Cummings, Covid-19 and the Cover-up, which caused needless deaths in Britain. (1,001 reasons why more people died from deception than the disease of coronavirus?)
By Professor Chris Imafidon – The parliamentary testimony of the Prime Minister’s former most trusted adviser, Dominic Cummings did not only confirm long held suspicions, but it put some of the facts already in the public domain into the context of a government psychodrama. So, leading voices from Blacks, Asian and Ethnic minorities want an immediate rather than the delayed inquiry into the pandemic response.
They suspect that the over representation of their relatives in the 153,000 dead may be due more to politics than genetics. If trust is not restored, cynicism will fuel the conspiracy theories of anti-vaccine; anti-masks, and the unstoppable deluge of WhatsApp viral messages that can sabotage sound government messages.
DEATH FROM DECEIT Vs DISEASE COVID-19?
While journalists waited in the annex of the houses of parliament on Wednesday, the sheer number of press photographers starring at us, suggested something strange was taking place. The attention is normally on Prime Minister’s question in the main chamber of the old building of parliament. The former Health Secretary, Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt who now chairs the influential Health and Social care committee waved a few guests into the annex and the real drama started.
Minutes later, a casually dressed Oxford-educated radical, Mr. Dominic Cummings who has consistently refused multiple invitations to appear in parliament greeted everyone with a smile and was led into the committee to take questions from political foes and friends for an estimated 3-4 hours. Both sides “enjoyed” the encounter that it was extended to 7 hours. But two hours into their exchanges the whole world was gripped by the known truths, unknown half-truths and brutal truths revealed by the Prime Minister’s most senior adviser about those who died from covid-19 and more importantly why they died. He spoke about the deceit of various top leaders in the centre of government and how covid-related decisions were made excluding scientific advice. He “apologized for tens of thousands of deaths that was caused directly by government” action, or inaction. It was a vivid picture of complacency and incompetence.
FACTS, FICTION AND FANTASIES
Sadly, Mr Jeremy Hunt’s first official response to this marathon hearing was to dismiss it as “unsubstantiated allegations”, and not facts. But Mr Hunt’s folly is exposed by the sheer fact that even if he and his partisan colleagues try to discredit the man behind these statements, there are independent sources that have published these truths as bits and pieces in various news website and other communications.
There are 152,068 undeniable and undisputable facts in the UK’s Covid-19 pandemic and not one of those deaths are worried about Mr Cummings’ reputation or the revenge dramatic outburst in Westminster on Wednesday [Deaths in the UK | Coronavirus in the UK (data.gov.uk). And this headline deaths of Covid-19 are not the only known facts. It is a known fact that there are over 31,000 who died in care homes in England and Wales; and another 8,700 who died having caught the virus while in hospital and 1.2 million proven facts with symptoms of long covid.
Prime Minister, Rt. Hon Theresa May is evidence that ALL the comments made about competence is true. Most political actors remember than Boris Johnson was destined to succeed one Rt Hon David Cameron, until Michael Gove pointed out what Dominic reminded everyone during his testimony. Rt. Hon Jeremy Hunt can pretend that he needed evidence but his campaign for Tory leadership repeated those same words about Johnson during the last leadership contest between him and Johnson before the final results were announced at the Queen Elizabeth conference Centre in Westminster.
Here is one of the point raised by Mr Cummings was that the Secretary of state for Health repeatedly misled colleagues over government action on care homes. But in a personal tweet by Matt Hancock on April 15th 2020, it is very self-evident that anyone transferred from the hospitals must be covid negative, this turned out to be untrue. Here is the raw tweet.
“NEWS: Everybody going from hospital into social care will be tested for #coronavirus & isolated whilst the result comes through to protect those most in need”
MESSAGE VS MESSENGER
Mr Cummings may have been upset with his sudden removal from office, but each statement must be compared with our collective lived reality and remedial action taken to stop more needless deaths. Why shoot the messenger instead of learning lessons from the message. We all know that Mr Cummings is now a persona-non-grata in government circles these days but even his half-truths cannot be dismissed by a broad denial by senior government ministers who recent backed him when he was alleged to have breached lockdown rules.
He concluded that government mistakes meant tens of thousands of people died ‘who didn’t need to die’. Granted Mr Cummings may have said half-truths in the past, but current realities shows that the fact-checking of his statement shows that the abundant truth contained in this outburst must be taken serious, particularly as we know that over 153,000 cannot be allowed to die for nothing.
SCIENCE VS ECONOMICS VS POLITICS
In a piece that I wrote in the British Medical Journal [BMJ] at the beginning of the pandemic, the fundamental plea was for the government to get data, and follow the science. Assurances was given but it turns out that the government did not have a data system. The only consideration was political consideration and the folly of economic advice when loss of lives were involved. Again, it is crucial to ask any policy maker, what is the value of ONE human being? We have many formulae to revive an economic or inject life back into a politically dead situation but nobody has figured out how to bring any human being back from the dead.
Two of Britain’s leading coronavirus experts, Professor Neil Ferguson and Professor John Edmunds, backed up Mr Cummings’s central charge against the Government, that delays over imposing lockdowns were to blame for the high death toll.
In other key developments:
The saga over unnecessary deaths in care homes exploded as a Cabinet minister quietly admitted that the Government could have acted “differently”. But, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick blamed inaccurate advice from scientists that people without symptoms could not pass on the infection. His account was at odds with Mr Cummings’s claim that the Health Secretary promised all residents would be tested before going into homes.
Pressure mounted on the Prime Minister to speed up an official inquiry as a senior Conservative MP and doctor backed cross-party demands for it to launch no later than this autumn. Dr Dan Poulter says that it must report back within 18 months in case of another pandemic.
Professor Ferguson said the Indian variant was now the “dominant strain”.
Mr Hancock did not respond to many of the allegations made by Mr Cummings. However, the Government faced a growing number of voices saying that many lives could have been saved.
Professor Edmunds, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said a “very large number” of Covid-19 deaths could have been avoided in the second wave if the Government had taken more drastic action as being advised by scientists.
Asked whether a death toll running into the tens of thousands could have been avoided, leading epidemiologist Professor Edmunds said: “Well it depends what measures you put in place, what would be the alternative, but certainly if you did a significant package and you put it in place in September, then we would have averted many of the problems that we then subsequently had over the autumn wave.
“And that autumn wave of course fuelled the next wave because we allowed another variant (Kent) to escape and start to spread. So it’s hard to say how many cases and deaths would have been avoided but it’s a very large number.”
ZOOM FUNERALS
Therefore, we that have had to attend numerous “zoom funerals” of loved ones have only one request, no more government policy or its implementation must be allowed to cause another death. The leading voices from Blacks, Asian and Ethnic minorities want an immediate rather than the delayed inquiry into the pandemic response. They suspect that the over representation of their relatives in the 153,000 dead may be due more to politics than genetics. If trust is not restored, cynicism will fuel the conspiracy theories of anti-vaccine; anti-masks, and the unstoppable deluge of WhatsApp viral messages that can sabotage sound government messages.
Professor Chris Imafidon’s research has been recognised internationally, winning multiple awards in many continents across multiple disciplines and his mentees are global leaders in pioneering research. He is a multi-Guinness World record holder; Internationally renowned adviser to monarchs, governments, presidents and corporate leaders; Mentor to New York Times Bestellers and a Sunday Times Op-ed author. [Twitter @ChrisImafidon; Instagram @CoImafidon; Facebook/Linkedln –Professor Chris Imafidon]
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