Sir John Bell says it is time to “move on” with ending lockdown, given that the numbers are no longer “too intimidating”. The Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford and member of the expert advisory group to the Vaccine Taskforce added that it would be wrong to “scamper down a rabbit hole” every time a new variant emerges because Covid “is here to stay probably forever“. The MailOnline has more.
Hitting back at members of SAGE calling for a longer lockdown, Sir John Bell said ministers must instead focus on hospitalisations and deaths [rather than on variants and cases], which have remained flat nationally but there are signs of admissions increasing.
The Oxford University medical expert, who has advised the Government on Covid tests and vaccines, suggested the country must take a leap of faith and put trust in its world-beating vaccination rollout…
Sir John becomes the highest-profile adviser to call for ministers to stick with the roadmap and bring an end to social distancing laws on June 21st’s “Freedom Day”.
His comments come as pressure mounts on Boris Johnson to push the date back to buy time to roll out jabs to millions more people to defend against the Indian variant.
New Covid cases have now been above 3,000 for seven consecutive days in the U.K. but the country yesterday reported zero new deaths for the first time since July 2020, bolstering calls for Number 10 to push ahead with plans to get back to normal…
Sir [John] told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think we do need to keep our eye on hospitalisations, serious disease and deaths, which is really what we are trying to manage.
“If we scamper down a rabbit hole every time we see a new variant we are going to spend a long time huddled away – so I think we need to get a bit of balance into the discussion and keep our eyes on the serious disease we are trying to prevent.”
The Oxford expert also urged ministers to back rolling out the vaccine in other nations, to get outbreaks under control and reduce the risk of vaccine-busting variants emerging.
Sir John’s intervention comes as Boris Johnson faces mounting pressure to delay England’s June 21st Freedom Day, with some scientists warning rising cases could spark “Covid volcanoes” in hospitals.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: The Prime Minister says there is still “nothing in the data at the moment that means we cannot go ahead with Step Four” of the roadmap out of lockdown, but believes the “data is still ambiguous“.
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He forgot to add that testing was running at neary 7M per week and that the very small number of positives are dropping by the day.
A couple of weeks ago he was telling people to get used to holidays in Bournemouth! What changed?
I doubt he is advocating unrestricted foreign travel
I’m afraid not. This was what he said on 16th May, which prompted lots of “Professor Bellend” type comments:
Sir John, a member of the vaccine taskforce, said the infection rate globally was still going up which meant “having people flying around and coming back with whatever local variant they may get is not a good idea. People have to get used to the fact that Cornwall and Bournemouth [are] not that bad.”
The wonderful thing about herd immunity is once your nation has it, then you dont need to worry too much about people bring back illnesses from elsewhere. They know that and I suspect for that reason they wont admit that we have herd immunity.
For me herd immunity was probably reached last summer. Only mass testing and the false positives of PCR were able to give us our second wave.
According to Sunetra Gupta herd immunity is not constant but is a variable that depends on other parameters including season. I think there’s a recent YouTube video where she expounds on this.
Actually, there was no ‘second wave’ – just an enhancement of mortality following the gene therapy. All the rest was within normal limits during the autumn.
Indeed. You can only die once, but with modified paperwork, the cause can be transferred from A to B.
Perhaps he’s beginning to read that the mood of the populace is changing.
I think the Recovery Groups distribution of Laura Dodsworths book ‘State of Fear’ to all MPs last week is beginning to make some of them think. Also the fact that the origin of the virus is now being openly questioned with Fauci clinging on by his fingernails to his post in America is starting to awaken some to the fact that the voting public are going to be looking for accountability.
Hopefully the tide is turning and we will start to see more backtracking, sloping shoulders and useful idiots being identified.
Yes, both Fauci & also Gates, have had some of the worst press they have received in no doubt many years, & people appear to be seriously gunning for them now. Fauci’s absolute best hope appears to be a quiet stepping aside, reluctantly enforced due to his age, retirement scenario, that’s if he’s lucky. Also it becomes significantly less of a leap, for people to connect the virus with the push for mail-in ballots in the US elections – combine this with the audits now happening in more than one state…. I agree with your sentiment, & think we may see some of the rats this side of the pond, scurrying around, looking to see if they need to get off the ship!
Just wanted to say i really admired you in airwolf
Wasn’t all me really… all credit to The Lady
Loved that show.. The theme tune was awesome
Indeed it was. and thanks to mp3 ringtones it can be immortalized!
“… distribution of Laura Dodsworths book ‘State of Fear’ to all MPs last week is beginning to make some of them think.”
It would be nice to think so; it’s a magnificent summary.
But MPs would have to admit to previous ignorance. I don’t see it happening, given that one of the main drivers of current politics is greasy pole climbing cowardice.
Yeah, they needed a book to tell them something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
I expect a little more due diligence from those responsible for upholding democracy and holding the government to account. They better hope that any reckoning is peaceful.
The one silver lining? It’s now irrefutable that 99% of them are either complicit, cowards or just plain fuckin’ stupid. Either way, they aren’t fit for purpose. They reap what they sow – on their heads be it. Hopefully, basket bound.
Great piece from the Great Reject – not real news of course, but might be enough to get a few vaccinated people thinking…
https://greatreject.org/got-jab-no-more-fly/
Oh dear! Peter Hitchens et al will be feeling pretty stupid if this becomes policy.
We must not attack those on our side. They are few enough, and Hitchens had reasons – sick relative abroad? – we are not privy to.
Hitchens spent a lot of time leading up to his admission of getting the jab complaining that lockdown stops him doing what he enjoys most: globe-trotting.
I stopped reading his posts soon after this as I also got sick of him trying to convince his readership that the politicians were acting on bad advice, they’re dumb and opportunists. This effectively lets them off the hook for the crimes they are committing and is not acceptable in my opinion.
He might be on our side, but last I checked, he’s not doing a good job of investigating the driving forces behind this political crisis.
He lost credibility after his immediate capitulation, still thinking it is all Govt. incompetence and face saving, he should check out Dr. Evils reset agenda..
The alternative woke-ism : non-vaccination virtue signalling.
Simply – stick to the script. It’s an individual choice. No ifs, no buts.
(… and no, I haven’t sucked up the snake-oil, and I disagree with Hitchens on many things – that’s my choice)
while I like the premise, it doesn’t suit the wider narrative of forcing the jabs – so I think a “convenient” way around it will be found – exonerating the airline industry from liability in the same way the jab makers have also been exempted from liability.
Signs of increased hospital admissions?
Shame they’re not using the treatments that were so effective in India then.
Blood on their hands, bring on the tumbrils.
June 21 unlocking will go ahead. Let’s see if I’m right.
The powers that be want you to think that it might not. It’s the same tactic that parents use when they tell their children that if they don’t behave well then Santa won’t bring them presents.
Hope you’re right.
It’s obviously badger-your-neighbour time. Get your snake oil or we will all be kept in after school.
I think SD will go, maybe limita on crowds, but we know that furlough will carry on, T&T, masks in shops and public transport, mass testing, international travel restrictions, vaccine propaganda/bullying and general Covid propaganda will continue. Not sure about the WFH guidance.
Most of this is already known and the contracts are signed into the future
And the narrative remains, ready for more madness next winter
they will call it the “new Freedom” – as opposed to only the semi-freedom that it really is
I’m predicting the opposite; Johnson has been promising an irreversible unlocking of the country from June 21st as a carrot on a stick. Just like Christmas, when we approach that date, he could very well yank it away from us and keep us locked-down till September… right on cue for the next wave of seasonal viruses. He’ll blame the ‘unvaccinated’ and enrage those who’ve had the jab.
Between the two predictions, I hope yours is correct!
and ratchet up the pressure on the unjabbed from those who have been jabbed – turning citizen against citizen in support of government policy
If so it will be temporary
They cannot hide the ramifications from the 2008 collapse any longer
Crikey, though. If beauty were a hanging offence, he’d die innocent.
It is worth of note that as advisor to the vaccine taskforce he says open up. Some suspect those arguing for delay are trying to scare more into being vaccinated. Perhaps. But I would like every news interviewer to ask any lockdown promoting “scientist” they give airtime to, to accuse them of being anti-Vax and quiz them about why they are undermining the vaccination programme.
That is surely what they are doing. And far more so than individuals who have their doubts or want to simply exercise their freedom of choice. It is the lockdown forever people who are causing the young to think there’s no point in ever being vaccinated.
Yes, Charles Walker made this point on air a few months ago to a reporter advocating for longer lockdowns – we have the vaccines, he said, that was the stated goal, after all.
Can imagine what the next TV adverts are going to look like: “Make room in your hearts.. make room in your fridges.. Let’s all band together, Protect our vaccines, and save lives”
Amazing what a few hundred thousand people screaming ‘scum’ down Downing St at the weekend will do to the mood
One day, they will stop calling a positive PCR test a ‘case’
when? circa 2035 when the population has been shrunk to something like 500,000???
Sir John Bell. Wellcome Trust senior fellow. Magdalen. Slytherin pureblood.
Spotted the current Fauci problem and furiously backtracking.
I seem to remember a certain Channel 4 interview when Sir John Bell used the word ‘sterilise’. Still wondering whether it was really a slip of the tongue.
Boris Bollox thinks ‘the data is still ambiguous’ – err no, it’s quite clear that the government and their chosen advisors are 100% lying, manipulative, tosspot tyrants.
Bollocks Johnson. Thanks for inspiring that one.
Stop Press: The Prime Minister says there is still “nothing in the data at the moment that means we cannot go ahead with Step Four
Other than
Boris Johnson is a fanny