NHS and WHO deeply concerned about emergence of serious coronavirus disease in children, while SAGE committee has said masks should be worn in public. So Johnson’s speech ignores masks and gives date for schools to re-open
In Boris Johnson’s speech to the nation this evening, pre-recorded so it wouldn’t disrupt his weekend, the Tory leader claimed again that his approach to relaxing the lock-down is ‘driven by the science, the data and public health‘ and by the need to save lives – and not by ‘mere hope and economic necessity’.
Johnson also talked of a journey ‘down the mountain’ of the pandemic, but even a cursory examination of the facts shows that the mountain is more likely to be made of bull****. Because Johnson’s measures involve directly ignoring and contradicting the science – and will cost more lives.
No masks
Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster revealed this week that the government’s SAGE committee – its key scientific advisers – have concluded that the UK public should now be wearing masks in public settings.
But Johnson’s speech made no mention of this whatever. Instead he told people to rely only on social distancing while increasing the situations in which they will be mixing.
Back to work
While the government’s existing advice – also supposedly based on the science – was that people should work from home if possible but stay home from work regardless, Johnson is now ordering those who cannot work from home to return to work.
A situation that will mainly apply to the low-paid and to people from ethnic minorities – the very people that the science and the data show are far more likely to be killed by the virus.
And back to school…
Johnson is also planning to send the nation’s children back to school, starting with the youngest – those in reception classes, year one and year six – and moving on to teenagers who have exams next year.
But the NHS, along with the World Health Organisation and the US Centres for Disease Control, is deeply worried about the emergence of a potentially-lethal complication of coronavirus infection in children – and potentially one common to respiratory coronaviruses – in the form of ‘atypical’ Kawasaki disease: serious inflammation of the heart and circulatory system. Around 90 children have been affected so far, with three dying.
This complication was first discovered in the UK and London is a global hotspot – yet instead of keeping children at home until the risks are thoroughly investigated and understood, Johnson wants to send them back into close contact at school.
Yet again Johnson showed how little the Tories care for truth – and even less for the lives of ordinary people – and he did so in the most blatant and dishonest of terms, no doubt driven by the Tories’ corporate backers and their ‘economic necessity’.
It would have been just another day in the Boris Johnson office – if he’d actually been there instead of sending a recording to stand in for him.
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