Cummings need not resign - they should all be arrested for gross misfeasance in public office.

Arrest them all to prevent future mass fatality.
~
A basic principle of good public health is to learn from the failures and the successes of others facing the same health problem in order to improve outcomes and avoid avoidable harms.

Learning from experience, from others failures and their successes.


A number of British and European Public Health professionals issued a report, published in The Lancet, on February 19.


This is what they said:

"We are public health scientists who have closely followed the emergence of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and are deeply concerned about its impact on global health and wellbeing. 

We have watched as the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China, in particular, have worked diligently and effectively to rapidly identify the pathogen behind this outbreak, put in place significant measures to reduce its impact, and share their results transparently with the global health community. 


This effort has been remarkable.
We sign this statement in solidarity with all scientists and health professionals in China who continue to save lives and protect global health during the challenge of the COVID-19 outbreak. We are all in this together, with our Chinese counterparts in the forefront, against this new viral threat."

The WHO were in country in China, and were in the process of taking evidence for a final report on the Wuhan situation at the same time. They were in China between 14th and 24th of February, and this is from their final report.


"Achieving China’s exceptional coverage with and adherence to these containment measures has only been possible due to the deep commitment of the Chinese people to collective action in the face of this common threat.

At a community level this is reflected in the remarkable solidarity of provinces and cities in support of the most vulnerable populations and communities. Despite ongoing outbreaks in their own areas, Governors and Mayors have continued to send thousands of health care workers and tons of vital PPE supplies into Hubei province and Wuhan city.

At the individual level, the Chinese people have reacted to this outbreak with courage and conviction. They have accepted and adhered to the starkest of containment measures – whether the suspension of public gatherings, the month-long ‘stay at home’ advisories or prohibitions on travel. 
Throughout an intensive 9-days of site visits across China, in frank discussions from the level of local community mobilizers and frontline health care providers to top scientists, Governors and Mayors, the Joint Mission was struck by the sincerity and dedication that each brings to this COVID-19 response."

and

"
China’s bold approach to contain the rapid spread of this new respiratory pathogen has changed the course of a rapidly escalating and deadly epidemic. A particularly compelling statistic is that on the first day of the advance team’s work there were 2478 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in China. Two weeks later, on the final day of this Mission, China reported 409 newly confirmed cases. This decline in COVID-19 cases across China is real."


The evidence is unequivocal.


The Chinese Government and their health officials did the best possible job under the circumstances. They stopped the uncontrolled epidemic within China. South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore and Hong Kong acted rapidly to prevent uncontrolled community transmission.


This begs the question - Why did the UK Government, SAGE and Public Health England ignore the experience and learning from real lived social and material data and the practical evidence from the Chinese handling of the epidemic? Why did they ignore the success of the early and rapid action of other East Asian States? Our bodies are biologically no different, our capitalist, urban consumer cultures are all similar.

Why did the UK Government try do the worst job possible under the circumstances, starting off with herd immunity, (which some are still touting as a reasonable possibility based on modelling, rather than the actual material experience) until that was objected to by independent health professionals within the UK,based on the impact it would have in terms of deaths of vulnerable people, and was publicly stood back from in response to the visceral reaction of the general public to that revelation, which was disgust?

Why then did they persist with policies that guaranteed a slow spread of the infection, and thus ensure a higher death toll upon UK Citizens, than if they had followed the experience of the Chinese, the Taiwanese, the South Koreans, the Vietnamese and why did they choose to not do as many other countries around the Earth have done?

This cannot be put down to incompetence.

The UK Government policy was and remains deliberate and intentional.

What irks me most about calls for the resignation of  Dominic Cummings over the past few days for his apparent breach of UK Government regulations is that they are a feeble, weak-kneed, cowardly response to the situation that he, SAGE, the Prime Minister Johnson, the Cabinet, the Behavioural Insights Teams, the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Scientific Advisor have deliberately created, as the directors of UK public policy on Corona Virus.


Arrest these people!

Really - think carefully about what they have done and are doing, and the adverse affects of their actions.

They have made a lethal mountain of an infectious mole hill.


They have lied.

They have misled the public.

They have used profoundly manipulative tactics to sway peoples attitudes, including emotional black mail, passive aggressive management tactics, bullying and gaslighting.

They have acted irresponsibly and caused untold, avoidable lethal harm to tens of thousands of UK citizens.

They have caused immense economic harm to millions of UK citizens.

The lies, the emotional blackmail, the gaslighting, the misleading statements, even the idiotic counting two gloves, or counting two parts of same test as two tests - all of these are abuses of their positions of power. All of these dishonesty's are signals of malign intent. Once or twice might be considered a reaction, but the fact is these are multiple occurrences, and clear and consistent pattern of dishonesty and the impact of the policies is extensive harm causation, avoidable deaths. That is criminal in essence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misfeasance_in_public_office

"Generally, a civil defendant will be liable for misfeasance if the defendant owed a duty of care toward the plaintiff, the defendant breached that duty of care by improperly performing a legal act, and the improper performance resulted in harm to the plaintiff."

https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/misconduct-public-office

The courts have been reluctant to provide a detailed definition of a public officer. The case law contains an element of circularity, in that the cases tend to define a public officer as a person who carries out a public duty or has an office of trust. What may constitute a public duty or an office of trust must therefore be inferred from the facts of particular cases. 
The judgment of Lord Mansfield in R v Bembridge (1783) 3 Doug KB 32 refers to a public officer having: 
'… an office of trust concerning the public, especially if attended with profit ... by whomever and in whatever way the officer is appointed'. 

These. then, above and below, are among the many harms for which the UK Government and it's high officials are liable for, as individuals and as officials.

They have exacerbated many pre-existing health conditions and mental health issues for millions of UK citizens, in pursuit of a toxic mythical herd immunity policy. Slow the spread is not stop the spread of the infection.

By imposing a lock down, but without  providing any rational or effective measures at the grass roots level to carry out contact tracing, quarantining of those potentially exposed to the virus, let alone providing earliest possible isolated care and treatment for those who show any signs or symptoms, away from their homes, care homes or other shared accommodation where they would inevitably  spread the infection, in order to stop the community transmission of the infection and protect the larger population., the UK Government policy has caused many, many deaths, directly and indirectly.


Everything the UK Government have done has enabled a slow progression of the infection across the general population, and a rapid spread within care homes and other shared  residential settings.

I  say it again. It amounts to moving towards Herd Immunity by covert means.


The infection is still pretty much out of control, largely invisible.

Two and a half months into the campaign and the UK Government and their media allies are gas-lighting the NHS staff, pretending to provide adequate PPE, knowing they were not,  and are still not, meeting the needs of nursing and care staff across the country, all the while calling the front-line staff  'heroes',
 clapping weekly on a Thursday evening for 2 minutes to mask the cruelty of the imposition - they must continue to work with inadequate protection - even this weekend they are bullying workers and teachers and demanding they return to work in unsafe situations, with vague provisions for 'safety' that are not supported by science or epidemiology, and thus placing the entire community at greater risk than needs be, to 'get back to work'. They are encouraging people to go to beaches and beauty spots, and this is already impacting hospitals in such areas.


To what end?

Whilst there are doing all of that, whilst they are deliberately failing in their duty of care to the health and safety of the people,  as public paid officials, they are bailing out corporations under a cloak of secrecy , investing tax payers cash in unproven AI Health Surveillance, badly designed tracing apps, employing accountancy firms to run testing programs, they are protecting the Tax Havens where trillions of pounds of UK wealth lies beyond taxation reach, they are undermining British small farmers in favour of US style factory farming.

To what end?

Put the two together, and we have corruption and institutional cruelty on a par with the British Empire response to Famine in Ireland, and Famine in India in the mid to late 1800s.

Resign?

No.

They must be arrested for gross misfeasance in public office, leading to tens of thousands of, un-avoided, avoidable deaths of UK citizens. 

This situation is intolerable.

They must be placed on remand until we have resolved the situation - they cannot be granted immunity nor can they be allowed to do any more damage to the UK citizenry.

We must remove these corrupt bullies and charlatans, and install a government led by epidemiology, public health best practice, health and social care best practice and care for the ordinary citizens of this nation above all other considerations - the economy will be stronger when we have suppressed the virus, eliminated it from these islands, and when we can return to an open and safe society, albeit with tight, quarantined borders.

It is a global matter.

Each state must eliminate the virus from within it's population, and maintain quarantined borders until all states are free of the virus. All states have a duty of care to each other in this.

The call by the UN for a global ceasefire is eminently sensible, and reflects that shared duty of care. Trump says no! Johnson says 'I am in step with Trump!' Utterly arrogant war mongers.

Reduced international tourism as states maintain quarantined borders would have some benefits. We could all gain from holidays within our own countries, and learning to not litter the land we love, getting to know, love and nurture it would be a useful exercise in internal economics and international responsibility.


When we have resolved the epidemic,  let us hold another election, a clean election, open and free from the Machiavellian ministrations of  the likes of Cambridge Analytica, the alt-right anger factories of Steve Bannon and Lynton Crosby et al.

Let me also make my position clear. I do not support left or right. I am a-political.

I detest adversarial, bipolar politicking. I see it as a way to perpetuate bullying through artificial power disparities, and  I think it is wholly unsuited to the 21st Century where science, evidence, information access and social solidarity in matters concerning the shared spaces, the commons, are the now normal aspirations of all healthy people.

I am not left, nor am I right. That bird never flew for me. It is a fat, old, flea ridden walking Eagle, so to speak.

I detest bullying of any kind, I abhor emotional blackmail, I am disgusted by political grooming , and really, really dislike manipulation. I am an egalitarian. I have no skin in this situation related to left or right.

As an example of my distaste for manipulation, I coined the term 'political grooming gangs' to describe what I was observing.

More recently, I wrote a blog about Johnson's May 10th passive aggressive management speech.

I also took on Gavin Williamsons's odious Education briefing, where he tried to use emotional blackmail, in public.

----


I wrote a song about Boris Johnson's May 10th Speech :

 Be Alert!


I wrote another song about Jacinda Ardern vs Boris Johnson, Trump, Icke and Jones.


Jacinda and The Little Bugs..





I am a singer/songwriter and a lazy permaculture gardener, as well as a writer.

I suggest we all get up to date with trauma informed approaches, poly-vagal theory and conflict resolution, as well as understanding the tactical dynamics of bullying in politics.

We really have to put a stop to the polarisation tactics of powerful groups that are tearing our communities apart. It is an essential component of justice in all areas.


Kindest regards

Corneilius

Thank you for reading this blog.

"Do what you love, it is your gift to universe."

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9 comments:

The Beacon said...

I would add that government used media to deliberately spread the fear pandemic. Stress, isolation, and loneliness have arguably done much more damage. Secondly, "following the science" cannot excuse poor policy decisions. Science is a number of expert opinions, not one. Thirdly, China and Korea have largely defeated the virus with chloroquine and zinc. This needs to be reported too.

The Beacon said...

I do not agree with the analysis completely. I would add 1. They deliberately created a fear pandemic {with help from media and cruel NLP techniques}. 2.By "following the science" they avoided ministerial responsibility. Science is a number of opinions, not one. Johnson, Raab, Hancock and others all avoided responsibility with the same feeble excuse. By following others they gave up and avoided taking action that could have saved more lives and giving power to technocrats. Many of these technocrats have conflicts of interest as industry 'insiders'.

corneilius said...

@ Beacon

Chloroquinnine - What papers show this? What studies?

What I read was a variety of allopathic treatments were tried, with varying degrees of success, the variations being down to the bodies rather than the efficacy of the medicines - and that Chinese herbs were prominent in Fever Hospitals, where prevention of escalation of disease made the greatest difference.

UK Government comms were pretty dire, they did not spread fear as much as concern - most people were concerned, some media hyped that to fear.

I think the fear is an alt-right gaslighting slur, most people I know are concerned, rather than fearful.

Dave McMullan said...

I find your arguments convincing and compelling. Our Government were emboldened by the indifferent reaction to Austerity. I think many of us predicted that the decisions of the Uk Government would be exposed by real time comparisons with other countries and I agree I am not convinced they have fully changed their mind on the concept of Herd Immunity. I wonder if your political neutrality offers you a clearer insight... I am a socialist but a passionate believer in pluralism on the basis that my psychodynamic , cultural and historical experiences afford me a world view that is different from others who therefore will have different strengths, qualities and vulnerabilities that would in turn lead them to a different set of priorities.

For all this, judging by the amount of chatter there are many people with racing thought who are struggling to make sense of what our Leaders are up to and we have to find a way to expose our current ruling class who, as you have forensically demonstrated, are currently operating in contrast to and in conflict with the interests of the British people. Any suggestions?

corneilius said...

@ David,

Thank you for your thoughtful comment. yes, we were unable to confront Blair, and it has been downhill ever since. We had the evidence, the laws to indict him, and all the others involved within the UK, they knew this, and we did nothing. Emboldened, they pushed forwards with more executive control. Austerity was economic war fare against the grass roots.

it is because i am egalitarian by nature and nurture, i detest adversarial dynamics in dealing with issues concerning shared space, the commons, shared resources - that is all bullying. it cannot be efficient or effective.

I see the creation of artificial power disparities as an outcome of historical patterns of hierarchic violence - those who occupy such positions tend to be professional bullies - Corbyn is a good man, yet not a match.
.

Which is why there is so much focus and attention on asymmetric trolling, triggering, grooming - it works, people are divided along emotional trigger lines, rather than rational positions. It's internalised values being exploited..

It is by studying the bullying, the behaviour, actions and outcomes rather than the personalities that we can begin to cut through the fog - the outcomes for ordinary people reveal the truth of history more than the personalities of 'leaders'.

I am not as sure of my analysis as my writing might imply...

The only match is a united grass roots, unified in solidarity of commonalities based on understanding the situation and the impact of artificial distal power structures upon our lives.

Chris Janman said...

They are all guilty of negligence and constantly lying to hide their incompetence, i would like to see them all in the dock, responsible for so many deaths.

Chef De Party said...

Since 2010 The Conservative And Unionist UK government have killed around 200,000 vulnerable British people with Austerity. The elderly, the immunocompromised, the disabled and the very poor were deliberately attacked, defunded and often starved to death with the kind of economic sanctions the Trump regime is using against Syria, Venezuela and Iran.

Then word broke out from China that a new Coronavirus was on the loose and early observations which were further confirmed by Italy and Spain were that the virus was especially lethal among those same groups that Austerity targetted.

In February the UK media breaks the story that Number 10 Downing Street had hired a known and outspoken supporter of Eugenics as an advisor. We were later told that he'd been forced to resign but given the sheer volume of endless lies, fabrications and blatant gaslighting by this government and the fact that they still refuse to publish the identities of their "scientific advisors" how can we possibly know whether he has resigned or indeed whether its his science the government is still following?

I wholeheartedly agree with your analysis that nothing that the Tory government has done or chosen not to do, is out of incompetence. It merely seems that way to most of us warm blooded humans with souls because we are hardwired to look for the good in people and we struggle to believe that in 2020 a British Government could possibly set out to deliberately slaughter tens of thousands of people witha virus.

If we look back at the previous ten years of their track record it becomes painfully obvious that of course they could as they've already killed hundreds of thousands with cruel Austerity.

Chef De Party said...

What we are seeing is a blatant program of social and ethnic cleansing to remove the weak, the sick, the disabled, the elderly and also ethnic minorities, (darker skinned people seem to be 4x more likely to become really ill with it than white skinned people).

The neglect to provide adequate PPE to the NHS and carers also serves a purpose. The government had to recruit nearly half a million volunteers to help with the Covid crisis due to the chronic undermining of the service for the past decade which left it at least 300,000 nurses short of a basic level of service. Many of those volunteers were already retired NHS staff brought back into the service, therefor elderly and in the high risk bracket.

In february they downgraded the the severity of the threat on their website. This allowed them to provide PPE that was less than adequate for the more severe level threat. This was done to cover their arses legally incase people sued them. They deliberately stalled and spent millions of pounds of taxpayers money of unsuitable masks, aprons and other PPE from abroad while ignoring offers from countless UK firms to produce it here at home at the standards required.

They deliberately put millions of NHS workers and carers at risk knowing many would catch the virus and die. Whilst brazenly cheering and clapping our "heroes", lionising them to justify their martyrdom. This further helps them to understaff, undermine, traumatise and demoralise the staff who survive to a point where many tens of rhousands will no doubt be questioning their career choices and will leave the service when this is eventually over. This horrific episode will also serve to put of thousands of young British people who were considering joining the NHS and with their new immigration laws and Brexit, they will prevent thousands more foreign nurses, doctors or students coming to join our health service. By 2022 the service will be so grossly understaffed in large swathes across the UK. This will make privatisation and selling chunks of it off to the Trump regime as part of a post No Deal Brexit trade deal a far more viable and more palatable to the public, option.

In my opinion there is no "incompetence" or "ineptitude". There is only criminal, deliberate and murderous neglect of their duty to care and protect the British people. Protecting the people is not and has never been a priority for ANY Conservative government. They exist solely to asset strip the public and consolidate wealth and power into the hands of the already unimaginably rich party donors, as we have seen from the covert wealth transfer of taxpayer funds into the hands of big business while small businesses and the self employed largely fall through the cracks of any "economic support strategy". I feel that to a large extent, the media has colluded with them to gaslight us with claims of incompetence, mistakes and ineptitude.

Mistakes are fairly easily forgiven. A blatant and cruel act of genocide against the most vulnerable citizens of our own country, not so much.

Unknown said...

Not to mention the free money that Cummings is giving to his sister, and his mates. Tax payers money for contracts that have been drawn up with no scrutiny whatsoever.