Covid and Human Rights

My son broke his ankle recently and was admitted to hospital.   He does not live in Basingstoke, so we had to visit his local hospital.    Three of us travelled by car and arrived at the hospital where he was being treated.     The three of us walked through the entrance wearing our masks, and were greeted by staff offering us a sanitiser for our hands.    We then went to his ward and my son asked us to fetch a wheelchair he could sit on and take him outside.  We did so and he was allowed to leave the ward and sit with us outside.  It was a wonderful experience,

Unfortunately this was not the experience a friend of mine had when she visited her grandmother in the local hospital.    There were only two of them, my friend and her mother, both wearing masks, but only one of them was admitted.   My friend pleaded she would sit in a waiting room, but she was turned away and told to wait outside.

Now the action of the local hospital needs a thorough examination.    Basingstoke does not have a very high rate of Covid infection, and the local hospital is not under any crisis of admissions.   Put beside that the fact that the majority of people have had a double vaccination, that the emphasis of the Government and Health advisers is to live with the virus and the death rates from the virus will probably be lower than when there is an outbreak of flu'.   Did the local hospital have a right to turn away my friend?    Having a double vaccination has opened up the possibility of leading a normal life which is the intention of the vaccination.    So when my friend was turned away from the hospital, she was denied the benefits of the double vaccine, and her human rights were abused.

Take this now to our Churches in Basingstoke, where there seems to be a campaign by some to keep the Covid crisis alive.   They are not, as I said before, following the guidelines of English bishops but imposing their own guidelines on the situation.    They are denying parishioners the human right as Catholics to attend Mass on Sunday.

Let me say this.   Nobody will ever turn me away from entering my Church on a Sunday.    And if I want to sing in church I will sing in Church.     I have my rights laid down by the Bishops of England and Wales, not a committee which was last elected thirty years ago.