Johannesburg-based investment banker Cheri Nel is the driving force behind a court case that may result in dramatically expanded access to life-changing new cystic fibrosis medicines. Biénne Huisman asked Nel about the motivation behind the court case and what it is like to live with CF.
WE have just been condescended to with the latest gracious set of permissions to lead parts of our lives by the First Minster (for which we should of course all be humbly grateful). It includes many generous liberties granted by Nicola Sturgeon, but one in particular is conspicuous by its absence: although travel across mainland Scotland will be allowed from April 26, no such permission has been given to travel to other parts of the United Kingdom. Ms Sturgeon has never lived or worked outside of Scotland, which may account for the narrow and pinched perspectives of her politics. She has made it plain that she regards the people of England as so different from those of Scotland that we need a border between us, and indeed it has been her life’s ambition to see such a border. The pandemic has given her a chance to cut us off from our families and friends, and now she wants to hold on to the separation of Scotland from the rest of the UK for as long as possible.
IN recent days announcements have been made by numerous supermarkets that they intend to prevent customers from entering their stores if they refuse to wear a mask (except for medical reasons and other exemptions). My question regarding the lack of such enforcement of mask wearing by customers is: why, under the terms of the Health and Safety at Work Act, have employers not been obliged, using the risk assessment process, to enforce the wearing of face masks by all staff and customers for the protection of their own employees since the problems associated with Covid-19 first became apparent? Whilst not an excuse for any employer in terms of the measures to be introduced for the safety of their employees, as far as I can ascertain current HSE guidance (last reviewed December 31, 2020) makes no mention of the need for face masks in its Covid-19 guidance, which is in itself strange since Scottish Government policy is that people frequenting shops (presumably including employees in