Day: 31 May 2020

I cannot be alone in noticing the huge gulf between the sympathetic coverage given to the Black Lives Matter protests in the mainstream media and the almost universally hostile coverage of the anti-lockdown protests. Celebrities who were encouraging everyone to remain in their homes until last week are now rushing out to join the protests, including Emily Ratajkowski, Jaz Sinclair, Paris Jackson and Billie Eilish. Not only is this virtue-signalling hypocritical – why is Covid likely to be spread at anti-lockdown protests, but not at Black Lives Matter protests? – it's also irresponsible, given how many of those protests have spiralled out of control into fully-fledged riots in at least 25 cities across America, including Minneapolis, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Louisville, Columbia, Denver, Portland, Milwaukee and Columbus. Those protests have now crossed the Atlantic, with a march through the streets of Peckham yesterday in which demonstrators held up placards reading "Abolish the Police" and "Riot is the language of the unheard". That demo did not become violent or lead to rioting, but more protests are planned in London and other British cities over the coming days. Today, Metro ran an article entitled: "Black Lives Matter: Are protests taking place in the UK and how can you donate?" It included a handy guide to people who want to join those protests, something ...

by Guy de la Bédoyère Peter Openshaw, Professor of Experimental Medicine at Imperial College, popped up on Andrew Marr this morning. His comments included the revealing opinion that “health is the ultimate decider… the ultimate priority”. Presumably what he meant is that it outweighs all other considerations and should come first at the expense of everything else. “We do need to proceed with great, great care at this point.” That sort of bias is quite understandable in a profession, but it’s also precisely why easing the lockdown has to be a political decision. We have all seen to our cost that prioritizing the response to COVID-19 at any price has been at the expense of general healthcare, as well as our economy and social wellbeing. The time has come, perhaps, for some scientists to hold their counsel, rather than carping at the government for going ahead with easing measures. However, Openshaw went on to make some more revealing and interesting observations that show how so many assumptions made about COVID-19 and the recommendation for a lockdown, including the latter’s specific provisions, were based on the false premise that infection rates and related factors would be similar to influenza. Asked about infectivity outdoors, Openshaw said: There have been some quite big surveys done now of where infectivity happens. There’s been mapping ...