Alarming information to also be considered
J MEAKIN (“Roadmap is a policy of tolerable deaths total”) and L Measom (“The public will want vaccination passports”, Mailbox, February 24) make a number of points relating to the government’s roadmap and vaccine passports which at face value seem reasonable, but they merit a deeper consideration.
J Meakin does not, for example, consider the number of deaths and serious illnesses which are directly caused by the lockdowns.
According to Public Health England (PHE) the number of children attempting suicide during the lockdowns has increased by 7 per cent over previous numbers. This is an enormous increase which has not received the publicity it should.
The number of flu deaths, normally between 10,000 and 30,000 over winter, is this winter at zero. One might expect a reduction, given social distancing and the wearing of masks, but zero? No. I have no doubt a significant number of flu deaths have falsely been labelled as Covid19 deaths.
Then we have patients with lifethreatening illnesses who are denied swift treatment because of the lockdowns. Last year, cancer surgery was down by 21,700 in the first wave. According to PHE, 330,000 fewer people saw an oncologist between March and December 2020 compared to previous years. How many of these will die unnecessarily?
Mental health charities have reported a large increase in the numbers of people seeking help since March 2020. And on the purely economic side, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) about 600,000 taxpayer jobs were lost between February and November 2020.
A balance must be struck between the number of deaths which might be directly caused by Covid-19 and those who die because of the government’s actions. It is a difficult discussion to have but one to which the government and its advisers seem to be turning a blind eye.
L Measom seems to consider vaccination a panacea for the Covid-19 problems but it is not. Vaccination does not prevent you from catching the virus and there is evidence to show that it does not prevent you from becoming infectious. And what of those who for various legitimate reasons cannot have the vaccine?
These vaccines are unlike the vaccines we have used for many years and which have been shown to be as safe as can be expected over the longer term. The long-term effects of this relatively new gene therapy technology is not yet known – ask the pharmaceutical companies why they refer to the technology in their patents and applications as “gene therapies” and not vaccines.
Pregnant women are generally advised not to have the vaccine and the effect on children of vaccination is not known – the pharmaceutical companies are only now beginning tests to see how children respond to the vaccines.
L Measom compares vaccination with driving licences and passports. This is not an equal comparison. No one is forced to have substances injected into them to obtain either.
The vaccine passports are supposed to be anonymous but how long before the electronic certificates are tweaked to show exactly where you have been, no doubt for allegedly good reasons.
Then, of course, if Covid-19 then why not flu? Or pneumonia? Or TB?
Or any other virus which takes the government’s fancy? And a gradual extension into other areas of life where government deems it advisable for you to show proof of having acceded to some perceived “correct” thinking.
No “passport” – banned from public transport. No “passport” banned from taxis. No “passport” – banned from gatherings (includes protest events). No “passport” – banned from school or higher education classes. The list is endless.
How long before you might be threatened with cancellation if you upset some vociferous and intolerant body, of which there are many?
One final statistic to bear in mind. The British Medical Journal produced a table of age-related deaths using the data of the ONS in respect of the first “wave” of deaths, March 7 to June 26, in which “Covid-19 appeared on the death certificate”.
If you composite the figures for the “working age” population, broadly defined as being from 15 to 64, you get 5,289 Covid-19 deaths – 24,330 other - 29,619 in total, in a population for that age group of 37,610,031.
In other words, a one in 7,111 Covid death rate.
As the American journalist HL Mencken put it: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamourous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins”.
V Hallam,