NHS Hot Topics Flashcards
COVID-19: Pre-pandemic measures by health organisations
NHS England OCT 16: Exercise stimulating a influenza pandemic to identify strengths and weaknesses within the United Kingdom health system and emergency response chain by putting it under significant strain. It showed that the pandemic would cause the country’s health system to collapse from a lack of resources. The Chief Medical Officer at the time stated that a lack of medical ventilators and the logistics of disposal of dead bodies were serious issues.
WHO FEB 2018: Disease X is a placeholder name for blueprint priority diseases, hypothetical pathogens that could cause a pandemic. American scientist Dr Fauci suggested studying whole classes of viruses to improve response. Norwegian scientist Rottingen has suggested it could be zoonotic in origin. Members of WHO have suggested that COVID-19 counts as the first Disease X
COVID-19: Origin of SARS-CoV-2
Phylogenetics estimates that SARS-CoV-2 arose in October or November 2019.
Chinese government records suggest that the first case of infection with COVID-19 could be traced back to a 55-year-old Hubei resident on 17 November.
Symptoms of the index case, or patient zero, began on 1 December. The man had not been to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. His family was unaffected, and no epidemiological link was found between him and the other laboratory-confirmed cases as of 2 January. Findings have been published on the Lancet
COVID-19: First confirmed case in the UK?
31st January 2020
COVID-19: Who was the first country to approve the Pfizer vaccine and when?
United Kingdom
2nd December 2020
COVID-19: When did the UK approve the AstraZeneca vaccine?
30 December 2020
COVID-19: March in United Kingdom (pre-lockdown)
First emergency meeting on 2nd March 2020
Testing focused on those with symptoms
COVID-19: When was the first UK lockdown?
23rd March 2020
COVID-19: When was NHS Nightingale Hospital opened?
3rd April 2020
COVID-19: When was NHS Nightingale Hospital placed on standby?
4th May 2020, closed on 15th May 2020
COVID-19: At the start of the pandemic, why were there so many more cases in countries such as Brazil and India as compared to Europe?
UNFINISHED
Countries of greater economic disparity tend to experience higher fatalities and those with weaker, absent leaders experience a higher rate of viral transmission. How do Brazil and India fit into this? Brazil and India have porous internal borders – so what could European countries do that Brazil and India couldn’t? How are their governments different to those in Europe? How could high-density housing and poor nutrition contribute to the spread of coronavirus?
COVID-19: Variants of COVID-19
UK Variant of COVID-19 was detected in the UK back in September 2020
South Africa Variant discovered in December 2020
