Ideas 24-3...Coronavirus Pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, Covid-19

September 21st, 2020...The Labour shadow chancellor criticizes HMG's cavalier spending on Covid-19. I must admit that HMG appears to be spending like there's no tomorrow. HMG now has signed supply agreements with about seven companies for five vaccines. HMG scraps rail franchises, which has cost them, or should I say us, 3.5 billion pounds during the pandemic. The support for the running of half empty trains will continue, but why isn't HMG supporting the aerospace industry, after all it will be the exports from high tech industries that will be supporting the pound and our way of life after this pandemic? With the prime minister noticeably absent, HMG's chief medical adviser Professor Chris Witty and HMG's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance face the media and the nation regarding Covid-19's state of play. Yes, like much of Europe, the second wave is getting closer. Surprise, surprise. The UK will be experiencing fifty thousand reported infections per day by mid-October, with a predicted mortality rate of two hundred dead in mid- November. Eight per cent of the population have antibodies against Covid-19, meaning that many people are still susceptible to infection. We may get a vaccine at the end of this year, but in the meantime HMG wants our full co-operation, or else a blanket lockdown across the entire UK is certain. Pubs and bars are now closing at 10pm, and I still haven't had a drop of alcohol since the start of the lockdown seven months ago. MPs are now getting sick of all the decrees from the prime minister's residence at 10 Downing Street, instead of them being debated and voted upon in parliament. Five days previously, Covid-19 virologist Dr. Li-Meng Yan released a paper claiming that the coronavirus was produced in a lab. As the infection rate rose in the UK HMG scientific advisers called for a Covid-19 circuit breaker, a two week national lockdown, without success.

Meanwhile a financial scandal partly involving the ruling Conservative Party, is coming to light. Reports suggest that both HSBC, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered, JP Morgan, and Bank of New York Mellon banks have been involved in the money laundering of two trillion dollars, although some banks claim the report refers to historical dealings, that have already been dealt with by regulators. The report, known as FinCEN, (U.S. Department of Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network based upon at least 2,500 SARs (suspicious activity reports about banks usually from other banks)), lists several billionaires including Vladimir Putin's close friend, billionaire Arkady Rotenberg, who did business with Barclays Bank even though he had been on the US and EU sanction's lists since 2014. In addition, Russian Suleyman Kerimov is reported to have handed 6.1 million pounds to the husband of socialite Lubov Chernukhin, through a company based in the Virgin Islands, who in return for playing tennis with Boris Johnson and David Cameron and for an evening out with Theresa May of the Conservative Party, paid the party 1.7 million pounds. Suleyman Kerimov is on the USG's sanctions list. Well having survived Brexit, HS2, Covid-19 PPE and tests, I don't think this scandal will change the UK's political scene anytime soon. Naturally there are calls for the money to be handed back, but to whom? Where did the money ultimately come from, the hard working and honest Russian tax payers?

September 23rd, 2020...Discovered this morning that my urine had turned from pale yellow to black. Contacted my medical centre for a GP appointment which will be over the phone, due to Covid-19. I'm still waiting for an injection for my right knee. I've been for two three hour walks this week to take photos of the city centre, which my knee appears to have taken in its stride. The first set of photos I somehow failed to save on my laptop during the transfer. Also, I've been waiting for a cancer check for about one month, as a result of the death of my brother. I don't think the NHS wants to know patients over the age of seventy. Looks like I'll have to put all my music lists on the internet sooner than anticipated. The PM appeared on TV at 8pm telling office workers to work from home, due to the near exponential growth of Covid-19 infections. There was no mention of a u-turn, no apology, nor sorrow for killing so many people during this relaxation of lockdown experiment. Just how many extra deaths were there. For a government that likes statistics, that figure was markedly absent. Professor John Edmunds says HMG's anti Covid-19 measures do not go far enough.

September 24th, 2020...Updated all my music lists, making them compatible with my website, should I need to upload it all at a moments notice. I didn't hear from a GP, but when I looked up the problem on the web, I came to the conclusion that my black blood was due to dehydration, caused by walking around the city centre for two hours in the sunshine, taking photos for my website. HMG starts its test & trace app for smart phones today. Only trouble is that the combined intelligence of Microsoft, Google, Arm and Samsung is greater than my desire to download this app. All I get on my smart phone is soft porn from Sun Newspapers, which I can't get rid of. Now if you want people to find your product or service on the internet you give it a distinctive name, like Lazarus. Unfortunately I don't think the NHS and HMG have grasped this concept, as I can't find it amongst all the similar sounding apps. BBC teletext naturally doesn't give advice. Very often they can't even tell you what sport their written comments are referring to. The NHS website on my laptop says you download from Google Play, but I can't even reach that on my smart phone. It's Singapore all over again, at the taxpayers expense. HMG announces the job support scheme that will replace the furlough scheme at the end of October. It's complicated, with many workers omitted.

September 28th, 2020...The old test and trace cost 11 million pounds before it was scrapped. Its replacement has cost 25 million pounds, whilst including the manned support, will cost 10 billion pounds ultimately. Approximately one hundred and sixty pounds per person. It's based upon bluetooth, which is known to have limitations. The only cheerful news came from the pleasure Palace of Westminster, announcing that due to public anger, the bars would now close at the same time as those across the rest of the country, namely 10pm. Evidently, they had stayed open in the palace later as they are classed as workplace canteens.

September 30th, 2020...The oil production company Royal Dutch Shell Group announce 9,000 redundancies, whilst the entertainment cartoon and pleasure park business, Walt Disney, axe 28,000 jobs. Foreign students at the University of Edinburgh are reported to be begging for food due to enforced self isolation due to Covid-19. Each course costs each student thirty thousand pounds per annum. There is much bitterness amongst the million students who have travelled to these universities only to end up in lockdown. It is unclear whether they will be allowed home to their parents at Christmas. As warnings of closures and redundancies are announced from Fullers' breweries, Whitbread, Premier Inns and Wetherspoon, TSB (Trustee Savings Bank) announce 164 bank branches closing with 960 jobs in addition to 82 branches closing in November, mainly due to the accelerated switch to internet banking brought on by the pandemic.

October 7th, 2020...HMG are calling this the second lockdown, but for most people it has been one continuous mess. Reports are coming in of villains making hundreds of millions out of HMG financial Covid-19 support. So why didn't the civil service check these claims with the inland revenue and companies house, and of course a company reference from a well known associate company or services company. And who checked the national insurance records? And of course, why didn't HMG find temporary employment for all these people in the emergency services. I get the feeling that Microsoft and Facebook know more about what people in this country are up to than the government, which again beggars the question, 'why didn't HMG contract out Covid-19 response?' IT companies plainly have the analytics, whilst HMG has the cookies. More companies announce redundancies including the pub chain Greene King's axing of 800 jobs, no doubt after hearing the PM say that getting a vaccine will not be the end of this affair. Presumably he hasn't taken any notice of the thoughts of chairman Bill Gates. Apparently there will be a vote in parliament next week on whether the 10pm early closing time of pubs should be scrapped. If that happens, then I could be going out to disco bars, and getting infected, much earlier than previously anticipated. Something at last to live for. The normal opening hours for pubs and bars is 11am to 11pm all week. Some pubs open at 6am to serve breakfasts, such as that near Birmingham markets. Disco bars stay open until 2am on Friday and Saturday nights, in a good year.

October 15th, 2020...The Australian National Science Agency says that Covid-19 can survive for 28 days on cash, mobile phone screens and stainless steel. In many European countries, including the UK, Covid-19 infections are increasing alarmingly. Four days before there were 3837 patients with the coronavirus, as HMG put three nightingale hospitals on standby, whilst saying that the UK would not be put under a national lockdown. A rule whereby no more than six people could meet, was now in force. HMG announced a three tier system, putting Liverpool in tier three, the top most serious. Parts of Greater London were now in tier three, whilst much of northern England was in tier two. The situation was worse than it had been on March 23rd, at the start of the lockdown. The effects on pubs and restaurants was crippling. On the twelfth M&B (Mitchells & Butlers brewery and pub chains Harvester and All Bar One) announced that they were negotiating redundancies. They employ 44,000 at 1700 pubs. The next day Marston pub and brewery chain axe 2,150 jobs, whilst on the sixteenth JD Wetherspoon pub chain announced a loss of 105 million pounds. NEC Group, the owners of the National Exhibition Centre, NEC Arena, etc. announce the axing of 450 jobs. In the first six months of 2020 there has been a net loss of six thousand stores in the UK. The leisure and retail industries were crumbling away before our eyes. Despite all the sacrifice made by the general public there was a report that there were no Covid-19 checks on passengers arriving at Heathrow Airport, whilst illegal immigrants were crossing the Atlantic Ocean from west Africa to the Canary Islands, no doubt because the English Channel was a bit too rough for them at this time of year. The conduct of our own citizens was little better, with rowdy youths encircling a police car in Concert Square, Liverpool at ten pm, two hours before the city goes into lockdown, whilst the mayor of Manchester refused to accept that the city had to go into tier three. Even members of parliament in the ruling party would not accept these draconian measures. They were playing with people's lives, unable to accept the fact that the government's only solution was a vaccine months from now. Much to the annoyance of governments in the west, Russia announced a second vaccine, whilst the PRC had one for sale. Meanwhile the French government announces the lockdown of nine cities including Paris. A night curfew will be imposed from 9pm to 6am. The lights are going out across Europe. French gendarmes carry out house searches on the homes of senior politicians during their investigation into the pandemic fiasco, particularly their late response to it and PPE shortage. The health minister Olivier Veran and director of national health Jerome Salomon were included. Regretfully however, no one was running in any British politicians. Russia announces its second vaccine, after a very limited test period.

October 26th, 2020...Germany is to install improved HVAC systems inside public buildings, as nations across Europe restrict the movement of people in the face of a resurgence in Covid-19 infections. There are now 13.6 million carers in the UK, many unpaid, now deprived of assistance due to shielding restrictions. HMG refuses to provide free meals to school children during the half term holiday. Our prime minister is proving to be as unpopular as the Roman emperor Caligula. Ninety waste water treatment plants in the UK are now monitoring the presence of Covid-19 in the water. What took them so long? Boots the chemist now offer a 12 minute nasal swab test for 120 pounds, to determine whether you have Covid-19. Conflicting reports state that Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) has mutated from 14 to 30 times. The most obvious mutation called the D614G strain is found on the spike protein, which binds to other cells to infect. Does this make it more lethal? However, scientists in SAGE, HMG's Covid-19 advisory panel, are now urging the prime minister to impose a national lockdown, whilst a group of northern Conservative MPs are demanding a lockdown get out plan. Other European countries are in a similar situation. The general public are being treated little better than bugs in a Petri dish. Will they vote for these serial killers at the next general election? HMG could have used this lockdown as a golden opportunity to get the nation healthy both physically and mentally. It could have put most education and training courses on the internet. If there's one thing that employers moan about its low levels of education and inadequate training. Scotland would put most of its university courses on the internet starting January 2021. As for physical health, HMG could have rationed food. As it is supermarkets have beaten me to it.

October 31st, 2020...Booking my next grocery delivery on the internet, I realised that about 80% of processed meals were no longer available, presumably due to the closure of abattoirs and meal preparation factories as a result of Covid-19 contamination and employee infection. The situation had been getting noticeably worse over the past two months. The thought of this epidemic spreading through the nation's agriculture and prepared meals infrastructure filled me with foreboding. I could visualize long queues at the supermarket again, with only vegetables on the shelves, assuming HMG conscripts the unemployed to work in the fields. By then we will have become a nation of vegetarians, with withdrawal symptoms, longing for a juicy red steak. I was now back to eating those small pizzas with baked beans, plus spicy meals that might trigger an allergic reaction. A galloping gourmet, I definitely am not. Both Germany and France impose national lockdowns again. The streets were jammed with traffic on the night of the thirtieth, as residents headed for the family vineyard I presume; seeking the good life, for who knows how long. The Covid-19 infection rate has increased by a factor of four as scientists predict 85,000 dead in the UK during the coming months. Belgium imposes a national lockdown. Once again I ask, 'how many lives has this experiment cost, and will anyone be arrested because of it?' I decide that enough is enough and embark upon my website advertising campaign. I have had it on the internet three months and as far as I can tell from the Google and Bing SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) software, no one has looked at it. It's therefore time to try out their free 85 pound offers, and inflict pain where due. Watching BBC News at 11-30am I learned of the death of Scottish actor and 007 Sir Sean Connery. He died in bed at his home in the Bahamas. I found it most depressing, which left me with a headache for the rest of the day. The incident appeared to be symptomatic of the entire country. It was dying. As if to confirm my suspicions, there was a second incident that evening. Upon hearing loud voices outside, I opened the bathroom window to see that the roads had been taped off, with what I assumed to be community police standing in the constant rain, without umbrellas, next to them. Upon going outside, I was told that someone had been shot, and this was now a crime scene. Every Saturday night there would be an occupied parked car at the end of the street which I assumed to be occupied by a drug dealer. At the bottom of the street there would be at least one drug dealer standing there every day of the week, all day, which was why I hated going down there, for that was where the local corner shop (convenience store) was located. We were, in my opinion, on the verge of becoming a third world nation like Mexico, where the politicians are corrupt and the police too afraid; who later become recruiters to the drug gangs and later their executioners. Do you honestly believe that your government is an asset? When you can't get your police force to investigate the mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic by government, you just know that this is ultimately going to happen. And of course this wouldn't happen if we had a political/economic system as described on this website.

The Oxford Vaccine Group-AstraZeneca team have now produced 1.2 million doses of their vaccine at Oxford Biomedica. It can be transported at 4C, thereby making it much cheaper than that supplied by Modena and co.

November 2nd, 2020...It was the calm after the storm; three storms to be exact, Epsilon, Aiden and Zeta. There had so far been at least twenty tropical storms which originate in the Caribbean Sea, ultimately dumping their rain on the British Isles. To make matters worse I had endured excruciating pain, the equivalent of half a dozen toothaches. It was an allergic reaction in my lower left jaw, whilst the pills I take don't provide instant relief. It was the first time I'd had it in my jaw. Normally it effects either my lips, tongue or cheek. Probably caused by breathing in body odours, perfume, etc. during my walk in the city centre on Saturday afternoon. I had worn a mask throughout, but they are not impregnated with activated charcoal. Growing old is not a pleasant experience. The good news is that the roof is still on, and the photo-voltaics still work. There was nothing interesting on TV to watch, so I spent most of the time playing solitaire whilst listening to my R&B music. It brought back memories of the nights I'd spent at the Brasshouse pub. How much more cabin fever would I have to endure? HMG was about to unleash another national lockdown. Even if they lift it for Christmas, I doubt whether I will be allowed to go to a disco bar. Christmas alone as usual. Must get a christmas card for Brent and his wife, the only relatives whose address I now know. The police are spending much of their time breaking up parties of hundreds of young people, and I can see why it happens. My experience shows that when you are over 25 years of age, women simply don't want to know you, unless they're prostitutes. The time for young men to find a partner is rapidly running out; a problem that HMG hasn't even acknowledged. Transferred my rock & roll music list to my website.

November 5th, 2020...Pupils aged 7 years or over in Singapore are told to either carry their mobile phone with them, with the Covid-19 contact tracing app installed, or carry the free Covid-19 pendant. A scientific report states that that there is no increase in severe Covid-19 infections amongst families with school children in the UK. There are now 60,000 Covid-19 dead out of 430,000 deceased in the UK in the year 2020. I see the British conspiracy writer David Icke has been banned from Twitter, after earlier being banned from Facebook and YouTube. I keep my stories as accurate and complete as possible, not knowing what is true and what isn't. I like reading in Twitter. It's like my website only ten times better. I'm still investigating advertising, and the more I read, the more I realise that there is no such thing as free speech on the internet. Advertising is expensive. Also feint news that the NHS could have a vaccine ready by Christmas. Meanwhile breaches in lockdown can result in 200 pound fines, up to a total of 6,400 pounds. The Bank of England offers a loan to HMG of 150 billion pounds, otherwise known as quantitative easing. Interest rates remain on hold at 0.1%. Sainsbury supermarkets will close 420 Argos stores transferring their operations to 150 new ones in house, cutting 3,500 jobs. 17 million infected mink are slaughtered in Denmark after 200 people get infected with a variant of Covid-19 from them, which may circumvent any new vaccines currently being tested. The area is sealed off. This happened in Spain a few months before and at half a dozen other places. In Scotland the CDIT (Covid Deaths Investigation Team) investigate care home management for the COPFS (Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service).

Whilst looking at ways to advertise my website, I came to the conclusion that it's unnecessarily expensive. HMG could make British produced products and services cheaper and more cost effective if it provided the advertising at cost price. It could get MI5 and MI6 running around gathering the analytics. Providing proof that it's on the job. It would also reduce the cost of living. As for my website, I couldn't charge a membership fee as I have no members. Perhaps I should consider crowd funding through the Kickstarter website? Free speech is anything but free on the internet.

November 13th, 2020...The prime ministers chief adviser Dominic Cummings departs 10 Downing Street for the last time shortly after the departure of the PM's director of communications Lee Cain. This follows the retirement of several senior civil servants, including Sir Philip Rutnam who is suing for constructive dismissal, and Sir Alex Allan, the adviser to the ministerial code who quit (on November 20th) after the PM gave his support to the home secretary Priti Patel, who was accused of bullying. So which way does the balance of intelligence and professionalism verses ignorance, old boy network, shear bloody mindedness and apathy now swing?

November 16th, 2020...Pfizer and BioNTech announce that their vaccine will be ready by Xmas. Two jabs will be needed three months apart, initially for the elderly and NHS front line staff. The inoculation rate will be only one million per month. With a population of over 67 million, where does that leave everyone else? Things are miserable enough, what with no public firework displays on bonfire night (November 5th) to celebrate Guy Fawkes' attempt to blow up parliament, and the festival of lights known as Diwali for Hindus, Jains and Sikhs on November 14th, having to wait probably over another year for a Covid-19 vacination is to endure the unendurable. As if things couldn't get any worse, I tried to upload a Q&A app to my website on the eleventh only to see it fail to install twice. I later learned that the sale of the Microsoft X-Box resulted in so many downloads of the Call of Duty computer game that it almost brought the internet to a standstill. The next day my internet download speed had dropped to 5Mbps (megabits per second) when it should have been at 35Mbps. The day after it was at 24Mbps. On the sixteenth the Bing internet speed checker recorded an average of 10Mbps download and 8Mbps upload. If this is caused by game downloading then it's time UK companies sued the offending organisations; both the games console manufacturers who have enabled this system and the ISPs for allowing this to happen. Is my ISP throttling my connection? My telephone reception has also been repeatedly dropping out. How do I test these lines. Complained to my ISP but have so far received no reply. On the pandemic front HMG are to open two Covid-19 testing megalabs early next year. The Belgian pharmaceutical company Janssen, owned by Johnson & Johnson, commences trials in the UK of its vaccine, whilst the American company Moderna announce that their Covid-19 vaccine is 94.5% effective in trials. As for the health of my internet connection, it was now 15Mbps upload and download. The next day my prayers were answered as workmen turned up to lay fibre optic cables in the street. My Tesco food delivery was again late and incomplete. I learned that it was due to the packers not allowed to take items off the shelves but having instead to use an adjoining warehouse that was simply too small to contain all the necessary goods. So the incomplete deliveries were not caused by food factories shut down due to infected workers.

November 18th, 2020...The UK's NAO (National Audit Office) questions HMG's use of MPs, peers and ministers to enable the purchase of PPE, amounting to 18 billion pounds, apparently without checks and balances to eliminate conflict of interest. The fast track approach based upon emergency procurement regulations lacked transparency and documentation. 10.5 billion pounds of orders went through without a competitive tendering process. In addition a family pest control firm was handed a £108m PPE contract, and nobody knows how this came about. Much of the PPE purchased is of single use, or of such a low standard that it could not be used in a more contagious environment such as to treat SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV-1 patients. Had these purchases been made in February then the bill would likely have been ten billion pounds less. The correct PPE was not purchased before then because HMG was concentrating on a flu pandemic and nothing more serious. All of these purchases were no doubt made through the combined efforts of the purchasing departments in all the NHS regions. So why didn't they think out of the box? Why didn't they get this low tech stuff made by volunteers in the UK; galvanize a cottage industry? There are no doubt thousands of sewing machines out there that could make face masks, etc. All that's needed are the materials. But there appears to be precious little intelligent management behind this procurement, never mind an effective project management structure. Money flows like water, in a bankrupt state. Most of the western world, indeed the whole world is bankrupt, beyond the financial pale. What future have any of us got?

I'm cleaning my computer room and what do you think I've found? It's a publication from Birmingham's central library titled 'How to find suppliers by Business Insight.' There it is, general directories: Kompass, Thomson Business, Yellow pages, Marquesa, the latter to find manufacturer's name and address from product logo. Links to products including PPE. So why didn't these morons use it? Did they get a kick-back from these deals? Of course it does beggar the question, 'why hasn't HMG got its own website with free product details and marketing lists for British entrepreneurs and established businesses to access?' It would boost the British economy no end. You will remember this failure at the next general election won't you? And if you can't wait you can always email them. You can get their email address from the following websites:

November 20th, 2020...Internet speed 13.3 download and 8.14 upload, and I've finally received a letter from my ISP (Internet Service Provider) telling me that they are looking into the problem. No need to complain to the ombudsman, and collect that compensation. Isn't that nice. Unfortunately after the scourge from Microsoft's X-Box comes the new Sony Playstation PS5. Fortunately for us serious web users, the port of Felixstowe is jammed with xmas presents stuck on container ships anchored off shore. He! He! He! To be fare, thousands of small shop owners were now facing bankruptcy, since they were having to stay shut in the lockdown whilst supermarkets could stay open and sell 'their' products. Officially this lockdown would end on December 2nd but most people realised that it would simply be renewed with little relief over Christmas, the most important time of the year for traders. Internet based businesses would prosper, whilst the small shop owner would not be able to create the product data for their own website, as it would take too long. So why doesn't HMG set up co-operatives of shop owners, and provide them with the necessary IT support? The internet revolution would require a political revolution first.

November 23rd, 2020...The ChAdOx1 vaccine developed by the Jenner Institute, Oxford University, otherwise known as the Oxford Vaccine Group-AstraZeneca is proven to be 70 to 90% efficacy depending upon dosage. Giving an initial half dosage followed weeks later by a full dosage raises the efficacy. Four million doses are ready to use. It has taken ten months to reach this point. Will it stop virus transmission? For how long will it remain effective? The pandemic is far from over, but at least people now see a light at the end of the tunnel. I have been trying to arrange for someone to stay with me over christmas from abroad. However, trying to get accurate information in a constantly evolving scene is next to impossible when one realizes that it can take days simply to get a visa. As far as I could tell my visitor would have to quarantine for 14 days or be fined one thousand pounds if they did not. So much for holidays.

There are eight different types of vaccine, most of which are being employed in the development of Covid-19 vaccines. Here is a list of some of the main contenders.

Approval for use in the UK has to come from the MHRA (British Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) before it can be distributed. How these vaccines work is described on the following website.

November 24th, 2020...To encourage business for airlines, HMG announces the introduction of Covid-19 tests five days after people arrive in the UK, at a cost of 120 pounds from December 15th. Following the troubles in Denmark there is a call for mink in UK to be tested for Covid-19. The world's largest PPE manufacturer announces that 16 of its factories in Malaysia that make latex gloves, are closed due to 2,500 workers contracting Covid-19. Amazon states that some Sony PS5 expectant customers have complained after, they opened the cardboard box to discover kitchen utensils instead of the latest games console. Oh dear; how sad; I'm in tears. How awful. Internet speed now 17 Mbps download, 10 Mbps upload. What happened to the 35Mbps claim? Evidently the speed is reduced when I use a wi-fi connection and switch off the hub at night. Prices for Covid-19 vaccine now emerge. The NHS vaccine will cost £12-58 per dose, Pfizer $20, Moderna $10 to 50 depending upon quantity ordered and Astra Zeneca $4 per dose. The Russian Sputnik V will cost £15 for the two doses taken 42 days apart, says the Russian Direct Investment Fund. The second dose is different in makeup from the first, thereby prolonging resistance. To be manufactured in at least four countries. A dry vaccine form is designed for third world countries since it can be stored at 2 to 8 degrees centigrade. Internet wi-fi speed 16.60 Mbps download, 11.34 Mbps upload. Internet Ethernet speed 33.19 Mbps download, 10.92 Mbps upload. If the wi-fi download is half of ethernet why isn't the upload similar? Is it time for Superboost add-on to hub?

November 29th, 2020...Arcadia, owners of Miss Selfridges, Burton, Topshop and Dorothy Perkins clothes retailers is now on the verge of closure, with the possible loss of 13,000 jobs. In addition thirteen hundred jobs are to go at M&B brewery and pub owners, whilst HMG announces that the business minister Nadhim Zahawi is to be the Covid-19 vaccine rollout minister until next summer. Incredibly zombie mink have been sited rising out of the ground in Denmark, caused by gasses forming in their tiny bodies. There is uproar in the Scandinavian country when it's realised that the extermination and disposal of our furry friends was not carried out within the law. As for me I have been trying to figure out just where Birmingham stands in the new government tier system. Now which is worse, tier one or tier five? It turns out that there is only tiers one to three, so which is worse, one or three. Tier three has the highest infection rate or R number, etc. Which tier your area is in is determined by about five factors:

1...Pressure on the NHS.

2...Infection rate on elderly and ailing.

3...R (reproductive) number.

4...Positive test rate.

I've looked at the areas shown on a map on BBC news but I am unable to identify the West Midlands on it. So I'm none the wiser. Whilst HMG has set out different controls for each tier, as far as I and most people are concerned, the lockdown from March continues. Using this psychology crap will not change our lives for the better, and the longer it continues, the more certain it will be engraved upon our thinking for years ahead. So why did HMG make this tier system so difficult to understand. It could have chosen obvious words to describe each tier, starting with the worst: bury, isolate, pray and sing. It did occur to me that instead of splitting the areas into counties, HMG should have split them up into TV transmitter areas. That way there could be a message in the top left of your TV screen telling you what tier you are in, with the details of each tier restriction in the teletext under health presumably. How many of you look at the science, technology and health pages, not to mention business? Educate yourself. I don't want teletext shut down after the pandemic. Television does not have to be programmes for dumb-dumbs.

As of December 2020 there is still no police investigation of HMG's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. As with the Grenfell Tower fire, it could all be swept under the carpet as the months and years go by. It would appear that there is one legal system for the masses, where killers like me and Royal Navy officers get their comeuppance, and another system that is more concerned with protecting the establishment. This is the sort of arrangement one would expect in a totalitarian state. Maybe one day that will be exactly what we recognise that we have. By then it maybe too late.

December 2nd, 2020...The retail chain Debenhams is declared insolvent with the loss of 12,000 jobs. The way trends are going it won't be long before HMG's defence procurement is bought via Amazon. This is what happens when the government has no Ministry for Information Technology, no means of recruiting IT experts to save our retail sector, no IT proficiency exams for directors to pass, and no IT vision. Parliament and HMG are of as much use to the economy of this nation as the captain on a sinking Titanic. Why didn't they freeze the capitalist system when they had the chance. They must have known last January that it would take at least one year and possibly two to defeat this pandemic, and yet no warning was given to companies at the time. Now we have at fifty-five MPs demanding a relaxation of the tier system in order to save the economy. Our financial place in the world in the long run is apparently more important to them than saving lives in the short term. At the next general election I hope their constituents remember this betrayal. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine finally receives approval in the UK with inoculations starting in one week's time. There are now officially 60,000 dead from Covid-19 in the UK, although the mortality figure is now at least 80,000 above normal.

December 10th, 2020...The over eighties and front line medical staff are now having their first inoculation of the BioNtech & Pfizer BNT162b Covid-19 vaccine, brought in from Belgium by the RAF due to delays at UK container ports, where a combination of Brexit deadline, Christmas and the pandemic have brought global trade to a near standstill. ASDA, Tesco, Sainbury's, Morrison, and Aldi supermarkets all hand back the business rates relief that HMG gave them at the start of the lockdown, as grocery purchases via the internet go through the roof. B&Q did likewise as home owners relieved their cabin fever through DIY (Do-It-Yourself).

December 19th, 2020...With Covid-19 infection rates rising across the world, HMG announces that due to a more contagious version of the virus increasing the infection rate around London, the whole of the south-east of England now comes under tier 4 restrictions, 'grave', at midnight. You can now only see one other person and that has to be outdoors. Christmas plans are cancelled. No one in authority thinks of postponing it a few months in order to help out retailers. Evidently there are 23 mutations of Covid-19, ours giving it a 71% increase in transmissibility. HMG sets up sixty long stay treatment centres for Covid-19 victims costing ten million pounds. There are now 27,000 new infectious cases and 534 dead in 24 hours. The official total dead now stands at 67,075. HMG assures us that the new version of Covid-19 can still be treated by existing vaccines, but that message doesn't sound convincing to many. There is a mass rush of people to get out of the city by train. Well I told you so. Can we now have the arrests, trials and executions? Of course there is no death penalty in the UK, but that's only because I'm not running the joint. The thought of this lot living it up in some grace and favour prison cell for thirty years does not amuse me. I'll settle for a world technocracy any day.

And rather belatedly, the WHO is now to investigate the source of Covid-19 in the PRC, and presumably elsewhere. Huge queues of lorries going back miles now exist at UK ports Dover, Felixstowe, Harwich, Holyhead as the Brexit deadline approaches, with the main sticking point of fishing rights remaining unresolved. HMG won't ban the transportation of non-essential goods such as children's plastic toys and xmas decorations in order to clear the backlog. If HMG gives in then expect Scotland to declare UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence). Just how do lorry drivers do their business, stuck on a motorway, with pubs and public toilets shut down? Whilst I was trying to figure that out, umpteen countries closed their borders to people from the UK. Evidently a new Covid-19 or should I say Sars-CoV-2, is the last thing they want. Thus far no one has mentioned the 'P' word, and I don't mean panic.

December 23rd, 2020...Despite pleas to the opposite from the European Commission, forty countries had now closed their borders to travelers from the UK due to the new strain of Covid-19 in the south-east, including about three thousand lorry drivers at Dover, many trying to get back to their homes on the continent for Christmas. Freezing temperatures were forecast for Christmas day, so the lorry drivers were justifiably becoming militant, with lines of police now visible. There were rumours of panic buying again, following restrictions on buying soap and toilet rolls. I received a long email from the head of Tesco saying that 'there was no need to worry, there's plenty to eat. We get our cauliflower and lettuce imported from France'. No wonder shoppers are panicking. HMG borrowing this year rose to 240.9 billion pounds, 188.6 billion the previous year. The number of above average deaths in the UK now stood at 81,000. Meanwhile the French eventually opened their border to lorry drivers who had a negative Covid-19 test within the last three days. It was to take them that long just to find a test centre, and find their lorry afterwards. Do I call this the French virus from now on? The next day I received a letter from Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council on the subject of Covid-19. It listed two government websites where additional information could be obtained on the subject:

Since my internet connection had gone down that morning at the start of the bank holiday, probably due to two days of continuous heavy rain, this advice was now beyond reach. But they had supplied a phone number: 0121 569 2266. It might come in handy when I'm at death's door I thought. This was the first direct communication I had received from any government department on the subject of Covid-19. I still had no idea when I would receive my first inoculation.

January 1st, 2021...I didn't realise just how dependent upon an internet connection I had become until I started dying from boredom. Most, if not all, of the movies on TV I had already seen. Clearly HMG was not interested in saving the nation from this dreaded affliction. Between watching the LED lights on my internet hub, I watched the movie 'Outbreak' starring Dustin Hoffman for at least the second time. As the last minutes of the year 2020 ticked by I stood at my bedroom window and watched the celebratory fireworks sparkle and explode in the distance. It was a cold hoar frost. My ponds in the back garden had been frozen all day, whilst my cordyline australis had been covered over with fleece for the last five days. The rockets, starbursts, fountains of flame and explosions reached a crescendo as midnight approached. The timing signified the end of a year that was best forgotten and the beginning of another that was likely to end the same way for many who would not live long enough to receive their life giving inoculation. December thirty-first also marked the end of our flirtation with that opulent institution called the European Union. I strongly believed in nations coming together, but not at any price. The cascade of multi-spectral light in the black sky also sent a defiant message to our microbial adversary. we would fight on. Despite the apathy, incompetence and apparent fraud, we had survived. No doubt our neighbours in their flying saucers were looking on incredulously. We were alive, no doubt to continue polluting the planet and beyond. That night I had a deep admiration for all those who had stood in the frozen chill and given us such as admirable display. Yes, it was a defiant gesture. A remembrance of the dead and what was still to come. For some reason I remembered the words of grace at meal times during my school days; 'For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful. Amen.' There was also the school purpose; 'Give us clean hands, clean words, clean thoughts. Teach us to work as hard and play as fair in thy site alone, as if the whole word saw.' I wondered how many of my old school mates of the graduate class of 1966 were still alive. I then thought about writing a song. Scribbled a few notes then fell asleep. It had been a most confining and socially uneventful year. I couldn't believe that I had spent nine months in lockdown.

January 4th, 2021...As I sat there waiting for a phone call from my ISP, very early that morning, a man from Openreach (BT) arrived. He had come to fix my internet, and complained that he hadn't received any instructions. Well that's British management for you. He eventually found a fault in the local internet router box, which was located about fifteen minutes walk away, in the freezing cold. All the hub lights were now on green. Upon his return we still couldn't get my laptop and mobile phone to access the internet. Evidently this was an example of demarcation. Since he didn't work for my ISP, I had to phone them and ask them to reconfigure my hub. After spending ages listening to a pre-recording stating that due to Covid-19 this service was for life and death situations only, which of course it was, I finally got through. Following the instructions over the phone I typed in a special number, added a password, etcetera and my Microsoft's Edge came back to life. The man at the other end then asked me if the Openreach guy had reset my hub by sticking a pin in the back. No I replied, and that was that. Thinking about it later, I realised that I had done that a few days before on the thirtieth, as I followed instructions from the ISP woman. She had naturally assumed that the hub would reset itself automatically, which it didn't, because its an antiquated clapped out piece of junk, which even the experienced guy from Openreach didn't recognise. Neither of us wore a face mask. That day just five days after approval, the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine was administered for the first time. Since it could be stored in GP's freezers it could therefore be administered from their surgeries with relative ease. It was planned to inject two million patients per week at the one thousand centres being set up. There was already half a million doses available. One million patients had already been vaccinated in the UK by Christmas eve. No sooner had HMG set up twenty test centres near ports for lorry drivers than the demand suddenly dropped off as lorry loads became scarce. It was now thought that either Sars-Cov-2 was more transmissible due to its stickier coating, or it reproduced more rapidly producing denser spores when people cough, sneeze or talk. There were now 346,408 dead and forty million people infected with Covid-19 in the USA. Worldwide there were at least 1,853,841 dead and 85,636,417 infected with roughly half hospitalized. Professor Alex Gandy of Imperial College, London, stated that the differences between strains of Covid-19 were now 'quite extreme'. The UK death rate was now an average of 677 persons per day, with new hospital cases running at 60,000 per day. One million people were now infected, whilst 1.3 million had been inoculated in the UK. The PM came on TV at 8pm that evening to tell those in England that a national lockdown would be implemented. All schools would close but nurseries would stay open. A national lockdown already existed in the rest of the union. Still no mention of the P word. The next day the BBC announced that it would broadcast education programmes. There would be three hours of primary classes on CBBC and two hours of secondary classes on BBC2. At last, at last something intelligent to watch. Oh goodie, goodie.

January 7th, 2021...As for my health, I have noticed that for the last couple of months I have experienced my back itching, thicker phlegm when I cough and a greater production of ear wax, although my hearing has mysteriously improved. Whether any of this is associated with Covid-19 I haven't a clue. The Covid-19 infection and mortality rates are increasing alarmingly. NHS staff are overloaded, with many feeling that this workload cannot be endured for much longer. Well if there's anyone from HMG reading this then I strongly advise you to restart our Civil Defence programme, recruiting and conscripting ex-employees of the medical professions including those that have been fired, plus teenagers that have no schooling to do, and get them trained to work on pandemic patients in Nightingale hospitals. Forget the bureaucracy and get them trained using interactive software via the internet if necessary. It's better than nothing. I thought again of using this moment to make the populous physically fit through the banning of junk food, personal diet and physical exercise regimes, but a junk food ban would probably only start another rush to buy food at the supermarkets, and with outside temperatures of -4C at the moment it's not practical to create group exercise sessions in school gymnasiums. UK death rate is now 1,041 with 62,322 new infections in a day. Where I live, West Midlands ambulance service has just experienced its toughest day ever. Looking on the bright side, 700 inoculation centres have been set up in England, with GPs receiving the first batches of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine initially for care homes. Hopefully I'll receive mine by mid February, as I'm at the bottom of the list of most vulnerable. By then thirteen million people will have been inoculated against Sars-CoV-2. Last night I watched a BBC programme about how to boost your immune system. I know you're all dying to want to do this. Evidently you must have a varied diet with 30 grammes of mixed vegetables per day. Engage in moderate, not severe, exercise. Have a one hour massage or a thirty second shower each day, plus eight hours of sleep. Well I suppose going up and down stairs at least half a dozen times a day amounts to moderate exercise. I'm not sure about the cold shower in this weather, as it's like a prelude to the 'Day After Tomorrow' outside. Personally I'm still trying to lose weigh after the Xmas excess.

January 14th, 2021...Both the CDC and WHO are investigating the origins of Covid-19 in the PRC. This investigation is very important in order to find the exact route SARS-CoV-2 took to Wuhan. It's known that 14 pangolin were intercepted as they were smuggled into the PRC from Malaysia in 2019. They all died, at least some from a respiratory illness But where were they caught? If the exact origin is not found, then this pandemic could start all over again in a few years time when most people have stopped taking their Covid-19 booster injections. In the UK Covid-19 tests for asymptomatic people are now available at all 317 local authorities although I haven't a clue where to get mine from. I've had no test so far. There have been thirty thousand fines for Covid-19 lockdown violations so far in England and Wales, 10,000 pounds for event organizers and 200 pounds for individuals. There are now 200,000 vaccinations for Covid-19 in the UK per day, which is more than the rest of Europe put together, whilst the over eighties, many who live alone and without driving ability, are being told to book appointments at centres over fifty miles away. The Chinese Sinovac vaccine has turned out to be only 50.4% effective in Brazil, whilst inhaled interferon-B is undergoing its third trial at the Hull Royal Infirmary in England. So far its been 80% effective against Covid-19. BBC Bitesize is to offer maths and english lessons on the web from February, whilst the Department for Education appears to be offering software for lessons on the internet, plus 300,000 laptops to schools, although details are at present sketchy. It's clearly about time we had a Ministry for IT that produced computer hardware and software for education and government use.

The long term effects of a lockdown on people's eyesight has also been in the news. People not going outside or sitting in front of the television or computer screen are urged to observe the 20-20-20 rule. That is to look at objects twenty feet away for twenty seconds every twenty minutes. I wonder how that rule will go down amongst prison inmates. Not so sketchy is the furor coming from numerous mums complaining of the slave rations sent to them for their kids. Thirty pound weekly food parcels as a substitute for school meals have turned out to be anything but. There are calls for the school meal voucher system to be reintroduced. Personally I feel that its about time school kids had real independence, receiving their school meal and pocket money vouchers as SPEVs in their Apple i-phone wallets. Now that's something worth protesting about isn't it kids? So far no one has been arrested for this apparent scam. And still on the subject of kids rights, students at university are being screwed for rent money even though they can't attend lessons due to quarantine rules, or have gone home. Are our politicians nothing more than spivs? It later turns out that for reasons that are beyond my comprehension, contractors are simply following the regulations laid down by the Ministry for Education. These civil servants plainly don't eat enough marmite on toast.

January 22nd, 2021...The NHS announces that blood plasma designed to enhance the immune system doesn't work. There are now two million dead from Covid-19 worldwide. Young people suffering from long term Covid-19 may be suffering from blood clots (pulmonary embolism) on the lungs. Large pharmacies in the UK are now providing Covid-19 vaccinations. Over eighties are now getting vaccinated. Covid-19 infections can provide protection against reinfection for five months. HMG stops all people entering UK due to virulent Covid-19 from Brazil without recent negative virus test and five days quarantine after arrival. Half of Church of England's 14,000 parish churches are now closed, as are some mosques for Friday prayer. 3.6 million people have now been inoculated in the UK, with the over seventies, including me, next. There are concerns that the low level of statutory sick pay is resulting in infected people infecting others at work. There is uproar when it emerges that HMG has cancelled the contract agreed in March 2020 to hire 8,000 hospital beds, 1,200 ventilators and 10,000 nurses, 700 doctors and 8,000 other hospital staff from the private sector, due to little use. The contract cost £400 million per month but two thirds of beds went unused. The Health Secretary Matt Hancock is blamed for this blunder, as 100,000 NHS hospital staff are ill from Covid-19 or in quarantine, as the nation experiences a second wave. Oxford University open an antibiotic resistance research centre. The death rate from Covid-19 climbs dramatically in the Uk with 1,610 in just one day, 1,401 the next, followed by 1,348. There are now over 90,000 dead in the UK. There is a new outbreak of Covid-19 in several parts of the PRC. The government responds by building 3000 quarantine units on a 34 hectare site at Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province. I cannot help thinking that this new variant is more than just more infectious. Owing to sickness and quarantine there are now 54,000 crown court cases awaiting to be served in England and Wales, whilst politicians in the Welsh assembly are caught having a booze up soon after an alcohol ban in pubs was imposed. It's another example of politicians thinking they are above the law, whilst their fellow Welsh brethren are bailing themselves out after the floods brought on by storm Christoph. One of many anticyclones from the Caribbean transported here by a warm North Atlantic Ocean over the last six months or more. I still haven't had my vaccination. Two large vaccination centres have been set up in Birmingham, one in a mosque and the other at Millennium Point science museum, but I'm required to wait for a letter of appointment. Now I get all my correspondence from water, gas, electricity, local authority and internet companies via emails, but not in the case of the NHS. Why not? Meanwhile HMG has set up education via the internet with the Oak National Academy, described as a lockdown learning initiative, whilst the BBC has set up a similar service called Bitsize.

Police investigation in Scotland of the Covid-19 transfer of infected patients to 474 care homes continues. The Department of Health refuses to upgrade PPE following complaints from doctors and nurses regarding infected staff from the new variant of Covid-19. Mathematicians drop the R number as the number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals falls. But is this due to the increase in fatalities from the more easily transmissible coronavirus? I can see no end to this lockdown. It's a pointless existence. The media is asking whether these inoculations will prevent transmission of Covid-19. Will the only way out be the acquisition of natural immunity through attrition? The thought of spending more years in lockdown on my own is getting to me. How about the creation of community cabin fever sites on Skype? Three quarters of the over 80s in the UK have now been vaccinated. 419,000 have now died from Covid-19 in the USA. Meanwhile HMG are discussing whether to create quarantine hotels for British persons entering the country, due to the more infectious variants from South Africa and Brazil. It is now thought that whilst existing vaccines can combat these strains, people will still need an annual inoculation.

January 26th, 2021...Prime Minister Boris Johnson says that he takes full responsibility for the 100,162 people who have died from Covid-19 in the UK, one third of them in care homes, whilst the mortality figure in Taiwan still stands at only seven. Novavax, a fourth vaccine ordered by HMG is 89% effective and now due for approval by Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). HMG has seven vaccines on order. Unfortunately these have come too late for many. The UK now has the highest number of deaths per capita. Only four other nations have more dead than the UK, and they are the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico. It's clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that the UK's political system is unfit for purpose, a crawling disaster area. Reopen the catacombs... for the politicians. Where's my jab? And why hasn't the public enquiry started?

February 4th, 2021...The news from Singapore was that the successful Covid-19 'trace together' wrist straps that the government had handed out, were now being used by the police to track people. Steps were being taken to prevent this. Back in the UK, HMG continues its spending spree on vaccines by ordering 40 million doses from the French company Valneva for 2022, whilst the Russian vaccine called Sputnik has been found to be 92% effective. Just how effective these vaccines will be against variants remains to be seen. The South African variant is now found in Bristol and Liverpool. 407 million doses has thus far been ordered for a nation of about 67 million people. The day before I had received a written invitation to have my first Covid-19 jab. I booked the time date and location via the internet, for the next day. The nearest vaccination centre was the Millennium Point, Thinktank Science Museum. I had photographed it the year before. You can find the photos under the Brum hyperlink, but I couldn't remember exactly where it was in Eastside, whilst maps on the internet didn't show the building either. I ended up wandering around Aston University campus following signs to the Covid-19 test centre. A person there directed me to where I should go. I saw no signs to the centre, resulting in me being thirteen minutes late. No one appeared to notice as I sat there for about another fifteen minutes waiting my turn. The injection was painless and efficient. Well that's it ten million and one now vaccinated in the UK. And we'll probably all have to undergo an annual injection. As I walked back across the city centre to the bus stop I realised that I stood a better chance of dying from pneumonia. The day was damp with very low cloud. Pneumonia, yes pneumonia, he died from pneumonia and Covid-19 just the day before. Captain Sir Tom Moore, a glowing example of positive thinking and determination. He had raised millions for the NHS charity by walking up and down his garden supported by his Zimmer frame. The union flags hung at half mast outside the prime minister's residence, whilst staff at Bedford Hospital where he died, stood outside and clapped as a mark of respect. For his dedication he had received 135,000 birthday cards when he reached one hundred. There is now a petition signed by 200,000 people calling for a state funeral. I cannot help thinking that sometime in the future there should be a pandemic memorial. I know of none for previous pandemics. Where that should be, St Paul's Cathedral, Trafalgar Square, etc., I leave to others to decide. Some people are born great, whilst others have greatness thrust upon them.

With the evolution of SARS-Cov-2 into numerous variants, there is a growing call to the UK's prime minister to close seaports, airports and the channel tunnel to people. Whilst it would be possible to exchange tractor units and drivers of incoming lorries at continental ports, with British drivers, the PM simply says that it's not possible to close the ports due to imports of food and pharmaceuticals, etc. In my opinion he is not competent enough to do his job, but it appears that no one is calling for his resignation or impeachment.....nor arrest.

February 11th, 2021...HMG has announced that as from February fifteenth, persons entering the UK from a red list country, will have to undergo ten days isolation in an approved hotel at a personal cost of £1750. Anyone who gives false information about where they have come from could face a prison sentence of up to ten years. There is no mention of lorry drivers nor diplomatic staff. This piece of legislation clearly shows HMG's apprehension concerning the impact of Covid-19 variants. The PM is already talking about annual vaccinations, much like our existing flu jab each autumn for the elderly, whilst the head of genetic surveillance, Professor Sharon Peacock, is talking about sequencing variants for at least ten years. This implies that the jab I have just received will not cure asymptomatic people, it will only reduce the symptoms. This means that until medical science comes up with a cure, the human race will remain in a perpetual battle with SARS-CoV-2, which over time will inevitably become more lethal for those that have had no up to date inoculations. This likely means that people will not be allowed holidays abroad, whilst holidays in this country may also be curtailed. This is of course bad news for the holiday, entertainment, and travel industries. Lockdowns are wearing me down, but at least I have my website to give me something to do, even though no one is reading it. Even so its becoming unbearable. The thought of living a meaningless unproductive lifestyle until the day I die fills me with emptiness, despair. I wish I had moved to a warmer country when I had the opportunity. It's nothing but rain, clouds, fog, frost and snow. I need a pet to keep me company. Where do we go from here? Nine thousand people dead in the UK from Covid-19 during the past week. Covid-19 found in bats in Thailand. People of Bangladesh and Pakistan decent found to be three times more likely to die from this coronavirus. Mary Wilson, a founding member of the Supremes dies at the age of 76. I'm beginning to feel a slight pain in the centre of my chest. Maybe it's already time to go. That night was the coldest in Scotland for twenty-five years; -22.9C in Braemar. I woke up at 5-30am and switched the gas central heating on, as it so cold. The next night was even worse. For a few days now I had been suffering from a mild abdominal pain. Finally I experienced at least eight bouts of watery diarrhoea, eight days after my inoculation. Yep the needle didn't hurt. Just make sure you have plenty of toilet rolls and ....err carpet cleaner. I thought about including a snap of the bowl, but I knew you youngsters will be competing for the best shot on social media when your turn comes along.

February 15th, 2021...HMG at long last finally starts to impose border controls, one year too late, which allowed thousands of infected people to enter the UK and pass on the infection to others.

February 22nd, 2021...Following months and months and months of prevarication by HMG over whether we should or should not wear face masks, there is now considerable material written on the subject that is generally available. Politicians in the US now prefer to wear close fitting N99 or N95 masks beneath a cloth mask, whilst disposable surgical masks should be used solely by the medical profession. Other materials can be used in an emergency to filter airborne pathogens, such as three layers of cotton, silk or chiffon, as recommended by the CDC. The ultimate face mask is now one that incorporates graphene, which not only stops germs from penetrating layers but kills them too.

Ghana becomes the first third world country to receive surplus amounts of Covid-19 vaccine through the WHO's Covax initiative. The aim is to distribute two billion doses by the end of 2021. There were now half a million dead from Covid-19 in the USA, whilst UK unemployment had risen 5.1%, 700,000 less employed than one year ago. HMG's Covid-19 bill had now reached 400 billion pounds and everyone was wondering just how it would be paid off. Following pressure from MPs demanding a lifting of the lockdown, HMG issued a statement saying that the Travel Force would report on April 12th to parliament, whilst international travel restrictions would not be lifted before May 12th. Lockdown restrictions would be totally abolished on June 21st hopefully. On the news front, 3 in 10 care home staff still hadn't been vaccinated, about 131,000. NHS staff appeal again to the PM for better PPE. There were now 930 dead health and care workers in the UK. The UK Courts have decided that the Health secretary Matt Hancock acted unlawfully by not telling the general public within 30 days, how contracts for PPE, etc. had been awarded. An investigation was underway to determine how one of his neighbour was awarded a contract for glass test tubes. There were complaints of long waits of up to three hours for and in ambulances over the Christmas period. Of course Sir Tom was not to get his state funeral. He wasn't part of the British establishment. No doubt Sir Boris would get his, not before time.

February 26th, 2021...Captain Sir Thomas Moore conducted his last journey from his home at Marston Moretaine to Bedford crematorium. His military funeral consisted of a salute by the Yorkshire Regiment and Battle of Britain C47 Dakota flyby, an aircraft used in the Burma campaign of WWII, of which he was part. Walk on Sir Tom.

March 4th, 2021...There were now 50,000 criminal cases waiting to be heard in the UK. HMG had set up fifty nightingale courts with twenty more to follow. That week also saw the deaths of actor Johnny Briggs who played Mike Baldwin in the soap opera Coronation Street, and the reggae star Bunny Wailer in Jamaica at the age of 73. That day Chancellor Rishi Sunak made his budget announcement to parliament. Covid-19 had so far cost the government 407 billion pounds causing the national debt to increase to 2.5 trillion pounds. The chancellor compared this debt with that at the end of the two world wars, but it is not a true comparison. There are no buildings to rebuild, no Marshall plan, whilst the threat from AI and androids will ensure that job opportunities, particularly for the young, will be few on the ground. Just what did HMG have to show for all this expenditure? Well it saved the lives of many people brought into hospital with Covid-19, but how many would die due to delayed operations caused by this pandemic, and how much would it cost to fight this coronavirus year upon year from now on? The DWP (Department of Works & Pensions) announced the next day that the state pension bill will fall 1.5 billion pounds by 2022, plus an extra 0.9 billion in inheritance tax all due to Covid-19 deaths. There was still no police investigation into the activities of the PM and his colleagues. Since HMG knew the lockdown would last at least one year, why didn't it tell companies to go into mothballs during that period, because the chances of them starting up again are extremely slim. HMG could have employed these people in a new Civil Defence force to man the Nightingale hospitals with minimum bureaucracy, unlike the NHS. They could also have employed them in research laboratories, as a prelude to a science based economy. And got them to manufacture ventilator headsets, to be worn every time you leave your home. No doubt they could have been fitted with a metal straw to assist the consumption of beverages at the bar. HMG could also have updated the health and education systems by linking them to the internet and then training the nation in IT and AI. They didn't because they didn't know how. Instead they spent it on trying to resurrect zombie companies. And who profits from that, Conservative Party supporting landlords? Just how many magistrates will be prepared to evict the thousands of tenants in arrears once HMG removes their legal protection? It's plainly obvious why you need a technocracy if you want the utopian dream that I have proposed on this website. To rub the matter in further, it now appears that for eighteen years the DWP had underpaid some female pensioners their state pension to the tune of 13,500 pounds on average, making it a total of 2.7 billion pounds. Most of these pensioners were now, like my mother who worked well beyond retirement age, deceased. Would the next of kin receive these payments? And just how do you get such an important computer algorithm wrong for so many years.

In an age of AI, an egalitarian society is the only just society.

The Covid-19 fight continued with more revelations. It was now an age of variants. There was the P1 variant from Brazil and the 117 variant from the English county of Kent, which was considered to be 35% more lethal after undergoing 23 mutations in just one night in December 2020. There was now a hunt on for an infected Englishman from Brazil, who had P1, but who filled in their test registration form upon arrival in the UK, incorrectly. Why the hell wasn't this on a computer system? You know, one that tells you that you haven't filled in a certain data box correctly. The word of the month was 'immunocompromised'. That's a patient with a weak immunity. We learned that the three month gap between the first and second inoculations is to allow poor immune cells to die off, thereby ensuring that the second dose goes to the best remaining cells. We also learned that to avoid succumbing to long term Covid-19, one should take things easy for one month and not push one's self to the limit.

March 5th, 2021...By now the media and the opposition parties had read the small print in the chancellor's statement. They were not amused. Nurses were to receive a pay increase of only one per cent, despite all the sacrifices they had made during the lockdown. But the media still hadn't understood the full implications of the statement. The chancellor had compared the pandemic to the two world wars, but at the end of which the solution was obvious; rebuild. This time there was nothing to rebuild...except trust. We were doubly bankrupt from the economic crisis and now the pandemic, whilst waiting in the wings was the grim reaper in the form of artificial intelligence, which would put just about everyone out of a job. What the chancellor didn't admit was that at the end of the second world war the top rate of income tax was in the region of 95%. The nation was clearly sliding towards some ignominious end. Would the British establishment end it all through a nuclear war with the PRC over the fate of Hong Kong? People were beginning to realise that governments are a liability. Better to build a home off grid, far from the nuclear targets in the southern hemisphere, and grow your own food, produce your own electricity and recycle your own water, than depend upon a political system as unreliable as cryptocurrencies. If everyone did that then governments would become redundant. The PM was determined to make sure this would never happen. Almost every week he stood on his Covid-19 political soap box rather than delegate the work and responsibility to those qualified and experienced for the task. Now he was going one step further. The media had discovered that HMG had now spent 2.6 million pounds on a media briefing room similar to that being used by the US president, for the Boris-Covid show. That was plainly worth more than giving our nurses a meaningful pay rise.

March 10th, 2021...In the news was the horrendous cost of HMG's test and trace system, now costing 37 billion pounds over two years. Initially designed to prevent a lockdown of the economy, it has clearly failed. Amongst the costs it emerges that some consultants have been paid around 6,600 pounds per day. Clearly HMG is not reading my website. I cannot help thinking that the police are deaf, dumb, blind and senile to what's going on, whilst there are no calls to hang 'em high from the media either. Talk about crimes against humanity and enraging public decency. It'll all be white washed over in a public enquiry years later. As for the front line struggle against Covid-19, an article in Science Immunology states that the GM-CSF protein causes inflammation in most patients who die from the Coronavirus. Since I suffer from an allergy causing inflammation, it made me wonder whether I was more susceptible. I had an attack just three days ago which I think was caused from eating a pepperoni pizza, causing my tongue to swell up. Further afield, and the pandemic in Brazil is becoming more frightening, with 2,000 infected people dieing in one day, and the hospitals almost full.

March 21st, 2021...Today is census day, when the 65 million citizens of the UK & NI tell those dumb ....... in whitehall just how many people live in the country. The truth is that the birth rate is falling because parliament has trashed society, but the population is increasing because there aren't enough people employed in border control to keep all those illegal immigrants out of the country, because the birth rate is falling. The birth rate is now 1.6 when it should be 2.1 to be sustainable. We are in effect an endangered species, but unfortunately HMG ain't dying fast enough. As for those on the continent, they're dying like flies because their governments told them not to use the British Astra-Zeneca jab, because it caused blood clots. Eventually they all changed their minds, only to be forced into another lockdown, like us miserable lot in the UK. HMG had banned the right to protest in the UK on the grounds of maintaining social distancing, whilst the police in London were keen to impose it, even at speaker's corner. Needless to say the police were the one obvious group that was not social distancing. The seeds for a dictatorship were being sown. As for the pandemic, it looks as if the lockdown could last two years overall. HMG was already indicating that holidays abroad would not be allowed, mainly due to the slow take up of vaccinations on the continent, but also because the government doesn't want any new variants coming into the country. The WHO was saying that it wouldn't be safe to go out until everyone had been inoculated. That's seven billion people. Many of whom have never had a census, so their authorities don't know they exist, nor where they are.

As for how long it would take for a public enquiry or trial of these miscreants managing the government pandemic response, an awful realization came to mind. In an analogie, what if a nurse innocently switched off the life support equipment connected to someone who was waiting for a heart by-pass surgery, and that patient died? Having committed the same act several times, would that person be arrested and tried for murder or manslaughter? Currently there is no police investigation into HMG's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in England, but there is a new investigation into the Gosport NHS mercy killings. Evidently after about four police investigations, the local police are going to examine every medical record in the hospital. Now this investigation may well take twenty years. This implies that such an investigation into Covid-19 response won't end until all the accused have long since died. It's going to be just another example of the system protecting the old boy network, and it's likely to apply to all countries response to Covid-19 regardless of whether they are democracies or not.

March 23rd, 2021...On the pandemic front the University of Glasgow has announced that the Rhinovirus which spreads flu, is capable of overwhelming the Covid-19. So maybe I'm better off without an annual flu jab. HMG doesn't appear to be wanting to win hearts and minds. It has decided to impose 5000 pound fines on people going abroad for no good reason, including holidays. So it's support for the UK tourist trade at long last, is it? However, there is little support for HMG's Police & Crime bill down in Bristol, College Green where violent protests have gone on during a second night resulting in 14 arrests. Other people were in a more somber mood, marking the first anniversary of the start of the first lockdown with one minutes silence at noon. there were now 126,172 dead from Covid-19 according to official figures. There was still no sign of an official enquiry, as journalists concentrated upon determining just how much the refurbishment of the prime minister's flat at 10 Downing Street was costing the tax payer. There were suggestions that he should finance the 30,000 pound cost out of his 150,000 pound salary. It seemed like trivia compared to the pandemic.

March 30th, 2021...HMG announces that lorry drivers from abroad must be tested within 48 hours of entry to the UK, with further tests every three days. This was fourteen months after HMG was told that the coronavirus could be transmitted person to person. The UK government also announces that booster jabs will become available from September. That's after I have received my second inoculation in April. There is clearly great concern that variants could make matters worse, as they evolve. One day they may not even show up in test results, not that that will make much difference judging by a report in the British Medical Journal. The report stated that only one in five UK citizens requested a Covid-19 test when symptoms appeared, whilst few self isolated. Only half knew what those symptoms were, namely coughing, higher temperature and taste and smell loss. It concluded therefore that much of the 37 billion pounds that was spent on the NHS test & trace was wasted. By now there were two protests regarding civil liberties in the UK. John's Campaign had decided to take HMG to court regarding legislation which prohibited the over 65s living in care homes from going out with loved ones, whilst leading politicians from both main parties were protesting at HMG's plan to introduce a vaccination passport, since they all regarded it as a deprivation of liberty. I already have one from my days in the merchant navy. It confirms that I've had inoculations for smallpox (extinct), cholera, yellow fever, tetanus, tuberculosis and typhoid, although most are now out of date. As from yesterday up to six people, or two families could meet outdoors.

April 6th, 2021...Cold winds have come down from the Arctic producing freezing temperatures. In politics the atmosphere is no warmer. HMG still insists upon issuing a vaccination passport at God knows how much cost to the tax payer, over half of whom don't even travel abroad. HMG is still financing public transport which has been 95% empty for over one year now, whilst our lamp posts, illuminating empty streets and motorways, burn on. MPs are afraid that the vaccination passport will become a defacto identity card, presumably with el supremo Boris dictating orders. I just can't see it. Meanwhile the PM still won't support the British tourist industry. Seaside amusement parks protected from the cold British climate under geodesic domes there ain't and never will be. You can hear it now eminating from Westminster, a magnitude nine earthquake of political party opinion, 'we want our foreign holidays!' It's like a child's tantrum. Shameful, embarrassing, but the media simply ignore it. The number of dead from Covid-19 now tops three million worldwide with 4,195 dying in Brazil in a single day. Reports are that the Brazilian President Bolsonaro refuses to lockdown the country. The countries with the highest Covid-19 deaths are as follows:

For up to date data go to Wikipedia, as follows: