By Harry Hutchinson, Labour party NI (EC member), Tyrone Peoples’ Assembly/Dail
With the highest number of deaths in Europe from the coronavirus and the second highest in the world, the British Establishment continues with the same genocidal strategy of ‘controlled herd immunity’. The virus has overwhelmed hospitals, killing over 30,000 patients including over 200 staff. The government now intends to allow the virus to ‘run wild’ in care homes, according to Age UK. Next the virus will be allowed to spread though the population at large as restrictions on the lockdown are gradually lifted. With next to no testing and tracking in place, thousands more people will die unnecessarily.
The SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) group, which was set up to advise the government on the Covid-19 virus is described as a ‘black box’s by the New York Times. Most of its members remain anonymous. The group is led by chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance and half the group are scientific advisers from government departments. The other half are unknown and wish to remain anonymous.
Against scientific advice
Included in SAGE is the Prime Minister’s chief political adviser, Dominic Cummings, and Ben Warner of the Vote Leave campaign. According to members of the group Cummings influences decisions and participants feel powerless to prevent and oppose his strategy. This influence goes against scientific advice from experts on the coronavirus.
Meetings are held in secret with no direct input from Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales. Any published reports to date from SAGE have been heavily redacted.
The government wish to avoid any attention to their herd immune strategy. After most deaths of (mainly) the elderly in hospitals, care homes are now recording higher daily fatalities of the virus. The next target will be the majority of the population, perhaps 60%, which will cause most deaths, again amongst the elderly and sick.
Reducing the ‘R’ rate
The government’s aim is to reduce the ‘R’ (Reproduction) rate to below 1, which would mean each new case, on average, infects less than one other person. Currently it is between 0.7 and 1. This reduces the burden on the NHS, however, an allows the virus to spread through the population once lockdown restrictions are lifted.
Although the lockdown restrictions are to remain for another 3 weeks, restrictions are now being lifted in rail services and other industrial and commercial outlets. Food franchises like McDonalds already plan to open drive-through take outs. Other businesses, like construction, are likely to follow suit, despite the lockdown. Airports remain unrestricted with vertically no testing of travellers arriving at British terminals. Airlines have not put in place safeguards for travellers as the packed Aer Lingus flights have demonstrated.
The government refuse to encourage people to wear masks, claiming masks are not proven to be effective against Covid-19 and because it would put hospitals under pressure to source masks. Countries who have brought the virus under control, like S Korea, insist on people wearing masks, as it is proven to restrict the spreading of the virus. Contrary to the government’s claim about the lack of supplies, according to Prabhu, a British based company, global demands for equipment is high, but there is no lack of supplies.
Botched contracts and tests
The government is handing out huge contracts to Deloitte, Serco, G4S, Boots and several other major corporations. The most recent are the many botched contracts to test and monitor the spreading of the virus. A catalogue of errors include labs using substandard chemicals and reagents which led to the misreading of tests; millions of antibody tests were dumped, due to unapproved and dubious testing equipment; PPE equipment out of date and claimed to be unusable, like the consignment from Turkey, which did not pass standards regulations. The tracking App which was successfully used in Taiwan to warn people of cases of the virus, is introduced by the British government in the Isle of Wight, but with no intention of expanding tracking throughout the country.
Despite many countries having brought the virus under control, like New Zealand who have now zero deaths from the virus, the British government are intent on allowing the virus to spread throughout the population for months ahead. Countless thousands of avoidable deaths will occur.
The true extent of the spread
What is now perfectly clear, is that the British establishment have since the outbreak of this pandemic, refused many company and other government offers of all medical supplies to fight the virus. The government attempted to suppress the true extent of the spread of the virus from the public, by not including Covid-19 deaths in care homes, hospices and residential areas; outlandish targets in testing with no desire whatever of carrying out a mass testing programme to take control of the virus, as many other countries have managed to do.
The evidence now clearly shows the British establishment are fully intent on killing tens of thousands of the most vulnerable, and in their eyes, ‘unproductive’ people in Britain and Northern Ireland, namely the elderly and sick.
Who is orchestrating Government policy? It is not Johnson and his ruthless ministers. These ministers implement the directive of an upper caste of influential corporate and banking masters, which the secrecy of SAGE has shown. Government ministers have been found out continually lying in what can only be described as propaganda and misinformation to cover up the true nature of the ruthless strategy of the establishment.
It is now time for workers to take direction, as other individual sectors have done, like the Underground workers in London. These workers took control of bus stations from managers, which had imposed improper safeguards for drivers. Trade unions and socialists must organize with the aim of taking control of the pandemic out of government and corporate control.
May 11, 2020
