We have been watching the Andrew Marr Programme on the BBC this morning and is clear that day by day te situation is getting worse. Front line NHS workers are falling ill as sufficient personal protection (PP) is not yet available and we are not testing enough people. Otherwise those death rates will continue to rise.

All other public servants who are working on our behalf, Police and many others, should be applauded for their bravery and committment. We are statistically, about 2 weeks behind Italy and it is to be hoped we do not get to where they are today.

Handwashing is something most of us take for granted but I have read that this is due in no small part to Dr Ignatz Semmelweis who, in 1847 ordered doctors to wash their hands after autopsies. Consequently, the death rate in Vienna General’s maternity ward plummeted. Most other doctors in the world ignored his findings suggesting that it would be impossible for them to be the root of the problem. Doctors were a smug lot in those days. In fact they ridiculed the good doctor so much that he eventually went mad. Eventually he was vindicated by Louis Pasteur and after that, doctors, and particularly surgeons and other support staff, routinely washed their hands before treating patients. Nowadays, Doctors don’t even wear neckties any more. This is not really for comfort but, as the UK Department of Health has noted, ties are rarely laundered and are of no benefit to the care of patients. Dirty ties have been shown to be full of pathogens. Computer keyboards and mice are also full of nasties and the next time you want to pick up the tv remote control, disinfect the hell out of it first. (Bits of this paragraph were gleaned from the book “Super Freakonomics” published by Penguin and available on Amazon)

UK deaths 281