thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--How A Pandemic Affects Your Poo And How To Deal With It

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From how we work to how we grieve to what we do for “fun,” the fallout of the coronavirus has touched every aspect of our lives. Staying at home has undoubtedly altered our routines, and for some, even the ease and comfort with which we poo has been impacted by the pandemic.
So what gives? If you’ve noticed changes in your bowel movements over the past month or so, you might be wondering why this biological function — that often comes like clockwork — has decided to get weird. Turns out there are a number of factors that can plunge your regularity into chaos, and, unfortunately, many of the changes due to our new pandemic lifestyles have created a perfect storm for unpredictable and unfavourable poos.
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To better understand exactly why such things are going on in the bathroom, HuffPost spoke with some experts on the matter. Below are some reasons you might be experiencing what we can call nothing else besides a “pandemic poo.”
Dermot Conlan via Getty Images
Your exercise routine has changed
If your sweat sessions have been cut short — or cut completely — since the onset of isolation, you’re not alone. Gyms are closed, and in many parts of the country, it can feel nearly impossible to maintain social distance while out on a run. This decrease in physical movement may have an affect on your bowel movements; namely that they’re happening less often.
“Our activity is significantly tied to bowel regularity,” Jean Marie Houghton, a gastroenterologist with UMass Memorial Health Care, told HuffPost.
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Houghton added that physical activity tends to put our bowels in motion, which is why some runners get diarrhoea. Becoming a bit more sedentary, which is somewhat unavoidable for many of us, “tends to slow things down,” Houghton said.
Exercise is “a big deal” when it comes to regularity, said Mark Donowitz, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “That’s the biggest change for a lot of people, who normally go to work and do their 10,000 steps or go to the gym — none of that is available,” he said.
Fortunately, there are a ton of free resources and recommendations for workouts at home. Taking your workouts to your bedroom floor may not get everything back to the way it was moving before isolation, but it can’t hurt to try.
You’re eating differently
Eating at home for every meal has probably changed your diet, whether you’re snacking on tons of carbs and sweets, or subsisting on the vegetables you’ve grown from your window sill, or relying on takeout from a local restaurant.
What we eat directly impacts how we poo, so a shift in what goes in will naturally lead to a change in what comes out.
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“Most people have figured out what’s good for the bowel habits they want to live with, and clearly the food is not as available,” said Donowitz, adding that even if you have your perfect poo meals down to a science, it’s likely you don’t have the same access to that food that you previously did.
“Fresh fruits and vegetables are natural laxatives, plus they have a lot of fibre,” Donowitz continued, “so if people are not eating them, they can certainly become more constipated.”
If you’re struggling to access poo-inducing produce, remember that frozen is just as good as fresh in that regard, and many canned options can get the job done, too.
denizya via Getty Images
You’re drinking more
Quarantinis, Zoom happy hours, drinking cosmos a la Ina Garten — whatever you’re having, it’s probably having an affect on your regularity.
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“Alcohol in small amounts can speed up motility and cause diarrhoea for some people, while large quantities can cause constipation,” Houghton said.
Booze can also “be an irritant to the stomach and intestines and may cause pain, bloating and reflux,” she added. If any of this sounds familiar, you might try reducing your consumption to see if you can find some relief.
You’re feeling stressed
Here’s the big one: The pandemic has turned our world upside down. We’ve been punted from our comforting routines and forced into new ones we never wanted and to which we’re still adjusting.
This “new normal” is anything but, and any attempt to acclimate, resist or to just “be” may lead to stress, anxiety, deep existential dread, lack of sleep, exhaustion, fear … you name it.
As if all this wasn’t bad enough, the emotional duress can influence the state of our poo. As Houghton put it, “the hormones and neurotransmitters involved with stress can affect the motility of the gut and cause a multitude of symptoms,” including cramps, diarrhoea and constipation. Woo hoo.
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Stress, it’s important to note, may affect your regularity differently than that of your friends or family.
“It’s not one way or the other — some people have [fewer] bowel movements, some have more,” Donowitz said. “Some people will get more diarrhoea, some people get more constipation.”
If things are especially rough down there, you might find relief in some over-the-counter aids. A fibre supplement or powder can be helpful if constipation is your issue, Donowitz said, and medicines like Imodium can come in handy if diarrhoea is the villain of your story.
The best thing you can do for yourself, however your body has decided to mess up your bathroom break, is to find something that provides you with some semblance of relief. For some, that may be meditating with an app for a few minutes a day; for others, that may be a daytime nap or chatting on the phone with a loved one.
Many things that used to come regularly — poo and otherwise — may currently be disrupted because “a lot of our habits depend upon other cues, such as our morning coffee [or] our morning walk,” Houghton said.
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It’s unlikely that all of your routines are available right now, but hold on to what you still do have and love — pets, family, friends, a favourite TV show, a mood-boosting song, a city-wide clap for essential workers — and give yourself the space and the time to revel in them.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--Cheese Fans Take Heart. Britain's Cheese Makers Are Keeping Things Churning

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Cheese makes the world go round. But Britain’s cheese industry is facing huge uncertainty during the Covid-19 crisis with some independent producers facing the threat of going under. The Academy of Cheese reports that many farmhouse and artisan cheesemakers lost up to 90% of their business overnight.
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Some dairy farmers have been forced to pour thousands of litres of milk down the drain, cheesemongers are giving away cheese for free, and small producers have been left with maturing rooms full of cheeses because of limited shelf life.
But since lockdown forced the closure of bars and restaurants across the country, cheesemakers, cheesemongers, farm shops and delis have been moving to sell cheese online.
Can delivering directly to people’s doors and introducing strict social distancing systems in shops that are still open so people can buy safely be enough to keep small-scale artisan cheese producers going? What else are they up to?
The Courtyard Dairy
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Virtual Weekend Cheesefest
In response to the crisis, specialist cheesemakers and retailers in the UK have teamed up to create the first-ever online British Cheese Weekender, set to take place over the early May Bank Holiday week (May 8-10).
The three-day event brings together the country’s top cheese experts and cheesemongers from different fields to offer free online activities for cheese lovers. Expect online tastings, live stream cook-alongs, talks on how to build the perfect cheese board and Q&A sessions about cheese and drink pairings.
Quicke's Cheese Farm Fourteenth-generation cheesemaker Mary Quicke
It’s been created in support of small cheesemakers and dairy farmers around the country, as COVID-19 threatens to wipe out the previously thriving industry.
Fourteenth-generation cheesemaker Mary Quicke from Quicke’s Cheese Farm tells HuffPost UK that she is working with Australian chef Patrick Spence who will demonstrate cooking with their cheese and offer tips and tricks on Zoom.
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“Unfortunately, I won’t be able to do the live stream because there isn’t enough Wi-Fi on the farm, but I’ll put together a pre-recorded film about the cows and cheese, the cheese storage and the process,” she says. “Plus, a tasting that goes through four different ages of cheese.”
When Life Gives You Milk, Make... Yoghurt
During the early days of the lockdown, Jonny Crickmore, owner of Fen Farm Dairy in Suffolk, gave away 3,000 wedges of raw milk Brie to locals as a gesture of goodwill instead of letting the dairy farm’s produce go to waste.
Things are looking slightly more promising now that the farm has rehired its furloughed staff to start making its famous Baron Bigod cheese again.
“Within the first two weeks, we lost about 70% of our business through sales and we were going to lose about £50,000 worth of cheese if we didn’t do something about it,” Crickmore explains.
Rory Fitzgerald Jonny Crickmore from Fen Farm Dairy
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“Luckily, we’ve got a great milkman in our area who was doing a roaring trade with home deliveries and agreed to deliver a wedge of cheese to all the locals,” he says. “Surprisingly, the farm got loads of business off the back of this move and lots of lovely, supportive messages”.
Since 2001, the dairy farm had diversified from its bestselling unpasteurised cow’s milk to include items such as raw butter, Brie and, now, a soon-to-be-launched yoghurt.
“We had all this surplus skimmed milk from making butter and instead of making bad cheese with it, we decided to make it into Icelandic-style yoghurt instead,” Crickmore explains. “This is something we’ve been working on since last year. We went to Iceland to learn how to make it, brought back some cultures and now it’s finally ready to make our own version.”
Still Open for Business
The Courtyard Dairy The Courtyard Dairy
Most of the hospitality industry is on pause until further notice, and this has had a knock-on effect. The middle men cheesemongers have also been badly hit because the majority of their business was face-to-face.
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“It’s a very challenging period for everyone. Unless we can get the same high volume sold from restaurants, then we are going to lose cheesemakers and we need help to accommodate that,” explains cheesemonger Andy Swinscoe from The Courtyard Dairy in Lancaster.
“If customers purchase farm cheese, then they make a positive impact on us, to families and to farms. We might be struggling now, but the positive side is there’s been a lot of publicity around promoting small businesses and if we come out of this crisis breaking even, then I’ll be happy.”
As time goes on, cheesemongers are embracing the uncertainty, leaning into their support networks, and finding alternatives to keep things churning.
In the past few weeks, there’s been a growing awareness to shop local and shop British, says Crickmore. “The longer the coronavirus lockdown goes on for, the more habits are starting to change. Inevitably, when this is all over people will go back to their old habits, but for the time being there’s change happening and that’s a good thing.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--Britain's Nicest Neighbours Are Out In Full Force. Here Are Their Stories

Craig Sullivan, 52, and his daughter Marcella, 20, have supplied more than 300 free plants to their neighbours to encourage gardening during lockdown. Craig, finds gardening therapeutic when he’s stressed, which is why he wanted to help others get into it. He posted on Nextdoor to see if anyone would be interested in receiving a plant – and had more than 100 replies.
So, he got planting in his back garden and has been supplying neighbours in Blackheath, London, with basil, courgette, kale, tomatoes, climbing beans, lemongrass, and wild garlic (to name a few) ever since. He even has a waiting list of 50 people still to be served.
Where people have wanted to pay him, he’s recommended they donate to The Woodlands Trust and Trussell Trust instead. “It’s really brought out the best in people,” he says. “There’s no politics, it’s all about gardening and the mental health benefits of having something you can look after.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--People Are In Agony And Resorting To 'DIY Dentistry' In Lockdown

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Dentists across the UK are calling on the government to end to the “barbaric” lockdown of dental surgeries, saying patients are left in pain, with some resorting to “DIY dentistry” while services remain shut.
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Since March, dental practices have been closed across the country and all routine dentistry has stopped. The advice for anyone needing emergency help is to ring their dentist for a telephone consultation, where patients are usually prescribed painkillers or antibiotics over the phone.
If a dentist believes a patient needs to be treated urgently, they can refer them to a dedicated urgent dental care hub, usually situated within a hospital. But Dr Rhona Eskander, one of the 150 dentists calling for action, says appointments at these hubs are difficult to access, meaning “needs are not being met”.
Minor dentistry problems are therefore turning into major ones due to neglect in care, she claims, telling HuffPost UK: “The NHS is having to extract teeth that could’ve been saved. More teeth are being pulled out now as patients can not live with the pain. It’s barbaric.”
Dr Eskander is part of an association of dentists called Pandora Dental, a group that has written to Matt Hancock calling for dental practices to reopen. They say they’ve managed to source their own PPE from a dental supplier, meaning they could reopen some practices with immediate effect if given the green light. The group has also called on the government to provide further PPE for all dentists to ensure their safety and the safety of their patients.
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Their calls come as members of the public tell HuffPost UK the current system to access emergency dental care during lockdown is not working.
“We didn’t know what to do. We were worried about the possibility of him cutting his tongue and his lips.” - Jim Banbrook, whose son smashed his two front teeth
Jim Banbrook, who lives in the Cotswolds, struggled to speak to a dentist when his eight-year-old son, Dexter, smashed his two front teeth in a garden accident. Dexter was pulling a spade out the ground when the handle flew up and hit him in the face, sheering his two adult teeth. The accident created “a near-perfect V”, where each tooth was cut diagonally from the outer base towards the centre roof of Dexter’s mouth.
“They were razor sharp, they were horrible,” says his dad. “We didn’t know what to do. We were worried about the possibility of him cutting his tongue and his lips on them.”
Banbrook and his wife called their usual dentist, but were met with an answering machine telling them to call 111. They rang 111 and received a call back, giving them a number to call the Gloucestershire emergency dental line. When they called this number they received another automated message telling them to call 111.
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Peter Cade via Getty Images
Banbrook says they were caught in this loop “for a couple of days”, calling various emergency dental lines, leaving voicemails where they could, hoping someone would pick them up. Dexter was distressed, in pain and struggling to eat throughout this period. Eventually, they were called back by an urgent care unit in Bristol Royal Infirmary and drove there for treatment.
“The experience we received once we got to the hub was absolutely superb, they really looked after him,” says Banbrook.
Dexter was fitted with a temporary covering, to protect exposed nerves and make his teeth less sharp. Unfortunately, the covering fell off within a week and the family had to drive to Bristol a second time to get it fixed. However, the parents say the dentists did all they could with their limited resources. Dexter will have to wait until dental surgeries reopen for longer-term treatment.
Dr Mark Cronshaw, director of Pandora Dental and a dentist working in Cowes, Isle of Wight, says he’s heard from “plenty of patients” who’ve struggled to access appointments in this way. Some have resorted to DIY dentistry, he says, including patients who have attempted to fashion homemade fillings, which is not advised.
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“One lady’s daughter needed a wire on an orthodontic appliance trimming down and I had to instruct her over the phone how to do it herself,” he says.
Willow Crossley, 37, from Oxfordshire, has a veneer on her front tooth that has become loose. During a phone consultation, her dentist said it’s likely the root has snapped – but Crossley hasn’t been able to find an urgent care hub to fix the problem. Instead, she made herself a “DIY gum shield” to hold in the tooth.
Crossley is only able to eat soft foods and has eaten jacket potato for five meals in a row when we speak. Even chatting over the phone is stressful, because her tooth wobbles so much. “I feel very anxious,” she says.
“I know it’s vain, but I’ve had this veneer since I was 12 and I’ve always had nightmares about losing teeth – so this is just typical timing. I feel very wobbly – no pun intended – and helpless not knowing if I can do anything about it.”
In a desperate attempt to keep the tooth, Crossley moulded herself a gum shield, made by ordering a teeth whitening kit from Amazon. Biting into the mould was terrifying, she says, because she thought it might pull the tooth out. Although she made the shield, she says it’s uncomfortable to wear.
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Thankfully, her “lovely” NHS dentist has agreed to help. Crossley dropped her mould at the dentist’s house – being sure to keep her distance – and the dentist is trying to make her a thinner, more comfortable retainer. Even then, it’ll only be a temporary measure until surgeries reopen or Crossley manages to secure an appointment at an emergency hub.
“No one really knows anything and that’s what’s so distressing,” she adds. “There’s no answer and no timeline either.”
Cavan Images via Getty Images
Creating an at-home gum shield like Crossley’s is risky, says Dr Eskander, as you can damage the tooth in the process. In fact, any form of DIY dentistry is like “playing with biology” and should be avoided, she says, particularly extracting a tooth.
“Pulling a tooth is extremely difficult,” she explains. “The tooth in anchored into the bone, so it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to go through with it without local anaesthetic. The most likely thing is that the root will still be anchored to the bone, which will manifest and cause further infection.”
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To help patients resist such measures, dentists are prescribing antibiotics at an “unprecedented” rate, says Dr Eskander, because they’re left with no other choice – “What are we supposed to do if a patient is in agony and we’re not allowed to see them?” But this could be an issue, as long term over-prescription may lead to rises in antibiotic resistance.
The more immediate problem, though, is that antibiotics don’t treat the root cause of the problem. “Say you need a root canal, the antibiotic may relieve symptoms but it’s just a mask,” Dr Eskander explains. ”The infection is festering and that could spread further in the body along to the bones. It could also mean that the tooth, if it’s saved, could have a poor chance of survival in the future because it’s getting further infected in parts you can’t see.”
“It makes me feel really sad, to be honest, because as a dentist our vocation is all about duty of care.” - Dr Rhona Eskander, one of the 150 dentists calling for action
In severe cases, dental infections and abscesses can lead to sepsis, which can be life-threatening. Dr Cronshaw is also “very concerned” about the wider health implications of closures, pointing out that check-ups provide dentists with an opportunity to spot signs of oral cancer. “The longer this goes on, the more medium to long term effects will accumulate,” he says.
In response to the concerns, a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson told HuffPost UK there are more than 300 urgent dental centres open and able to see patients will all the necessary PPE, “significantly exceeding the original goal of establishing 264 such centres”.
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“Urgent dental centres are one the of priority areas for PPE distributed via local resilience forums,” they said. “We continue to work night and day to ensure our frontline health and social care staff, including dentists and their teams, have the equipment they need to provide safe urgent care.”
However, Dr Eskander believes there’s been “a real lack of information” given to dentists and the public on how to access these centres – and still believes regular dentistry needs to resume to prevent minor issues becoming urgent.
“It makes me feel really sad, to be honest, because as a dentist our vocation is all about duty of care and giving patients a service,” she adds. “When you have someone who is begging you to see them but you can’t, you feel helpless. You feel like your duty had been breached.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--I Quit My Job To Travel The World. Then Coronavirus Trapped Me Abroad

HuffPost UK Courtesy of the author
I loved my job. It was well-paid and I was a success – but after 20 years in the role I came down with chronic fatigue and anxiety through work-related stress. I’d overloaded myself, become completely burnt out and unable to work to the standard I expected of myself.
After surviving breast cancer in my early 40s, I had always wanted to squeeze as much out of my life as possible. But it was now time to take a real break - so I gave my work three months’ notice and left, excited to have escaped.
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When I arrived in India this January, I’d already been travelling for a year. I now fulfilled my dream of visiting the extraordinary cave temples at Ellora and Ajanta, and spent three peaceful weeks on a beach in Goa. It was around this time I started to hear a bit about coronavirus, but I must admit it wasn’t really on my radar – I had made a point of not following the news while away.
Covid-19 finally entered my world when Indian states started closing their borders in March. Suddenly, I found myself running ahead of a tsunami of lockdowns. In Rajasthan, I was refused entry onto an overnight bus to Pushkar – the Indian tabloid press were blaming the virus on Westerners and other Indian passengers were frightened by me. I felt so sad, as I have always loved connecting with local people and have met with great friendliness wherever I went. But now, I could sense the atmosphere was changing.
When I finally made it to Pushkar, I found the only available flights home were crazily expensive, and would take me 48 hours via Dubai, Moscow and Amsterdam. So many airports, so many people, so many risks.
“Prime Minister Modi’s one-day curfew turned into full-scale lockdown. Like so many other travellers, I had no chance of leaving.”
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The very next day, Prime Minister Modi’s one-day curfew turned into full-scale lockdown. Like so many other travellers, I had no chance of leaving. I began to hear horror stories about hotels throwing guests out on lockdown out of fear, or suddenly tripling fees out of greed. The group of travellers I was staying with – five other Brits, four Italians, one Israeli, one German – had never felt more grateful for the family running our guest house.
On the other hand, I have to say the British High Commission was a shambles from the start. Anecdotally, it felt like people of every other nationality were either being flown out or receiving clear information from their embassies. All we received were generic emails telling us to stay put and obey local laws. While we heard of further flights for other nationalities, the UK continued advising us to stay where we were and book the next available commercial flights, which we did, watching them then be cancelled three times in a row.
Eventually the UK High Commission announced repatriation flights to the UK. All of us Brits registered to be repatriated as soon as we could. This turned out to be another shambles, instead of entering our details into some sort of online form, we were asked to email in with our interest in flights home. With some 20,000 Brits in India, this created a huge amount of paperwork and only wasted more time. Knowing so many Brits had serious reasons to return home – many older, or needing health care or medication – I began to feel we stood no chance of getting home.
However, after a month of lockdown in Pushkar, with no-one allowed to enter or leave, there were no reported cases of the virus in the town. That left me feeling happier waiting there – I was safe, had really good company and my daily outgoings were small enough to manage.
I knew, too, we were lucky to be locked down as a community. Not being able to be in close physical proximity with others, not being able to hug someone close in tough times, must be difficult.
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“We had all become really close, we had joked that it was like being in the Big Brother house”
Pushkar is one of the holiest places in India, and it would normally be buzzing with pilgrims and tourists. But during the pandemic the view from the hotel’s terrace, which overlooked the holy lake and temples, was deserted and beautifully peaceful. The wildlife had taken over, we were well entertained by watching the antics of the monkeys, there were cows and dogs wandering around, there was also a pair of nesting kingfishers in the bodhi tree, and giant fruit bats flying over the lake at night.
Finally, at the end of April, our group of Brits at long last received our emails offering us flights home. The cost? £544, including transport to Delhi airport 400km away, and a hotel overnight before the flight home. Though thankful for our safe stay in Pushkar, we were all incredibly relieved. While official number of cases in India was low, the virus was getting nearer – in Ajmer, our nearest city just 20 miles away, case numbers were beginning to jump.
The morning came when we were due to leave to meet our bus, and it was pretty emotional. We were incredibly grateful to the family which runs the hotel, and I knew that I would miss them and the rest of the group left behind. We had all become really close, we had joked that it was like being in the Big Brother house. Fortunately we can all be in touch via social media and I’m sure our friendships will last into the future.
While Delhi airport was super efficient, I was surprised that we weren’t screened on our arrival back to the UK. We were just told to go home and self-isolate – whereas in Australia, for example, all returning citizens are bussed to hotels for 14 days quarantine.
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After a month in our bubble, now it’s time to enter our new ‘real’ world.
Sharon Little was CEO of the Greeting Card Association for 20 years, she left this role in December 2018 and spent 2019 travelling


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--Social Distancing Feels A Lot Like My Immigrant Childhood

Courtesy of the author HuffPost UK
In the beginning, there was lamentation.
Like any New Yorker in lockdown who isn’t risking his/her life on the frontline, I mourned the cancellation of my low-stakes IRL life ― screenings and networking events, happy hours and fusion food courts. And like so many New Yorkers, I have come to rely on gathering places as annexes to my small apartment. Whether it’s at the neighbourhood dive or the dog park, ‘outside life’ in New York is life itself. Nothing could have prepared me for the mental ticker tape of my generation’s second great recession, my city under siege or a mounting death toll. Nothing could make me want to go out and commiserate with friends even more.
But as the Covid-19 lockdown crawls into its eighth week, I can’t help but be startled at how easy it is for someone like me – a first-generation Indian-American woman – to spend significant stretches of time removed from the public sphere. And now, for better or worse, I feel oddly equipped to handle three to five months of exclusively virtual interactions, six feet of separation in public and a programmatically monastic bearing in the world. There is something uniquely quarantine-ready about my upbringing that I finally have the chance to reckon with.
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My parents immigrated to North America when I was a baby, first to Canada and then to the New York tri-state area. Like many Indian immigrants of their generation, they’d had an arranged marriage, and after my father was able to secure a postdoc in Montreal, they traded their balmy verandahs for months-long snow cover. But they also came from observant, 100% vegetarian Tamil Brahmin communities, entirely endogamous micro-worlds tent-poled by the practices of extreme purity. Some people might recognise that Brahmins comprise a relatively comfortable position at the top of a ruthless and still pervasive caste system in India. While this is true, my childhood household in America was not positioned as a superior space contra other castes, but as a fortress against ourselves.
“There is something uniquely quarantine-ready about my upbringing that I finally have the chance to reckon with.”
In turn, I was raised in a home with a very specific set of rules that viewed cleanliness as ritual and our bodies as walking pathogen, potentially discharging infected droplets with every accidental salivation. Saliva is a sticky substance in Hinduism. It represents impurity because it’s both a bodily and dietary residue: a rotten cocktail of food particles, acids and mucuses. In a religion that hinges on pollution (of the body, the mind or the spirit), saliva is kryptonite. And like any religious practice that’s influenced by IRL logistics, one can imagine the rudimentary homes of ancient and medieval Hindus, teeming with extended family, where errant saliva could be the difference between life and death.
For this reason, orthodox Brahmins, like my mother, keep separate cooking utensils to demarcate those vessels the group will be served out of (such as pots, pans and skillets) from those that will be directly eaten off of or drunk out of (like plates, forks and tumblers). In many homes in India, a second sink is built on the first floor to wash plates, eating utensils, cups and anything one’s saliva has had contact with, even indirectly. In Sanskrit, this material is called uchchhishta with various terms in regional languages, meaning “contamination by food or hand that has come in contact with the inside of someone’s mouth.” Think: backwash. To this day my mother washes cooking vessels in the kitchen sink and eating vessels in the first floor half-bath. We don’t share sips out of the same glass or bites out of the same sandwich.
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Beyond cookware, my mother also upheld embarrassingly antiquated rules around menstruation. When I got my first period, I had to maintain a buffer zone around my mother, father, and brother – a mixed bag for an angsty pre-teen who relished the personal space and absolution from chores, but at the cost of everyone knowing you were on your period. In a traditional Tamil Brahmin household, menstruating women are supposed to avoid religious objects and spaces, the kitchen (which, because of extreme purity and cleanliness is seen as a sanctified space) and family members. In other words, no touching, no hugging and a distance of several feet must be observed. Sound familiar?
“When you’re trained to keep your distance within the same household, keeping six feet away from strangers is a piece of cake.”
To be clear, these old-world taboos concerning cleanliness and contamination still exist in many parts of India and still perpetuate the oppressive hierarchies of caste and gender. They seem very removed from the steps we’re all taking to combat an actual virus that has killed more than 230,000 people around the globe. Even still, my family’s protocols around saliva, droplets and fluids equip me to be cautious about coming into close contact with others. When you’re trained to keep your distance within the same household, keeping six feet away from strangers is a piece of cake.
As I reflect on the outmoded practices of the community I was raised in, normal aspects of my upbringing that I do not observe as an adult, I am led back to the other confines of my youth – walls built on nostalgia, loss and fear that kept out reckless assimilation, walls within which the real pathogen was total and unfettered Americanness.
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For many South Asian late-millennials, or those of us who grew up in the 1990s, the constraints of living under pandemic eerily recall our strict upbringings. We instinctively recognise the pangs of FOMO, as we would watch our more American friends casually go to the mall or the movies, parties and dances, while any of those excursions for me would involve stages of begging, pleading and case-making.
“For children of immigrants, the lives we led at home were the lives we led with necessary cunning and resourcefulness, elaborate systems to let the outside world in, without breaking any walls.”
The truth is, in an extremely diverse but also xenophobic middle-class town in New Jersey, “going out” wasn’t always fun, easy or safe. In middle school, my whip-smart best friend – who wore a hijab – and I would avoid walking past the bus line, ever vigilant to the many taunts and threats hurled at us. And this was before 9/11. After that day, it became difficult to go outside in my town. I made my parents affix American flags to their car. I hated when my mom wore a salwar kameez or a sari, even to the front porch. And so, sometimes, it was easier to just stay home.
For us children of immigrants, first-generation Americans from traditional families, the lives we led at home were the lives we led with necessary cunning and resourcefulness, elaborate systems to let the outside world in, without breaking any walls – without going out. The internet was expanding rapidly, and though there was no social media, there was the distinct titillation of a mysterious chat room, likely filled with men of all shapes and sizes, an activity that felt more dangerous and exciting than a shopping trip to Claire’s. There was soft, well-intentioned catfishing on my parents’ desktop through AIM; there were code words and landline ring patterns (two rings followed by a hangup means call him back); there was crush-related whoopee over the phone with my best friend (from the safety of my parents’ car in the garage).
“As a teenager, my family’s rituals and cultural expectations felt repressive and unfair. So it is all the more surprising that they could instead be a twisted blessing -- a rehearsal for staying sane, functional, even intermittently productive in these unsettling times.”
I can draw a straight line from the “remote” adolescence I spent online to my remote life now under lockdown. I didn’t have to worry about how I looked, how “weird,” “ethnic” or unconventional I appeared to other people. Online, I sparkled with wit and charisma. I lived freely and wildly at a distance, reinventing myself in Comic Sans. And so Gmail, iMessage, Zoom chat windows: these are my uninhibited safe spaces, dance halls of drollery and wordplay, formats I’d like to think I am – to this day – simply awesome at.
Of course, a lot has changed since then: The way technology allows us to virtually be in the same room, the growing embrace of diversity and multiculturalism in the media, the beautiful cross-contamination between my two worlds. What’s more, there is no comparison between my quasi-quarantined adolescence and self-isolation now, as millions of financially and food-insecure Americans struggle, while others watch the vulnerable become extremely ill, and sometimes die – all from a painful distance. After all, I was still able to go to school, learn and socialise in person, ride my bike to and from my summer job at the dry cleaners, rely on my parents for food and shelter, flourish in middle-class safety. For many in the last two months, these options are simply, and unjustly, unavailable.
As a teenager, my family’s rituals and cultural expectations felt repressive and unfair. And so it is all the more surprising that they could instead be a twisted blessing – a rehearsal for staying sane, functional, even intermittently productive in these unsettling times. Here in the spring of 2020, with my partner and our dog, I think of how tickled teenage-me would be to see the tables turned for those Americans who are financially and food-secure, healthy and safe, trying to find everyday comfort and joy from within their homes, and just trying to ride this out, like a lanky, frizzy-haired brown girl once did.
This article first appeared on HuffPost Personal
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--Forget Neil Ferguson’s Love Life, Look At America’s Rising Death Chart

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After Neil Ferguson quit as a government adviser over a personal breach of the lockdown that he did so much to ensure, there was naturally an avalanche of reaction. But perhaps the most difficult one to take was not the outright condemnation or accusations of hypocrisy, it was an expression of compassion.
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Tory grandee Sir Charles Walker, one of the nicest people in parliament, put it thus (at the bottom of the Telegraph scoop): “People will be desperately missing those that they love, and I totally understand if that separation becomes too much to bear at times.”
What may have cut Ferguson to the quick was the fact that Walker’s words underlined just how much of a sacrifice others have been making during the lockdown. Think of all those grandparents not allowed to see their children’s newborn babies, let alone cuddle their toddler grandchildren. Think of all those healthy elderly people living alone, who would desperately love their children to visit them even for a few minutes.
The personal frailties of ’’Professor Lockdown” are a reminder that this pandemic is very much a human story, an arc that includes its individual relationships as well as the genius of its scientific advances. When the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn asked last month whether people could still see their girlfriends/boyfriends in the lockdown, some ridiculed the question. But it was a great question because it had at its heart that we are not robots and need some persuasive messaging to reduce natural human contact.
“I’m clearly going to start a new career here in relationship counselling, so I will tread very carefully,” deputy medical officer Jenny Harries said at the time, before advising lovers who lived apart to “test really carefully your strength of feeling” and stay apart. Ferguson must be wishing he’d stuck to that advice.
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As it happens, Charles Walker was also one of the Tory MPs who made strong pleas in the Commons on Monday for the lockdown to be eased to help rescue the economy. He also talked about the need for a frank discussion about “the ethics of trading lives tomorrow to save lives today”, not least with the indirect deaths from Covid-19 and the lockdown now likely to be a key part of the overall calculus of the success or failure of this government’s response.
And that overall calculus loomed large today as the Office for National Statistics added yet more deaths to the total tally. The ONS said more than 32,000 people in the UK have died of the virus, overtaking the latest figure of 29,079 in Italy. First secretary Dominic Raab was keen to downplay any international comparisons, saying they could not yet be made “reliably”. But when the ‘all-cause mortality’ statistics do emerge later this year, many suspect the UK will be among the worst, if not the worst.
It took deputy chief scientist Angela McLean to express some serious alarm at one of the factors for our dire death toll: the rising number of people dying care homes in the week to April 24. “I think what that shows us is that there is a real issue that we need to get to grips with about what is happening in care homes,” she said.
Donald Trump participates in a tour of a Honeywell International plant that manufactures personal protective equipment in Phoenix, Arizona. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI via Getty Images
Her boss Sir Patrick Vallance added his own voice earlier today to those who are coalescing around the role played by the UK simply not getting its testing capacity high enough, early enough. “If we had managed to ramp testing capacity quicker, it would have been beneficial,” he told the science and technology committee. “For all sorts of reasons that did not happen.”
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In the end, it was the Imperial College projection of a possible 500,000 deaths in the UK that spurred Boris Johnson into action on the lockdown. So Neil Ferguson can at least be proud that he did a huge amount to save lives, despite the flak he will get for not rigidly following government guidelines.
As it happened, it was Ferguson’s study that also triggered the White House to take action too (the forecast for US deaths was horrific without any lockdown). And again, he and his colleagues can take some heart from the lives they have saved as a result.
But what will really depress the academic and others in his field is the way many US states are easing their lockdown before any real evidence of a sustained plateauing of cases of infection. That ‘liberation’ movement, combined with Donald Trump’s litany of errors and bluster and the States’ awful inequalities in healthcare, could be the most lethal cocktail of all.
The latest modelling coming out of America that suggests that far from flattening the curve, the country is set to see its deaths rise. The ‘second spike’ we are worried about in Europe seems set to be rolled into the first spike in the States.
The New York Times has obtained research suggesting deaths could double to 3,000 a day and the continuing spread of the disease could mean 200,000 new cases every day. That’s a national tragedy as well as a threat to the global economy. And those ultimately are the figures that should really worry us all, rather than the vital statistics of Neil Ferguson’s girlfriend or how many times he saw her.
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Quote Of The Day
“I’m absolutely open to that.”
Matt Hancock on the possibility of playing premier league football behind closed doors in June
Tuesday Cheat Sheet
The UK coronavirus death toll rose above 32,000 to the highest in Europe.
People could be allowed to meet a small group of friends outdoors as part of the first relaxation of the UK’s Covid-19 lockdown rules, Downing Street has signalled.
The race to appoint Labour’s new general secretary has swiftly descended into acrimony after leftwingers were accused of trying to “stitch up” the process in defiance of Keir Starmer.
Michael Gove told a Lords committee that the UK is prepared to accept potentially huge extra costs for businesses exporting to the EU as a price worth paying for taking full control of laws from Brussels.
Virgin Atlantic announced plans to cut 3,150 jobs and end its operation of Gatwick.
Nadine Dorries was promoted to minister of state in the department of health
What I’m Reading
New Model Predicts Sharp Rise In US Deaths - New York Times
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--Bosses Should Be Compelled To Make Workplaces Safe, Anneliese Dodds Warns

Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds Mike Kemp via Getty Images
The UK government should adopt German-style protections for staff during the Covid-19 pandemic and compel bosses to make workplaces safe, shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds has urged.
Writing for HuffPost UK, Dodds warned that current draft guidelines were too vague to give workers and customers the reassurance that they needed when the current lockdown restrictions were eased in coming weeks.
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Dodds hit out as Labour leader Keir Starmer prepared to meet Boris Johnson on Wednesday to discuss concerns from the TUC and others that some companies could be putting staff at risk without adequate protections being put in place.
She said that the exit from current rules must include “robust, unambiguous and strictly enforced health and safety standards for businesses, to keep workers and members of the public safe”.
This weekend ministers announced a ten-hour long consultation on ‘guidelines’ the TUC claimed could be an “open goal to the worst of employers who want to return to business at usual”.
Dodds said that the UK should look at the way Germany was organising its own return to work.
“Unlike the UK guidelines, German employers have been told they ‘must’ (not “should”) adopt a number of safety requirements. Workplace safety representatives ‘must’ be involved. Protective equipment ‘must’ be used where social distancing cannot be achieved,” she wrote.
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“Employers are required to undertake risk assessments and implement infection control measures identified by that assessment.
“There are no doubt aspects of the German approach which we might wish to take exception to, but their radically more stringent guidelines raise big questions for the UK government. Our workers and consumers deserve better.”
Some unions believe staff will come under pressure to return to work before necessary safeguards are in place.
Tory MP Sir Graham Brady told MPs on Monday that “in some instances it may be the public has been a little bit too willing to stay at home”, adding that some firms were struggling to fulfill orders “because it’s difficult to get employees back from furlough”.
Health secretary Matt Hancock has said any new measures had to be “practical” and No.10 insisted on Tuesday that it wanted to work with unions and employers to find the safest way to get the country’s economy going again.
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“Clearly it is absolutely vital that people are as safe as possible when they’re at work. We’ve got to do that in a way that’s practical,” Hancock told the BBC.
In a video message posted on Twitter on Monday, the PM said the UK must not lift restrictions too soon.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--‘Stitch-Up’ Row Erupts As Leftwingers Seize Control Of Labour General Secretary Hire

House of Commons - PA Images via Getty Images
The race to appoint Labour’s new general secretary has swiftly descended into acrimony after leftwingers were accused of trying to “stitch up” the process in defiance of Keir Starmer.
HuffPost UK has learned that the new party HQ chief will be installed within just a fortnight under a fast-tracked timetable approved on Tuesday.
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The search for a new general secretary, triggered by the resignation of Corbyn loyalist Jennie Formby, turned into a bitter row on Tuesday when senior members of the ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) seized control of the process.
Key leftwing members of the NEC Officers Group, which has a pro-Corbyn majority, decided give themselves the power to draft the longlists and shortlists for Formby’s replacement in the top job.
Under the plan, the full NEC meeting on May 19 will be presented with a shortlist, conduct interviews and then appoint the new general secretary all at the same meeting.
The power-grab, coming hours after Starmer himself had made plain publicly that he had been instrumental in Formby’s departure, infuriated the Labour leader’s allies.
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A frantic rearguard action is understood to be taking place to ensure that the full NEC - where Starmer has a majority - takes back control of the appointment process.
One party source said: “NEC officers have attempted a massive overreach in trying to bypass the sovereign body of the Labour party and stitch up the process to suit their own ends.
“That’s not what the Labour party is about. This is a select group of individuals trying to stitch it up.”
One NEC member said: “There’s no way we can let the Officers do the longlist and the shortlist. It’s totally outrageous.”
A party insider said that during the NEC Officers conference call, one member said “if the timetable is this short it looks pre-determined”, to which another member replied “well, it is”. It is understood that Unite’s Diana Holland didn’t vote at the meeting.
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One source on the Left countered that it was legitimate for a small group to oversee the shortlisting as the full NEC would still have the final say. Another pointed out that an NEC panel drafted the shortlist in 2018.
Applicants for the post will have until midnight May 14 - in nine days’ time - to submit their CVs.
Jeremy Corbyn and Jennie Formby at the Labour party conference 2019 Gareth Fuller - PA Images via Getty Images
Starmer’s general secretary will have a huge in-tray, including the Equalities and Human Rights Commission report into anti-Semitism. Many expect a shake-up of the party HQ to reflect the new leader’s strategy and campaign priorities.
Among the possible contenders for the job are Unite political director Anneliese Midgley and the GMB’s Lisa Johnson, although some within the party want a figure from outside the big affiliated trade unions to bring a new approach.
Starmer and his team have been very careful not to yet back any candidate. Some MPs believe Midgley is the candidate who could best unite the different wings of the party, but others see a “perception problem” with her links to Unite and believe a surprise choice could emerge.
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Some in the party are furious that no black or minority ethnic candidate has yet been floated, blaming the lack of BAME representation at senior levels in some trade unions.
One MP said: “When you’ve already got a problem for your handling of anti-Semitism, and suddenly wider racism becomes a problem, then it would be savvy to explore BAME candidates”.
Both Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn had to deal with general secretaries they had not personally supported and some key party figures believe Starmer cannot afford a similar situation if he wants to drive through his vision for Labour at every level.
With a narrow but significant majority on the ruling NEC, he retains the upper hand in internal party battles and HuffPost UK understands that some key candidates would rather withdraw if Starmer were not fully behind them
In an interview with Radio 4’s Today programme, Starmer refused to deny that he had wanted Formby to step aside.
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“It was a mutual agreement,” he said, adding it was done with “dignity and respect”.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--Top Government Scientist Neil Ferguson Quits After Breaking Lockdown Rules

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A key expert in the UK’s coronavirus response has resigned from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) after admitting he made an “error of judgment”.
The Telegraph claimed Imperial College London’s Professor Neil Ferguson, who was key to advising Boris Johnson to lockdown Britain, broke social distancing rules to meet his married lover.
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It was reported that he allowed her to visit him at home in London on at least two occasions during the lockdown.
Ferguson’s research with Imperial College London colleagues warned that 250,000 people could die in the UK without drastic action shortly before the prime minister imposed the restrictions.
A government spokesman confirmed Ferguson’s resignation.
🔴Exclusive: Government scientist Neil Ferguson resigns after breaking lockdown rules to meet his married lover https://t.co/eLOfVjgHPL — The Telegraph (@Telegraph) May 5, 2020
He told the newspaper: “I accept I made an error of judgment and took the wrong course of action. I have therefore stepped back from my involvement in Sage.
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“I acted in the belief that I was immune, having tested positive for coronavirus, and completely isolated myself for almost two weeks after developing symptoms.
“I deeply regret any undermining of the clear messages around the continued need for social distancing to control this devastating epidemic. The government guidance is unequivocal, and is there to protect all of us.”
Ferguson, a mathematician and epidemiologist, led the Imperial team which modelled the spread and impact of Covid-19 in a government-commissioned report.
The paper said merely slowing the spread of the virus, which had at that point been the aim, would have led to the NHS being overwhelmed by cases.
Around 250,000 people would have died in the UK in that scenario but the research said stricter measures would drastically reduce this.
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In the report’s wake, the prime minister announced the lockdown on March 23 ordering the public to stay at home as he shut most shops and gave police unprecedented enforcement powers.
Under those measures, partners who do not live together were told they can no longer see each other.
Ferguson said on March 18 that he had the fever and cough symptoms of Covid-19 and that there was a small risk he had infected others.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--Jason Manford Reveals He Was Turned Down For A Job At Tesco After Applying To Help During Pandemic

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Jason Manford has revealed was turned down for a job at Tesco after applying to help during the coronavirus pandemic.
The comedian said he applied to become a driver for the supermarket chain as he had recently become unemployed as he “wanted to feel useful”.
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Jason shared a letter of rejection he’d received from Tesco on social media, with a spokesperson from the supermarket later saying that he’d missed the deadline for the job.
Jason Manford SOPA Images via Getty Images
The Masked Singer contestant joked that he was “absolutely livid” about the rejection, adding: “I was only trying to do my bit. I hope the better person got and enjoys the job, I’ll be watching.”
He said he had submitted his application earlier on in the coronavirus pandemic “when it looked like supermarkets etc were going to need thousands of extra hands”.
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“I even signed my CV off ‘Previous experience: comedian. So I know it’s all in the delivery’,” he joked. “Still nothing!”
I even signed it my cv off ‘previous experience: Comedian. So I know that it’s all in the delivery!’
Still nothing! https://t.co/gag35QZy8T — Jason Manford (@JasonManford) May 5, 2020
For anyone else who thinks I was somehow taking the piss. I applied 7 weeks ago when it looked like supermarkets etc were going to need thousands of extra hands and I was recently unemployed (Curtains finished on the 16th) so wanted to feel useful. pic.twitter.com/MNsr1VwEs6 — Jason Manford (@JasonManford) May 5, 2020
The supermarket rep aded: “Jason’s skills would have no doubt brought a lot of joy to our customers and colleagues, so it’s a shame he didn’t make the deadline for this vacancy.
“But should he ever want to join the Tesco family in the future, we’d be happy to receive an application from him.”
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Over the last few weeks, Jason has been working as a volunteer for the NHS and has been doing jobs such as taking the elderly and vulnerable to hospital.
He said that his voluntary work had made him “more aware than ever the differences in society”.
“Chatting to some of the people I’ve driven the last few weeks has only highlighted how hard the lockdown has been for people with less,” he said. “I feel extremely fortunate.”
At the same time I also don’t believe ‘we’re all this together’. I’m more aware than ever the differences in society &chatting to some of the people I’ve driven the last few weeks has only highlighted how hard the lockdown has been for people with less. I feel extremely fortunate — Jason Manford (@JasonManford) May 5, 2020
Prior to lockdown, Jason was appearing in a touring production of the musical Curtains.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--Water Buffalo Kills Man: One Dead After Reportedly Being Attacked By Animal In South Wales

A man has died and two people have been injured after reportedly being attacked by a water buffalo, police have said.
Emergency services were called to a commercial property in Gwehelog, Monmouthshire, at about 2.50pm on Tuesday.
It was reported that two men and a woman had been attacked by a water buffalo.
A spokeswoman for Gwent Police said: “A 57-year-old man from the Gwehelog area was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics from Wales Ambulance Service.
“A 19-year-old man from the Gwehelog area sustained critical injuries during the incident.
“He has been taken to the University Hospital of Wales for treatment by the Welsh Air Ambulance.
“A 22-year-old woman from the Gwehelog area sustained a serious injury to her leg.
“Her injuries are not thought to be critical and she has been taken to the Royal Gwent Hospital for treatment by the Wales Ambulance Service.
“The water buffalo has been destroyed.”
The force said officers had received assistance from the National Police Air Service (NPAS).
Detective chief inspector Mark O’Shea, of South Wales Police’s major crime investigations team, said: “This is a very tragic incident and one man has died and his family is being supported by specially trained police officers.
“Our thoughts and condolences remain with the victim’s family at this very sad time.
“This incident will have understandably caused a lot of shock in the local community and I want to reassure residents that a full investigation has been launched.
“However, we are not looking for anyone else in connection with this incident.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--Tone Policing Has Always Been Used To Silence Women Of Colour

What happened to Dr Rosena Allin-Khan is no surprise to women of colour. Screenshot
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, Labour’s shadow mental health minister, today posed a question to health secretary Matt Hancock in the Commons, regarding the government’s lack of testing and its impact on the UK’s coronavirus death toll. A completely valid question that a lot of us have been asking ourselves.
But Hancock’s response was anything but valid: ”… I think she might do well to take a leaf out of the shadow secretary of state’s book – in terms of tone.”
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I wasn’t particularly surprised by the fact a white man was tone policing a woman of colour, but what did catch me off guard was how brazen it was. Hancock made no effort to hide his contempt, or skirt around it in a public arena. He was plain and blunt, like a teacher telling off their student in front of the whole class.
Tone policing is nothing new to women of colour. It’s been used against us for most of history. As soon as we started joining conversations, the policing of our voices began. It’s a method used time and time again to gain or re-establish power dynamics between white people and women of colour. Of course, this is not to say that a healthy debate can’t be had, but when that debate shifts into the realm of tone policing, then that debate has already been lost.
It’s a particularly successful tool used by white people, men in particular, to silence and diminish women of colour. When a woman of colour is “checked” on her tone, it serves to reinforce the perceived inferior position that she’s in. White woman can be tone policed also, but it’s not as commonly used as it is for women of colour. Plus, white women are also entirely capable of tone policing too.
It goes back to the stereotypical imaging around women of colour. We’re typically seen as rude, aggressive, and emotional. And if we dare to say something that goes against the status quo, then we’re seen as having stepped out of our assigned role in the conversation and must be put back in our place. How dare we speak out of line when they allowed us to be a part of the conversation. We must earn the respect of our white peers in order to be listened to.
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Dr Allin-Khan asked a critical question of the government in a sensitive and polite manner. Nothing about her questioning or tone was rude or improper. She’s an experienced MP with a wealth of knowledge behind her, and she’s an A&E doctor currently working in the NHS. So, if anyone in parliament has the right to ask this question in a pandemic, it’s most certainly Dr Allin-Khan.
Hancock’s tone policing makes you wonder if the Shadow Secretary had been the one to ask this question, would his tone have been checked like Dr Allin-Khan’s?
It’s also an effective method at diverting attention away from the question – something I’m sure Hancock was well aware of. The question of testing is a topic he’s tried to skirt around for weeks.
Tone policing makes you doubt yourself and what you’re trying to say. It can be really embarrassing if done with others present. And it can end up achieving its desired effect of silencing us.
But it’s about time white people stopped tone policing us. It’s time they stopped silencing our voices, and simply let us speak without repercussions. Dr Rosena Allin-Khan made an excellent point today and that should be our main takeaway.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--UK Yet To 'Get To Grips' With Coronavirus Care Home Deaths, Warns Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser

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The UK must “get to grips” with coronavirus deaths in care homes with fatalities continuing to rise as those in hospital fall, the deputy chief scientific adviser has said.
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Angela McLean shared latest figures revealing that the death rate in care homes had grown to about half the level of that in hospitals by the week ending April 24.
And care home deaths continued to rise as hospital deaths fell, accounting for an increasing proportion of Covid-19 fatalities in the UK.
HuffPost UK
McLean told the daily Downing Street briefing: “Whilst deaths in hospitals have been falling, deaths in care homes in the week to April 24 were still rising to the extent that in that week deaths in care homes were about half as many as the deaths in all hospitals.
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“I think what that shows us is that there is a real issue that we need to get to grips with about what is happening in care homes.”
More than a fifth of all coronavirus-related deaths in England and Wales up to April 24 happened in care homes.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the deaths of 5,890 care home residents after they had contracted Covid-19 had been registered by April 24.
It represents around 21% of the 27,356 coronavirus-related deaths registered up to that date so far this year. (Some 29,710 people had actually died as of April 24, taking into account registrations that took place into May.)
Around seven out of 10 deaths involving Covid-19 happened in hospital, the ONS said, with 19,643 hospital deaths registered.
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There were 1,306 deaths in private homes and 301 in hospices.
Meanwhile, McLean said she was “troubled” by the latest social distancing data which showed the number of motor journeys was “creeping up”.
HuffPost UK
“It does trouble me,” she told the daily No.10 press conference.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--'Hostile States' And Cyber Criminals Are Targeting UK During Coronavirus, Says Raab

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Hostile states and hackers are using the coronavirus outbreak to attack the UK for fraud and espionage, Dominic Raab has said.
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Speaking at the Downing Street press conference, the foreign secretary warned of “dangerous” cyber criminals and said that, in some cases, “arms of state” were behind them.
The hackers have been targeting local government, healthcare bodies and pharmaceutical companies, he said, in attempts to steal data, intellectual property and spy on the UK.
Raab said the “vast majority” of nations were coming together to fight the virus, but added: “There will always be some who seek to exploit a crisis for their own criminal and hostile ends.
“We know that cyber criminals and other malicious groups are targeting individuals, businesses and other organisations by deploying Covid-19-related scams and phishing emails.
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“And that includes groups that, in the cyber security world, are known as ‘advanced persistent threat groups’ – sophisticated networks of hackers who try to breach computer systems.
“There will always be some who seek to exploit a crisis for their own criminal and hostile ends.” - Foreign secretary Dominic Raab
“We have clear evidence now that these criminal gangs are actively targeting national and international organisations which are responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, which I have to say makes them particularly dangerous and venal at this time.”
Raab said in some cases “state actors” were behind the attacks.
“There are various objectives and motivations that lie behind these attacks from fraud on one hand to espionage, but they tend to be designed to steal bulk personal data, intellectual property and wider information that supports those aims, and they’re with other state actors.”
The minister cautioned that the predatory behaviour will “continue to evolve” and advice will help targets better defend against cyber attacks from “hostile states” and “criminal gangs”.
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The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have issued a joint warning and advice, he added.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--As Lockdown Eases, Germany's Stringent Guidelines Raise Questions For The UK Government

The UK should follow Germany's lead on workers' rights. Press Association
The exit plan from the current crisis must include robust, unambiguous and strictly enforced health and safety standards for businesses, to keep workers and members of the public safe.
When our economy begins to reopen, employers must be sure they are doing the right thing, employees must be confident they are safe at work, and customers must feel secure visiting business premises.
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If we don’t get this right, if the proper plans aren’t in place, we risk further waves of this awful disease, and people’s livelihoods will take an even greater hit.
Coronavirus has changed everything. Make sense of it all with the Waugh Zone, our evening politics briefing. Sign up now.
Instead of that robust process to ensure safety, last Sunday the government announced a ten-hour long consultation on “guidelines”, which were sketchy at best.
Rushed guidelines are no substitute for the strong, well-enforced measures we will need to ensure confidence when the time comes to lift restrictions.
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As the TUC has said: “At present, this guidance fails to provide clear direction to those employers who want to act responsibly and is an open goal to the worst of employers who want to return to business at usual – which will put their workforce at risk.”
Examining the German guidelines for the return to work show how a different approach is possible.
Unlike the UK guidelines, German employers have been told they “must” (not “should”) adopt a number of safety requirements.
Workplace safety representatives “must” be involved. Protective equipment “must” be used where social distancing cannot be achieved. A process is set out to ensure continued development of the rules and their coordination across sectors of the economy, including representatives of businesses and workers.
And employers are required to undertake risk assessments and implement infection control measures identified by that assessment.
There is no doubt that there are aspects of the German approach we might wish to take exception to, but their radically more stringent guidelines raise big questions for the UK government.
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Our workers and consumers deserve better. The government must work with business groups, trade unions and other relevant organisations to introduce the “national safety standard” that Labour has called for.
And as a party we will work constructively with the Government on these proposals to ensure we can protect lives and livelihoods by genuinely ensuring safety at work.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--What Is VE Day And How Can You Celebrate In Lockdown?

What Is VE Day And How Can You Celebrate In Lockdown?
Victory In Europe Day marks 75 years since the unconditional surrender of the Nazis. Despite huge plans for public celebration, no one knew we would be on lockdown during pandemic at this time. Here are some ways you can celebrate the end of war in Europe after three quarters of a century ago.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--Watch Live: Dominic Raab Leads Daily Coronavirus Briefing

Watch Live: Dominic Raab Leads Daily Coronavirus Briefing
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab stands in for Boris Johnson at Downing Street press briefing. He will be joined by the deputy chief scientific adviser Professor Dame Angela McLean. It comes as No.10 signals that close friends could be allowed to gather outdoors under lockdown exit plan.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--UK Abandoned Community Testing Because It Did Not Have Capacity, Top Medic Says

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The UK should have ramped up coronavirus testing sooner and may have pursued similar tracing strategies to Germany and South Korea had it had the capacity, government scientists have suggested.
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Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told the Commons health committee it would have been “beneficial” to have “lots of testing” sooner in the outbreak.
That could have allowed the UK to pursue a similar test, track and trace approach to those seen in countries where there have been far fewer deaths, deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries suggested.
The government is only now putting in place a test, track and trace programme after health secretary Matt Hancock boosted Covid-19 testing capacity to more than 100,000.
A person is tested for coronavirus at the drive through facility at the Edgbaston Cricket Ground Covid-19 testing site in Birmingham, England ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Germany, which has had just under 7,000 coronavirus deaths, and South Korea, which has had just 254, have been praised for testing, tracking and tracing from early stages in the outbreak.
But the UK, which has the highest death rate in Europe with 32,375 confirmed Covid-19 fatalities, has meanwhile been criticised for abandoning community testing on March 12.
Under enormous public pressure, Hancock on April 2 then announced plans to ramp up testing to 100,000 a day, achieving the target on Thursday and Friday but then dipping below again for the next two days.
Harries was asked whether it was right to stop community testing in the middle of March.
She said a balance needed to be struck in terms of testing and boosting capacity in the NHS.
“If we had unlimited capacity, and the ongoing support beyond that, then we perhaps would choose a slightly different approach,” she told the committee.
Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer for England at the Commons health committee PA
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“But with the resources that we had – and I mean that in a broad sense, because many of the specialists and expertise that you need to carry out additional contact tracing will also be supporting the other changes that have been very successful, for example ramping up NHS capacity...
“So there are clinicians working on the interface between public health and the NHS, and it’s appropriate that capacity is maximised to save lives, I think, as well as considering the spread of disease.”
She added: “There is a balance point in this with resources that you have available.”
Vallance meanwhile conceded the UK should have boosted testing capacity sooner in the outbreak.
“I think that probably we, in the early phases, and I’ve said this before, I think if we’d managed to ramp testing capacity quicker it would have been beneficial.
“And, you know, for all sorts of reasons that didn’t happen.
“I think it’s clear you need lots of testing for this, but to echo what Jenny Harries has said, it’s completely wrong to think of testing as the answer.
“It’s just part of the system that you need to get right. The entire system needs to work properly.”
Vallance also revealed that the government’s scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage) discussed testing capacity as far back as its first meeting on January 22.
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Asked why Sage did not model what would have happened to death rates if the UK did not go for a full test, track and trace approach at the outset of the epidemic, Vallance said: “We absolutely right from the first meeting and at multiple meetings throughout January and February raised the point of testing capacity and the importance of testing.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-05--The NHS Covid-19 App Has Launched. Here's How It Works

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A coronavirus contact tracing app has launched on a trial basis in the UK, using people’s mobile phones to detect who they’ve been in close proximity to.
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The NHS app, which has been created as part of the “test, track and trace” programme, will enable the government to take a “more targeted approach” to the lockdown, said Matt Hancock.
It’s hoped the results may enable officials to relax some of the lockdown measures, while still containing the disease. It follows the launch of similar Covid-19 apps elsewhere in Europe.
So, how does it work?
The NHS app is designed to trace how the virus is spreading from person to person – and stop it in its tracks.
It works by using Bluetooth signals to track who an individual comes into contact with on a daily basis. When two phones with Bluetooth enabled come into close contact, this is logged by the app. In some reports, this process is being referred to as a “Bluetooth handshake”.
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If one of those phone users then develops symptoms of Covid-19, they can log this in the app. People who have been in contact with that person then receive a notification, telling them of their potential exposure and instructing them to self-isolate for 14 days.
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The NHS said the Covid-19 app is part of a wider approach that includes “manual and web-based contact tracing coupled with virology swab testing”.
But wait, isn’t there already a UK Covid-19 app?
Correct, the new app shouldn’t be confused with the King’s College London Covid-19 Symptom Tracker app, which is still being used by researchers to learn more about the virus.
The King’s College app encourages users to self-report coronavirus symptoms every day and answer a couple of quick health questions – even if they’re feeling well. The app aims to figure out where the high-risk areas are in the UK, who is most at risk, and how fast the virus is spreading in specific areas. Anyone can download the King’s College app.
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So, who can download the new NHS app?
NHS and council staff on the Isle of Wight are being urged to download the NHS Covid-19 smartphone app from Tuesday. The rest of the island’s population will receive a letter from Thursday, inviting them to join the trial. If successful, the app will be rolled out across the UK later this month.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock urged everyone on the Isle of Wight who’s able to download the app to do so. “I know that the people of the Isle of Wight will embrace this with enthusiasm because by embarking on this project and by embracing test, track and trace, you will be saving lives,” he said.
Malte Mueller via Getty Images
Are there any privacy issues?
Concerns have been raised around the collection and storage of data in relation to the app. Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen believes the government should look at decentralised app models, where contact-tracing data stays on a user’s device.
“We’re extremely concerned the government may be planning to route private data through a central database, opening the door to pervasive state surveillance and privacy infringement, with potentially discriminatory effects,” she said.
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MP Marcus Fysh also highlighted that it’s essential the system remains voluntary for the public.
Addressing these issues, a statement on the NHS website insists the app has been created with privacy in mind. “The app does not collect personally identifiable data from users. Users will always remain anonymous. The anonymous data collected by the NHS Covid-19 app will only ever be used for NHS care, management, evaluation and research,” it says.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-06--Boris Johnson Hints UK Could Begin Easing Lockdown As Soon As Monday

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Boris Johnson has said the government could begin to ease the UK’s coronavirus lockdown from Monday.
Speaking during prime minister’s questions in the Commons, the PM said he planned to give a statement on Sunday setting out plans for the next day.
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He did not specify which measures might be dropped or amended first as ministers were “continuously” receiving data from health and science experts.
“We will want, if we possibly can, to get going with some of those measures on Monday,” he said, in a reply to Labour leader Keir Starmer.
“I think it would be a good thing [...] if people had an idea of what’s coming the following day. That’s why I think Sunday, the weekend, is the best time to do it.”
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It is not yet clear what the public can expect as the Cabinet will meet on Thursday to agree the government’s next moves.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps suggested last week that work start times could be staggered so social distancing on trains and buses might be easier.
And schools will restart in a “phased manner”, education secretary Gavin Williamson has previously said, though he did not give a date.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street in London, to attend his first weekly Prime Minister's Questions since recovering from coronavirus ASSOCIATED PRESS
Challenging the PM at the despatch box, Starmer said: “There are millions of people on furlough, as the prime minister knows, millions with children struggling with caring responsibilities.
“If they are to return to work and if their children are to return to school, they need reassurance, I think we can all feel that, reassurance that it will be safe to do so. And that means they do need to know what the government’s plan is for the next stage.”
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Johnson said he could not give a full answer to MPs now because “we have to be sure that the data is going to support” plans
The PM also acknowledged it would spark an “economic disaster” should lifting restrictions see cases of Covid-19 surge again.
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford, speaking via video conference, meanwhile, said the lockdown must remain in place “for as long as it’s needed” as he called for people to avoid travelling to beauty spots.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-06--Boris Johnson Targets 200,000 Coronavirus Tests Per Day By End Of May

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Boris Johnson has set the government a new target for 200,000 coronavirus tests a day by the end of May.
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Johnson set the new “ambition” on his return to the Commons for prime minister’s questions after recovering from Covid-19.
It was not initially clear whether the prime minister wanted to carry out 200,000 tests a day by June, but Downing Street later confirmed that the target was simply about building capacity to those levels.
It comes after the government boosted capacity to 100,000 a day by the end of April.
But ministers faced accusations of massaging the figures to meet the target set by Matt Hancock by counting tests delivered to people’s homes that had not yet been returned to labs with a sample.
Testing is seen as crucial to ending the lockdown and avoiding a second peak as it is crucial in tracking and containing further outbreaks of the virus.
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The prime minister said today: “The ambition clearly is to get up to 200,000 a day by the end of this month and then to go even higher.”
Johnson has previously said he would like the UK to carry out 250,000 tests a day.
The new target comes after chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said the UK should have ramped up testing capacity sooner in the outbreak.
England’s deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries also said the UK may have been able to continue contact tracing, which it abandoned on March 12 and is only now reintroducing, if testing capacity had been available.
Boris Johnson: The ambition is to get up to 200,000 coronavirus tests per day by the end of this month.
Watch Prime Minister's Questions ► https://t.co/zb1YWF45D3#PMQs pic.twitter.com/tszUDuNCdz — talkRADIO (@talkRADIO) May 6, 2020
That could have allowed the UK to pursue a similar test, track and trace approach to those seen in countries where there have been far fewer deaths.
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Germany, which has had just under 7,000 coronavirus deaths, and South Korea, which has had just 255, have been praised for testing, tracking and tracing from early stages in the outbreak.
But the UK, which has the highest death rate in Europe with 32,375 confirmed Covid-19 fatalities, has meanwhile been criticised for abandoning community testing on March 12.
Hancock now aims to introduce a test, track and trace approach by the end of May, with the aid of a new contact tracing phone app and 18,000 new staff.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer highlighted the death rate at PMQs.
“It’s now the highest number in Europe. It’s the second highest in the world. That’s not success or apparent success.
“So can the prime minister tell us how on earth did it come to this?”
Johnson replied: “Every death is a tragedy and he’s right to draw attention to the appalling statistics, not just in this country but across the world.”
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The PM added: “At this stage I don’t think international comparisons and the data is yet there to draw all the conclusions that we want.”
Johnson however admitted the government lacked the capacity to continue contact tracing in March after Starmer highlighted Harries’ comments,
The Labour leader said: “We were told at the time that this was because it was quote ‘not an appropriate mechanism’ but yesterday the deputy chief medical officer (Harries) said it was to do with testing capacity. So can the prime minister just clarify the position for us?”
Johnson replied: “The difficulty in mid-March was that the tracing capacity that we had, that had been useful as he rightly says in the containment phase of the epidemic, that capacity was no longer useful or relevant since the transmission from individuals within the UK meant that it exceeded our capacity then.
“Now the value of the testing, tracking and tracing operation that we’re setting up now is that as we come out of the epidemic and as we get the new cases down, we will have a team that will genuinely be able to track and trace hundreds of thousands of people across the country and thereby to drive down the epidemic.”
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Amid speculation that the new target was a ‘misspeak’ by the PM, Starmer’s spokesman stressed he should clarify if it was not an official commitment.
“The prime minister has now made a new commitment in the House of Commons that the target is now 200,000 a day. We will hold him to that commitment. We would also ask the government does set out when it intends to hit the prime minister’s previous commitment of 250,000 a day.
“If that commitment is not correct, then obviously the prime minister should come back to the House of Commons and clarify.”
Starmer’s office also picked up on Johnson’s line that either he or ‘the government’ would make a statement to the Commons on Monday.
“The prime minister should be making a statement to the Commons. This is his plan. It is his proposals, and it should be him in the House on Monday answering questions from MPs about what is in it. We will be expecting him in the chamber on Monday.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-06--Meghan Markle Reads To Archie In The Sweetest First Birthday Video

The video marks a year since the nation was over the moon to welcome Meghan and Harry’s son into the world. Shortly after the birth, Meghan said Archie had the “sweetest temperament” and was “really calm.”
“He’s just been the dream, so it’s been a special couple of days,” she said, while Harry added that he was having a great time as a new father. “Parenting is amazing,” he said. “It’s only been two and a half days, three days, but we’re just so thrilled to have our own little bundle of joy.”
Archie is seventh in line to the throne but doesn’t have a title.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-06--How Museums Are Preparing To Tell The Stories Of Coronavirus

How Museums Are Preparing To Tell The Stories Of Coronavirus
Curators are preparing to tell the story of coronavirus in museums across the country. They have been challenged with finding the items that are of most significance – and help give a sense of what it was like to live through this moment in history. Voices from the Museum Of London, the Wellcome Collection and the Black Cultural Archives tell us more.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-06--Millie Small, My Boy Lollipop Singer, Dies Aged 73

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Millie Small, best known as the singer of My Boy Lollipop, has died at the age of 73.
The Jamaican artist – who released her signature hit in 1964 – died after suffering a stroke.
Island Records founder, Chris Blackwell, announced news of her death, paying tribute to the “really special” singer in the Jamaica Observer.
Millie Small pictured at the age of 16 in 1964 PA
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He said: “I would say she’s the person who took ska international because it was her first hit record. It became a hit pretty much everywhere in the world. I went with her around the world because each of the territories wanted her to turn up and do TV shows and such, and it was just incredible how she handled it.”
He added: “She was such a sweet person, really a sweet person. Very funny, great sense of humour. She was really special.”
Millie was born in south Jamaica and after winning a talent competition at the age of 12, she later teamed up with reggae singer Roy Panton to record We’ll Meet.
Island Records boss Chris Blackwell brought her to London in 1963 after having success releasing some of the records she’d recorded with Ray in the UK.
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After Millie was enrolled in the Italia Conti Stage School, she toured the UK before recording My Boy Lollipop.
Millie was best known for singing My Boy Lollipop Terry Fincher via Getty Images
The song, which is characterised by the child-like voice Millie sang it with, reached number two in both the US and the UK in 1964.
Millie continued to tour and perform up to the early 1970s.
She is survived by her daughter, Jaelee.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-06--Matt Hancock Says Police Should Decide Whether To Take Action Against Neil Ferguson

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Matt Hancock has said it is a matter for the police whether they take any action against professor Neil Ferguson for breaching lockdown rules.
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The health secretary said he was left “speechless” after The Daily Telegraph reported that Ferguson, who has played a key role in advising the government, allowed a woman to visit him at home in London on at least two occasions during the lockdown.
Hancock told Sky News on Wednesday morning that Ferguson had made the “right decision to resign” from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).
Asked if Ferguson should be prosecuted, Hancock said it was “a matter for the police”.
“They will take their decisions independently from ministers, that’s quite right, it’s always been like that,” he said.
“Even though I have got a clear answer to what I think, as a minister the way we run the police is that they make decisions like this.
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“So I give them their space to make that decision, but I think he took the right decision to resign.”
Hancock said Ferguson’s actions were “extraordinary” and it was “just not possible” for him to continue advising the government.
He added that the social distancing rules “are there for everyone, they are incredibly important and they are deadly serious”.
“They are the means by which we have managed to get control of this virus.”
Ferguson has said that he regretted “undermining” the continued need for social distancing to tackle coronavirus.
Ferguson MarshaJ
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Ferguson’s research with Imperial College London colleagues warned that 250,000 people could die in the UK without drastic action before Boris Johnson imposed the restrictions.
“I accept I made an error of judgment and took the wrong course of action. I have therefore stepped back from my involvement in Sage,” Ferguson said in a statement.
“I acted in the belief that I was immune, having tested positive for coronavirus, and completely isolated myself for almost two weeks after developing symptoms.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-05-06--The UK Is Worst-Hit By Coronavirus In Europe. Now The Government Must Explain Why

We need to understand why the UK has the highest death rate in Europe. Press Association
We are now officially the worst-hit European country. Yesterday, both ONS and government figures put coronavirus deaths in the UK above Italy’s. A rare and sobering day of agreement between the two official bodies, and a shocking reminder of the scale of the human tragedy in the UK. As this happened, our petition calling for a public inquiry into the government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak passed 70,000 signatures and continued to rise.
When asked at yesterday’s press briefing about the UK’s relative death toll, foreign secretary Dominic Raab immediately sought to dismiss international comparisons. To many across the country, this will have come across as tone-deaf and evasive. We are now only second to Donald Trump’s USA on a leader board than no country would like to top. We are not here by chance alone and people deserve to know how this has happened.
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How is it possible that a country like the UK, with world-leading science, a globally envied health service, a strong economy and robust infrastructure –ended up having the worst death toll of the continent? The growing consensus is that the answer lies in a litany of errors of attitude.
“All political leaders must now commit to an inquiry to identify what has gone wrong, learn the lessons, and ensure it never happens again, while we are still in time.”
While other European countries started locking down fast, our nation was embroiled in a national debate about the theory of “herd immunity”. The PM himself took to daytime television to discuss it. Notions of “allowing the virus to sweep through the population” and “taking it on the chin” were seemingly being considered as adequate strategies. Meanwhile a quarter of a million people attended Cheltenham festival, sparking an outbreak.
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What followed was a concerted campaign to reassure the public that we did not need to listen to the World Health Organisation’s pleas to “test, test, test”. Government did not pursue community testing and abruptly dropped contact tracing. “What does Britain know about coronavirus that the rest of Europe doesn’t?” asked a perplexed CNN on 14 March. Not much, it would seem – as the UK later had to scramble to lock down, then reinstate testing and contact tracing.
The biggest scandal of them all is undoubtedly the woeful lack of PPE equipment available for frontline NHS and care workers. They are asked to put their lives on the line to save ours. Some even came out of retirement to risk – and lose – their lives for ours. Far too many have already lost their lives and still, they are not fully protected.
Perhaps the most damming indictment of the government response to the pandemic is that at least some of the shortage of PPE equipment could have been prevented. We had warnings from other countries ahead of time, and a government-mandated pandemic simulation, exercise Cygnus, that warned of these supply risks and shortages back in October 2016.
There is no doubting the mountain of a challenge faced by the UK government. It is unlike any challenge faced by any government in the UK. However, it is the same challenge faced by all governments in Europe, and with the possibility of a second peak before a vaccine is available, it is vital that we are not caught underprepared again.
We cannot ever again leave our NHS so under-resourced, expecting brave medical staff to treat patients dressed only in bin bags and thin surgical masks. All political leaders must now commit to an inquiry to identify what has gone wrong, learn the lessons, and ensure it never happens again, while we are still in time.
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This is why we launched a petition calling for a full and independent public inquiry in the UK’s response to the Coronavirus outbreak. Many tens of thousands have already joined us to challenge the inaction, press for scrutiny, demand accountability and learn the lessons.