Boris and the doom-mongers
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Christmas in Britain was saved by ignoring the “experts”
Boris Johnson was forced to abandon his plans to cancel Christmas after a revolt by furious Cabinet colleagues who warned that the idea was 'insane', anti-lockdown Ministers have told The Mail on Sunday.
They described how a three-pronged attack by former Brexit Minister David Frost, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg forced the Prime Minister to ignore demands by his scientific advisers for families to be banned from mixing over the festive period.
Their account of how close the country came to another lockdown in December can be revealed now for the first time, at the end of a week in which the Cabinet's anti-restriction Ministers have been vindicated.
Plan B restrictions such as compulsory face masks in indoor venues have now been lifted in England and new economic data predicts the UK will have the fastest growth of any of the world's leading economies this year.
Allies of Mr Johnson contest the claims that the PM was determined to lock down the country, insisting that he kept an open mind throughout the discussions.
But other insiders have painted a detailed picture of how political pressure from Cabinet colleagues ultimately persuaded him to overrule dire warnings from experts.
The drama started on December 15 when the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Sir Chris Whitty, used a press conference to warn that the NHS faced being overwhelmed because of the 'absolutely phenomenal pace' at which the new Omicron variant was spreading.
Prof Whitty also claimed that there would be an 'inevitable increase in hospitalisations', because cases were doubling every two days. Although there was evidence from South Africa, where Omicron had first been identified, that the variant was actually linked to a substantial reduction in the number of patients ending up in hospital, the adviser urged 'really serious caution' over those reports.
Prof Whitty, in tandem with Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and experts on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), stands accused by senior Whitehall figures of taking a selective approach to the data which was emerging at the time.
And so on.
RELATED: Is it time to begin asking who’s (or WHO’s) behind this? Ivermectin Shows 'Antiviral Effect' Against Omicron According to Japanese Study
Anti-parasite drug Ivermectin shows an “antiviral effect” against omicron and other COVID variants according to research released Monday by Japanese pharmaceutical giant Kowa.
According to Reuters, the firm has been working with Tokyo’s Kitasato University.
While Reuters described the study as “non-clinical,” last June the American Journal of Therapeutics published a meta-analysis of 15 different clinical studies.
That AJT analysis concluded:
Moderate-certainty evidence finds that large reductions in COVID-19 deaths are possible using ivermectin. Using ivermectin early in the clinical course may reduce numbers progressing to severe disease. The apparent safety and low cost suggest that ivermectin is likely to have a significant impact on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic globally.
The next month, podcast star Joe Rogan took Ivermectin to treat himself for COVID with well-known positive results — something NBC News at the time called a “widely discredited drug.”
