PANDA THREADS VOL. 5 | 2 DECEMBER 2020

On Covid and kids
- a talk by PANDA’s Peter Castleden

PANDA Peter Castleden was invited to speak about the risks Covid poses to our kids, weighed up against the implications of lockdown and the imposed measures. Peter talked to a group of concerned teachers and parents from Cape Town, South Africa, unpacking some of the evidence around the risk of Covid to children, masks on kids and the potential for the virus to spread.

Global Data Dashboard

Ian McGorian explains in detail how to get the most out of his daily updated Covid-19 live feed data dashboard. 

 DearSA's legal action postponed

An update on the status of PANDA's involvement as amicus curiae in DearSA's court case.

ECHO Clinic hosts Sunetra Gupta from PANDA on Covid-19

The Department of Medicine from the University of Cape Town’s ECHO clinic on COVID-19 hosts Sunetra Gupta, the award winning Professor of Theoretical Epidemiology at the University of Oxford and PANDA member. Her talk focusses on the measures that should be assessed to control COVID-19 in relation to the much wider effects upon society and economies.

Rational Radio: The Great Covid Debate

Rational Radio hosts a debate on Covid-19 between PANDA co-founder, Nick Hudson; and SA and UK academic and HIV/AIDS activist Prof Alan Whiteside, who referred to the drafters of the Great Barrington Declaration as misguided idiots... Nick Hudson invited him to a debate, moderated by Alec Hogg.

Jerm Warfare interviews PANDA members

In this episode ‘Jerm Warfare’ interviews PANDA members Nick Hudson and Dr. Clare Craig. They share their views on the COVID-19 pandemic and answer questions covering a range of topics including the WHO about-face on it’s own policy regarding lockdowns, the testing controversy and the antigen versus rt-PCR test, mask wearing and asymptomatic transmission.

Your story

On Friday the 20th November, my 14 year old son became ill with appendicitis and was admitted to Life Vincent Pallotti Hospital in Cape Town. He was in a huge amount of pain, and tests confirmed that he would require an appendectomy to remove the appendix.

Hospital rules apparently stipulated that he required a negative Covid test result before surgery could be performed. Whilst I believe that he was not in immediate danger of his appendix rupturing, he was still in a lot of pain and was made to wait almost 19 hours before the surgery was performed the next day.

On Friday night, whilst waiting for his Covid test result, he shared a room with a very elderly and frail gentleman, someone who would definitely be at risk from Covid-19.

The sheer lunacy of the situation caused me endless frustration! My child was made to wait for hours, on a cocktail of pain medication, and endure an extra and unnecessary night in hospital (paid for by medical aid) because of the miniscule risk that he may pass on the virus to theatre staff (who would be covered in PPE anyway), should he indeed end up testing positive following surgery.

And yet, there he was, spending 19 hours in the same room as someone at very real risk from the disease, separated by a thin curtain, and neither protected by any form of PPE. Whilst the care he received from both hospital staff and his surgeon was outstanding, the situation calls into question the sheer stupidity of the rules.

My son is at negligible risk from Covid-19. His risk from a ruptured appendix was many times higher. The risk to the elderly gentleman was even higher than that (although, if positive, being completely asymptomatic, my son would have passed on miniscule amounts of the virus, if any).

The agenda behind the fiasco is hard to decipher, although more money for the hospital and companies producing the tests is surely a reason. One thing is certain though, the health and well-being of both a young man and a elderly gentleman were not considered when any of the decisions and rules were made!

OPEN. SCIENCE.