The rest of the world is waking up gradually to the nonsense of differentiating between vaccinated and unvaccinated tourists. This may be galling for anyone who chose to get vaccinated solely for travel, only to find they didn’t actually need it by the time the trip arrived. The website here gives regular updates, though it is always advisable to check with the official guidelines for an individual country.
Politics
The unintended consequences of COVID-19 vaccine policy
A recent article published in prestigious scientific journal BMJ global health has questioned the effectiveness of vaccination mandates during the Covid-19 pandemic and pointed out their unintended consequences.
Rewriting history on school closures
If we are to avoid the mistakes of the last two years the first step must be admitting that mistakes were made. This has begun but some people are finding it harder than others.
Terms of Reference for the Covid-19 Public Inquiry
The deadline to respond to the proposed terms of reference for the English Public Inquiry into covid ends on 7th April. There are number of major omissions from the current proposed terms of reference
We need to talk about behavioural science…
The Government’s use of behavioural-science – particularly ‘nudges’ that use fear inflation, shaming and peer pressure to increase people’s compliance with the state’s agenda – has evoked major concerns in relation to both the ethics and the collateral damage.
Lest We Forget
Not being a daily publication, we did not have the ‘pleasure’ of writing on the two year anniversary of that now most inauspicious of dates, 23 March 2020. If only the Prime Minister had stood up that Monday evening, ripped up his pre-prepared speech and stood firm – what an alternative reality that might have been!
Will the government’s ‘Public Inquiry’ be a whitewash?
From the start of the pandemic, a number of eminent voices were speaking out against lockdowns, as a blunderbuss approach with no prior mention in pandemic preparedness plans, and one for which no impact assessment was ever produced.
Common sense from the Sunshine State
This week Ron DeSantis hosted a Roundtable in Florida with medics and scientists attending from all over the world. The goal of the meeting was billed as ‘ending COVID theater once and for all’.
The review of the Human Rights Act
The Government is currently undertaking a review of the Human Rights Act (HRA)(1998) and has published a consultation document that describes why it believes change is required, together with its specific proposals for what should be included in a new ‘Bill of Rights’. Given the state overreach witnessed over the last two years under the guise of covid-19 restrictions – involving unprecedented infringements of people’s core rights and freedoms – the timing, rationale and content of the review should concern us all.
The WHO power grab — Medical Tyranny at scale
The World Health Organisation have launched a “historic global accord” for pandemics also known as a “pandemic treaty” to be decided by an “intergovernmental negotiating body.” The WHO General Assembly is able to pass binding agreements on all member states with a two thirds majority using article 19 of the WHO constitution.
Reverse Ferret on Vaccine Mandates
It is hard to dispassionately document the rise and fall of an abomination without resorting to emotional language. The particular abomination in question is the statute entitled “Vaccination as a Condition of Deployment”.
Public Health and the pandemic management
HART member Dr Alan Mordue has written an excellent article on the pandemic management from the view point of a specialist public health consultant.
Who Is Running The Show?
This week, the United Kingdom crossed the Rubicon… again. “Three weeks to flatten the curve” to avoid putting undue pressure on the NHS has turned into 21 months of authoritarian measures, each time stooping that little bit lower as we descend to the nether regions of totalitarian hell.
Open Letter to the GMC 10 December 2021
I am writing to you to share with you a number of letters from a group of healthcare professionals and scientists who have written repeatedly to the MHRA and the JCVI around the decision making for covid-19 vaccines in children.
JCVI recommends 2nd dose for children in spite of saying ‘no’ to the first
The UKHSA has now quietly published guidance for health professionals on vaccine-associated myocarditis, a stark reminder of how serious a matter it is to extend the use of a vaccine designed for adults to younger people.
Who exactly are the ‘unvaccinated’?
The media continues to push a hate campaign towards the unvaccinated – but who are they? Every unvaccinated person will have their own reasons for making this decision about their health. Only they can understand what is best for their individual circumstances and that is how it should be.
Hang on a minute…
On 15 November Boris Johnson gave a press conference urging everyone to get their booster shots. This has caused much confusion in the minds of the thus far ‘fully vaccinated’.
Can we rely on NIMS (National Immunisation Management Service) figures?
Changing the total population estimate results in large swings in the estimate of ‘case’ rates in the unvaccinated. Given the inability to be accurate within a few percentage points, and the uncertainty about whether the inaccuracies are overestimating or underestimating the total, the differences between populations is not as informative as the trend in rates within each of the populations.
