My Story
"I am a clinical academic microbiologist at Swansea University Medical School. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many challenges for my speciality and here I reflect on some of the work I have been involved in over the past few months."
"Early on in the UK epidemic, it became evident that NHS staff from BAME backgrounds were at particular risk of adverse outcomes from COVID-19. I am a member of the British Medical Association’s Medical Academic Staff Committee and COVID-19 advisory group. Both groups were extremely alarmed about the impact of this disease on BAME staff. With some of my BMA colleagues, I contributed to the development of an assessment tool for risk-stratification of staff, in order to redeploy the most vulnerable away from high-risk clinical activities and settings. This risk stratification tools are both endorsed by the BMA and was also used to help inform the Welsh Government’s approach;
- https://www.bma.org.uk/media/2768/bma-covid-19-risk-assessment-tool-july2020.pd
- https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/covid-19/your-health/covid-19-risk-assessment]
"I also hold the role of Health and Care Research Wales (HCRW) Specialty Lead in Infection. We can be proud that the Welsh Health Boards, supported by HCRW, have recruited thousands of patients to clinical trials of treatments for COVID-19. One such trial was the UK RECOVERY trial, the world’s largest COVID-19 trial to date. RECOVERY has recruited over 11 000 NHS patients, with several hundred in Wales, including in Swansea."
"A major outcome of RECOVERY was to show, by mid-June, the significant benefit of the drug dexamethasone for treating patients with severe COVID-19. It also showed that certain other options such as hydroxychloroquine are ineffective - results which highlight the vital importance of large-scale clinical trials to answer clinical questions. Dexamethasone is inexpensive and widely available, so this finding has the potential to save large numbers of lives globally over the course of the pandemic. HCRW has now established a Vaccine Task Force and we are working to set up support to facilitate vaccine trials in Wales."