2 big stories
“We’re going to the zoo, zoo, zoo, you can come too, too, too…” is probably not enough compensation for the suggestion by Professor Neil Ferguson that enforcing a lockdown just one week earlier would have saved 20,000 lives. And, as confidence in the Government’s handling of the crisis continues to decline, it does seem as though the response is to offer up as many opportunities for enjoyment as possible, regardless of whether or not it is safe to do so.
The suggestion that, whilst Russia interferes with our politics, China interferes with our perceptions, is an emerging viewpoint. The European Union has accused China of being the source of much of the Covid-19 misinformation that has spread across our consciousness. The Guardian reports:
“I believe if we have evidence we should not shy away from naming and shaming,” Vĕra Jourová, a European commission vice-president, told reporters. “What we also witnessed is a surge in narratives undermining our democracies and in effect our response to the crisis, for example the claim there are secret US biological laboratories on former Soviet republics has been spread by both pro-Kremlin outlets, as well as Chinese officials and state media.”
2 social media posts
Congratulations to David Chalmers, the Chair of the Liberal Democrat European Group, on his election as Chair of Northam Town Council!
This evening I am honoured to announce that I was elected as #Mayor of #Northam #Appledore #WesstwardHo! & #OrcharhHill in #Torridge #NorthernDevon #Devon
I shall ensure that our Town Council is there to help local people through these challenging times
— David Chalmers 🔶#FBPE (@chalmersdavidn) June 10, 2020
And, a win for Jamie Stone (with acknowledgement to Alistair Carmichael), who can now take care of his wife and fully participate in the work of the House of Commons…
Thank you @amcarmichaelMP. Us @LibDems dragged Jacob Rees-Mogg kicking and screaming into the 21st century.. but now carers can vote. Democracy 1 – 0 Tories. pic.twitter.com/24SsnOlcRx
— Jamie Stone MP (@Jamie4North) June 10, 2020
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2 Comments
Professor Fergusons does not follow his own rules and his predictions can be so broad as to be near meaningless. In 2002 He predicted that 50 to 50000 could die of BSE. According to his modelling Sweden would be edging toward 100000 deaths by August. Countries that didn’t lock down(Japan, Belarus, South Korea and so on) have less deaths than some of those like Spain, Italy and Belgium that locked down early. Hospitals were built and wards were cleared to accommodate an influx of coronavirus cases . This was not done just in case. Thousand of vulnerable people were removed from hospital with proper medical care and placed in care homes in anticipation of a health service swamping wave of illness amongst otherwise healthy people that didn’t happen. So much for protecting the vulnerable. There is now a huge backlog of none virus related health conditions to clear up. The scandal is that we sent medically frail people from hospitals where they were receiving high level treatment to care homes where the treatment was inferior and have plunged ourselves into social and economic disaster having achieved very little. All the countries are pulling themselves out of house arrest at roughly the same time despite very mixed results. This is not proof lockdowns success but of its pointlessness. The sooner we admit this to ourselves, the better.
We don’t need a professor of any standing to tell us what we already knew. The international evidence from countries that locked down early and tested and tracked speaks for itself. Boris and crew did not take these tried and tested steps and many thousands of people have died as a direct result. Not easy to say but it does need to be said and will, I believe, be proven in the evidence which will lead to the inevitable comment from Boris and his Cabinet, ‘this must never happen again’. They will duck all responsibility, they will not blink let alone resign and there is little or nothing we can do about it. If you want to know how it works study the bankruptcy of Northamptonshire County Council.