Coronavirus – A perspective from Britain Part 14

Written by Andy Rowlands on November 3, 2020. Posted in Current News

This article covers the second half of October. Above is the chart from the BBC virus webpage for the number of new cases in the UK up to October 31^st. The UK has just topped one million cases, and the media are making much of that fact. However, what this actually means is one sixty-eighth of the population has the virus. One million out of 68 million.

This is the graph of new cases in Birmingham and Solihull for the month of October.

Weekend numbers are still not being added to the BBC virus webpage, and are added to the Monday numbers, so as before, I record those as zero to avoid huge misleading spikes.

On the 14^th, the BBC website showed that home test kits given to residents in an area of Birmingham had already been used. The council said 25 kits were wrongly given out, but comments in the article suggested the figure was higher.

It can be seen here: www.bbc.co.uk

On the 16^th, the Evening Standard reported the PM’s ‘official spokesman’ [the person was not named] said:

Couples living apart in areas with Tier 2 restrictions are not allowed to have sleepovers unless they are in a “support bubble”.

Boyfriends and girlfriends will be able to meet outdoors in Tier 2 but are expected to adhere to social distancing rules such as hands, face and space. (Emphasis added)

In other words, while you can meet your partner, you cannot touch them or go to their house.

The article continues:

He added: “As has been the case throughout this pandemic – whether in following guidance or more recently when we placed it into law – you should behave at all times in the basis of the tier that you live in. (Emphasis added)

This means someone from a Tier 2, he said, could not leave the area to go to socialise in a pub in a Tier 1 area. (Emphasis added)

It can be seen here: www.standard.co.uk/

On the 17^th, the BBC virus webpage stated: Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that “without action, there is no doubt that our NHS would soon be struggling to treat the sheer number of people seriously ill with Covid”.

Struggling? Really? I beg to differ.

It continues:

An effort by the Welsh government to prevent the spread of infection, means people from Northern Ireland, parts of Scotland and areas of England in tiers two and three are now banned from travelling to Wales. The Welsh government is also considering a two-week lockdown for the whole country. (Emphasis added)

Northern Ireland has extended half-term and closed schools for two weeks. It has also imposed new, tighter restrictions on the hospitality sector, with pubs, restaurants, hotels, cinemas, cafes and a range of other businesses to remain to closed until at least Friday 13 November. (Emphasis added)

It also said: On Friday, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that approximately one in 160 people in homes in England had coronavirus in the week ending 8 October. That equates to 336,500 people – approximately 50% higher than the figure the previous last week.

By the 23^rd, that had increased to 1 in 130 according to the BBC virus webpage.

The way that number is reducing, in a few weeks it will close to 1 in 1 and what happens then? Do we pull up the drawbridge and shut the country off from the rest of the world? Make it illegal to leave your house for any reason, and just wait for everyone to die of starvation? That would certainly eliminate the virus here.

The same day, Worldometer had jumped the UK up one place to 11^th by cases, and on the 26^th, we had jumped two places to 9^th place.

On the 19^th, the Welsh government announced a ‘national lockdown’ from October 23^rd to November 9^th. People in Wales will be told to stay at home and pubs, restaurants, hotels and non-essential shops must shut. (Emphasis added)

John O’Sullivan’s excellent article on the 29^th reveals how this is affecting Wales – principia-scientific.com

At the press briefing on the 20^th, the PM said that while the government was trying to avoid a national lockdown, “we don’t rule anything out“.

The same day, Sir Patrick Vallance was reported as saying It is “unlikely” that a coronavirus vaccine will be able to completely stop the spread of infection, the government’s chief scientific advisor has warned, adding that the disease may well become endemic in the global population – much like influenza.

Well, who would have thought that?

Not being able to fully exterminate the Covid virus does of course, give governments the excuse to make restrictions permanent.

On the 23^rd, Greater Manchester joined neighbouring Lancashire and Liverpool City Region in Tier 3, referred to as the “very high alert” category, and the following day, people started posting pictures online of Supermarkets in Wales covering up non-food items to stop people buying them. The logic behind that escapes me.

On the 25^th, the Daily Mail ran an article suggesting the government is about to introduce a fourth tier of even more severe restrictions, but offered no information about what that might involve.

On the 27^th, the Daily Mail reported on an article published in The Lancet, which described a potential new virus test that involves nothing more than taking a sample of breath, to analyse the various gases we exhale. The article says people with the virus will exhale less methanol, and the test will give a reading in less than one minute. No indication when this test might be used was given, but anything is better than having a lance shoved up your hooter.

It can be seen here: www.dailymail.co.uk

The following day, the Daily Mail ran an article suggesting the whole of England will have to be put into Tier 3 by Christmas, with Patrick Vallance being quoted as saying the death toll will hit 500 a day within weeks, and projecting the second wave will last for months.

However, the Environment Secretary George Eustice insisted a national lockdown is ‘not appropriate‘ because there is ‘no point having a lockdown in those parts of the country where the incidence of the disease is very low‘.

The Northern Research Group of more than 50 Red Wall MPs is adamant the PM must announce a road map for how areas can get out of Tier 3 as rebels warned the north of England is being unfairly treated. The group’s efforts received a boost from Chancellor Rishi Sunak on the 27^th as he said he shared the MPs’ frustrations at rules being imposed and ‘you want to know when it is going to be over‘.

On the 31^st, despite the R number continuing to drop, and despite warnings from many MP’s, including from his own party, of the grave damage to the economy, the PM confirmed England will be put under a second four-week total lockdown from midnight on November 4^th, with all business except manufacturing and all shops except food shops instructed to close again.

Under the new restrictions:

• People are being told to stay at home unless they have a specific reason to leave, such as work which cannot be done from home and education
• People are also allowed to leave home for exercise, medical reasons, food and other essential shopping and providing care for vulnerable people
• Meeting indoors or in private gardens will not be allowed. The ban includes partners who live elsewhere
• Non-essential retail across the nation will close but click-and-collect shopping can remain open
• Leisure and entertainment venues, including gyms, will also close
• Construction sites and manufacturing workplaces can remain open
• University students cannot return home to see family until the end of term
• Overseas travel is allowed for work or essential trips only
• Travelling to holiday homes is also outlawed.
• Restaurants, cafes and pubs will all shut their doors to sit-in customers – but can carry on providing a takeaway service. Alcohol cannot be served
• Garden centres will be allowed to remain open.

Garden centres can stay open? Yeah, they’ll be packed in November.

Cue more businesses closing permanently, and more unemployment.

Leading mental health experts also warned the government this second lockdown will trigger spikes in suicide, self-harm, alcoholism and domestic abuse, which have already been way above normal this year.

I was made aware of this a few days ago. A study published on the grassrootshealth website during September, showing a 47% reduction of virus cases in people with good levels of vitamin D, so either take your vitamin supplements, or get out into the fresh air as much as you can.

I took a screenshot of the chart below, and cropped it to remove extraneous detail.

The document can be seen here: www.grassrootshealth.net

The R number

On the 9^th the R number was showing as 1.2-1.5. By the 18^th, it had changed to 1.3-1.5. Surprisingly, on the 23^rd, it had reduced slightly to 1.2-1.4. By the 31^st, it had dropped to 1.1-1.3.

This is the chart for UK hospital admissions up to October 31^st.

According to Worldometer, the number of people in hospital in critical condition in the UK had risen to 978 by the 31^st, still way below the 1559 I recorded at the height of the first wave.

This is the chart for UK deaths up to October 31^st.

The BBC virus webpage has changed the wording for deaths, to now read ‘coronavirus-related deaths’, which includes people suspected of having died from the virus, even if they were not tested.

Deaths have started to climb again, but the entire mainstream media seems to be ignoring the fact that as winter approaches, older people and those with compromised immune systems start to die in increasing numbers, just as happens every year. This year however, the majority of these deaths are being blamed on the virus.

On average in the UK, around 20,000 die from seasonal flu each year. This year, according to official government figures, only 394 have died of flu, all the other 19,600 deaths have been blamed on the virus.

The five-year average

The graphic below shows the five-year average of UK deaths, and we see as with every other year, once colder weather gets here, deaths start to rise. However, we can clearly see in this chart they are pretty much ‘normal’ for this time of year.

According to Worldometer, the number of active cases worldwide as of October 31^st stands at 11.69 million. Of those, 11.61 million are mild, with just 84,000 classed as serious / critical. In the UK, we have just reached one million cases, with 978 classed as serious / critical.

Last week it was revealed the government will now combine Covid and flu deaths into a single reported number. This has not been widely, if at all, reported by the media, so it will make people think the virus is killing more people than it is.

This is no longer a pandemic, it is a casedemic.

Gates said in mid-October that we will not be free of restrictions until a ‘second-generation’ vaccine has been developed and deployed and the virus has been completely eradicated. That might be ten years or more away, which means antisocial distancing and many of the current regulations and other restrictions will remain in force for years to come.

This is the reality of your ‘New Normal’.

About the author: Andy Rowlands is a British Principia Scientific International researcher, writer and editor who co-edited the new climate science book, ‘The Sky Dragon Slayers: Victory Lap‘

Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Expose The Lies About COVID19

PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX. 

Please DONATE TODAY To Help Our Non-Profit Mission To Defend The Scientific Method.

Trackback from your site.