The Opposition parties spurred on by Mr Cummings want an immediate CV 19 Inquiry. The government rightly points out it is not over yet so why not wait until the pandemic has officially passed.
At the heart of the argument is the issue of how many have died from CV 19 and whether fewer would have died with a different policy. The Opposition want the narrative to be that lockdowns work so any period without full lockdown risked more deaths. The global figures however do not show any simple relationship between intensity of lockdowns and death rates.Nor does this approach allow us to explore the alternative some of us preferred to full lockdown ,the safeguarding of the groups of people most at risk from a disease which does not offer much threat to healthy younger people.
Today I renew my request of the NHS that they review the accuracy of the data. The U.K. has now the 17 th highest deaths per million people on worldometer figures, below countries like Belgium, Czechia and Hungary that did lockdowns. It is however high up the table of deaths in relation to case numbers, because the U.K. has done a better job at limiting case spread than many. 50 countries have had more cases per million than us. I have defended the NHS by suggesting that the U.K. overcounted Covid deaths in the early months. In the early months some people were put down as CV19 deaths without a positive test result. They may have shown cold,flu,catarrh or other respiratory symptoms. Throughout people dying of a range of other conditions have been recorded as a Covid death if they had a positive test result up to 28 days before death. The CV19 may have little or nothing to do with their actual death. In contrast a country like Germany seems to have taken a much tougher line in demanding proof that someone died of Covid before so recording it.
If the NHS review disagrees with my assumption and concludes the death figures are right then the NHS has to ask why we had one of the worst death rates from people getting the disease. There then needs to be analysis of infection control, discharges policy and treatments used. I and others raised a number of issues from early on about infection control, use of isolation hospitals, discharge of patients and testing of potential drugs which will be relevant if there is a high death rate to examine. The U.K. may have had a higher case rate amongst the most vulnerable groups leading to a higher death rate in relation to cases.
June 1, 2021
A substantial inquiry should have been held last summer.
June 1, 2021
We do not really need an enquiry as anyone sensible and numerate knows exactly what went wrong already.
June 1, 2021
The money would be far better spent catching up with the 5 million+ on the NHS waiting lists and all the delayed cancer diagnosis and procedures. Why did the state take over most of the private hospitals then not even use most of them? Why did they build all the Nightingale hospitals then not use them to keep infected patients away from non infected dumping many into care homes to infect the vulnerable instead? As an expensive PR stunt one assumes.
June 1, 2021
So the Adam Smith Institute’s Tax Freedom day is today after 5 months of 100% slavery for the government. Alas this is a huge underestimate as on top of this we have all the compliance costs, the cost of pointless red tape, the inflation tax, the motorist and business mugging taxes and late fines, the enforced expensive energy agenda, the over restrictive planning taxes. and all the money the government spend/waste above what they manage to collect.
With these included we must have more like 7 to 8 months average work for the state and 4 or 5 for ourselves. Yet public service are in general appalling and deteriorating. The NHS is dire, the police seem to have given up on more crimes completely in my experience other than cash cow car cameras that is.
June 1, 2021
Agree – these enquiries go on for years and serve no useful purpose, except for lawyers. They cost the earth and as LL says the money would be better spent on catching up with all those overdue operations and procedures. That should be an absolute priority.
When are the recommendations of any enquiry ever acted upon? The opposition is desperate to blame the Government for every conceivable mistake that was inevitably made in desperate circumstance.
June 1, 2021
The cost of public enquiries is an absolute disgrace. I would not pay the judges, or retired senior civil servants, chairing them, but offer them peerages instead, if they perform well. Of course, to be enticing, this would have to be combined with an end to the automatc peerages that these people now receive. The other staff involved would also be ‘paid’ with privileges (eg. promotion) rather than money.
June 1, 2021
Agreed, I don’t think an “Independent” or “Public” enquiry has ever come up with a satisfactory result, let alone any recommendations being implemented in full.
June 1, 2021
@LL; Whilst I agree that we already know what went wrong I disagree that we do not need to formalise and place those facts on the record, meaning those fundamental errors should never happen again, not simply hand those lessons down to the generation of bureaucrats via Whitehall folk-law.
June 1, 2021
I see that there have been several very large protests in London about restrictions relating to Covid. Both have been ignored by the mainstream media.
The first was directly outside the London offices of the BBC.
I assume the intention is to silence dissent in the hope that everybody appears to be singing from the same hymn sheet. However, the effect may be to increase distrust of mainstream media.
June 1, 2021
Public perceptions are key in all this.
Recently our media have been flooding us with pictures of funeral pyres and the grief-stricken bereaved of India. They are able to do this because such processes take place publicly in many parts of that country and the footage is easily gathered.
However, India is around twenty times more populous than the UK, and yet has only suffered about twice the number of fatalities. The actual figures may be rather higher than the official ones, but that’s probably true for the UK too.
So the deaths-per-measure of population are perhaps ten times worse here than in India.
Nonetheless, our media have engendered very effectively the impression that this country is not suffering to anything like the same extent.
Just because the funerals happen discretely and people do not grieve in the streets here does not change the fact that this is a very serious misconception indeed.
June 1, 2021
Exactly. Plus all the gov propaganda adverts of doom to induce fear.
June 1, 2021
You appear to have misunderstood my post.
June 1, 2021
Perhaps but LifeLogic has at least understood what’s going on. Not sure about you, MiC.
June 1, 2021
Mic
I see it is being reported that Peru have now adjusted their death figures from 67,000 to 170,000.
This outlines why it is impossible to gain a real comparison Country to Country, because the counting methods and reporting procedures are so very, very different.
June 1, 2021
+10
June 1, 2021
In the UK every death was counted as a cv19 death. Massive over estimations more like.
June 1, 2021
Mainly responding to you second paragraph. I understand your other points too.
June 1, 2021
for goodness sake Martin the average life expectancy in India is 69.42 in the UK it is 81.26 we were told the highest 75-84 age group. There was a significant increase in birth ages in the UK after the war with a peak at the end of the 40’s this will affect the numbers dying in peak birth years, so this group was a higher in numbers than previous years – there were also a lot less flu deaths which could have been mixed up in the figures. The truth will out.
June 1, 2021
Oh, it’s all fine then.
Thanks for that.
June 2, 2021
well you invite reaction.
June 1, 2021
+1
June 1, 2021
Protests don’t spread Covid, it’s a very intelligent virus.
Doctors are particularly prone but not dentists or supermarket workers.
Whoever designed it was very clever.
Now we are expecting the Martian strain so lockdown can be extended indefinitely.
No masks or social distancing on Blackpool sea front this weekend.
June 1, 2021
Ian Wragg,
It is an extremely intelligent virus. If I had a top hat and tails and ÂŁ768 for a hospitality suite I could attend The Derby in perfect safety.
However, if I wanted to stroll around the wide open spaces of Epsom Downs and watch the race for free I would be a great danger to myself and all concerned, probably to the horses too.
So, for my own good and that of everybody else, the Jockey Club have managed to get Epsom Downs closed off for another year.
June 1, 2021
‘Whoever designed it.’
Something an Inquiry should establish. Reparations then due.
June 1, 2021
You’re joking, the terms of reference will never include – ”whoever designed it”
June 1, 2021
Heads-up for a programme on C4 at 9pm tonight (1st June). ‘The Anti-Vax Conspiracy’ (Who are the people behind the international anti-Covid-vaccine movement and why are they doing it? This documentary goes inside the astonishing world of the anti-vaxxers, to find out’).
The brazenness of the propaganda would make Goebbels blush. Happily JR has already informed us here that there are no ‘international conspiracies’.
June 1, 2021
They werenât large scale protests.
They were just shared by your favourite conspiracy theorists online – and you believed it.
The BBC reports actual news. Your conspiracy theory is not actual news.
Glad to help.
June 1, 2021
So why were more than 10 cops posted outside the BBC?
June 1, 2021
Andy,
Video evidence proves otherwise.
Unless you want to claim the videos are fake.
The crafty approach is to misreport events and hope people only see written reports.
Say âhundredsâ instead of âthousandsâ. Play down numbers involved.
June 1, 2021
A few rioters toppling a statue in Bristol got top news billing.
June 1, 2021
Yes – that really was all that it was.
So why do the Right make such a big fuss about it???
June 1, 2021
Because it was illegal?
June 1, 2021
MiC
The BBC focus on what makes the news and what doesn’t.
June 2, 2021
it was a ridiculous show of ignorance by ‘rent a mob’.
June 2, 2021
Either it’s a big deal or it isn’t.
You lot seem rather split over the matter.
June 2, 2021
Andy – News is not just what happens, it is what a small group of people DECIDE is news.
The BBC and other globalist MSM networks are masters at it. As donald Trump said, so much FAKE NEWS but do not worry Nothing can stop what is coming, nothing.
June 10, 2021
If you’re being Ironic – it’s very funny.
If it’s what you believe – you need help.
June 1, 2021
The global figures however do not show any simple relationship between intensity of lockdowns and death rates.
There is not a simple relationship between countries. There is, however , a simple relationship between extent to which proximity is allowed and encouraged and the likelihood of droplets in the air carrying the virus to a nearby person . It is this :
NEAR = LIKELY
FAR= NOT LIKELY
Given that self evident fact, allowing a quarter of a million people to attend Cheltenham just before the first lockdown was bold, ( Minister ).So was bribing us with our own money to go out and mingle in restaurants . So was opening up an unvaccinated country apparently ignorant of the pace at which progress was being made on vaccines ( as I commented at the time ).
It was Sweden , if you recall that we were being told to admire and emulate . Sweden has killed 10 times as many Swedes as Norway has Norwegians.
Reply Swedenâs death rate is below the worst in the EU. Sweden has bigger cities than Norway
June 1, 2021
Lockdown kills too as we shall see.
June 1, 2021
You take a very selective and very simplistic approach. Not locking down by law does not mean vulnerable people not taking some voluntary action. Swedenâs overall total all cause deaths are entirely within the normal range when adjusted for age and population. Not locking down the young often has a protective effected as they get, generally very mild CV infections, and thus protection (effectively a free vaccination through this). It also limits collateral economic and other health damage.
June 1, 2021
effectively a free vaccination through this
Counter intuitively , this is not the case .The infection itself does not give good protection especially to the young. The body reacts with an all purpose kill all invaders response, and in the young that is usually good enough . Only after a more prolonged illness does the body start to recognise the particular attack and create the memory if it that provides future protection. So I have read anyway …but you know those experts they probably made it up.
June 1, 2021
What… the same experts that told us we were Trumpists for making the connection between a lab and the outbreak in Wuhan ? The same experts that told us masks didn’t work ?
June 1, 2021
No reputable scientist ever said that masks did not work.
They correctly said that nothing, masks included, could give 100% protection, which to infantile absolutists sadly meant the same thing, as we see repeatedly in posts here.
Nothing like 100% protection was needed to cut transmission rates dramatically.
June 1, 2021
MiC
What are you talking about ? The government advice (under guidance of scientists) was for the public not to bother with masks but wash hands.
June 2, 2021
@NLA – ” The government advice (under guidance of scientists) was for the public not to bother with masks but wash hands.”
But we are not privy to the exact scientific guidance and if you recall the “don’t use a mask” guidance for the general plebs was at the time when they didn’t have enough PPE for medics because they had cocked up stocking and orders. Strangely, after the lockdown masks became mandatory.
June 2, 2021
Martin, in Wales Drakeford said there was no need to wear masks until July 2020. “At the outset in Wales, the advice on face masks from the chief medical officer Dr Frank Atherton was that there was only a “marginal public health case” for wearing them.” Source BBC “On 13 July, First Minister Mark Drakeford announced the position was changing.
From Monday 27 July three-layer face coverings will be mandatory on all public transport in Wales – buses, trains, and taxis.
It brings Wales into line with Scotland, England and Northern Ireland, who all demand passengers wear face masks.”
But the first minister has remained firm on face coverings for shopping or other activities – it is not happening in Wales.
“The advice of the Welsh Government is that if places are crowded then face coverings are advisory. Where places are not crowded, it is a matter for the individual citizen to make that decision.”
Looks like your local hero was conflicted Martin. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-52631835
The World Health Organisation says medical face masks should only be worn by a person caring for someone with Covid-19. However, on the use of non-medical masks, usually made of fabric, it says the scientific evidence for their benefit is limited.
June 1, 2021
The spread outside has proved to be minimal – Cheltenham was not a “superspreader” event. I’ll give you the Liverpool match as the Spanish tourists went inside during their visit.
June 1, 2021
Countries and comparisons are difficult .Sticking to obviously comparable countries ( given your excuse for Sweden ) why did Sweden have many times the deaths recorded in Denmark, very similar but more crowded ? Its not a close one and given that Sweden’s economy did not fare well what was be the point in risking a UK death tolls many times the size it is ?
For me the worst aspect of a mixed performance was the failure to take into account the speed with which the vaccine was approaching and as a result causing a second wave for no purpose whatsoever. On the other hand the vaccine programme was and is a success.
Thats the way I see it anyway
June 1, 2021
It might be because Sweden has double the population of Denmark but most live in the 2 or 3 main cities.
June 1, 2021
Newmania fake news alert. Sweden’s economy in 2020 suffered less than the EU average, and did much better than ours. Sweden’s death rates per million in 2020-2021 have been lower than UK’S despite not locking down, as you could quickly find out from Our World in Data (Source: Johns Hopkins University) if you bothered to check. This is the inconvenient truth that you lockdowners will never accept, but only spread misinformation about.
June 1, 2021
Good morning.
I do not want to see another wasteful and pointless Public Enquiry. What I want, is for this nonsense to be over and those responsible for the mess created to go quietly into the night.
The damage has been done, and it is now it is time to move on.
June 1, 2021
That’s a good idea, let all and any in the political sphere who may have told lies, wilfully ignored other advice , repeatedly listened to the voice of one man with a track record of getting it wrong, just nip out the back door quietly.
Of course this is the green light for others to jump on the gravy train of being a politician as a ‘career’ because it seems no matter what you do if found to be negligent you can get away with it.
People wonder where it has all gone wrong and why so many distrust the political arena and those in it. Perhaps too much turn the other cheek by the little people affected has gone on for too long.
We are always told of ‘lessons learnt’ and how it’s time to move on in other areas, and yet the lessons never do seem to be learnt do they.
June 1, 2021
“We are always told of âlessons learntâ and how itâs time to move on in other areas, and yet the lessons never do seem to be learnt do they.” They certainly do not. Look at the endless NHS disasters we have seen.
They will say – It was a long time ago, system are much more robust now, the funding and structures are different, lessons have been learned, training is different…
How long did it take to get the truth about the Hillsborough Disaster and the endless establishment lies? Nearly 30 years.
June 1, 2021
Mark B. ,
I wholly agree and I would have no confidence in the credibility of any inquiry.
June 1, 2021
Good Morning,
The initial enquiry could be on the ‘National Preparedness for a virulent Infection of the UK’. What was prepareded and in place and what should have been in place as required by the plan.
June 1, 2021
When the pandemic is declare over is the time to begin a measured enquiry. The enthusiasm for it now in the opposition is driven by a desire to find anything that they can berate the government with. It was a national if not World pandemic, not a parochial affair, and certainly only a party politial affair for those who wish to point score.
I have always likened it to WW3. As with war, one can plan in anticipation as much as one likes, but from day two onwards it is a new ball game. The purpose of an enquiry is to look at every aspect of our anticipation, preparedness, reaction to new circumstances, and how our institutions stood up to the test of Covid19. There will be pluses and minuses in the picture that emerges, from which one hopes we would gain knowledge that better prepares us for the next one. There will be nothing political that a carping opposition will be able to say, with any degree of honesty, that they would have done any better, except of course with the benefit of hindsight. We can all use that.
Six months is a long enough time scale for its duration. It would give this government time to put in place the corrective measures that arise. Anything longer and I will conclude that they are looking for a long grass solution and no further action.
I would like the enquiry to assess the relative merits of the performance of government institutions and of private enterprise within the pandemic and the performance of the human beings within each, possibly two very different things.
June 1, 2021
When I posted this it was well before 07.00 and only two had been moderated. It still awaits, why.
June 1, 2021
Whilst I appreciate the logic of an enquiry when it is over, the problem is we have all these unelected ‘experts’, those with a failed track record of predictions and even foreigners appearing to want to keep this going forever.
IMO there should be an interim enquiry of the results to date. This would include the dodgy testing procedure. Why are tests automatically renamed ‘cases’, but there is never a list of deaths, numbers hospitalised, or even those who didn’t even know they had it until they were tested, in the ‘case statement’?
Why did they list deaths of those who were tested positive within 28/60 days of death as all dying from the virus, as these included flu, heart attacks, traffic, work and household accidents and no doubt all those denied cancer treatments, suicides etc?
The care home debacle?
Why has the government set up a ‘nudge’ team specifically designed to spread fear into the populace?
Why are there only Johnson and Hancock approved ‘experts’ constantly all over MSM fear mongering?
Why was the Great Barrington Declaration dismissed out of hand?
Why have none of the other experts who disagreed with the SAGE control freakery mob not been listened to?
Why is the government funding fear mongering advertising until 2023?
How can they possibly know this virus is going to behave so differently from all the other viruses? What evidence do they have to support this?
The suicide rates?
The jobs lost?
Who you can see, when, how, when you can hug! This is control freakery overdrive.
The global deaths of this virus is 0.04%. In the UK, I understand this virus is now 16th on the list of fatalities and looking back over data, whilst the deaths did drop from around 2006 to 2019, prior to that, the death rate average has been higher, and this destructive stupidity was never even considered. We just got on with our lives. This ridiculous ongoing scaremongering is never going to end, until a stake is put in the ground now.
June 10, 2021
I’d like to add questions of:-
1) why no Government/NHS health advice to the public? particularly the vulnerable.
it was known early on that Vitamin D levels were important and that those suffering
most were vitamin D deficient. Local NHS staff were issued with plentiful amounts of Vitamin D.
2) why no use of safe alternative treatments that were/are being used elsewhere in the
world to prevent infection and reduce the seriousness of the illness?
3) why was ‘waiting for a vaccine’ the only plan of action, it has cost 100,000’s of lives?
4) why do we need vaccine passports? it all seems like a hideous agenda that have Ministers drooling
over the amount of control they can gain.
June 1, 2021
The opposition are so desperate to try and get back on the front foot they will try anything. As per is their forte they are once again pissing before they have their flies open. Until the whole CV 19 pandemic is deemed to be over and all the data and evidence is available for severe scrutiny is the truth , the whole truth going to come out. Then and only then can fingers be pointed and any failings be addressed with the full indisputable facts fully exposed.. It should not, but will end up as a witch hunt. The whole enquiry is to learn from mistakes and ensure nothing like this can ever happen again. But that is I fear not going to happen as weak opposition and parties with their own agendas will ensure that it becomes a political bloodbath. Fully supported and stirred up by our national broadcaster.
June 1, 2021
Good post Turbo.
June 1, 2021
This is just political rambling by opposition, i shudder when I think what the reds would have done.
Whats done is done and no one can say with any certainty if other methods would have been better.
We do not need an inquiry at this time
June 1, 2021
If the death rate is going to be the primary benchmark, then it should only be based on death being solely responsible to CV19. Also how many victims suffered with other primary medical conditions. How and what data is collected and analyzed is critical to a successful enquiry.
How the country responded is another matter. Let’s have clear lines of investigation and stated aims laid down to provide full focus on the task to hand.
Kipling’s 6 trusted men comes to mind.
June 1, 2021
exactly. How many of the deaths were due to Covid, in the early months no Dr went to care Homes checking, taking the staff word for the symptoms. No testing was being done, no post mortem…
June 1, 2021
+1
June 1, 2021
Progress in the early stages was hampered by a lack of knowledge of the disease. However, it was always known that it was transmitted by human contact.
They said that closing the airports would have made little difference to the spread of the disease, so my question is: if the airports were closed and lorry drivers had to leave their trailers on the ferry to be picked up by another tractor unit the other side, how would the disease have got into this country?
Much of the problem has been caused by government policy of only closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.
June 1, 2021
Isn’t it highly likely that it was already here before it became the 24 hr news emergency.
Countless people in my neck of the woods of a certain age were succumbing to what they called ‘a very nasty flu bug’ which was just taken as one of those things. This was a good few months before we’d ever heard of covid and lockdown.
Once the classic symptoms were broadcast, many believed that this is what they had as all the symptoms were identical particularly loss of taste/smell and high temperature.
Could just be pure coincidence of course, but given the ease of world travel for leisure/business/imports etc I find it hard to believe it wouldn’t have arrived here pretty rapidly.
That’s not to say of course that closing off to stop further incoming shouldn’t have been looked at as a possible buffer if it could have had any effect on spread.
I seem to recall people being only asked/advised to self isolate when returning from abroad. I thought that odd at the time, given the doomsday scenario being painted. If it is as deadly as being told by mainstream media ( think ebola or plague and people falling down around you) surely a polite request is a bit lame to stop this deadly disease.
June 1, 2021
Michelle
Indeed both my wife and myself had the symptoms you describe in late November 2019, did not lose taste or smell, but certainly had severe flue like symptoms, an involuntary continuous cough for about 2 weeks and incredibly tired, and we both had, had the Flue jab about 6 weeks previous.
Absolutely no idea where we caught it from
June 1, 2021
@Dave Andrews. If it had been blocked how could the Government perused their aims of using another ‘Project Fear’ to delve further into the 1984 playbook.
On the back of this fear the Government has deemed it necessary to collect and collate and make yours and everyone’s else Health Records available on a single database so anyone that can use the data. The NHS has seen this as an opportunity to monetarise you, buy selling you to third parties. Your GP is against it but the Government sees it as a tool for total Control of the People.
You couldn’t make it up, you can’t believe in a so-called free democracy anyone would think of such a proposition. But this Government keeps confirming their desire for a Totalitarian Control of the populous by any means.
June 1, 2021
As far as I’m aware, this proposal was launched years ago (and not by this Government), as I distinctly remember my late husband and I formally instructing our GP practice to keep our details confidential.
June 1, 2021
@SM you are correct.
However it has now been regurgitated on the back of Covid. You still sort of get a choice your GP has already been in touch with you for your permission, or at least that is what is currently being said. Then again if you participated in the Covid App, that then became negated.
It is still technically possible to opt out of sharing your medical details with outsiders, but you will have to dig deep through a labyrinth of mumbo jumbo. – the thought is your car insurance company may insist and demand access to your personal to access what insurance bracket you should be in. Three cheers for the hippocratic oath.
June 1, 2021
You say âThe U.K. has now the 17 th highest deaths per million people on worldometer figuresâ yes but it is better to use the excess deaths as otherwise figures are distorted by the methods of counting deaths.
As to an enquiry the lessons we surely should learn (and should anyway have been obvious anyway) are:-
Pandemic planning was appalling clearly needed to have methods of producing essential equipment like PPE quickly and locally.
The NHS is a state monopoly and has a very poor record by outcome indeed – even before Covid. It needs real competition.
The NHSâs dumpling people into nursing homes (full of the most vulnerable) often untested or even after testing positive was surely gross negligence.
Not adjusting the vaccination priority for gender risk by age and gender killed over 1000 extra people for no reason at all and it would even have saved money and protected the public and NHS far better – clear gross negligence again by JVVI and/or Gov..
The over the top, current lockdown is doing far, far more harm than good to lives and to the economy.
The GPs funding and reward system is absurd many have behaved appallingly treating patients with contempt by hiding from them.
Compulsory lock downs over voluntary action make very little difference to overall deaths.
Save the ÂŁ millions of cost for all the lawyers and just address the above perhaps?
June 1, 2021
@Lifelogic – indeed. NHI as in compulsory health insurance (otherwise some would ignore it) is a collective a good idea in the same way as we pay tax.- the NHS the Worlds Largest employer can never be the on size fits all desired by the Socialist, which includes the Government.
It is easy to for get at the height of covid hospitalisations only 15% of all NHS employees had any direct or indirect involvement. The other 85%?
June 1, 2021
What about instead resisting all calls for an enquiry, set-up one late, and then get someone to run it who will take so much time it does not report until after the next election but one? A New Labour approach certainly, but we know it makes sense.
June 1, 2021
Perhaps the joint select committee that took evidence from Mr Cummings will get at least 80% of the way to defining the key problems and likely answers. I understand that Mr Hancock is called next week to give his side of the story.
I heard part of the Cummings evidence. It appears that some of his criticisms (such as the transfer of elderly patients from hospitals to care homes without prior testing) have been supported by others not least the owners and managers of care homes. Others such as Lord Kerslake have supported his criticisms of aspects of the ability of the civil service/NHS to respond effectively and urgently to the the pandemic. I thought his evidence rang true, even if delivered in unparliamentary language. The immediate government response that his charges were “unsubstantiated” suggests weasel word and an intent to hide behind the Official Secrets Act.
June 1, 2021
The removal of the sick from hospital was done in other countries.
They are all reading from the same script.
June 1, 2021
It was done in Sweden, but not as far as I know in Germany. There were also differences in how far it was followed in Britain. Where I live, the councillor responsible stopped the policy on his own initiative when it became clear what was going on.
June 1, 2021
I feel sympathy for whoever makes these decisions. They had to make a balance between deaths and the economy, and whatever decision is made there will be masses of complaints. If I could have changed one thing, it would have been to have much stricter border control. Why do we suffer lockdown when people are arriving with covid and spreading it around the UK? As we have seen in the press, many people will ignore quarantine rules (any rules really), if they can get away with it.
June 1, 2021
Shirley M
Well said Shirley. Stricter border controls exactly. But dingy traveller doesn’t count. Sadly the government talk a good act and ignore the obvious.
June 1, 2021
+1, just another question for the future CV19 Inquiry: how comes it took Grant Shapps one month and a half to make sure than people entering the UK from India were processed in a different terminal in Heathrow? First report of Indian variant in the UK was on 16 April 2021 (Evening Standard). Using Terminal 3 for people arriving from âred listâ countries is announced on 1 June 2021.
And Sir John is so good at framing any question: e.g., âThe opposition parties spurred âŠâ, âThe government rightly âŠâ in the first three lines of todayâs blog, just to ensure a balanced debate.
I therefore hope Sir John will be called as a witness in the CV19 Inquiry as someone having continuously commented on CV19-related topics since the first quarter of 2020.
June 1, 2021
On that logic maybe they will call you too, hef
June 2, 2021
E2P2, Same for you, but would you have anything intelligent to contribute?
June 2, 2021
Well impossible to contribute anything as intelligent as you think you are heffy, but I will try my best.
June 2, 2021
E2P2, Thank you so much.
June 3, 2021
You are very welcome hefty.
June 1, 2021
I agree Shirley. Closing our borders earlier would have been sensible. Oz and NZ did this and fared better. Our friends from NZ were in the UK when NZ locked down. Everyone who was a resident were given only a few days to return and if they ignored it then they wouldn’t gain access for an indeterminate time. They are living life normally with no local restrictions. We could have done that, only accepting travel into the country for supplies.
June 1, 2021
I donât.
June 1, 2021
What we need is a totally independent inquiry done by people that are not establishment toadies.
Will we get it?
No chance.
June 1, 2021
AH, yes, no chance!
June 1, 2021
All restrictions should be lifted, our freedom restored, and a wide-ranging independent inquiry commenced without delay. Those responsible for the lockdown and weaponization of fear should be held fully accountable and punished accordingly. Lockdown kills in more ways than one but no-one is reporting these deaths. Hundreds of thousands of people have been peacefully protesting but this goes unreported in favour of a constant stream of fear-mongering from the SAGE prophets of doom. It is high time this was brought to an end and the truth revealed.
June 1, 2021
It’s curious, how people who fought so vehemently, tooth-and-claw, for everyone to lose a whole raft of far-reaching, immediately material rights and freedoms, in the twenty-seven most civilised and cultured countries on Earth, care so desperately about being politely asked to wear a little bit of cloth on their faces now and then, and not to stand at the bar in pubs – as people don’t on most of the Continent either.
Bizarre.
June 1, 2021
Again you mix up a love of Europe and European people by the people of the UK with the dreadful EU.
In your post both your groups want freedom and independence to live their lives not being forced to do things they don’t like.
It isn’t bizarre at all.
June 1, 2021
It isn’t just Brexit voters who dislike masks but clearly you’re enjoying the sight of them.
Revenge, perhaps ?
Lockdown is over, whatever Prime Ministers Sturgeon and Whitty say. People are ignoring them.
The People have had a gut full of being told things are temporary when they’re starting to look anything but.
June 1, 2021
The problems you constantly bemoan are not caused by Brexit, but by the EU’s response to Brexit.
It is the EU that has chosen to apply more restrictive rules to the UK and UK citizens – they were free to choose to offer us far more generous and friendly terms. The UK could have been offered special, privileged, access to the EU, and this would have shown their love for us and their appreciation for all that we have done for Europe down the centuries. Instead they have chosen to treat us with hatred. I too regret this but, ironically, it proves that Brexit was the right choice! Why on earth would you want to belong to a club where you are hated and merely treated as a cash cow?
June 1, 2021
“They” might well treat YOU with hatred and who would blame “them”?
But less of the “us”, please.
June 2, 2021
+1
June 1, 2021
No, those people have probably realised what masks are – a badge of subservience to a government that, er, I thought you didn’t like very much, MiC. You should join them.
June 2, 2021
Very few people actually *like* masks.
However, some people just get on with it in order to help, whilst others screech, wail, stamp their feet and couldn’t care less about thousands dying needlessly it seems.
June 2, 2021
It is not curious at all. The Brits have a mind of their own, and will speak out to defend it. Those in your ‘ 27 most civilised and cultured countries on Earth’ are sheep and accept the nonsense rules laid down by the tyrants.
June 5, 2021
Funny this one, has anything ever happened in France in 1358, 1789, 1830, 1848, 1936, 1968, and closer to us with the âgilets jaunesâ? In 1566-1648 in the Low Countries? In 1830 in Belgium? In 1848-49 and 1918-19 in Germany? In 1820 and 1936 in Spain? In 1910 and 1974-75 in Portugal? In 1848 and 1968 in Italy? âŠ
I can easily accept that in your days there was not much history teaching about continental Europe in schools. But no UK authority has ever prevented people from reading books or nowadays consulting the internet.
Arenât you a case of âWhen one only admires oneself in the mirror it indeed is difficult to see much aroundâ?
What your post shows is that you are the perfect âveauâ as a French President once called his compatriots âFrench people are calves that are brought to the slaughterhouse. The worst is that they arenât even aware of itâ (Ch. De Gaulle, in 1940 according to his son, later in the â60s according to some historians).
June 1, 2021
The truth has been revealed, but its dissemination has been suppressed by governments and the MSM.
June 1, 2021
Good Morning.
A wide-ranging independent inquiry should include an investigation into the part played by Ofcom in the weaponisation of fear.
Toby Young: ‘On March 27, 2020, four days after Boris announced the first lockdown, Ofcom sent some âimportant guidanceâ to its licensees, cautioning them to take âparticular careâ when broadcasting âstatements that seek to question or undermine the advice of public health bodies on the coronavirus, or otherwise undermine peopleâs trust in the advice of mainstream sources of information about the diseaseâ.’
June 1, 2021
Yes, I picked that up too from another source.
But what I want know why the government are funding fear mongering advertising across MSM until 2023?
How can they possibly know this virus is going to behave so differently from all the other viruses?
And what evidence do they have to support this?
June 1, 2021
+ many,many,many.
June 1, 2021
That was in reply to Enigma.
June 1, 2021
It is not just the opposition that believe that an immediate inquiry into the government’s handling of the Chinese plague virus crisis is necessary. The list of non-political professional organisations who have come out in favour include the BMA, the RCN, the medical publications The Lancet and British Medical Journal, numerous academics and members of the official and unofficial SAGE committees.
The reasons for this are obvious; the professionals perceive that poor government decisions from the start led to far higher fatality numbers. The reason for Johnson’s political decision to delay the formal inquiry, so that it will report after the next election, are obvious – he fears that the conclusions will reflect very badly on the government – and him personally.
The real issue is the tremendous number of additional fatalities that were caused by the delays to the first lockdown and the Xmas lockdown last year. And the appalling number of elderly and their carers that died in care homes following Hancock’s really stupid decision to clear beds in NHS hospitals without testing them first.
There are lies, damned lies and statistics. To resurrect the old argument over the numbers of fatalities is to insult those who died and the bereaved. You can read up-to-date sets of fatality numbers produced using several criteria on the BBC website; Hancock moved the goalposts several times and I favour the 150,000 number. As I have demanded here several times, resignations are called for starting with Johnson, Hancock, Shapps and Harding – and those incompetents who backed them politically.
reply Why do you not want accurate death figures? Some bereaved families disagreed with Cv 19 being on the Certificate.
June 1, 2021
We may never know the accurate fatality figures and I prefer to focus on the people who lost their lives and their families. Lessons must be learned so that we stop making the same mistakes over and over. Johnson, Hancock and Co have had their chance, clearly we need fresh thinking.
June 1, 2021
SG do you only hold politicians responsible? No decision makers in the NHS at all? None of the scientists, the calls for extra ventilators when they werenât required setting off a wild goose chase? How many of the treatments recommended in the States at the time are now used successfully early on in treating new cases or in more successful Countries? Therapeutics do have a place in this and the treatment infected people received.
People are crying out for choirs to be allowed to meet and sing together but if Boris allowed it and it became a big spreader amongst the older age groups he would be blamed, if people like you want to pile all the blame on just four men then weâre never coming out of lockdown.
June 1, 2021
There is also personal responsibility there are lots of people who broke the rules and met up. Went abroad and came back without quarantining, or held house parties when they were not allowed, big marches, beach gatherings, park late night parties, visiting family with new babies through the warm spring and summer.
The biggest mistakes I think the political leaders made were not stopping incoming flights from infected areas early. Listening to WHO about masks. Allowing people to quarantine at home instead of under supervision. Sending elderly infected patients out without testing into care homes. Lack of pandemic planning.
June 2, 2021
I would not argue against any of the points that you make. However the gold standard should be how island nations such as Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan etc have dealt with it. In Jan 2020 I was blogging here about the need to control the borders and prevent the virus from getting here in the first place. And Johnson avoided the first five COBR meetings as he dealt with his marital problems. Which was inexcusable.
June 1, 2021
SG
What is the point of focussing on those who have died if every nation has a different definition of who has died because of Covid?
Who died with or from Covid?
June 1, 2021
Sakara, you’re right but mainly for the wrong reasons. Johnson, Hancock, Shapps and Harding should resign, or better be brought before a court, for the colossal damage caused by their lockdown policies to people’s physical and mental wellbeing, to children’s education, and to millions of people’s livelihoods. Accusing them of ‘not locking down soon enough’ is a grotesque travesty of the facts. It insults all those of our fellow citizens who are still traumatised by the psychological reign of terror that’s been inflicted on them, and those who somehow have to live with the material consequences they have suffered (goodness knows how a committee of enquiry will calculate that). Let us hope some of them at least will get redress when the reckoning comes.
June 1, 2021
There is no need for an enquiry in the form proposed as there will be no profound discovery or benefit. An enquiry can be made and the results obtained from having a ‘ring round’ of the principals.
We have far too many pointless, tediously lengthy and costly enquiries on all manner of events. They don’t produce anything worthwhile that cannot be deduced from the application of common sense and sensible observation. They are called for and often used mainly by posturing politicians who can claim they are ‘doing something’ in the public interest to boost their reputations.
June 1, 2021
If I may just add, starting with a phrase I have used before, ‘every man and his mad dog’ gets a chance to contribute, many with agendas promoting their own interests and of course anyone criticised has an opportunity to see and comment on the criticism, and of course to counter it, and so the wheel goes round and round. Years go by and the result is not available. In the meantime decisions have to be made, maybe they are delayed because there’s no report, a bad thing in itself, but many will have to be made, right or wrong but needed. Do we than lengthen the enquiry while it deliberates to take these decisions into account? In any event the report whatever it says is almost pointless.
The whole system is largely a nonsense, a politician’s, a bureaucrat’s and lawyer’s dream. Most of them make masses of money and we, the taxpayers are impoverished.
June 1, 2021
Absolute rubbish. Your comment will be appalling to the bereaved who have lost loved ones. We must discover what went wrong so that the same mistakes are not repeated
June 2, 2021
I’m reliably informed the enquiry will be chaired by lifelong lefty academic Professor Hyndsight.
June 1, 2021
That’s a good idea, let all and any in the political sphere who may have told lies, wilfully ignored other advice , repeatedly listened to the voice of one man with a track record of getting it wrong, just nip out the back door quietly.
Of course this is the green light for others to jump on the gravy train of being a politician as a ‘career’ because it seems no matter what you do if found to be negligent you can get away with it.
People wonder where it has all gone wrong and why so many distrust the political arena and those in it. Perhaps too much turn the other cheek by the little people affected has gone on for too long.
We are always told of ‘lessons learnt’ and how it’s time to move on in other areas, and yet the lessons never do seem to be learnt do they.
June 1, 2021
The ONS recorded England & Wales registered deaths increased by 18% in 2020 in the North East.
Following this, FOI requests on death figures for 2020 have been submitted to York City Council, Scarborough Borough Council and Leeds City Council, with more areas to follow.
What is really interesting is that the burial and cremation figures have basically remained fairly static across all 3 areas.
These are the Leeds stats
Cremations Burials Total C&B
2015 5894 1285 7179
2016 5481 1060 6541
2017 5607 1115 6722
2018 5619 1108 6727
2019 5547 1035 6582
2020 5674 1043 6717
The question raised was where is the pandemic, or perhaps more a case of where are they hiding all the bodies?
Last year a number of funereal directors across the country were asked if they were busier than usual and it appeared, it was more or less business as usual.
The problem with most politicians is that they are so myopic they only see what they can manipulate and are blind to the other 99% of data that is out there that they can’t control.
June 1, 2021
Good post – I see that our politicans are still talking about a 3rd wave and extending lockdown schedule ….Zero (0) UK covid deaths today
June 1, 2021
In an ideal world, I suppose there should be an independent research panel set up by the WHO to examine and compare and learn lessons from each nation’s response to the pandemic and relate it to death and survival figures ~ taking into account of course 1st, 2nd and 3rd world economies, climate, religious customs, civil wars, high/low government authoritarianism etc.
Who am I kidding?
June 1, 2021
When has an official enquiry ever made a very real difference, remember Hillsborough ?
The arguments are still going on over 30 years later !
More recently Grenfell, anything really resolved, same insulation products still being used all over the World.
All of these so called enquires reveal multiple levels of failure, often with a chain of sometimes unforeseen events/circumstances, which in isolation and by themselves are not a huge problem, but when joined together in a chain reaction, it eventually leads to a disaster.
There will be very many reasons why the pandemic spread so easily, with one of them being:
You can have Covid, be infectious, spread it around without any symptoms, and without any knowledge that you are doing so.
Human nature suggests that if you feel Ok, you do not think you have a problem !
Lockdowns do work, but only if enforced to the absolute limit, in a democracy that is impossible to undertake.
June 1, 2021
Absolutely, Alan.
June 1, 2021
“The government rightly points out it is not over yet so why not wait until the pandemic has officially passed.”
But as some pointed out this time last year, the ‘pandemic’ is here to stay, we need to learn to live with CV19, so surely the sooner we start learning the lessons the better, considering that CV19 could mutate into variants where the vaccines might not be as effective. The govt is playing for time here, with no inquiry starting until sometime in 2022, if the enquiry takes two years to report, that then allows the govt to delay the publication by calling a general election in 2024 (with or without repealing the FTPA).
Or am I being far to cynical?!
As for total death counts, it is the govt needs to revise their methodology, not the NHS, the real figure for deaths due to CV19 are much higher than the govt figures suggest and the govt admitted to the fact the day they adopted their befuddled 28 days counting methodology. Two people can be infected with CV19 on the same day, perhaps at the same location, at the same time (work colleagues perhaps), they test positive on the same day, both are admitted to hospital and go on to die whilst being treated for CV19 symptoms, one is counted by the govt having died on the 28th day since testing, but the other is not counted because they died the 29th day…
June 1, 2021
And loads of people died within 28 days of infection of other conditions that they were already terminally ill with.
We have literally had people killed in accidents called Covid deaths.
June 2, 2021
@NLA; Such rants are becoming the unacceptable face of capitalism…
What do you not understand, fighting CV19 accelerates many co-morbidities (hence why such people were told to shield), many of those you suggest died of other conditions would not have died, either due to having become infected with CV19 or because the hospitals were full of CV19 cases to the exclusion of so much else.
“We have literally had people killed in accidents called Covid deaths.”
Care to put a number on that assertion, how many, and were they actually included in the govts “28 day total” figure, given that the error must have been picked upon for you to raise the ‘fact’?
June 2, 2021
are you denying that thousands of deaths, possibly into tens of thousands, were given as Covid, when the existing near-terminal situation likely would have meant death within weeks or months anyway? A bad cold, significant cough, raised tempearature due to some infection or other, minor fall which started pneumonia like symptoms was simply too much to withstand.
June 3, 2021
@Fred.H More whataboutery from the anti CV19 lobby….
Did you actually bother top read my comment, what do you not understand about the fact that CV19 accelerates co-morbidities, and as thre govt made clear, only people who have tested positive for CV19 within 28 days are actually counted as CV19 deaths.
June 2, 2021
So Jerry man with terminal cancer dies and then tests positive at PM
Cause of death?
Woman with dementia in care home aged 90 plus dies and GP without a test writes Covid as prime cause of death.
Correct?
Man in America steps into road gets hit by car.
Dead on arrival.
Tests positive though no symptoms
Death certificate say cause of death Covid.
Correct?
June 3, 2021
@Peter2; See my reply to Fred.H above, both of you do not seem to understand the basic facts.
“Man in America steps into road gets hit by car.
Dead on arrival.
Tests positive though no symptoms
Death certificate say cause of death Covid.
Correct?”
If someone walked into the road due to being in a state of confusion, brought on by low blood/oxygen levels due to the CV19 infection reducing lung function then yes your suggestion might well be the correct reason for death. Cause leading to effect.
Your whataboutery logic is akin to deigning someone died from a heart-attack at the wheel whilst driving, preferring to record the cause of death as multiple fractures due to impact constant with a fall from a great hight, because the vehicle subsequently plunged through the crash barrier and off the bridge!
June 3, 2021
Read it again Jerry
“though no symptoms…”
PS
The pedestrian was crossing on a green light on pedestrian crossing.
In one of the other cases the family are challenging what the Doctor put on the death certificate.
June 1, 2021
An investigation of the Ivermectin story would be helpful.
June 1, 2021
You can easily find online two recent results on formal trials of the use of ivermectin in Covid infection – one from the US, one from the UK – both of which say it cannot be recommended.
June 1, 2021
Not as easily as the dozens that say it works.
June 1, 2021
Is another Inquiry pointless ?
Most people have a grasp of what went on and also noted the errors
Some people will never accept the results of an inquiry
Nobody is going to be sacked as a result of the inquiry
Nobody is going to be jailed as a result of the inquiry
Nobody is going to be fined as a result of the inquiry
And the biggieâŠ..Nobody will have learnt any lessons
June 1, 2021
Exactly glen!
June 1, 2021
Good morning Sir John
Quite right – reviewing something in a formal sense before a conclusion has been arrived at is a waste of time and a waste of taxpayer money. ‘Jobs for the boys’ comes to mind.
You are also right, for the Government to suggest they were following the science when the science was not ‘peer reviewed’ is sloppy to say the least. That is not Science, that’s guess work and has all the hallmarks of ‘Control by Fear’ . To keep up they metaphors ‘Crying Wolf’ can only be used so many times before we get really into ‘We don’t Believe You!’ As we have seen already people know longer care, its not them, its others.
Anyone suggesting that ‘without’ the benefit of hindsight, they could have done better must be a ‘soothsayer’. With hindsight available the average man(as in human – we have to qualify everything nowadays) could have done it differently.
June 1, 2021
The review should be done immediately to ensure outpoints are corrected as soon as possible.
A big part of the problem as I see it are the statistics – Far too many are estimates of extrapolated estimates which are then given out as facts.
When you try to get exact numbers from the MHRA you have to wade through what looks like many justifications, certainly it is not made easy for us to find out, for example, the effects of taking the vaccines.
After adding up the latest numbers I come to the following:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine-adverse-reactions/coronavirus-vaccine-summary-of-yellow-card-reporting
The convoluted way that these figures are worked out suggests these numbers are low. I know from personal experience of people suffering bad problems after being vaccinated and they have not been reported on the bureaucratic yellow card system.
So yes – I heartily agree that we should have a fast reporting Inquiry into all aspect of the handling of this pandemic – My first question to it would be to ask; WHY was the established approach to handling a virus thrown out the window – A fully fledged process that said not to use masks or lockdowns – WHY did we reinvent a new process when the old one was certified fit for use over some years?
Other questions for the Inquiry relate to why there has been so much suppression of data from alternative professional sources. Censorship is widespread not only on the subject of the virus but also treatments… I could go on.
June 1, 2021
Of course you are right, Sir John, to suggest that the NHS needed to review the accuracy of the data, but I’m afraid it’s way too late for that now. They refused to perform autopsies at the time. Pretty much all they would now have are death certificates filled in in ways that inevitably overstated Covid 19 as a cause of decease. ‘Covid deaths’ is not a scientifically usable concept, so you can hardly carry out an enquiry on the basis of it. Likewise, ‘case numbers’ are almost worthless, as they are mostly based on the unreliable PCR test.
In my view, the enquiry should be carried out quite some time in the future, so as to evaluate the possible effects by then of the government’s lockdown measures on overall deaths. People will be interested in why the hospitals are reportedly getting so full now, and how overall mortality shapes up over the next couple of years.
June 1, 2021
An inquiry should look at the cover-up that has been ongoing for the last 15 months. Strong evidence suggested this virus was man-made, yet anyone questioning the Chinese narrative was shut down by social media. The latest 30-minute video from Dr. Chris Martenson from 29/05/21 explains it well. The media has a lot to answer for in my opinion and not just about Covid-19.
June 1, 2021
And the Chinese put pressure on the World Health Organisation (WHO) to alter the names of the virus to using the Greek alphabet so people will forget the virus started in China
June 2, 2021
So I guess we now refer to what was the variant identified in the UK as the “Chinese Wuhan variant alpha” instead.
June 2, 2021
There are several international state locations researching dangerous pathogens.
It could well be that the ‘Bat lady’ unwittingly was responsible for release of an experiment into the wild.
The French designed the Lab, checked it being built, then were denied access to check the post-implementation rules and discipline required for safe operation.
Says it all really.
June 1, 2021
Lovely.
Game, set and match to JR.
Let them wriggle out of that!
June 1, 2021
Sir John,
Almost from the beginning this has been treated as a political issue first, and a public health issue second. Not just in the UK but also the EU, the US, and even Australia.
The Labor-run state of Victoria has had some of the most severe restrictions on personal freedoms anywhere in the western world. So successful have they been that they are now in their fourth lockdown.
June 1, 2021
Working in a GP surgery across multiple sites, I have lost count of the number of death certificates that have indicated Covid-19 as the cause for death when in fact it wasnât. They may have had Covidâ9 in the past, or it may be they had Covid-19 at the time of death, but the actual reasons for death were different: cancer, stroke, heart failure, lung disease etc.
No doubt that the number of deaths purported to be caused by Covid-19 is higher than the actual numbers. By a significant margin based on anecdotal evidence of my own surgeries.
Not to take anything away from this awful pandemic of course. Too many people have died from Covid-19 and it remains a real and present threat.
Any investigation should look at reviewing the actual numbers. Something that could be done by sampling surgeries across The UK and reviewing medical records.
June 1, 2021
“Nor does this approach allow us to explore the alternative some of us preferred to full lockdown….”
The lockdowns ruined lives and cost lives. Any enquiry should take this into account in order to come to a balanced view. Good luck with that.
June 1, 2021
OfT – from todays Telegraph “More than 270 charities are paying their bosses more than the Prime Minister, with the highest earner on ÂŁ4.7m a year, an investigation by The Telegraph has found”
There is nothing wrong with high salaries that to some might seem obscene. What is wrong is that by definition a Charity is subsidised big time by the ‘taxpayer’.
Logic dictates there should be some differentiator between the pure charity that is a collection of individuals that want to give back and those organisations, mainly commercial that contribute but are pseudo private and public.
The meaning of a Charity needs redefining. Taxpayer money(A subsidy is taxpayer money) going to entities were they have no direct say is corrupting
It is the UK tax system that is wrong, distorted and corrupting
June 1, 2021
@nota#
Yep – many charities are big business and some use their tax exempt status and access to free labour, to compete against genuine, taxpaying businesses.
There is also the question of defined benefit pension schemes of charities. DB pension schemes are common in the public sector but not common in the private sector, following Gordon Brown’s tax changes. I believe that the Charity Commission is looking into charity DB pension scheme deficits which, presumably, will have to be funded by donors and by the taxpayer. However, Charity Commission staff are likely to be members of a DB pension scheme.
https://charitycommission.blog.gov.uk/2020/12/11/lets-be-clearer-about-the-risk-of-a-pension-scheme-deficit/
June 1, 2021
I completely agree. Those at the bottom volunteer their time and are paid nothing. The same should apply to those at the top. Any charity that pays its staff should immediately lose their charitable status and tax privileges. A very simple law to pass. But of course the government will do nothing to end this scandal. As usual …
June 1, 2021
Ignore all the silly protocols for recording causes of death, just count total deaths in a year and express them as a percentage of that years population figure. Then compare them with the same figures for the average over the previous three years. The difference will be down to Covid 19.
You could also break that down into further groups such as sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic, location and/or age.
June 1, 2021
In an alternate reality……. imagine Mr Corbyn had won the 2019 election. Then imagine he had presided over 128,000 deaths and the worst recession in 300 years. Imagine he had failed as epically as the Tory Brexitists have.
I suspect all of you would be among the first demanding an inquiry.
In any case it doesnât matter what you all think. There will be an inquiry in to the epic Covid failures of the Johnson regime. And weâll have an inquiry into his Brexit failure before long as well too.
June 1, 2021
He would have forced us into the EU’s vaccine roll out Andy.
Look how dreadfully that is going.
June 1, 2021
The EU doesnât have a vaccine rollout. 27 EU countries have 27 different vaccine rollouts. Some are going well, some are not. Kind of what happens with 27 sovereign countries.
But letâs look at some example. Malta has already surpassed the U.K. in terms of both % or both first and second doses. It is well ahead of us now. Hungary is close behind the U.K. on both counts but will pass us on both soon. Denmark would have caught us, but decided to delay by not using AstraZeneca – which it considers too dangerous. Most days there are 0 Covid deaths in Denmark so this is sensible for them.
Meanwhile, Germany will surpass 50m Covid jabs today or tomorrow – and is vaccinating faster than us. France has already opened up its vaccination programme to all adults. The EU 27 are carrying out between 3 and 3.5m jabs per day – more than double the Americans and 7 times what we are doing.
They also paid less per dose and every EU country has fewer deaths than us – though one, Italy, may end up higher. The EU has also exported hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine to other countries – including tens of millions to the U.K. – while we have exported none except to a few tax havens favoured by Tory donors.
So Iâd say overall the EU are doing better than you Brexitists. But you carry on reading the Daily Express because maybe you will learn something from it one day. Maybe.
June 2, 2021
Rubbish Andy.
The EU members are signed up to the EU’s EMA which is the body that approves any vaccines and organises the procurement and helps with the distribution.
This system has proved slow and badly organised.
No wonder some nations broke free and went independent.
June 1, 2021
Peter2
Andy’s gone all quiet on that, hasn’t he !
June 2, 2021
Well he has come back with a pro EU propaganda piece and a little insult about the Daily Express which avoids the obvious data showing how poor the EU have been in their roll out of the vaccine.
Apart from Malta an island with 500,000 people ie the same as Bristol.
I’m not surprised by his response but I feel sad for European people who have lost loved ones due to the EU’s bureaucratic delays in approvals and incompetent procurement.
June 2, 2021
I don’t want an inquiry. I WANT a GE now.
June 1, 2021
Dr Clare Craig, pathologist, has a team of various clinicians and legal people, and is doing an audit on deaths with Covid on the death certificate.
Thousands of people complained that family members had Covid as the cause of death, when that person could not have come into contact with the disease.
Hopefully, this audit will clear up some of the doubt around the accuracy of recording deaths.
This seems a good time in reverting to two doctors signing the death certificate, and doing a post-mortem for unexplained deaths.
June 1, 2021
Right Sharon. It was unforgivable that the procedure was changed. Two doctors to each death and post mortems wherever there is any doubt.
June 1, 2021
BBC news have just shown hundreds of people from red area countries crammed together in the arrivals area of Heathrow. Why are they still coming in from highly infected countries when we are being threatened with cancellation of lockdown?
June 1, 2021
Because you voted for an incompetent to run the country. And he appointed fellow incompetents to help him.
June 2, 2021
Davey ….Corbyn..you think these two are competent?
Hilarious andy.
June 1, 2021
It is a sort of Russian roulette – yes it will likely kill some people, but the odds are that it will not kill me – so go ahead.
June 1, 2021
Everyone involved made mistakes during the pandemic: Boris, Cummings, the government, parliament, the NHS, PHE, SAGE, the media, the WHO, the public, the scientific advisers, Imperial College etc. The public inquiry needs in a non-partisan no-blame way to investigate all those mistakes and suggest future remedies.
Cummingsâ bizarre suggestion to let parliament run the inquiry would lead to an incomplete partisan outcome where, for example, NHS failings were ignored or reassigned.
June 1, 2021
Today’s piece makes very sensible observations and asks all the right questions. Thank you for your tireless efforts in this matter. The points you raise are almost all missed by the MSM who have adopted a mere opinion which they are trying to present as fact about supposed mishandling, not enough lockdowns, not locking down soon enough etc. I hope that when the enquiry takes place (next year, quite rightly) that you will also seek to influence the terms of the enquiry and make sure the question is not whether or not lockdown was hard / early enough but whether lockdown was demonstrably the right policy at all considering not only the impact on Covid cases but also the wider economic and societal implications
June 1, 2021
Whenever any inquiry starts or finishes, it will be yet another whitewash. It must not be beyond the wit of humankind to look NOW at what happened from the very beginning and to learn from the mistakes, if only to ensure that they never happen again. Leave it until …. when? You suggest waiting until the pandemic has “officially passed”. Can you elaborate on what you really mean by that?
Government and MPs don’t appear capable of learning much though. You only need to look at the disastrous lack of care for those residents of ‘care’ homes to realise that Gov and MPs haven’t got a clue about the care system they continue to allow to be in place, the staff in situ and the comings-and-goings in care homes. Our broken and dysfunctional care system is in need of urgent improvement; one that has been neglected for far too long. It is closely intertwined with the NHS – the two cannot be separated any longer. Medical research over decades has cost us a fortune, with a view to improving and extending the quality of life for all. Don’t throw it all away.
Reply The govt declared a pandemic and will one day declare the pandemic is over And all special measures removed
June 1, 2021
Reply to reply – are you a betting man Sir JR?? whilst they may declare the pandemic over one day, ALL special measures being removed will be a long way away!
June 1, 2021
âReply to replyâ
Not posted by me.
June 1, 2021
The death rate figures are obviously too high, accounted for because of the absurd way of counting them -i.e. someone testing positive with Covid then being knocked down by a bus is counted as a Covid death. This was done, I believe for two reasons, number one, the government wanted high death figures to enforce their lockdowns and draconian laws. The second was that doctors, (GP’s) barricaded their offices and hid behind the sofa as they did not want to attend Covid deaths to certify death. I’ve never in my life known doctors so afraid of a virus, whereas the brave souls in the Covid hospitals did 12 hour shifts in uncomfortable and sometimes bruising PPE (many without much more than a surgical mask and a plastic apron in the early days) slaved endlessly in poor conditions. I mentioned this to a clinician in my surgery just recently , which is still barricaded like Fort Knox and there was no real answer other than ‘we saw people who needed seeing’ but trying to get an appointment even for a telephone conversation was impossible. When the death toll got too high and the water was getting too hot for the government, it was suggested that maybe the figures were 25 percent too high, but no actual figures.
June 1, 2021
Bravo Liz Truss!
Now, WHY are all our supermarkets politicised.
And HOW was it allowed to happen?
Food supply politically controlled…very bad indeed.
June 1, 2021
Gosh!
All these question that we have not been allowed to ask while the country has been falling apart!
Root out all the dangerous wokery.
Not much time left.
June 1, 2021
The first thing to note is that every theoretical projection produced by modelers was wrong, often by orders of magnitude, and always predicted more death and destruction than actually occurred. It doesn’t matter how beautiful the models were, it doesn’t matter how smart the modelers were, their theory didn’t match the experiment, hence it was wrong. They need to establish a track record of correct predictions before we take them seriously again. Of course they were effective in scaring people witless.
We now know that outdoor transmission is very rare, hence the ban on outdoor gatherings was pointless. BTW I know little about horseracing, but I believe it takes place outdoors.
Science established long ago that only N95 masks worn properly are effective at stopping viruses. So why the mask mandate? To keep people scared and stop them from thinking?
Since the peak of infections occurred before the start of every lockdown, lockdown cannot have been the cause of the decline, at most it could have accelerated it. Neither can the vaccine be the cause of the decline though again it could have accelerated it. I’d put my money on the vaccine, since non lockdown states such as S. Dakota experienced as rapid a decline last season as anywhere else.
If we hadn’t heard about it in the media how many people would know we were in a pandemic? I know and know of several people have died of this, but all were of such an age and condition that their death from something was to be expected. I know and know of many who suffered flu like symptoms, hardly newsworthy.
Time to ignore the scare stories coming from by modelers who have always been wrong and spread by media desperate for a dramatic story. Time to end this entirely novel experiment in disease control and start to evaluate the results.
We do not allow drugs with a forty year safety record to be used even on volunteers for safety’s sake. Yet we impose a massive experiment on the whole population with no testing of safety or effectiveness!
Thank you for reading!
June 1, 2021
A pleasure to read! Thank you.
June 1, 2021
@Pat. Excellent comment. I’m in complete agreement.
June 1, 2021
I know two people who died on the NHS waiting list for the illnesses which killed them during lockdown.
I myself was injured quite badly 8 weeks ago and was seen by a triage nurse and sent home with pain killers. I have been referred by my GP (telephone discussion) to a clinic for an MRI scan and consultation but no call up as yet.
They tell us the NHS was saved by lockdown ???? I’m sorry, but it DID collapse. It collapsed by lockdown.
I don’t know anyone who has died of CV-19.
Thank god for the private physio I am using.
June 2, 2021
Lockdown demonstrated that NHS was really unfit for purpose.
Dismantle it, and restructure with flatter layers, take out dozens of small reporting units, allow nursing entry without AAA qualifications (I exaggerate).
June 1, 2021
Why did Far Eastern countries appear to have less extensive spread of the virus than we experienced? Firstly, they had medically qualified personnel to the fore whereas we had PPE graduates. They closed their borders and we were told we couldn’t because of all the people who needed to come into the country. They took the disease seriously from the off whereas we had a PM cavorting around with his paramour with an unconcerned attitude to the disease and an emerging policy of herd immunity which was announced by the Chief Scientist and is now publicly denied and, according to Cummings, the Cabinet Secretary, PPE graduate, suggesting we should seek to spread it deliberately as with ‘Chicken Pox parties’ to get an epidemic over with before the Autumnal influx of other respiratory diseases into hospitals. They used track and trace (not test and trace) using boots on the ground to identify contacts and then to apply compulsory supervised quarantine whereas we had a PPE graduate put in charge of a telephone based system of
contact tracing which was wholly ineffective and eye-watering expensive at the same time. They contained, we didn’t and we still didn’t learn the lessons of the past by putting a pointless trade deal with a third world country before our health by allowing people from that third world country to pour in when they had an an on-going epidemic. Conclusion: Arts graduates unlike Science graduates are too arrogant to learn from others and would far rather get it wrong by themselves.
June 1, 2021
The borders to the UK were not closed for the reason that you state.
It was because it was too much trouble for the Government to organise, I claim.
There would have had to be testing and quarantine accommodation arrangements made for large numbers of people and more.
It was simply too much like real work.
Tories wield power. They do not do work.
June 1, 2021
*were not left open.
June 1, 2021
I do encourage everyone to read a nursesâs testimony, published on ConservativeWoman.
The Covid silence that led a nurse to resign
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-covid-silence-that-drove-a-nurse-to-quit/
June 1, 2021
how much are we spending on these “border force” ships, that are doing little other than providing a taxi service for anyone in Calais who wants to come to the UK?
June 1, 2021
People do have to take some personal responsibility too. The young lady shot in the head recently at a house party – how was she at a house party? Too many people are not following the rules at all. Two families up to six people only in a garden.
I think that an Inquiry could be broken down into achievable time-bound reports and could be started now.
1) PPE – What had Remainer Hunt put in place? Who was supposed to stock control UK PPE? What stock was there? What stock went missing? Who was responsible for missing stock? What has happened since? What are the current rules to stop this happening again?
2) Allowing everyone into the UK throughout the first wave of lockdown without quarantine. Why was this allowed? Who agreed to it? What were the scientists saying? What were the modellers saying? Why did it take a week to lockdown from India after what we learnt in the first wave (i.e. allowing infected cruise boats to dock and offload in Liverpool leading to an outbreak in that area and the main outbreak in Australia coming in from this source.)
No need to go mad and do everything at once. But Hunt and Shapps didn’t seem to learn from no.2 creating a new third wave. We do not want to be locked down again because they were incompetent and didn’t lock down the Indian flights. We have had enough. We queued up obediently to get our jabs whilst other communities have just been green lighted past us and free for all jabs on demand.
June 1, 2021
Cummings is right in his criticism of Hancock, but wrong in his blind faith in the unique powers of lockdowns.
Why did the UK have so many deaths? I’ll tell you:
1. We have a high proportion of obese people (a known risk factor) – not the government’s fault;
2. We have a high proportion of older people (a known risk factor) – not the government’s fault;
3. We released infected patients into care homes – Hancock’s fault, for which he should be sacked etc ed;
4. We allowed Covid to spread in hospitals, infecting already sick and vulnerable people – Hancock’s fault, for which he should be sacked;
5. We failed to trial medicines shown (in small but properly conducted, placebo controlled, clinical trials) to be effective – Hancock’s fault;
6. We miscounted, exaggerating the number of actual Covid deaths – this is obviously true, but I suspect only made a small difference.
We could have had a much better response had we avoided errors 3, 4 and 5 above, and had we shielded the vulnerable while allowing the rest of the population to continue (almost, but not quite) as normal. This would have protected the economy much better too, obviously.
June 1, 2021
Another inquiry at vast expense, at this time, no, the results of which will anyway no doubt produce all the âwrongâ answers. Accountability is one thing but presently too many political agendas & a desire by some, to damage at all costs. If we donât know by now what went wrong & learn from that then we never will. Iâm more interested in valuable time & resources being spent on how we can ensure we do not see a repeat of what has been suffered & continue, with transparency for the public, attempts to deal with infection spikes and look more closely for the reasons, manage our borders better come to that. Not trying to be all things to all people so as not to offend. Maybe we could be made aware too of the health status & impacts of the hundreds of people arriving illegally on our shores most days, around 618 since Thursday at the last count based on published media reports. Are they all turning up fit and healthy. A BBC reporter today reports seeing a small boat with 12 on board being followed by a French vessel until it reached UK waters. Perhaps something should be done too for those valuable NHS staff turning up to work who are to be faced with exorbitant NHS car park charges as they become in some cases payable again or where a free permit is not available. That can knock off a couple of hundred a month off a salary. Back to basics stuff.
June 1, 2021
Incidentally – I see the elderly Tory voters whoâve had two doses of vaccine are outraged that the next stage of lockdown lifting needs delaying because of the spread of the Indian variant. They are safe now so they donât care about anyone else.
It is my age group who are now filling hospitals and intensive care units. I do not get my second dose until the very end of July – and I am in my late 40s. People younger than me will not get their second doses until well into August, September and beyond.
Why are the Brexitists putting the lives of people like me at risk just to appease their elderly voters – when younger people have spent a year and a bit disrupting their lives, at huge personal economic cost, to protect the old.
The Indian variant is only an issue here anyway because Boris Johnson didnât want to close the border to protect his post Brexit trade trip. Another example of Brexit, literally, killing people.
Reply Death rate massively down with no-one dying of CV 19 in last 24 hours. Saving lives and livelihoods is the aim.
June 1, 2021
What are you doing wrong Andy? my 3 offsgring plus wives/husbands have had theirs – all past 45.
Do you have a Doctor – or always go private? Have you tried the national logging on and been given a stadium 100 miles away and refused? What is your age group doing to run risks of transmission – we didn’t.
June 1, 2021
“Another example of Brexit, literally, killing people.”
Rubbish. Does your hatred of Brexit know any bounds?
June 1, 2021
Oh dear since when did our decision to Leave the EU adversly affect the progress of OUR virus vaccines? Why do you single out the British patriots to be the sole source of your complaint?
The purpose of ANY vaccine is not to cure but to immunise the recipient from serious infection problems or death and this SARS Cov 2 strain badly affected the elderly more so than any other age group. See the graphs that picture the age problem.
You went completely off course here with your ridiculous attack on Brexiteers, by failing to check the actual stats. Why can’t you face up to the fact that Remain LOST in 2016?
June 1, 2021
Andy
“….elderly Tory voters whoâve had two doses of vaccine are outraged that the next stage of lockdown lifting needs delaying because of the spread of the Indian variant.”
No Andy they’re probably outraged at Johnson who let the damn thing into the country on purpose.
June 1, 2021
clearly you’re not watching the figures, Andy. And it isn’t old people who want lockdown lifted.
Youngsters are sick of it.
You stay locked down if you want to.
June 1, 2021
I’d say the opposition wanting an immediate inquiry is partly because Starmer has to look like he is ‘doing something’ when in fact he has not. Also, while Cummings ‘over the top’ faith in lock downs is still the perceived ‘best policy alternative’ we could have adopted, there is some chance of an inquiry finding against B.J.’s response.
Why Cummings went into panic mode and wanted lock downs is questionable. He is supposed to be a ‘data genius’. Ferguson’s models have a long track record of being far worse than useless. Virus after virus his models predicted far worse outcomes than actually came to pass.
Why did Cummings believe him this time?
I can only guess that it was because this time Cummings felt himself personally to be at risk and his own nearest and dearest.
Compared to that, Boris’ lesser panic, is more to be commended.
I’m glad to see, Sir John, that from the start you have favoured shielding the vulnerable, rather than subjecting all to these measures.
That would have been a common sense policy for any apparently nasty flu virus.
I agree with your last two paragraphs. That is the sensible review – accuracy of the figures.
If they are accurate then that is the time when we should look at how we could have done better.
June 1, 2021
Hundreds of immigrants crossing the channel and the Labour Party and our left wing woke media are happy
Tow just one boat back to France and all the Tory voters will be happy
June 1, 2021
The Government failed us right at the beginning. Instead of focussing on Lock Downs they should have concentrated on “Lock Outs”. That is, sealing all of our borders.
Anyone arriving here should have been tested for any virus BEFORE entering the country. It was mind numbing to learn that while we citizens were locked down, visitors from Covid 19 death ridden Italy were arriving daily and unbelieveably, others coming in from the origin of the virus, WUHAN, China. Twice weekly into Heathrow. None of the new arrivals were checked but allowed to enter the country and go their own way.
An other damning fault was to remove exisiting patients from Hospitals and transfer them to Care Homes WITHOUT any medical checks. To “save the NHS”. Common sense tells the layman that was a really stupid thing to do, made worse because of the raving pandemic.
Any investigation into this disaster must emphasise the gross errors of judgement made along with the positives.
The Government should be shown to have failed in these areas and the others less the enquiry becomes yet another whitewash that treats the public as dumb.
For once I hope we have a report that shows us citizens what went wrong and the Government apologising for failing us there.
It’s time we had honesty from our past and present Governments and it’ll do this one the world of good to come clean.
June 1, 2021
I know that many deaths in a certain care home were attributed to Covid whatever the real reason. No doubt it was the same elsewhere given the enthusiasm for sensationalising Covid. No chance of correcting those figures now.
June 1, 2021
I notice that those who claim to be most ‘concerned’ about the Indian variant are those who are paid for being on the staff register rather than for actually working, and who will be claiming higher wages at the first signs of the inflation resulting from an unbelievably high amount of public debt accrued by closing down the economy.
We do not need an inquiry, we need somebody to order the Lotos Eaters to get back to work. And to issue a sharp reminder that there is no human right to longevity – one gets old, one dies, often of respiratory illness – that is the human condition. The NHS did not help by sending infected patients back to care homes: too late now to alter that. But the virtue of some energetic daily exercise, fresh air, and moderation in food and drink also needs stressing. For somebody in his 40s to be fretting about his low chance of suffering from coronavirus is risible.
June 1, 2021
From the Telegraph earlier this evening:
“Over the bank holiday weekend, UK authorities dealt with 336 people in 19 boats on Friday and 144 in seven boats on Saturday. A further 17 crossed in one boat on Sunday and 71 people set out in three boats on Monday, bringing the total to 568.”
This would suggest that during the summer months this year illegal entries could be as high as 1,000 per week, equating to perhaps 10,000-12,000 per year. Most of these are single young men, some of whom may intend to exercise a right to be joined by family members once they have secured some kind of settled status. This is surely too many to be tolerated. I would like our host to turn his attention to this issue more frequently than has been his habit in recent months.
June 1, 2021
âŠand the French arenât just allowing them to cross the channel theyâre encouraging the illegal immigrants to journey through France to Calais the port of free rubber boats and a compass to Dover
June 1, 2021
Covid is a unique virus
Itâs taken all of us by surprise
In the early days doctors simply did not know how to administer care for such a virus
Everything had to be learnt from scratch
We all have an opinion
There will be an enquiry that is necessary so we all learn for any future big variants that may evade vaccines
Science is learning every day so new vaccines will be available.
In my opinion what will be required is continued Gov financial support to science that keeps us ahead of future variations that may avoid vaccine
There are lessons to be learnt
June 1, 2021
O/T please SJR can you peruse how much the final contingent liabilities are for Brexit as a recent FOI request for this is being “kicked into the long grass” and covered up. Thank you.
June 1, 2021
If the enquiry does its job properly I canât see the NHS coming out of it very well, good, it needs root and branch reform.
The NHS has always had a terrible record regarding infection control and CoVid highlighted that’s
June 1, 2021
JR
Pains me to break it to you JR, but…..does’nt matter what you delete Boris Johnson will not be re elected as PM. He’s been sussed out and he’ll probably take the party down with him.
NI
Fishing
Green crap
EV’s
Letting covid into the country
Take your pick.
June 2, 2021
The planet was not over populated
June 3, 2021
The real inquiry should be held into how the media has failed to report on the one million people that marched through London last weekend, there is a revolution happening and the game is over.