After many months of opposition politicians, platformed across the Scottish media, attempting to blame hospital discharges into care homes for subsequent outbreaks and deaths there, an independent report finds that these were not statistically significant and that other factors especially care home size were far more important. https://www.gov.scot/news/hospital-to-care-home-discharge-data-published/ The larger care homes are, of course, owned privately. The Scottish study follows earlier reports from Public Health Wales, Public health England, the ONS and from the voluntary sector provider BHA, all saying the same thing and, in most, pointing to the over-use of agency staff in large privately owned care homes, … Continue reading It’s not ‘The News’ if we don’t like it

Every so often, somebody leaves a microphone on and we hear what our media class really think of us. You can be sure the Oz-sounding wag wouldn’t have said ‘You gave her a bit of swipe there mate!‘ if he hadn’t known he was safe among like-minds sharing his broad contempt for Scots and their elected leaders. Some readers might remember how, in 2015, John Boothman at BBC Scotland made highly offensive remarks about the daughter of SNP MSP Margo MacDonald only to be overheard by Ms MacdDonald who recorded the comments on her phone. In 2007, when BBC Scotland … Continue reading Somebody needs wiped from the payroll at ITN

By Brenda Steele Whose Civil Servants are they?  Are there any Scottish Civil Servants?  Do the Councils allow the Central Government to select their staff? Why should it apply to Holyrood? Notice that this newspaper headline quotes not what is happening in the committee but relies on Murdo Fraser’s words.  Tory MSP Murdo Fraser, who sits on the Salmond inquiry, described the letters as an “extraordinary attack” on the government and its “secretive approach to this inquiry”. “We’ve now heard of even more information that the SNP government tried to keep hidden. They apparently didn’t reveal a key document that … Continue reading Whose Civil Servants are they? Are there any Scottish Civil Servants?

As the first signs emerge of success in controlling the latest outbreaks, only in Scotland, in numbers and graphs easily available to make you feel stronger, BBC Scotland have other numbers for you throughout today: 17 wards closed to new admissions Treating more than 600 cases Over half of all 21 significant incidents of healthcare-acquired infections Eleven hundred patients Three thousand reports of house parties 40% found breaches of the rules More than 420 fines 83 arrests I gather some folk are making themselves worse, perhaps dying, because they fear going to hospital. See the one about healthcare-acquired infections? Is … Continue reading Only in Scotland: A Tsunami of numbers to scare us to death and weaken our resolve?

Let’s clarify the facts here, because the Herald’s Caitlin Hutchison certainly doesn’t. The Conservative Party is resisting Marcus Rashford’s call for free school meals in England, at Christmas. The Scottish Conservatives, members of the same party, voted with their English colleagues, other than Ross who didn’t even turn up because he was ‘in Scotland.’ He didn’t seem to be ‘cheering on‘ Rashford then as the Herald happily lets him claim to be, here, now. So, to be clear, they oppose Rashford’s campaign. Yet, in Scotland, apparently inspired by his mum’s work as a dinner lady, Ross and his group will … Continue reading The brassiest of brass necks?

TOURISM chiefs in Scotland have warned of a ‘wave of trauma and mental anguish’ in the hospitality sector as a multi tier system was announced by Nicola Sturgeon. The First Minister revealed the provisional  coronavirus  restrictions that will apply to different parts of Scotland from next week. Leaving aside the misleading use of the term ‘tourism chiefs‘ for what is an association of businesses rather than say the chief executive of the national tourism organisation Visit Scotland, the Herald‘s platforming of this quotation is another example of the damage the UK media, unlike its counterparts elsewhere, has done to the campaign to … Continue reading How Scotland’s Unique media will cause deaths

A friend of the Tusker, Brian Watson, sent me the above. It does not mention Scotland but it could be all about our media and their failure to fulfill their mission in a way which might have helped us fight the pandemic, saving many lives, but which actually impeded our efforts. The BBC has a mission embedded in a Royal Charter: The Mission of the BBC is to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain. Two words, ‘inform‘ and ‘educate‘ are key. Keep … Continue reading English Academic blames the media for Covid failures

The most comprehensive flu vaccination programme in the UK’s history That was how the UK Government described it. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/most-comprehensive-flu-programme-in-uk-history-will-be-rolled-out-this-winter And in the Independent: Matt Hancock has said the UK will see the biggest seasonal flu vaccination drive in history this winter to try and mitigate the fear of a winter crisis mixed with coronavirus. Speaking remotely at the National Pharmacy Association annual conference, Mr Hancock said the government was planning now for winter, adding: “We’re going to frankly need to use all of the capabilities at our disposal to deliver the vaccine programmes that we need to in the months ahead.” There are mounting … Continue reading most comprehensive flu vaccination programme in the UK’s history has a few delays Shock

The relative, 7 day average, infection level across the UK reveal it to be between 35% and nearly 50% lower in Scotland, six weeks after the introduction of measures in Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Dunbartonshire. More recent restrictions, imposed across the ‘Central Belt’, will further reduce it. The contrast, above, with the situation in September, when the Scottish level was lower but much closer to the other nations, is clear. The national level in Scotland has now fallen for 4 days. Even in Scotland’s most highly infected area, Lanarkshire, linked with tougher restrictions in media reaction to a Scottish Government letter … Continue reading SNP Government ‘Doing Better’ as Strategy gets results

On June 2, the Tusker began to rebut the unfounded claims that the care home deaths were the result of the discharge of hospital patients into those homes. We did not have several research studies, then, identifying the true cause, just the single case of the Skye care home and the evidence from a large Public Health England study. The outbreaks in care homes were due to temporary care workers. We also, of course, could point to the lack of a single research study suggesting the discharges had been responsible. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/18/agency-staff-were-spreading-covid-19-between-care-homes-phe-found-in-april Since then, we have rebutted the same accusations from … Continue reading How many more times son? It was not the hospital discharges.