New Zealand demonstrates the logic and success of 'Stop The Spread' protocols. The UK must do likewise, now.

New Zealand demonstrates the efficacy of Stop The Spread protocols. 

The UK must do likewise, now.

Any delay is totally unacceptable criminal behaviour.

#StopTheSpread

Jacinda and The Little Bugs

New Zealand announces today that transmission of  SARSCOV2 virus from human to human within New Zealand has been stopped,  and that they are on the road to eliminating the virus from the population.

There are still active cases. so the virus is still active in those people - there are no new cases of infection. They are well aware that more cases might emerge. They are being cautious and maintaining vigilance.






https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/27/new-zealand-prepares-to-lift-strict-lockdown-after-eliminating-coronavirus

New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has said the country has stopped the “widespread, undetected community transmission” of Covid-19, as tough lockdown restrictions are scheduled to ease on Monday night.

Ardern said New Zealand had “avoided the worst” in the pandemic, but must continue to fight the virus.

“There is no widespread undetected community transmission in New Zealand. We have won that battle. But we must remain vigilant if we are to keep it that way,” she said.

At 11.59pm on Monday, New Zealand will lift its level-4 lockdown which has been in place for more than four weeks. During that time, almost all businesses have been closed, along with schools while the population has been asked to remain in their homes for all but supermarket visits and short walks.
Ardern said there was no way of knowing what may have happened without the level-4 lockdown.

But she warned that in level-3 there were new risks – namely people coming into more contact with others."

This proves that STOPPING THE SPREAD is the only viable, grounded protocol for dealing with infectious diseases where no known vaccine or medical intervention exists.

If we examine the case of Vietnam, a populous state with a GDP per capita of  US$2600 , we can see that the issue is not limited by relative wealth, size or population.

New Zealand, Vietnam, South Korea, Taiwan and China reveal that stopping the spread protocols cut across all dynamics of political and economic approaches.

I have written about this previously.

https://dwylcorneilius.blogspot.com/2020/04/eradication-argument-for-eradication.html

Looking into the future, New Zealand will need to maintain a vigilant infectious disease control monitoring and responding capability as a standard part of their Health System.

New Zealand will need to maintain 2 week Quarantine of all incoming passengers, which the non-New Zealand travelers must fund. Returning New Zealanders will be funded by the State. Immigrants must fund their own quarantine,

All quarantines must be tightly and transparently monitored.

These are the minimums to keep New Zealand safe.

In time these principles will apply to all States.

It is NEVER TOO LATE to implement a stop the spread protocol.

It is not a question of population size, or wealth.

Vietnam demonstrates that this is the case.

The Protocol for Stopping the Spread.

It is a question of providing accurate, precise information to all citizens, and to provide support in taking the correct action, as a collective working together to protect each other.

It is a matter of taking every case that presents, and tracing every contact of that person dating back the known incubation period, and checking with those people for past symptoms, current presenting symptoms and no symptoms.

It is a matter of assiduously continuing that process, case by case, group by group, village by village, neighbourhood by neighbourhood until all cases are tracked. Until the health system knows where every case of infection has been, and is emerging - do this until no new cases emerge.

Those presenting with symptoms must be given treatment in what we can call fever hospitals.

This is designed to isolate them from general population, so that they no longer act as spreaders of the infection. It is as designed to provide treatment that reduces escalation of their symptoms into severe or critical, to reduce the total number who end up needing intensive care.

This also protects pre-existing hospital systems, which can be maintained for general day to day practice apart from elective treatment, which can always wait.

There may be need to expand ICU capability and to construct extra isolate units away from main hospital services.

Those with no symptoms must be quarantined for the duration of incubation to first presenting symptoms.

As soon as they present symptoms, the are moved to treatment.

Then the matter of testing is about checking across the population of any given area to seek where the infection has been, where it is, and where it has not yet arrived...

These are all fundamentally simple protocols.

Their operation is complex, requiring resources and logistical support and human labour that is well orchestrated, from Government , Health Systems and Media, through to the individual citizen, working together:this does not have to be complicated.

What complicates matters are decisions based on ideological, political or economic agenda over-ruling  Health and Welfare considerations.

That cannot be allowed to happen, anywhere, anytime..

In the UK that means we must examine and hold to account all such political and ideological decision making that has caused harm to citizens welfare, and leave no stone un-turned, no policy unchecked, no error un-corrected.

As a little gift, here is a song I pushed through, rough mixed from a single live take on a loopstation at home, under lock down...

both are free to download.

Jacinda and The Little Bugs

mp3 : https://www.reverbnation.com/corneilius/song/31767315-not-frightened-little-bugs

Wav: https://soundcloud.com/coreluminous/not-frightened-of-the-little-bugs

Let us stop the spread of infection, together, as one human family.

Start today. Start now!

Kindest regards

Corneilius

"Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe"

Thank you for reading this blog. All we need to do is be really honest, responsive to the evidence we find,and ready to reassess when new evidence emerges. The rest is easy.

Huge areas of woodland to be sold by government

Headlines this weekend :  Forests for sale by UK Government!

Ian Duncan Smiths comments on the utility of buses, with regard to seeking gainful employment in an economy he and his colleagues are decimating!

Hang on a second! This is nuts!

Who caused  the major 'economic' problems?

The Bankers and The Economists and The Politicians, that's who.They MAKE policy. They see that it is enforced. Gold Command.

Oridnary Taxpayers did nothing other than live within the system the three Pillocks of Society built. Most of us are so not within the command structure. If we had a command colour it would be transparent. Null.

Yet the Ordinary Taxpayers are now being asked to watch whilst the very poorest, the long-term unemployed, the vulnerable elderly, the distressed, the unwell .... (all of whom pay quite a few taxes, apart from income tax, by virtue of their spending the most if not all of their 'benefits' back into the economy), are beaten into oblivion.

So who ought to pay?

I say transfer all Crown Land, Heritage Land and Private Estates immediately to the stewardship of The People, knowing as we do, as now accepted by virtue of the masses of peer reveiwed Science that proves the case, that permaculture, forest gardening and smallholdings can work better with the land than industrial farming, large estates or the few allottments that remain because those processes build in the fecundity of the soil and biota, year on year. Urban allottments ought to be an absolute priority.

It would also mean decent work for many millions of people, (and there would be many takers of the opportunity to decamp the cities) and not least the long-term strategic security of a more natural local based food cycle that is not damaging the habitat.

http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/~christos/articles/cv_organic_farming.html - World Wide Data

http://transitionculture.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/CanBritain.pdf - UK Data

What's not to like about this? Long-erm employment for millions of happy people, happier children, long-term food security strategy all rolled up in one?

The fact that it cannot be done overnight ought not be seen as grounds for any objection. We could start now.

However none of this would benefit the 'economy of the bankers'. It is their 'economy'. The own it and they run it. The Ordinary Taxpayer is simply forced, by birth and circumstance, to live within in it.

Gross National Happiness is an irrelevance in State which has the dubious honour of hosting the unhappiest childhood experience of any 'developed' Nation. And is doing what it is doing in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. These are not happiness creation programmes.

http://www.itv.com/News/Articles/UK-kids-among-Europes-unhappiest-922828311.html

I say make the Bankers, Politicans and Economists personally liable for the itent and consequences of their decisions. I say intent, because in nature, results always indicate intent.

The poorest, most vulnerable folk in the UK are being targetted. By those who have most responsibility for the situation. Who will pay far, far less, in terms of relative wealth and in terms of stressing conditions imposed by the cuts to public services.

And they are ignoring the DATA regarding the environment, farming and stewardship.

Both acts are abusive, and criminal.

This cannot stand. 

And sometimes one has to somehow laugh at it all, to thwart the Bankers, Politicians and Economist dubious claims on intelligence. Or even common sense. These are partners, they go hand in hand. Though not whilst walking down Wall Street! Nor do they entwine themselves in the corridors of power. Clever is not neccessarily intelligent. It's cleverness that allows the environment to be degraded to the extent it has thus far. Criminal cleverness. Utter stupidity!

Unlike that old saying by George Carlin 'MILITARY INTELLIGENCE - two mutually exclusive words!" which is to say intelligence without common-sense empathy is lethal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dY4WlxO6i0 - George Carlin, Who owns Society?

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMzEIoRHUFg - Corneilius, Bears don't shit in the woods no more.

And after the laughter, comes resolve and action....

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

The Economics of Habitat and The Invisible Natural Child

Tony Juniper @ LSE

Last night I attended a lecture by Tony Juniper, a well known ecology activist, at LSE. It was titled 'Education for Sustainable Developement.

http://www2.lse.ac.uk/publicEvents/events/2010/20100304t1830vNT.aspx

“This event will explore the role of universities in driving the sustainability agenda.

Tony Juniper is a campaigner, writer, and a senior associate with the Cambridge University Programme for Sustainability Leadership.

Professor Janet Hartley is Pro-director for teaching and learning at LSE.”


It was for me an informative occasion. I learned nothing new about the problems we face.

So what did I learn?

I learned that for far too many ‘educated’ and ‘concerned’ people the blindingly obvious is absolutely unseen, and more importantly not felt.. Even when it is pointed out in the starkest of terms….

Tony Juniper started out by saying we have to look to where we are going, what is next, what lies ahead and reviewed what had already happened, what ‘we’ had already achieved.

By way of mitigating the worst or at least some of the worst problems that have arisen.

By way of pressure groups helping to drive some Government Regulation.

Tony pointed out that ‘we’ had some successes in the past since Silent Spring.

‘We’ had banned DDT and a few other powerful pesticides, and changed the methods by which pesticides and herbicides were applied – from a wholesale drenching to a carefully modulated application. What he did not mention was that the use of GMOs and novel pesticides and herbicides, in smaller quantities is still the standard practice for the bulk of the US and US AID sponsored farming wherever it is delivered…

Tony pointed out ‘We’ had stopped the production and use of CFCs. Tony pointed out that these measures did not preclude the use of fridges, etc etc. that solutions were found, alternative chemicals produced to do the same job.

What he did not say was what effect those new chemicals will have in the long term. He didn’t even mention this novel concept. Because no-one knows in the long term. Not really. Probables, with caveats. We don’t even know if the Ozone hole will repair itself..

Industrial Chemistry is one giant experiment....no! really, it is an experiment. and the only pertinent data-set produced thus far has more to do with this is how NOT to do things... than anything else...

Tony pointed out that ‘we’ had managed to deal with acid rain, a by product of massive coal burning, by installing technology to clean and sequester the carbon emitted from power stations..

What he did not say was that the burning of coal in massive quantities for manufacturing was exported to countries with less onerous regulatory systems. So that they too could develop. By making our consumer products using cheaper labour, garnering greater profits for the brand names.

Tony was saying that ‘we’ have had some successes, that Governments have been able to encourage these moves, and to regulate them…

Tony also made the point that this was not just a question of economics, but of justice, and referred briefly to the imbalance in wealth, and in use of the earths ‘resources’ between the West and the developing world… the figures are well known, though variable…

Tony’s brief lecture ran over the salient points regarding the environmental approach that sees nothing but ‘resources’ in nature… and is causing untold damage everywhere that approach is actively being pursued.

Tony made comparisons between what nature provides as ‘services’ that are not paid for, ‘externalities’ as they are known in the economics trade.

The ludicrous, yet to all economists, sound evaluation of what those ‘services’ provide in dollar comparison looked like this at the time of the comparison : the world economy valued at $18 Trillion, nature’s services valued at between $30 to  $50 Trillion, all in US dollars? As if US Dollars are somehow a standard against which nature can be assessed.

Nature traded as a commodity.

Is this comparison itself not indicative of the myopia of the ‘educated’ and ‘concerned’? I think so. I feel it. However Tony suggested that the work done to point this out was good work. It was done by an LSE alumni, I believe.. well of course!

In essence Tony was pointing out that Government regulation must increase, and must be focussed on all of the above and on Justice.

Finally Tony pointed out that ‘we’ need to see our selves as part of nature, that there needs to be a philosophical, social and psychological element to the changes ‘we’ need to make.

 And that more or less was his lecture. Question time.

I was sitting in the front. I was determined to put the cat amongst the pigeons. I had no intention of asking Tony a question. I had a statement of fact to make….

I introduced myself as Corneilius, who is writing a book about the harmful effects of telling children what to think with sanctions imposed on them for any reasonable dissent, and that I was pleased to hear Tony’s remarks concerning a change in philosophy, as surely this was the basis, the baseline, if you will.

I pointed out that imposing thought on a child with sanctions for non-compliance was damaging to the natural child in much the same way we are damaging the environment, and is a cultural phenomenon that lies at the very heart of Compulsory State Education.

I mentioned ‘tabula rasa’, the blank slate, the empty vessel mode of seeing children, a mode of perception (not observation, and certainly not scientific) that viewed education as the process of pouring information into these empty vessels. And how that was the scientific basis of Compulsory State Education….

I also mentioned that the use of Ritalin as a means to manage dissent  amongst children no longer subject to corporal punishment was an appalling indictment of the culture.  I ended by saying that we do indeed need to change our philosophy and listen to the natural child.

Tony understood what I was saying, and pointed out that for example, the state spends £140,000 a year incarceration children who had been failed by the system, and that within the Green Party, they are discussing this issue.

Then questions went on to other attendees…. Mostly asking Tony what we need to do…. The great man advises ….. and to be fair his advice centered on the change of heart, of philosophy that is needed more than the technicalities….

There was one question, to my right, quite late in the session, that referred to my statement, by stating the following, quite energetically, after someone had pointed out the homogenising effect of the predominant culture….

 ‘It’s all very well talking about listening to children, but the problems we are facing are immensely complex, and require complex solutions …. For example The Body Shop spent 10 years and more getting to know the individual farmers and producers of their range of raw materials and products, so that they could say they knew who their money was going to, how it was being used to support those communities. This was a complex operation. Now the body shop is taken over by L’Oreal, a huge international corporation, for whom such an operation is way to complex… so my question is this. How can we get these companies to undertake these very complex processes?”

Tony’s answer to this question eventually came to the point that basically it all starts from simplicity.  I would have cited bacteria and simplicity as the very basis of natural complexity…. And thrown in a few well known examples… but there wasn’t time for Tony to do that…

I think Tony Juniper is a good man. I think he understands the problem of conditioning. The chair of the LSE lecture is a committed , conscientious educator. As are all those who attended. WE are all well meaning. The good intent is clear. Based upon my observations,  in nature results indicate intention... and there is much research to suggest this a fair generalisation.

Tony let us know that he would be  standing as a Green Party Candidate in Cambridge. That came up in response to a question what on the prospects for the environment were if David Cameron were to be the next Prime Minister. (Jesus wept!) Politics is irrelevant in this debate.

These issues lie beyond politics. Post normal science is the technical term for the philosophy behind climate change science.... decide policy in extremis, use focussed science to find what you want to solve the problem......

I feel the discussion did not pick up on the meaning and import of the statement I made at the start of the Q&A, not in any real way. Because for the most part people cannot see it, feel it. Really? Actually they can...

And is that itself not the core problem?

By not listening to, and acting on the sensing of the natural child 'we' are setting the grounds for the very philosophies and mind-sets that are creating the problems, and it is a mirror of the way in which nature is treated as a commodity. An object to be used, to be trained and coerced to meet ‘our needs’?

Indeed.

As ever 'We' discuss the symptoms, 'we' ignore the cause and 'we' watch the patient die…..

Tragedy and Farce…. Oscar Wilde would have known what to say…

“I am so clever that I do not understand myself” or words to that effect…


note :

It is of course truthful to say that I have omitted 90% of what actually was said during this lecture…

There will be a podcast and transcripts of the lecture posted on the LSE site in the next few days - and I will be interested to see whether or not my take on this event is at all accurate.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's your gift to universe