But Chris Whitty and John Edmonds are saying it’s real. Now, who knows, maybe I’m naive, but these are actual experts, and I don’t think they’d make stuff up for the fun of it.
If there is even a chance that what they are saying is true, then it’s a very serious development and countries are right to shut down travel from the UK.
Would you agree that a virus with the same effects but with 70% increased transmissibility would be a very serious public health matter, more serious than the already serious situation?
And that therefore, approaching the situation on the basis that this news is true is by far the most rational approach for policy makers?
The virus in circulation is already highly infectious, the main reason efforts to suppress it are failing. The mutation of the spike protein that made it more infectious happened back in January and became the dominant strain over the following months. As I said I’ve seen no evidence that this claimed English strain is any more infectious than the virus in circulation in the rest of Europe and the US.
I suspect the UK government are looking at rising numbers and panicking.
Its all so very sad. On the plus side however @Padraig_O_Gammon looks like being an outstanding addition to the forum and I for one just cannot wait to hear his views on the recent election held in the USA
Boris getting advice from the likes of Gupta and Tegnell and look at where they are now. A lot of unnecessary deaths. Trump and Johnson have some amount of blood on their hands. In fairness to Tegnell he thought he was doing the right thing.
Gupta has outed herself as an ideological charlatan since this whole thing started. It’s unbelievable how people still listen to her. You might as well be taking advice from that grifter the “Fat Emperor”. Or Jim Corr.
Word on the mainland is that this “new strain” has been known about since September, and is probably similar to the one in Spain earlier. Apparently, the govt daren’t admit that leaving London in tier 2 caused the spike, so basically lied, and blamed a more infectious strain, not, as usual, anticipating the response.
Or there’s this
