Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19 – Worried About Covid-19
Worried About Covid-19
I think like many others, I was worried about the pandemic when it started.
These are a few of my thoughts and actions.
Attitude To The Internet
I have been an avid reader of the Internet since it started.
But as someone, who has worked with serious researchers off and on for fifty years, I like to think that I know fake news or untrustworthy research when I see it.
I am also in the lucky position, that if I have an advanced question about say DNA, I generally know someone I can ask, with my connections at universities.
I’ve also been used by my cardiologist friend, as an example patient in a couple of his lectures.
Being Coeliac
I was quite worried about whether being coeliac would count against me in the pandemic.
Coeliac UK were not much help and their advice seemed to be along the line of Keep Calm and Carry On!
The Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Community On Stamford Hill
It must have been in 2019, when I was asked by my GP, if I had been vaccinated against measles.
I said no, but I have did have a bad case at about twenty-five, which I recounted in A Surprising Question From A Doctor.
He said fine and then added that there’s a measles epidemic in the North of the borough.
Apparently, the ultra-Orthodox Jews have a low level of vaccination and a lot of children.
This worried me, as will they bother to get the vaccine for Covid-19.
They should listen to the eminently sensible Chief Rabbi.
So in the end I just kept calm and carried on!
Piers Corbyn Arrested Over Vaccine ‘Auschwitz Leaflet’
The title of this post, is the same as that, of this article on the BBC.
These are the first three paragraphs.
Piers Corbyn has been arrested over leaflets comparing the UK’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout to Auschwitz.
The 73-year-old brother of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he voluntarily attended a police station on Wednesday.
He was then arrested on suspicion of malicious communications and public nuisance.
I am a confirmed atheist, but I do have Jewish ancestors. My great-great-great-grandfather was a Jewish tailor and came from Konigsberg in East Prussia.
As people related to my ancestor and therefore myself, were probably sent to Auschwitz and other similar camps and never came out, I feel very annoyed at what Corbyn has been involved in.
Corbyn and his collaborators should undoubtedly feel the full force of the law.
This
Covid: 400-Person Wedding Party In Stamford Hill Broken Up By Police
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC,
I would have thought, that the organisers would have known better, as the Jewish community in Stamford Hill has suffered badly from th covids.
In Jews In The UK And COVID-19, which I wrote in May 2020, I did a simple analysis and said this.
From these simple figures Jews are over three times more likely to die of COVID-19, than the general population.
Walk around the area and their are signs up in Hebrew telling people to Stay Safe.
How can people be so stupid?
But that’s religion for you!
A Measles Epidemic
About a year ago, I was asked by my GP, if I had been vaccinated against measles.
I said no, but I have did have a bad case at about twenty-five, which I recounted in A Surprising Question From A Doctor.
He said fine and then added that there’s a measles epidemic in the North of the borough.
Apparently, the ultra-Orthodox Jews don’t have a high level of vaccination and a lot of children.
This worries me, as will they bother to get the vaccine for the covids.
They should listen to the eminently sensible Chief Rabbi.
My Advice To Coeliacs On A Gluten-Free Diet Concerning The Covids
As a coeliac, I have been worried about the Covids and researching the statistics for some months.
Who Are Likely To Be Coeliac?
In the next sub-sections, I look at various groups.
Ashkenazi Jews
I am coeliac because there is an unbroken genetic line to my great-great-great-grandfather; Robert, who was a Jewish tailor from Königsberg in East Prussia. Census records in the UK, say that he arrived around 1800 and setup business in Bexley. Like many Jews from East Prussia, he had to leave, when he became eighteen, because he was male, Jewish and not one of the privileged families.
I know little of him, except from a brief chat from my father, whose own grandfather had met him as a child and remembered him, as a small elderly man, who didn’t speak any English.
I did get some more details of the Jewish community in East Prussia from a curator at the German Historical Museum in Berlin, and I don’t think she was proud at her countrymen’s treatment of the Jews before the Second World War. By the 1930s many had fled to the UK or the United States.
Wikipedia has a detailed History of the Jews in Königsberg.
In May this year at the height of the first wave of the pandemic, I wrote Jews In The UK And COVID-19, which is based on three articles in the Times of Israel.
This is an extract from my post.
I am also fairly sure, that my coeliac disease came from my Ashkenazi Jewish genes.
This second article on The Times of Israel is entitled Jewish Charity Warns Of Coeliac ‘Stigma’ As Half-A-Million Said Undiagnosed.
This is the introductory paragraph.
A Jewish charity says there is a “stigma” surrounding coeliac disease in the Jewish community, after a national charity warned that there were still half a million people in the UK who are undiagnosed.
I would assume that the half-a-million figure refers to all the population of the UK, as there are only about half that number of Jews in the UK.
Could coeliac stigma mean that there many older Jews, who are coeliac, have not been diagnosed and their poorer immune systems make them more vulnerable to COVID-19?
In the post, I also came to this conclusion.
I should say, that I’m no medic, but just a humble engineer, mathematician and statistician, who has nearly sixty years experience of analysing data.
That experience applied to coeliac disease and COVID-19, says that undiagnosed coeliac disease, is not helping our fight against COVID-19!
I stand by that statement today.
The Elderly
I suppose at seventy-three, I’m in this group too!
In April this year I wrote A Thought On Deaths Of The Elderly From Covid-19, where this was the conclusion.
Many of those 120,000 coeliacs will have been born before 1960 and have a high probably of not having been diagnosed. for the simple reason, that a childhood test for coeliac disease didn’t exist.
Will these undiagnosed coeliacs have a compromised immune system, that makes them more susceptible to Covid-19?
It has been said, that a good immune system helps you fight Covid-19!
I heard today of an 85-year-old coeliac, who was diagnosed at forty and is bright as a button on a gluten-free diet. They have already had their jab. Excellent!
The Irish
As with the Ashkenazi Jews, the Irish have suffered bad living conditions and famine and they seem to have more than their fair share of coeliac disease.
Black People With Slaves As Ancestors
In the last thirty years or so, I have come across three or four West Africans with coeliac disease, including one, who was an excellent chef in a pub, near where I lived at the time. I also met an American vet online called DogtorJ, who wrote this paper on his web site, which is entitled Why Is The Plane Of Our Nation’s Health In A Death Spiral? He was referring to the United States, but a lot of the points he makes can equally apply to the UK and other nations.
In one section he talks about the historical atrocity of the slave trade from a medical perspective, where he says this.
I read in one source that approximately 6% of the slaves never made it to their destinations, many of whom died of dysentery. It suddenly dawned on me that they could have easily been the newest batch of gluten intolerants. These transplanted people had never eaten wheat-based foods in the past and yet here they were, under the worst possible conditions, having this new dietary challenge suddenly thrust upon them in the form of the white man’s bread.
DogtorJ’s reasoning applies to Afro-Americans, but it could surely apply to all slaves and their descendants, just as one coeliac ancestor passed me the disease.
People From The Indian Sub-Continent
I always thought that the Indian Sub-Continent was fairly free of coeliac disease, as Indian cuisine is rice-based and I’ve had many excellent gluten-free meals in Indian restaurants all over the UK.
But then I found this article on the Indian Journal Of Research Medicine.
I wrote about the article in Coeliac Disease: Can We Avert The Impending Epidemic In India?
I finished with these sentences.
What do I know? I’m just an engineer and a coeliac who has a good nose for problems!
But please someone! Research the connection between undiagnosed coeliac disease and COVID-19!
My son; George was an undiagnosed coeliac with a gluten-rich and smoky lifestyle. He died at just 37 from pancreatic cancer.
Did he have a poor immune system, which meant he couldn’t fight the cancer? One expert on cancer said, “Yes!”
Are people from the sub-continent suffering from the same problems, that slaves did several centuries ago?
Research From The University Of Padua
This paper on the US National Library of Medicine, which is from the University of Padua in Italy.
The University followed a group of 138 patients with coeliac disease, who had been on a gluten-free diet for at least six years, through the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Padua.
This sentence, sums up the study.
In this analysis we report a real life “snapshot” of a cohort of CeD patients during the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in Italy, all followed in one tertiary centre in a red area of Northern Italy. Our data show, in accordance with Emmi et al., the absolute absence of COVID-19 diagnosis in our population, although 18 subjects experienced flu-like symptoms with only one having undergone naso-pharyngeal swab.
It says that no test subject caught Covid-19, in an admittedly smallish number of patients.
But it reinforces my call for more research into whether if you are a diagnosed coeliac on a long-term gluten-free diet, you have an immune system, that gives you a degree of protection from the Covids.
It should be remembered, that Joe West of Nottingham University has shown, that diagnosed coeliacs on a gluten-free diet have a 25% lower risk of cancer compared to the general population.
My Advice To Coeliacs On A Gluten-Free Diet Concerning The Covids
I shall be carrying on with my gluten-free diet, as the respected University of Padua found no problems in doing so!
A Small Piece Of Research
If you are on a gluten-free diet or you are a coeliac, you might like to fill in my poll, if you haven’t suffered from the Covids.
A Curious Link Between Pancreatic Cancer And COVID-19
i am involved in fund raising for pancreatic cancer research at Liverpool University, because my youngest son died of the awful disease, at just thirty-seven, leaving a widow and an eight-year-old daughter.
I am also a passionate analyser of data and databases.
For a few weeks now, I have had a feeling that there is a connection between pancreatic cancer and the old Austro-Hungarian Empire.
I found this simple description of the Austro-Hungarian Empire on this page on the Internet.
The former Austro-Hungarian Empire was spread over a large part of Central Europe, it comprises present Austria and Hungary as well as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia and parts of present Poland, Romania, Italy, Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia and Montenegro.
I had been looking at pancreatic cancer data on the World Life Expectancy database, which is based on World Health Organisation data.
I have built this table, which shows the top twenty countries for a death rate from pancreatic cancer.
These are the columns.
- Country
- Rate of pancreatic cancer deaths per 100,000 of the population.
- Quarantine or Travel Corridor based on this page of the Government web site.
- Member of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
These are the top twenty countries.
- Hungary – 11.35 – Quarantine – AHE
- Uruguay – 10.72 – Quarantine
- Armenia – 10.34 – Quarantine
- Malta – 10.01 – Quarantine
- Czech Republic – 9.89 – Quarantine – AHE
- Estonia – 9.26 – Travel Corridor
- Iceland – 9.21 – Quarantine
- Israel – 9.18 – Quarantine
- Slovakia – 9.17 – Quarantine – AHE
- Austria – 9.13 – Quarantine – AHE
- Finland – 8.78 – Travel Corridor
- Japan – 8.74 – Travel Corridor
- Latvia – 8.72 – Travel Corridor
- Germany – 8.68 – Travel Corridor
- Slovenia – 8.55 – Quarantine – AHE
- Denmark – 8.51 – Quarantine
- Netherlands – 8.38 – Quarantine
- Croatia – 8.30 – Quarantine – AHE
- Lithuania – 8.21 – Travel Corridor
- Luxembourg – 8.15 – Quarantine
Note.
- I would hope that the Government’s Travel Corridor list has been devised in a scientifically-correct manner.
- Am I right to assume that the Travel Corridor list is a good measure of the level of Covid-19 in the country?
- The pancreatic cancer data is from 2018.
Of the countries I mentioned earlier, as being partly in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, only Montenegro is in the top thirty countries for pancreatic cancer deaths.
My Thoughts On The Data
These are my thoughts on the data.
The Significance Of The Austro-Hungarian Empire
Consider.
- All the countries that were fully or partly in the Austro-Hungarian Empire are on the Government Quarantine List, with the exception of Italy.
- Many will argue, including myself, that Italy, has too high a Covid-19 rate for a visit.
- Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia are in the top twenty countries for pancreatic cancer deaths.
It looks to me, that there is a correlation in there somewhere.
Germany And Japan Are The Odd Ones Out
The list of countries with high levels of pancreatic cancer, where there is no quarantine are.
- Estonia
- Finland
- Japan
- Latvia
- Germany
- Lithuania
If you eliminate the Baltic States and Finland from the worse countries for pancreatic cancer, you’re left with Germany and Japan.
Is There A Jewish Dimension?
I ask this question for these reasons.
- Israel is eighth on the pancreatic cancer list and has high levels of Covid-19 according to various news reports, like this one on the BBC, which is entitled Coronavirus: Israel Tightens Second Lockdown Amid Acrimony.
- I am not Jewish, but my great-great-great-grandfather from Konigsberg probably was and it looks like I inherited my coeliac disease from him and gave it to my son, who died from pancreatic cancer.
- The Baltic States and Finland, don’t seem to have large Jewish populations for various reasons and they have high levels of pancreatic cancer, but low levels of Covid-19.
- Germany has the third largest Jewish population in Europe, but seems to have done well in fighting Covid-19. Is that because their well-funded healthcare system has worked?
- Wikipedia states that, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was favourable to the Jews and even a sizeable numbers of its Army officers in Word War One were Jewish.
- According to reports locally and my observations, it appears that the Jewish community in Hackney, where I live has been badly hit by Covid-19.
I need an appropriate historian to give me answers.
Conclusion
I believe the correlation between pancreatic cancer and Covid-19 could be rather strong. More research needs to be done, as to why.
But I do wonder, if undiagnosed coeliac disease, as in my son, could be the alligator in the swamp.
Undiagnosed coeliacs seem to have poor immune systems, which makes them more susceptible to everything, that’s going around.
The more I learn about coeliac disease and its myriad effects on health, the more I’m convinced that it should be one of the diseases checked for in all young children.
It would certainly have changed my miserable always-ill childhood for the better.
Atheists Less Likely To Die From Covid-19 Than Believers, Research Finds
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Times.
This is the introductory paragraph.
People without religious faith are less likely to die from Covid-19 than believers, according to the first analysis of its kind from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This paragraph gives some actual statistics.
For Muslims the figures were 198.9 deaths per 100,000 males and 98.2 deaths per 100,000 females. Among Christians, the death rates were 92.6 for men and 54.6 for women, and among Jewish people 187.9 for men and 94.3 for women.
These are my observations.
The Average Death Rate
The average death rate of these religious groups is 121 per 100,000 people or 1 in 826 people.
The Number Of Coeliacs In The UK Population
This page on the NHS web site says this about the number of coeliacs in the UK population.
Coeliac disease is a condition that affects at least 1 in every 100 people in the UK.
But some experts think this may be underestimated because milder cases may go undiagnosed or be misdiagnosed as other digestive conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Reported cases of coeliac disease are around 3 times higher in women than men.
I hadn’t known the last point, but all my coeliac friends and acquaintances, with two exceptions are female! The two male exceptions are both chefs!
Thinking about the last point, I do wonder if women are more likely to have coeliac disease as the disease can affect their natural functions, so they are likely to go to the doctor with a problem, that could be a coeliac symptom, like the inability to conceive.
Diagnosed Coeliacs On A Gluten-Free Diet And Cancer
It has been shown by Joe West at Nottingham University, that diagnosed coeliacs on a gluten-free diet are less likely to get cancer, than the general population.
Does this mean, that this group of people have a strong immune system?
Diagnosed Coeliacs On A Gluten-Free Diet And COVID-19
Various doctors have said, that COVID-19 attacks people with compromised immune systems.
So do diagnosed coeliacs ona gluten-free diet get a measure of protection from COVID-19 from their strong immune systems?
Ashkenazi Jews And COVID-19
My coeliac disease comes from my great-great-great-grandfather, who was from Konigsberg in East Prussia.
In those far-off days at the start of the Nineteenth Century, if you were a Jewish male in East Prussia, you had to leave at eighteen, unless you were from one of the privileged Jewish families.
As my ancestor wasn’t a nenver of a privileged family, he hopped on a boat and ended up in Bexley.
Luckily, I was diagnosed as a coeliac at Addenbrooke’s hospital at the age of 50. My health, which had been poor off-and-on improved immediately and considerably, once I was no longer eating gluten.
But in the Jewish population, there are a lot of undiagnosed coeliacs, who probably have poor immune systems due to their diet.
Are they like targets in a shooting gallery for the evil COVID-19 virus?
Christians And COVID-19
I do wonder about communion rituals.
Especially, as some churches insist that wheat must be used. Even if you’re coeliac.
Surely, your health is more important.
Why Are Women Less Likely To Die Of Covid-19?
If undiagnosed coeliac disease is an explanation, as the disease is three times more common in women could explain it, if all coeliacs are on protective gluten-free diets.
Muslims And COVID-19
Most Muslims come from areas, where coeliac disease is rare and are probably on a gluten-free anyway.
But they do appear to suffer high levels of other diseases like diabetes, that compromise your immune system.
Jews In The UK And COVID-19
This article on the Times of Israel is entitled Coronavirus-Related Death Toll Jumps To 458 Among UK Jews.
- According to Wikipedia in 2011, there were 263,346 Jews in the UK.
- This gives a figure of 0.174% for the percentage of Jews, who have died.
- According to UK government figures, 35,341 have died from COVID-19.
- According to Wikipedia, the UK population in mid-2019, was 66,796,807.
- This gives a figure of 0.053% for the percentage of the UK population, who have died.
From these simple figures Jews are over three times more likely to die of COVID-19, than the general population.
Why are Jews, so much more likely to die of COVID-19, than the general population?
In A Thought On Deaths Of The Elderly From Covid-19, I postulated that there could be large numbers of undiagnosed coeliacs in the over-60s, who because of compromised immune systems, would be more susceptible to the virus.
I also said that the number of undiagnosed coeliacs over sixty-five could be as high as 120,000. These would have all been born before 1960, when it became possible to detect coeliac disease in children.
I am also fairly sure, that my coeliac disease came from my Ashkenazi Jewish genes.
This second article on The Times of Israel is entitled Jewish Charity Warns Of Coeliac ‘Stigma’ As Half-A-Million Said Undiagnosed.
This is the introductory paragraph.
A Jewish charity says there is a “stigma” surrounding coeliac disease in the Jewish community, after a national charity warned that there were still half a million people in the UK who are undiagnosed.
I would assume that the half-a-million figure refers to all the population of the UK, as there are only about half that number of Jews in the UK.
Could coeliac stigma mean that there many older Jews, who are coeliac, have not been diagnosed and their poorer immune systems make them more vulnerable to COVID-19?
A Wider Picture
This article on Times of Israel is entitled How COVID-19 is hitting Jewish communities around the world.
It is well-worth reading.
Conclusion
I should say, that I’m no medic, but just a humble engineer, mathematician and statistician, who has nearly sixty years experience of analysing data.
That experience applied to coeliac disease and COVID-19, says that undiagnosed coeliac disease, is not helping our fight against COVID-19!
The Purfleet Ro-Ro Terminal
This article on the BBC is entitled Essex Lorry Deaths: 39 Found Dead Were Chinese Nationals.
The tragedy has got me wondering, where did the lorry enter the UK.
So I drew this Google Map of Purfleet.
Note.
- The c2c rail line between Fenchurch Street and Southend via Grays, that runs West-East across the top of the map.
- The Channel Tunnel Rail Link runs diagonally across the corner of the map.
- The approach roads to the Dartford Crossing running North-South at the East of the map.
The Purfleet Ro-Ro Terminal lies to the South-west of these railways and road, with piers for the ships strewtching out into the River Thames.
If you enlarge the map by clickjing on it, you’ll see rows of trailers parked ready to cross the Channel or having just arrived.
You canm also see it from Eurostar and other high speed trains or when going South on the Dartford Bridge.
Immigration
Illegal or legal, there is always a lot of strong views about immgration.
- In Did The Tailor Of Bexley Come From Koningsberg?, I discuss how my paternal great-great-great-grandfather came to the UK from Konigsberg in Germany, which is now Kaliningrad in Russia!!
- On my mother’s side my family were French Huguenot and probably came over some decades earlier.
So I tend to have a variety of views about immigration depending on the point being discussed.
- For instance, is it right to deny those who were persecuted like my ancestors for religious reasons, the right to come to the UK. I’d be a hypocrite.
- On the other hand, those who want t come for criminal reasons should be turned away.
The Chinese, a number of whom perished in the Purfleet trgedy are a difficult group to think about. China is a place, where I would not want to live and if I had the money to get out, I would want to leave, as many have over the years. Twenty years ago, I met a Chinese lady of my age, who’d escaped by swimming into Hong Kong.
Darwin talked of natural selection and in some way immigration is natural selection at work.
The intelligent, ambitious and resourceful ones, are the immigrants who tend to get to their preferred destination. The ones who lack these character traits either stay put or don’t make it.
I often think of my Jewish great-great-grandfather, who at eighteen had just qualified as a tailor after serving his apprenticeship. The law in the City was that if you were a Jewish male of eighteen and not one of the privileged families you had to leave.
So he jumped on a ship and ended up Bexley. No doubt, being a tailor, he was able to find a small space for his tools.
I certainly, think I inherited some of his good genes along with those for coeliac disease.
But was my ancestor any different to the skilled Iraqis, Brazilians or Ethiopians today?
My Father’s Politics
In a A Trip To The Berlin Olympic Stadium, I said this about my father’s politics.
My father hated both extreme-right and extreme-left politics with a vengeance and I can honestly say, that I never heard him tell a racist joke.
With the rows going on this morning about antisemitic elements in the Labour Party, I looked up Stalin and antisemitism in Wikipedia.
My father had a Jewish male line, but no religion of any kind, although the more I learn, his outlook on life and morals were fairly Jewish.
In the Battle of Cable Street, he was there to stop Oswald Mosley and his supporters marching through the East End.
I know he moved in left-wing Tory Party circles, nearly stood for Parliament against one of Mosley’s supporters, and once said he had been at the League of Nations in Geneva. But, he remained largely silent about what he did in the 1920s and 1930s.
But I do think his Jewish genes drove him to take up his strong centrist views, especially when you read about Stalin and the Jews.
It is one of my regrets in life, that I didn’t find out more about my father’s life, in what must have been exciting times for those, who thought about politics.
Labour Alienates The Jews And Drivers And Owners Of Diesel Vehicles
I come from mixed Jewish/Huguenot lines and my philosophy is probably humanist, although I’m a confirmed atheist.
But if I’m wrong, finding Heaven could be a bonus when I die!
This article on the BBC is entitled Labour ruling ‘fails Jewish community’, says Chief Rabbi.
Individuals, like Livingstone have no place in an inclusive political party.
This article on the BBC is entitled Date announced for London ultra low emission zone.
I am not against the ultra low emission zone, just the way that it is being brought in unilaterally in London.
We need ultra low emission zones all over the country and there is many things we can do.
- Cross-city railways and trams.
- More hybrid and electric buses when they are available at an affordable cost.
- Park-and-ride facilities.
- Trucks should be more environmentally and cyclist friendly.
- Grants will probably be needed to scrap older diesel vehicles and invest in new trucks and buses.
The one thing that is right is to bring in the zone in 2019, which will be just after the Central London section of Crossrail has opened.
There needs to be measures from Central Government, but as ever, staying in power comes first.
I have a feeling that London’s ultra low emission zone will not be good for Sadiq Khan in London, as it’s going to cause inconvenience for many in London.
The Anonymous Widower 