Do you want to know a secret

The public should now become increasingly alarmed at the secrecy surrounding the government's management of the Covid -19 crisis. There is no need for secrecy pertaining to the scientific advice given to the government by the SAGE committee. The scientists on this committee have a moral obligation to publish their advice. Science is based upon the fact that knowledge should be shared. The scientists on this committee should share their advice with the public and ignore requests from the government to keep secrets. If they are not prepared to do this then they should resign.

Every day the governments and their scientists either refuse to answer simple questions from journalists or they dissimulate using ramble discourse which means almost nothing.

Today the figures have been released for the number of deaths in care homes. The public will be disturbed by the thousands of older people who have been left to die without hospital treatment. Was this deliberate policy or was this incompetence, we have a right to know? Why has the bravery of the coal face workers not been recognised, as they have worked through the crisis without adequate protection and testing. There should be an apology for the deaths of  so many doctors, nurses and care workers; not mealy mouthed platitudes and excuses.

Let's have a grown up conversation about this. One of the government's scientists claimed that we should do this. Let's have a grown up conversation about why Germany has been able so far to manage both the number of infections and death rate so much better than the UK. Why is the death rate of confirmed case so much higher in the UK than in the US ?

It is not true that the NHS "has not been overwhelmed" by the crisis; so many patients with other life threatening conditions have failed to be treated. It is difficult to get a GP appointment in person and Dental services have shutdown. GPs are not visiting care homes: why?

We are in a crisis and of course things can go wrong and there are failures, but the public understands this but it expects to be told the the facts.

Containment of the virus failed and it was bound to. The spread of the virus could not be stopped so why try to pretend that containment succeeded? Tell us why it failed and how that failure could have been mitigated if we had the resources to do it.

Why have public service employees across the board not been provided with adequate protection against infection?

We need to know why public health has failed to do enough testing. Is it a shortage of tests or staff or both. Is it because of a lack of effective decision making and organisation by the government and the administration?  If we are not told why then we will suspect a cover up.

All the scientific advice should be published so that the public can decide if and where and when the advice has been ignored  or played down by the politicians.   This is in the interest of the scientists themselves in case they are being set up for a fall.

The government and SAGE committee should open the books now. The public deserve some openness and honesty, especially as they have subjected themselves to house arrest. The public have played their part and it is incumbent on the government and SAGE to publish their deliberations as a mark of respect.

Social Market Foundation

The Social Market Foundation is proposing that pensions for the elderly should be disconnected from the triple-lock, because the financial burden of saving the lives of thousands of pensioners should not fall onto the working age poor. Pensioners should therefore pay for this intergenerational generosity.

Hold on a second. Anyone over 70 is now effectively under house arrest not just to save their own lives but to stop the virus infecting the younger generations. Hundreds of thousands of pensioners do not have gardens so house arrest for them is more like a prison sentence under solitary confinement. It is punishment for nothing. How do you count the cost of this suffering? Thousands of pensioners are being left alone to suffer for the effects of Covid-19 and if they don't die they could be left with long term illness. What is the cost of this?

Even in the best of times the state pension is not exactly a King's ransom especially if you do not own your house with a paid-off mortgage. Pensioners in this situation must pay rent which will take up a substantial amount of their meagre income. Who will take over the financial burden of looking after cash strapped pensioners if these recommendations are taken up? I suggest that it will be their cash strapped daughters and sons. If you are a pensioner on your own, then hardlines.

Many pensioners do voluntary work. How do you account for this Mr Social Market Foundation think-tank economist? What happens if the pensioner can't afford to do this work anymore? Who will take their place and how much will it cost?

How much more do you want to patronise the elderly? Do you want them all to be herded into care homes to be looked after by the poor? The carer and the cared for have been denied personal protection equipment so are they all part of the herd ? Will they all have to sacrifice their lives to keep the economy going? There could be no-one left to the buy the products of the economy which could die just as quickly as a Covid -19 victim.

It is time to put some thought back into the think-tank not remove it. Time for the financial burden to be put onto broader shoulders than the working age poor, perhaps?

http://www.smf.co.uk/press-release-scrap-pensions-triple-lock-coronavirus/

Get the Covid 19 testing done

The covid 19 virus has now killed over 3,600 in the UK. This is more people killed in a few weeks than were killed in the Northern Ireland troubles covering three decades from the late 1960's. The only resemblance that the Covid 19 struggle bears to a war is that both have a first victim - the truth.

The covid 19 virus is not brutal, it is not devious, it is not intelligent and it is not trying to avoid being eliminated. The disease can be contained and eliminated by taking effective measures. These are social distancing and the protection of health and care workers and the emergency service workers.   We have got the social distancing but more needs to be done. Why should the health of doctors, nurses, care workers, policemen, ambulance workers and  pharmacists,  have their health put at risk for lack of equipment.

It i also essential that antibody tests should be started as soon as possible. Public health administrators claim that the tests are not accurate enough at 90% to be used diagnostically. This may or not be true but fairly accurate tests could still be of use for data collection rather than diagnosis. This is the ultimate key to a solution.

It looks as though these tests could be used anonymously to test the general population to find out the proportion of the population who have already recovered from infection. The tests could be done twice on each individual and any conflicting result could be ignored. The 90% that are accurate could then be used to assess how many have been infected and have recovered. Polling statisticians can predict election results quite accurately from low samples. If we were to test 20,000 people across the nation we would have a reasonable set of data to help plan for the recovery.

When the tests are 99% accurate they can be used diagnostically. Home testing by the public should be ruled out because of the risk of fraud and people misjudging their result. Allowing some people to go about business as usual and others to remain locked away is a recipe for disaster.

The time to start this testing is now, if the antibody tests are to be useful. There should  be no dithering and no excuses why we cannot do this. Singapore used experimental tests to help fight the virus why can we not follow their lead? They had nothing to lose if the testing could not provide the right result and everything to gain if they did. They succeeded to control the virus with testing and other measures. We need to find out if we can do the same.

It is time for clear headed thinking and effective management of the crisis. If  the heads of government and health administration cannot provide this now and produce a clear and honest plan for the future, then they should resign and make way for others who are more competent.