Perhaps not quite on the same scale as the bombardment during the Siege of Malta but the continuing bombardment of COVID related nonsense is nevertheless relentless. To read the headlines in the mainstream media you could get the impression the killer coronavirus is out of control. Sky News on 3 October reported: “COVID-19: UK records 30,439 new cases and 43 more coronavirus-related deaths, daily figures show”; ITV on 4 October reported: “Covid: UK records further 166 deaths as confirmed cases increase by 33,869”; and not to be left out of the fear-mongering on 4 October the Oxford Mail parochially reported: “Covid cases increase in Oxfordshire”. None of these figures is contextualised. And I have not seen a single newspaper or television website reporting the truth which is, according to the GOV.UK—even taking into account how inaccurate even these figures may be—that COVID-19 infections have been well down since the middle of July and currently infections and deaths ascribed to the coronavirus are decreasing.
Sky News, not alone in trying to alarm us about the levels of COVID-19 in children, reported on 1 October that over 100,000 children were out of school with confirmed coronavirus infection. Again, this is not contextualised. Children are barely at risk from COVID-19 and as demonstrated by the prestigious HART group on 6 October, whether schools are open or closed has had no effect on hospitalisations for COVID-19. This emphasises that, in addition to COVID-19 infection being relatively rare in children, with mild symptoms if they are infected, they are not spreading it to the general population. This puts a spoke in the arguments of the other fear-monger generals of education, the teaching unions, who keep calling for tougher COVID-19 measures related to schools and pupils. The teaching unions continue to make a fuss against all evidence to the contrary regarding their arguments. Returning to school has not led to their predicted doomsday ‘spike’ in the coronavirus amongst children. It seems there is no end to the ‘coronapanic’. If some people had their way we would be—as suggested by some Labour politicians—vaccinating our pets.
So, why is there not the same panic regarding the cold virus—described as the “worst cold ever” that is doing the rounds in the UK at the moment? Presumably it is because we are not being bombarded daily with figures related to people who catch the cold. But we have known for a very long time that the cold can kill people, especially those who are vulnerable with compromised immune systems (sound familiar?). The extent to which COVID-19 kills people is disputed and it may have a higher infection fatality rate than a cold virus but the cold does kill 0.1% of the people it infects. If everyone in the UK caught the same cold virus, approximately 60,000 of them would die. That is roughly half the number of people who have died of COVID-19. I cannot help feeling that might overwhelm the NHS, so why are we not saving it again? If I were Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College, I would feel a model coming on (no double entendre intended).
Cold viruses are known to survive outside the body for a very long time and to remain infectious for a few hours within that time. But the primary route of transmission is known to be by droplet spread. I am reluctant to give the health fanatics and infection fusspots any ideas, but is it not time we reintroduced face masks? The only real advice I could see regarding the cold was on the NHS website where, other than the fact that ‘it could be COVID-19’—in which case panic—was, essentially, to tough it out and drink plenty of water. Incidentally, I could hardly believe that they were still telling people that a pharmacist could help with a ‘cough medicine’. The BNF (British National Formulary), the Bible of pharmacy, has long indicated that cough medicines are no more than placebos and there is still no good evidence that they work. I was under the impression that peddling treatments of unproven efficacy, for example ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, was frowned on. As indicated, I do not wish to give our government and its health fascist brigade any ideas. But if I was the cold virus, I would be demanding some attention. Perhaps I could put my case on the BBC in an interview with Emily Maitlis.
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