Dr Pauline Nelson 🎃

🧵How much should the NHS worry about this winter's flu wave?

You may have seen this alarming headline on the BBC website today...

I think it's too early to make this claim and the data does not support it.

I think it will be a bad flu season but no evidence to think worse than previous yrs

1/8

PS It should go without saying that I think getting the flu vaccine is a very good idea!

I've had both my flu and covid vaccines this winter.

Preventing infections in older people is hit and miss, says England’s chief medic Chris Whitty contrasts systematic approach in children and calls for more research into managing infections in elderly

Good to see CMO recognise and highlight risk of delirium when older people develop infections. And link between delirium and dementia. Infections are one possible cause of delirium (acute confusion) in older people. Sometimes the first symptom, recognised in COVID
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

“Breathtaking”: Could it happen again? - Bylines Scotland Dr Dan Goyal, NHS Medical Consultant and Bylines Scotland's Health Policy Editor talks about the ITV series "Breathtaking" and his own experience in working on the NHS frontline during the Covid pande...

With the release of The Covid 19 Report, this podcast is worth a listen again. It's an interview with Dr Dan Goyal who worked on the frontline during the pandemic. He was talking about the ITV series "Breathless" which depicted the conditions NHS staff worked under.

#Covid19Inquiry

142 deaths in England involving COVID-19: w/ending 7 Nov 2025. 🤦Data too limited 🤷COVID-19 has not disappeared, continues to spread, disable, and disrupt lives - while strategies appear to fail to acknowledge its persistence or the need for better infection prevention. @ukcovid-19inquiry.bsky.social

142 deaths in England involving COVID-19: w/ending 7 Nov 2025.
🤦Data too limited
🤷COVID-19 has not disappeared, continues to spread, disable, and disrupt lives - while strategies appear to fail to acknowledge its persistence or the need for better infection prevention. @ukcovid-19inquiry.bsky.social

It’s absolutely stunning. The November sky was other-worldly.

None!

#Staithes

Beautiful 💜

Modelled on family members #Halloween 🎃

Countdown to #Halloween 🎃 #EdwardGorey

I used to work at a small shop that made little plastic vampires.

There were only 2 of us working there, so I had to make every second count.

I'm saddened to learn that the reactionary legal project launched by Adrian Vermeule overseas has now found an official home in the UK at Surrey Law School (as if some of the stuff coming out of Oxford Law wasn't enough). Unsurprisingly, their first 'research project' is to attack the ECHR system /1

Tim Walz: “People are gonna be lined up out here to get food, and we’re talking about a damn ballroom. Don’t lose the plot.”

That’s the line of the week. While Republicans obsess over Trump’s décor, Walz is talking about hungry families.

Updated COVID-19 vaccines continue to offer strong protection, research shows Updated COVID-19 vaccines are still providing effective protection against infection, emergency department visits, hospitalization and death, according to new research published today in JAMA Internal...

'COVID-19 still causing a lot of serious illness. This study showed that 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccines were effective, especially against severe outcomes, although their effectiveness waned over time. Thus, it is beneficial to have an annual COVID-19 vaccination.' www.news-medical.net/news/2025102...

Due to asthma I’m eligible for #fluvaccine but not #covidvaccine. Computer says no 🤷🏼‍♀️

Current NHS England policy restricts free COVID-19 vaccination to certain age groups and risk categories. Yet age alone should not determine access to protection. Anyone whose health professionals recommend vaccination should surely be eligible?

open.substack.com/pub/joepajak...

It’s impossible to avoid the conclusion that large parts of Westminster remaining on X - a platform that tolerates and amplifies extremism and racism - has led a great many people to normalise what previously was unacceptable.

Given the party's refusal to act on Pochin's brazen racism, it should be as socially unacceptable to vote for Reform as it was in the early 2000s to vote for the BNP.

And we should be prepared to say this to people's faces.

Countdown to #Halloween 🎃 #EdwardGorey 🕷️

No Welsh? 😉

Long COVID and Society This is the first book to bring together academics and activists living with Long COVID to explore the social impacts of the new complex chronic condition.

Now published! My edited book ‘Long COVID and Society’ - my introduction is free to read for everyone. Download from the link below and check out the others chapters too (Chapter 14, about LC children and families, is also open access)

link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Katie Lam has made a video - focusing on not giving new ILR grants to people who don't have it

But quietly including the Conservative proposal to be the first government since Idi Amin in 1972 to revoke the permanent leave to remain, then expel: she underplays to what extent
x.com/Katie_Lam_MP...

Every analysis of the effects of children’s screen time needs to include, as the counterfactual, older generations’ countless hours spent watching TV test cards while waiting for something to come on

A policy this expansive would certainly mean mass stripping of permanent residence status from people with ILR (including pensioners and parents of British children) on a scale far beyond anything any democracy has ever done before. There is no public support for such an extreme policy.

Heather Humphreys admits regret of Covid-19 policies while in Government The Áras hopefuls took part in the final presidential debate

Shocking that ~still~ people in senior positions of govt don’t know that airborne respiratory infection is preventable.. or that in 2020 we had the knowledge to safely allow visits to nursing homes, & it was ignored

We are woefully unprepared for future pandemics www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-n...

Thanks so much Trish!

Thank you for the suggestion. Looking into it 👍

Very proud of our new paper in #JHOM on the politics involved data sharing. An
@arc-gm.bsky.social research project, we found
resistance to data reporting reflected hidden issues of power and trust between healthcare providers & managers.
doi.org/10.1108/JHOM...

#WorkforceData #Transparency

Japan declares a flu epidemic — what this means for other nations Researchers say that the number of infections for this time of year is unusual.

Japan is reporting a flu epidemic much earlier than is usual. This early season could have implications for other countries via international travel so do get your flu vaccines (if you can) soon! 🧪 #HealthPolicy