Amongst the old family stories there is the one about how I almost died of whooping cough and diphtheria when I was a baby. My grandmother is said to have saved my life on more than one occasion by helping me to breathe. One of those illnesses would have been enough but two at once was a bit excessive. Both those potentially baby-killing illnesses have not been common for a long time now in this country, largely because of vaccination. But now I read that a baby has recently died of whooping cough. Oddly enough the headline said that the mother had not been vaccinated. Reading on, I found that if pregnant women are vaccinated against whooping cough at the right time, ideally between 20 and 32 weeks, it passes protection to their baby in the womb so that they are protected from birth. That was not a thing when I was having babies.
It seems that vaccine rates among pregnant women for whooping cough reached a peak of 76% in 2016 but fell to 59% by March last year. Since the deaths last year, vaccination rates among mothers recovered to 73%, but are still below the peak.
Vaccination as a whole is being questioned more and more. There was a big scare about the MMR (measles, mumps & rubella) vaccine when our children were small. There were stories going round that it caused autism. I thought we had got over that scare but apparently vaccination rates for primary school children were at the lowest levels for 15 years. Almost one in five children starting primary school this week in England are not fully protected from diseases including whooping cough, polio, tetanus and diphtheria. This puts the UK well below the World Health Organisations 95% threshold for herd immunity for all childhood vaccines.
Influencers and their parenting methods have quite a lot to answer for!
There was time when small road junctions were just that: small road junctions. And then suddenly small roundabouts started appearing at these junctions, initially just a few here and there but now they are ubiquitous. I suppose it was a response to the increase in the number of cars on the roads and the need to control the flow of traffic. Anyway, there is one at a road junction not far from us and yesterday or the day before, driving past with my daughter and family we noticed that it has been painted with a rather crude flag of St George. This is happening all over the country, as is the sudden raising of flags, both the England flag and the Union Jack. It’s all become rather excessive!
I hear that J.D. Vance has criticised those who oppose this flag waving and flag painting. He thinks we should be proud of our flags just as they are in the USA. They do go in for a lot of flag waving over there. Someone commented that roundabout painting does not happen in Wales because it would be too difficult for anyone whom is not a talented artist to try to paint the Welsh flag with its red dragon.
The immigration debate still rumbles on. It seems that the Church of England has joined in the debate, criticising reform UK’s proposed immigration policy.
And here is a link to an article about a successful immigration/ asylum story, looking back at Angela Merkel’s open door policy. Disturbingly, the article ends in this fashion:
“A decade has passed since Somar’s journey. Today, the future for migrants – and of Europe itself – remains uncertain, as intolerance grows across the continent. In Germany, where Somar lives, the far-right and anti-migration Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party came second in February’s federal elections, with more than 20% of the vote.
Meanwhile, fortified with barbed wire and systematic pushbacks, Europe continues to close itself off.”
Finally, on a lighter note, here’s a link to Tim Dowling writing about dog-friendly cinemas. Yes! Dog-friendly cinemas! Really, there seems to be no limit to what some dog owners need to do to include their dogs in their whole life! I have already ranted about dog-friendly cafes and restaurants, even dog-friendly supermarkets and shopping centres. But do dogs even like going to the cinema? The mind boggles! Well, mine does!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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