alicespringstomind

Professor Anthony Brookes, Geneticist and Health Data Scientist at Leicester University in the UK, speaks with Julia Hartley-Brewer for almost 12 minutes on talkRadio at the below link. Julia is a force of common sense and investigative journalism.

The main points I get from this interview are:

1. Natural infection of the non-vulnerable (in this case, of the young and healthy) protects the most vulnerable [an uncontroversial public health phenomenon pre-2020];
2. Mass screening via Boris Johnson’s “Moonshot” project is unviable, ineffective and inappropriate; it will not provide population level protection; and it comes at a cost of six times the annual UK Police Force budget or almost the entire annual National Health Service budget;
3. Decisions being made are political and not evidence based, with government ministers misrepresenting data for unknown motives, creating excessive and unnecessary fear in the population;
4. Applying the new and accurate lateral flow tests to vulnerable populations via evidence based strategies should be implemented as a protective public health intervention which will save lives;
5. The number of people dying in the UK this year is approximately the same number who die any other year (despite the peak deaths seen in April-May);
6. Excess deaths in the UK now are a direct result of people dying in their own homes, as lockdown blocks access to life saving health care;
7. Most people infected with Covid have no or minimal symptoms, and the risk to anyone under the age of 65yo is approximately the same as influenza [and slightly higher than influenza risk for those who are older]
8. Covid deaths will probably increase with the respiratory illness season (ie winter) approaching, but Covid deaths have replaced the usual influenza and pneumonia presentations which have all but disappeared [it will be interesting to understand why that is];
9. UK hospitals have increased their capacity, are consequently less full now than they would normally be at this time of year, and are perfectly resourced to cope. [It’s important to remember that this was the only reason lockdown was initially promoted. At some point the goalpost shifted to an unattainable “Zero Covid” strategy, for reasons that are difficult to fathom].

Professor Anthony Brookes speaks with Julia Hartley-Brewer