This week is a bit of a mixed bag – and perhaps not as long a piece as it could have been, what with all the COVID-19 news. For those who feel a bit short-changed and want something more to read, I’ve added a few interesting bits to the Military Intelligence page: a paper on COVID in children, a video on COVID and blood clots, another video giving a two minute overview of ICU. Step down….and step back up I’ve…
Welcome to The Plague Pit. For this issue – number 20 – I’m very grateful to Adrian Tsui. Adrian is a sixth former at Winchester College, studying Physics, Chemistry and Biology. He has a place at Downing College, Cambridge to read Natural Sciences, starting in 2020. He’s also a dedicated musician. Adrian has written a pair of articles on chemistry in the pandemic. Here’s the first: . In a world changed by COVID-19, we find ourselves constantly searching for ways…
Welcome to The Plague Pit This guest issue – number 19 – addresses some of the legal issues relating to COVID-19. As a non-lawyer, I’m especially grateful to retired Parliamentary Counsel, Mr Robin Dormer, for his lucid account. . When faced with a crisis or threat, real or perceived, governments of all sorts will take steps to protect their country against it. In a democracy, that response may well require legislation, for example to confer new powers on the state…
Welcome to The Plague Pit For this issue – number 18 – I’m delighted to feature a genuinely unusual take on COVID-19. Angel Chen has been in China during the pandemic. Angel is a Lower Sixth student in St. Swithun’s School, Winchester. She has been studying in the UK for five years. Her aspiration is to study medicine and become a doctor. . In this article, I will be writing about the link between technology and COVID-19 in China and…
Welcome to The Plague Pit – issue 17 I’ve written a lot about oxygen so far. Given that COVID-19 is first a disease of the respiratory system, that seems fair. In issue 13 (Physiology and Hairstyles), I talked about how COVID-19 increases the work of breathing, even as it decreases the amount of oxygen getting into the blood from the lungs. The relationship between breathing and oxygen is even more complicated, though. As the work of breathing goes up, so…
Welcome to The Plague Pit – issue number 16. From: The Daily Telegraph 08.05.20 ‘SIR – The Prime Minister has said that he went through “litres and litres” of oxygen during his treatment in intensive care at St Thomas’s Hospital and did not need to be connected to a respirator. In his video tribute when he left the hospital, he especially thanked two nurses, Jenny McGee and Luis Pitarma. Mr Pitarma is a senior nurse and a specialist in the…
Welcome to The Plague Pit – issue number 15 This issue is a very special one, in that it features The Plague Pit’s first student contribution. Alfred Beadman has sent in this excellent account of the virus itself – something we should probably have had in the first issue. Alfred is studying the sciences and maths at Winchester College and hoping to apply for medicine at a London university. His current ambitions are surgical – the precise specialty yet to…
Welcome to The Plague Pit – issue number 14 For this issue, I’m delighted to introduce Dr Chris Villiers – a GP Senior Partner and an Honorary Lecturer in the Department of Community Medicine at Barts and The London Medical School. Here is his account of how COVID-19 has affected his working life. Everybody knows what it’s like to make a GP appointment. You’ve got that niggling cough, or that achy shoulder that just won’t go away. You ignore it…
Welcome to the Plague Pit – issue number 13 A few weeks ago, I said I’d write about what happens to seriously ill COVID-19 patients. These are the ones with lungs so badly affected by the disease that they require help from a mechanical ventilator to get the oxygen they need to survive. The way that oxygen normally gets into the body, and what happens to it when it gets there, is the domain of physiologists. It all starts with…
Welcome to The Plague Pit – issue number 12. This guest issue is courtesy of Canon Giles Goddard, vicar of St John’s Church, Waterloo. Ten years ago, he founded the Waterloo Festival – an annual celebration of arts, community and heritage. This year’s festival opened online a few days ago and runs until the end of June. Canon Goddard is also co-founder of Faith in the Climate, the interfaith environmental action group, and chair of the General Synod Human Sexuality…