I wonder what in your life you might be passionate about dear reader. I know some of my readers are passionate about their running, others about their garden, and one who is passionate about knitting and helping seafarers in trouble. I know of one reader who is passionate about her cat, another about ensuring no harm comes to patients in the future. I have another reader who is passionate about musical instruments and has a house full of extraordinary instruments of all sorts.
Some passions come and go. At one
time I was passionate about travelling the world, and have been fortunate to have been able to do
so for many years. Now I have no interest at all in travelling, much to J’s disappointment.
I was once passionate about doing research, and whilst I still have an avid
interest in the outcomes of research, and the evidence base this creates, I am
no longer passionate about the ‘doing’ of research myself. However, last
week I met some researchers who were absolutely passionate about what
they were doing with a number of clinical research programmes. The person leading the research team was Wiesia Woodyatt who has been working on a number of
Covid-related clinical trials, and this work had made a significant contribution
to the development of new Covid vaccines. This is important work; it is collaborative
working too. It is work that recognises the effectiveness the Stockport NHS FT research
team has in consistently recruiting participants to clinical trials, thereby ensuring
great validity is achieved across the research programmes.
Such research is necessary.
Across the world, the Covid virus is still infecting 50 million people every 90 days
due to the high transmission rates of the Delta variant. Now we have a new variant,
Omicron. We don’t yet know what impact that will have on our lives, but it is
important that we continue to take care and perhaps get back to thinking as we
did in the early days of the pandemic. Whilst vaccinations are the most
effective action to take in keeping each other safe, wearing a mask is the
single most effective other health measure we can take. Don’t just take my word
for it. A systematic review, published in late October this year found that mask-wearing
was the single measure linked to effectively reducing the incidence
of community infection rates.
So, like me, I guess you may have
been dismayed at a couple of the stories in the media that seemed to
go against this advice. Our PM still wanders around crowded places (including hospitals)
without wearing a mask. Indeed, the House of Commons have stated that MPs don’t
need to wear a mask when they are in the chamber, something we can witness through
the live TV coverage of each parliamentary sitting. It’s easy fodder for Covid conspiracy
theorists. At least our Secretary of State for Health and Social Care upholds
the guidance to wear a mask in places where you might be in close contact with
others.
The other story to catch my
attention was that of pupils at Abbey School (Kent) who had been asked to leave
the classroom, because they wanted to wear a face mask while in class. These
are 12 – 15 year olds who have an acute sense of the need not only to protect themselves,
but also to protect those around them. I know the other week when I met a
similar group of young people receiving their first Covid jab, they could clearly
articulate the need to get the vaccination and maintain the other health promotion
advice around space, hand washing, mask wearing and ventilation. They were
passionate in articulating the need for everyone, young and old to keep taking
these precautions.
I found it strange that a school
that advocates a culture of ‘politeness, courtesy and respect’ should be
so inflexible in its approach. I liked how they wanted to pupils to demonstrate
these values, including the children and young people sitting up straight,
listening, remembering basic manners, talking in full sentences (what a great
idea) and greeting each other and asking if folk were having a good day. The
given reason that they were sent to detention for wearing masks in the
classroom was that masks are a ‘barrier to learning’. Now, I’m passionate
about lifelong learning. I’m aged 66, 6 months and 24 days (yes, every new day
is a blessing) and I learn something new each and every day. As a NHS Trust we
have been running a Board Development programme since May 2021, with each
session being face to face, socially-distanced and where mask-wearing has been
the norm. I have learnt a great deal at each session, as I believe my fellow
Board colleagues have too.
Likewise, I have successfully supervised
many PhD students who have come to sessions wearing a niqab, and the University
School at which I was Dean, recognised many years ago that face coverings were neither
a barrier to learning nor successful therapeutic relationships. I might be accused
of being too passionate about the wearing of masks in public and crowded environments,
but I don’t apologise for being so. Last week I talked to a doctor colleague
who had spent much of the day with her team in theatre, wearing masks and performing
life changing and life saving surgery. If she could do that for others day
after day, the least we can do when out and about, shopping, travelling on a
bus or whatever, is to put a mask on. Let’s all become passionate about this
folks. I ask this not in the Stanley Kubrick sense of ‘Eyes Wide Shut’
mask wearing, but I do ask it in with same amount of passion shown in the film. If we don’t, we might not enjoy the Christmas
we hoped for.
Here is a big THANK YOU for all
those folk, day after day, who wearing their masks, deliver services that keep
us safe, well, fed, and warm, slowly returning us to a new normal where we are able
to once again indulge in each of our individual passions unhindered by pandemic restrictions.
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