Heathrow’s latest coronavirus safety video makes clear there are no temperature checks – except on some passengers leaving the UK
Although it would surely astonish many UK citizens enduring lock-down because of the wildfire spread of the deadly coronavirus, flights continue to stream into the UK – including many from global virus hotspots such as Madrid and New York.
It would surely shock those people even more to realise that there are still no health checks on passengers arriving from them – not even a temperature check – except on some passengers leaving the country.
The Heathrow Airport coronavirus ‘FAQ’ page confirms that this is the case – and that nothing is being done except to recommend passengers wash their hands and keep 2m apart:
As the page explains, Public Health England is telling airports not to conduct temperature checks – and passengers are simply allowed straight onto the capital’s public transport system once they clear passport checks – and then on to their destinations anywhere across the country:
The government is insisting that its ‘herd immunity’ strategy has been abandoned, even though the truth keeps surfacing.
But while the UK endures lock-down, the Tories are doing nothing to prevent infected passengers from entering the country – even those arriving from the worst-hit places – and travelling on public transport crowded with essential workers.
Herd immunity is alive and well. Because of government decisions, many more people in the UK will not be.
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Incredible. I’m speechless.
This question was asked on Question Time last night~ surprise, surprise~ its wasn’t put to the panel..and the next question was read out..What do you think of that then?…
see posts weeks ago ago about the callous negligence re failing to screen passengers especially at LHR. 🌹🌹🌹
This really is an unforgivable dereliction of duty by the Home office and Immigration service. Once again I’m fully in agreement with the Skwawk. Must be something in the air. If it is I’ll let you know if I’m still alive in 3-5 weeks!
Highly negligent on any level, but hey they are tories and human lives are quite low on their agenda. Passenger flights, both incoming and outgoing, hould have ceased when we went into lock down. The only flights allowed in should be repatriation flights and those with regards to international assistance. But it seems some people are willing to risk their and other people’s lives by keeping Mr Branson in the money.
Yes it was extraordinary; the one question that needed a direct answer but all parties – including those top notch journalists – either forgot about it or carefully avoided it. Two weeks of ‘questions’ and then an important one just disappears. I suppose they can’t stop the increasingly farcical press conference where the bleeding obvious is repeated ad nauseam until Johnson returns to duty and gives the OK. One man Govt was becoming a strain but when the one man is off sick everything simply stops.
Where skwawkbox.org leads, super resourced MSM follow… slowly… very v e r y s l o w l y… Here’s an extract from Reuters today “Many care providers rely upon on agency staff who work at many different homes and could carry the virus with them.” link below.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-britain-elderly/deaths-soar-at-britains-care-homes-as-covid-19-stalks-elderly-idUKKCN21R3AL
That and other obvious facts and warnings have been highlighted here several weeks ago. 🌹🌹🌹
ps TESTING is key to understanding this virus. Even when we begin to see an apparent slowdown of spread, rigorous testing should continue throughout the country and screening at ALL entry ports, in particular, LHR and Southampton Docks. Every single cruise ship passenger should be screened. Passengers contacts must be traced. It is always unsafe to give powers to the police. The tracing should be a discrete NHS activity. Difficult but these powers should not he enshrined in law to the police. The general public should be educated in a positive way to comply.
NB the chicken pox virus remains at the base of the spine and is reactivated in the form of shingles. Stress, psychological and physical can reactivate that virus. I believe it is entirely reasonable that this virulent deadly disease could linger in people who appear well and in those who “recover”. It is extremely possible that herd immunity via catching the virus, is a pipe dream. What is necessary, is testing, tracing, and PHYSICAL isolation ➕ LOTS of QUALITY SOCIAL by phone, email etc.
We need thorough hygiene regimes including outdoor shoes and clothing, treated / handled in a mindful way. DON’t wear them throughout the house!!! Hand-washing with good old normal soap and very warm water. Chlorine bleach diluted as per instructions on the container, should be all thats needed on hard surfaces including floors. No need to make trips to shops to get special antibacterial products.
A competent government and MSM fit for purpose would ensure all of the above are at the forefront of public consciousness. A competent government would also ensure that testing, assessment of testing and continuous R&D to improve testing and develop a vaccine ASAP are TOP PRIORITIES. Alas, we neither have a competent government, fit MSM, nor a fit opposition. The opposition now and the Tory government, are one and the same. It is urgently up to us to be the opposition, the media and most importantly, to help each other be better that well. BE THE BEST WELL🌹🌹🌹
Great article by George Monbiot about how we have dangerously wrong spending priorities.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/08/national-defence-corona-pandemic-fighter-jets
I usually dislike Monbiot but this is worth reading. I trust Keir Starmer would agree?
they think they are above the law….https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/10/french-police-turn-back-private-jet-of-holidaymakers-from-uk
Spain is checking that all those who fly abroad aren’t infectious from Covid-19. Only foreign nationals or Spanish resident abroad can fly out of Spain. But they cannot fly it they test positive for Covid-19, the Spanish government has habilitated places to keep them in quarantine.
Spain is currently in lock down and people cannot travel from one city to the next in their own cars, let alone public transport. Only essential workers have permission to travel and everyone travelling has to produce the the necessary documentation stamped by the police allowing them to travel. Otherwise, they are arrested on the spot.
I agreed that passengers arriving in the UK should be tested at all airports, but it isn’t perhaps passengers arriving from Madrid or New York that are presenting more of a danger, as it is very possible that New York airports are having similar measures to Madrid or other Spanish airports for that matter. It is all passengers even within the UK travelling on trains city to city, or even in London underground that represent more danger.
agreed maria. what you describe in spain is very good. in the uk because heathrow (lhr) is one of the busiest international hubs, 2nd only to dubai (DBX or DXB) international, u can be sure that any contagious disease vector from anywhere will pass through those two hubs rather than Madrid. Re Southampton Docks and the emphasis on cruise passengers landing there ir flying in from ports abroad, that emphasis is due to the fact that at the best of times, cruises are petri dishes … hot houses for contagious diseases. That is why screening and testing are so very important. i would not be surprised to if we need mass burials / cremations here within weeks.
the lax attitude, the deliberate choice to allow the virus to spread throughout the UK, entering via Heathrow in particular, will extract a high price from all of us. The capitalist setup is so confident of their entrenchment … retaining power, that they expect the underreporting of fatalities, here, usa and to my surprise Germany will be noticed after things have blown over. it won’t.
it is quite odd to me re german underreporting. the germans love rules and love following them. broad generalisation yes, but true!!! they are sticklers for detail. it is surprising to get wind of under reporting there too. The usa❓ i’m not in the least bit surprised. the world is at a major point. this pandemic was predicted. but the criminal negligence … the unimaginable wilful sociopathy the easy callousness, surprises me. even now, there are still tories insisting that the deaths of hundreds of thousands are “a price worth paying.” You could not make it up. 🌹🌹🌹
Germany isn’t necessarily underreporting but rather it has the higher percentage of ICU beds in the EU and probably the world.
Germany has 29.2 beds per 100K of population, Italy a 12% and UK around 6%.
In Spain the death rate in Madrid is well over 10% while in Barcelona or Bilbao is half around 5%. The reason is, Madrid autonomous government has been and still is in the hands of the PP (Tories) while the autonomous government of the Basque Country and Catalunya has never be.
In Madrid the PP, like their friends the Tories has cut to the bone hospital beds. The PP like their Tory friends too, subcontract the private sector to run their residential homes and nursing homes.
Result when the army was called to help with the disinfection of elderly and nursing homes in Madrid they found elderly that were in stay of decomposition lying in their beds. In one residential home over 20 dead.
Nobody is sure how many died of Covid-19 or simply of neglect due to dehydration, no food or dink for days, once carers were taken sick or stop attending work because of having symptoms of Covid-19 and weren’t replaced.
As many at 73 homes in Madrid have been affected and the State is seeking to present charges of manslaughter against the private companies.
Meanwhile the PP is criticising Pablo Iglesias, leader of Podemos, because he has pressed the PSOE to nationalise all private hospitals across Spain and renegade on the outsourcing of public residential and nursing care homes to the private sector.
Thanks vvv much Maria for this info. V helpful. I hear that German authorities r also only recording tested hospital fatalities. I’m quite surprised. … Very surprised, if truth be told. All will be revealed in the end.
Even now undertakers here in the UK are using discreetly modified ice-skating rinks as temporary makeshift morgues. Government authorities here and abroad may be desperate to hide facts from the public eg by gagging hospital staff. The truth will out though. Eg in the Bronx NY NY they are doing mass burials as morgues are overflowing there also.
Thats why i’m a firm believer in being intelligently assertive. Eg George Galloway may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but Galloway was wise to defend himself BOLDLY in the light!!! … As he did in the USA. Otherwise we may be extinguished … be “disappeared” … sometimes without trace.
It may be safer and worthwhile to face down the bastard enablers of the SAME OLD SAME OLD … business as usual brigade. Nothing is to be gained by not speaking out with verified evidence and logic. Dr David Kelly may be alive today if he RAN out of the shadows and broadcast WMD Tony Blair & Alistair Campbellend’s lies. Dr Kelly thought he could pipe down and “contain” the hazardous consequences of speaking out. No.
It may seem fanciful or idealistic, but our individual lives & welfare could never be more valuable than those of the many less able / confident to express themselves. Speak up and speak out. Hold those who hold authority, to account. And that includes the B Side Tories led by Blair’s tapeworm Kier Starmer. Worms within worms within worms. A vituperative congealed mess of disgusting faecal parasites. We must expose the parasites and flush them away.
The virus is the aperçu of capitalistic ideology. The result of the perverted doctrine that the “economy” trumps the many… the people… the workers, who keep the world working. If the political choice of inaction of Johnson & Cummings, does not convince the many that things must change 180°, then nothing will.
I believe another ways is achievable. Difficult yes. Enemies with in? Unwitting pathetic deadweights and theoretical self-soothers? Yes far too many. Achievable? Doable despite the defeatist and defeated??? DEFINITELY! Positively!! With a concerted collective effort? Absolutely🌹🌹🌹
https://madamasr.com/en/2020/03/30/feature/politics/mike-davis-on-pandemics-super-capitalism-and-the-struggles-of-tomorrow/?fbclid=IwAR1IpLGS0IfrxvTNSr8G0CdouC0VsMTYk-M6kvhljN_Zu7vkDFFyuC5rUIs
When asked this question directly @ today’s Press Briefing, the answer was simply “We follow the science” & “we know from observing Italy & America, 2 of the worst affected countries who closed airports, that this course of action does not work”.
Let me see if I can follow the science…..passengers who travel from Covid 19 hot spots by aeroplane will not spread the virus…………sitting in an enclosed space; breathing the same air, often for many hours, will not spread the virus. No-one is contaminated & besides, no-one is checked. It would appear that I fail to follow the science……..it doesn’t make any sense.
Why don’t they just stay indoors?
Dear Steve, is it not astonishingly incompetent, that not one of the “journalist” asks:
What science❓
Published where and when and by whom❓
Peer reviewed by whom❓
It is either breathtaking incompetence or a trashy charade of a press conference or both. I’v made it my duty to listen to each press conference. The “journalists” have disgraced themselves. Peston is the worst by far with his lamentable self-indulgence. We have the proof now that no matter how grave the situation, Peston is unable to grasp it. Peston’s priority is a dire obsession with Peston. The others have no idea of what is important.
Have any of them pressed a clear question re the under reporting of fatalities? Why last week a nurse reported she transferred 40 corpses to a makeshift mortuary outside the hospital? It was the first time she had seen so many patients die. This is already the situation, throughout the country’s hospitals. Have any of the journalist asked why are the mortuaries full? Why are the funeral directors facilities full? Undertakers are using extra temporary storage space. That is in addition to the NHS morgues. If they have asked any of the above, then i may have drifted off.
We can ask RH here though, if this virus is not as others see it, ie extraordinary, then why have we run out of bodybags❓ Why have some staff been threatened with disciplinary action if they speak out❓ But crucially RH, why are we using overspill makeshift mortuaries as never before in our lifetime❓And why are undertakers overwhelmed???
RH, may i ask you to recognise that this is a serious world event. We cannot imagine the suffering of thousands of people who have lost loved ones. We cannot imagine those who are worried sick about those with serious symptoms. Show a little empathy. Please 🌹🌹🌹
Steve, passengers are not allowed to board a plain at Madrid or any other Spanish airport without been tested and been confirmed that they cannot infect other people with Covid-19.
The government has placed a lot of restriction on travelling, from the 25th March. You see flights from Spain announced on Heathrow headboards, but the airplanes are almost empty around 90%; only British stranded in Spain or other foreign nationals that are stranded in Spain and their connection flights are from British airports, are able to take those flights.
They are tested for Covid-19 before boarding too. We see flights because Airway companies are forced to keep the flights on empty planes in order to keep their slots and very likely because their isn’t enough space to keep all the airplanes stationed on the ground.
Another example of the craziness of capitalism, forcing empty airplanes to take off, with the ensuing emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere, when nobody is using them. We could have give a respite to planet Earth but no the need of capitalism takes priority.
Needless, to say that the Airways companies aren’t happy as flying empty planes cost them a hell of a lot of money.