Boris Johnson's failure to close the UK Border in January 2020 has wasted £200 BILLION (and counting)

Boris Johnson's failure to close the UK Border in January 2020 has cost the public purse in the United Kingdom some £200 BILLION (and counting).

If Boris Johnson had closed the UK Border on 7th January 2020 (the day that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was identified as a novel coronavirus), the SARS-CoV-2 virus would not have been allowed to enter the United Kingdom.

If the SARS-CoV-2 virus had been prevented from entering the United Kingdom some 100,000 deaths in the UK from Covid-19 would have been avoided.

If there were no cases of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom, life within the UK could have continued as normal ... at least for those of us not involved in the international travel industry.

There would have been no need for any "lockdown".

Schools could have remained open and there would be no "lost generation" whose education has been avoidably messed up.

Tourism in the UK would have flourished, in part because of people who might usually go abroad for their holidays being, in effect, forced to holiday in the UK.

Restaurants, pubs, sporting events etc could have continued as normal.

The huge loss in Gross Domestic Product caused by "lockdown"(s) would have been avoided.

"Furlough" or similar measures would have been targeted at the (much smaller) number of people directly involved with international travel.

 My estimate of the avoidable waste of public money is £200 BILLION. A proper calculation needs to be done by someone with more understanding of macroeconomics than I have.

That's £200 BILLION wasted ... "spaffed up a wall", if you have a taste for Boris Johnson's flamboyant use of language.

This is a matter that the Public Accounts Committee urgently needs to investigate.

When the next pandemic comes along the United Kingdom cannot afford to repeat Boris Johnson's disastrous mistakes.

The initial response of Nicola Sturgeon to Covid-19 was as abjectly bad as Boris Johnson's reponse

Readers of this blog will be aware that I view events in January 2020 as the key to properly understanding the Covid-19 pandemic and the Covid-19 epidemic in the United Kingdom.

The World Health Organisation's disastrous and predictably deadly approach to pandemics is the container for the United Kingdom's disastrous policy on Covid-19.

For detailed criticism of the World Health Organisation's approach to Covid-19 see my letter to Helen Clark and Ellen Sirleaf, co-chairs of the WHO's Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Responsed here:

Letter of 7th December 2020 to the International Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response

The correct approach of the United Kingdom Government to Covid-19 would have been to close the United Kingdom border in January 2020.

See, for example,

The United Kingdom's border should have been closed on 31st January 2020 

The failure to close the UK border in January 2020 was due to disastrously bad so-called "science" in January 2020 by the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) and by the Scientific (sic) Advisory Group on Emergencies (SAGE).

NERVTAG and SAGE also provided advice to the Scottish Government.

Nicola Sturgeon had legal powers in January 2020 to close the Scottish border to International Travel.

Those powers to close the Scottish border to International Travel were provided by section 94 of the Public Health etc (Scotland) Act 2008.

Closure of Scotland's border in January 2020, if properly coordinated, would have prevented entry of the SARS-CoV-2 virus into Scotland.

Nicola Sturgeon abjectly failed to use the legal powers available to her to protect the Public Health in Scotland.

As a result of Nicola Sturgeon's failure to act decisively in January 2020 over 3,000 residents of Scotland have avoidably died from Covid-19.

Those avoidable deaths are key to understanding why I view Nicola Sturgeon's initial response to Covid-19 as being as abjectly bad as Boris Johnson's initial response to Covid-19.

 

Did Chris Whitty's prejudice against border closures contribute to tens of thousands of avoidable Covid-19 deaths in the United Kingdom?

Insufficient attention has been paid in the mainstream media to the failures of the United Kingdom Government and its advisers in January 2020 which have been followed by tens of thousands of avoidable deaths from Covid-19.

As I have stated elsewhere, the United Kingdom should have closed its borders completely (with narrowly defined and strictly enforced exceptions for drivers of food lorries and similar individuals involved in genuinely essential tasks) on or around 31st January 2020.

See, for example,

The United Kingdom's border should have been closed on 31st January 2020

Such a border closure in January 2020 would have entirely (or almost entirely) prevented entry of the SARS-CoV-2 virus into the United Kingdom.

One of the questions which I believe a Public Inquiry (and perhaps a Police investigation) will require to explore is whether the prejudice of Chris Whitty against travel restrictions and border closures played a part in the chain of causation of the tens of thousands of avoidable deaths from Covid-19 in the United Kingdom.

Perhaps you were unaware of Professor Whitty's prejudices on this crucial matter.

I refer you to a video of a talk given by Professor Whitty on 10th October 2018 entitled,  Prof Chris Whitty: How to Control a Pandemic.

The relevant statements of Professor Whitty are to be found beginning at around 48:45 where he refers to "screening at airports and banning travel, which are utterly useless or as close to utterly useless as makes no difference".

In my view one of the questions that should be put to Professor Whitty by a Public Inquiry and by the Police is what evidence he had for his unqualified claim that "banning travel" was "utterly useless".

In addition, he should be asked what part his prejudice played in the failure of the United Kingdom to close its borders (with the narrowly defined exceptions referred to above) in January 2020.

Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance should resign or be sacked

Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer, and Patrick Vallance, Chief Scientific Adviser should resign or be sacked.

Each has played a significant part in the disastrously bad so-called "science" which has caused tens of thousands of avoidable deaths in the United Kingdom from Covid-19.

See, for example, my post of 24th November 2020:

Disastrously bad so-called "science" in the United Kingdom has caused tens of thousands of avoidable Covid-19 deaths in the UK