5 More rain, more sleet today – but hopefully the prospect of it drying up by Sunday. Oh to have some summer sunshine and heat! Summer sunshine and heat seem to be focussing the minds of politicians and commentators at the minute. As the vaccination programme rolls out there are increasing calls for easing of

World Cancer Day Cancer is a horrible disease. It can attack anyone, regardless of age, gender, lifestyle, ethnicity or whatever. Tremendous progress has been made in dealing with many forms of cancer (though in some cases the treatment can be quite hard), and research is ongoing in learning more about the various forms of the

3 It is an encouragement to us all that so many vaccines are providing effective test results, with the potential that there should be a substantial supply to roll-out around the world, and to be available to provide back-up in subsequent years should regular inoculation be necessary. The co-operation between countries and companies could be

2 Children’s Mental Health Week Yesterday marked the beginning of Children’s Mental Health Week. For many adults, especially of more senior years, talk of children’s mental health is a fairly new concept. No one talked about it when we were young. Yet how many lives might have been better if it had been? Mental health

1 February There are stories in the news of people being arrested at anti-government/ ‘release Navalny’ protests in Russia, and of the arrest of government leaders and others in Myanmar (formerly Burma). They are not isolated incidents, but reflect a pattern found in many countries – and in some cases people are simply arrested and

30 Another recurring question is: ‘when will the schools go back?’ There seem to be different opinions among government advisers about the role played by schools in transmission of the disease. Whilst children are probably not at high risk of contracting it, there seems to be some link between schools being open and increased transmission

29 Vaccines and vaccinations have been in the news a lot lately: how are governments in Britain performing against the targets for vaccinating priority groups; should teachers, police, transport workers and other ‘front line’ staff become priority groups; the development of another vaccine; and the dispute between Astra Zeneca and the European Union. All important

28 In the past couple of days the number of deaths in the UK where Covid-19 appears on the death certificate has passed the 100,000 mark. Every death from whatever cause is sad, as someone who touched the lives of others slips away and becomes a memory rather than a living presence with them (though,