Thoughts On The COVID-19 Testing
I must first congratulate all those involved in organising and carrying-out the tests.
As someone, who has analysed many large databases for patterns of perhaps marketing information, product recalls or criminal activity, 100,000 tests per day or million in ten days, is a very large amount of hopefully reliable data, that I believe can be used to answer a lot of relevant questions about the progress of this pandemic and our very boring (For me, at least!) lockdown.
I hope, that the tests collect all the right data to go along with the physical data.
But I suspect that some important scientifically-correct questions won’t be asked. For instance.
- What is your place of birth?
- What is your BMI?
- How much exercise do you do every day?
- What is your religion?
- How often do you attend a religious service?
- How many in your household?
- How many generations in your household?
- Do you have a pet that needs exercise?
- Do you have any drug habits?
- Do you have any allergies?
- Do you smoke?
- How much alcohol do you drink?
- Are you vegetarian?
Only by collecting a full database alongside the testing process, will we get maximum value out of the testing.
The Death Of My Son George
In some ways our youngest son; George, was more my baby, than my wife’s!
When you have three children under three, you have to devise a system so they can all be fed, watered and managed.
In the early 1970s, I was working at home, writing software for the likes of companies like Lloyds Bank, Plessey, Ferranti and others, usually by means of a dial-up line to a company called Time Sharing Ltd. in Great Portland Street.
- So most days George sat on my desk in a plastic baby chair, as I worked.
- C would look after the two elder children, generally taking them to the park or friends.
- George was still in nappies, real not disposable. We did use a nappy service!
- I sometimes wonder, if I can still install a proper nappy on a baby!
- I would feed him as I worked.
- George also used to come with me to visit clients, I had to meet at Great Portland Street. Usually, the secretaries would steal him away.
It was a system, that worked well for all of us.
Of our three children, George was the only one, that C thought could be coeliac, as I am. Mothers know their families! We once tried to test him with a self-test kit from the Internet. but the results were inconclusive.
I now believe he was coeliac for one genetic reason. His daughter was born with a severe congenital hernia of the diaphragm and research shows this can be linked to a coeliac father.
At least I was lucky with my three boys in this respect, but it points to George being coeliac.
George worked in the music business and was the sound engineer on some of the work of Diane Charlemagne. I met Diane once, when I stood on The Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, which I wrote about in Fun and Games at the Fourth Plinth.
- Diane was working as the security guard and it was an amazing coincidence, that we realised our connection through George.
- She spoke highly of his work.
Sadly Diane died of kidney cancer in 2015.
George didn’t drink, but he smoked heavily and not just tobacco. He also lived on a very gluten-rich diet of Subways and the like.
I suspect that his immune system was as good as much protection as a chocolate colander in a tsunami!
I have discussed this with doctors, who specialise in cancer and they feel that it could have contributed to his death from pancreatic cancer.
- George died at home.
- He was not in much pain due to the morphine he was controlling through a pump and the cannabis he was smoking.
- One day, he was in bed and talking to my then aristocratic girlfriend and myself, when he just expired.
- There was no drama and he just went to sleep.
A few minutes later, my girlfriend and the housekeeper, laid out the body for the undertaker.
I had been at George’s quiet death, just like I had been at the birth of all three sons.
Looking Back
George died ten years ago and his death has left some marks on my mind.
- Because of our early relationship, some of my grief for George was more like that of a mother.
- George died a peaceful death, which with modern medicine should be almost a right for many!
- His death has driven me to fund and take part in medical research, especially for pancreatic cancer.
- I also feel strongly, we should steer clear of cannabis, eat sensibly and check as many as possible for coeliac disease.
But now above all, I have no fear of Covid-19 or death.
Health Lessons From Lockdown
Are some of us learning things about ourselves during lockdown?
For myself!
Mental Health
I certainly think, that I’m handling the mental side well, as I’ve had several lockdowns in the past, usually when I want to get some software written.
Another programmer has told me, that he has used lockdowns to get software written in the past.
I am certainly getting bored though! You can only do so many serious puzzles from The Times.
Normally, if I feel bored, I get on a train or a bus and go somewhere interesting.
Exercise
I’m taking exercise regularly and go for a regular walk most days. I’d probably walk more, if I felt like taking public transport more. But, I do feel, buses and trains could be a place to catch COVID-19.
Drinking
My house tends to get a bit warm, so I’m drinking a lot.
Not strong alcohol, although there is quite a bit of 0.5% Adnams beer going down my throat, but mainly, still lemonade, tea and water.
The amount of fluid seems to have cured my periodic constipation.
On the other hand it does seem to have increased my INR, so I have reduced my Warfarin dosage from 4 to 3.5 mg. per day.
Sleep
I seem to be sleeping well! But then I always do!
Conclusion
Except for the boredom, I think, that I’m doing OK.
My First Real Telephone Consultation With A GP
Last Monday, I had my three-monthly B12 injection, as I have since I was diagnosed as a coeliac around twenty years ago.
I said that I needed to see my GP, or at least talk to him, as it was time for my Warfarin review, where we check my dose and order more tablets, as appropriate.
The receptionist said, she’ll get him to give me a call and professionally checked that they had my correct telephone number.
I’d been home about thirty minutes, when the GP phoned and we review the Warfarin and he said, he’d sent a prescription to Boots. I also told him, that my hand would need a proper examination after we’d got rid of the menace of COVID-19.
The call took about five minutes and I suspect that we’d both rate the outcome with at least four stars.
I find it strange, that in my seventy-two years, I’ve never before had a telephone consultation with a GP.
Even, when my wife and son, were dying of cancer, I never spoke to my GP at the time by phone. I did occasionally send messages by FAX to the surgery, as that was the only way to leave a message, as e-mail and text wasn’t an option.
Surely, though simple systems could be developed, so that everybody can have a telephone or video consultation with their GP, if the patient has the technical knowledge.
With my Warfarin review, I might send a message, by phone, e-mail or text, saying I need the review.
- The GP’s system might then text me to say, my phone appointment was at 14:00 on the 17th, in much the way it does now!
- I would be able to use a simple reply system to say that was OK or not!
- The doctor would hopefully be able to phone at the appropriate time.
All sorts of systems would be possible. I’m sure Zoom has something suitable.
If COVID-19 means that GP capacity is increased because of the need to social distance, so be it!
There is also the benefit, that on a wet and windy day, walking to the GP, might not be what I want to do.
Coronavirus: New York Couples Can Now Tie The Knot Over Zoom
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the introductory paragraph.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed an order allowing online marriages, as many weddings are cancelled under lockdown restrictions.
It sounds like a sensible idea to me.
When I first heard this story, I wondered if Zoom will be allowed for Quickie divorces?
Surviving Lockdown
People ask if I am surviving lockdown.
I am lucky in several ways.
Housing
I live in a spacious house, which is comfortable.
Although, it does have problems.
- It was built by a Turkish Jerrybuilder, who bought fixtures and fittings at the cheapest price possible.
- It gets too hot.
- The plumbing is suspect.
- The air-conditioner is broken and the service company, have had my money to fix it, but won’t come.
- The smoke detector above my bed is just hanging there, as I wrote in A Design Crime – The Average Smoke Detector
Hopefully, when we beat COVID-19, I’ll be able to move.
Finances
My investments give me enough to live comfortably. If you call, living in two rooms, never talking face-to-face with anybody living comfortably.
Exercise
I am still fit and can exercise as much as I need and is recommended.
I have a workout that I do twice a day, which includes movements like press-ups, stretches and single-leg stands.
I can do two dozen press-ups straight off or walk three miles, if I need to.
Health
My health is good, despite being a coeliac and suffering a serious stroke ten years ago.
- I test my own INR.
- I seem to have survived my fall of a month ago.
- I only go to the surgery for B12 injections, drug reviews and the odd problem.
Other than that I just suffer from the problems of a healthy man of 72, like arthritis and hay fever.
I do have a strange skin, that leaks a lot of water and doesn’t bleed, when I have an injection or a doctor or nurse takes blood. I never have a plaster after either procedure.
Food
I am a reasonable and very practical cook, or so my son and various friends tell me. These are some meals, I’ve been cooking under lockdown.
Pasta With Yogurt Sauce For One
Goat’s Cheese, Strawberry And Basil Salad
Smoked Haddock And Curried Rice
I shall add more here.
I won’t starve!
Shopping
A Marks and Spencer food store is fifteen minutes walk away, so I can get all the food I need.
I also got plenty of Adnams 0.5% alcohol Ghost Ship beers direct from the brewers delivered last week.
Their beers have been a lifeline, as they are gluten-free, thirst-quenching and don’t get me drunk. Even in quantity!
I also have safe delivery without any contact, as the couriers just ring my bell, we chat through the window about three metres away and they leave the goods on the step.
I didn’t think about lockdown, when I bought this house, but it is ideal for safe COVID-19-free deliveries.
Lockdown Practice
There can’t be many people, now going through the COVID-19 lockdown, wo have locked themselves away so many times in their life as I have.
- At the age of about six, I spent three months or more, in isolation because I caught scarlet fever.
- For the summer before A-Levels, my parents went to their house in Felixstowe. For part of the time, I locked myself in my bedroom and read up on my A level Physics.
- A couple of times at ICI, I self-isolated with a computer to get important jobs done. How many have used an IBM-360 as a PC?
- I self-isolated to write Speed, my first piece of independent software.
- Pert7 and other software for Time Sharing Ltd was written overnight sitting in the window of their offices on Great Portland Street.
- Artemis was written in an attic in Suffolk, with no-one else around for most of the time.
- The special PC version of Artemis, that was a combined project management, database and spreadsheet program, was also written under lockdown.
- After Celia died, I wrote Travels With My Celia(c) under lockdown. You can download the pdf file here.
Lockdown has almost been a way of life for me.
But on past form, I certainly have the mental strength to get through lockdown unscathed.
Conclusion
There must be a lot of others in much worse situations than myself.
Brain Boost: Lockdown Puzzles
The title of this post, is the same as that of a little section in the online copy of The Times, which says this.
Every day, Monday to Thursday, a printable page of extra puzzles to keep your brain trained during the lockdown
It’s funny, but the extra puzzles I got in the on-line copy were ones that I commonly do.
Does the Times server, look at the puzzles I do and give me ones I like as extras?
If they do, it is surely good marketing.
I think they’ll be giving out extra puzzles for a long time.
This Is My Second Lockdown
I can’t be the only person, but in the 1970s, I has locked myself away for nearly a year before. I did it to write the first version of the Project Management software; Artemis.
There are some differences between my situation then and my situation now.
- My wife was alive then and we saw each other for perhaps two days a week.
- I could drive and I occasionally went down the Clopton Crown for the odd pint and meal!
- I hadn’t been diagnosed as a coeliac, as that happened in 1997.
- There was no Internet or social media.
- There was no Radio 5 Live.
- I am a better cook now, than I was then.
- I am within walking distance of a Marks and Spencer Simply Food store.
I think the rules for surviving are as follows.
- Eat and drink enough.
- Have entertaining radio or television on.
- Break the day up with a bit of exercise.
- Get a good night’s sleep.
- Arrange good weather.
Let’s hope this lockdown turns out as well as the last.
Enter The Polymath!
This article in today’s Times is entitled Pandemic Can Be Controlled, Says Scientist Michael Levitt.
Michael Levitt is no ordinary scientist.
- Born in South Africa
- Educated at Kings College and Cambridge
- Professor at Stanford
- A Nobel Laureate
He is also married to an expert in Chinese art, so visits China regularly.
This is the introductory paragraph to the Times article.
The world will beat coronavirus faster than most experts expect, provided that social distancing is observed, a Nobel laureate scientist who correctly forecast the pandemic’s trajectory in China has predicted.
This is the last section of the article, which has a headline of Levitt’s China Forecast.
- February 21 Professor forecasts 80,000 cases and 3,250 deaths
- March 23 Official figures from China say there have been 81,093 cases and 3,270 deaths. There have been 39 additional cases today and nine additional deaths
Whatever you do today, read the article.
It does look that his advice has been read by Boris! Or Boris’s advisors have come to the same conclusion.
The Anonymous Widower 