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6 July 2020

6 July Council Mtg followed by Speaker Mtg with IW re Coronavirus


6 July 2020 Council Meeting & Speakers Mtg on Covid 19

At. 500 pm Rangesh hosted his fist Council Meeting over Zoom.

At 6.00 President Rangesh welcomed Rotarians , Inner Wheel Ladies and friends to a General Meeting of the Club. Simon Flint arranged for two speakers to join the meeting to talk about the Covid 19 outbreak from their personal perspectives.

 Heinrich Woolvaardt is the President of Cape Town Rotary Club and an architect by profession. Mark Signy  is a Consultant Cardiologist based in Worthing. Mark at one time worked at the Edward VII. Simon had prepared a set of questions which he put to our speakers before opening the meeting up for questions from the floor – or should I say laptops

Mark said that at the moment Worthing hospital only has four Covid patients in the main hospital. Requirement had reduced at what he hopes is a nearing of the end of this first spike. He said that Covid wards are completely separate and isolated from the rest of the hospital. He emphasised that hospitals were safe places to seek treatment although visitors are still discouraged. He thought that there was a link between cardio and Covid problems with high blood pressure causing further problems. However the use of dexamethasone, a steroid, had reduced this. This caused a wry comment from former vet Andrew Mitchell who said that his profession had been criticised in the past for the blanket use of steroids. In West Sussex the incidence of Covid has been one of the lowest in the country. Mark was full of praise for the student and junior doctors who had been thrust into dangerous conditions. During the Q&A Mark was invited to comment on the apparent competing teams of Imperial and Oxford to finding a vaccine. He said that they were in fact complementary as their approach to a vaccine was different. He warned that 19 out of 20 vaccines fail. He also commented on the source of Covid-19. He thought that it was unlikely to have been manufactured in a laboratory. He referred to the recent Sunday Times Insight report. Mark reported that there was something odd about Vietnam where there is a very high recovery from Covid-19. There have been no deaths in a population of 100 million.

Heinrich zoomed in from South Africa where the infection rate has been contained due to an early and draconian lockdown. Cape Town is now in semi lockdown and this appears to be coinciding with a rise in cases over the last two weeks. At the start of the epidemic all cigarettes and alcohol were banned and no outside exercise was allowed, even to walk the dog. Essential shops remained open but lockdown was more severe than the UK and aggressively policed. Everybody must wear a mask. The lack of alcohol sales and cigarettes had led to a black market. As with the UK, the Government has assisted with those who have been suspended from work. He said that the leisure and tourist industries had been most affected. People are just starting to get disenchanted and there is a frustration at being locked down.

John Barrett gave a vote of thanks and all present thanked both speakers for giving us so much of their time.

A very interesting evening.

 [S

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Rotarians and IW

2020-21 News from M&P

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