Please check out this informative article with demonstration video posted on the Skwawkbox: “The ICU Breathing Exercises that might just save your life.” Watching the video brought back memories of the first time I saw a Nurse demonstrate this important routine to a patient in the busy Surgical ER at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. Following a life threatening bout of whooping cough as a child I developed a habit of cautious breathing known as “Stenting.” A visit to high places will make you more aware of your lung capacity, as I discovered to my detriment on a trip to La Paz, Bolivia. However, many people remain entirely unaware of their dysfunctional breathing patterns until it compromises their survival during severe illness.
I have continued a lifelong habit of shallow breathing that I now fear might put me at increased risk of complications if I were to contract Covid 19. By the beginning of March I was already limiting my excursions out, trips to the cinema, dining out and very reluctantly I had to put my beloved Silversmithing class on hold. When I did venture out for necessary shopping I tried to keep my distance and I carried a pack of antimicrobial wipes to fastidiously wipe down anything I was about to touch following my rule of: “Avoid people and the things that people touch.” As I have said before this is a simple instruction even a small child could learn.
This all well before the Tory Government’s belated U-turn to superficially deviate away from their disastrous “Herd Immunity” strategy by advocating Social Distancing. Even this last ditch reversal a thoroughly misleading instruction; does Social Distancing mean don’t call mum? There is no acknowledgement of the fact that hand washing requires ready access to sinks and sanitizer gel is unavailable in stores, plus it does not counter the obvious risk of infection all of the objects we repeatedly touch that cannot possibly be kept virus free all of the time by cleaning staff. We all need to take added personal responsibility to wipe down the door handle, the lift button, the ATM keypad etc before we risk contaminating our hands in the first place.
There is gathering evidence that this Tory Government has not abandoned their dangerous “Herd Immunity” policy. There are still no checks at airports or other points of entry; care homes are being systematically ignored with Covid patients not admitted to Hospital or sent back to infect other vulnerable residents with poor provision of PPE for low paid staff. The regular delivery of PPE kit, beyond inadequate is now outrageously criticized by Mat Hancock as being squandered by overstressed staff in his attempt to divert blame. As Craig Murray also noted the Covid 19 deaths of NHS staff appear to be predominantly among those of overseas decent, but the Government is not even honest with the numbers claiming only 19 deaths when there have been 31 so far.
The tedious daily Tory propaganda broadcast, that masquerade as an official “press briefing,” never announce the number of new tests performed in our progress towards that mythical 100,000 tests a day. To obtain this figure one is expected to not bother noting the total number of tests done so far to compare with the total announced the next day; that way the Tories can keep their gross failure under wraps. Although occasionally the press ask a really telling question this format allows this Tory Government off the hook, minimizing public scrutiny while blasting out party political spin. We need MPs to reconvene parliament in order to force the Tory Government to face genuine accountability until we can secure a thorough investigation of the Covert 2019 Rigged Election and remove them from office.