It's sad that the crew died while following the orders of a deranged idiot,
but I dread to think how many innocent lives could have been lost if that crew had managed to execute those orders.
Archive for 2022
BANG! and the dirt is gone
Crew expendable
Let's just take a minute to think about how this is going to work...
A few months ago the NHS kindly sent me a single PCR Home Testing Kit, because I'm "At Higher Risk".
The idea is that if any of my regular LFTs return a positive result, I then take the Home PCR test ASAP and send the sample to the lab ASAP via either a courier or the Priority Post system. If that test returns a positive result as well, I get a call to hot-foot it to hospital to get drugged up again. The sooner the meds are in, the more effective they'll be. Five days is the limit, after that they'll be of no use to me whatsoever. On the menu are Dexamethasone, Sotrovimab, Paxlovid and Molnupiravir, and if they want me to have another vaccine jab I'm going to push for Novavax because 2xAZ + 3xPfiz won't have worked.
But... if I don't have any LFT kits here because they'll only be issued when I'm symptomatic, how the Hell will I know when to deploy the Home PCR kit?
If it takes a day to get LFT kits, and another day to get the Home PCR sample to the lab, and another day to process it and let me know the result, that's three of my five days wasted, and that's not even factoring-in any weekend interference.
No, it's not going to work.
Situation normal…
German cars have a reputation for being well-engineered, reliable and reassuringly expensive.
Sadly, many drivers of German cars have a wholly-different reputation:
Fatness Tricker
The Aldi online emporium was flogging off twin-packs of these Medion Fitness Trackers, so we took a punt and nabbed a pack to see how they fared, with a view to upgrading to something more techie later if we decide that they are beneficial.
We're not in any way fitness-fanatics, but we thought that these gizmos would give us some idea how many steps we do at home each day. Being cooped-up either shielding or working-from-home, it's easy to slip into a false sense of having done enough exercise.
The Aldi blurb proclaims most of the info that anyone would need when contemplating a purchase, but here's a quick run-down of what I've found after a few weeks of use:
The thing is easy to set up and is comfortable to wear, but care is needed getting the wrist-tightness correct - if it's too loose the pulse-sensor bit loses contact with the skin, if it's too tight then circulation to the hand can be affected. Operating the unit is simple - no swiping screens, it's a click-through system with just one screen touch-sensor, so it's fairly idiot-proof. There are no buttons or whatever on the sides, so it's ambidextrous.
Charging is simple - there are no separate chargers, cables or wires, there's an integrated USB connector which is revealed by pulling off the strap. It's a neat idea but when I plug it into my laptop the device screen faces downward, not ideal for checking whether the thing is fully charged. Looks like I'll have to find a short USB extension cable after all, or use one of my USB power-banks (more on that subject in a later post).
The tracker unit is flush with "activities", I've not used any of them yet as I'm not allowed to venture into the wild, but I'm looking forward to using the walking setting next time I escape these surly bonds. The pedometer seems to catch most steps but also counts some arm motions. At my most-recent haemo clinic when having my obs done I compared the pulse readout with their hi-tech machine and the data were a close match. Sadly there's no Yoga Mode which would have been of interest to Chris, but I'm sure that if she wants to upgrade to a different device with that included she'll do so.
Setting targets is a doddle, and the tracker emits a satisfying yet discreet signal whenever a target is reached. Chris has set a motion-prompt and tells me that it works as expected but I can't vouch for it as I need no prompt to move about, most of the time I need to be restrained.
The recommended free Android app installed first time on the phone and on the tablet, and is basic and simple to operate. Chris tells me that the app DOES have a Yoga Mode but she's yet to try it, so we're interested to see how that works out. We've not yet set up Cloud access so I can't comment on that. As far as I can tell, there's no way to export data to any other app or software when in phone/tablet-only mode. Sync-period is adjustable, I found that the default setting was draining my phone so I set it to max and it's been fine since, and manual syncs are simple enough. The sleep-tracker is odd though - "Time Asleep" = Deep + Light... + Awake!?!?
All told it's good for the money - it's not flash, it's fairly-well specced, and so far it's been reliable.
Oh, and it tells the time.
Jabberwonked yet again
Due to what's being blamed on a system error, the jab-staff at my GP's surgery gave me a FIFTH Covid-19 vaccination today, just one week after I had my fourth.
I told the jab-nurse that I didn't fulfil all of the criteria on the "make sure that..." posters that were stuck onto walls and doors at the surgery, but she was adamant that I wouldn't have been called if I wasn't eligible. I asked her again if she was 100% certain that I was eligible for the jab, she said that she was certain, and before I could finish my next sentence the needle was in and the dose was given. Only after that did she stop being over-zealous for long enough for me to show her my vaccination record cards which clearly showed four jabs, latest one on Friday 21st January. When I showed her the entry for that fourth dose on my GP/SystmOnline patient record, the penny dropped.
The senior nurse has formally reported the incident, and an internal investigation will start on Monday next week.
It's not a system error. The problem is that they have two primary systems, each doing what it was set up to do, but they've not been told to interact with each other in a logical manner because whoever set them up didn't use his/her grey matter. The invitation system doesn't cross-check the patients' records system to determine if due jabs have already been given, it just carpet-bombs the "at higher risk" cohort with text invitations. Then, to make matters worse, when their "make sure that..." poster back-up system prompted me to declare that I was NOT eligible, that declaration was simply dismissed.
The medics and admins believe that their systems are infallible. What happened today is proof that their belief is unfounded.
It's also proof that they didn't fix the very same problem after they called me for my third jab only a few days after LRI had given it to me back in September.
