tested and without facilities to keep them separate from other vulnerable residents.
As Seaton’s county councillor at the time, I was kept informed about the devastating consequences in our area. One care home in the town saw eight residents die in a short period. A care home worker, who had come from the other side of the world to care for our elderly people, also died. There were fatal outbreaks in Axminster and Sidmouth, and across Devon and the entire country.
Not all of the deaths could have been stopped. But many were undoubtedly caused by the reckless, callous and – we now know – illegal policy which Hancock and Johnson pursued. It has taken two years of campaigning by Cathy and her co-applicant, who also lost her father, to achieve this measure of justice for the victims.
Unfortunately their case is not only of historic interest. The two Omicron waves of Covid, the first peaking in January and the second which has only just started to wane, have seen many new outbreaks in care homes in Devon and around the country. Unlike in 2020, most residents and staff are now triple-vaccinated and there are infection controls, but there have still been too many deaths.
The charge against the government now is not that it is directly introducing Covid into care homes, but that it is allowing the disease to circulate in society at a far higher level than is tolerable or necessary, and so still causing many avoidable deaths. Currently over 3,000 per week are dying from Covid – more than from flu in a whole year. Even if this figure declines, this year’s total will certainly exceed 50,000 and may be closer to 100,000, on top of the 200,000 who have already died.
The policy is supposed to be living with Covid, not dying with it. It should mean practical public health measures to restrict infection, like proper ventilation and mask-wearing in all indoor public spaces – including public transport – as was happening in Spain when I visited in March, as it still does in many countries.
As immunity from the first three vaccinations wanes, the second-booster programme becomes ever more important. I was at Seaton Hospital this week to get my new vaccination, having seen a friend struggle with two months of illness after getting infected – it was touch and go whether she would be hospitalised. But why has this booster been restricted to the over-75s, when doctors are concerned about the large numbers of 50-75 year olds who are ending up in hospital?
The government’s fatal neglect of care home residents in 2020 has become a general neglect of health needs in 2022. Johnson has tried to brush off Cathy’s vindication in the High Court: what will it take to really make him listen?
Independent East Devon Alliance statement on Neil Parish & the by-election
I’ve just issued this statement to the press on behalf of the Independent East Devon Alliance:
Like most people in the Tiverton and Honiton constituency, the Independent East Devon Alliance is shocked by Neil Parish’s actions and believes that he has done the right thing by resigning. The forthcoming by-election is an opportunity to choose an independent-minded, local MP who will stand up for the people of the area and oppose the debasement of public life by the present Conservative government. We will be consulting our members about the best way to achieve this.
About the Independent East Devon Alliance: we have 13 councillors on East Devon District Council and are the largest party within its ruling Democratic Alliance Group which also includes the Liberal Democrats and Greens. In the 2019 elections, IEDA candidates topped the polls in the Seaton, Axminster, Coly Valley and Yarty wards of the Tiverton and Honiton constituency.
Saturday 7th May – Music for Ukraine in Seaton
A variety of local musicians and singers performing to raise money for the official Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) fund for Ukraine.
Thury Harcourt Place (Tesco Plaza), Seaton, Saturday 7th May between 10am and 1pm.
In case you thought it was all over … East Devon Covid cases hit record level
Image Posted on Updated on
When will East Devon’s MPs take notice of the cost of living crisis?
My latest for the Midweek Herald didn’t seem to make it into the print edition, but here it is: https://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/local-council/martin-shaw-column-cost-living-crisis-8799466
Cycle/walking route in Seaton Wetlands will be finally linked up next year
Devon County Council have confirmed to me that the programme for this scheme has now been agreed. Vegetation clearance will take place in the coming winter (Jan 2023), with the main construction in spring/summer 2023. They are not in a position to start this summer, with several planning conditions to discharge prior plus detailed design to complete.
An important survey by EDDC on cultural provision in East Devon
Follow the link in this story: https://eastdevonwatch.org/2022/03/12/public-survey-east-devon-culture-strategy/
In my reply, I emphasised the need for more support for local museums, like Seaton Museum.
The Great Levelling Down Year for the SW (plus a note on Beer!)
Here’s my latest column for the Midweek/Sidmouth Herald.
Please do let me know if you have any thoughts on the issues raised.
The Omicron crisis is still severe for individuals and the NHS – don’t believe what the Tory ostriches are saying
A lot of misleading headlines in the UK press this morning. It seems that:
1. Omicron may be a little less ‘intrinsically’ severe than Delta (in the range 0-30 per cent) – so this is the slightly reduced threat for unvaccinated people who’ve never had Covid.
2. Its ‘observed’ severity is rather lower – a lower proportion of people will end up in hospital or dying – because most of the people it’s infecting have either had Covid before (it may be as much as 10 times as likely to reinfect than Delta was), or been vaccinated, and therefore have a degree of immunity.
3. However Omicron is far more transmissible than Delta (and remember Delta was twice as transmissible as the original Covid), and so is infecting more people than ever and – although the proportion being hospitalised is smaller – the absolute number of Covid patients in hospital is going up quickly in London and will probably follow elsewhere.
4. At the same time, the number of hospital outbreaks of Covid has doubled, putting already sick patients at risk. More doctors and nurses are isolating because of Covid, so fewer are available to look after the growing number of patients. Non-Covid activities (operations people have been waiting for for months or years, etc.) are being cancelled on an industrial scale.
5. So overall, this is a very, very serious crisis, getting worse. The Tory government, its backbench ostriches and allied press are criminally minimising this, causing many more deaths and potentially catastrophic effects on the NHS.
6. Boosted immunity is still very good against serious disease but a bit less against infection – so get boosted. However it’s a lie to say that boosters will solve the present crisis, because millions are not eligible and people boosted now will not get the full benefits for 2-3 weeks.
7. Do all you can to avoid catching Covid, and basically don’t fall sick with anything or have an accident, because if you do the medical help may just not be there.
Happy Christmas!
Seaton & Colyton MATTERS 