Bye-bye….. for now!

For the #forgotten500k the waiting goes on. In this podcast which incorporates the last in the series of virtual village greens Clare is joined by Dr Lennard Lee and a clutch of familiar faces and voices. On their agenda -updates about Supernova, NICE, UK inquiry, Stravinsky…. yes….but not quite as you’d expect and an intriguing tweet from the government health, Minister .

We haven’t been live streaming or podcasting for a few weeks so this is our chance to catch up on developments and there have been quite a few! Expert panel on hand to tell us about an imminent NICE decision and the factors that might influence the direction they go in, plus how it feels to be getting Evusheld on a trial.

We’re taking a short break over Christmas, but we thought it would be a good time to take stock and see how far we’ve come with the campaign to get Evusheld to the #forgotten500K. We’re also casting forward to the future to see where we can take the campaign from here and we will be back early in the New Year. Enjoy🎄

There has been so much to worry us in recent weeks but now some good news on the horizon , with the advent of a new clinical trial which will combine the use of Evusheld with vaccinations for immunocompromised patients. We speak to the trial’s lead, Mark Tuthill and the panel responds to some of your questions and concerns.Hope you find it useful!

The waiting goes on but the campaign and the science continues amidst encouraging signs. The prestigious US publication @TIME hails Evusheld, the antibody treatment, as one of the best innovations of the year. And Dr Lennard Lee introduces us to the people who have helped him with a new report showing encouraging stats.All that and a bit of patient politics!

A solution is out there for those who need an antibody treatment for Covid protection but it’s far from simple and not for everyone. As #theforgotten500K await a government rethink on rolling out Evusheld free in the NHS, desperate decisions are being made. Some are having to decide whether they have the finances to pay privately and that means much soul-searching. For patients without the cash they can only wait and hope that a decision will be made before Christmas.So what’s it like to have to weigh up the options? We hear from three patients and the wife of one who tell us what they’ve had to take into account and what it’s cost them financially and emotionally.

This edition of Ripples was originally played out live stream on Twitter spaces so this is my opportunity to let Ripples podcast listeners hear the panel talk about the impact that the recent Westminster vigil had on the debate to get Evusheld , an antibody treatment rolled out free via the NHS, for #theforgotten500K.

This week’s been a whirlwind of activity- many of us have watched the shenanigans at Westminster through our fingers. We lost a Prime Minister and we’re about to get another one ..,but despite the political turmoil, a campaign calling for the rollout of Evusheld to protect #theforgotten500K blasted its way onto the agenda on Monday morning. Will it change how the UK and devolved. governments act on a roll out? We hear from a senior Scottish Labour MSP. Huge thanks due to Daisy Cooper MP for allowing us to use a key part of her speech at Westminster!

We decided to try something slightly different on the podcast this week -in fact we hopped over to Twitter spaces to do a live stream following Daisy Cooper’s Parliamentary debate in which she asked the government to reconsider their position on Evusheld, a treatment that could help protect those who have been shielding for 2 1/2 years. It’s an unedited recording… just how it happened… with a fantastic panel of patients, campaigners and scientist.Hope you enjoy it!