Dr Sally Witcher
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salwitcher.bsky.social
Dr Sally Witcher
@salwitcher.bsky.social
2.4K followers 390 following 240 posts
Working to promote a safe #InclusiveNewNormal by maximising ongoing learning arising through the Covid pandemic and responses to it. #Masketeer
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salwitcher.bsky.social
If you thought you'd heard it all where it concerns explanations for increased demand for healthcare 'post-Covid' without mentioning the health impacts of ongoing Covid, I refer you to Cabinet Sec Neil Gray's response to the Citizen Participation & Petitions Committee yesterday 😕
September 25, 2025 at 2:45 PM
salwitcher.bsky.social
2. The Global Commission on Healthy Indoor Air was launched late yesterday evening BST, at a high-level side event at the UN Assembly in New York, with an array of global leaders speaking and attending. #GlobalCommissionHIA #HealthyBuildings #IAQ
Screenshot of livestream of the high-level side-event at the UN Assembly, with all speakers gathered on the platform and audience facing them, viewed from behind.
September 24, 2025 at 12:26 PM
salwitcher.bsky.social
1. As someone at high clinical risk interacting online daily with others locally & globally whose lives are similarly restricted due to unsafe indoor air, I couldn't be more honoured & excited to be part of this landmark initiative to make healthy indoor air a priority for every country & community
Image says "Proud to serve on the Global Commission on Healthy Indoor Air. Meeting the call to action to improve public health and boost human performance
September 24, 2025 at 12:24 PM
salwitcher.bsky.social
And lots of these...
Person holding orange poster saying "Stop Trump. Free Gaza". Tow people golding orange posters. One says "Stop Trump. Stop the far right.". The other says "Nae Trump".
July 27, 2025 at 7:48 AM
salwitcher.bsky.social
Yesterday in Edinburgh... #NaeTrump
Two women standing next to each other. Right hand side in profile playing bagpipes with banner saying 'At least this bag of hot air serves a purpose' with cartoon of bably orange trump. Left hand side facing camera holding up sign saying 'Sorry I can't hear your BULLS**T over her BAGPIPES'. Banner with image of Trump, saying 'Does this arse make my country look small?' Two placards, one saying 'Off ye pop, Donald! Ta' and the other 'Trump yer an eejit!!' Two posters next to each other. One says "My outrage can't fit on this page". The other says "....Nor on this page!"
July 27, 2025 at 7:48 AM
salwitcher.bsky.social
Scoland is famous for its poetry
Two people with banner saying 'Go home ya big orange jobby'
July 26, 2025 at 9:12 AM
salwitcher.bsky.social
Scotland says no.
Image of Scottish flag with white cross like tape over Trump's mouth. Below reads "Scotland says no to Trump"
July 26, 2025 at 8:46 AM
salwitcher.bsky.social
Scotland prepares to say 'Get tae f**k'
NEW: A sign saying 'twinned with Epstein Island' has appeared at Donald Trump's Aberdeenshire golf course. Image shows the officialn sign for the golf course which has 'Trump International Golf Course Scotland' with a sign attached below with 'Twinned with Epstein Island' on it.
July 23, 2025 at 9:49 AM
salwitcher.bsky.social
Following the Government's decision to cut billions from disability benefits, and my blog to my MP on Wednesday begging him (again) to vote against it, I found out how he spent his day 😡 threadreaderapp.com/thread/19436...
Screenshot of my post saying "While Parliament debated whether ti remove the benefit lifelines that keep disabled people from starvation, I see he was out enjoying a 'terrific lunch'. Repost below of tweet from French Minister about the terrific lunch with Chris Murray. Top of a photo of the 4 contented diners.
July 12, 2025 at 9:56 AM
salwitcher.bsky.social
Disabled people protesting outside the Scottish Parliament today, against an assisted dying Bill wholly lacking in real safeguards & wide open to coercion. We may have lost the 1st vote today but we're fighting for our lives and the fight isn't over. With campaigner Liz Carr & Pam Duncan-Glancy MSP.
Crowd of disabled people with lots of placards, outside the Scottish Parliament, with campaigner Liz Carr and Pam Duncan Glancy MSP at the front. Placards say "Support us to live not to die", "Dignity in Living", "Kill the Bill not me", "Assist us to live not to die" "Lethal weapon in the hands of domestic abusers" "Kill the Bill" A close-up of some disabled people protesting outside the Scottish Parliament, with placards and banners. Placards say "Bin the Death Bill" and "Assist us to live not to die".
May 13, 2025 at 6:45 PM
salwitcher.bsky.social
My experience of AI meeting recordings has been somewhat 'mixed', ranging from terrible to hilarious, so I usually don't bother. But recently I accidentally turned it on just as the meeting ended. So it sent me a transcript. Then I asked for a summary😂
Screenshot headed "AI meeting notes". Under it says "Short summary". Then "The meeting concluded with Sally saying goodbye. There were no additional discussions or topics addressed. Overall, it appears to have been a brief interaction". Below is a heading saying "Transcript". Then: "Sally Witcher". Then "Bye". Duration 00.00
April 16, 2025 at 5:48 PM
salwitcher.bsky.social
Sometimes I need a break from fighting the relentless oncoming march of fascism, so I visit a safer, kinder time.

View through the window of my bedroom at my mum's old house.

Oil on canvas, 9.5"x11.5"
Painting of window, offset, sloping towards right hand side. A blind above, part of the top of a white wooden chair below on left hand side. On the window sill, a toy koala bear in the far left hand corner, an empty bright red ceramic pot centre and a dinky toy mini on the right hand side. Through the window, a distant tree-lined horizon, yellow and green fields, lined by hedges and tressm and a couple of out-buildings. Stripes of while clouds with glimpses of blue.
February 17, 2025 at 4:16 PM
salwitcher.bsky.social
You know the saying “Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight; red sky at morning, shepherd’s warning”? Here's this morning's warning. Just in case anyone hadn't already noticed the world is going to hell in a handcart [apart from a tiny bit of cropping & straightening these photos aren't edited at all]
Black silhouetted outline of a lamp-post in the centre (lamp illuminated), foliage and building, against a backdrop of a stunningly brightly coloured salmon pink and purple sky. Black silhouetted foliage with chimney to the left of centre, against stunningly bright salmon pink and purple sky behind and above.
February 3, 2025 at 5:04 PM
salwitcher.bsky.social
Hello people of Edinburgh/Scotland/ Ireland, if any of you are missing a large piece of plasterboard it just fell from the sky and landed outside my back door.
Piece of plasterboard with two straight edges and two jagged torn ones
January 24, 2025 at 1:08 PM
salwitcher.bsky.social
Glad helpful! The extent & pace of mutation really does seem to be the most important factor where it concerns Covid. It's very clearly shown in wastewater data for Scotland (others don't collect it). It showed the highest rate in July last year since Omicron's first year in 2022
Chart showing peaks Spring 2022, July 2022, Autumn 2023, June 2024
January 8, 2025 at 1:29 PM
salwitcher.bsky.social
I've always hated the festive pressure to buy over-priced pointless tat. I particularly hate it when so many people are going through extremely challenging times and are fearful for the future. So my card is to wish you all a Christmas of Gifts that Matter, and that they continue throughout 2025.
Bottom half of a Christmas tree decorated with coloured baubles catching the light, dark with red glow. Four brightly illuminated yellow presents underneath, each with a big star on the front, with the words hope, hugs, safety and joy written, one on each. In the top left hand corner it says Wishing you Gifts that Matter.
December 24, 2024 at 10:51 AM
salwitcher.bsky.social
Photo 6/6. Thank you for reading. I hope this is a helpful contribution to a highly complex debate. Please be assured that, whatever your views, that is my sincere intention.
For goodness sake! Even before it’s debated there’s pressure to make eligibility criteria more ‘generous’. They won’t stop. As with Assisted Suicide Bills in different guises, they’ll keep hammering away until one day they batter down the door. How then can we ensure that attacks on #AssistanceToLive support for desperate & unprofitable people & thus deflect the blows onto them, never culminate in an #AssistedDeathPenalty? All this is why this Bill is relevant not just to people nearing the end of life but many others. At root it’s about what kind of society we want to live in. Is it one that sees the purpose of profit as being to improve lives or the purpose of lives as being to improve profit? We should judge a society not just by how it treats its most vulnerable but by how many people it renders vulnerable when it has the wealth & resources, the knowledge, skills & technology, not to do so. The stakes are high. No wonder it’s become a polarised, emotionally charged debate. If, as I hope & believe, there are good well-meaning people on all sides we must unite to call a halt to this Bill. The opportunities it offers to people who are not good or well-meaning are huge. If you want choice to end genuinely unavoidable suffering and also don’t want death to be the only choice when genuinely avoidable suffering is imposed, this is not the way. It cannot be resolved in 5 hours of heated parliamentary debate & Committee fiddling with clauses. Surely no good well-meaning person would ever risk opening the door to eugenics by stealth, as this Bill would regrettably do? I don’t have all the answers. Not even all the questions! Maybe good answers don’t exist. But surely we need to do all we can to try to find them
November 28, 2024 at 3:07 PM
salwitcher.bsky.social
Photo 5/6
As a former Chair of a Government Commission charged with scrutinising draft legislation (albeit of a different kind) I can tell you this Bill will safeguard no one. It is wide open to consequences that all people on all sides of the debate who genuinely want to do the right thing would never support. But you don’t need legal or policy expertise to see the gaping holes. Just an understanding of how coercion/ manipulation operates shines a light on its many flaws & how they could be exploited by less well-meaning agendas. How good choices can be removed, leaving people between a rock & a hard place, These are very serious, ethically & implementationally complex matters. Getting it wrong opens the door to huge potential for avoidable harm all round, at a time when an increasingly profit-driven society combined with cost-of-living rises is making the lives of the unprofitable ever harder. Is it even possible to design a Bill that makes all forms of coercion impossible, now and in the future? What can government do to enshrine real freedom of choice when government policy has progressively shut it down? Can we even imagine what real freedom of choice & dignity, for everyone to live a good life & die a good death, would look like, let alone how to make that happen? That’s what needs to be debated. Because if that is not in place, there is no freedom of choice. There is #ConstructedCoercion. How can we ensure that once the door to state-sanctioned killing is unlocked & opened a crack it won’t be kicked ever more widely open? The learning from other countries confirms this will happen. Anyone claiming otherwise does so on the basis of wishful thinking & no evidence whatsoever.
November 28, 2024 at 3:07 PM
salwitcher.bsky.social
Photo 4/6
So what does scope for many potential forms and sources of coercion & manipulation mean for genuine ‘freedom of choice’ & autonomy? How can we have confidence #AssistedDying can never be driven by motives other than accurate clinical calculations of an inevitably imminent & bad death? We can’t. None of this is to deny the reality of extreme & inevitable suffering of a bad death, where medical advances mean life can be prolonged despite intolerable pain with no prospect of improvement & every prospect of it going from bad to worse. But also none of this is to deny the reality of extreme suffering of a bad life when this isn’t inevitable but politically constructed. Nor is it to suggest that coercive manipulation cannot apply in all cases. Another key question is whether normalising choice to die by groups deemed unprofitable seem likely to spur investment in support to make their lives & deaths better – in palliative care, mental health support, clinical research, social security, healthcare based on need, etc. I think not. Supporters of the Bill assert it contains robust safeguards. The eligibility criteria are the eligibility criteria. They can’t be changed. I don’t know if this said out of naivety, disingenuity or downright dishonesty. Where Parliament is sovereign there’s no Act of Parliament that cannot be amended or repealed.
November 28, 2024 at 3:07 PM
salwitcher.bsky.social
Photo 3/6 #EconomicCoercion #MedicalCoercion #PoliticalCoercion #AssistanceToLive #ConstructedCoercion #AssistedDying
It can be #EconomicCoercion - normalising the idea that sick/ older/ disabled people are nothing but an impediment to economic growth (a view voiced in the UK Covid Inquiry); that the value of human lives is solely measured by how much profit powerful people can extract from them It can be #MedicalCoercion: the progressive destruction of our NHS so what you get depends on ability to pay, not need; by epic long-term underfunding; by making healthcare settings unsafe; dumbing down expertise with Physician Associates & neutralising regulators. It’s about destroying trust in medics (see CV & Long Covid groups surveys) while giving even more power to them. The issuing of DNARs we saw in the early days of the pandemic, defining clinical need by budgetary restrictions & often ill-informed judgements on quality of life. All underpinned by #PoliticalCoercion (or that of multinational masters/ oligarchal overlords?): leaving sick/older/disabled people in deprivation without #AssistanceToLive; bullying sick/ disabled people to work on the fictional basis that if they made more effort they could. Only yesterday our Government threatened that if disabled people & people with a health condition don’t want to be written off they would be offered a ’pathway to work’. No pathway can lead to work people too sick or disabled to work. And no! They don’t want to be ‘written off’. Coercion can be generated by withdrawing support to live a good life. This is #ConstructedCoercion: political choice to generate conditions that render lives intolerable, removing all possibilities of choice to live well &dignity in life, & offer it only in choice to end it.
November 28, 2024 at 3:07 PM
salwitcher.bsky.social
Photo 2/6 #ConcealedCoercion #SocialCoercion #CulturalCoercion
Coercion can be the straw to breaks the camel’s back. When people already in despair, wracked by feelings of uselessness, desperately trying & failing, for reasons far beyond their control, to support their families, unexpectedly find themselves in what’s become known as the Westminster tunnel of death, of wall-to-wall posters. https://x.com/fleurmeston/status/1861052031437291822 All it might take is for a doctor to raise death as a reasonable choice to consider; their power & authority normalising & legitimising it & removing any last shred of hope or fight to live. It’s also worth noting how often doctors get wrong that death is anyway imminent. Coercion can be publicly displayed or hidden behind closed doors, direct or indirect. It can extend to coercing silence. Quite how #ConcealedCoercion can be spotted by medics (who may not even spot the coercive potential of their own actions), judges etc has yet to be explained. Coercion isn’t necessarily by family members after the inheritance or doctors with an eye to treatment budgets. It can be #SocialCoercion #CulturalCoercion – pressure indirectly exerted by normalising choice to die as a supposedly selfless act. These posters are a prime example.
November 28, 2024 at 3:07 PM
salwitcher.bsky.social
This was a long X thread on Assisted Dying, a topic I like many others haved wrestled with. For me it centres on the nature of coercion and manipulation, and what that means for genuine freedom of choice. Too long to post here so have tried posting it in photos and alt text. It may/may not work! 1/6
This is a long thread on Assisted Dying. It’s a topic that I, like many others, have wrestled with. For me it hinges on the nature of coercion & what that means for genuine freedom of choice. It begins with this poster which I find deeply troubling but also illuminating. My wish is that no one I love should ever choose to end their life because they feel they’re a burden. My wish is also that those responsible for this messaging, who say they aim to end suffering, understood how much suffering this may cause to people already in great distress. My wish is that everyone understood the coercive power of such posters, whether or not intended. Coercion includes acts of manipulation & persuasion that do not involve force. It can be subtle, gradual, hinting, indirect, perceived where it isn’t intended and imperceptible when it is.
November 28, 2024 at 3:07 PM
salwitcher.bsky.social
I started this painting in 2021 - my mum watching
Emmerdale - the 1st time I'd been able to see her in 15 months. Couldn’t get it right. I recently recommenced battle. It’s finished. Or I am. Either way I called a truce for Mother's Day. Happy Mothers Day to my lovely mum & mums everywhere!
Elderly lady in light blue jumper, looking attentive, holding a television remote control, sat in brown velvet highbacked chair. Side table to her right, with cluttered items. Big mahogant dresser to the right of that, with crystal class and photos on glass shelves. Print of a painting above her head. Section from larger painting.
March 11, 2024 at 6:16 PM
salwitcher.bsky.social
Wishing an as-happy-as-possible 2024 to all out there fighting for evidence-based public health policy, meaningful democracy that puts the well-being of people before private-sector profit, & an end to performative cruelty & exclusion. It doesn't have to be this way. Time for an #InclusiveNewNormal
Time for an Inclusive New Norm-al (To the tune of Winter Wonderland ) Politicians, are you listening? We're so tired of petitioning. Our basic human rights, We need them tonight! Time for an Inclusive New Norm-al. Yes, "Air-borne" is the key word. Yet to them, has it occurred? To wear a good mask? It's not a big ask. Time for an Inclusive New Norm-al. In the classroom, filters sound a grand plan! Watch the absence rates come tumbling down. They'll say, "Want Long Covid?" We'll say, "No man!" "Please check the CO2 when you're in town." We have got to aim higher, Not just dream by the fire, To move on with our lives, Our health we can't deprive. Time for an Inclusive New Norm-al. When air is clean, ain't it thrillin'? Better health, if more are willin', To frolic and play the Covid-safe way. Time for an Inclusive New Norm-al. Time for an Inclusive New Norm-al.
December 31, 2023 at 5:08 PM
salwitcher.bsky.social
This year's cards came out a bit...odd. Christmas variants, with helpful, festive public health messaging, created by me and an AI image generator.

Wishing you all a merry festive time and very best of luck dodging the plague.
Nine images in three rows of three, each of a brightly coloured Christmas tree bauble in a circular snow-flake frame set into a square gold or other metallic background. On closer inspection each more or less loosely resembling a Covid virus in shape, with clip-art of facemasks with "wear your mask" written on or vaccine syringes more or less subtly incorporated into the image. Image of a gold sparkly bauble-virus with sliver and gold stars coming off it, set into a circular snowflake frame on a gold background, with little masks saying "wear your mask" on them in each of the four corners.
December 21, 2023 at 4:33 PM