Letters to the Canary: maternal deaths and Covid, the BBC, and a case against the TUC

The Canary is excited to share the latest edition of our letters page. This is where we publish people’s responses to the news and politics, or anything else they want to get off their chest. We’ve now opened the letters page up so anyone can submit a contribution. As always, if you’d like to subscribe to the Canary – starting from just £1 a month – to support truly radical and independent media, then you can do that here:

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This week’s letters

This week we have people’s thoughts on a Canary article on maternal death rates, an open letter to the BBC over Israel, and the case of Greg and Darren – unfairly dismissed by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

A response to a Canary article on maternal deaths

I was horrified to read your article, https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2024/01/11/mbrrace-uk-maternal-deaths/ (11 Jan 24), but unfortunately not surprised by the shocking statistics of the increase in deaths during pregnancy, and how this is disproportionately affecting women from deprived and particularly ethnic communities.

The figures are from the last three years, yet Covid didn’t appear to feature much in your reporting, except in the number of deaths from Covid, “the second most common cause” which are extremely high, and will presumably only be at the acute phase of an infection.

As the post-acute phase of Covid is causing vascular problems that can result in all of the conditions that you list: “thrombosis and thromboembolism, or blood clots in the veins. Heart disease and deaths related to poor mental health” which are repeatedly being reported in studies around the world, plus the added stress of the body during pregnancy and childbirth, it is no wonder we are seeing these heartbreaking outcomes.

It is well documented that poor outcomes from an acute Covid infection causing more severe illness and death and post-Covid disability are affecting disproportionately people from poorer socio-economic backgrounds including those from ethnic minority communities where health inequalities were already apparent before the start of the pandemic.

This was highlighted back in 2020 in this paper published in Public Health that portends “the pandemic has highlighted the stark inequalities within society, and it will likely exacerbate them. To address the vulnerabilities of the most economically disadvantaged within society, policymakers must introduce long-term legislation to improve social welfare”:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7221360/

Long Covid is also disproportionately affecting women. Estimates are between 70 to 80% of sufferers in a study by Dr Viki Male, an immunologist in the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction at Imperial College: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/246134/imperial-visible-launch-app-based-health-studies

As Covid has not gone away, just minimised by government and the media (including yourselves) the virus has been slowly and steadily taking its toll on our bodies, which will be much more keenly felt in our most deprived, and marginalised communities with pregnant women being the most vulnerable amongst them.

This is why Covid is a social as well as a health issue and why we must urgently come together to accept the reality of the situation and change our public health practices (improve ventilation in schools, healthcare, businesses and all public buildings and places of work, normalise and insist on mask wearing, and support people to take time off from work when sick, for example) which is ever more urgent now at this time of the current surge.

We need to practice the principles of disability justice, abolition, anticapitalism, and harm reduction to prevent the loss many lives of women ruined and their unborn children.

Amanda Couch, via email

ED: thanks so much for sending this through, Amanda – and we wholeheartedly agree with you.

Another open letter to the BBC over Israel

Dear Tim Davie,

Why is the BBC and UK government continuing to protect Israel, leading the Met to behave as the photo shows, and the BBC is refusing to reflect the scale of the protest marches which show the strength of the UK’s feelings of revulsion at Israel’s war on Gaza?

Other broadcasters broadcast the truths listed above – you, who claim to be the World’s broadcaster, fail even to speak of the UK’s revulsion and our reluctance to listen to your broadcasts. Why can you not invite people to speak with sympathy for the wretched Palestinians. Since October 7 Israel has killed not just 23,000 Gazans but also 3 or 40o Palestinians on the West Bank – and apparently had 1000s of these occupied people imprisoned.

Led by Hamas, Palestinians have shown themselves to be formidable in opposing Israel – withstanding and driven by the illegalities and inhumanities of a sixty-seven year Occupation. Are they not Freedom Fighters, rather than the Terrorists you so consistently aver.

Israel may boast to have killed 8,000 Hamas fighters but many more will be driven to replace them. We understand that over 300 Israeli soldiers have been killed and hundreds of their recruits scared and traumatised, trained only to kill unarmed Palestinians on the West Bank

If only for balance, which you claim guides your output, why on earth do you keep silence on anything inimical to Israel?

Ted from Liverpool, via email

Justice for Greg and Darren

We wish to bring to your attention our case against the Trade Union Council (TUC) for unfair dismissal and race discrimination.

On Wednesday, 10th January 2024, midday, we protested against treatment by the TUC (supported by John McDonnell, MP) – starting from TUC headquarters:

We then followed up with a presence at Unite Headquarters, Downing Street No.10, Parliament Square, Labour Party HQ, Conservative HQ, Lib Dems and others.

Our Employment Tribunal case starts on 27 February 2024, and we would appreciate it if you could join online healing and help us to disclose TUC hypocrisy.

Feel free to write to TUC for comments:

[email protected]

Sincerely

Greg and Darren, via email

ED: for more information on Greg and Darren’s case, please see here. 

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