File:No patients with nerve agent - Times letter.jpg


 * Source
 * https://twitter.com/Deus_Abscondis/status/975165456695767041
 * https://twitter.com/SocialistVoice/status/975026456135954433 (alternate version)

Was not sure it is genuine, and tried to verify. I am getting this out of Google, with the article itself under paywall:
 * NHS Listing for Stephen Davies --Diagonal (talk) 13:41, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

--Resup (talk) 04:02, 18 March 2018 (UTC)
 * British retaliation against Russia's actions - The Times, March 16, 2018
 * ''Sir, Further to your report (“Poison exposure leaves almost 40 needing treatment”, Mar 14), may I clarify that no patients have experienced symptoms of nerve agent poisoning in Salisbury and there have only ever been three patients with significant poisoning. Several people have attended the emergency
 * Russia: Salisbury poison fears allayed by doctor - The Times, March 16, 2018
 * ''Dozens of patients who went to hospital after the Salisbury poisoning were unaffected by the nerve agent, a doctor has revealed.
 * ''As Theresa May visited the Wiltshire city and declared it “open for business”, Stephen Davies, a consultant in emergency medicine at the Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust, said that no one other than Sergei and Yulia Skripal and Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey had needed treatment.
 * ''The poisoning had prompted concern about the public’s potential exposure to the novichok nerve agent, as well as complaints about a lack of information from the authorities. Neil Basu, the police head of counterterrorism, said on Tuesday that 35 people, other than the Skripals and Mr Bailey, had been seen by doctors after the attack.
 * "Any blood tests performed have shown no abnormality"
 * This presumably would not be stated if they had found exposure to an agent at that time. Prsumably effects of nerve agent exposure would be reflected in initial blood tests. Did Porton Down takes blood samples subsequently to hospital tests? --Diagonal (talk) 14:22, 2 May 2018 (UTC)
 * The article is pay-walled, I entered a quote from the before paywall, the rest appears in this graphics file. The meaning of this is not entirely clear, blood tests including Skipals, or excluding them? What tests?-It may be the case that normal NHS blood tests are not going to show organophosphates poisoning as it is not being tested for by NHS, only by some special bio-CW teams. --Resup (talk) 17:54, 2 May 2018 (UTC)


 * Judge gives doctors the go-ahead to take blood samples from former Russian spy Sergei Skripal -Salisbury Journal, 22 March 2018
 * This apparently says that judge decision allowing blood tests was after the doctor's comment that blood tests showed no abnormality. (Were there any earlier judge decisions?) The doctor was talking about group of people seen after the accident, with Skipals included or nor being a bit vague. The doctor does seem to say that there were no nerve agent symptoms spotted (apparently Skripals including, as I understand). But there may be no blood test of Skripals. Or it was not supposed to be. Do I miss something here? Judge decision allowed blood samples taken AND given to CW experts. It is unclear whether NHS can take blood samples for proper treatment without sharing them outisde of NHS and without judge order --Resup (talk) 11:06, 3 May 2018 (UTC)


 * Yes, it is not clear if 'any' refers to the other members of the public assessed,or the three with significant poisoning or both groups - as might be implied by 'any'. Those tests must have been taken prior to the request to the Court of Protection. They must have taken tests of the Skripals early on, surely? --Diagonal (talk) 17:15, 3 May 2018 (UTC)

July 2018: This was investigated by Rob Slane - ''I have now managed to get in touch with Dr. Davies, and he has very helpfully given me clarification. He has told me that The Times edited his letter, and that this produced a misleading message. Furthermore, he confirmed to me that the three patients mentioned in his letter “were poisoned with a nerve agent, confirmed by blood tests and symptoms.”''