Shoppers in city are ignoring the basics VIEWPOINTS Hard to get appointment
Write to: Viewpoints, M.E.N, Mitchell Henry House, Hollinwood Avenue, Oldham, OL9 8EF Or email: viewpoints@men-news.co.uk
THE start of vaccination for Covid19 is welcome, but as the advert says, we still need to keep washing our hands to defeat the virus.
This is a reality utterly ignored by the vast majority of shoppers (and many shops) in Manchester.
We cannot regard this as “the beginning of the end”, no matter how Churchillian some may like to sound.
Thousands will still be infected and die.
How many thousands depends on the extent to which we all keep our guard up.
I’m not sure if I have contempt or just pity for conspiracy theorists and flat-earthers who protest against being asked to wear masks. Perhaps it won’t be their granny dying. Or perhaps it will.
Already we see concerns being raised about people being left behind.
Steve Scown raised the issue of people with learning disabilities and their support staff ( Viewpoints December 9) and the fragility of the Pfizer’s wonder drug means that to use it economically priorities may be bent until such times as smaller packs can be made up. These are real concerns.
It must be a nightmare getting the frozen product securely from factories abroad into the UK, around the country at -70 and then preserving it at such temperatures.
To get it to nursing home residents it will mean divvying it up into usable packs and processing it for delivery, and then getting a health professional to the patient with the medicine still potent.
As ever people look for a high-tech solution when the frequent and efficient use of good old soap would do so much more cost effectively. That’s why I support Christian Aid’s appeal to promote soap production in Africa - it gives work to women, promoting independence and selfsufficiency, and it fights infection.
If you are stumped for a present for a loved one this Christmas, sending them this as a charity gift would also help a woman and her family escape poverty whilst protecting lives.
Mary Bland, M13
A57 works
WE are aware as Gortonians many people use the A57 Hyde Road Gorton going to work and back as well as attending Gorton Market and cemetery.
It’s also a main artery to the motorway and to Man City and Man Utd when crowds return in the near future.
The contractors are carrying out essential work on the A57 to resurface the carriageway.
There will be evening contra flow traffic management from 6.30pm to 5am from Thursday December 7 through to Friday January 15.
This will be followed by a weekend closure due to start at 7pm on Friday January 15 continuing through to 5 am on the 18th.
During this time there will be a full road closure in place from the junction of Hyde Road and Reddish Lane to the junction of Farr Lane to allow the work to be carried out safely.
Traffic management and diversions will be in place with appropriate signage in place from 7pm on Friday January 15.
At times during the work the equipment used may cause some unavoidable disturbance along with resurfacing problems due to the low winter temperatures which could cause rescheduling of some work which needs to be done.
The company carrying out this work is Eric Wright Civil Engineering Ltd.
We hope this information helps your journey through our Gorton area but whilst doing so please enjoy our Xmas lights along the Hyde Road carriageway. Merry Christmas to all, stay safe and stay well
Alan Grafton, Gorton Events
SO GPs are going to be asked to help administer the vaccine jab. Well good luck with that one!
Our local surgery used to be great. We sang its praises all the time.
You could always get an appointment within a week or usually much quicker.
Then it changed, fairly suddenly, to three weeks.
I asked the receptionist what had changed and she couldn’t (or wouldn’t) say.
That woman boss of the NHS that says, on TV, that GP surgeries are open is completely out of touch with what’s happening.
You are very lucky to get an appointment at all and then usually only after having two telephone consultations.
Now the GPs are asking for more money to give people the jab.
This to add to their already excellent salary and pension provision.
I wonder if they are still being paid the same for working a two-day week?
John Walsh, Oldham