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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Not my problem, I always thought that lockdowns were a terrible idea.
Confronting child abuse, in all its forms, should be everyone’s problem.
I’m completely past giving a fuck about anybody – the sheep backed lockdowns, this is on them,not me. That said, none of this is accidental, and will have been forseen, and accepted, by TPTB
You do know that whenever you do a ‘Victor Meldrew’ I’m going to troll you with the antidote for your condition don’t you?
https://twitter.com/shouldhaveanima/status/1686821775890595840
That all looks like food to me.
So this is what becomes of our apathetic, ovine capitulation to rules that never made any sense, even with respect to physical health or control of a pathogen. The rules were ostensibly in place to “flatten the curve” – even to “save lives”. The result: child abuse and deaths, and a virus that becomes stronger due to our lack of exposure to it and subsequent immunological naivety, along with greater vulnerability to many other viruses for the same reason!
Look, I’m getting extremely tired of this now, tired of the ongoing debate about how Lockdowns were bad.. Yes we knew and know they were an appalling way to treat a society in all forms and metrics.
Stop the debate and start talking about who is accountable, what punishments and how we can ensure this never ever happens again
What a surprise. One of many items that they didn’t think through when they went mad. Jot it down and present to the Inquiry.
One doubts that these deaths (and it does not seem to include other forms of domestic abuse) will even be considered by the “We-should-have-locked-down-sooner-and-harder” Covid Enquiry.
NSPCC, Children’s Services et al can go to hell. Lest we forget individuals in these roles were some of the most vocal advocates of lockdowns and the other Covid restrictions.
They were told of the risks to these children yet plowed on regardless.
The data for the following year and after will be coming out too but may not be linked to the lockdowns even though they should be – having worked in childcare especially with those at risk knew the precious little ones would be in danger but it fell on deaf ears – “home visits” done via zoom or not at all – are you kidding me
.
How many where children were flagged by a medical professional but did not have a home visit because of the Local Authority having new guidance and policies due to Covid measures?! How many where abuse was reported by family or neighbours in close proximity but these reports fell through the cracks?!
These deaths are just the tip of the iceberg. How many of these death cases also had siblings? One baby to be included in the 2022/23 died but had 4 siblings all experienced abuse but will not have their circumstances acknowledged as part of these figures…Another family again a sibling group of 5 one disabled in the home with a violent child among them. How about the children that were put into foster placements that did not have proper checks done as proper safeguarding went out the window due to covid – child placement with a foster carer that sexually abused her…
These poor children were murdered by their evil parents/step-parents/guardians ….. but that murder was facilitated by:
SAGE
Prof Neil Ferguson
The Quad: Johnson, Handcock, Gove and Sunak
Every MP who failed to even question the Government’s lockdown policy (that’s virtually all of them)
The Mainstream Media, who acted as cheerleaders for the murderous policy
All the above are accomplices to murder.