@safedavid3.bsky.social
Health and Safety Consultant Executive Team Member Covid-19 Airborne Transmission Alliance (CATA) Core Participant in UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry Views are my own
I'm afraid I don't work in NHS and so don't know either way.
Perhaps others in NHS can comment.
📢 Children have been bullied by adults and children, denied remote education & families threatened with fines – just for trying to stay safe in a pandemic.
This is the reality for Clinically Vulnerable families.
Read CVF's new blog ahead of the #CovidInquiry children’s module👇 which starts 29 Sep
[27 Jun 2025] @DrTedros at WHO media briefing:
“We cannot talk about COVID-19 in the past tense. Although the crisis has passed, the virus remains.
It continues to evolve, it continues to kill, and millions of people continue to live with post COVID-19 condition or long COVID.”
Good point.
I wholeheartedly agree.
In fact I would put surgical masks on the OTHER SIDE OF the baseline as, by lulling HCWs into a false sense of security (believing they are protected when they are not), they put the wearer at greater danger than no mask at all.
Oh dear, they can't do that.
By their own admission they STILL don't have a pandemic response plan for a respiratory/airborne pandemic. They've only just started work on one.
Hmmm. A bit late now! Would have been nice to have had such a response plan in 2020
One wonders what pathogen will be given to the participants in the exercise to simulate?
Perhaps a novel airborne beta-coronavirus with a CFR of about 3 and R0 of about 3.
Oh yes, SARS-CoV-2 would fit the bill.
Then we can all see how they would handle the same pandemic if it recurred today.
Meanwhile members of the CATA Executive Team stand ready to participate in Exercise Pegasus, as do no doubt BMA, RCN, RCM etc and bereaved families, Long Covid Groups – if invited, that is… (a forlorn hope perhaps?!)
14.09.2025 02:13 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Perhaps during Exercise Pegasus the participants will devise new, innovative means of stifling HCW concerns about their safety.
Will they again adopt the “Cannon Fodder Principle” as opposed to the “Precautionary Principle” which normally underpins worker health & safety?
See the testimony of Rose Gallagher (RCN) at the Inquiry then follow the link across to @1goodtern for the full transcript.
x.com/_CatintheHat...
(Apologies, this excellent thread is only available on X because of certain limitations within BlueSky)
As often happens, "leaks' occur!
A Government employee present at the meeting, recognising the importance of this momentous occasion, 'leaked’ a transcript of that meeting onto social media. Otherwise it would have been buried forever.
Such a meeting had never taken place before in the history of NHS. Representatives of over a million NHS workers met with Government in mid-pandemic.
It was convened after the Alliance wrote to PM Johnson and it took DHSC over 100 days to convene, while HCWs were dying by the score
Should important meetings to discuss life & death of healthcare workers be held in secret under the “Chatham House Rule”, as imposed by Mr Dynan-Oakley at the outset of the meeting without the courtesy of any prior consultation with the stakeholders?
14.09.2025 02:09 — 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0When representatives of HCWs dying by the score, meet Gov’t to seek respirators for close quarter care, will they once again be snubbed as when our Alliance, BMA, RCN, RCM, etc met on 3/6/2021 with Chair Michael Dynan-Oakley (DHSC) and IPC Cell (Eleri Davies/Lisa Ritchie/Mark Wilcox etc)?
14.09.2025 02:09 — 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Talking of disinformation…
Remember the scientists & HCWs who had LinkedIn/Social Media accounts shut down because they dared suggest C-19 was airborne.
Perhaps the 'winged horses' will test how effectively they can close down competent scientists more effectively in favour of ‘lapdog experts’ ?
Remember the gross disinformation peddled by IPC Cell and chums (DROPLET, DROPLET, REPEAT DROPLET, REPEAT DROPLET – “Airborne not predominant”).
And Minister Dalton still says this…
(CATA is still waiting for her to reply to our letter warning of hauling HM Gov't into Court for Judicial Review).
Don’t you just love core objective #6: “Test the strategic response to disinformation & misinformation”!
Remember the disinformation peddled by Maria van Kerkhove & WHO chums: “COVID IS NOT, REPEAT NOT, REPEAT NOT AIRBORNE” - because we haven't got FFP/N95 to protect you against airborne disease.
And look at the 8 ‘core objectives’...
tinyurl.com/5crunps2
Isn’t there something missing?
Oh yes – no prospect of setting up a competent forum with the right skill-sets to ensure Healthcare Worker safety.
Will we see another secretive, shadowy “IPC Cell” again – God forbid!
Consultation with workers is an absolute requirement of health & safety legislation.
But compliance with H&S legislation was never their strong point, especially COSHH (protection of workers from hazardous substances/pathogens). Something to be picked up or put down as Government mood/whim dictates.
Exercise Pegasus - The UK Prepares for Pandemic simulation.
I wonder whether key stakeholders will be invited to join as participants or observers?
By "key stakeholders” I mean those who will die or be seriously harmed when Gov UK gets it wrong (again!)
The findings of the paper by Cherrie et al (at the head of this thread) completely vindicate Prof Elkington's development and use of powered respirators. If you haven’t already seen it, an interview with him can be seen here: tinyurl.com/yc74vj66
Definitely worth watching…
For those interested in this topic (as many HCWs will be, even if UK Ministers, DHSC, UK-HSA, Chief Nursing Officers etc aren’t!), a report can be found here:
tinyurl.com/4drx92b7
In this report you'll see mention of the initiatives by Prof Paul Elkington and colleagues at Southampton.
Without a shadow of a doubt, when the next (sadly inevitable) pandemic begins, powered hoods should be the ‘go-to’ Respiratory Protective Equipment for HCWs (particularly for sessional use).
They avoid all the problems of ‘face-fit’, discomfort etc associated with tight-fitting RPE (FFP3/N95 etc).
As per COSHH Regulations ‘hierarchy of control’, the use of ventilated headboards (engineering control) has precedence over PPE & should be the first choice.
That said, the cost/time involved in setting this up at scale to cope with another pandemic may not be practicable.
Image: CDC
Let’s look at the percentage reduction in risk:
Ventilated headboards & powered hoods = 91-99%
FFP3 = 95%
FFP2 = 86%
Surgical mask (FRSM) = 60-64%
A layman’s interpretation of the above graphic would be “the lower the 2 grey boxes, the better the protection" i.e:
1) Powered Airhood
2) Mask & ventilated headboard
3) FFP3
4) FFP2
Last) Surgical mask
Hand-hygiene/disinfection make little difference!
(Well it is a predominantly airborne virus!)
The most effective means of HCW protection were:
‘ventilated headboards’ (local air extraction to remove the plume of aerosol around patient’s head);
and
Powered respirators (deliver HEPA-filtered air to wearer).
The paper by Cherrie et al uses an advanced computational model known as CEMRA (Covid Exposure Model and Risk App) which estimates the risk of infection by various pathways.
Yet another initiative by the British Occupational Hygiene Society 👏👏👏
🚨🚨🚨 STOP PRESS 🚨🚨🚨
Paper published by eminent UK scientists compare the effectiveness of PPE and other risk controls for protecting healthcare workers against Covid infections.
academic.oup.com/annweh/artic...
Powered hoods most effective FFP3s almost as effective.
FRSMs very poor.
Size Matters!???
This topic exposes how the IPC authors are still wedded to principle of aerosols being ‘respirable’ i.e. 5 microns or less, despite the expert evidence at the Covid-19 Inquiry.
Getting this wrong means that Healthcare Workers are given inadequate respiratory protection.
Other topics are covered in the presentation:
• Engagement with Government
• CATA engagement with International colleagues
• The draft new Canadian Standard for RPE
• Size Matters!
