WHO warned of danger of spread within families, while China set up ‘quarantine camps’ to avoid family quarantine – yet UK government still recommends isolation in family groups – and Cummings left family behind, according to police
Dominic Cummings travelled to stay at his parents’ home in Durham as an individual, according to a police statement – at the same time as the government were telling those with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infection to isolate in families.
The government’s instruction went against World Health Organisation warnings that up to 85% of virus transmission was occurring within families – a warning that China followed when it set up ‘quarantine camps’ and requisitioned hotel rooms for those with suspected coronavirus to prevent the infection of family members.
It was a lesson that it seems Dominic Cummings followed for his wife and child, judging by a police statement in response to media enquiries:
On Tuesday, March 31, our officers were made aware of reports that an individual had travelled from London to Durham and was present at an address in the city.
The police assessment of the seriousness of the infraction was made clear in a brutal statement the force made – one which, again, seems to reinforce its belief that Cummings travelled alone and after his infection was confirmed:
Cummings’ wife wrote a Spectator article almost a month after the complaint in which she claimed that she and Cummings had isolated together – and even wrote about how pleased she was that he would be forced to ‘come home’ – and that he suddenly collapsed at home with the virus:
That evening, as I lay on the sofa, a happy thought occurred to me: if this was the virus, then my husband, who works 16-hour days as a rule, would have to come home. I let myself imagine two weeks in bed with ‘mild symptoms’, chatting to Dom and son through an open door. More fool me.
My husband did rush home to look after me… But 24 hours later, he said ‘I feel weird’ and collapsed. I felt breathless, sometimes achy, but Dom couldn’t get out of bed.
After the uncertainty of the bug itself, we emerged from quarantine into the almost comical uncertainty of London lockdown.
Cummings has issued a statement that he and his wife travelled to Durham so his parents could care for their son if needed – and that he acted ‘reasonably and legally’.
According to the police, however, he travelled more than 250 miles to Durham on his own, although he may have been seen outdoors in Durham with his son five days after a complaint was made to the police about his travel.
If the Durham Police statement is correct, while Boris Johnson and his government were telling the nation to isolate as families in spite of WHO warnings, Dominic Cummings – Johnson’s main adviser and an attendee at the ‘scientific’ SAGE committee meetings advising the government on its policy – was travelling more than 250 miles to isolate away from his.
Of the more than 60,000 UK deaths and hundreds of thousands of coronavirus infections so far, how many were caused by Johnson’s instruction to isolate in families – an instruction that his chief adviser Dominic Cummings saw fit to ignore? One that is still official government policy.
Senior officials in Scotland and England have resigned for their breaches of laws to isolate and not travel. Cummings must go – but Johnson seems to lack the spine to act.
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