The vaccine roll-out is too slow. Let’s increase vaccine supply with new production facilities.

@mmgeissler
Not "only a" but an INTERMINABLE "couple of months into the vaccination programme" which could and should have vaccinated the entire UK population by now if vaccine production and supply had been ramped up appropriately considering the urgency of the pandemic.

— Peter Dow (@AberdeenDow) February 23, 2021

The governments should greatly accelerate the production and supply of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine (which seems to be the best of the 2 from the Public Health Scotland supported research into vaccine performance in Scotland) under license by investing in new facilities, including one here in Scotland to make say +250,000 doses/day for Scots initially then for export.

Please support my call for a new 250,000 doses/day vaccine production facility in Scotland – with further doses to be exported after all Scots have been fully vaccinated.

Then, whenever any new variant virus threatens, Scotland will be well prepared to roll out the booster vaccine very quickly and avoid lockdown!

“as supply allows”

I’ve just fired off another email about this.

Call for a new 250,000 doses/day vaccine production facility in Scotland

I write to complain about the poor quality reply from the Scottish Government’s civil servant Charles Willis, Reference: 202100164087, 28 February 2021 … because it suggests that neither Mr Willis nor anyone else in the Scottish government have yet competently considered the content of my email to you all, ….

“as supply allows” writes Mr Willis, as if the Scottish Government can have no agency whatsoever with a view to increasing its own supply of vaccine doses, as if the vaccine is handed down from on high, courtesy of the UK. “Take what you get. Never question how much or why. Just be grateful.”

How pathetic. How disgusting.

Mr Willis may be a helpless civil servant but it is unacceptable to this proud Scot to suffer the Scottish government to be represented in such a pitiful and beggarly fashion.

Who reading my emails can respond intelligently to my suggestion that the Scottish government should plan to increase its supply of vaccines from its present limited supply, seemingly varying from 10,000 to 60,000 but averaging perhaps 20,000 doses/day?

Who reading this can respond to my suggestion that the Scottish government should invest in a new vaccine production facility in Scotland, in partnership with AstraZeneca, that can produce 250,000 doses/day?

The Scottish government have, so far, vaccinated only 1/4 of the population of Scotland and 3/4 of the population are still waiting, still dying of Covid, some of us, because we’ve not been vaccinated yet when we should have been.

Please support my call for a new 250,000 doses/day vaccine production facility in Scotland – with further doses to be exported after all Scots have been fully vaccinated.

With such a newly built vaccine production facility here in Scotland then whenever any new variant virus threatens, Scotland will be well prepared to roll out the booster vaccine very quickly and avoid lockdown!

Scotland needs a faster supply of vaccine doses. The world needs a faster supply of vaccine doses. Scotland can produce a great supply of vaccine doses if the Scottish government gets its act together and stops being content to be a by-stander while others outside Scotland arrange for a very limited supply of vaccine doses for us on Scotland’s behalf.

Do not dare to stand idly by while others supply us with the vaccines we need. Scotland must become a supplier of vaccine doses, for ourselves, to export for others.

Do not dare to think “we can’t”.

We are Scots.

Yes we can!

That’s got them telt! 😎

Valneva Livingston

28th January 2021. GOV.UK Large-scale coronavirus vaccine manufacturing begins in Scotland

“Speciality vaccine company Valneva has started commercial manufacturing of its promising COVID-19 vaccine candidate in Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland. …

If the vaccine proves successful and receives regulatory approval following a rigorous assessment of available data, the Livingston facility will have the capacity to produce up to 250 million doses annually for shipment across the UK and around the world.”

If approved that would be up to 685,000 doses per day supplied from Valneva Livingston. Shared among the UK population equally that would be 56,000 doses per day for Scots.

56k/day is good, it would be a most welcome supplement to the existing limited vaccine supply stream in Scotland but I must ask if that would that be enough to allow for the fastest possible roll-out of a booster vaccine should the need arise?

It should be possible to vaccinate 250,000 Scots per day and to administer one dose to every Scot in about 3 weeks, ready to offer 2nd doses as required.

So my opinion is that the gold standard supply for Scotland would be met by 250,000 doses/day and that’s why I have called for a new 250,000 doses/day vaccine production facility in Scotland, set up in partnership with AstraZeneca and funded by the Scottish Government so that the entire output could be prioritised for Scots if required.

“Vaccine nationalism?” Well maybe but that soon becomes vaccine internationalism after Scots have been vaccinated because all that additional vaccine production can then be dedicated for export.

By the same argument, the gold standard supply for the whole UK would be 3 million doses/day – 3 times more than the 1 million doses/day that the UK Government seems to have satisfied itself with.

This is not the time to rest on our vaccine laurels.

Vaccine Rollout Performance Standards for Scotland & the UK

Scotland: Vaccinations per day

Gold Standard

Scotland – 246,000/day, UK – 3,000,000/day or more

Silver Standard

Scotland – 164,000/day, UK – 2,000,000/day or more

Bronze Standard

Scotland – 82,000/day, UK – 1,000,000/day or more

D Grade

Scotland – 400,000/week, UK – 700,000/day or more

UPDATE

BBC: Covid: Under-30s offered alternative to AstraZeneca jab

Recent developments require me to review the assumption I made in February, that the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine “seems to be the best of the 2 from the Public Health Scotland supported research into vaccine performance in Scotland”.

It is reasonable to take a fresh look at the other candidate vaccines if investing in a new vaccine production facility here in Scotland.

Advertisement

Epidemiologist says it’s NOT safe for Scottish pupils to go back to school

VIDEO: Sunday, 21st February 2021. BBC Scotland. Sunday Show presented by Martin Geissler. Professor Linda Bauld, from Edinburgh University, a public health expert, says we must maintain the public health measures we’ve been living with. Dr Deepti Gurdasani, an epidemiologist (MPhil University of Cambridge) explains that it is not yet safe for Scottish pupils to go back to school until additional internationally accepted mitigation methods are in place.

I agree with the points made by Dr Deepti Gurdasani, obviously.

The Scottish Government’s so-called “National Clinical Director for Scotland” Jason Leitch is indeed wrong, again and remains out of his depth, as I have explained in an earlier blog post. Children are just as likely to get or pass on the virus – just more often asymptomatically than adults to whom they pass the virus on. Kids can get infected at school and then go home to infect their older family members who then suffer symptoms etc.

Blame the Scottish Government minister John “the Swindler” Swinney – whose complacent remarks to Martin Geissler were not worth repeating here – and blame too his boss Nicola “Killer Krankie” Sturgeon for the Scottish Government’s poorly prepared and premature school re-opening which will cost lives and threaten to resurge the pandemic in Scotland.

Mitigation methods

Mitigation methods suggested by Dr Gurdasani.

• Mask use for primary school children
• Ventilation
• Air filtration / purification devices
• Carbon dioxide monitors
• Smaller class and bubble sizes
• Teachers mustn’t move between bubbles

Mitigation method suggested by Peter Dow

• Indoor ultra violet lights to help inactivate airborne viruses
• UV protective wear – sunglasses, sunscreen lotion, hats etc.

COVID-19 Recovery Taxes

The more an activity risks spreading COVID-19, the more that activity should be taxed.

AIR PASSENGER DUTY

Air Passenger Duty should be massively increased considering that air travel was the way that COVID-19 was initially spread from China and air-travel can reintroduce COVID-19 to an area defeating all previous lockdown measures to eradicate the virus locally. A Scottish Air Passenger Duty should be charged for all flights into Scotland, including from the rest of the UK.

END ALL SUPPORT FOR THE INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL INDUSTRY

End rates relief, furlough payments for any company involved with the international travel industry – airports, airlines, cruise and passenger shipping, travel agents, bus and train services to England.

Cease government funding for Visit Scotland unless it changes its name to “DON’T Visit Scotland” and campaigns to keep tourists out for the duration of the pandemic. End any subsidy and support for all international festivals – such as the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe.

If this drives companies out of business then that is a price worth paying to discourage international travel to Scotland for the duration of the pandemic.

LOCAL ROAD PASSENGER DUTY

A Local Road Passenger Duty would encourage people to change their behaviour to stay local and not spread COVID-19 around because they would be taxed more the further they travel around in Scotland.

A Local Road Passenger Duty should be payable by vehicle owners, calculated as a base charge (£10 for example but the actual amount would be set in the Scottish budget) multiplied in proportion to the number of passenger seats (not including the driver’s seat) in the vehicle multiplied by the number of Scottish council areas the vehicle is taxed to drive in.

Local councils would collect the Local Road Passenger Duty, issue tax-paid display stickers and be responsible for detecting that the vehicles using their local roads had paid the Local Road Passenger Duty to use their local roads.

Example 1.

An owner of a car with 3 passenger seats lives in one council area, drives to work in a neighbouring council area and occasionally visits family by travelling through 2 additional council areas.

The Local Road Passenger Duty Tax is payable in proportion to 3 passenger seats x 4 council areas = 3 x 4 = 12 times the base charge of £10 = £120.

Example 2.

An owner of a car with 3 passenger seats which is only driven locally within the one council area.

The Local Road Passenger Duty is payable in proportion to 3 passenger seats x 1 council area = 3 x 1 = 3 times the base charge of £10 = £30.

Example 3.

An owner of a bus with 40 passenger seats runs a passenger service between 4 council areas.

The Local Road Passenger Duty is payable in proportion to 40 passenger seats x 4 council areas = 40 x 4 = 160 times the base charge of £10 so the bus owner is taxed £1,600.

The high tax for this bus service is appropriate for the danger it represents of spreading COVID-19 around.

Example 4.

A delivery van has one passenger seat and could be delivering to any of 20 council areas.

The Local Road Passenger Duty is payable in proportion to 1 passenger seat x 20 council areas = 1 x 20 = 20 times the base charge of £10 so the delivery van owner is taxed £200.

Example 5.

A taxi driver/owner has a taxi with 5 passenger seats and offers a taxi service to 6 council areas.

The Local Road Passenger Duty is payable in proportion to 5 passenger seats x 6 council areas = 5 x 6 = 30 times the base charge of £10 so the taxi owner is taxed £300.

Example 6.

A sports-fans’ mini-bus has 8 passengers seats and needs to travel through 12 local council areas to get to fixtures.

The Local Road Passenger Duty is payable in proportion to 8 passenger seats x 12 council areas = 8 x 12 = 96 times the base charge of £10 so the mini bus owner is taxed 96 x £10 = £960.

Example 7.

A motorcycle has one pillion passenger seat and travels to 7 council areas.

The Local Road Passenger Duty is payable in proportion to 1 passenger seat x 7 council areas = 1 x 7 = 7 times the base charge of £10 so the motorcycle owner is taxed 7 x £10 = £70.

Example 8.

A moped has no passenger seat and so the owner is exempted from paying any Local Road Passenger Duty on the moped.

RAIL PASSENGER DUTY

Rail passengers can spread COVID-19 around so train owners should be taxed Rail Passenger Duty for their trains too, according to the number of passenger seats times the number of council areas the train stops in.

FERRY PASSENGER DUTY

Same.  Tax ferry owners Ferry Passenger Duty according to the number of ferry passenger seats times the number of council areas the ferry stops in. The ferry owner is not responsible for paying any Ferry Passenger Duty for the passenger seats in any cars transported by the ferry.

Why tax passenger seats not actual passengers

It is a lot easier for the tax collector to count the number of passenger seats in a vehicle than the number of passengers.

QUARANTINE FOR SCOTLAND CHARGES

I have published “Quarantine for Scotland” detailing the organisation of new managed facilities for compulsory quarantine for all travellers to Scotland. Charges to pay for all that should be levied on those who have to use those new quarantine facilities because they are choosing to travel to Scotland, deliver to Scotland, or leave then return to Scotland etc.

MAKE THE UK PAY COMPENSATION DAMAGES TAX

Scotland should win the power to tax, fine or get legal compensation from the UK for the economic damage done by its mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic and historically.

For decades, from Ravenscraig to Longannet, the UK has pursued the deindustrialisation of Scotland and left Scots with a reliance on tourism which has made Scotland’s economy particularly vulnerable to a pandemic.

Perhaps compensation of £100s billions to be paid to Scotland by the UK could be agreed but if not then the Scottish Parliament must win the powers to impose taxes on all UK officials who visit or live in Scotland so as to collect the compensation owed to Scotland from UK officials individually.

By “UK officials” I mean people like the Queen, Prince Charles, Prince William, Princess Anne, the UK Prime Minister and Cabinet members, Members of the Queen’s Privy Council, BBC senior management, Police Chiefs, UK Supreme Court Judges, Generals, members of the House of Lords etc.

Any of those UK officials who will not or cannot pay compensation damages taxes imposed should be excluded from Scotland for non-payment of their tax debts.

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT FISCAL POWERS

The Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government have insufficient fiscal powers, specifically  government borrowing powers, to invest to re-purpose the Scottish economy to cope with any significant economic challenge such as this Covid-19 emergency.

The Scottish government should be granted the power to borrow interest-free from the Bank of England / UK Treasury, with no repayments and no total debt limits, up to 8% of Scottish GDP.

This new Scottish government borrowing power should be permanent so that it could be used either to cope with an emergency like this pandemic or in normal times used to invest for economic growth.

If the UK refuses such new £ Sterling borrowing powers to the Scottish government then the Scottish Parliament should pass legislation to establish a new Scottish currency and Scottish central bank to manage our new currency, thereby enabling the Scottish government the normal borrowing powers of a government to borrow its own currency as required.

I might suggest that the name of a new Scottish currency should be
THE SCOTTISH POUND BANNOCKBURN

WHAT FISCAL RULES SHOULD THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT FOLLOW?

The Scottish government should never again do as it did in 2016 and ever since, namely so foolishly to agree with the UK to such a bad deal £ fiscal framework which imposed such derisory limits to the Scottish government’s borrowing powers.

The 2016 Fiscal Framework Agreement was an act of self-harm by the Scottish government and Scottish parliament and so this terrible mistake must never be repeated or allowed again.

The rule should be –
DON’T DARE TO OFFER OR ACCEPT LESS THAN 8% GDP £ SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT BORROWING POWERS OR ELSE SCOTS WILL SET UP OUR OWN CURRENCY.

Anticipating that the UK will break that rule, the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government should expect to proceed to establish a new Scottish currency forthwith.

CONSULTATION RESPONSE

This blog post is by way of reply to the Scottish Government consultation –

Budget 2021/22: Supporting the COVID-19 Recovery

My actual response to that consultation can be downloaded as a PDF from this link.

Peter Dow’s response to ScotGov’s consultation – Budget 2021-22 Supporting the COVID-19 Recovery

Quarantine for Scotland

EVERYONE entering Scotland will have to be tested and quarantined, especially those with a legal reason to enter Scotland – such as Scots returning from visiting friends, relatives or business associates in England.

That means adding road blocks with diversions to managed quarantine facilities all along the border.

Quarantine For Scotland. M6 J45 B7076 Traffic Management. A74(M) Border Road-block. Quarantine at Gretna facilities.

For example, the A74(M) would have to be closed at Gretna, most likely northbound traffic road-blocked on the border itself, asking Cumbria police to divert traffic northbound for Scotland to turn off the M6 at the last junction (45) and those wishing to quarantine take the B7076 for quarantine facilities just across the border in Scotland, in the area in and around the Greens at Gretna Hotel and the Gretna Gateway South Car Park – with additional caravan camp type facilities added to cope with the expected number of people to be quarantined.

Quarantine for Scotland would mean closing all the road border-crossings into Scotland; only southbound traffic on the A74(M) and the A1 could be safely left “open”. So the only roadways into Scotland from England would be through the quarantine zones – one at Gretna, as illustrated above, where extensions to the quarantine zone would be constrained by the border and the town of Gretna and the other, most likely, on the A1 at Lamberton, where there are fewer constraints on development so the quarantine zone could be extended in any of the directions indicated in the plan.

Quarantine for Scotland. A1 Road-block Traffic Management. Quarantine at Lamberton facilities.

There would probably have to be enabling legislation through the Scottish Parliament to allow the Scottish government to make compulsory purchases of buildings and land in those “quarantine zone” areas required to be used for managed quarantine facilities.

All that work should have been done years ago as part of pandemic preparedness, but of course wasn’t done because the United Kingdom is totally clueless.

Quarantine for Scotland would mean that all supply lorries from England to Scotland would have to stop in a quarantine zone, either –

• to swap drivers (after disinfecting the cab) or
• to hitch the trailer to a Scottish cab or
• to deliver to a depot in the quarantine zone or
• to return to England or
• to continue on to Scotland with the same driver after 14-days in quarantine.

Realistically, this would increase the costs of delivering to Scotland from England.

Trains

Quarantine for Scotland would mean that all northbound cross-border passenger train services will be suspended.

Whilst it is simplest just to ban all cross-border passenger trains, it is possible, if complicated, to allow southbound passenger services to continue.

Southbound trains could continue service with the understanding that drivers, guards and passengers who cross into England will be expected when returning to Scotland to serve quarantine before being free to enter Scotland again.

Northbound empty (no passengers, just driver and guard only) passenger trains and all freight trains can be permitted to cross the border into Scotland in which case the northbound drivers and guards of all trains (passenger and freight) should get out (and be replaced by Scotland-based drivers and guards) at the first stop in Scotland and the cross-border drivers and guards should normally return to England on the next southbound train, most usefully as drivers and guards of that southbound train, replacing the Scotland-based drivers and guards who could get out at the last stop in Scotland before the train crosses the border into England; alternatively, northbound cross-border drivers and guards who do not intend to return to England but who wish to enter Scotland freely should serve 14-days quarantine preferably in a facility local to that first-stop station in Scotland provided by their employer.

Northbound west-coast railway-line train passengers can take the train as far as Carlisle then get a bus or taxi to the Quarantine at Gretna facilities. After serving 14-days quarantine, they can take a bus or a taxi to Annan railway station.

Northbound east-coast railway-line train passengers can take the train as far as Berwick-upon-Tweed then get a bus or a taxi to the Quarantine at Lamberton facilities. After serving 14-days quarantine, they can take a bus or a taxi to Dunbar railway station.

Trunk roads and council roads

Quarantine for Scotland would mean that the Scottish Government would have the responsibility to order the closure of only the 4 or 5 trunk roads which cross the border with England (see above map) and the local roads through the Quarantine Zones.

Other local roads should be blocked at the border crossings by the 2 councils on the border – the Dumfries and Galloway Council and the Scottish Borders Council.

Quarantine for Scotland would leave the power with the councils to decide if they want to block their own local roads at the border and to decide what help to ask from the Scottish government to close the border crossings successfully. Although how hard can it be to place a few skips to block the road at the border with England?

Of course if unauthorised persons were trying to clear the roads that the councils had ordered closed then the councils could ask for help from the police and the Scottish government to keep their roads blocked at the border.

B roads are the responsibility of the councils so if the 2 border councils don’t want to close their own B and local roads at the border with England then fair enough. In which case it may fall to other councils to close their local roads – likes of the various Ayrshire and Lothian councils – at the border between their councils and the border councils if they choose to do so.

If the border councils refuse to close their roads at the border with England then Quarantine for Scotland could be easily circumvented by travellers from England crossing using council roads.

However, that wouldn’t stop the police from arresting those who had travelled from England by circumventing the quarantine facilities – if the police could catch them, if not at the border then somewhere else in Scotland.

So Quarantine for Scotland, even if it closed the trunk roads, the railways, the airports, the sea ports for passenger entry to Scotland, would only be 100% effective if the border councils agreed with the idea of stopping getting re-infected from England and helped by closing their own roads at the border too.

The Scottish government could attempt to persuade border councils to close their roads at the border – plenty of carrots but no stick. Also the use of public health messages on TV could explain how the lack of co-operation from border councils on closing the border was a bad idea and voters should contact their councillor to ask them to get the council to close the roads at the border, etc.

Please don’t become a stranger. 😥

Coronavirus in Scotland: SNP MP Angus MacNeil calls for police to patrol Scottish border if lockdown is eased down south

I wish to repudiate Jacob Rees-Mogg claims Nicola Sturgeon wants to ‘build a wall like Trump’ in Scottish border row.

The more appropriate comparison is Sturgeon with El Chapo, the Mexican Drug Lord, whose crimes include smuggling drugs across the USA-Mexico border and 1,000 murders and likewise Nicola “La Chapo” Sturgeon is responsible for the crimes of quarantine busting across the England – Scotland border, spreading the COVID-19 infection from England to Scotland, thereby causing 2,480+ deaths.

• El Chapo trafficked drugs over the border and killed people.
• Sturgeon traffics infected people over the border and kills people.

Sturgeon has built no wall, guarded no border, imposed no quarantine on travellers from England. Comparing her with Trump is perverse.

Margaret Ferrier SNP MP

BBC: Margaret Ferrier’s covid breach is embarrassing for Nicola Sturgeon

The intelligence bar for travelling by train or any public transport is not set particularly high. Travel companies have gone to great lengths to make travelling possible for those who have difficulty following rules. More rules doesn’t deal with the Ferrier-class of great ape.

Making an example of Margaret Ferrier alone will not stop other infected covidiots crossing the open Scotland-England border to travel far and wide to spread the virus.

Only closing the border will work and the responsibility for not doing so rests with the head of state, the Queen and her ministers such as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Only making an example of the Queen and/or her failing ministers and changing the policy to close the border and impose Quarantine for Scotland as described here will work to stop the spread of infection into Scotland.

WHY THE SNP OPPOSED QUARANTINE FOR SCOTLAND

Scotland has the power to quarantine entrants but the SNP refused to impose compulsory quarantine in managed facilities for all legal entrants to Scotland, to suit SNP MPs returning to constituencies every weekend, so 1000s of Scots died.

Take vitamin D supplements to survive the coronavirus pandemic

Buy vitamin D supplements and start taking them yourself and giving them to members of your household as if your chances of surviving the coronavirus pandemic depend on it because they probably do.

Alternatively, you may be able to boost your vitamin D levels if you are lucky enough to have a private back-garden, balcony or your own sun-bed to sunbathe in, from or with.

Sunbathing in a public space or in a tanning salon would not be such a “great plan” because you might catch coronavirus from someone else who is there at the same time, so that’s why the police are moving sunbathers on in public parks and that’s why tanning salon businesses are locked-down.

Obviously, don’t overdose on vitamin D because that will make you very sleepy after a meal or you might get migraines, like I do, or other unpleasant or dangerous symptoms. It is possible to have too much of a good thing so just be cautious, read the label, consult your doctor or your pharmacist, by telephone if you can.

Don’t buy and hoard more vitamin D than you will ever need because that’s anti-social considering that there might very well be a shortage in the shops when the public start to panic-buy vitamin D as they likely will sooner or later, with far more reason than they had to panic-buy toilet roll.

It would be reckless of any government of every country outside of the equatorial belt, where sunshine is on plentiful supply year-round, to neglect public health education to alert people to be sure that everyone’s vitamin D levels are nicely topped up to give us all the best fighting chance of surviving the coronavirus pandemic, in case any of us are unfortunate or careless enough to catch Covid-19, despite our best efforts at social distancing, hand-washing etc.

Those who are at risk of vitamin D deficiency and who are therefore at higher risk of death if they are unlucky enough to catch coronavirus are

• the always housebound or the newly locked-down, especially in homes without sunbeds or somewhere to sunbathe from (behind glass is no use because the ultraviolet rays needed are absorbed by glass)
• those who cover up their skin when they are out, who can’t or won’t sunbathe as nature intended
• those whose skin is darker than the lighter-skinned indigenous population
• those who don’t eat vitamin-D-rich foods regularly, such as salmon or other oily fish
• the fat, because vitamin D is fat soluble and so lots of body fat hogs your intake of vitamin D

Here are some references to check out if you are any doubt about this particular wisdom which is soon to become public knowledge.

The Telegraph: Could vitamin D help protect you from coronavirus symptoms?

Heart: This Morning doctor urges UK public to take Vitamin D to help fight coronavirus

Nutra Ingredients: Could vitamin D play a role in coronavirus resistance? Research thinks so

Guardian: Role of vitamin D deficiency in BAME medic deaths

Admittedly, sunny countries like Italy and Spain where vitamin D is easy to get have nevertheless had bad Covid-19 outbreaks and death tolls so vitamin D isn’t going to guarantee to save everyone at risk but the scientific evidence is stacking up that enhancing your vitamin D levels is now the smart move and especially in countries like Scotland where low vitamin D levels are endemic it would be advisable to take vitamin D supplements at least for the duration of this coronavirus pandemic crisis.

UPDATES

The BMJ: COVID-19 ’ICU’ risk – 20-fold greater in the Vitamin D Deficient. BAME, African Americans, the Older, Institutionalised and Obese, are at greatest risk. Sun and ‘D’-supplementation – Game-changers? Research urgently required.

The Telegraph: It is time to take seriously the link between Vitamin D deficiency and more serious Covid-19 symptoms

The National: Study links deficiency in vitamin D to coronavirus deaths

Express: Coronavirus crisis: How summer could stop spread of killer virus in Britain

The Financial Times: Vitamin D promoted as potential defence against coronavirus

The Daily Record: Vitamin D ‘urged for Covid treatment in hospitals’ over claims it reduces deaths by 60 per cent

Click to access FLCCC_Alliance-MATHplus_Protocol_v6-2020-11-12-ENGLISH.pdf

Coronavirus: new treatments, trials and NHS best practice in Scotland

I have written an open letter to the Scottish Government, which I have quoted below, edited for clarity and additional reference links.

Hi,
Which of you are aware and which of you are unaware of the following coronavirus pandemic reports?

In the medical news,
COVID-19: Could a clot-busting drug help save the lives of patients on ventilators?

in medical science journals,
Is There a Role for Tissue Plasminogen Activator (tPA) as a Novel Treatment for Refractory COVID-19 Associated Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)?: Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery  – See also attached PDF

Tissue Plasminogen Activator (tPA) Treatment for COVID-19 Associated Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS): A Case Series: Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis  – See also attached PDF

and on American TV News?

Deathly Ill Coronavirus Patients Could Be Saved By Heart Attack And Stroke Drug

I seek information about whether these recent reports have been acted upon in a timely way by yourselves in the Scottish Government and by NHS Scotland?

I wish to know if the NHS has instituted blood-clotting (coagulation) tests for coronavirus patients admitted to NHS hospitals, to monitor intensively whether patients’ blood clotting response has been seriously harmed by the coronavirus disease and by how much and whether this requires specific targeted treatment to normalise the patient’s blood clotting response?

Secondly, I wish to know for those patients whose blood clotting response is found to be abnormal, either generally or in specific organs, such as lungs, kidneys and heart, affecting organ function, whether appropriate blood-clot busting drugs, such as Tissue Plasminogen Activator (tPA) are being administered, on a trial basis or generally, to treat blood-clotting problems whether in the manner suggested in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery paper linked to and appended namely,

“we believe an initial approach might be to administer 25mg of tPA over 2 hours followed by a 25mg tPA infusion administered over the subsequent 22 hours, with a dose not to exceed 0.9 mg/kg. The same exclusion criteria currently in place for stroke and MI treatment could be used, with responders maintained for some period of time on a heparin infusion after completion of the tPA treatment.”

or otherwise?

Can Members of Parliaments (MSPs & MPs), the Press and the People assume that your lack of a speedy reply to me and your lack of full disclosure and informative answers to my questions by publishing the answers to them reflects badly on your performance as ministers and officials and is illustrative of your failure of leadership?

Can we therefore assume that your ability starts and finishes at mismanaging the NHS Scotland as a devolved identical copy of NHS UK so that, to be sure, if and when the UK NHS run from Westminster and Whitehall, London, England approves trials and approves a new treatment for coronavirus disease only then will you finally direct the NHS in Scotland to follow UK NHS practice, parrot fashion, but that meantime under your devolved misgovernment, no Scottish government ordered clinical trials of new treatments for coronavirus will be entertained in Scotland, because that would be to show real initiative, uncharacteristic of plodding puppets of the UK who have no initiative and leadership ability to speak of?

Finally, Jason Leitch seems to be performing in the role of Scottish government public health education spokesman so then who is doing the job he is allegedly paid for – “National Clinical Director” or “Clinical Director, Healthcare Quality and Strategy”?

Who is directing the NHS in Scotland to adopt best practice in the clinical treatment of hospitalised patients suffering coronavirus disease? Who is directing clinical trials of new treatments in Scotland?

If Jason is busy parading himself around the media studios to speak to the common people, telling us, for example, how, where and when to exercise then why is his job title not accurately descriptive of the role he is actually doing and clearly prefers to do?

If one is truly a “National Clinical Director” then surely one’s job is to direct the nation’s clinics in a medically scientific fashion, so as to defeat this coronavirus pandemic?

But Jason seems to be far too busy with media appearances coaching the people in our behaviour to find any time to direct the nation’s clinics other than in a hand-waving way, leaving the clinics to their own devices or to detailed direction from the UK government in London.

If one speaks to the public about health matters on behalf of the government then one’s job description is accurately described as a “Scottish Government Public Health Spokesperson”, is it not?

Is the Scottish government actually employing anyone who is directing the NHS hospital clinics in Scotland, directing the quality and strategy of health care so as to fight this pandemic successfully, saving most lives and if so, who is employed in that role? What is their name and what directions is he or she issuing to the Scottish NHS clinics as regards the best international medical practice and clinical trials?

Where should we look, when I or any member of the public, want to look through the list of directions issued to the clinics of the NHS in Scotland, to see if blood-clotting issues are being treated appropriately or whether that’s a neglected issue in Scotland because the orders from London say nothing about “blood-clotting” so far so that’s not yet on the Scottish government’s radar, being more of a poodle of the UK than an actual “government”?

Yours sincerely,

LATEST NEWS

16th April 2020, Stat: Blood clots in severe Covid-19 patients leave clinicians with clues about the illness — but no proven treatments

21st April 2020, NBC I-Team: Blood Clots Closely Associated with COVID-19 Deaths, Research Says

22nd April 2020, Washington Post:  A mysterious blood-clotting complication is killing coronavirus patients

CNN: Doctors try to untangle why they’re seeing ‘unprecedented’ blood clotting among Covid-19 patients

23rd April 2020, Daily Mail: Coronavirus is causing blood clots and sudden strokes in otherwise healthy patients in their 30s and 40s, doctors report

2nd May 2020, The Guardian: ‘Happy hypoxia’: unusual coronavirus effect baffles doctors

16th May 2020, Telegraph: Blood-thinning drugs can help save Covid-19 patients’ lives

5th June 2020, ITV News: ‘Lifesaving’ device trialled for potential coronavirus patients without key symptoms

Public awareness slogan – OXIMETER

🇴ximeters save lives
🇽cellent value for money
🇮solation medical-tech
🇲onitors blood oxygen
🇪veryone testing positive for #COVID must have one
🇹ell your MSP, #NHS, GP we need oximeters
🇪asy to use
🇷etweet thishttps://t.co/cCZLAHhJss pic.twitter.com/vTPGTHGHe9

— Peter Dow (@AberdeenDow) June 19, 2020

A US health agency warned the monitors are less accurate at reading blood oxygen in black patients https://t.co/g0h5p9wADT

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) February 28, 2021

16th June 2020, BBC: Coronavirus: Dexamethasone proves first life-saving drug

3rd July 2020, POZ: “No one needs to die from Covid any more.”

MATH+ Hospital Treatment Protocol for COVID-19

🇲ethylprednisolone
🇦scorbic Acid (vitamin C)
🇹hiamine (vitamin B1)
🇭eparin
+ Optional co-interventions#Coronavirus #Covid19https://t.co/1CFMS6eOEd

— Peter Dow (@AberdeenDow) July 4, 2020

MATH+ Hospital Treatment Protocol for Covid-19 – V8 2021-1-12

MATH+ Protocol – Downloads & Translations

Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance www.covid19criticalcare.com

Coronation virus

The United Kingdom is institutionally incompetent when dealing with new global challenges such as the coronavirus.

Scientists warned them.

President George W. Bush warned them.

The film “Contagion” warned them.

Bill Gates warned them.

Bill Gates warned against not preparing for viruses… In 2015 pic.twitter.com/0ZuKUhCSru

— The Independent (@Independent) March 20, 2020

Did they listen? Did they prepare? Did they react promptly? Did they adopt best practice from countries which did react promptly, like South Korea?

UK anti-science

Or did they continue the UK’s fascist habits of a lifetime and continue to pervert the course of justice, recklessly to obstruct medical scientists in the course of our duty to save lives, even threatening to take scientists as political prisoners to stop us blowing the whistle on wrong-doing and mismanagement?

So then did the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, his health secretary Matt Hancock and the next in line for coronation, Prince Charles, catch the very pandemic virus they were warned about?

We need to disinfect this world against the coronavirus and against the coronation virus, by never again rolling out the red carpet for any fool who thinks the UK royal family is an appropriate institution or that a constitutional monarchy is any way to run a country in this day and age.

We need to elect republicans who don’t pander to incompetent and fascist kingdoms.

See also Coronavirus – do not clap unethical medical practice that suffocates patients

Coronavirus – do not clap unethical medical practice that suffocates patients

Dangers for staff and patients from skimping on PPE

“with Covid-19, medical staff were looking to avoid non-invasive methods because patients would still cough and splutter, increasing the risk of the virus being transferred to medical staff”
The Guardian – “How ventilators work and why they are so important in saving people with coronavirus”

Sorry but I cannot clap that selfish attitude. First do no harm. Suffocating sedated patients with their own phlegm is unethical and is akin to murder.

Those patients who can thrive, albeit coughing and spluttering, with non-invasive ventilation and/or oxygen therapy should never be compulsory sedated, intubated on a ventilator, prevented from coughing and spluttering in order to clear their airway, thereby slowly suffocated by their own phlegm and perhaps consequently killed for the sole convenience of fearful medical staff.

The ethical way to reduce the risk of the virus being transferred to medical staff is by the government investing in the National Health Service to improve the personal protective equipment (PPE) of medical staff to the highest standard and engineering of isolation wards so as to completely isolate medical staff from the virus hazard, as demonstrated in these videos, from South Korea –

and Naples, Italy.

Across the world, doctors and nurses are getting sick trying to fight the #coronavirus. In northern Italy, thousands of medical staff are affected and dozens have died.

In Naples, in the south, this hospital had time to react.

Read more from @ramsaysky: https://t.co/Qf0NqFLt1H pic.twitter.com/VqcTaFEzRB

— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 1, 2020

Patients should only be put on sedated, invasive ventilation for the good of their own health, not merely in order to reduce virus risk to insufficiently protected medical staff because misgovernment has left the NHS with insufficient funds to invest in protecting medical staff to the highest standard.

Health ministers of governments should never be allowed politically to leave NHS managers short of funds to invest in appropriate PPE and therefore in the invidious position of mismanaging health care by allowing medical staff to unnecessarily sedate patients and force them to drown in their own phlegm – just because that’s the cheapest option to reduce risk to medical staff.

Governments who refuse to invest in what is required to save lives in the coronavirus pandemic, who allow unethical practices to save money, should be removed from office by parliaments and by the people.

"CPAP… controversial as any small leaks round the mask could spray droplets of secretions on to attending clinical staff.
… if …. clinical staff have adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) then this risk would be minimised."https://t.co/FhdIzaJZsD

— Peter Dow (@AberdeenDow) March 30, 2020

See also Coronation virus