Oh, boy! I watched that Live Press Conference from Downing Street, this morning, with Sir Patrick Vallance (Govt. Chief Scientific Adviser) and Professor Chris Whitty (Govt. Chief Medical Officer) and it was masterful, albeit for the intellectually challenged! I did suggest the past six months must resemble what it feels like to be buried alive and I can only re-iterate that sentiment – or vary it slightly. Perhaps it is more like falling into a grain dryer and attempting to keep one’s head above the barley which is relentlessly pulling one down. No exclamation marks, be it there is no room for humour.
Today, these two ‘experts’ stood over that grain dryer and, in an effort to push back under anyone still spirited enough to be fighting for survival, issued their stark predictions of doom! The number infected, daily, is continuing to rise and has now reached 3,000. Following the current pattern of doubling every 7 days, it is predicted that there will be 50,000 cases per day by mid-October. In turn, that will mean 200 deaths per day come November. There is more …
According to the dynamic duo, only an estimated 8% of the population who have been infected have developed antibodies in response. In other words, the vast majority remain susceptible regardless. Superb – but not enough. Chris Whitty went on to state the bleeding obvious by declaring that ‘the seasons are against us’! Gosh, wasn’t that always going to be case? Can’t the Government pause Nature as well as life?! No? Well, our months of enforced confinement – incorporating Spring and Summer, I might add – were always going to be in vain. Yes, the beautiful weather made lockdown more tolerable but one always knew that the virus was not going to, miraculously, vamoose in the meantime. It was nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction; a quick fix. So, of course, it is going to continue where it left off as the children – not adversely affected by the infection – return to school for the winter months, having been isolated during the good weather. Makes perfect sense to me – not! I have said it all before, so many times and as the, supposedly shamed, Neil Ferguson, somehow, raises his head above the parapet once more, the whole scenario is not only insulting but completely and utterly draining. The dramatic rhetoric is unchanged; the scaremongering relentless. The platitudes keep on keeping on: this virus is not going away; we have, at least, another 6 months of this. Oh, and in response to the obvious comparison with seasonal flu, COVID is more virulent! Of course, it is.
Chris Whitty, then, added the threat of the NHS being unable to provide treatment for any illnesses other than COVID should we not comply and the virus take control. That is not a threat. That is already reality. Everything else has been cancelled! Cancer treatments, the lot. God forbid any one of us falls ill. Heart attack, stroke, appendicitis? All confidence has gone. Clearly, those dialling 111 and requesting a test for COVID are getting nowhere so what happens to the rest? The unnecessary deaths amassing from such neglect can only be surmised. Then there is the issue of mental health: depression, suicides. Matt Hancock (Health Secretary) was on This Morning, prior to the Live Press Conference at 11am, when Phillip Schofield confronted him with yesterday’s figure for COVID deaths – 18 – in comparison to that relating to suicide, weekly – 125. Emphasising, to the Health Secretary, the fact that suicide figures are increasing rapidly and the desperate need for social interaction, said Minister merely acknowledged while continuing to re-iterate his message that COVID must be controlled. Programmed to perfection, there was no malfunction. If challenged, just press ‘Repeat’!
Never fear! Never fear! Well, do, obviously, but be reassured that a vaccine is coming. We shall be saved! A vaccine which will make billions and further fatten the huge pharmaceutical companies. A vaccine which will have been fast-tracked – and, no doubt, unlicenced as a result (for the greater good!) – while, meantime, the regulations will have been temporarily changed (see post of 14th September) to ensure said companies are absolved of any liability resulting from harmful side effects. Got it all sussed! Vaccines take years to be tested and passed as safe. Even then … However, only the other week, a Cambridge drug company paused their trial following the adverse effect on one guinea pig. Matt Hancock cited that today, obviously in a bid to highlight the care which is being taken to develop a vaccine safe to roll out to a population of 60million. How reassuring! Think of the profit at stake. Think of the foreign bodies being pumped into one’s system. Is COVID-19 really the greater threat?
Cynical or what? From the one who thought life was going to be an extension of The Waltons! This is scary, though, and not the virus itself, more the blatant manipulation of the masses who, now, seem only to function as instructed. Masks, hand sanitiser, socialising with no more than six – affirmative. Listen but do not question. Nobody wants to catch COVID but, as with seasonal flu, most who do will recover. There is no logic in the response; one which has caused irreparable damage on a massive scale affecting every aspect of life. Time can never be retrieved. The cost of the chaos is immeasurable. Not so sure tomorrow will be a good day, Captain Tom, or that it will all fall into place, Pop, but, thankfully, you also used to say ‘We fight on!’ – and, we will.
It was not my intention to get embroiled in politics again but that’s exactly what it amounts to. Apologies. It is all-consuming. This morning, however, I happened to catch Good Morning Britain when Piers and Susanna were chatting – by link – to a father and son who have had over a million views on Twitter. Nick Harvey posted a video of his 80-year-old father, Paul – diagnosed with Alzheimer’s last year – playing the piano; the most beautiful, moving tune composed on the spot! Granted, a former musician, given 4 notes, his party trick is to come up with a melody within seconds. So, of course, he was asked to do just that for Piers and Susanna – and that he did. Unbelievable, it was reminiscent of a score from a 1950s film and one half expected Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant to appear at any minute! An amazing talent and, as Nick – moved to tears – leant over his father, the poignancy was not lost. It’s good to be reminded that these are the moments which count in life. Nothing else really matters …
‘You don’t realise how far away you are until there’s somebody you want to be near.’
A quote I have written down from a film I have never seen, ‘The Space Between us.’.
This is Trish, signing off.
