China has been accused of being responsible for the outbreak of Covid-19. I thought for a long time that the proximity of biological research laboratories to Wuhan was no coincidence. This article offers a very different theory, and is worth reading.
I hold no brief for any side in American politics, as I generally consider the Republicans and Democrats to be as bad as each other when it comes to looking out for the interests of big business over the welfare of the average American. But the recent behaviour of President Trump has me confused as to how he has been allowed to remain in office, without being removed by anyone with an iota of commonsense.
However, I know that almost 50 % of Americans still support him, and many even consider that his handling of the Covid-19 crisis has ‘gone well’.
This is a man who has suggested using anti-malarial drugs, because he has financial connections to the company that makes them. He has gone so far as to suggest that ingesting or injecting bleach or disinfectant might help to kill the virus, or that inserting a light inside your body might work too.
These are not the actions of a statesman, and definitely not of a president. They are not even the actions of a madman, as a madman might actually believe that what he was saying was true. They are incomprehensible, and are not only dangerous, but potentially fatal. To my mind, those statements should warrant criminal charges of wilfully endangering life.
Like our own ‘hideaway leader’, Mr Trump seems to consider the significant loss of life is a fair price to pay for business continuing to profit at all costs.
Since the beginning of this pandemic, he has appeared to be cynical, heartless, flippant, and uncaring. He has offered support to armed demonstrators intimidating politicians, and even nurses. If I hadn’t seen and heard all this with my own eyes, I would have considered it to be the stuff of a tragic comedy.
So my question is this.
Given all this, are you still intending to support him, and vote for him at the next election? And if so, why?
I would genuinely like to know.
An interesting article from Roland, comparing an ancient empire with America in the 21st century.
I have been reading and watching the growing number of disturbing reports in Britain that claim the fact that virus deaths are disproportionate in people from backgrounds that include African, West Indian, and the Indian sub-continent are ‘deliberate negligence’. There is a Facebook group of British Muslims who openly accuse the NHS and the government of allowing their relatives to die, because of their ethnicity. One member even called it ‘ethnic cleansing’.
Now I see on the BBC that the new Labour Party leader is calling for a public enquiry into this, and it is to be led by Baroness Lawrence, a black woman who is famous for campaigning for justice for her murdered son many years ago.
I have to say that I personally find these accusations to be appalling. I worked in the NHS for 22 years, and know many who still do, including my own wife. I never saw any different treatment given to non-white people, and I worked in an area of huge cultural diversity.
To save Baroness Lawrence the time, and to save public expenditure, I can offer the following suggestions about why the differential in deaths in ethnic minority groups might be happening. And it has nothing to do with racism, as anyone who knows me well will affirm that I am not racist.
1) Traditional living conditions, and culture.
It is rare these days for white British extended families to continue to live in the same house. You might be hard-pressed to find a house where grandparents, parents, children, and aunts and uncles all share the same dwelling. However, in many families with an Indian and Pakistani background that is NOT unusual. The same applies to some West Indian and African families. Therefore, their chances of infecting more people when they return from work or shopping trips are far greater.
2) Religion.
Many people of the Muslim faith, and some Evangelical Christian groups come from those same backgrounds. Despite the current restrictions, it has been noted that some are still gathering in groups for religious services and celebrations. This is not the case with prdominantly white Church of England and Catholic followers.
3) City living.
The majority of people from those backgrounds live in areas where other people from those backgrounds also live. And they tend to be in larger cities, like London, Manchester and Birmingham. In Bradford, Yorkshire, Muslims from ethnic backgrounds make up 25% of the population. Therefore, living in populous towns and cities makes those people more susceptible to becoming infected.
4) Pre-existing medical conditions.
I can tell you from years of personal experience that people from those ethnic groups have a higher than average incidence of Diabetes. Much of this is caused by diet and lack of exercise, especially in the older age groups. They also have a very high rate of kidney falure, and the need for regular dialysis. This is supected to be genetic in origin. Being generally ill before the arrival of Covid-19 means you are much more likely to die, if you are infected. That is commonsense, not racism.
Much has been made of economic factors affecting survival. If this was the case, then the black and Indian doctors and nurses who have died would not have been affected, surely? Their income is above average, and in the case of surgeons, very high. And just as many white doctors and nurses have been infected and died. This is about being constantly exposed to infection. Not about how much you earn, and whether or not you are unemplyed and live on a housing estate.
By contrast, white British families tend to live separately. Children move out of home earlier, and grandparents rarely live in the family home. Uncles and aunts have their own accommodation, and family gatherings are usually limited to birthdays, weddings, and funerals. Our culture changed over the decades since my youth, but theirs did not. It’s not racist, it is just a fact. White British people have also been abandoning organised religion in huge numbers over the past forty years. Church attendances are falling, and nobody I know ever goes to any form of religious services. So, less gatherings, not racism.
In these difficult times, the last thing we need is criticism of the NHS, itself an employer of a huge percentage of staff from those same ethnic minorities claiming that those same people are actively allowing their relatives to die, and in some cases accusing them of facilitating their death by mistreatment.
Baroness Lawrence and the Labour leader should know better than to become involved in this sham of an enquiry.
Nicola Sturgeon is the First Minister of Scotland, and the leader of the Scottish National Party. She is a long-serving politician, and a staunch advocate for Scotland being an independent country, and remaining a member of the EU.
And she also bears a passing resemblance to the Scottish comedian Janette Tough, who performs as a schoolboy character called Jimmy Crankie.
For over twenty years, Sturgeon’s abrasive style and constant harping on about independence really got on my nerves. The sight of her popping up on a TV interview would have me reaching for the remote, either to change channels, or mute the sound.
Then along came Covid-19.
The British government waffled and delayed. The Prime Minister hid inside 10 Downing Street, before going to hide across the river in St Thomas’ Hospital. On his departure from hospital, he rushed off to his second residence in The Chilterns, to hide there. He left others to bungle the handling of the pandemic, hoping to get the sympathy vote for having been ill. That’s if he was ever ill to start with.
Contrast that with Scotland. Their leader, Sturgeon, has been taking control from the start. She gives detailed daily press conferences about exactly what is going on, and even tells the truth about how many deaths have occured in Scotland, and where they have happened too. She answers the questions from repoters without being evasive, or dodging the point. And she uses whatever devolved powers are available to the separate Sottish Government to do her very best for the people in that country.
I never thought I would say this, but she should be the Prime Minister of Britain. She would do a better job than the clowns currently in control.
Well done, Nicola. I am impressed.
So I am eating my words.
Not long after declaring he had the virus, Boris Johnson has been declared ‘fit and well’.
By an uncanny coincidence, after sheltering in a castle for a while, it seems Price Charles is fit and well too.
Wel that’s it. Everything is going to be fine. Nothing at all to worry about.
If those two such elevated personages can be cured of something they never had in the first place, then why are we concerned?
Panic over. Life goes back to normal.
Just hide somewhere for a while, (three days should do it) and it won’t kill you.
Do you still believe either of them really had it?
If so, I have got a bridge in London to sell you, going cheap.
Much has been made of the fact that the government is rushing to convert an existing conference and entertainment venue into a new ‘Hospital’. They are working hard in East London’s Excel Centre to create two ‘wards’ that will each accommodate 2,000 people. They have even given it a nice name, ‘The Nightingale Hospital’.
Does that sound good to you? Well it doesn’t to me.
I would like to know how they expect to treat 4,000 people lined up together in a massive space that is one kilometre long. How will they keep them apart at a safe distance? Will there be respirators for those needing life support? (Unlikely) Where will they find the doctors and nursing staff to treat them? (Answer, The Military)
So what we have here is a place where those who are expected to die are going to be sent to, to do just that. In a huge enclosed space called a hospital that is really only a death camp.
It will be run by the Army Medical Service, and no doubt guarded by troops too.
Are you worried yet?
This guy is working there to get it ready, and he is.
Now, he is taking it seriously, at long last.
Note his use of the words ‘Makeshift Hospital’. Not, ‘New Nightingale Hospital’. He also mentions the building of what he calls ‘Two morgues’.
I suggest that the whole place is just one big morgue. Eventually.
