Kent health campaigners to host ‘Crush Corona’ online meeting

Dr Coral Jones is among the speakers

An online public meeting on July 2 will question the safety of people in Thanet as the lockdown is eased.

Speakers will include Maria Kallis,  manager of the Eaton Lodge Care Home in Westgate, who says that she feels the government has “let down” care homes.

“Crush Corona: Not One More Death!” will feature a panel of speakers led by Dr Allyson Pollock, professor of public health and co-director of Newcastle University Centre of Research Excellence in Regulatory Science.

Hosted by the Save Our NHS in Kent group, the meeting will provide Thanet people with a chance to discuss how the local health service has coped with the virus.

Local care home and hospital staff will also take part.

One member of the panel, health campaigner, former Lbour election candidate and GP, Dr Coral Jones, said: “It’s becoming clearer by the day that the government has fundamentally mismanaged the Covid crisis. They have tried to run things from the top and catastrophically neglected to make proper use of GPs and local authorities.”

Dr Jones added: “Many other things have gone wrong and it’s crucial we correct these mistakes.”

Other questions which will be considered at the meeting will include:

  • How well have our hospitals coped?
  • What’s happening in our care homes?
  • What are the risks in sending more and more children back to school?
  • Can we rely on the official advice and policies?

Dr Jones said: “We have already discovered that terrible things have happened in our care homes. People have been discharged from hospitals to care homes without being tested for the virus and care homes have been fatally lacking in protective equipment, But I believe there is a lot more which will soon come to light. These matters must be exposed and lessons must be learnt.”

Other speakers will include Chris Lilley of the National Education Union. More will be announced closer to the date.

Members of the public are invited to take part in the meeting, ask questions and make comments.

The meeting is at 6pm on Thursday 2 July. The link is
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84013481412?pwd=UGd4S0xHK1ZuOG5vcTJYd0kyaGs3QT09

Meeting ID: 840 1348 1412
Password: 830307

It’s possible to register for the meeting on…
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/not-one-more-covid-death-tickets-110100389228

11 Comments

  1. Excellent opportunity to discover why have the worst death rates from Covid 19. Prof Pollock is well respected nationally. We also need to know why the care homes were put at risk. I’ll certainly put it in my diary

  2. The UK has one of the worst C19 death rates in the world because strict lockdown was introduced too late, and restrictions were eased too soon. The behaviour of Dominic Cummins didn’t help at all.

  3. Population density has to be factored in. Herd immunity is no bad thing. Good to look at how much obesity and poor diet contributed to some of the illnesses and deaths. We seem to be rather an obese nation.. Also, who in the various hospitals themselves sent patients back to care homes. People in government weren’t signing those individual release forms. There are highly paid managers in the various NHS bodies who must have taken some crucial decisions? There has to be some self responsibility in all of this, and people queuing at McDonalds or KFC for their highly processed food after lockdown relaxation says a lot about people’s disregard for their own health. Opinion polls don’t show Cummings as having much influence at all on behaviour. Many polled didn’t know who he was outside the rabid media bubble. Many supported him doing what was right to safeguard care for his small autistic son if needed. Political point scoring won’t help us move forward at all. Positive ideas to become a healthier nation and support for more local chemically free food production would be a start. Negativity harms your immune system as well. Look at the Blackthorn Medical Centre in Maidstone as a great idea with a biodynamic garden, a vegetarian café and kitchen, craft studios and therapy rooms. That really does promote wellness and good mental health.

  4. I didn’t think it would be long before SONIK exploited the COVID crisis just as they hijacked the stroke unit decision, to pursue their leftie agenda. Akin to travellers they move on and leave mess behind that others must try to clear up.

    The issue of Thanet Environmental toxic hazards to health SONIK, contrary to High Court rules, concealed from High Court in their purported judicial review of stroke unit decision.

    SONIK later kept schtum as they realised the toxic hazards issues, they concealed, also applies to the Maternity Tragedies expert inquiry. The SONIK lefties kept quiet. Typical of their ilk.

    It was the dickens of a job to get through to the expert inquiry who, as a result, have allocated to research workstream the question of blood serum testing for environmental toxins. Especially PFOA (toxic residue of firefighting foam Manston able to access Manston aquifer public water supply. Southern Water never tested for it. Which is why I called in Drinking Water Inspectorate last year to secure ban of Manston aquifer as public water supply) And also PCBs (toxic transformer oils buried by GEC able to access Rumfields Water supply aquifer until 1993 when the Sericol contamination of public water supply with hundreds of tonnes of cyclohexanone was discovered)

    The decision to serum test or not is for the experts. It is a CCG planning duty under health inequality objectives and statutory duties.

    SONIK dodged this in their stroke unit campaign probably because there was no tory bashing potential in obeying law and making best argument for seeking an HASU at QEQM

    • Re these comments from Richard Card.

      He contacted SONIK about his concerns about the pollution of water acquifers in Thanet a good while back. We politely explained that it’s not in our remit, and wished him well. He has turned very hostile since. Quite possibly he would be able to get a successful campaign going if he learned how to attract supporters to his campaign and get a group of activists going; but won’t ever manage it if he continues to be hostile to people for no reason.

      It’s pretty unreasonable to expect a group that campaigns on health service cuts to take up other political causes too. We have our hands full already. And it’s not our area of knowledge. Most people would understand and move on, but Card seems to be very bitter about it.

      It can be very hard to get people to listen; I understand that. But his approach is completely counterproductive.

      • Hi what do you mean travelers if you mean the ones that park there travel vehicle in fields. I agree with you with you that there should be left alone as there are only human at the end of the day. But the Government should try and at least have a spare space from them somewhere as i never met any travellers or familys with children

  5. This is a good idea, to start the process of examining the reasons for the UK’s terrible position as the worst country in Europe for infections and deaths.
    No doubt all countries would benefit from checking out what they did and if it helped etc.

    But Britain most of all. Oddly enough, our politicians and pundits still talk about the spread of the pandemic as if we in this country have to be protected from the disease entering from abroad if we allow travel too soon. Yet it’s OTHER countries that have more to fear from Britons, than the other way round.
    How do we have an “air bridge” with other countries with a similar rate of infection when we have the worst in Europe?
    If I managed the journey, I would be safer from Covid19 in almost any European country other than Britain.
    I hope this meeting will go some way to explain this sad and shameful state of affairs.

  6. Sonik are not a left wing group,they attract support from all main parties,without them and local councillors of all parties highlighting the folly of the downgrading of local hospital the process would have been rushed through. Pressure groups are essential democratic society and by the way i am personally ok with being called lefty but my friends call me bolshie Barry

  7. SONIK are at their best when they bring people together to investigate issues. I remember a previous excellent conference.

  8. Interesting to see someone defending Dominic Cummings here…. he has been given too much influence and power, and we do know that contracts were given to his friends without any tendering process. This has happened in other departments of government and makes it hard to bring politicians to account. The burgeoning use by this government of the private sector has not helped in the covid crisus – watch the BBC Panorama programme on covid testing (on iplayer) and the failure of our government to get to grips with implementing a very necessary set of processes. Without this we cannot hope to keep any control of this horrible and unpredictable virus.

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