Utility Week

Community tines and declared: "The people will soon see that they were tricked by these governors and by the large part of the media when it comes to coronavirus. "It is a shameless campaign, a colossal and absurd campaign against the head of state." There is something almost magnificent about Jair's ability to frame a worldwide plague in terms of his own political ambition. Incredibly, although support for the Brazilian prez is faltering, he is still regarded as a mes- sianic figure, especially by the poorly educated, and they are also the people most likely to go along with his "hysteria over a bit of flu" narrative. At least for a while. A rose by any other name Disconnector was much taken with the story (unattributed) that British Gas has "vowed" to replace the term "gas man" with "engineer" on the basis that its use is reinforcing unhelpful gender stereotypes and discour- aging women from applying to become gas engineers. A tabloid newspaper says the UK's biggest energy sup- plier went so far as to lobby the Oxford English Dictionary asking for the phrase "gas man" to be expunged from future editions. Apparently the OED declined the request, pointing out that its Disconnector Publishing director, Utilities: Ellen Bennett, t: 01342 332084, e: ellenbennett@fav-house.com; Content director: Jane Gray, janegray@fav-house.com, t: 01342 333004; Editor: Suzanne Heneghan, t: 01342 332106, e: suzanneheneghan@fav-house.com Digital editor: James Wallin, 01342 332015, jameswallin@fav-house.com; Intelligence editor: Denise Chevin, 01342 332087, denisechevin@fav-house.com Energy correspondent: Tom Grimwood, t: 01342 332061, e: tomgrimwood@fav-house.com; Policy correspondent: David Blackman, e: davidblackman@ fav-house.com; Reporter: Adam John, t: 01342 332069, e: adamjohn@fav-house.com; Water correspondent: Ruth Williams, e: ruthwilliams@fav-house.com, t: 01342 332069 Production editor: Paul Newton, t: 01342 332085, e: paulnewton@fav-house.com; Business development manager: Ben Hammond, e: benhammond@fav-house.com. t: 01342 332116; Business development executive: Sarah Wood, e: sarahwood@fav-house.com. t: 01342 332117 Conference sponsorship manager: Sophie Abbott, t: 01342 332062, e: sophieabbott@fav-house.com; General enquiries: 01342 332000; Membership enquiries: Peter Bissell, t: 01342 332057, e: peterbissell@fav-house.com. 2,500 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2018 Membership subscriptions: UK £950+VAT per year. Contact Jo Nikiforov on: 01342 332077 Utility Week is a member of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), the regulator of the UK's magazine and newspaper industry. We abide by the Editors' Code of Practice and are committed to upholding the highest standards of journalism. If you think we have not met those standards and want to make a complaint, please contact the Editor. If we are unable to resolve your complaint, or if you want more information about IPSO or the Editors' Code, contact IPSO on 0300 123 2220 or visit www.ipso.co.uk. "a lot of hope" that the drug can be used to fight off Covid-19 in humans too. Unfortunately, what's good for cats ain't necessarily good for humans, and anyway we're not talking about coronaviruses gen- erally, but a very specific one. Still, full marks to the tabloid for thinking it necessary to find an "angle" on the story. Of course, Disconnector is old enough to remember when a devastating plague that could well cause hundreds of thou- sands of deaths was considered newsworthy anyway. It's not you, it's me Hats off, too, to Jair Bolsonaro, the right-wing president of Brazil who seems to be on a mission to out-Trump Trump in his deter- mination to prove that science is really just a matter of opinion. Bolsonaro, remember, last caused outrage when he accused the international community of exaggerating the importance of immense wildfires raging across the Amazon. In the ensuing spat he defended his position by accusing Emmanuel Macron of having an ugly wife. Now Jair has declared the coronavirus epidemic a hoax dreamt up specifically to attack him. In an angry TV interview at the weekend, he attacked the governors of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo for imposing quaran- Read all about it! These are testing times, make no mistake about that. The UK-wide lockdown to try to arrest the spread of Covid-19 has been compared to "condi- tions last seen in wartime". But it's the opposite – in wartime a country is a hive of activity; everyone has a job to do. This is a something completely different: a mas- sive social experiment that has never been tried before where everyone is told they can best do their duty by just going home and staying there. The government has effec- tively pressed "pause" on the economy. Everyone's hoping that a £300 billion "bazooka" of cash can keep the economy afloat until the government presses "play" again. But nobody knows. In such uncertain times, it's reassuring that some things never change, such as the Daily Star finding no subject so seri- ous that it can't be trivialised, and yes, Disconnector is talk- ing about the Big C: Covid-19. "Coronavirus could be beaten by cat medicine" screamed a headline last week (spoiler: it can't). The bones of the story were that a medicine used to treat leukaemia in cats can kill off a bug called FeCOV, a strain of coronavirus. Thus, the paper speculates, there is UTILITY WEEK | 27TH MARCH - 2ND APRIL 2020 | 31 job was to record the language as it was used, and not to adjudicate on which words we should be using. The spokes- man added sniffily: "If evi- dence shows that 'gas man' is no longer widely used it could be labelled as historical." Egging you on Disconnector is pleased to end what has undoubtedly been a grim week with a bit of good news: it turns out that there isn't a£er all any link between eggs and heart disease. A definitive study published in the British Medical Journal finally laid to rest the stubborn myth that because of their cholesterol content, eggs cause heart problems. Scientists say they have finally cracked the case – con- firming that there is no link. A US team, headed by a Harvard researcher, measured the diets of 215,618 healthy men and women who averaged one to five eggs a week for 32 years. According to lead author Dr Jean-Philippe Drouin-Chartier: "The results from our cohort study and updated meta analysis show that moderate egg consumption (up to one egg per day) is not associated with cardiovascular disease risk overall." So, dear reader, feel free to treat yourself to an egg – if you can find any.

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