The Heneghan/Jefferson dialogue on their “Trust the Evidence” blog underlines the disappearance of the Hallett Inquiry from the news now that the Big Beasts have given their evidence, which wasn’t worth much anyway. Having trawled through the module list again I looked at the core participants and was perhaps unsurprised to find that they were almost without exception people who could have had no insight into the pathological mechanisms of Covid-19. As for the module remits there is but one sentence in the Vaccines and Therapeutics module that gets to the heart of the matter – when people get very sick with Covid-19, how should they have been treated. I am somewhat concerned that they are going to spend time analysing trials, which I have stated many times were unnecessary.
When will the clinicians (hello, here I am!) get their chance to explain things? I am still waiting to be called… never mind that I am retired, medicine in many ways is like swimming or riding a bicycle, you never forget how to do it. A single case will, if significant enough, stick in the mind forever. Significance can take many shapes; amusing, challenging, upsetting, revelational, oxymoronic among others. There are many examples in my book “Mad Medicine” (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mad-Medicine-maxims-National-Service/dp/1688011897) which any student of medicine or the NHS would do well to read, not least so they don’t fall into the traps that I did or underestimate the importance of institutional memory.
(Written 13th July)
The Wry Observer 