AZ leaflet mentions blood thinners, immunosuppressaants or cancer meds. Can't see anything else. It also states for side effects medicines containing paracetamol can be taken, no mention of ibuprofen. Don't know if there's a reason for that or not, but the NHS covid vacc leaflet only mentions paracetamol too.
Generally speaking, Ibuprofen can increase heart attack and stroke risk. Paracetamol tends to be the safer drug of choice (unless overdosed).
Well, that didn't take long: After a year of Covid, we have seen the worst but also celebrated the very best (telegraph.co.uk) Next stop: referendum to abolish the NHS. Calling it now.
Anti-NHS as the Tories are, I think even they wouldn't dare try that. They know it would go down like an (unusually heavy) lead balloon and, their main priority is going to be winning the next General Election, at whatever cost.
After winning Brexit I think that they have been emboldened. Note the changes they are slipping under the radar now: changing laws making it harder to hold protests, making vandalising memorials punishable by up to 10 years in prison, making the BBC less "woke", more right-wing and, well, even more right wing. This is just the start. There will be a referendum on the EU, and people will vote to abolish it, because they'll be promised unicorns in its place. And people are stupid.
My wife worked in the NHS for many years and was a Unison rep. She doesn't believe the Tories would be quite stupid enough to try and have a referendum to abolish the NHS but, who knows, the only thing you can rely on with the Tories, is that they are thoroughly untrustworthy.
Nobody thought they'd be stupid enough to hold an EU referendum. Nobody thought they'd be stupid enough to enact the hardest of Brexits. Nobody thought they'd be stupid enough to enact the hardest of Brexits during a pandemic. One thing that you can count on is that the current government is incompetent, and driven by a free market shock doctrine ideology that is psychopathically detached from reality and the impact on human lives.
Edit: The only things you can rely on with the Tories, are that they are thoroughly untrustworthy, incompetent and corrupt. I was far to charitable earlier...
I don't think that will happen. Mainly because the current strategy of cutting it up and contracting out is working so seamlessly for them. Even with their new protest laws point black abolishing the NHS would cause riots vote or no vote. The way they are doing it now they can leave the big blue logo on everything and divert billions of tax funds into ever decreasing services without a fuss. It worked for dentistry, it worked for eyecare* and it'll work for everything else. With there being functionally no opposition they don't even need to vote on it. Just pass the laws and budgets they need to streamline the process without a fuss. *I am aware of the irony of lamenting this when I am part of the problem.
That certainly has been the strategy so far, but then why all the negative press? I can see them getting impatient. And they want to get rid of National Insurance as well, and break the whole association with this being an entitlement than something you have to pay for.
Honestly I think the majority of that is deflecting blame for the ongoing Covid sh#t show and Richi going back on his promised pay rise. On that note I think lockdown is being lifted too early again and we're headed for a fourth (fifth?) wave by the end of next month.
Text came through earlier with a vaccination invitation. Got through to the surgery 2nd go, and I'm lined up for Saturday morning.
Most of that is certainly indicative of a trend, but the BBC points I'm afraid I rather sympathize with. It has become* nauseating in its self-congratulatory left-leaning complacency, and it does have a strange lack of right-wing positions. For reasons I struggle to articulate, as a left-leaning person politically, I have always been uncomfortable with the smug leftism of the BBC: it makes me feel pandered to, and also has a kind of "fiddling while Rome burns" vibe to it in the sense that over half the country leans right and the BBC's various comfortable, safe left-leaning panel shows do nothing to explore the question of why. It preaches to the choir, which to me is a precursor to political failure. Bit off-topic, I know, and I don't disagree with your points about the Tories and their sinister ambitions for the NHS, but I struggle to frame the BBC stuff as Tory machinations, and even if they were, I would grudgingly posit that they're in the right direction for once (if you'll excuse the pun). *(or has always been? I struggle to stay objective on the BBC's direction across time, as my own perspective has moved around so much, and I paid attention more in some decades than others.)
So some countries are pausing the use of the AZ jab because 37 people out of 17 million or so so far have developed blood clots. Over reaction much? In a regular month it's reckoned about 3000 people in the UK develop a blood clot. Several of those countries already had people missng their appointments because of a lack of confidence based on unsubstantiated claims and, well, Macron. It kind makes me think it a bit suss that the only jab being sold at cost is the one getting the flak.
I must say that is not how I see it. Sure, its panel shows are a bit lefty-luvvie (because they are, after all, produced by, hosted by and guested by lefty luvvies) but its British history programmes, British travelogues etc. often have a gloss of jingoisim about it (which I feel has been dialled up of late), and its news programmes are not exactly subjecting the government to deep scrutiny (especially not on Brexit). But it seems to me not logical to argue that the BBC is left leaning and then to deny that the Tory government is making active efforts to re-align it to the right; if the BBC is left-leaning, isn't that exactly what they'd do? And they wouldn't do it to achieve balance; they'd do it to achieve advantage. Because power corrupts.
I'm beginning to think they are acting like spoilt brats. "You were not delivering our vaccine order fast enough, so now we don't want it. Yah boo sucks to you." Now they need to explain to their people why they are stopping them being vaccinated with a safe vaccine.
I guess I'll agree but also disagree. I think the BBC has settled into a very comfortable middle class rutt, it's political commentary in particular isn't trying very hard. But to me they're not left wing enough, the economy is in tatters, 126'000 people and counting are dead from an entirely avoidable tragedy, staggering amounts of money are being handed to friends and associates with no transparency or oversight. Yet the BBC is all but silent, where's the editorial? Where's the Panorama exposes? If the Beeb actually started holding the government to account the result would be a sudden and violent swing to the left, just reporting the facts accurately by themselves would do that. I first noticed it around Brexit, when they should have been calling out the bold faced lies they were all very equivocal about it. They should certainly start having more right wing viewpoints, they should be making them sit in front of interviewers and tearing them to shreds. If they're supposed to take a neutral, factual approach they should be sitting these gobshites down every day and asking them why they're telling lies, then explaining to the viewers exactly what the lies are and why these people are lying to them. But they aren't, they're just running HIGNFY once a week and letting loose a few snide gags here and there. It's a very strange form of complicity where they give the appearance of everything being normal, but they let all the bullsh#t slide without comment. I guess it's motivated by fear of losing the license fee, but at this rate if the BBC were cut tomorrow I wouldn't be upset. EDIT Then I turn on the Tellybox and what's on right now? Panorama: Cashing in on Covid and it's about exactly what I complained the BBC isn't doing enough. I think the universe can hear me. But they still aren't doing it enough.
It's a pretty concerning descision, not least because of stoking the fires of anti-vaxxer sentiment, which is already a serious problem in a few of those countries. Thankfully the delay in vaccinations won't be too severe (but make no mistake, this decision will cost lives), but it's just a bizarre decision.
I'm lucky in that I've never worked anywhere that ties pay so directly to traffic - I mean, it's always there in the background, in that if my articles do well I'll be more likely to be asked to write more articles. Well, except for the stuff I've self-published on Medium, where I was originally paid based on how many people "clapped" for my work but now based on how many members read it. Oh, and royalties on book sales, of course. But yeah, that kind of incentive can backfire badly. Just look at the race to the bottom that YouTube is these days.
