The video embedded in this video is very powerful:
https://twitter.com/cleavon_md/status/1416256521915310084?s=21
The government is not pursuing an experiment when it comes to Covid 19. It is instead pursuing right wing dogma that is indifferent to the consequences of its actions on human life.
That is why we are suffering wildly exceptional Covid rates in the UK.
That is why cases are rising when they are falling elsewhere.
That is why hospital cases are increasing.
That is why ICUs may be overwhelmed.
That is why we will suffer an epidemic of long Covid when most countries will avoid this fate.
This is all political choice.
We have the right to say this.
It should be said.
We have a right to be angry that our media is not reporting this,
We have a right to be angry that our opposition parties do not seem to be saying this. But then, the SNP and Labour are too compromised by going along with too much of this in Scotland and Wales.
We must tell the truth that people are going to die again, wholly unnecessarily.
That has to be heard, and understood. And then those who are responsible must be held accountable. Killing people is a crime, whoever does it. And it is happening now, in the UK by government choice and policy.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
There is no more important political task than to demonstrate that almost every policy emanating from the government is an ideological product. The empirical tradition of the anglo-Saxon world is very profound and there is little understanding of the role of ideology. The most graphic example is the histories of Nazism, which aside from a handful of younger scholars , still put the emphasis on personality, not ideology. If there is minimal comprehension of Nazi ideology, what hope is there in the case of the marginally more subtle Tories! Unfortunately, this cultural deficit appears almost as prevalent among the intelligentsia. Another mountain to climb, Richard.
I agree. It’s really disingenuous when politicians say that other politicians are politicising something (e.g. of playing political football, or claiming common sense) when politics is what politicians do all the time. I’m paraphrasing, but Zizeck said that, at the moment when you think you’ve stepped outside of ideology, you’re in ideology. As you say, it’s an incredible trick that govts pull to get people to believe that their decisions/actions aren’t political. Phrases like “fiscal responsibility” and other technocratic/managerial gobbledegook spring to mind as thin veils masking ideology (there’s no money for it being a classic case in point).
Very well said Dr Horton – and Richard. This needs to be heard loud & clear – and heeded!
The disastrous consequence of the UK government’s choice is starkly illustrated by the first two graphs in a recent (11 Oct) Guardian article I linked to in a previous post, which show 1) Covid cases per million in European countries in the last fortnight and 2) number of vaccine doses administered per 100 people.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/11/covid-rates-lower-western-europe-than-central-and-eastern
I can’t post these graphs here, but they provide incontrovertible evidence of the truth of the statements which proceed them :
“Higher vaccination rates are translating to lower Covid infection and death rates in western Europe than in parts of central and eastern Europe, the latest data suggests – except in the UK where case numbers are surging.
Figures from Our World In Data indicate a clear correlation between the percentage of people fully vaccinated and new daily cases and fatalities, with health systems in some under-inoculated central and eastern EU states under acute strain.
The outlier appears to be Britain, which – though now overtaken by multiple EU states – has vaccinated a similar share of its population to most western European countries, but has an infection rate that more closely resembles those in the east.”
…
“Experts have suggested this may be because most western European countries retained significant distancing and other Covid-related restrictions when they opened up during the summer, while England decided to drop almost all of its measures.”
The infection rates per million shown in the graphic were below 800 in Italy, Spain, Portugal & France and below 1500 in the rest of Western Europe with the exception of Belgium (2819), Austria (2750), Luxembourg (2727), The Netherlands (1979) & most notably the UK with a whopping 7227 cases. What more evidence does the government need to change course?
How any caring government could continue with such a disastrous policy is beyond my comprehension. They should somehow be made to confront these figures and be held accountable. Yet the so-called opposition seems to do nothing. Have any of them even seen these facts?
It is obvious the Tories are refusing to understand the meaning of exponential growth in pandemics. It is only when the doubling time gets so short that they then bring in obvious measures in a panic at the last minute that should never have been dropped in the first place like social distancing, limiting social gatherings, mask /face shield wearing, proper ventilation in schools and workspaces, etc The “economic” (a euphemism for profit/exploitation of labour) argument is that we have to get back to “normal” and devil take the hindmost. The tragedy is people will still vote for these criminals who are now advocating letting migrants and their children drown in the channel with no responsibility taken by the UK border force.
But Richard, is it really only that govt. is ‘ indifferent to the consequences of its actions on human life’.
Govt. have been warned time and again by their own science advisors as well as independent scientists, public health specialists, and epidemiologists, and yet they have explicitly decided to kill more people, or at very least ‘to allow more people to die’.
Is there any kind of legal challenge which could be mounted agains state sponsored killing?
Ideology ( or is it just stupidity?) also seems to trump economics – they still pretend to think that suppressing infection and death will damage the economy when the reverse is true – China, Taiwan, S Korea, NZ etc etc
Support the Good Law Project
It is a sad fact that excessive numbers of people in the UK have been catching, suffering with, and in some cases dying from, COVID for several months, since June or July. 100 deaths a day, for months. Yet again mostly vulnerable older people. It is a slow moving massacre.
“we will suffer an epidemic of long Covid when most countries will avoid this fate.”
On what scientific basis are you saying “most countries” will avoid this?
Experts are still working on the problem and do not know the full implications. Experts agree that sooner or later everyone will catch Covid.
Worldwide there have been 240+ million Covid cases. But somehow a non-expert working with no medical knowledge from his living room can pronounce that the UK will suffer an ‘epidemic’ of long Covid while ‘most countries’ will not.
So, again, what’s your scientific rationale for making that claim? Provide a link to a reputable source to back up your claim. Or why not just admit you are scaremongering?
With respect, just look at the data
There is ample evidence that Covid can be vastly better managed than we are doing in the U.K. and as a result many would not have to lose their lives earlier than they might otherwise do
Are you saying our recklessness is not causing that loss of life?
Why?
Completely ignoring my question, which was about ‘long Covid’ and what your evidence was that the UK would suffer an ‘epidemic’ of this while ‘most countries’ will not.
Obviously you are not answering my question because you have no answer to it. You are not supplying a link to a reputable source to back up your claims because you have none.
You are fearmongering.
Why?
Just read the work on this issue from independent Sage and stop wasting my time
Start with Christina Pagel and go on from there
Richard, I’m not a member of the SNP, or any party. I don’t agree with your comment that the SNP have been “going along with too much of this” in Scotland. “Power devolved is power retained”, by the UK government. The Scottish Government was, and is, financially and legally – and geographically – restrained in what action it has been able to take. The UK government recently “called in” two Bills passed by the Scottish Parliament – one unanimously – to the Supreme Court of the UK. This shows the retention of power by the UK. I think that, in general, where the Scottish Government has been able to diverge from the UK government’s approach to the pandemic, it has done so.
NHS Scotland and its staff, completely separate from the NHS elsewhere in the UK, is performing to a higher standard than the NHS elsewhere in the UK. Scotland’s infection and death rates, while not good, are the least bad in the island of Britain. Scotland’s vaccination rates are the highest in the UK. Mask-wearing and social distancing, and contact tracing through Check-in Scotland and Test and Protect, still apply in many settings in Scotland.
Please also bear in mind that the Scottish Government is also up against a hostile press, mis-reporting and non-reporting by BBC Scotland, and politicians of the Scottish branches of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties apparently working in concert, as seen in the tactical voting campaign last April/May, to undermine the Scottish Government’s response to the pandemic.
I accept that the current Covid rate in Scotland is better than the UK – and even falling, bit far too much has been alike
Wales is candidly doing better than Scotland – and is showing more courage right now