Dr Hammond's Covid Casebook

by Phil Hammond

Throughout the * crisis, the fortnightly columns of Private Eye’s medical correspondent ‘MD’, aka NHS doctor Phil Hammond, have been required reading. Astute, compassionate and scientifically literate, ‘MD’ has guided readers through each stage of the pandemic, from every global and national; political and personal. In an updated collection of his much-praised columns, and with new wisdom gleaned from charting the failures and triumphs in the continuing battle with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, he sets out what went wrong, what went right – and what needs to happen now as new variants emerge and the UK public looks forward to a long-awaited official government public inquiry.

Genres: Science

204 pages, Paperback

Published August 19, 2021

Reviews

[Ryan Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

As vital as a Covid jab itself, this book works as an essential guide to the past 18 months of lockdowns, masks, and slides, and analyses how right/wrong the UK got its pandemic management. A lot of stuff you won't read about in the national press, because it’s Actual news, and they can’t sell that!

Beginning in March 2020, and running right through May 2021, each chapter includes that weeks daily COVID stats (official GOV daily figures) and as the book progresses, you can really believe your eyes - this could be a horror story of nightmarish proportions (if it wasn’t true!).

Aside from Dr Phil's astute, well-balanced, and thoughtful fortnightly articles, it's those figures that really ramp up just how badly the UK Gov have managed this pandemic. This book should be used as an educational tool in 50 years time, it is essential reading. I would envisage a part 2 being published in future, as this farce is far from over…

As a Private Eye subscriber, let me be the 94th person to tell you to buy this book. Put down the tabloids, sensationalist social media sites, your smartphones, & turn off your TV. This is what you need to read to learn about Covid-19. 10/10

[Matthew Eyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must be almost alone among the world's population in that I actually enjoyed the first Covid Lockdown. It came at the right time for me: the penultimate year of my career. I quickly realised my chances of succumbing to it in a house in rural Surrey with a big garden were pretty minimal. I actually got to read all those books that had sat on my shelves, merely skimmed or glanced at. Being deeply unsociable, it meant no-one asked me to do anything involving other people. And lastly, after a lifetime listening to the endlessly tedious staffroom boasting about their magnificent social lives it was great to think of them all at home besieged by their awful families, yet endlessly texting heart warming homilies. FOMO? What me....
For the rest of us, Dr Hammond did a magnificent job showing how unprepared we were, how mendaciously the government handled it and gave a sense of balance at a time when it seemed we had reveted to that old mediaeval trope - the foreigners did it

[Gary Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading about what we experienced makes me anxious all over again. Five stars! Would recommend (the book that is, not the global pandemic).