Coronavirus: A perspective from Britain Part 7

In part 6 I showed a graph of the number of new cases appearing by day in Birmingham and Solihull, and after collecting another month of data, I present below the latest graph, to June 30th.

As of June 19th, there had been 1155 deaths in Birmingham, and 257 in Solihull. This is the most recent data available. On six days during June, there were no new cases in Birmingham, and 19 days with no new cases in Solihull. As of the time of writing, there had been six consecutive days with no new cases in Solihull.

Speaking at the government’s briefing on June 10th, Chief Scientific Advisor Patrick Vallance said “The epidemic is shrinking, but not fast” suggesting this means moving ‘very carefully’ out of lockdown.

Here is the chart showing the number of new cases in the UK as a whole as of June 30th.

Looking at the chart above, I’d say the decline was fairly fast. It should not be forgotten that the more tests that are done, the more cases will be found.

On June 18th, the Office of National Statistics altered their estimate that there could be 6000 new cases per day, down to 4,500 cases per day, a drop of about 30{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117}.

Below are the numbers of deaths attributed to the virus per day in the UK as of June 30th.

It should be remembered the deaths figure is anyone whose death certificate mentions the virus, whether that was the cause of death or not.

The BBC virus webpage says as of 30th June, the number of people in hospital in the UK with the virus had fallen from 15,100 to in early May, to 4769, and the same day, Worldometer said there are just 279 people in critical condition in the UK.

The chart for deaths in care homes was removed from the webpage on June 11th, and has not been reinstated.

Regarding the number of tests done in the UK, the BBC webpage has this graphic:-

The webpage also says:

The most deprived parts of England and Wales have been hit twice as hard by coronavirus as wealthier areas, according to the Office for National Statistics. Urban areas were worse-affected than rural areas and London had significantly more deaths from coronavirus per 100,000 people than any other region. Mortality rates are usually higher in deprived areas, but the virus has increased that effect.

The BBC webpage can be seen here:- www.bbc.co.uk

Worldometer is still showing N/A on UK recoveries, while Covidly is showing 1370. I found out that this recovery rate is only for those who were ill enough to be classed as serious and in hospital, not for everyone found positive. That had not been made clear before. However, this does not explain why Covidly is still only showing just a 3{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} recovery rate for hospital cases.

The large disparity I mentioned in Part 6 is still there between Worldometer and Covidly on the figures for Spain. Worldometer now shows Spain in 6th place with 296,000 cases, while Covidly shows Spain in 8th place with 249,000 cases. At the end of May the difference was 23,000 cases, the difference now is 47,000.

The ONS showed a rise of 856,000 new UK unemployment claims to 2.1 million in April, the biggest monthly rise since modern records began in 1971. Another 600,000 registered unemployed during June. The outlook would be even bleaker were it not for the government’s furlough scheme. Without the wage subsidies covering eight million jobs, the UK would be on course for an unemployment rate of about 20{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117}. Of the estimated 27 million UK jobs, 20{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} equates to approximately five million potentially unemployed by the Autumn.

Crunch time for the labour market will come between the start of August, when the government wants employers to start paying a portion of wage subsidies, and the end of October, when the furlough scheme is due to end completely.

Remember June 1st, when new legislation was enacted which made it illegal to go into a house you do not live in, unless you are a workman or to give medical assistance? That was abruptly reversed just nine days later. The PM said…

From this weekend we will allow single adult households to form a ‘support bubble’ with one other household. All those in a support bubble will be able to act as if they live in the same household, meaning they can spend time together inside each other’s homes and do not need to stay 2m apart. The support bubble must be exclusive, and cannot be switched between multiple households.

So choose your bubble wisely!

On June 7th, the Technocracy website revealed a new report from the CDC in Atlanta said:

For the first time, the CDC has attempted to offer a real estimate of the overall death rate for COVID-19, and under its most likely scenario, the number is 0.26{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117}, almost exactly where Stanford researchers pegged it a month ago. (Emphasis added)

The article can be seen here: technocracy.news

On June 8th, the Washington Examiner carried an article about the latest revelation from the World Health Organisation, in which they appeared to say people showing no symptoms cannot transmit the virus to anyone else.

The article is quite short, so I quote it in full:

In a new report, the World Health Organization announced that asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus “rarely” spread the virus to others. If this is true, we just shut down the nation and drove our economy into a recession for nothing. (Emphasis added)

Like many others, I supported the initial shutdowns because I was worried that we knew too little about the coronavirus and who was spreading it, and we needed to prevent our healthcare system from being overrun. Our health experts warned us that COVID-19 spread quickly and often unnoticeably, through carriers who might not show symptoms for weeks, or perhaps never at all. Add this to a total lack of mass testing, and a temporary nationwide quarantine made sense.

But now, the entire premise of the shutdown is being questioned.

“From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, said, according to CNBC. “It’s very rare.”

It’s difficult to put into words how infuriating this discovery is. If asymptomatic carriers aren’t the problem, we could easily have localized our response to the coronavirus by asking only those with symptoms to stay home and quarantining hot-spot areas where the spread was out of control. Instead, we adopted a one-size-fits-all approach because we were acting under the presumption that any person at any time could be spreading it to just about anyone. (Emphasis added)

Granted, the WHO hasn’t exactly proven itself as a reputable source of information over the past few months, so I’d like to see other researchers confirm this finding. And, it’s unclear whether Kerkhove includes presymptomatic carriers within her definition of “asymptomatic.” But if this conclusion is indeed fact, I’ll be the first to admit that I was wrong for relying on the word of experts who clearly had no idea what they were talking about.

And it’s the experts who should be held accountable. Because, if true, this wasn’t just a mild mistake. It was a grievous error that cost this country hundreds of thousands of jobs and kept people from the things they need most: family, church, and community. We’ll be wrestling with the consequences of this shutdown for a long time to come, and now, we must do so knowing that it might have been for nothing. (Emphasis added)

The article can be seen here: www.washingtonexaminer.com

The following day, the Off-Guardian website carried an article exposing the actual numbers of deaths in the UK caused directly by the virus. The figures it used were correct as of June 3rd. It says:

Over 95{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} of “COVID Deaths” recorded in England and Wales had potentially serious comorbidities, according to statistics released by NHS England.

The latest figures make for pretty stark reading. Or, rather, they would make for stark reading…if they didn’t follow the exact same pattern already shown in other nations around the world.

We’re going to focus on the comorbidity stats. Here are the number of deaths where Covid19 was listed as the only cause, split by age:

  • Ages 0-19: 3
  • Ages 20-39: 32
  • Ages 40-59: 255
  • Ages 60-79: 551
  • Ages 80+: 477

These are across all of England and Wales since the beginning of the “pandemic”.

Simply put: Of the 27045 deaths with Covid19 in English hospitals (up to June 3rd), only 1318 had no pre-existing conditions. That’s less than 5{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117}. (Emphasis added)

This mirrors almost exactly, the statistics reported in Italy back in March. Christopher Bowyer has made some great graphs for the figures at Hector Drummond Magazine, none more impactful than this this:

Those big green bars are all the people who died “with” Covid19 AND some other serious disease. The little yellow bars are the people who died with Covid19 and nothing else. (Emphasis added)

In fact, the 25,727 other cases were listed as having over 42,000 comorbidities. That’s almost 2 each (the report itself points out that many patients had multiple conditions). This, again, aligns completely with the Italian figures which said over 80{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} of fatalities had at least 2 comorbidities. (Emphasis in original)

What are these comorbidities? We don’t know. Not entirely specifically. The report lists ischemic heart disease, chronic kidney disease, asthma and dementia among others. But it also lists nearly 19,000 “other” conditions, presumably including liver failure, emphysema, AIDS, ALL forms of cancers and literally potentially thousands of other diseases.

Implicit in this is the possibility that these diseases were the actual cause of death, and that Covid19 played no direct role at all. (Emphasis added)

Further, the PCR test for coronavirus can return false positives in up to 80{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} of cases, so it’s entirely possible the majority of these deaths never even had the virus. (Emphasis added)

This effectively means most of those people would have died anyway from the health issues they already had, so we shut down the country for less than 2000 deaths.

The article can be seen here: off-guardian.org

On June 12th, the BBC website said the West Midlands will be hit by second wave of Covid cases. The article states:

There is no question that the West Midlands will be affected by a second wave of Covid-19 cases in the UK, a top health official has warned. (Emphasis added)

Dr Lisa McNally, director of public health for Sandwell Council, said the local infection rate is no longer falling and expressed concerns about the relaxing of lockdown restrictions.

Speaking at Sandwell Health and Wellbeing Board on Thursday, she said: “There is little point in speculating about whether there will or won’t be a second wave of cases.” (Emphasis added)

Ms McNally said there was general acknowledgment among scientists and modellers that the UK will be hit by a second round of cases.

The article does however note: The Office for National Statistics reported on Friday that the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in England is continuing to fall.

That rather contradicts the claims made by the health officials. It also contradicts the cases graph above. You also have to wonder how they know there will be a second wave. Are we going to be told there is a second wave to keep us confined in our homes even longer?

The article can be seen here: www.bbc.co.uk

The same day, the Daily Mail reported that the two-metre ‘rule’ isn’t actually a rule at all, but just a recommendation. The article states in part:

Back in March, when the UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) committee was drawing up the country’s response to the crisis, it asked scientists from a sub-committee – the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) – to draw up a paper on social distancing.

That paper, by Oxford University’s Professor Peter Horby, University College London’s Ben Killingsley, and Lisa Ritchie, head of infection prevention and control at NHS England, could find only four good sources of evidence for social distancing – and each suggested the risk was minimal beyond a metre or 1.5 metres.

The Nervtag scientists concluded: ‘In terms of risk of transmission via close contact in the community, one metre is a minimum, two metres is precautionary.’

The article can be seen here: www.dailymail.co.uk

Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK’s chief scientific adviser, said at a daily Downing Street press briefing in early June that the two-metre advice was “not a rule”. He said: “It is wrong to portray this as a scientific rule that says it is two metres or nothing – that is not what the advice has been and it is not what the advice is now.” (Emphasis added)

Also on the 12th, the BBC revealed how shops will be operating once they re-open on June 15th. According to the article, as well as markings on the floors to indicate the direction people should move in shops, there will be:

People will also be asked to keep a set distance between each other on escalators, and only one person at a time will be allowed to use a lift unless they are from the same household.

There will be hand sanitising stations throughout shops and people will be encouraged to use hand gel when they enter a shop.

Government guidelines recommend people should shop alone where possible so hopes of hitting the stores with friends will have to wait.

The British Retail Consortium’s guidance is that customers should be discouraged from handling products that they’re not going to buy.

The article went on to say if clothing or shoes have been handled but not purchased, they should be placed in quarantine for up to 72 hours, and people should expect queues to get into shops and extended delays at checkouts.

It continues:

We are basically living in a constant state of fear and anxiety – don’t leave the house, don’t touch anyone, don’t do exactly what you were doing before – this is not a normal way of human behaviour (Emphasis added)

That means people will be going back to shops after more than three months “with a pre-existing huge ball of negativity in our head, whether we want it or not“. (Emphasis added)

The article can be seen here: www.bbc.co.uk

On the 15th, a tweet attributed to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan appeared saying:

For the next year or so, wearing face coverings will be the norm rather than the exception

The following day, the UK’s coronavirus alert level was downgraded from four to three, after the country’s chief medical officers said there had been a steady decrease in cases across the UK as a whole. Level three means the virus is still in general circulation but there could be a “gradual relaxation of restrictions“.

On the 18th, the BBC revealed only one of the 17 field hospitals set up in Wales has treated any patients, despite costing £166m. The article said:

Buildings, including sports stadiums and theatres, were rapidly turned into hospitals at the peak of the crisis. But only the Dragon’s Heart Hospital in Cardiff has received any patients. Health Minister Vaughan Gething defended the decision saying in hindsight he would have “made different choices at the time”.

A review is due later this month to decide how many field hospitals will be retained or repurposed. A health economist from Swansea University said that, in hindsight, spending £166m on 46 patients was “not a good use of limited resources”. (Emphasis added)

The health board has said the Dragon’s Heart Hospital site would be “retained until the autumn and will be available to admit coronavirus patients should a surge in capacity be required”.

The article can be see here:-www.bbc.co.uk

On the 19th, the Daily Mirror ramped up the fear-factor by carrying an article saying research at University College London was indicating domestic pets could catch, carry and transmit the virus to humans, and this could cause a second wave of cases.

There’s an urgent need for widespread surveillance, by testing samples, preferably non-invasively, from large numbers of animals, particularly pets, livestock and wildlife that are in close proximity to human populations.”

If an animal tests positive for coronavirus they will need to be quarantined or culled.’ (Emphasis added)

The article also claims the CDC in Atlanta has ‘…updated its advice telling people not to let their pets interact with other animals or people outside the house.’

This would require millions of animals to be tested.

The article can be seen here:- www.mirror.co.uk

One of my social media friends has suggested this ‘animal infection’ may be used to justify killing millions of farm animals as part of the other agenda to remove meat from our diets to ‘save the planet’.

On the 20th, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden told the BBC that a review into the two-metre social distancing rule in England will conclude “within the coming days“, and on the 23rd, the PM announced that churches, libraries, pubs, restaurants, cafes, cinemas, hairdressers, theme parks, social clubs, zoos etc can all re-open, subject to ‘social distancing’ and restricted numbers.

You can mix with two other households as long as you have no physical contact and stay six feet apart.

People are advised to remain six feet apart wherever they are unless there is no alternative. If you do have to be closer than six feet from another person, face away from them and wear a mask. In other words, do not expect anything to change in shop or supermarket queues.

If you do decide to go to a pub or restaurant, you will have to wear a mask (how are you going to drink and eat wearing a mask?), you will have to order drinks on your mobile phone as you won’t be allowed to go to the bar, and there will be perspex screens on tables so you’ll have to shout at each other.

Hairdressers will have to wear full face shields and limit the number of customers. You will have to pre-book then queue to get in a cinema, and then follow one-way systems and sit separately.

I can’t really see much has changed.

In Leicester, almost 30{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} of the city’s total number of virus cases were reported in the two weeks to June 23rd. As a result, the government has suggested it may advise the council to enforce a ‘local lockdown’, which would mean pubs and restaurants in the city staying closed for another two weeks beyond July 4th.

Leicester has seen a big increase in the amount of testing, which has found more cases. Who would have thought that! The Mayor of Leicester; Sir Peter Soulsby, was interviewed by a tv news crew on the 29th said he remains unconvinced an extension to the lockdown is necessary, then the following day said he was absolutely convinced.

Also on the 30th, the Office for National Statistics said the number of deaths from all causes registered in a single week has fallen below the five-year average for the first time since mid-March.

This chart shows the levels of alert in the UK. Notice level 1 is ‘Covid-19 no longer present in UK’. I cannot realistically see that ever being reached, so I think we will be stuck at level 2 indefinitely, which will mean some form of what is now being termed antisocial distancing will be in force possibly for years.

On July 2nd I was shown proof of how the death figures in the UK are being artificially inflated. The Office For National Statistics, and HM Government, are allowing the virus to be put as a cause of death if a person had exhibited similar symptoms, even if no test result has been received when the death certificate was filled in.

Section 4 ‘How to complete the cause of death section’ of the ‘Guidance for doctors completing Medical Certificates of Cause of Death in England and Wales’ states: ‘if before death the patient had symptoms typical of COVID19 infection, but the test result has not been received, it would be satisfactory to give ‘COVID-19’ as the cause of death‘.

Many people have been saying this, but this was the first time I had seen actual proof.

The document can be seen here:-

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk

and here:-

www.gov.uk/government

In conclusion, it seems this virus is intelligent. It will not get you if you go to the supermarket or attend mass ‘protests’ about a Police incident in America, but if you go to watch a sport or a concert, go to a swimming pool, leisure centre or gym, or a protest about the loss of your civil rights, it will kill you.

As I and many others have already said, humans need to be exposed to viruses, bacteria and plain old dirt, to maintain a healthy immune system.

A few friends and acquaintances of mine have told me they felt ill in December last year, with many of the same symptoms now ascribed to the virus, so if that is the case, it suggests this current outbreak is the much-feared ‘second wave’. I’m surprised no-one in the media seems to have mentioned it, unless of course it is one of Baldrick’s cunning plans to keep people in a constant state of fear of each other.

About the author: Andy Rowlands is a regular contributor to Principia Scientific International; a British independent researcher and writer and assistant editor of the game-changing new climate science book, The Sky Dragon Slayers: Victory Lap.


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Comments (8)

  • Avatar

    Finn McCool

    |

    Hi Andy,
    I was waiting for your article and wasn’t disappointed. Great read and analysis.
    There are so many things that send me into a rage over this fiasco.
    One graph you never see is a population age distribution with the ‘covid19’ deaths by age overlaid.
    It is a great visual showing how small and concentrated the effect this pitiful virus had on the population as a whole.
    I have one for Scotland from mid May which I can update and pass along to you.
    I expect that many books will be written about the ‘corona virus crisis’ in the future. I don’t expect any government ministers arses hung out to dry, but I do expect a lot of finger pointing, evasion and that old excuse of ‘…with hindsight’. And Boris will be hiding in a cupboard at Chequers.

    Reply

    • Avatar

      Andy Rowlands

      |

      Thanks for your kind words Finn, much appreciated 🙂 If you’d like to send me your updated age graph after the July figures are in, I’ll be happy to include it in the next article in August, with an appropriate credit to you of course. How best do we make contact, do I write my email address on here?

      Reply

      • Avatar

        Finn McCool

        |

        Hi Andy
        If you click on my name you should go to my little website where you can contact me in private. I hope 🙂

        Reply

        • Avatar

          Andy Rowlands

          |

          So there is, I didn’t know such things were there! I just sent you an email.

          Reply

  • Avatar

    Tom O

    |

    From the article –
    ” Ms McNally said there was general acknowledgment among scientists and modellers that the UK will be hit by a second round of cases.

    The article does however note: The Office for National Statistics reported on Friday that the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in England is continuing to fall.

    That rather contradicts the claims made by the health officials. It also contradicts the cases graph above. You also have to wonder how they know there will be a second wave. Are we going to be told there is a second wave to keep us confined in our homes even longer?

    Yes, it will be to confine you longer, but the real question should be how do modellers that got nothing right so far possibly be able to forecast a second wave – unless there is something else that will trigger the second wave and they are aware of when it will happen.

    You mention the surge over the 10 days prior to June 23. Interesting that on the 13th Starlink put another load of satellites in orbit and undoubtedly had a full test session run in their 5G network to ensure that the satellites all work and can talk to each other and the ground. Just a coincidence I am sure.

    On the other hand, you may find a surge from about now as well since Starlink was scheduled to launch another batch, and you may see a “second wave” when Starlink goes limited operational this fall. And it will all be coincidence as well. Or maybe the basis of a forecast.

    Reply

    • Avatar

      Andy Rowlands

      |

      I have deliberately not mentioned 5G in my articles as I have opinions on it that differ from many, and I have no wish to get into extended arguments about it.

      Reply

  • Avatar

    John Doran

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    Anecdotal, I know, but the boss reports that there is increasing muttering in supermarket queues: “what a load of old tosh this is” seems to be the spreading opinion.
    JD.

    Reply

    • Avatar

      Andy Rowlands

      |

      I’ve been doing food shopping for my parents for several years as they are both late 80s and disabled, and I’ve chatted with people in supermarket queues about this, and most seem to think it’s vastly overblown.

      Reply

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