The UK government response to Covid-19 has ignored crucial scientific and statistical data. As another lockdown of our predominantly healthy population looms, I argue that it is time to broaden the spectrum of acceptable opinion and consider alternative science and strategies being advanced by stellar intellectuals, including Carl Heneghan, Jonathan Sumption, Stanford University’s Niall Ferguson, Simon Jenkins, Peter Hitchens and Ivor Cummins.

 References and Further Reading

• Ivor Cummins: Viral Issue Crucial Update Sept 8th: the Science, Logic and Data. Explained! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UvFhIFzaac
•  Revealed: Average age of Covid-19 victims is OLDER than life expectancy in Scotland as stark figures show ‘it is predominantly a disease that strikes the elderly’ 21 July 2020 Conor Boyd Daily Mail Online https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8470843/The-average-Covid-19-victim-OLDER-age-people-usually-die-Scotland.html
• Violence, hunger: The ‘overwhelming’ impact of school closures by Virginia Pietromarchi 17 Sept 2020  https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/violence-hunger-overwhelming-impact-school-closures-200917073508071.html
•  Munk Dialogues – Niall Ferguson 22 July 2020  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7yxfanc8ns
• Britain needs to live with coronavirus, not in fear of it. Simon Jenkins. The Guardian 21 September 2020 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/21/coronavirus-britain-vallance-whitty-fear-data-alarm
• Deaths from Covid 19 941,345 “COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)”. ArcGIS. Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved 17 September 2020. https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
•  Lockdown and masks have been shown to have very little impact https://swprs.org/facts-about-covid19-archive/
• Effectiveness of Surgical and Cotton Masks in Blocking SARS–CoV-2: A Controlled Comparison in 4 Patients. Annals of Medicine April 2020 https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-1342
• The WHO estimates that at least 2.8 million people die each year as a result of being overweight or obese. https://www.who.int/features/factfiles/obesity/en/
• Smoking-related diseases result in 7.1 million deaths annually. https://tobaccoatlas.org/topic/deaths/
•  Telegraph Do face masks work? Here’s what the science says 31 July 2020 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/28/do-face-masks-work-coronavirus-science/
• Coronavirus lockdown may have led to increased child suicides, new report warns https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-uk-child-suicide-mental-health-nhs-a9617671.html
• 16 Possible Factors for Sweden’s High COVID Death Rate among the Nordics
• GMU Working Paper in Economics No. 20-27 Daniel B. Klein [George Mason University – Department of Economics; George Mason University – Mercatus Center];  Joakim Book [American Institute for Economic Research]; Christian Bjørnskov[Aarhus University – Department of Economics and Business; Research Institute of Industrial Eco       nomics (IFN); Center for Political Studies; Institute for Corruption Studies]   Date Written: August 14, 2020  https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3674138

• Why UK coronavirus deaths are falling even as cases are rising. Financial Times.  Martin Stabe, Clive Cookson and Chelsea Bruce-Lockhart in London AUGUST 25 2020 https://www.ft.com/content/c011e214-fb95-4a64-b23c-2bd87ebb29d7

• Are you infectious if you have a positive PCR test result for COVID-19? Tom Jefferson, Carl Heneghan, Elizabeth Spencer, Jon Brassey https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/infectious-positive-pcr-test-result-covid-19/
• 200 Belgian medical doctors have written a document calling out this corona hysteria https://www.dropbox.com/s/kt3cgrp63w85irr/200%20Belgian%20Doctors%20against%20Corona%20Hysteria.pdf?dl=0
• Sky News on 28^th August, https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-childrens-chances-of-dying-from-covid-19-are-tiny-study-suggests-12057738
• Coronavirus: Children’s chances of dying from COVID-19 are ‘tiny’, study suggests  Lies, Damned Lies and Health Statistics – the Deadly Danger of False Positives 20 September 2020 by Dr Michael Yeadon, former CSO and VP, Allergy and Respiratory Research Head with Pfizer Global R&D and co-Founder of Ziarco Pharma Ltd. https://lockdownsceptics.org/lies-damned-lies-and-health-statistics-the-deadly-danger-of-false-positives/ 

Charlotte Pickering’s critically acclaimed Messiah of the Slums novel went to second edition in 2017 with a Foreword by Booker Prize Chair and UK Member of Parliament, Gerald Kaufman. Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, and now Master of Magdalen College Cambridge, wrote an Afterword to this edition. As Catherine Harrison, she works as a music teacher, director, arranger and producer. She lives in Liverpool with her children and various pianos.