Get ready to meet a Keep to rules if dropping off kids
AS WELL as schools and colleges reopening, from tomorrow people can meet up with another person from a different household outdoors for exercise or recreation under Step 1 of the roadmap. This includes meeting for a picnic.
Care home residents in England can also have one regular visitor indoors and they will be allowed to hold hands but not hug or kiss. The
PARENTS dropping their children off at school have been warned to stick to the rules and help to keep the “R number” below one, to slow transmission.
Infectious disease expert Dr Mike Tildesley said the next few weeks are going to be crucial.
Speaking totimes Radio, he said it would be possible to keep the reproduction number of the virus below one with schools open but everyone must continue to follow “all the other rules”.
Drtildesley added: “When you’re dropping your children off, you need to maintain social distancing. Just because you’re not in the home with your young children, don’t use it as an excuse to go out and mix with other people that you otherwise wouldn’t have done.
“It’s possible with schools open we can keep the R number below one but if we are going to achieve that we all need to keep following all the other rules.”
THE road to the end of lockdown in June gives us some light at the end of a very dark and gloomy tunnel.
But important questions remain.what did we do so badly wrong that resulted in one of the highest death tolls in the world?
The first question is whether lockdown was the right strategy.the evidence is far from clear.
The World Health Organisation’s change in guidance to a full lockdown was based on China’s success in containing the virus, essentially in just one city, Wuhan.with hindsight, that strategy seems all the more extraordinary when we compare the death toll of China with the staggering numbers in the UK and the US.AS one prominent Chinese broadcast journalist told me, what China did was never going to work in the West.
“Every person was tagged and monitored, and all contacts of those testing positive were tracked and traced.”
British values, its cultural history and democratic system did not allow this to happen.
Proponents of the UK approach will cite the low mortality rates of countries such as New Zealand and Australia. But with such sparsely populated countries, a shutdown of the borders and an effective track and trace system made it much easier to stop the virus. In
India, although in principle a lockdown was implemented, it didn’t get close to the stringency of the UK.
Despite having over a billion people, most of whom live in abject poverty, the death toll pales in comparison to western countries.
The harms of lockdown are indisputable and, in my view, catastrophic.
Perhaps worst of all was robbing an entire generation of school children of their birthright – getting a good education.
The lockdown policy has done significantly more harm than good to public health and the economy.
But we mustn’t ignore the root cause of what led to this dreadful situation – the dire baseline health of the population.
Some 80 per cent of UK adults have excess levels of body fat, putting them at increased risk of dying from Covid.
This is combined with “too much medicine”. Side effects from prescribed medications are one of the leading causes of deaths and hospital admissions after heart disease and cancer.
I believe the biggest culprits behind our healthcare collapse are Big Food and Bad Pharma.
Covid leaves us with two hypothetical scenarios to consider. Imagine the same number of deaths, but no school closures, a functioning economy, and better mental health. All with no lockdown.
Now imagine an even better one. Half the death rate and an NHS not even close to breaking point. Because we had a healthier population in the first place. Because we had already tackled the two biggest enemies to public health: Big Food and Bad Pharma.
The former scenario is debatable.
The latter is without question the Britain we must strive for in the future.
‘We must tackle
two enemies’
A MAJOR European manufacturer is planning to relocate to the North East of England from the EU, as a direct result of Brexit.
The revelation came from Conservativeteesside Mayor Ben Houchen after Chancellor Rishi Sunak named his region as the biggest of the eight new freeports in England in last week’s budget.
Mr Houchen told the Sunday Express: “This is a demonstration of why people inteesside voted for Brexit.we could not have had a freeport policy without Brexit.”
The identity of the company is being kept secret for contractual reasons but an announcement is expected in the next few weeks after eight months of talks.
A successful resolution depended on the region being allowed to set up a freeport.
The relocation will help to create around 18,000 jobs in an area hit by the recent steel works closure.
Mr Houchen said: “Freeports are a bit wonky and geeky but, ultimately, what it delivers is the definition of levelling up.
“Freeports create jobs.the more jobs you have, the more money people have in their pockets, the more opportunities you create.”
The new freeport will cover the former steel works site, the port of Hartlepool, Darlington and Teesside Airport. Another 800 jobs will be created in Darlington with the Treasury relocating part of its department to County Durham.
Mr Houchen added: “Instead of suffering a brain drain,teesside will be able to attract the brightest and best in innovative technology.”
‘Freeports will create more jobs’
SIR Alex Ferguson feared he would never speak again after suffering a brain haemorrhage three years ago.
The former Manchester United manager also revealed how part of his therapy was to recall every member of his teams.
Sir Alex was famed for his dressing room rants at players such as David Beckham and Gary Neville, which became known as the “hairdryer treatment”.
But he was worried about losing his powerful voice – and his memory – after undergoing emergency surgery in 2018.
Sir Alex, 79, told of his fears as a documentary about his life premiered at the Glasgow Film Festival last night.
The two-time Champions Leaguewinning manager with the Red Devils was filmed for Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In while recovering from the operation. It was directed by his son, Jason.
Aware that his memory might desert him, the film sees Sir Alex recount the most important stories of his life.
Speaking alongside his son during a virtual question and answer session after the premiere, he said the recovery from the operation was terrifying.
Sir Alex said: “I lost my voice, just could not get a word out, and that was terrifying. Absolutely terrifying.
“And everything was going through my mind. Is my memory going to come back? Am I ever going to speak again?”
He worked through exercises with a
speech therapist in which he had to recall every member of his teams, and his voice eventually came back after 10 days.
Sir Alex, who retired in 2013, won 38 trophies during a 26-year spell in charge of Manchester United.
Last night, he said his favourite memory of the team’s fans was on the day he won the league title for the first time, in 1993.
“God almighty – I couldn’t get out of the car park,” he said. “There were thousands of them... they could have made me president that day.”
Sir Alex added he most regretted having to let players go, particularly youngsters.
“That is the worst thing, having to let a young player go. Because all his ambitions and hopes and desires are about playing
for Manchester United in front of 75,000 people and going to Wembley in a final – when you take that away from them it’s a sore, sore thing. So I hated that.”
The documentary also looked at his tough upbringing, about which he says: “I speak for every young boy in Govan and Glasgow that growing up, the only thing you had was football – football every day. There was nothing else in my life.”
He recalls how, as a young man, he organised strikes of apprentice workers to win better wages.
He said: “There are moments in your life when you say, I did something really worthwhile.”