By Victoria Mckeown-
MP Desmond Swayne is on the hot seat, and must elaborate on why he insists Covid-19 death rates were manipulated.
The MP who refused to apologise for his statement to a group of anti-vaccination protesters late last year that Covid -19 death statistics were manipulated, said last week that he maintained his position.
Mr Swayne claim is serious and should not be swept under the carpet. Mr Swayne later said the situation may have changed with the new variant, but did not provide any grounds for why a corrupt situation would suddenly change because of a new variant.
Mps called for Mr Swayne to have his whip removed from him for allegedly spreading misinformation, with Michael Gove calling for disciplinary action to be taken against the MP. What form that disciplinary action would take, and when it will occur, has no been stated.
This publication contacted Mr Gove’s office to find to say when the disciplinary action will take place, and to assure the public that the death statistics had not been manipulated at all. There was no official response from his office.
Mr Swayne’s refusal to apologise presents a position of defiance which some consider suggests he knows more than he is saying.
The Eye Of Media.Com contacted Mr Swayne, asking him to elaborate on his remarks, state why he made those comments, and why he stands by them. Discussions with his secretary and Mr Gove himself led to no conclusive statements about the claim he made, though Mr Swayne indicated that flaws in the data gathering was apparent, but said he had nothing further to add than what was on public record
Sir Desmond took to Twitter last week to defend himself, over the call for him to be disciplined. He posted: “Sky is wrong. Aside from my question to the PM this afternoon, an examination of my blogs will reveal that I am a most enthusiastic vaccinator”. But he stood his grounds that his comments were justified.
At a time when the world is handling a raging pandemic, and calling for social distancing, statements like those made by the MP, call for special attention. The MP is making a statement he claims to be fact, and in the absence of full accountability on the issue, there will always be the big question hanging.
When asked about how his words will be handled, mr Gove said: ”watch this space”.
Mr Swayne is openly against the current lockdown, and believes the sensible alternative would have been to identify the vulnerable groups most likely, if infected, to be hospitalised, with their isolation incentivised.
”This would have been neither easy nor inexpensive, but it might well have delivered a manageable level of hospital admissions with very much less damaging social and economic consequences, the MP explains.
Exaggeration
The British government last year admitted that Covid-19 deaths had been exaggerated in the summer, but the exaggeration spoken about was not the same as manipulation. The understanding was that confusion had set in when determining the official medical record of Covid-19 patients, who died months after testing positive for Covid-19.
Individuals, especially hospital patients who tested positive for Covid-19 and died many months later, where concluded to have died from the virus. The fact the patients died the same year as their positive testing, had contributed to the confusion in accurate records, according to official explanations of went went wrong there.
The government revised their system so that only deaths that occurred within 28 days of testing positive, would be connected with Covid-19, on death certificates.
However, with ordinary members of the public citing instances in which someone they know wrongly had Covid-19 on their death certificate, the Mps comments will not just disappear as quickly as he may prefer.