Sample Emails Urging Action Against SARS-Cov-2
Email to Prof. Richard Horton
I sent the following email to Professor Richard Horton, FRCP FMedSci. It is similar to those that I have sent to the General Medical Council and several other prominent physicians who were talking sense. Professor Horton is a member of an independent committee examining the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the public and National Health Service.
Subject: Covid-19 - Failure of Government and Pandemic Advisors
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 2021 11:11:45 +0000
From: Christopher King (address deleted)
To: Richard.Horton@lancet.com <mailto:Richard.Horton@lancet.com>
Dear Professor Horton,
I have been writing to my MP since 16 March 2020 to urge various non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) following Boris Johnson's eugenic 'herd immunity' policy, supported by his medical advisors. This policy is the reason why he took no early action and we have the present disaster. Australia and some SE Asian countries acted appropriately and effectively so that now vaccines are available they can be used judiciously.
The interesting question is why Chris Whitty, Patrick Vallance and the eminent medical experts of the advisory committees endorsed this policy and said nothing publicly in objection. These people have abandoned medicine. They said nothing when Johnson openly admitted coming out of the first lockdown for political reasons and nothing about Eat Out to Help Out that spread the virus. They have not pressed for vigorous NPI in over a year. They are politically compromised, medically negligent and responsible for the present death count. It is a fact that with medical advice, our own government knowingly announced a policy that would kill most of the elderly and vulnerable of our country. This was not a mistake. Nor is it a misunderstanding as it is now presented.
I have suggested to the GMC that the narrative should be taken out of the government's hands by an independent medical group. That email is also below. The GMC will take no action and suggests that I might wish to lodge a complaint against Chris Whitty. A waste of time, although I had hoped that someone would act well. The medical establishment closes ranks and the politicians play politics in the face of mass death from Covid-19 and its unpredictable political aftermath, if indeed there is one. The virus itself is not necessarily the main danger. That is political and demographic re-alignments and the means by which they are achieved. The virus appears to be a trigger or an opening shot of someone else's plans. Its future development cannot be predicted at present.
It is widely known that Covid-19 is an engineered virus from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) lab. Dr Zhengli-Shi, team leader from the WIV learned genetic manipulation at an Australian CSIRO lab and the University of North Carolina. You have probably seen the papers they produced but I attach copies anyway. These are about assembling viruses and attaching a furin cleaving site to achieve human infectivity.
I also attach the report on the virus's genome from the Hong Kong virologist Dr Li-Meng Yan, now in the USA who investigated it in Wuhan and says that it was released intentionally by the PLA (army). I speculate on reasons why the PLA might do this in emails below, which are a small selection of those that I have written to my MP in an attempt to get appropriate action to control the virus.
Whether engineered or not, released intentionally or not, Covid-19 is clearly out of control, the government will not act appropriately and its eminent experts have failed to persuade it to effective NPI action. Nor have the experts informed the public if they dissent from government action. For this reason I appeal to you for advice on taking the advisory narrative that is now secret completely out of the government's hands and making it public. This may be done by a voluntary committee completely independent of government that bases open advice to the government and public entirely on medical science. The government mantra that the government is 'following the science' has been false from the beginning. Its simplistic advice is ignored and no-one refers to its web page advice.
There is clearly no short term fix for this pandemic with or without vaccines. We need to start long term planning based on genuine medical science and a program of effective NPI.
These are a few examples of NPI that need promotion:
The objective must be to extinguish Covid-19 in the UK.
A principle of 'every infection counts' to raise awareness that every infection is a viral experiment and opportunity to mutate as well as to infect others.
Public advice to government. This might be controversial but the current secret advisory arrangements have failed. A public debate between government and medicine is needed, not a secret one.
Dedicated television and radio channels to give education about the virus, non-politicised news and advice to the public and business. Presenters should be qualified and with presentation skills. Clips from these channels should be available for other broadcasters and media to use. The BBC that is politicised with government appointed directors but which the public pays for, should provide these as completely independent facilities. Alternatively and in the short term, the committee could simply issue public reports to the media. In particular, the public needs in depth technical education on what viruses are, how they behave, how they infect and simple measures to protect oneself, how air flow and ventilation can affect transmission etc. It took the Vallance/Whitty team a year to bring the importance of ventilation in enclosed spaces to public notice. I had written to my MP about it in March 2020 when I first drew to the attention of the Director of a garden centre chain that his staff needed training on Covid-19.
Suggestions for Community-based and individual organizations for action to support others eg based on places of worship, existing local groups and formation of new groups.
Advice to individuals on how to bring to the attention of businesses and other individuals that they might be in breach of best practice or government regulation in dealing with Covid-19. This would be a system of soft community policing. Government should back the expectation that anyone who behaves dangerously in respect of Covid-19 should expect this to be politely drawn to his/her attention. The police should have a facilitating community role except in the most egregious cases. The police alone cannot possibly enforce government regulations. People need to be empowered and encouraged to take such action as well as to be informed how to do it in an acceptable and effective manner. I have suggested this to my MP several times over the past year. I have since written to several firms, including my local GP surgery which has an unventilated and unsafe waiting room. Incidentally this approach was received with denial, advice to go elsewhere or write to the Ombudsman. As test cases I brought it to the Ombudsman's and GMC's notice. My conclusion is that these organizations are useless in practice.
Closure of town centre streets by local authorities to enable street trading in a safer environment. The current government policy of either lockdown or open only gives a lockdown cycle.
Education for all ages should be by distance learning where possible. The School of the Air has been used in Australia for the education of children in remote locations almost since pubic radio was available, with excellent results. Every child taken out of large group education to home or small group schooling helps against viral mutation and transmission. Parents, children and university students need to adapt to the reality that this virus threatens not only lives but our economy and way of life. We cannot continue the attempt to restore business as usual as the government is doing. We must adapt to survive individually, as a society and country. Talk of children's psychological damage and future psychosis are nonsense. Children will adapt if their parents adapt their expectations and take responsibility for their own children's education and safety. If children in refugee camps can adapt their education to their conditions (that we have usually caused), so can ours to vastly better resources.
Government must be pressed or forced to manufacture PPE for free or cheap distribution to the public. In particular, without masks of FFP2 standard available to medical/care workers and the public there is no possibility of bringing the virus under control. It was on this that the £840 million should have been invested rather than on restaurant meals that propagated the virus.
Government must be pressed to implement effective border controls and quarantine arrangements as Australia and New Zealand have done. One person carrying a dangerous mutation can devastate the country in the out-of-control situation that we now have. Extensive re-organization will be needed for effective control at ports of entry for goods. Every improvement helps. The government does not accept or understand the importance of each individual.
To motivate the population to act appropriately in extinguishing the virus the country needs the truth, medically based assessments and enabling advice and information for local community and individual action. By the time the current lockown is eased we need such arrangements in place or the lockdown cycle will continue. The evidence is that with new viral variants the situation will worsen.
We need an effective public interest narrative and are not going to get it from the government that attempted a eugenic 'herd immunity' policy based on natural selection and the deaths of a large proportion of the population. Moreover, unwarranted assumptions were made about the attenuation of this virus that was known to originate in a laboratory. This is the origin of our present situation. We have to change the present dysfunctional system.
Yours sincerly,
Christopher King MSc DipM DMS
Consultant and Lecturer in Management and Marketing
Email to Chris Philp MP
I sent at least a dozen emails to my MP Chris Philp urging positive action to counter SARS-Cov-2
Subject: Quarantine
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 2021 00:21:33 +0000
From: Christopher King (address deleted)
To: Chris Philp MP <chris.philp.mp@parliament.uk> <mailto:chris.philp.mp@parliament.uk>
Dear Mr Philp,
Matt Hancock says that it is impractical to quarantine all incoming persons. That is not correct. It is essential and must be done. As I have said previously, every infection counts. It will require a huge effort however but it is an essential element of extinguishing Covid-19 in the UK. That has to be the primary objective. There is no living with this virus. There are plenty of vacant hotel rooms and those who enter the country should have good reason and pay for their quarantine. That will reduce the incoming number.
Arrangements to control contacts with UK residents also needs to be made at ports of entry for goods. This will require very large expenditure on infrastructure as well as personnel. I know what you will think of this but it will be much cheaper than having lockdowns for the next 5-10 years with the same results that we have had to date, to say nothing of deaths. There is no cheap and easy way of doing this. The government has tried this and failed.
Vaccination is not the answer to this virus. As below, we will soon be dealing with many variants that are resistant to whatever vaccines are used. I repeat: This is a lab engineered virus and the only safe assumption is that it will become more infective and more lethal. The 'vaccine race' that Hancock and others are talking about is as much rubbish as the government's homicidal 'herd immunity' policy.
The only working strategy possible is to reduce the number of infections by non-pharmaceutical interventions ( NPI) to the point that test and trace with isolation and vaccination become feasible. The government clearly did not take the NPI action that it should have in February and March because it planned a 'herd immunity' policy. There is clearly no option to taking it now.
The vaccination committee did well in getting vaccine manufacturers on board. They apparently acquired four vaccines because it was uncertain which would be best. To avoid complications of mutation as below it would now be best to use only one. Let the EU have the others.
It would be good to increase manufacturing capacity of a selected vaccine in order both to vaccinate the UK population and to export it to other countries. Rather than do this the government wasted about £840 billion on political 'eat out to help out' that increased infections and helped no-one.
I cannot imagine what is in the heads of the cabinet and their expert advisors. We have indications of how Boris Johnson thinks however. He ordered water cannon when mayor of London as a response to demonsrations. In March 2020 he said on television that he was putting the army on alert in relation to the pandemic. He was willing to kill off the elderly and vulnerable in the population in his eugenic policy of 'herd immunity', supported on television by Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance who were in agreement. He opened up from the successful first lockdown, as he stated on televison, on political grounds rather than medical without any strategy for building on lockdown success. He wasted £840m on political 'eat out to help out'. He now denies that 'herd immunity' was ever government strategy, but it was and everyone knows it. I wrote to you about it at the time. His legalistic defence of Dominic Cummings was wrong and showed lack of judgement that seriously undermined his credibility.
Boris Johnson clearly thinks of force before persuasion. He does not value the lives of others, although, as we know, he values his own. He has no judgement nor understanding of what a pandemic originating with an engineered virus might be and what do do about it, despite access to the best advice in the country. He acts for political reasons without understanding or caring that the virus makes all other considerations secondary. He is a liar in claiming that he always sought to reduce infection numbers and that 'herd immunity' was never government policy.
The evidence of how Boris Johnson acts and thinks indicates that under his bumbling cuddly facade there is a martinet without a moral compass. He has not taken the actions essential to containing Covid-19 in an entire year. With his policy of 'herd immunity' and 'eat out to help out' he has made the pandemic worse. I originally wrote to you on 16 March 2020 protesting the mad policy of 'herd immunity' that was supposed to be 'following the science' and have been writing to you about his lack of action ever since. On his record there is no possibility that he will take the necessary NPI action. Rather than force him to do so I suggest that he should go. He, his cabinet and advisors are responsible for over 106,000 deaths by their inaction.
Best wishes,
Christopher King
Email to Chris Philp MP
Subject: Covid-19 Backup Plan
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2021 01:50:06 +0000
From: Christopher King (address deleted)
To: Chris Philp MP <chris.philp.mp@parliament.uk> <mailto:chris.philp.mp@parliament.uk>, Ben Daniel <ben.daniel@parliament.uk> <mailto:ben.daniel@parliament.uk>
Dear Mr Philp,
Thank you for your time and our conversation that I enjoyed very much.
This evening following our discussion the news was that the new variant of Covid-19 is both more infective and lethal as we discussed was likely. If the government's strategy was to keep the number of infections and deaths low, it has failed. It it was to achieve 'herd immunity' it has failed. We now have a high number of infections able to interact with two vaccines as well as with unvaccinated. people.
Every individual is a new experiment for the virus in developing further infectivity and lethality. It is an engineered virus and the assumptions about its behaviour have been wrong. We must anticipate that on present trends by 6-12 months it will have achieved resistance to the two vaccines now being used in a non-tested manner that is sub-optimal for immunisation and permissive of the development of viral resistance.
I suggest implementing a backup plan without delay. The two Russian vaccines recently developed should be studied with a view to using one of them as a cutout on all future UK Covid-19 variants. It is important to study the Russian vaccines because the Russians have good scientists with different traditions of thinking. A new approach will be needed. Moreover, the Russians might have important technical information from the Chinese.
In 3-6 months a great deal will be known about both the complex variant situation that is developing in this country and the performance of the Russian vaccines. If there is a suitable cutout the government should construct manufacturing facilities in this country under full government control, suitable to rapidly re-vaccinate the entire population. The cost will be negligible compared with economic losses from prolonged disruption caused by the virus, to say nothing of lives lost. Hungary is using Sputnik V and Germany is considering its manufacture.
In the meantime, the government should start from the beginning in devising a radical program of non-medical interventions of the sort used in Australia, New Zealand and SE Asia. These are highly effective and reduce the probability of mutations by reducing the number of infections. Examples are long-term distance education, effective quarantine, closure of non-essential businesses, restrictions on all travel, community education and actions.
It would be unwise to commence using another vaccine such as the Moderna. This would introduce greater complexity into the variant picture that is developing and that will need to be extinguished, ideally with a single vaccine. For the same reason it would be preferable to use only one vaccine at the present time and if need be, set up a plant to produce it.
The government's strategy of 'herd immunity' indicates precisely how it perceives the population. It is a dehumanizing term that equates human deaths due to government policy with those of animals. It is the idiom of eugenics and lack of appropriate government action is consistent with that. Its equivalent in US military-speak is 'collateral damage' for the negligent killing of civilians. 'Community immunity' is a more suitable term and revised thinking should go with it.
I ask you to kindly consider these views.
Best wishes,
Christopher King
Email to Chris Philp MP
Subject: Fwd: Confidence in the Government
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2021 16:07:30 +0000
From: Christopher King (address deleted)
To: Chris Philp MP <chris.philp.mp@parliament.uk> <mailto:chris.philp.mp@parliament.uk>
Dear Mr Philp,
This is to give you information that you do not seem to have.
Covid-19 is a biological weapon.
Dr Francis Boyle a lawyer at Harvard University who has been involved in US bio-wepons protocols gives the backgroud to this.
He says that Covid-19 has been developed by Chinese researchers from the Wuhan level 4 bio-security lab. By giving grants they attached themselves to American and an Australian laboratories that were researching means of weaponising coronaviruses. Dr Boyle thinks that it was released accidentally. A link to his video on the Wuhan virus is here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0fEZr2psMQ
This is a link to Dr Boyle's comments on Boris Johnson's 'herd immuity' strategy. I wrote to you the same day with my own comments that are in the email of 13 March below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5rEmaYv6KY
Two corroborating papers (saved as Word docs) that Dr Boyle refers to are attached.
Li-Meng Yan is a Hong Kong virologist now in the US. She was sent to Wuhan by her laboratory to see what was happening there. She was told there that the virus came from the Wuhan laboratory and was release intentionally by the PLA (army) that controls the lab. She reported this to her supervisors who advised her to keep quiet for fear of arrenst and execution. She left HK for fear of her life and conscience. Two of her interviews ae here::
https://youtu.be/-8l0vRBNuog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lq3_rsBJ9w
Dr Yan's paper produced after she arrived in US is also attached.
If the government is aware of this infomation it is not behaving as if it is. I have known of Dr Boyle's views since March when I wrote the emails below and assumed that the government knew even more than I did. The government lost control of the virus by attaching to the 'herd immunity' theory and has never given up on it. It is entirely inappropriate in dealing with an engineered virus about which very little is known. The only safe assumption that can be made is that it will become more infective and virulant. Basically the resources of the whole country should have been mobilized last March at the latest to extinguish it.
The virus has demonstrated the ability to become more infective due to disastrous assumptions and responses by the government. The government and its medical advisors are making another potentially disatrous assumption in departing from the manufactureres vaccination schedule in extending the time between vaccination shots. I understand their reasoning but it is unjustified. We must stick to what is known and not make assumptions.
There is no use in having Chris Whittey continue to exhort us to do this and that. He is not perceived by the country as a medical expert because he has colluded with the government in its disastroud past decisions from the initial public policy that had to be reversed, the late first lockdown, the Dominic Cummings affair, the political opening up of lockdown with funding for restaurant meals that laid the foundation for the present situation with over 500 deaths per day, the proposals to relax for Christmas, and now the proposal to depart from the manufacturers' vaccinatin schedule. There has never been good border security or an effective quaranting policy. Only now, a year late is distance learning being organized.
Chris Whittey is now seen as a politicised member of the government, which is precisely what he is. As a medical practitioner he had an obligation to make known his dissenting advice if he differed from the government. Chris Whittey has abandoned medicine. He is no longer a fit person to advise the government and public for this reason. He purports in public to have the ethics of a medical practitioner but he is in fact a political apologist. Additionally, he is not a suitable person to continue to present means for public behaviour because the public has lost confidence in the government. The dogs and cats know of its incompetence.
It is necessary for the government to recognize the situation. It is essential to start again with a new strategy that starts from first principles and with new presenter. Chris Whttey is right about one thing: We are facing a future in which the virus is never eradicated and new vaccines will need to be continually developed. He knows but has not said that it will possibly mutate to greater virulence as well as its demonstrated increased infectivity. It is an engineered virus and cannot be thought of in terms of known viruses.
How to start again? This pandemic is not basically a medical problem that can be approached with top-down rules. That approach has given rise to everyone from Esther Ranzen on the BBC wanting forced immunization to the BBC telling us what positions we should adopt in having sex. It's an insane situation, there is no consistent message whatever and the public is not listening. Everyone is making up their own rules.
The pandemic is actually a behavioural situation, that is, it is psychologically mediated. If people's psychology is right, ie if they understand the principles involved and have them explained by a credible person they will behave appropriately. The government has never understood this. It started with rules. I also suggested to you months ago that the government should empower everyone to correct the behaviour of others if it is counter to anti-viral principles and that those who behave dangerously should expect to be told of it. A series of television lectures/training sessions on this would quickly get the message over to the country. Citizens should police themselves. This is contrary to the British custom of minding one's own business, I know. The alternative is to use the police which the government is tending to do. That is extremely counter-productive.
The government has also misused its resources. It must make suitable backup in the form of PPE availble to the wider public. After a year there are no UK made and certified FFP2 masks available to the public free or at reasonable cost. It is reported that ministers could not resist allocating contracts to their friends rather than properly awarding contracts. Border secutity, your department, needs an effective strategy. And so on.
In summary, a new start and strategy is needed because the government has never had a stategy except for 'herd immunity'. This has resulted in the current 500 deaths per day and the prospect of never extinguishing a continually mutating virus.
The Geo-political Context
This pandemic should be placed in its geo-political context. It has probably been started by a militant Chinese army group with the government forced to go along with it. The Japanese army did that in Manchuria in 1931. The Iran-Contra affair and Honduras coup early in Obama's inauguration are independent\US examples. A militant Chinese faction would do this because they perceive that armed conflict with the US and the 'Five Eyes' countries is inevitable. The US has a publicly announced policy of global domination with the other four contries as collaborators. This will clearly unacceptable to the Chinese. The US and UK governments always think in terms of conventional war. This would go nuclear with unacceptable results to all. The US theory of limited nuclear war is untenable.
This 'first strike' by a biological weapon will weaken the US its main enemy and open opportunities for China in other weakened and devastated countries. It is a deliberate game-changer from playing the Americal game. The behaviour of the US and UK in the Middle East, to say nothing of past European and US colonialism, intervention and warfare including the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear strikes gives the Chinese a view of Western attitudes and what they can expect if the US is given the opportuntiy. Moreover, by unilaterally breaking treaties with Russia, Iran and China itself, the US cannot be trusted. I will quote Sun Tzu although I have done so in other communications to you:
It is not the supreme excellence to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles
The supreme excellence is to overcome the enemy without fighting
All this is what we see. We must believe what we see and know at the present time. China has started the pandemic on its own territory to give deniability of intent and to control information about it. The Australians, who asked for an international investigation were vilified and sanctioned by China. Dr Li-Meng Yan's testimony cannot be ignored.
Incidentally, the EU has recently concluded a comprehensive trade deal with China. It appears that the EU will no longer support US geo-political ambitions due to its opposition to Nord stream 2, refusal to remove nuclear weapons from the EU and using sanctions against EU firms for its own advantage. Europe is on the same continent as Russia and China, which is a major factor in European thinking. The UK needs to decide whether it is in Europe, the USA or is neutral. This a question of rapidly increasing importance. In relation to the immediate problems with Covid-19, I suggest that we immediately get in touch with the Germans to see what they know about the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. If they are positive about it we should piggy-back on the Germans' approach to Russia and explore manufacturing it in this country as the Germans seem to be doing. The Russians are good scientists and say that they've been studying coronaviruses for a long time. Of course they have. They've been developing bio-weapons like Porton Down, the US and everyone else.
I have asked for time to speak to you and have been offered ten minutes. I suggest that we need an hour.
Best wishes,
Christopher King MSc DipM DMS
Email to Chris Philp MP
Subject: Elderly Customers and Covid-19
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2020 11:34:54 +0000
From: Christopher King (address deleted)
To: Chris Philp MP <chris.philp.mp@parliament.uk> <mailto:chris.philp.mp@parliament.uk>
Dear Mr Philp,
In addition to failing to test and track this virus from the first infections the government is only talking about the behaviour of the public as potential victims. The message is that it's a matter of individual choice. Nothing has been said about the way in which retailers should treat the public, particularly the vulnerable elderly and others. The emails below shows how careless and uncooperative retailer behaviour can place vulnerable persons at risk. This is an instance of punishing behaviour for imagined offence by retail staff but with staff training and awareness it would probably not have occurred. Our behaviour is not a matter of individual choice as the PM says because each person's actions can potentially endanger others or help keep others safe.
The government's science is bad, its response has been late, the public message has not been thought through and much tougher controls are needed. Total lockdown now would be best. The government ignored WHO advice and the experience of other countries. Strategy is based on 'protecting the NHS from breakdown', evidently as a politically popular message. Strategy must be based on reducing infections as early as possible. The 'flattening the curve' theory is invalid. The 'herd immunity' theory failed because it was absurd from the beginning. It is a risky assumption to include in the computer model that warm weather will attenuate the virus spreading. The statistics are not even partial. There are none for total infections because the government has ignored the science. Only testing, tracking, education and tough restrictions will kill this plague. The idea of the army being put on alert is ridiculous. The PM has seen too many zombie apocalypse movies.
It is hard to believe that our PM and government can be so incompetent.
Best wishes,
Christopher King MSc DipM DMS
Email to Chris Philp MP
Subject: Virus Cases Should Be Tested and Counted
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2020 12:28:52 +0000
From: Christopher King (address deleted)
To: Chris Philp MP <chris.philp.mp@parliament.uk> <mailto:chris.philp.mp@parliament.uk>
Dear Chris,
Everyone who is self-isolating due to symptoms should be tested. Only people with severe symptoms are being tested at the moment. This is giving a false picture of the virus's incidence and a false picture of the local situation as shown on the BBC. It is essential that we have accurate statistics and we're not getting them. Grave doubts have also been expressed by many experts about the government's strategy and I share these. More should be done to shut down all but essential services and to mobilize voluntary services.
My daughter and son in law are self-isolating at the moment due to symptoms. My son in law has been exposed to the virus at work from a confirmed case. They believe that they have been infected but are neither being tested or counted. The statistics are false and this is a serious defect in strategy. it would be simple for them to post in a swab for testing and some system for this should be arranged. Too many assumptions are being made by the Chief Medical Officer on the basis of too little firm information.
Best wishes,
Christopher King
Email to CEO The General Medical Council (Further exchanges not included)
Subject: Doctor's Waiting Room Unsafe For Covid-19
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2020 16:35:11 +0000
From: Christopher King@xxx
To: gmc@gmc-uk.org
Mr Charlie Massey
CEO, The General Medical Council
Dear Mr Massey,
XXX Medical Practice (and Government Covid-19 Policy)
I wish to bring to your notice the Covid-19 danger of my being expected to wait in a completely unventilated waiting room at this practice. I addressed a letter about it to the Senior Partner (attached). The Office Manager replied (attached) to say that they they have "Windows opened where possible (allowing for an acceptable temperature for staff working)" together with other anti-Covid action. The specific issue that I raised has been ignored however. Waiting room 2 could have been ventilated simply by opening the windows and closing the door to prevent cold air reaching other areas. Moreover I have essentially been told to go elsewhere if I do not like what they are doing.
I wrote a brief note on the practice's on-line complaints form, asking for a response from a partner since this is a medical and local public health matter that the Office Manager is not qualified to deal with. I received no reply so wrote another letter, formally asking for a partner response. I also followed the Office Manager's advice to write to the Ombudsman, which I did via my local Member of Parliament, (email below) asking him to bring the general case to the Health Minister's notice.
The general case is that in dealing with airborn infection within buildings, ventilation is the most important ameliorating factor rather than distancing. This is obvious. The government has never made it clear. It has always emphasized distancing, among other lesser means of prevention. Worse, the government has shown unbelievable incompetence in formulating a clear strategy, taking appropriate action and communicating with the public. From the beginning the Prime Minister and his two closest advisers on Covid-19 have talked nonsense. The country is not listening to the government. The government has never had control of the situation.
The first lockdown took deaths down to single figures. Now we have over 500 deaths per day because the Prime Minister opened up from lockdown on political grounds, as he said himself and had no strategy, action plan, coherent message or certified masks available to the public. Now that a vaccine (stored at liquid nitrogen temperature!) is available, the relaxation of precautions against Covid-19 is inevitable. We are experiencing a second peak and no-one is taking responsibility.
The result is that many people think that Covid-19 will do them no harm so it has nothing to do with them. Others such as the xxx Practice are cutting corners and would rather ignore their public health hazard rather than accept advice from a member of the public. I raised this problem of infection in unventilated retail premises in a complaint to a local plant nursery before the first lockdown and also to my Member of Parliament (emails 18 & 19 March below). I have seen many other instances of the failure of the government's incoherent and inadequate exhortations and have sometimes responded to firms, individuals and my MP about them. The evidence of government failure is the second peak of infection and the current death rate. Because of widespread infection it can rarely be proved where any particular infection originates. Irresponsible behaviour largely originates from this.
I wish to suggest to you that someone must take the initiative to get a clear authoritative message to the population, both public and business, about what must be done to extinguish Covid-19. Only a medically based group can do this. No existing group has this mandate, but a voluntary group formed for the purpose could do so, no matter from what organizations they might come. I suggest further that members of the GMC would know the best people to form such a group and to formulate a strategy and public message. Five hundred deaths per day in a second peak, nine months after the pandemic commenced means that the government has learned nothing. Someone has to take medical responsibility in the public interest.
Personal matters deleted
Government Failure
I also wish to ask you to give consideration to the possibility of a voluntary activist group being formed to develop its own strategy and give the public, industry and government non-politicised , authoritative medical advice aimed at eradicating Covid-19. The government has no idea how to manage the pandemic. Many avoidable deaths have been caused by its incompetence. I suggest that whether the vaccines are effective or not, independent medical advice is needed in order to avoid further avoidable deaths. The government's appointed advisors are not in fact independent. They are protecting their jobs and reputations by colluding with government politics. This pandemic is far from resembling influenza or even 'Spanish Flu' that it is often compared with. Its cause, economic and geo-political implications are not being publicly discussed. We need innovation to deal with the enormous future change that it is precipitating. This commences with getting Covid-19 under control. Only the medical sector can give this leadership.
One of my friends from the church that I attend said a few days ago that most of the people dying of Covid would have died of 'flu this year in any event. He is a highly intelligent man. What does this say about the general level of public moral and practical understanding? Every person from the lowest tail of the normal intelligence curve to the highest (as the government likes to express it) needs to be aware of the effects of their behaviour on themselves, others and the country generally. One careless person can cause enormous damage and at present the whole country is careless. The government will now put its faith in vaccines and 'herd immunity' which of course will work long-term whenever that might be. Until then we have to minimize the damage.
Best wishes,
(Signed in mailed hard copy)
Christopher King MSc DipM DMS
Consultant and lecturer in management and marketing (retired)
Attachment to email to GMC (email to Chris Philp MP)
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Unventilated Doctor's Surgery Waiting Room
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2020 02:03:33 +0000
From: Christopher King
To: Chris Philp MP <chris.philp.mp@parliament.uk> <mailto:chris.philp.mp@parliament.uk>
Dear Mr Philp,
A few days ago I was kept waiting in a completely unventilated waiting room at xxx doctor's surgery. I left after six minutes and wrote to bring the dangers to the Senior Partner's attention (attached). I received a fob-off letter (attached) in reply from the practice manager, basically telling me to go elsewhere if I do not like it.
This is in general a serious public health matter that it appears neither the government nor the NHS understands. It is probably the primary cause of the rise in infections and deaths following the successful outcome of the first lockdown which had deaths down to single figures per day.
Infections are primarily by airborn virus particles. In enclosed spaces, good ventilation is the simplest and best means of clearing the space of the virus. Without ventilation, any airborn virus particles will persist or build up in the whole space. Distancing is without effect in these circumstances.
The second most important factor with respect to closed spaces is the time in which people are in them. The longer an infected person is in the space the more virus particles will be put into the air. The longer an uninfected person is there, the greater the probability of infection.
These factors are extremely important because they are simple and effective means for reducing the chance of virus particles contacting uninfected persons. Other measures such as hand washing and masks are last-resort measures at the body surface. Surgical masks are useless agaist virus particles. FFP2 / N95 masks do give some protection but are difficult to find and are usually Chinese imports of doubtful certification. I have had to import FFP2 masks from Germany to be sure of their quality.
I drew the problem of infection in unventilated retail premises to your notice with my email below last March before lockdown. It is incredible that after eight months since then the government and NHS have not impressed this simple message on the entire country. If this is not done the lockdowns are useless.
The xxx surgery is either unaware of these basic factors or is unwilling to implement them. It appears to be a general problem however. The government clearly put its faith in the development of a vaccine but in the meantime its neglect has meant many people becoming infected and dying. My wife, daughter and I are highly vulnerable and are in danger from this general disregard for basic precautions..
xxx (surgery) have advised me to complain to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, whose webside advises me to do so through you. Would you kindly draw my concerns to both the Ombudsman and Health Minister. I am following procedure in asking this although it will do no good. Government and the NHS have their policies but in implementing them they are paralysed.
With thanks and best wishes,
Christopher King MSc DipM DMS
Attachment to email to GMC (email to Chris Philp MP)
Subject: Elderly Customers and Covid-19
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2020 11:34:54 +0000
From: Christopher King
To: Chris Philp MP <chris.philp.mp@parliament.uk> <mailto:chris.philp.mp@parliament.uk>
Dear Mr Philp,
In addition to failing to test and track this virus from the first infections the government is only talking about the behaviour of the public as potential victims. The message is that it's a matter of individual choice. Nothing has been said about the way in which retailers should treat the public, particularly the vulnerable elderly and others. The emails below shows how careless and uncooperative retailer behaviour can place vulnerable persons at risk. This is an instance of punishing behaviour for imagined offence by retail staff but with staff training and awareness it would probably not have occurred. Our behaviour is not a matter of individual choice as the PM says because each person's actions can potentially endanger others or help keep others safe.
The government's science is bad, its response has been late, the public message has not been thought through and much tougher controls are needed. Total lockdown now would be best. The government ignored WHO advice and the experience of other countries. Strategy is based on 'protecting the NHS from breakdown', evidently as a politically popular message. Strategy must be based on reducing infections as early as possible. The 'flattening the curve' theory is invalid. The 'herd immunity' theory failed because it was absurd from the beginning. It is a risky assumption to include in the computer model that warm weather will attenuate the virus spreading. The statistics are not even partial. There are none for total infections because the government has ignored the science. Only testing, tracking, education and tough restrictions will kill this plague. The idea of the army being put on alert is ridiculous. The PM has seen too many zombie apocalypse movies.
It is hard to believe that our PM and government can be so incompetent.
Best wishes,
Christopher King MSc DipM DMS
Attachment to email to GMC (email to CEO of garden centre chain re airborne transmission, etc)
Subject: FAO (Chief Executive) Elderly Customers and Covid-19
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2020 18:46:53 +0000
From: Christopher King
To: xxx.com
Dear Mr xxx,
Covid-19 and the elderly
I wish to report an incident to you that you might wish to note in respect of staff training.
I am aged 80, my wife, 74 has had a heart operation and our daughter who lives with us has a severe chronic condition with reduced immunity. We are all highly vulnerable to infection and are in defensive self-isolation although I shop occasionally. I try to keep contact with other people to a minimum. We have cancelled all contact arrangments.
Today I phoned this store: xxx
I identified some weedkiller that I wanted and asked to pay for it and to have it left at the service counter near the entrance so that I could come in and collect is with minimum exposure to possible infection. I explained the reason but the man to whom I was speaking didn't want to do it because they usually don't do that. Nevertheless, he agreed to it and I paid for the goods.
When I went to the store I had to wait at the service counter for a considerable time while the man there dealt with another customer. This couldn't be helped, although there could be ways around this that I will note below. When it was my turn, the goods were not there. The man phoned about it and said that they were in the warehouse and would be brought up. I waited a considerable time and he phoned again. By this time I was stressed and very unhappy. I told the man this and said that I know it's not his fault but this isn't what had been agreed and I will be speaking to the duty manager about it. After waiting considerably more time I said that I would wait outside and asked for the goods to be brought out to me. The store was busy and I had been surrounded by dozens of people for far longer than I thought safe. The man said that I would have to pay for the goods. I said that I had already paid for them. There was doubtless an angry note in my voice and I told him I was angry. The man took offence and said "You shouldn't speak to me like that" and made an issue of it. I said "I'm not blaming you as I've said, but if I've offended you, I apologise." I left the store and waited on a seat outside. No-one brought my goods out to me in a reasonable time, so I left.
My anxiety had been added to when someone passed me as I waited and I could smell garlic strongly. Normally I would hardly notice it but in the current circumstances it meant that I was breathing in another person's exhaled breath. There were many other people around as well, breating into what was a poorly ventilated area. It was an ideal area for virus transmission.
I telephoned the store and complained to the Duty Manager Mr. xxx I said that it was a training issue for which management was responsible and that the staff are not up to speed on the needs of older people when they visit the store. I told him that it appeared from staff attitudes that younger staff members do not care about the danger to older people on entering his store. It was not merely a matter of my goods not being where they should be but that I was in danger, potentially of my life and those of my wife and daughter while I waited. I will not give any more detail but I made certain that he was aware of my perceptions.
Mr xxx was very apologetic and sent the goods to my home. I cannot fault his response. I asked him about staff training in relation to Covid-19 and it is clear that there had been none. In the present circumstances elderly people like myself are at the mercy of your staff when they need service. Your staff think that it is business as usual but that is not the perception of elderly customers. Worse, it is my belief that the man with whom I agreed the collection arrangements thought of me as a difficult customer and he was going to do things his way whether I liked it or not. He had spoken to the service counter man and doubtless told him that so that he looked for an occasion to take offence. It is poor customer service at the best of times.
This is probably a general problem at the moment where most people, particularly young people who do not consider themselves to be at risk, do not appreciate or perhaps care that the elderly are in danger and that their behaviour can have fatal consequences for some. It is a hidden danger so they do not take it seriously even though they have parents and grandparents that are at risk. They need to have the possible consequences of their behaviour made explicit.
I mentioned waiting at the service desk while another customer was attended to. Multi-tasking can help with this this. At the time I was there some checkout staff had nothing to do and other staff members were walking around. Checkout staff in particular could probably be easily trained to give cover to the service counter if only to help one or two customers, so using their time more efficiently and giving better customer service. Multi-tasking can be useful anywhere of course. It adds interest to the work situation by giving some autonomy and space for initiative as well as increasing efficiency.
I hope that you will consider these comments useful in staff training that could improve customer service as well as helping to keep us all safe.
Best wishes,
Christopher King MSc DipM DMS
Consultant and Lecturer in Managment and Marketing (retired)
End of Account
23 April 2021
