Month: March 2022

I was greatly saddened a day ago to hear of the sudden death of Dewin Nefol AKA Chris, a commentator and contributor to this blog over a number of years. A man whose intellect and sensitivities I much respected, whose creative endeavours in the form of epic poetry were unique and extraordinary. Someone who became a friend. News of his death came as a shock and brought tears to me eyes. I shall miss him greatly – so long mate!!

It’s over four weeks since I went down with Covid. At the time, due to being vaccinated, it was much like a bad cold (sore throat, sneeze, cough, sinuses, headache) and not severe enough to warrant taking to our bed. Thank heavens we were vaccinated! I think if we hadn’t have been the effects could have been catastrophic.

Three weeks after our recovery we are both still suffering from the after-effects. I woke this morning with a really muzzy head and a sinusy headache that does not respond to Lemsip or paracetamol. Coupled with that we are both feeling washed out and drained of energy. I feel worse today than I have felt for weeks!

The other thing I have been noticing is the effect on my digestive system and sleep patterns. Covid has left me a lot more thirsty than I was before. It has put me off alcohol. I still have a metallic taste in my mouth. I am constipated and have an irritable acid stomach. My sleep patterns are different. I am feeling very tired. If I try to read I find myself nodding off. I feel particularly tired in the afternoon and could easily have an hour’s kip. I am sleeping well at night – and, according to my Fitbit I am spending twice as long in deep sleep! That’s significant.

As a biologist looking at all this I am beginning to make a number of observations/conclusions:

a. It is obvious that the virus infects all the organs in the body and some of these symptoms are probably due to way it has affected the brain, heart, liver and digestive system.

b. My body is trying to repair the widespread damage by inducing more sleep/rest.

c. Trying to do too much causes a setback – having the grandchild with us for the weekend has had a far greater effect than normal. I’m paying for it today.

d. My body chemistry is still awry.

e. Even though, due to vaccination, we only had the disease mildly the damage has been widespread and long-lasting.

I’m just hoping that this ‘lingering covid’ doesn’t last too long!

On the positive front – having now had covid (which we caught three months after our booster) we are now likely to be immune for another three months. As we did not qualify for the 4th vaccination this is quite fortunate. If we had caught it a month or too later our immunity would have dwindled further and we would have been a lot worse.

Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, Johnson is relishing his rise in popularity and escape from the jaws of the monster he created. The war is distracting from his lawbreaking, lies and incompetence. He is lapping up the praise heaped upon him from Ukraine for supplying them with sophisticated weapons to blow up Russian tanks and shoot down planes. They probably won’t be quite so effusive when the bill arrives!!

As for leadership?? We still haven’t seen any. Just costume changes and photo opps!! The man is incapable of leading. Even his soundbites are not as catchy. ‘Putin must be made to fail’ does not have much of a ring to it!

Everything the Tories are doing is done through devious means and stealth. They are trying to slide the bill to stop protests through the parliament without it being noticed. They are trying to deflect all the Russian business and hope that the war stops the Russian Tory donations and Russian peerages and Russian election fiddling from being focussed on. They are tightening their control over the BBC and other media outlets. It’s scary. Democracy is quietly being taken apart before our eyes.

We see the effect of this in Russia. The propaganda is being pumped out. Most of the Russian population simply do not believe that Russia is invading Ukraine, neither do they believe that they are shelling civilians.

Maybe things will change a little when the body bags start coming home and the soldiers return with the tales of what they have seen! But then they will probably be stifled too!

That highlights two things for me:

Firstly, the power of the media and how the diet of Tory propaganda through the newspapers has created a mindset in stupid people. The likes of the Express, Mail, Sun, Telegraph and Times have poured out a constant stream of biased news, untrue stories and a programme of vilification against Labour that has given the Tories a platform they don’t deserve and fuelled Brexit. They have a lot to answer for.

Secondly, it highlights to me how careful we have to be overall news coverage. For instance, our views on war. The media controls our views. The world has been beset by some horrendous wars sponsored by the USA and Russia – Syria, Chechnia, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Eritrea, Nigeria, Central Africa, Sudan……. Cities have been razed to rubble, huge numbers killed and mass migration of traumatised, desperate people. They hardly get a mention. The poor refugees are seen as a nuisance and worse. But somehow Ukraine is different. Is it racism? Fear of a nuclear war? Hatred of Russia? Or media conspired.

War is always horrendous. Is it ever justified? How much of this Ukrainian war is the fault of NATO and the West? Have we gone back on assurances we gave to Russia following the collapse of the USSR? Has NATO been deliberately moving into all those Eastern countries, right up to the borders of Russia as a provocation? Isn’t that similar to the Cuban missile crisis? Shouldn’t more effort have been made to draw Russia into the international community?

It just opens up a series of questions in my mind.

I so wish we had a leader who would explain to us plebs rather than just impose his stupidity on us. Herd Immunity is obviously the policy the government has chosen, even if they refuse to share that with us. They have accepted that there will be a number of deaths, rising cases and rising hospital cases but consider this acceptable and a price worth paying. Why don’t they come out and explain it? Why have they simply removed all restrictions and sacked the scientists? Surely, if it is such a good idea then they can explain their thinking. Aaah but these are politicians. They won’t, because if it all goes tits up they can deny it was their policy and claim they were following the science. Lying is their principal fall-back position. They’ve lied about everything else!

So, there are no restrictions. You don’t have to distance or wear a mask. You don’t even have to stay off work if you have covid. They’ve stopped the testing! It’s a free-for-all!

They want us all to get it, don’t they? They figure that they can hide the deaths and numbers! They are working on the idea that it will make them more popular. That’s all that counts!

Covid is now more widespread than ever. I don’t care what the official figures say. They are grossly inaccurate. I know more people who have had it in the last month than at any time in the pandemic. My relatives are a good example. My older sister and her husband have just gone down with it. Liz’s younger brother and his wife, two of their children, two of my sister’s children. They gone through the whole two years and then we all suddenly go down with it in a matter of weeks. Coincidence??

The official figures (which I believe are well done on the real numbers) are a rise to 72,858 new cases yesterday with another 114 deaths. The hospital cases are rising – 11,314 cases yesterday!!

That’s more than when we locked down!

The government is counting on vaccination. By giving 4th boosters to those over 75, care homes and the vulnerable, they are hoping the hospital cases and deaths won’t go too high.

Johnson’s a gambler. He doesn’t use cards or dice; he uses us!!

Stay safe!!