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England set to be one of the first countries to eliminate hepatitis C

bbc.com

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Re: England set to be one of the first countries to eliminate hepatitis C

#431

Post by dghf »

IshKebab wrote: post #220
alibarber wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed but there are still different decision makers and sets of voters electing them.

Sure but there's no real need for it in this case, or in the NHS in general I would say. It's probably just devolved because Scotland and Wales want everything to be devolved even if it makes no sense.

The Scottish NHS has always been a separate organisation, even before devolution, created under a separate Act of Parliament. It's just that it used to be answerable to the UK government (specifically to the Secretary of State for Scotland, rather than the Secretary of State for Health), and now it's answerable to the Scottish government.

Why it was done like that, I'm not sure, but I suspect it was a combination of Scotland having its own legal system and laws (guaranteed by the Acts of Union of 1707) and existing ministerial division of responsibility (where public health in Scotland fell within the purview of the Scottish Secretary, along with Scottish education and a bunch of other areas that had their own distinct Cabinet ministers for England and Wales).

And while the Welsh NHS was originally part of the same NHS as operated in England, control over the NHS in Wales passed from the Health Secretary to the Welsh Secretary with the creation of the Welsh Office in 1969, and then to the devolved Welsh government in 1999.

Northern Ireland already had devolution (or to be precise, home rule) when the NHS was created in 1948, and the Northern Irish equivalent -- the Health and Social Care service -- is a direct creation of the Parliament of Northern Ireland rather than of the UK Parliament.

Re: England set to be one of the first countries to eliminate hepatitis C

#432

Post by tialaramex »

alexchamberlain wrote: post #402
tialaramex wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"And by 'country' we mean a sovereign state that is a member of the UN in its own right" to quote the famous UK Quiz Show "Pointless". Team GB enters the Olympics but as you may have noticed it was England who came Third in the World Cup recently, and likewise England play international rugby, including against Wales and Scotland.

And, of course, the Ireland rugby team picks players from both the Republic of Ireland & Northern Ireland.

That's a citizenship thing though right? The Republic is of the opinion that everybody on Ireland† is a citizen of the Republic. If my mother had happened to be in Portavogie when she gave birth to me last century, my understanding is that the RoI considers I am automatically a citizen, because I was born on "their" island even if certainly Portavogie is not under their control.

† The exact rules are complicated, but they don't depend on where on the island you were born or stuff like that.

Re: England set to be one of the first countries to eliminate hepatitis C

#433

Post by dghf »

toast0 wrote: post #44
_heimdall wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

England is the country, part of the United Kingdom. Kingdom being the key word there, the US is a collection of countries ruled by the crown.

The commonwealth is also a collection of countries ruled by the crown; but it's not a country whereas the UK is a country.

1) Most Commonwealth countries are republics, not monarchies.

2) The monarchies in the Commonwealth countries are ruled by different crowns; but, for historical reasons, most of those crowns are worn by the same physical head. (But not all of them. The King of Malaysia is a different natural person from the King of the UK, for example.)

Re: England set to be one of the first countries to eliminate hepatitis C

#434

Post by dghf »

venzaspa wrote: post #416
tavavex wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mistake they made is to directly say "one of the first countries" in the article title, which immediately implies a comparison to foreign countries. But clearly, since they're talking about England, which is a subdivision of the UK, why aren't they comparing this achievement to equivalent subdivisions, such as states or provinces, in other nations instead? This isn't a direct comparison (which might also make it…

England and Scotland are separate countries, the UK is a federation of them both.

Point of pedantry: federation usually implies a federal government, and the UK is a unitary state.

Re: England set to be one of the first countries to eliminate hepatitis C

#435

Post by windward »

jermaustin1 wrote: post #86
eptcyka wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a lot harder to travel into England from outside of the United Kingdom than it is to travel from England to Scotland or Wales. For one, I do not need a passport to get on a train to Scotland. Nor do I need a visa.

But you most likely have a passport, and most (western/european) countries have "automatic" visas to the UK, so for the most part, training from London to Edinburgh isn't much easier than Paris to London. Sure there is no passport control, but UK passport control is typically just scan your passport's chip and look at a camera.

>there is no passport control

There's no anything. Getting to Wales is easier than getting to Devon for most of England. You can do it accidentally.

Re: England set to be one of the first countries to eliminate hepatitis C

#436

Post by alexchamberlain »

tialaramex wrote: post #432
alexchamberlain wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And, of course, the Ireland rugby team picks players from both the Republic of Ireland & Northern Ireland.

That's a citizenship thing though right? The Republic is of the opinion that everybody on Ireland† is a citizen of the Republic. If my mother had happened to be in Portavogie when she gave birth to me last century, my understanding is that the RoI considers I am automatically a citizen, because I was born on "their" island even if certainly Portavogie is not under their control. † The exact rules are complicated, but…

I don't think so. My understanding was "confirmed" by ChatGPT, though I haven't looked at the sources.

> Rugby in Ireland is governed by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), which was established in 1879, decades before Ireland was partitioned in 1921. It has always organised rugby on an all-Ireland basis.

Re: England set to be one of the first countries to eliminate hepatitis C

#437

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

kansface wrote: post #322
antonyt wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Were all the other vaccines "well understood" when they were initially rolled out en masse? Not a rhetorical question, I genuinely don't know the history. I don't really understand what people's expectations were for a new vaccine intended to combat an ongoing global pandemic.

Several labs that manufactured the original polio vaccine shipped the live virus - ie, we just injected kids with polio. Low double digits of people (kids?) died, a few hundred were paralyzed, etc. Later vaccines also had the same problem, but at very low rates (1 in millions maybe).

Yes, but it still ended the polio epidemic resulting in a drastic drop in total polio-related deaths.

You don't get vaccines in use for 50 years without vaccines in use for 1 year, and you don't get that without using them for 6 months, and you can say the same about COVID-19 vaccination. Arguing otherwise is just failing to understand linear time.

There can be understanding, but nothing really beats mass numbers of doses over multiple years to generate it.

The safety factors of a vaccine become better understood over time and use, and you can say the same about COVID-19 vaccination.

You should conclude that COVID-19 vaccination - even the early versions - had net very good outcomes too, unless you're a wilfully ignorant conspiracy theorist.

The bar isn't "perfect vaccine", the bar is "significantly better than no vaccine". And this depends on the urgency of the situation.

The only "debacle" is a political/sentiment one, the mainstreaming of crankery, especially in the USA. It's now a full-fledged systemic public health anti-vax debacle.

But MRNA vaccines are a significant new medical tool, not just for COVID-19, not just for viral diseases.

Re: England set to be one of the first countries to eliminate hepatitis C

#438

Post by Manfrednotfunny »

amarant wrote: post #337
frereubu wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I presume you're not a woman, because there's cervical screening for women aged 25-64 every five years. Also depends on what you mean by "mid life", but there's breast screening offered to women aged 50-70 and bowel cancer screening offered to people from 50 to 74 every two years. There are real trade-offs with screening, and screening too much has harms as well as too little, although I'm not qualified to make a jud…

This is the real reason women live longer than men. Doctors won't see me unless I'm dying, or at least tell them I am. And I am, if I understand things correctly, which I might not tbh, in a high risk group for prostate cancer, given that I was diagnosed with chronic prostatitis at 22. I've even asked for checkups but was denied. And where I live you can't really pay for health care (but you can pay to skip the line,…

I don't think this is the real reason why woman live longer than men.

Woman have a clear disavantage due to all the medical tests and medicine was/is still primarly made and tested for men physics.

Re: England set to be one of the first countries to eliminate hepatitis C

#439

Post by ChrisRR »

ghastmaster wrote: post #84

Second paraggraph: > The target of treating 80% of all known cases has already been met, and deaths from the virus have fallen by 36% in the last decade, just short of what is needed by 2030. What is needed by 2030? There is no mention prior to this statement. Later: > NHS England says that since 2015, more than 100,000 people have been diagnosed and treated for hepatitis C, meaning the country is already meeting tha…

You're complaining that it didn't give you the information, and then gave you the information?

Re: England set to be one of the first countries to eliminate hepatitis C

#440

Post by ceejayoz »

lenerdenator wrote: post #383
ceejayoz wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again: I'm all for it. I've little ability to impact the British criminal justice system, though, nor much patience for whataboutism. I'll still take "no longer a doctor" over "gets to set American health policy". I like pancakes and waffles, in other words.

> I've little ability to impact the British criminal justice system, though Probably more on a per-capita basis than Americans have impact on what DHHS does, though. Especially if it became something focused on by the British public. Which, strangely, it hasn't. Not since 2010 when he was struck off. > I'll still take "no longer a doctor" over "gets to set American health policy". You really should aim higher. The ma…

> You really should aim higher.

Reminder: This thread started when you set the bar for America incredibly low; "well we didn't start it!".

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49261093

I would suggest you take your own advice instead of dismissing very valid criticism as "narrative".

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