Coronavirus – A Perspective from Britain Part 11

Written by Andy Rowlands on September 21, 2020. Posted in Current News

This article covers the first two weeks in September, but first, an item I only became aware of a few days ago.

On August 29^th, the Metro newspaper carried an article saying a new SAGE report predicted up to 85,000 virus deaths over the winter, and that even more severe restrictions than we’ve seen so far would be introduced in November which might not be lifted until March 2021.

There was no link to the report in the article, but the Independent also carried the same story.

It can be seen here: metro.co.uk

September 1^st saw an article in the Metro newspaper saying children are more likely to catch the virus at home than at school. It quotes Dr Hilary Jones saying: I think they’ve gone to extraordinary lengths to make sure children are as safe as possible and we know from all the evidence throughout the course of lockdown and since then, actually the number of outbreaks in schools is 0.01%. The risk of catching Covid-19 is far greater if they stay at home and of course, education is really important too. (Emphasis added)

No evidence to support this claim was presented in the article.

It can be seen here:metro.co.uk

September 2^nd was a busy day for news about the virus. The BBC virus webpage said: The latest figures show deaths at normal levels, slightly above the five-year average. There were 9,631 deaths registered in the UK in the week of 21 August, up on the previous week and 5.2% above the five-year average.

But the ONS says the increase is not due to coronavirus, with the number of deaths involving Covid-19 in the week of 21 August at the lowest it has been in the last 22 weeks. (Emphasis added)

The same day, the BBC website reported the Scottish government has re-introduced restrictions in and around Glasgow. The article says in part:

The restrictions affect 633,120 people living in Glasgow, 95,530 in East Renfrewshire and 88,930 in West Dunbartonshire.

People living in those areas should also not visit someone else’s home, no matter where it is. They are being told not to host people from other households in their own homes or visit another person’s home.

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

A very long article appeared in Daily Mail. I won’t quote from it here as it would take up too much space, but basically it quotes Professor Carl Heneghan, a medicine expert at the University of Oxford as saying there is no evidence Britain is at the start of a ‘second wave’ of virus infections, and the increasing number of cases is mainly down to the significant increase in testing.

The article also says:

As of yesterday there were only 764 people in hospital with Covid-19 in the UK, just 60 of whom are in intensive care. This is a sharp drop from a peak of 19,872 hospitalised patients on April 12.

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

The Guardian published a piece about the ‘imminent’ mass weekly testing of groups of people in Salford, Manchester as part of an initiative to roll out weekly testing for the entire population. The article says, in part:

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, who now chairs the health select committee, said the UK should embrace mass population testing. “I would really want to expand the whole testing programme so we can almost get to a point where we are testing the whole population every week”

Hunt said mass testing was the key tool against the virus before a vaccine was developed. “In fact, if you had population testing there’s no reason why you, theoretically, would need to have social distancing: you could pretty much carry on life as normal because you’d just know that everyone you’d mix with had been tested very, very recently”

It can be seen here: www.theguardian.com

On the 3^rd, the Manchester Evening News reported pupils at the Unsworth Academy were forced to eat their lunches outside the building – in the rain.

Parents had apparently been told by the school that due to distancing, breaks will be outside regardless of the weather, and…

“The situation is not ideal but please be assured that we are doing everything we can to keep everyone safe, learning and happy. Thank you for your patience as we move towards a full reopening of school and work our way through the ‘new normal’.”

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

Starting on the 4^th, the BBC virus webpage has carried the chart below of hospital admissions, with the explanation….

The apparent rise in cases since July has not, however, translated into a significant increase in people being admitted to hospital. (Emphasis added)

On the 5^th, the BBC website carried an article quoting Professor Carl Heneghan of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine saying:

The main test used to diagnose coronavirus is so sensitive it could be picking up fragments of dead virus from old infections. Instead of giving a “yes/no” result based on whether any virus is detected, tests should have a cut-off point so that very small amounts of virus do not trigger a positive result.

He believes the detection of traces of old virus [in people who have fully recovered] could partly explain why the number of cases is rising while hospital admissions remain stable.

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

The same day, the BBC virus webpage said:

Local improvements in data for Newark, Sherwood, Slough and Wakefield mean they have been removed from the watchlist. Restrictions already in place in parts of Greater Manchester, Lancashire and West Yorkshire have been eased.

It also said Leeds, South Tyneside, Corby, Middlesbrough and Kettering are the latest areas to be added to the list as areas of concern.

On the 7^th, the BBC website said: The county borough of Caerphilly is to be placed under a local lockdown from 18:00 BST on Tuesday after a “rapid” rise in coronavirus cases.

The article further said:

People will not be able to leave or enter the borough without good reason, the Welsh Government said. Face masks will be required for everyone over 11 in shops within the area.

Seeing others within extended households indoors will be banned, and no overnight stays will be allowed.

Perhaps surprisingly, it also said: Schools, bars and restaurants are not being closed under the restrictions. Care visits will be able to go ahead. Wales’ Health Minister Vaughan Gething blamed the rise in cases on people socialising in their homes.

The changes mean people cannot enter or leave Caerphilly county borough – which includes Caerphilly town, Ystrad Mynach, Blackwood, Newbridge and Risca – without a “reasonable excuse”.

That includes work, if people are unable to work from home, or making a compassionate visit to a loved one, or to give care.

Community testing started in the county borough at the weekend. A total of 450 people were tested and 19 were found positive.

Caerphilly borough has a population of 181,000, and they closed it because of 19 cases??

The article continued:

Welsh Conservative health spokesman Andrew Davies said he was disappointed a local lockdown had become necessary. “Critically, any such local lockdown must be for as short a time as possible,” he said.

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

On the 9^th, the BBC virus webpage said:

Parts of Norfolk, Rossendale and Northampton have been added as “areas of enhanced support”, meaning the government will work with local authorities to provide additional resources – such as testing or contact tracing – to help bring the numbers of infections down.

Local improvements in data for Newark, Sherwood, Slough and Wakefield mean they have been removed from the watchlist. Restrictions already in place in parts of Greater Manchester, Lancashire and West Yorkshire have been eased.

Also on the 9^th, it was reported the government will be banning groups of more than six people gathering in homes, parks, pubs and restaurants in England, effective from the 14^th, in the biggest coronavirus crackdown since lockdown rules were eased.

People will at first be fined £100, but this will double on each further repeat offence up to £3,200. Matt Hancock also issued a warning to young people this week not to spread the virus to older, more vulnerable relatives, telling people in their late teens and early 20s:

“Don’t kill your gran by catching coronavirus and then passing it on.“

Hancock said the new rules will be in place ‘for the forseeable future’. How long is that; weeks? Months? Years?

Also on the 9^th, the Metro website had an article saying ‘a senior government source’ had told them ministers were considering a nationwide 10 or 11pm curfew, but gave no more details. Matt Hancock was quoted as saying….

“That’s particularly true, for instance, in Belgium which we were very worried about a month ago but the case rate has come right down when they put a curfew in place.”

It can be seen here: metro.co.uk

The following day, the BBC virus webpage said:

Tighter coronavirus restrictions have been introduced in Bolton, after what Health Secretary Matt Hancock described as a “significant rise” in cases. All food and drink venues are being restricted to takeaway only and people are being barred from socialising with anyone from outside their own household. (Emphasis added)

The same day, the Metro newspaper carried article with the headline Christmas will not happen unless we change what we’re doing.

It quotes Dr Hilary Jones of Good Morning Britain, as saying Christmas will effectively be cancelled unless everyone behaves in such a way that limits transmission and gets a handle on this.

In other words, don’t go out and have contact with anyone or you will be under house arrest again by Christmas.

Also on the 10^th, the ITV website carried an article saying some local authorities have started instructing care homes to bar all but ‘end of life’ visits.

It can be seen here: www.itv.com

On the 11^th, the Huffington Post revealed Tory MP Steve Baker saying he is “not willing to live” under new coronavirus measures announced by Boris Johnson on Wednesday.

The article says he….

also suggested that Covid laws should be abandoned in favour of a “voluntary system”, with the current rules and proposals presenting an unfit “legal environment for the British people”.

He has previously spoken out about the “increasingly disproportionate” Covid regulations being introduced by government, describing the new restrictions as “authoritarian” in a tweet on Wednesday. (Emphasis added in both paragraphs)

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

Also on the 11^th, the UK dropped another place by cases, to 14^th place, having been overtaken by France.

The same day, the BBC virus webpage indicated the R number in the UK had increased to 1.0 – 1.2.

It had previously said….

the figures are estimates and that there is a high degree of uncertainty around them    and   the government has said in the past that the R number is one of the most important factors in making policy decisions, but it now says these estimates are less reliable and less useful because the number of cases is relatively low.

Both of those statements have now been removed from the webpage.

The following day, Public Health England announced Birmingham, Sandwell and Solihull are the latest areas to be designated ‘areas of intervention’. The government instituted a ban on separate households mixing in all three areas which will come into force on the 14^th.

Also on the 12th, the Evening Standard carried a story saying the Prime Minister’s new ‘Rule of Six’ to help curb the sharp rise in virus cases in the UK was opposed by every coronavirus strategy committee member apart from Matt Hancock.

It says:

“Even the PM was initially cautious about taking the limit all the way down to six. The majority view was that this level of social distancing will have a huge impact on people’s lives and the economy. But Hancock got his way.”

The Health Secretary is said to have driven the decision, backed by Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.

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

On the 14^th, The Guardian reported ‘Policing Minister’ Kit Malthouse is encouraging people to report their neighbours for not complying with the new “rule of six” virus restriction. This is nothing short of asking curtain-twitchers and snoopers to grass on their neighbours, just like in Germany in the war, or former Soviet states. It can be seen here: www.theguardian.com

A few weeks ago, I signed an online petition asking the government not to impose restrictions on anyone who refused a Covid vaccine. On the 15^th I received an automated response.

This response was lengthy, so I will only quote the most relevant part:

We believe it is everyone’s responsibility to do the right thing for their own health, and for the benefit of the wider community. There are currently no plans to introduce a Covid-19 vaccine in a way that penalises those who do not take up the vaccine. However, the Government will carefully consider all options to improve vaccination rates, should that be necessary. (Emphasis added)

This is effectively telling us that if not enough people accept this rushed and largely untested vaccine, it is highly likely there will at some point be penalties for those who refuse it.

This is the chart for new cases in the UK up to September 15^th.

The retired government scientist I am acquainted with commented a few days ago:

You may have all gathered by now that the Department of Health & Social Care are pushing the ‘cases are rising’ card like crazy. I shall remind you that back in w/b 26th March we undertook just 12,853 tests, yet during w/b 20th August we undertook 1,448,784 tests. Do you think there’s a chance we might just pick up a few more cases these days if we undertake 113 times more tests? (Emphasis added)

There is no longer any clinical justification for lockdown, mask wearing and continued abuse of emergency powers. Meanwhile, the government continues to press ahead with a PCR test that is unfit for purpose. If new cases are not translating into new deaths then we no longer have a genuine pandemic arising from SARS-COV-2 but a virus of another sort entirely, this virus being both highly corporate and highly political.

This is the chart for the number of UK deaths to September 15^th, using the revised counting method.

The number of people in the UK in critical condition had dropped from 1559 at the end of May, to 279 by June 30^th, to 84 by the end of July, and to 60 by August 31^st.

On September 2^nd, Worldometer still showed 60 people in the UK in critical condition. The following day that had mysteriously jumped to 80. By the 14^th it showed 79, then the following day had mysteriously jumped again, to 106.

Across the world, at the time of writing, Worldometer says there have been 29.6 million cases and 936,000 deaths. Of the 7.26 million currently active cases worldwide, 7.20 million are mild, while just 60,000 (1%) are classed as serious / critical.

Cases are increasing, prompting more panic measures. Greta would be proud, she wants us to panic, but as we all know, panicking often makes difficult situations worse. Unless we allow the UK to achieve herd immunity, we will still be in the same position a year from now, and the number of deaths arising from the lockdowns will be very much higher than the virus has caused.

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‘

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