By Ben Kerrigan-
Professor Vallance’s exposed lack of integrity discredits his call for a christmas lockdown. The Uk’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance advised cabinet that restrictions were necessary to drive down infection rates and ease pressure on the NHS.
The Eye Of Media.Com exposed the fact that this supposed prominent government scientists lied to the British public last July after performing a U turn and announcing that 60% of those in hospital had not been vaccinated, hours after informing the public that 60% of those in hospital with the virus had been double vaccinated.
PHE England confirmed to this publication during our probe of Vallance’s misinformation to the public, that a majority of those hospitalised as a result of Covid-19, had in fact been double vaccinated, stating this to be the expected scenario since more of the publication have been vaccinated.
The timing of the call for another lockdown has been shocking, given the leakages of parties held in Downing Street last Christmas.
Another lockdown this year will present the Uk government as authoritarian, completely undermining whatever genuine message it may intend to send though such restrictions.
Scientists have renewed calls for a lockdown, but Uk ministers are allegedly resisting calls from scientific experts to introduce new coronavirus measures before Christmas as the Omicron variant spreads around the UK “like an express train”.
“We can’t make hard fast guarantees,” the deputy prime minister said on Monday morning when asked if stricter rules would be brought in over the festive period.
“We have to keep the evidence reviewed on an hour by hour and day by day basis,” he told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme.
Confirmed cases of the faster-spreading strain have risen by more than 12,000 in the UK – and London’s cases alone topped 10,000, according to the latest data on Sunday, however an estimated around one third of the cabinet are said to be reluctant to support new restrictions in the coming days, with Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak among them, according to The Times.
The paper reported that 10 ministers are resisting a call by the government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance at the weekend for new restrictions to be brought in as soon as possible to prevent the health service being overwhelmed.
Johnson has been presented with three options to tackle the spread of the virus, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The paper reported that they range from guidance asking people to limit indoor contacts, to rules on household mixing, social distancing and a curfew on pubs and restaurants, and thirdly a full lockdown.
The Telegraph quoted one unnamed cabinet minister as saying data presented by Sir Patrick and England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty on Saturday was “just trashed by the cabinet”. The source said “guidelines, rather than restrictions, are entirely possible”.
But Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said it is time to be “more cautious” and did not rule out new measures before Christmas, telling BBC One’s Andrew Marr programme there are “no guarantees in this pandemic”.
He confirmed that if new rules were to be proposed, Parliament would be recalled to approve them, describing that approach as “only right and proper”.
London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan warned that if restrictions are not brought in soon the NHS could be “on the verge of collapse”, with sickness affecting workforce levels.
Advice from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), published at the weekend, warned there are likely already hundreds of thousands of new Omicron infections every day in England and that hospital admissions with the variant in the UK are “probably around one tenth of the true number” due to a lag in reporting.
Deaths in England of people with the variant have risen to 12, while hospital admissions of patients with confirmed or suspected Omicron increased to 104, according to the latest figures from the UK Health Security Agency.
A further 12,133 confirmed cases of the variant have been reported across the UK, the data on Sunday showed, bringing the total confirmed cases of Omicron across the four nations to 37,101.
In total, a further 82,886 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases have been recorded in the UK as of 9am Sunday, the Government said.
Experts have warned against a delay in bringing in measures.
Professor Stephen Reicher, a member of Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (SPI-B), said Omicron’s faster transmissibility means it is “coming at us like an express train”, and called for clear messaging to the public.
Reports suggest that the country’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance advised cabinet that restrictions were necessary to drive down infection rates and ease pressure on the NHS.
However, roughly one-third of ministers – including the prime minister and the chancellor – oppose such a move, according to The Times.
This comes as health secretary Sajid Javid has not ruled out the possibility of Christmas measures, telling the BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday that there are “no guarantees in this pandemic”.
Last week, daily coronavirus infections in the UK rose to a record 93,045, with scientists warning of the serious threat posed by Omicron.
However, those infections have no bearing on hospitalisation or death rates, and as usual, give an inaccurate picture of the seriousness of the virus by failing to reflect the other illnesses that brought those people to hospital.