The Official Australian Website in Support of Julian Assange
Category: Covid-19
Articles concerned with covid-19, UK response, UK prison conditions, affect of detainees anywhere of any category and Julain’s bail applications on health risks.
Updated 10th February 2021, HM Inspectorate of Prisons writes This thematic review explores the effects of the restrictions introduced in prisons during 2020 in response to COVID-19. Read the full report: What happens to prisoners in a pandemic? (PDF) (686 kB) We interviewed men, women and children living on standard residential units who had not been able … Continue reading “What happens to prisoners in a pandemic?”
Updated 10th February 2021, HM Inspectorate of Prisons writes
This thematic review explores the effects of the restrictions introduced in prisons during 2020 in response to COVID-19.
We interviewed men, women and children living on standard residential units who had not been able to attend work or education and had typically spent more than 22 hours a day in their cells since March 2020.
We found that the most disturbing effect of the restrictions was the decline in prisoners’ emotional, psychological and physical well-being.
What prisoners told us calls into question whether the right balance had been achieved between managing the risk posed by COVID-19 and providing them with enough meaningful activity, engagement and time out of cell.
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, commented:
‘The cumulative effect of such prolonged and severe restrictions on prisoners’ mental health and well-being is profound. The lack of support to reduce reoffending and help prisoners address their risk of serious harm to the public does not fill me with hope for the longer term […] Locking prisoners up in prolonged isolation has never been a feature of a healthy prison.’
What did prisoners tell us?
They said they were chronically bored and exhausted by spending hours locked in their cells.
They told us that their physical and mental health were declining.
They missed contact with their friends and families.
They said that violence, bullying and intimidation had not gone away, and that they continued to feel unsafe.
They discussed how their limited time out of cell could be further reduced.
They reported that help with rehabilitation and release planning was limited.
The following resolution of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers was adopted by the IADL’s Council meeting on 28 June 2020: IADL CALLS ON UK COURT TO GRANT BAIL TO JULIAN ASSANGE WHO IS ILL AND PARTICULARLY VULNERABLE TO COVID-19 The International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) is a non-governmental organization with consultative status in … Continue reading “IADL calls on UK Court to grant bail to Julian Assange, ill and vulnerable to COVID-19”
IADL CALLS ON UK COURT TO GRANT BAIL TO JULIAN ASSANGE WHO IS ILL AND PARTICULARLY VULNERABLE TO COVID-19
The International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) is a non-governmental organization with consultative status in ECOSOC and UNESCO. Founded in 1946 to promote the goals of the United Nations Charter, IADL and its affiliated organizations throughout the world have consistently fought to uphold international law, promote human rights and address threats to international peace and security. From its inception, IADL members have protested racism, colonialism, and economic and political injustice wherever they occur.
IADL is extremely alarmed at the psychological torture of Julian Assange and the serious threats to his health as a result of his continued incarceration.
After WikiLeaks published damning evidence of the United States’ commission of war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo prison, the U.S. government mounted a campaign to discredit and vilify Julian Assange. It worked with the Swedish and UK governments to detain Assange on trumped-up charges of sexual assault with the likely goal of extraditing him to the United States. Assange was granted asylum in the Ecuadoran embassy in London where he remained for 7 years until a US-friendly government came to power in Ecuador, withdrew his asylum and turned him over to the UK.
While Assange was living in the London embassy, he developed health conditions that required medical treatment. The UK government refused to allow him to go to a hospital without being arrested. Assange’s health severely deteriorated. Moreover, on May 31, 2019, UN Special Rapporteur Nils Melzer declared that Assange exhibited signs of prolonged exposure to psychological torture.
After Assange was arrested by the UK, he was convicted of a bail offense and sentenced to one year in jail. That charge was a minor offense but his unconscionable sentence gave the United States time to go after him. The U.S. government indicted him under the Espionage Act and asked the UK to extradite him to the U.S. for trial on the indictment. He faces 175 years in prison if convicted.
Assange’s extradition hearing in the UK will continue on September 7. Meanwhile, he remains confined at Belmarsh Prison in London. Assange spends 23 hours a day in solitary confinement, which amounts torture. During the other hour, Assange is confined in a small area with 40 inmates. The proximity to so many people, combined with his fragile health conditions, make Assange particularly vulnerable to contracting COVID-19.
Several Australian MPs, journalists and human rights advocates called on the government of Australia, of which Assange is a national, to intervene and request that Assange be granted bail, citing COVID-19. They wrote, “The extradition hearings have been disrupted and delayed, leaving Mr. Assange unable to have his case heard until September 2020 at the earliest, while deaths within the UK prison populations and illness amongst judicial and penal staff cohorts continue to rise.”
Assange was too ill to attend his May 4 hearing, even by videoconference. In an open letter to The Lancet, 216 physicians and psychologists from 33 countries accused the UK and U.S. governments of exacerbating the psychological torture of Assange. Citing the Convention Against Torture, the signatories warned that UK officials could be held complicit and liable for their perpetration of, or silent acquiescence and consent to, Assange’s torture.
IADL strongly opposes the continued life-threatening incarceration of Julian Assange who only remains convicted of a bail offense. IADL calls on the UK court to grant bail forthwith to Julian Assange.
On the 6th June 2020, Don’t Extradite Assange Campaign posted this video on YouTube Dr. Lissa Johnson – Psychologist Dr. Derek Summerfield – Senior Lecturer at London’s Institute of Psychiatry Dr. Bob Gill – NHS Dotor
On the 6th June 2020, Don’t Extradite Assange Campaign posted this video on YouTube
Dr. Lissa Johnson – Psychologist Dr. Derek Summerfield – Senior Lecturer at London’s Institute of Psychiatry Dr. Bob Gill – NHS Dotor
On the 29th May 2020, Chris Sweeney reports: Coronavirus has shone on a light on the crisis in the UK’s prisons. The justice system needs to be overhauled to bring an end to ridiculous sentencing, overcrowding and disgraceful conditions. Britain’s justice system, like many of its prisons, is stuck in Victorian times. And recently there’s … Continue reading “Shocking spike in Covid-19 jail suicides should end Britain’s obsession with imprisonment”
Coronavirus has shone on a light on the crisis in the UK’s prisons. The justice system needs to be overhauled to bring an end to ridiculous sentencing, overcrowding and disgraceful conditions.
Britain’s justice system, like many of its prisons, is stuck in Victorian times. And recently there’s been a proliferation of the ‘throw away the key’ mantra.
HMP Barlinnie in Glasgow is so cramped that its one-man cells have two prisoners squeezed in. It’s also using holding cells that were condemned 25 years ago and breach human rights.
The Council of Europe’s Anti-Torture Committee (CPT) found it was operating at 120 percent of capacity back in 2014. Yet by 2019, that had risen to 140 percent. The chief inspector of prisons, Wendy Sinclair-Gieben, said: “The reality is that the ageing and fragile physical infrastructure means that the prison is no longer fit for purpose.”
The CPT investigated other UK prisons – Doncaster, Liverpool and Wormwood Scrubs – in the UK last year, along with some young offender institutions. And it wasn’t good news.
Their official findings concluded that the prison system was “in deep crisis” and that the sites they visited were “violent, unsafe and overcrowded.”
Soaring population
A simple but disturbing fact is that in England and Wales, the prison population has doubled since 1990.
Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: “These figures show the scale of the challenge that we face in breaking our addiction to imprisonment.”
Drug abuse is also growing inside, as analysis by the think tank Reform showed that in 2019, 15 percent of prisoners become addicted to illicit substances, more than double the rate only five years previous.
The Covid-19 crisis has made all these problems even more apparent. The pandemic is believed to be why there have been fivesuicides in six days in prisons across England and Wales. That takes the total to 16 since lockdown began on 23 March (in 2019, there were 80 suicides in total).
New rules meant visits were suspended, and inmates saw time spent outside their cell slashed to less than an hour per day. And it’s unlikely the welfare of murderers, rapists, robbers and violent offenders features too highly on the priority list of many people during lockdown. But is what is happening in Britain’s jails acceptable for a civilised society?
Crazy sentences
The fact is many inmates haven’t strayed that far from the tracks. It’s ridiculous that right now you can still end up inside for not paying the annual £157.50 BBC TV licence fee (although there are moves to decriminalise this). A Chinese student ended up getting eight months for waving around a replica gun at his university. A few years ago, three fracking protestors ended up with custodial sentences – the first environmental activists to suffer that fate since 1932.
Clearly, breaking the law and causing society a nuisance is unacceptable. But Britain’s obsession with imprisonment isn’t the answer.
The UK’s prisons are bursting at the seams and have become hellish for those inside to endure, so why haven’t we changed our approach? Herding men and women like cattle into slum-like conditions strips them of their dignity. Is it any surprise that they resort to violence, take drugs and cause problems?
One of the men who recently committed suicide was 19. He had killed aged 16, but as a child was put in care due to parental neglect, and had lived in nine different countries in eight years.
Instead of prison being a place where he could face his crimes, stabilise himself and rehabilitate, he clearly found it overwhelming and was unable to cope.
Clearly, it’s not the fault of the staff. With so many prisoners to deal with, corners have to be cut.
Things slip through the cracks. Warning signs fail to be heeded.
Fresh approach needed
But there is a glimmer of hope that a change of approach may be on the horizon. Durham Constabulary’s award-winning Operation Checkpoint is a deferred prosecution scheme, where low-harm offenders avoid jail if they participate in a four-month intervention to address underlying problems like mental health issues or substance abuse.
It uses a computer algorithm to help officers select who would benefit from the programme. The results show a 16 percent fall in reoffending rates, compared to those who did not participate.
This approach has been pioneered by the Scandinavian countries and it clearly works, as the UK’s reoffending rate is double that of Norway, which has one of the lowest per capita jail populations.
Operation Checkout was cost-effective, too, saving society an estimated £2million (against the £500,000 required to run it).
Of course, one massive hurdle is the stiff-upper-lip British public’s attitude to offending. There’s a strong desire to see tough criminal justice meted out. But it doesn’t make sense.
Instead of costing the taxpayer £40,000 annually per prisoner, wouldn’t that money be better invested in rehabilitation? A study showed that a 1 percent rise in jail sentences for property offences (theft and handling stolen goods) reduced the next year’s crime figures by 2,693. But a 1 percent increase in community service sentences brought about a reduction of 3,590. Go figure.
Locking thousands and thousands of people in decrepit dungeons year after year is morally wrong, and isn’t working. The fact that some would rather kill themselves than wait for the reinstatement of their freedom says more than any scientific study ever will.
We didn’t hear them when they were alive. But let’s listen now they aren’t.
On the 18th May 2020, David Cromwell of Media Lens wrote
Editors Note: This article suggests that a strong independent Journalism would have averted the mishandling of the UK coronavirus pandemic by the UK Government.
Any notion that the UK government actually considers that its primary responsibility is to protect the health and security of the country’s population ought to have been demolished in 2020. The appalling death toll that continues to mount during the coronavirus pandemic is largely rooted, not merely in government ‘incompetence’, but in criminal dereliction of its core duties in a supposedly democratic society.
The UK has the highest death toll in Europe, and the second highest in the world (the US has the highest). On May 12, the death toll from official UK figures exceeded 40,000 for the first time, including almost 10,000 care home residents. A study by academics at the London School of Economics estimates that the actual death toll in care homes is, in fact, double the official figure: more than 22,000.
Government ministers have been scrambling to protect themselves from such damaging facts by spouting empty rhetoric. Health Secretary Matt Hancock actually declared on May 15:
‘Right from the start we’ve tried to throw a protective ring around our care homes. We set out our first advice in February… we’ve made sure care homes have the resources they need.’
Palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke, author of the bestselling book ‘Dear Life, Your Life In My Hands’, rejected his deceptive claim:
‘This is categorically untrue. Care homes were left without testing. Without contract tracing. Without PPE [personal protective equipment]. Without support. You can deny it all you like, Matt Hancock, but we were witnesses – we ARE witnesses – and believe me you will be held to account.’
It is important to note that the coronavirus death toll is even higher than official figures because people are dying from heart disease, cancer, strokes and other illnesses that would otherwise have been treated had there been no ongoing pandemic. Chris Giles, the Financial Times economics editor, has been tracking the number of total excess deaths, issuing regular updates via Twitter. He noted that ‘a cautious estimate’ of excess deaths linked to coronavirus up to May 15 was an appalling 61,200. The FT has published an extensive analysis here with regular updates.
University of Edinburgh researchers have estimated that at least 2,000 lives would have been saved in Scotland – a staggering 80 per cent of the total – if the government had introduced the lockdown two weeks earlier. Rowland Kao, professor of epidemiology and lead author of the study, said there had ‘definitely’ been enough information about the coming pandemic in mid-February. If the lockdown had been imposed across the whole of the UK on March 9, rather than March 23:
‘you would expect a similar effect to the one seen in our research on Scotland.’
In other words, there would have been an 80 per cent reduction in the death toll across the whole of the UK: around 26,000 lives saved (assuming the official undercount by May 3 of 32,490 fatalities). This is a truly shocking statistic and a damning indictment of the Tory government.
Countries outside the UK have looked on aghast while the pandemic death toll here rose quickly, given the advance warnings of what was happening abroad, notably in Italy and Spain. Continental newspapers have been highly critical of the UK government’s response to the pandemic. The German newspaper Die Zeit noted that:
‘the infection has spread unchecked longer than it should have. The wave of infections also spread from the hospitals to the old people’s homes, which could also have been avoided. The government is now trying to pretend to the public that it has the situation under control.’
The Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant told its readers:
‘the British were insufficiently prepared for the pandemic, despite the presence of expertise in this area. The country has been catching up in recent weeks. Much of the harm has already been done.’
‘Despite Europe’s worst mortality, probably too late entry into confinement and a blatant lack of preparation, the British have so far supported Johnson.’
Here in the UK, honest and responsible journalism would have made it clear, regularly and prominently, that many deaths were avoidable and a consequence of damaging government policies including:
the imposition of ‘austerity’ in past years
the deliberate corporate-driven break-up of the National Health Service
the government’s lack of preparedness for a pandemic
the belated move to lockdown and the present rush to ‘open up the economy’ and send children back to school
If we had an actual functioning ‘mainstream’ media, it would be holding this disgraceful government to account, properly and comprehensively. BBC News, as the country’s well-funded ‘public service’ broadcaster, would be to the fore of critical and forensic journalism. In a piece published on the progressive ZNet website, Felix Collins dissected the government-friendly propaganda campaign in the UK media, including the BBC:
‘On April 10, as UK daily deaths became higher than any recorded in Italy or Spain, media coverage led with Boris’ recovery [after being in intensive care], while BBC News’ main headline was about the “herculean effort” of the Government to provide NHS with PPE. Subsequent headlines featured nurses describing treating Johnson as “surreal”, something they’d “never forget” and that he was “like everybody else”; orchestrated artificial grassroots support to boost public opinion about Boris and his government seem likely. The notions of supporting the country and supporting its leader are being conflated.’
In a small concession to the damning truth, BBC News aired Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, a statistician from the University of Cambridge, who was granted a moment on the Andrew Marr Sunday programme to call the government’s daily press briefings ‘completely embarrassing’. They are ‘not trustworthy communication of statistics’ and no more than ‘number theatre’. But this was a deviation from the broadcasting norm which has regularly seen BBC correspondents, notably political editor Laura Kuenssberg, serving up meek accounts of the crisis on prime-time BBC News at Six and Ten. An article in the Economist was actually titled, ‘The BBC is having a good pandemic’, even as it quoted one unnamed senior BBC journalist who let slip that:
‘the [BBC] bosses are keen that we come out of this with the sense that we looked after the interest of the nation, not just our journalistic values.’
In effect, there should not even be the pretence of ‘impartiality’, but a shoring-up of state propaganda by the BBC on behalf of the government. In fact, this has long been the reality of BBC performance ever since BBC founder John Reith wrote in his diary during the 1926 General Strike that ‘they [the government] know that they can trust us not to be really impartial.’
One welcome exception was the Panorama programme investigating the appalling lack of preparation for the pandemic; not least the inadequate provision of PPE for NHS staff and workers in care homes. But, in yet another sign that any dissent will not be tolerated, Tory Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden then attacked the BBC for straying momentarily from the state-approved script.
‘You Dropped The Ball Prime Minister. That Was Criminal’
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Suppressing Evidence Of Public Distrust Of UK Press
On the 7th May 2020, Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis report for Declassified UK
There is money and power in identifying Russia and cyber attacks as the key security threats facing Britain — but not in addressing the more important issues of pandemics and climate change. Former UK intelligence chiefs are personally profiting from the ‘revolving door’ between government and business, and the public is paying the price.
Former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove has earned more than £2-million from a US oil company.
Another former MI6 chief, Sir John Sawers, has earned £699,000 from oil giant BP since 2015.
Sir Iain Lobban, former head of GCHQ, has become director or adviser to 10 private cyber or data security companies since leaving office in 2014; his own cyber consultancy is worth over £1-million.
Almost all of Britain’s former spy chiefs are personally profiting from working for cyber security and energy companies after retiring from the UK’s major intelligence agencies, Declassified UK can reveal.
Since 2000, nine out of 10 former chiefs of MI6, MI5 and GCHQ have taken jobs in the cyber security industry, a sector they promoted while in office as key to defending the UK from the “Russian threat”.
The British government has been told for over a decade that the “gravest risk” to the country is an influenza pandemic, which its National Security Strategy identifies as a “tier one priority risk”. Yet the security services have largely ignored health threats, despite claiming they are guided by the UK’s security strategy.
The burgeoning and profitable cyber industry in the UK, where former spy chiefs gain employment, is now worth over £8-billion. Sir Iain Lobban, who ran GCHQ from 2008 to 2014, has become director or adviser to 10 private cyber or data security companies since leaving office. His own consultancy, Cyberswift Limited, had over £1-million in assets by the end of 2018, four years after he left GCHQ.
The ‘revolving door’ between government and industry is meant to be regulated for conflicts of interest by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA). However, Declassified can find no evidence that an intelligence chief has ever had an ACOBA application rejected. This allows them to lobby their old agencies on behalf of their private interests after they leave office.
On the 5h May 2020, Nick Triggle reports The UK now has the highest number of coronavirus deaths in Europe, according to the latest government figures. There have been 29,427 deaths recorded across the UK – a figure Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said was “a massive tragedy”. The latest total for Italy, previously the highest … Continue reading “Coronavirus: UK death toll passes Italy to be highest in Europe”
On the 5h May 2020, Nick Triggle reports
The UK now has the highest number of coronavirus deaths in Europe, according to the latest government figures.
There have been 29,427 deaths recorded across the UK – a figure Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said was “a massive tragedy”.
But experts say it could be months before full global comparisons can be made.
Both Italy and the UK record the deaths of people who have tested positive for coronavirus.
BBC head of statistics Robert Cuffe said Britain reached this figure faster in its epidemic than Italy.
But he said there are caveats in making such a comparison, including the UK population being about 10% larger than Italy’s.
Each country also has different testing regimes, with Italy conducting more tests than the UK to date.
Speaking at the daily coronavirus briefing, Mr Raab said the 29,427 lives lost was “a massive tragedy” the country has “never seen before… on this scale, in this way”.
But he would not be drawn on international comparisons, saying: “I don’t think we will get a real verdict on how well countries have done until the pandemic is over, and particularly until we get comprehensive international data on all-cause mortality.”
Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, of the University of Cambridge, said we can be “certain” that all reported figures are “substantial underestimates” of the true number who have died with the virus.
He said: “We can safely say that none of these countries are doing well, but this is not Eurovision and it is pointless to try and rank them.”
He added the “only sensible comparison is by looking at excess all-cause mortality, adjusted for the age distribution of the country” [but] “even then it will be very difficult to ascribe the reasons for any differences.”
This is a sobering moment. Italy was the first part of Europe to see cases rise rapidly, and the scenes of hospitals being overwhelmed were met with shock and disbelief.
But we should be careful how we interpret the figures.
On the face of it, both countries now count deaths in a similar way, including both in hospitals and the community.
But there are other factors to consider.
First, the UK has a slightly larger population. If you count cases per head of population, Italy still comes out worse – although only just.
Cases are confirmed by tests – and the amount of testing carried out varies.
The geographical spread looks quite different too – half of the deaths in Italy have happened in Lombardy.
In the UK, by comparison, they have been much more spread out. Less than a fifth have happened in London, which has a similar population to Lombardy.
Then, how do you factor in the indirect impact from things such as people not getting care for other conditions?
The fairest way to judge the impact in terms of fatalities is to look at excess mortality – the numbers dying above what would normally happen.
You need to do this over time. It will be months, perhaps even years, before we can really say who has the highest death toll.
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Read whole article in the BBC News With reports also in The Guardian with excellent graphs and analysis of European responses
Could the Main Stream Media in the UK be assisting the UK Government in misleading the public on the handling of covid-19?
On the 4th May 2020, Owen Jones reports and on the 6th May similar sentiments in RT News
Editors Note: In a world of swirling conspiracy theories this post brings together various threads that suggest misrepresentation of the UK governments handling of the covid-19 pandemic and that mainstream media either through naive acceptance or some form of complicit behaviour is allowing this misrepresentation to flourish. Included is Nils Melzer explaining that strong independent journalism is a basic pillar of democracy.
1. The prurient headlines about Neil Ferguson are a huge distraction (Owen Jones for The Guardian 4th May)
Britain’s coronavirus death rate is the worst in Europe, yet the front pages of our rightwing media focus on a scientist’s sex life
When deciding today’s front pages, newspapers had a choice: do they hold the government to account over Britain facing the highest death toll in Europe, or do they take aim at a government scientist, who ignored his own advice to the public, and invited a partner to his home? As you might have seen, the Telegraph, Daily Mail, Metro and the Sun opted for the latter. In a healthy, functioning democracy, a genuinely free press would not have considered this a dilemma. Bad news, everyone, because that’s not the country we live in.
This story could be seen as a run-of-the-mill scoop, a classic tale of do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do hypocrisy, a staple of the British press. Or it could be perceived as a retaliatory hit by the political right who resent, to varying degrees of intensity, a lockdown that values human life over economic considerations.
This is where the Neil Ferguson saga raises troubling questions. This story somehow found its way to the Telegraph, a hawkishly pro-Conservative newspaper (and until recently the employer of the prime minister himself) more than a month after the event. Ferguson’s partner visited him on 30 March and 8 April: 37 and 28 days ago respectively. Whatever the reason for this delay, the story has certainly come at a politically opportune moment: when the government should be being scrutinised about a death toll exceeding that of Italy, whose plight just weeks ago was discussed in near-apocalyptic tones.
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2. Burying bad news? Questions raised as scientist sex scandal eclipses news UK Covid-19 death toll surpasses Italy ( RT News 6th May)
As the Neil Ferguson scandal dominates headlines across the UK media, many online are questioning the rather conspicuous timing of the revelations, which coincide with grim and embarrassing news for the government.
The one-time UK coronavirus tsar Ferguson resigned in disgrace from his position as advisor and strategist to 10 Downing Street on Tuesday night amid revelations of a tryst with a married woman, 38-year-old Antonia Starts, which contravened his own proposed lockdown and social distancing measures.
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Eyebrows were raised over the questionable timing of the revelation, which coincided with the day that the UK officially overtook Italy as the epicenter of the coronavirus in Europe.
Dr. Anthony Costello, a former director at the World Health Organization, asked: “Why was this non-news released on the day our death rates overtook Italy? And before imminent decisions to lift the lockdown in the UK and US? Who else will be scapegoated?”
Ferguson’s perceived scapegoating was made even more conspicuous as lockdown measures are expected to begin scaling back in the coming weeks, something which Boris Johnson hinted at during a session in the House of Commons on Wednesday.
Others highlighted yet more examples of the conspicuous timing of human interest stories eclipsing major coronavirus developments – including the birth of Boris Johnson’s son – though that may be more a case of British media’s editorial decision-making than governmental conspiracy.
“Care Home deaths added to the death toll on the day Boris’s son is born – Govt waited for the right moment,” wrote one perturbed Twitter user. “On the day UK overtakes Italy in deaths, Neil Ferguson is scapegoated.”
Some highlighted the fact that the Telegraph got the scoop on the Ferguson love affair as being rather convenient, given that Boris Johnson was once employed by the paper.
Others outright accused the press of complicity with the government, insinuating the British media sat on the story for a month. For now at least, the one-time paragon of viral virtue has been hung out to dry, as the UK struggles to come to terms with its botched response to the pandemic.
When the first cases of Covid-19 in the U.K. were confirmed in late January, Johnson’s Conservative Party government claimed that it was prepared for any eventuality.
That turns out to have been a lie. The government’s failure to provide sufficient protective gear, which has so far contributed to the deaths of at least 114 health care workers in Britain, was preventable. Moreover, two separate investigations have now revealed high-level attempts to cover it up.
Earlier this week, the BBC’s Panorama showed that the British government’s pandemic stockpile lacked key equipment, such as gowns, visors, swabs, and body bags. The government was of course aware of this deficit and yet, even after the pandemic hit the country’s shores, U.K. leaders refused multiple opportunities to bulk-buy PPE. When the lack of supplies became obvious to the public, the government tried to hide the problem by inflating PPE numbers, counting one pair of gloves as two items of PPE.
Another investigation, by the Sunday Times, a decidedly right-leaning newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch that has previously swooned over Johnson, calling him a “rockstar,” showed just how casually the prime minister confronted the pandemic.
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4. Boris Johnson declares UK ‘past the peak’ as another 647 die from coronavirus (NBC News 1st May)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the UK is “past the peak” of its coronavirus outbreak and has promised a comprehensive plan for restarting the country’s flagging economy.
Mr Johnson, fronting his first daily press conference in more than a month after recovering from COVID-19, urged Britons to hold firm during the strict lockdown and not “risk a second spike” of the virus.
“I can confirm today that for the first time, we are past the peak of this disease,” Mr Johnson said from Downing Street.
UK Daily Recorded Infections – oscillates between 4K and 6K with a horizontal trend from 5th April to 7th May.
Italy Daily Recorded Infections – peaks at 21st March reducing constantly from the peak of 6.6K per day to less than 1.5K at May 7th.
Editors Observations: The Prime Minister Boris Johnson is either confused by the statistics or attempting to deceiving the public when he says “we are past the peak” on the 1st May
5. Democracy cannot coexist with secrecy (Nil Melzer on RT News on Going Underground).
On 21st April 2020 Juliet Rix interviews Richard Garside The director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies says our government’s approach is putting prisoners and the public at risk “Inaction by government on Covid-19 in UK prisons is putting not just prisoners’ lives at risk but also prison staff, and the general public,” … Continue reading “The UK is lagging behind Europe on coronavirus in prisons”
On 21st April 2020 Juliet Rix interviews Richard Garside
The director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies says our government’s approach is putting prisoners and the public at risk
“Inaction by government on Covid-19 in UK prisons is putting not just prisoners’ lives at risk but also prison staff, and the general public,” says Richard Garside, director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, which has just launched a Europe-wide project to collate and compare the measures taken by different governments and prison systems.
“If you set out to create an institution with the express intent of concentrating and transmitting Covid-19, it would probably look much like a prison,” he adds, especially one as overcrowded as many in the UK.
Richard Coker, a leading epidemiologist and emeritus professor of public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, agrees. He describes prisons as “epidemiological pumps”.
To deal with overcrowding, prisons have been told to “cohort”– quarantine sick prisoners together. “But without proper testing,” Garside points out, “this will be putting people with ordinary colds and flu in with Covid-19 cases and risking lives.”
Cells may also be treated as households,so if one inmate develops symptoms, all occupants of that cell have to isolate together. “And some cells do not even have the facilities to wash your hands,” he adds.
“Even a short sentence for a minor crime is potentially a death sentence, puts staff at ongoing risk and provides a pool of reinfection for the wider community.”
The number of prisoners believed to have been infected with coronavirus may be up to six times as many as the published figure, it has emerged.
Public Health England (PHE) says it has found 1,783 “possible/probable” cases – on top of 304 confirmed infections across jails in England and Wales.
PHE’s report says there have been no “explosive outbreaks” in prisons, but “significant threat levels” remain.
Measures to quarantine new and at-risk inmates are needed for a year, it adds.
The report, published by the Ministry of Justice, says access to testing for prisoners has been “limited and variable”.
“Therefore, the number of laboratory confirmed cases reported does not represent the true burden of infection in the prison system,” it said.
“During outbreaks, where a number of positive laboratory samples have been received (usually around five or more) on prisoners who have been swabbed, then subsequent cases who meet the clinical case definition are included as ‘possible/probable cases’.”
Of the 1,783 “possible/probable” cases by the end of last week:
398 were in Welsh prisons
298 in the West Midlands
264 in south-east England
Wales also had more confirmed cases (77) than anywhere else.
PHE said officials had responded to outbreaks in 75 different “custodial institutions”, with 35 inmates treated in hospital and 15 deaths.
But the report says the frequency of outbreaks and the number of cases is reducing, indicating that the initial wave of infections is being “contained effectively” – which it says is a “cause for cautious optimism”.
Previous modelling suggested there could be between 1,800 and 2,300 deaths, depending on reductions in the prisoner population.
