Leading medic Dr Kailash Chand OBE slams government’s attempts to hide and delay recommendations to protect BAME people from higher risk of coronavirus
Former deputy BMA Chair Dr Kailash Chand OBE appeared on BBC Breakfast this morning to discuss the government’s report on the higher risk of the coronavirus to black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAME) people and delivered a withering verdict on the Tories’ delays and evasion.
Describing the report as ‘amputated’ and Boris Johnson’s prime ministerial residence as ‘Drowning Street’ because of its shambolic series of controversies, Dr Chand called for concrete and immediate action to protect everyone, including BAME communities – whose trust Johnson has lost – and warned that the government is unprepared for the second wave its actions and inaction are likely to cause:
Chand says that the government needs to ‘get its act together’. There has been no sign so far that it is capable of doing so in any sense that would mean anything to those its conduct is harming, as Johnson continues to pursue his reckless ‘herd immunity‘ policy.
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Once a fox enters the chicken coup !mayhem and slaughter is unleashed.The Conservative and unionist party.,and whos to blame for that?..
The Govt has two contradictory policies. One is to try and control the outbreak but the other is to immediately undermine their own policy with weak restrictions that people are more or less invited to break. One obvious example is the ‘social hubs’ where we are told you can only have one such contact yet the Govt immediately points out that you don’t have to tell anybody who is part of your hub leaving it open for people to say it was the last person that visited if they were ever asked. There are numerous other examples of similar double messages eg international travellers who aren’t really checked at the address they supply. Increasingly it looks as if Cummings ‘confessed’ to his own transgressions knowing he would remain in power while blowing a hole in lockdown which he opposes. Herd immunity is the real policy the one the Govt denies but pursues relentlessly.
One obvious example is the ‘social hubs’ where we are told you can only have one such contact yet the Govt immediately points out that you don’t have to tell anybody who is part of your hub leaving it open for people to say it was the last person that visited if they were ever asked.
Quite correct. Once again they’ve went ahead without any sort of ‘promiscuity clause’ or other such contingency. They’ve deliberately left instructions wide open to (mis)interpretation because they haven’t got anything definitive to offer.
It’s not a scattergun approach, and it’s not clutching at straws…But it IS imbecility on a grand scale.
…And then there’s hancockup, saying there were ‘only’ 36 deaths yesterday.
‘Only’. As in ‘That’s all’
‘Only’ As in: ‘Not that many, really’
‘Only’ As in: ‘It’s now down to numbers more akin to King’s Cross Fire per day, than it is Titanic sinking. At this rate, only a few hundred more will die before we get a single clear day…Rejoice!!’
It’s almost as if his inner self is screeching: ‘My mummy & daddy and my boss think you ought to thank me for not being that much of a fu**ing entirely useless failure, completely defunct of morals, that ‘only’ 36 died yesterday. Had it been left entirely to me then be in no doubt there’s be a few noughts after that six…and then YOU’D be sorry but I’d still just be doing my job’
And it’d be said with that deadpan look. The same one when he said ‘some nurses’ had died; or when denying he sent the elderly from hospital wards to care homes without being tested…
May he, and the rest of them, burn in hottest hell for an eternity.
Sadly there’s no such thing as hell – so if you want them to burn, now’s as good a time as any with unleaded down to 106.7 p/litre…
Suppose I’d better add a smiley 🙂
I imagine Cummings invented his ‘eye sight test drive’ as a provocation. He had no need to come up with such an absurd story but he knew it would effectively blow a hole in Lockdown, which he hates, as it did. He has no voters to worry about re-election; so long as Pol Pot keeps him on he is safe. He may end up decapitated like those Royal Favourites of the 17thC when the Big Wigs get fed up with him but it was Parliament that did for them and Charles 1 had no choice. But it’s hard to imagine this Parliament being so bold! Johnson is as rigid as Charles so Cummings is very safe. They don’t call him The Brain for no reason.
Are we surprised that a government that preaches that governments can’t do anything – only the private sector, that this do nothing government does nothing except try to blame everyone else? The trouble we face is the stupidity of people who who put their faith in these pathological liars.
Tragically had the country voted for a Jeremy Corbyn government, the outcomes today would be much different where resources would be put in place to solve these issues instead filling the pockets of Tories rich friends.
Starmer should be pointing all of this out, but instead like Blair reinforces the Tories Neo-Liberal message.
rotzeichen. “The trouble we face is the stupidity of people who who put their faith in these pathological liars.” So true!
We have a population, many of whom are politically adrift, largely due to an overwhelmingly right wing media, headed up by the the BBC which is failing in its tenets to inform and educate.
………….& entertain.
I wonder if the risks of Corona virus among BAME communities is solely due to race or if poverty is a contributing factor.
We all aware of the discrimination against BAME people resulting in poor housing ,low paid employment and unemployment . Not having a decent wage means BAME people are less able to afford healthy meals, adequate heating and warm clothing in winter. Poverty piles on the pressure on people and they are permanently stressed out worrying about putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their heads .All these factors mean that BAME people are less able to fight serious illnesses at any time but particularly now during the covid pandemic.
I think poverty is the common denominator among BAME people rather than community background
I also think a study should be done in relation to white people who did not have an underlying health condition but were unable to survive the virus. I think it would find the same link between their deaths from coronavirus and poverty.
It also seems to me that if somebody like me can see the potential links so too can the government but for obvious reasons wants to ignore them.
Another factor that may prove to have been a factor is damage to the lungs caused by years of exposure to pollution, especially from Diesel engines? Somebody who spends the day behind a wheel say driving a bus or on the street working at security at shop front doors are at risk but BAME citizens also live in the midst of that pollution while others escape to the suburbs or to the country.
“I wonder if the risks of Corona virus among BAME communities is solely due to race or if poverty is a contributing factor.”
It’s not an ‘either/or’. The factors connected with poverty will affect all ethnic groups. But, of course, the link isn’t directly from the virus > poverty – it’s about factors connected with poverty leading to vulnerability to all questions relating to health. Similarly, from that perspective, ethnic groups will be affected differentially – as in questions of education, the levels of vulnerability through poverty vary; the are not equally consistent across all groups.
Clearly, also, the age profile of different groups and may vary and the nature of household composition; in Italy, for instance, the higher number of older people, and the number of households with mixed ages has been thought to be a possible factor in the higher number of deaths. Age is critically significant, in fatalities associated with the virus; it’s a mild disease with very low fatality for those under 65 who are healthy.
Beyond that, it does seem likely that there are also genetic factors at work. But I guess that’s going to take a long time to confirm. Issues connected with Vitamin D and treatment with hydroxchloroquine have been put forward, and the rush to ventilate patients in the early stages (which will have affected the seriously sick) have now been shown to be counter-productively deadly – particularly in the US.
As to the possibility of a ‘second wave’ – this is being hyped (and it is a possibility) as the blind Panic logic that inspired general Lock-Up falls apart. So ‘being prepared’ needs to be more than a second wave of blind panic, with a better basis in actual evidence, and a focused response rather than fating around with the pointless measures like the general wearing of functionally useless masks and other forms of virtue signalling as a substitute for effectiveness.
Just as an addendum, the Oxford CEBM group did publish an article that summarised evidence up to the beginning of May on this topic :
https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/bame-covid-19-deaths-what-do-we-know-rapid-data-evidence-review/