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Thursday 16 April 2020

Predictable and unpredictable

Just as the EU's manifold and abysmal failures to co-ordinate the 27 nations of the EU during the Wuhan virus crisis are becoming clear to all, the cabal of technocrats continues to act entirely to form. They are dealing with Covid-19 as they deal with everything else - slowly. Agile the EU is not. So it's creep, crawl, a little bit of consensus, iron over the immovable barrier, and a bit more creep and crawl. Sadly, the Wuhan virus moves a lot faster then the EU, and by the time they reach an agreement, the nations of the world will already have found a solution. And of course, as the crumbling behemoth is facing an existential crisis, some official pops up to warn the UK, in relation to the Brexit trade talks, that at this difficult time we must not be irresponsible by refusing to accept the wonderful partnership agreement that the EU has crafted. All this madness from the EU is entirely predictable. 

Likewise the slurry of health fascism embodied in that failed and unfit for purpose pressure group, Public Health England. This is the organisation that counts its biggest health policy triumph as banning smoking on hospital grounds, whilst conveniently ignoring levels of multi-drug resistant TB in London greater than in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan and Ethiopia. PHE has not only failed in every respect to prepare for a novel pandemic, it has failed to co-ordinate measures to combat the old ones; our crowded cities are as vulnerable to Cholera, Dysentry, Typhus and parasitic diseases as they were in mid-Victorian times. Now they are actually obstructing efforts to fund a way out of the virus stasis. But it seems that for the most important departments in PHE - those charged with campaigning against alcohol, sugar and fried chicken - it's business as usual. A prize for the first reader to spot the PHE advice warning that drinking alcohol at home during the Wuhan virus crisis should be banned. Again, entirely predictable.

D-list celebrities are finding it hard to break through the new hard mood of national purpose. Several have made efforts to use the crisis for self publicity only to be slapped down with great force by social media (I knew it would be useful some day ..). Even Meghan Markle, who must be throwing tantrums of frustration at her lack of column inches, has become transparent. Her latest wheeze, spending an hour handing out sandwiches in an LA homeless shelter, then having her people 'leak' the story of her 'secret' charity work, has fallen as flat as a damp chapati. Give your money to the NHS, sweetie - it's the only thing that works, as the Duke of Westminster (£12.5m) and Ed Sheeran (£1m) are finding. And Capt. Tom Moore has raised £12m from the little people. All entirely predictable.

Rod Liddle, always a ray of sunlight in the gloom, penned a thoughful piece on the importance of cigarettes during the crisis for the Speccie. He even joked
It is even just about possible that the precise opposite is true, and that smoking conveys a degree of protection against Covid-19, much as it does against Parkinson’s disease, ulcerative colitis, endometrial cancer and possibly skin cancer and thyroid cancer. Though I wouldn’t bet on it.
Well, it may not be such a joke. It seems that ACE2, the protein to which the SARS-CoV-2 virus sticks in the upper respiratory tract in a fresh infection, in impacted by nicotine in a way that enhances resistance to the virus. The evidence is not in the bag as yet, but initial anecdotal evidence about the low incidence of Covid-19 amongst smokers is now being thoroughly tested - and you can bet that the tobacco giants are putting their hands in their pockets to help fund it. Now if it turns out that shares in BAT, Philip Morris, Imperial and Altria are as much marked as winners as Glaxo, that truly would be unpredictable. And if vaping nicotine in offices and public places became an accepted prophylactic against the Wuhan virus, prescribed and funded by the NHS, the increase in apoplexy amongst the nation's health fascists would be a small price to pay.

10 comments:

hkwoodyintokyo said...

Not quite a ban and not PHE but here's the WHO heading in that direction !!!
http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/disease-prevention/alcohol-use/news/news/2020/04/alcohol-does-not-protect-against-covid-19-access-should-be-restricted-during-lockdown

JPM said...

Absolutely. Smoking will not permit its addicts to die of anything as quick and clean as pneumonia in a few days, Raedwald.

Dave_G said...


If we can rail against the EU and the PHE for their inconsistencies we are also capable of making up our own minds/decisions over how to handle a 'pandemic'. We don't need .Gov to tell us to isolate nor does 'everyone' need to do so.

As you state Raed, we are treated like children and increasingly denied our freedom of choice and we should be like the residents of Michigan (USA) and surrounding our local Government demanding the right to return to work.

This knee-jerk over-reaction to Covid is worse than the faux scaremongering of climate change which, I'm quite sure, the proponents of which would be wetting themselves if they could have forced such deprivations on us all in the way this 'virus' has. Makes me wonder what they're conjuring up now.....

11,000 deaths? Timescale (for context)? Actual deaths FROM or WITH (for context)? Infection numbers (who cares - we're all going to get it anyway)? HCQ (does it work or not and why the lack of news on it)? Pay-offs (who wins, who loses)?

And given that the virus is a 'good way to hide bad news' what are we 'missing' that's happening in the background? What is about to be unleashed on us all next? All to 'save the NHS' of course.

DeeDee99 said...

And will the Government abolish PHE post-crises, for having (a) comprehensively failed to prepare for a pandemic and (b) failed to expedite policies intended to limit it's spread?

Like all the other airlines ferrying passengers from infected countries, Bacon Airways hasn't been grounded.

PHE is a nagging, useless, taxpayer-funded Quango because it's been allowed (encouraged?) to be one.

DiscoveredJoys said...

Here's a clue for the future:

Red Tape does not prevent infection from epidemics.

PHE, WHO, various governments and other supranational organisations please note.

It is an uncomfortable thought (for the bureaucrats) that if Red Tape doesn't work in a crisis then it's probably not needed in ordinary times either.

jim said...

"So it's creep, crawl, a little bit of consensus, iron over the immovable barrier, and a bit more creep and crawl". You could be describing the UK's response there Raedwald. Remember it is the French, Italians and Germans who are opening their factories and offices. We are still scratching our arses and poring over tea leaves because we were slow off the blocks.

The NHS flap seems to be falling away. The UK had been running the NHS 'hot'. A triumph of expensive interim managers and the highest bed occupancy in Europe (except Ireland) and the smallest number/head of ICU beds. No wonder they got their panties in a wad. But now we are a bit nearer to copeing. Putty medals all round.

We will eventually creak the UK machinery back into action. Not without much whining and backstabbing. Masks and PPE for the teachers? Crypto-communists the lot of them? Our wonderful teachers spaketh The Mail? Lots of fun to come. We will do what Mutti does and what Macron approves of if we want those lorries and lettuces.

There seems a curious vacuum in government, as if decisions are being held back as we are prepared for the return of Prince Boris to announce a return to work. A little bit of stage management now that Dommy is back to work.

For those thinking ahead, our Chinese friends are preparing now for a probable resurgence of virus come November. Oh that we had some mandarins in the planning department.

Finally, as we think of the schools restarting, we must avoid teaching the equation y=e^x. Too triggering my dear.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps smoking creates its own social isolation in that no one sensible stands that close to a smoker as to do so means that your clothes and hair are made to stink.

FrankS said...

The £millions raised by Sheeran, Capt Tom etc - where is it actually going? While the govt is writing blank cheques in all directions, surely the NHS is not currently short of cash (even if it was previously).

Tony (Somerset) said...

Re FrankS - Do we know where this donated money is actually going ? - all I have heard is that it is going to NHS "Charities". We need to know which ones and why, and be assured that the money is being made availoable to them now, and not just being dropped into a bureaucratic hole.

Anonymous said...

You forgot diphtheria Raedwald. The joys of 'diversity' are.. manifold.

Steve