Whitty’s testimony didn’t come with the headline-grabbing revelations of other testimonies, but it was one of the most illuminating of the Inquiry so far, particularly in terms of timeline and where the government properly failed. Here’s my impression of it and some key moments… The first thing to note is just how qualified Whitty is […]
I apologise, but try as I might, I can’t find any material for #TheWeekInTory. Only kidding. It’s an absolute casserole. Let’s down a pint of absinthe and get stuck in. Also – trigger warning. [Contains strong language] 1. We begin with the Covid inquiry, which revealed the shocking news that everything we all knew three years […]
In October 2023, the BBC published an article titled Changing Nature of Covid: Is it just a regular winter bug now? The TL/DR (too long; didn’t read) answer is ‘No. It really isn’t’. That’s not what the article would lead you to believe. It caused a lot of comment on social media, with some wanting […]
This week is turning out to be very revelatory…and shocking. Ed We will update as and when… From 30 October: What we see from the Inquiry is intense focus on the period between Jan 30 and March 23r. This was the nearly two month period that would affect all of our lives so profoundly for […]
Dear Editor, Just as we had started to relax and get our lives ‘back to normal’, 31 July 2023 saw new Covid-19 variants classified in the UK: Covid ‘Eris EG.5.1’ is out there. Hospital admissions are spiking, as a consequence of the poor summer weather (meaning that we have spent more time indoors) and waning […]
Monday was another damning day for the government at the Covid Inquiry. It is becoming clearer what the recommendations from the Inquiry are likely to be… But there is also a bigger question raised about criminality… TUC union, the BMA, the Health Foundation, and The British Red Cross gave evidence. Many of the government defence […]
Editor’s comment: Apologies for the duplication of text in places where we have had to use the tweet to capture the video. It was too good and informative a thread to pass up because of technical challenges, so it is a bit of a hybrid. So, Hancock’s first appearance at the Covid Inquiry did not […]
Partygate is triggering, I assume for most of us. For me, it is the abandonment of the public by the government that causes most trauma. So I wanted to share with you what I found to be one of the most shocking parts of the national covid response. It was March 2020 and I was […]
At the end of May 2023, I came across multiple, well-known, anti-vaccine Twitter accounts claiming that new Israeli data showed that there had been “No Known Covid Deaths in Healthy People Under 50.” We know from ONS data that in England and Wales there were 4976 deaths involving Covid-19 in the under-50s since 2020, so […]
If you didn’t watch the Johnson lie/excusathon, here’s a potted summary. Disappointingly, the King James Bible did not spontaneously combust at the touch of the former PM’s mendacious fingers, but the smell of burning boxer shorts was definitely in the air. The Privileges Committee’s questioning, under Harriet Harman’s quietly authoritative chairmanship, was a model of […]
For a few weeks in 2009, when I worked for DFID and it looked as if the H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic might be of a similar scale to what we’ve seen with Covid-19, I attended official-level cross-Whitehall coordination meetings. The meetings were huge, drawing on civil servants from across Whitehall, often multiple people from one […]
A Somerset County Councillor is on a clean air mission. “I’m keen to learn the lessons of the pandemic” says Councillor Oliver Patrick, “and one of those lessons is that airborne diseases like Covid spread easily between people indoors where ventilation is poor.” Oliver’s clean air campaign began in September when he started raising money […]
Oliver Patrick, Somerset County Councillor (Coker Division) explains why clean air, indoors and out, should be a priority for legislators. This week I built my 20th Corsi-Rosenthal Box (below) using the funds donated through my GoFundMe. Fifteen of these DIY air filters have gone into schools and Early Year Foundation Stage settings in the Yeovil […]
Andrew Bridgen may have apologised for breaching lobbying rules and breaking the MPs’ code of conduct, but he’s not letting up on his anti-vax campaign. Emma Monk analyses just one day of misinformation. In the process of writing an article about former Conservative MP, Andrew Bridgen, having the whip removed for comparing the vaccine roll-out […]
It’s #WorldVentil8Day, raising awareness of the critical role clean air plays in preventing the spread of disease and damage to health from pollution. We’ve known for a long time now that Covid is an airborne virus, yet it appears the government don’t want to encourage mask-wearing or insist on air filtration in indoor spaces because […]
The power of disinformation is mind-blowing and it’s dangerous. Let me give you a very recent example that almost certainly cost lives… This month there were two massive publications about the pandemic. One in The Lancet – top five medical journal. The other series in the BMJ – again, a top six journal. The Lancet […]
Dear West Country Voices, Last week, Rishi Sunak said the government gave too much power to scientists during Covid lockdowns and was not honest about the potential downsides. His recollection differs from mine. I remember the anxiety I felt on a journey on a crowded Piccadilly line, on my way back to Dorset after a […]
Hey, guys. I have been working on something for a while now, partly to feel more useful and partly to take back some control from an indifferent leadership. Covid Fit is a campaign trying to reduce some of the risk factors associated with Severe Covid. We are in a much better place now if we […]
‘Are we in a new Covid-19 wave?’ asks molecular biologist, Emma Monk This week the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced we had hit a horrifying milestone: recording 200,000 Covid deaths in the UK since the start of the pandemic. But look around the shops and on the trains and you’d be forgiven for thinking […]
Dear Sheryll Murray MP I am writing to you with grave concerns that the government is going to remove special Covid sickness rules for NHS staff in the coming days. My fellow NHS colleagues have had to work tirelessly against a background of a decade of poor investment to fight a pandemic. Boris Johnson and […]
If there is one lesson we should take from Covid so far, it’s that we live in an age of disinformation and political Spin. And it works! Arguably, the ease in which we are manipulated is one of the greatest threats to humanity and social justice. Covid is a good example… 🧵 At the point […]
Even as some hard-core Brexiters concede that the project isn’t working for the country, they reach for tired claims that there have been benefits in certain high-profile areas. The reality is very different, as Andrew Levi explains, in the case of the Covid vaccine public health response. Radical Remainers ‘The Great British, world-beating, Covid vaccine […]
Dear Sheryll Murray I noted a tweet by Kwasi Kwarteng and other Conservative ministers today telling us, in effect, to move on from the series of events known as Partygate. He said that the government had important things to get on with. Reflecting on a selection of current crises: the cost-of-living crisis was created […]
Truth doesn’t matter? Integrity doesn’t matter? Honour doesn’t matter? Is all that matters remaining in power to prosecute an agenda of enrichment for cronies and supporters, a grave reduction in human rights and a whole slew of policies which will serve to widen the inequality gap and deepen poverty and deprivation? It would seem so […]
There are any number of ways of seeing the photograph’s issued yesterday of the party Boris Johnson attended on 13 November 2020. Denis Swayne MP managed to call it a work event yesterday, which was no excuse. No doubt Grant Shapps will destroy any remaining credibility he has by telling the morning media round some […]
It’s hard trying to raise awareness of governments’ failure to manage the pandemic properly. It shouldn't be, but it is. Why, and why keep going: 1. There is a small but powerful minority who want the public to forget about Covid, even if that means more death and disability. Consumer confidence is hit hard when […]
Some two million people in the UK are experiencing longer-term health impacts from Covid. Suffering from post-Covid brain-fog himself, Tom Scott had a look at some recent research into Long Covid and possible treatments for the condition. Last month I finally caught Covid, along with dozens of other people who had unwisely attended a friend’s […]
Omicron is far more dangerous than the flu, explains Dr Dan Goyal. Many have bought into the “Covid is now like the Flu” narrative. So here’s the science without the scientific jargon. Judge for yourself. For the ‘Too long, didn’t read’ folk: like for like: infection fatality ratio (IFR) approximately six times that of flu; […]
Dear West Country Voices, My wife is a GP and also works regular shifts in A&E. Last Friday she was diagnosed as having Covid. She worked all through the darkest days of 2020 and wonders how she has escaped it so far. I had it in October last year at the same time as our […]
Russ’s epic and epigrammatic summary of the madness and horror that is the current UK political scene. We’ve left the numbers in so you don’t get lost! Buckle up! I was going to do #TheWeekInTory, but try as I might, I can’t find a single thing they’ve done wrong this week. Only kidding. It’s been […]