Author | Lightnews

Andrea Barrett

@andreabarrett.bsky.social

650 followers 530 following 43 posts

Campaigner, Patient Advocate & Artist. Volunteer w/ NHSBT CTAG, CVF, PTHOTA. Founder: Clean Air Hampshire. Posts on: Disability Justice, gardening, Transplant Life, Clinical Vulnerability, cats, #CleanAir, Long Covid & Neurodivergence (AuDHD).😷💊🎗💗💜💙🇬🇧🇦🇹🇮🇪🐈🌱🍂

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Andrea Barrett @andreabarrett.bsky.social · Dec 4

Please sign & share! 😷 #CleanAirInHealthcare

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70...

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European Commission @ec.europa.eu · May 20

Today, over 20,000 bee species are buzzing for #WorldBeeDay 🐝

Bees & other pollinators keep 80% of crop and wild flowering plants alive.

Yet, 1 in 10 bee, hoverfly, and butterfly species are now at risk of extinction in the EU.

Split-image with the text “TO BEE or NOT TO BEE.” The left side shows a vibrant wildflower meadow with a bee on a daisy, symbolising biodiversity and a healthy ecosystem. The right side shows a dry, barren landscape with dead trees and no visible wildlife, representing environmental degradation. An EU flag appears in the bottom right corner.

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Clean Air Hampshire @cleanairhampshire.bsky.social · May 13

Clean Air Hampshire hosts a monthly masked meetup on every 3rd Saturday of the month. 😷💙

Follow our Eventbrite for updates when tickets are released, they get booked up quickly ⤵️

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/clean-air-...

games, and craft.
Wheelchair accessibility: the doorway to the venue has a small lip which wheelchairs can be pushed over, unfortunately the toilet isn't accessible for wheelchairs.
However, the nearby pub has a disabled toilet we can use.

Please wear an unvalved FFP2 or FFP3 mask and do an LFT test beforehand. If you or someone in your household is ill, please don't attend. The venue has an air filter, feel free to bring your own portable filter.

FREE
social event every 3rd Saturday of the month in Southampton
A chance to hang out IRL with other covid informed people to chat, play games, and craft.
Graphics of masked people

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Reposted by Andrea Barrett

esottransplant @esottransplant.bsky.social · May 7

🌍 Healthcare emits 5% of global greenhouse gases. What about transplant services?

Can we reduce our impact without compromising care❓

🗨️ Let’s talk. Join us in rethinking sustainable transplantation.
#SustainableTransplantation #ESOTcongress @esit-nhsbt.bsky.social
ℹ️ go.esot.org/esot_esit2025

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · Apr 2

This is such an important article, about the simplistic visions now pushing aside scientific research and complex social issues. A must read. newrepublic.com/article/1933...

The Flawed Ideology That Unites Grass-Fed Beef Fans and Anti-Vaxxers

From RFK Jr. to Hollywood A-listers and Democratic senators, people across the political spectrum are jumping onto the slippery slope of nature-based solutionism.

newrepublic.com

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Reposted by Andrea Barrett

Smart Air UK @smartairuk.bsky.social · Apr 2

Poor air quality in care homes puts residents' health at risk. But a study shows portable air cleaners can reduce PM2.5 by 64% and VOCs by 70%!

📢 Care home owners, protect your residents by investing in air purifiers like the Blast for cleaner air.

📖: bit.ly/42jUoXM

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Clean Air Hampshire @cleanairhampshire.bsky.social · Apr 1

Clean Air Hampshire's mask fundraiser is up and live: gofund.me/03fb2e8f

Please share & support 💙

Our first mask handout will be this Saturday 5th April in Portsmouth at the @crips-against-cuts.bsky.social & @dis-ppl-protest.bsky.social protest against disability benefits cuts.

🪧😷💙

Donate to Help Us Bring Masks to Community, organized by Andrea Barrett

Hi, my name is Andrea and I run Clean Air Hampshire (CAH). We are a collective of camp… Andrea Barrett needs your support for Help Us Bring Masks to Community

gofund.me

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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · Apr 1

Not a funny day.

10,000 firings at US health agencies, but really more, b/c they're forcing many to quit by making work impossible.

"Outside the HHS building in Rockville, Maryland, employees were being turned away and could be seen crying in the street."

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www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

Widespread job cuts begin at health agencies

The layoffs are the latest indication of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s drastic effort to completely remake the nation’s public health infrastructure.

www.nbcnews.com

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Amanda Finley Digs All the Spooky Things @rubyslippahs.bsky.social · Mar 28

🎯

Leonidas Platanias, MD @leonidasplatan1.bsky.social · Mar 28

Every treatment used in medical practice, from aspirin to the most complicated chemotherapy regimens, was research at some point.

Without medical research, there would be no medical treatments. Medical research saves lives.

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Esther @elhopkins.bsky.social · Mar 28

Some politicians I have chatted to have said ‘ah we tried masks and it’s not popular with the public’. To which my reply has always been, no you didn’t try. The Tories gave incorrect PPE advice and covid is airborne. No wonder the public were confused. They advised surgical gappy masks for the 🧵

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Clean Air Classrooms #CleanAirForLife @cleanairclassrm.bsky.social · Mar 25

RSV FLU Covid 19
#VIRUSareAirborne
What about
A population wide approach
Vaccines
+ Good
#IndoorAirQuality
#Ventilation Is ESSENTIAL
Protect Children
& All Vulnerable
#CleanAir in
Homes
Schools
Healthcare
Social Care
@ukhsa.bsky.social @adphuk.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/jid/article/...

Screenshot title the journal of infectious disease
5 Oct 2023
Respiratory Syncytial Virus associated hospital admissions by deprivation levels in children & adults in Scotland

RSV is a common cause of respiratory infections causing substantial hospitalisation and deaths especially in young children and older people. we estimates globally in 2019 there were 33million episodes &3.6mill hospitalisations of RSV assoc acute infections I'm children under 5y...about 75% of hospitalisation in children under 5years occur in infants< 1 while about 92% hospitalisation in adults occur above 65years

Conclusion
' Our analysis focused on estimating RSV and influenza associated hospitalisation in children and adults based on socio economic status using SIMD levels in Scotland. Our results show that RSV hospitalisation rates are twice as much in groups that are most deprived compared to least deprived groups in Scotland.
We observed that deprivation related disparity in RSV hospitalisation rates were mors pronounced in children aged 2 years and younger than in other age groups.thess results underscore the need to create more awareness of RSV associated hospitalisation among individuals in deprived groups and areas at various levels in the hospital clinical setup and it may also be useful to consider this as part of triage and or treatment strategy

https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/229/Supplement_1/S61/7292886

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Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · Mar 21

Disabled people fighting back against cuts with protests across the UK: THIS Saturday

Protests will take place in over 20 areas, including London, Birmingham, Liverpool, and Edinburgh.

To find your nearest protest, head to Crips Against Cuts Instagram: www.instagram.com/crips_against_cuts

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

www.instagram.com

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BuDS Disability Service @buds-disability.bsky.social · Mar 17

We're pleased to hear the DWP Secretary talking about social security in the Commons. Social security - security in hard times - is at the heart of a fair and just society. Welfare is a US term deliberately introduced in 2010 to stigmatise those needing help.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c0...

Benefit changes: Moral and economic reasons to fix 'broken' welfare system, says No 10 - live updates

Some Labour MPs say the government should borrow more rather than reduce benefits - or introduce a wealth tax.

www.bbc.co.uk

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The Canary @thecanaryuk.bsky.social · Mar 17

EXPOSED: Labour's plan for DWP cuts to severely disabled people's Universal Credit came from the Resolution Foundation

The Resolution Foundation was a progressive think tank - yet it has thrown disabled people under the bus, as Labour's planned cuts were its idea
www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/...

EXPOSED: Labour's plan for DWP cuts to severely disabled people's Universal Credit came from the Resolution Foundation

The Resolution Foundation was progressive think tank - yet it has thrown disabled people under the bus with DWP Universal Credit cuts

www.thecanary.co

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Reposted by Andrea Barrett

Honor Rhodes @honor.bsky.social · Mar 17

For our American friends- look here. #DEI #Science

Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · Mar 17

KLAXON 🚨: Indie SAGE has come out of retirement to release a new short report standing up for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the sciences!

DEI is not just the right thing to do, it *improves* the quality of the science. Please read and share.

independentsage.org/wp-content/u...

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Andrea Barrett @andreabarrett.bsky.social · Mar 6

@breathe-easy-sheff.bsky.social hosted a masked gig in Sheffield in February (2025)

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Clean Air Hampshire @cleanairhampshire.bsky.social · Mar 6

Time for Clean Air Hampshire's March virtual social meetup

(every 1st Thurs of month)

Today Thursday 6th March @ 7-8pm 💙

teams.live.com/meet/9344497...

Join meeting on Teams

teams.live.com

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Natalie Bennett @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social · Feb 19

Pandemics - no one is safe until everyone is safe. And no one is safe

#PublicHealth
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Learn COVID pandemic lessons — before it’s too late

Five years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, public weariness and irresponsible politics are hampering an effective response to global infectious-disease outbreaks.

www.nature.com

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Protect the Heart of the Arts 💕🎗️🌈 😷 @heartofthearts.bsky.social · Feb 16

Image shows two protestors hold a sign "All the World is COVID's Stage." Image text reads as: "Performing is an inherently high-risk profession for airborne pathogens like SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID. Actors, singers, and theatre workers spend hours in poorly ventilated indoor spaces, often without access to effective COVID protections such as HEPA air filtration, accurate molecular testing like PlusLife, and audience and crew mask wearing"

Two masked protestors hold a sign at the BAFTAs. "All the World is COVID's Stage." Image text reads as: "Long COVID is a multi-system condition with over 200 documented symptoms. It affects breath control, stamina, memory, and cognitive function--essential abilities for anyone working in the performing arts. A 2022 study in the Journal of Voice found that 30% of Broadway performers suffered long-term vocal damage after COVID infection."

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Protect the Heart of the Arts 💕🎗️🌈 😷 @heartofthearts.bsky.social · Feb 16

Long COVID protester with blue hair in BAFTAs red carpet stopped by security and holding a sign. Text reads as: Taking part in the protest were members of COVID Action, a grassroots campaign of individual activists and labour and trade union organisations. Hazards Campaign also supported the action, saying, "We have been supporting a hierarchy of controls approach: proper ventilation, more space, masking if necessary."

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Bethany/Ruth @honeycrisp.bsky.social · Feb 9

At the cinema to see David Tennant in the #ScottishPlay & the majority of the nearly sold-out crowd are in respirators. I've been to a number of movie showings here since mask mandates were lifted in '22 & haven't seen another person masking until now. @heartofthearts.bsky.social #SaltingTheVibes

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Dr Sally Witcher @salwitcher.bsky.social · Feb 16

Well done @heartofthearts.bsky.social for drawing attention to the urgent need for action to promote Covid-safety in the arts 👏

Inclusive New Normal @inclusivenew.bsky.social · Feb 16

"...without urgent action, we’re not just losing individual careers, we’re losing lives. And with them, the very ability to create art at all. At a time when the world needs art more than ever to remind us of our shared humanity, we are being abandoned." www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2025...

‘SILENCE=DEATH’: Long COVID-suffering performers protest outside BAFTAs

Long Covid-suffering performers sounded the alarm on this chronic illness emergency in the performing arts outside the BAFTAs

www.thecanary.co

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Protect the Heart of the Arts 💕🎗️🌈 😷 @heartofthearts.bsky.social · Feb 16

A big thank you to @folkpersons.bsky.social for the art. So evocative!

Two drama masks one wearing respi mask and one gray and cracked. “All the world is Covid’s stage…”

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Protect the Heart of the Arts 💕🎗️🌈 😷 @heartofthearts.bsky.social · Feb 16

WE DID IT! 🥳🥳😷😷💕💕

Long COVID-suffering performers and allies sounded the alarm on the Long COVID emergency in the arts at #EEBAFTAs.

One protestor rushed the red carpet, chanting “Silence=Death” echoing the estimated 27m people who have died as a result of COVID.

Long COVID protester with blue hair in BAFTAs red carpet stopped by security and holding a sign.

Two masked protestors hold a sign at the BAFTAs. "All the World is COVID's Stage."

Two protestors hold a sign at the BAFTAs "All the World is COVID's Stage."

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · Feb 14

If this reporting stands up (and it appears confirmed by multiple sources): devastating.

The EIS is the front-line SWAT team of disease detection in the US and globally, and also the training ground for new generations of public health workers.

No EIS, no boots on the ground for outbreaks. ->

Jeremy Faust, MD @jeremyfaust.bsky.social · Feb 14

Major news:

Entire first-year class of the Epidemic Intelligence Service must be out by 5pm, sources say.

Also: a major CDC contractor "just let go." Others may follow.

This is an attack on our ability to detect outbreaks.

More, with quotes from CDC officials:
open.substack.com/pub/insideme...

News: Half of CDC "disease detectives" terminated. DOGE takes aim at US disease surveillance.

Entire first-year class of the Epidemic Intelligence Service must be out by 5 p.m., sources say. Also: a major CDC contractor "just let go," and others may follow.

open.substack.com

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