Daily Archives: June 6, 2020

Coronavirus scrapbook: June 6

Every day This Writer trawls Twitter for items that may form the basis – or part of – an interesting story for This Site.

Currently I’m seeing far too many related to the Covid-19 pandemic for me to write about them all in a sufficiently in-depth way.

So I’m going to deposit a few of them on the site – just in case they become relevant to events in the future.

You may find them interesting too.

There’s no order to them, mind.

https://twitter.com/BlitznBeans/status/1268980276757065728

https://twitter.com/leezpeez999/status/1268861483057905666

By ignoring government demands, are we giving Boris Johnson exactly what he wants?

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has begged people to refrain from participating in demonstrations supporting the “Black Lives Matter” movement protesting the death of George Floyd.

But many thousands of people have ignored the advice.

Hancock had put them in a tricky dilemma. On one hand, taking part in the demonstrations put them in close contact with thousands of other people, meaning they were likely to meet at least one – probably many – transmitter of Covid-19. On the other, staying away would indicate tacit support for violent anti-black and minority ethnic racism.

The UK’s Tory government has indicated that it supports the violent anti-black and minority ethnic racism that we have seen displayed by the US police – albeit in its deeds rather than words; consider the omission of recommendations to reduce deaths of black people due to Covid-19 in the Tory government report on the subject, and Boris Johnson’s reluctance to halt the export of arms and riot equipment used to beat innocent people, and now peaceful demonstrators.

So there is a strong moral argument for standing up against the Tory government’s behaviour, as well as that of the US police.

But, while we have been told it will be compulsory to wear face masks soon, we don’t have to do it yet. And many people don’t even have one.

Who is more likely to go on a demonstration of this kind? I would suggest it would attract people who don’t vote Conservative.

So it seems the Tories have found a great way to get their political opponents to infect themselves with Covid-19 and possibly even eliminate themselves from the electorate (fatalities in the UK running so high).

And even if you don’t buy that particular theory, it still suggests that Johnson has found a way to inflict his “herd immunity” lunacy on the population – and by their own free will.

It’s despicably manipulative. But is it also too intelligent from bumbling Boris and his guru Demonic?

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If the Tories are keen to preserve lives, why are they threatening people who are shielding from Covid?

Jacob Rees-Mogg: he reckons the role of the House of Commons “can only properly be fulfilled when members are here in person”, and says his decision is “completely in accordance” with the “equalities considerations” of the government and parliament. Phew, what a loony!

People who are vulnerable to Covid-19 are very much second-class citizens to the Conservative government, aren’t they?

Consider teachers who have been ordered back into work even though their physical health means they must shield against the virus – that is, they need to stay in their homes, away from anybody who might possibly pass it onto them:

Teachers with underlying medical conditions have been threatened with pay cuts or disciplinary action if they do not come into school.

Patrick Roach, the general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union – which opposed the reopening plan – [said]his union had received “lots of worries” from members this week.

“We’ve had a lot of traffic in relation to teachers with underlying health conditions,” he said.

“We’re now seeing some schools insisting that shielding is over and that those individuals who are clinically extremely vulnerable should be back in the workforce,” he said.

“We’ve come across one or two examples of schools threatening to deduct pay or put people on disciplinary procedures if they don’t come into the workplace.

“Of course we’ll continue – and have done – pushing back with those employees with some success, but nevertheless this shouldn’t be happening out there.”

Conversely, MPs are being deprived of the ability to carry out their responsibilities, even though they could do it from home if they were permitted to:

The shadow minister for disabled people has taken legal advice over the government’s “outrageous” decision to prevent MPs at serious risk from coronavirus from continuing to vote and take part in debates from their own home.

Labour’s Vicky Foxcroft, who has a long-term health condition, was unable to vote on Tuesday [June 2] because of the government’s decision.

She [said] she and other MPs at particular risk from COVID-19 had been discriminated against.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has also criticised the government this week over its stance, after refusing to do so last week.

There is no consistency in this behaviour by the Tory government; one group is penalised because their health forbids them from working while the other is penalised because its members want to.

It seems the Johnson government is happy to contradict itself, simply to inflict harm on the vulnerable.

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Bald men face higher risk of severe Covid-19, researchers claim

Anyone who has seen This Writer in person may be aware that I would have reason to be very worried about this – if I took it seriously.

Trouble is, this is just as likely to be a scare story of the kind that the Daily Mail used to run all the time. Is there anything left that that rag hasn’t claimed causes cancer?

Bald men may be at higher risk of suffering from severe Covid-19 symptoms, emerging evidence suggests.

The link is so strong that some researchers are suggesting baldness should be considered a risk factor called the “Gabrin sign”, after the first US physician to die of Covid-19 in the United States, Dr Frank Gabrin, who was bald.

The lead author of the key study behind the association, Professor Carlos Wambier of Brown University, told The Telegraph: “We really think that baldness is a perfect predictor of severity.”

Data since the beginning of the outbreak in Wuhan, China, in January has shown that men are more likely to die after getting coronavirus. In the UK, a report this week from Public Health England found that working-age males were twice as likely as females to die after being diagnosed with Covid-19.

Until recently, scientists have been at a loss at why this might be, pointing to factors such as lifestyle, smoking, and immune system differences between the sexes. But increasingly they believe it could be because androgens – male sex hormones like testosterone – may play a part not only in hair loss, but also in boosting the ability of coronavirus to attack cells.

This raises the possibility that treatments suppressing these hormones, such as those used for baldness as well as diseases like prostate cancer, could be used to slow the virus down, giving patients time to fight it off.

Source: Bald men at higher risk of severe case of Covid-19, research finds

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Johnson’s latest Covid-19 demand will make us ALL look like ‘bank robbers’ and ‘letterboxes’

If we’re going to wear face masks, let’s wear these: they were seized by US authorities during the George Floyd protests, to stop demonstrators protecting themselves from Covid-19 and are going spare. Can an enterprising entrepreneur please import them?

Funny how the things we say come back to haunt us.

Boris Johnson infamously said that Muslim women who wear the burqa look like “bank robbers” and “letterboxes” in an Islamophobic newspaper column of a couple of years ago.

But now his government has issued a decree that we should all wear face-coverings when we leave the house, starting on June 15.

The response has been logical:

The answer is that it has been deemed necessary for people to wear face coverings as more of the UK’s workforce return to their place of employment due to the government’s unaccountable decision to ease lockdown while Covid-19 infections are still increasing (as shown by the fact that we are still at alert level 4).

The simple fact is that anybody in public should be wearing them anyway:

The advice is to make masks at home, but I have a better idea.

If you read the caption under the image at the top of this article, you’ll know that US law enforcement officials seized masks that were intended to protect people from Covid-19 during anti-racism protests in that country. They are emblazoned with the words “Stop killing black people”.

Over here in the UK, government policy has led to a situation in which black people and other ethnic minorities are four times more likely to die of Covid-19 than the rest of us. The government suppressed a report on the reasons for this.

My suggestion is, wouldn’t it be a great idea to offer to take these masks off American hands and wear them ourselves – as a reminder to Boris Johnson that even his plans for dealing with the pandemic are racist?

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/

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Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
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The Livingstone Presumption is now available
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