By Sam:

What was also ignored by the BBC was the decision by the UK government to allow the importation from abroad without any checks whatever of covid 19 carriers. This paragraph is damning of the UK government’s failure:

“From a statistical point of view, the probability of physically encountering the novel coronavirus or of being exposed to infected individuals in large international airports or in the cabins of airplanes is much higher than in homes, workplaces, schools or other public spaces.

These pandemic simulations show that large international airports and airplane cabins are major sources of risk, and are high on the list of reasons COVID-19 has spread so widely and quickly.

To protect the health of all individuals and their families, and to help the government delay the spread of COVID-19 in Taiwan, people must avoid all international air travel and airports during the pandemic.”

Why would the BBC fail to report this significant effect on Scotland’s experience of covid19? Stupidity? Journalistic incompetence? Malign intentions towards the Scottish government?

Nicola Sturgeon has made it clear that she had wanted for some time to be able to control the flow of people into the country, long before the lockdown had that effect.

The BMJ says this about the effects of air travel on the spread of covid 19 and the unwillingness of the UK government to control it.

“First is the quarantine for people arriving from other countries. Failure to introduce this in January to March was the primary reason for the pandemic on British isles. ”

Please note, the BMJ says that the pandemic in Scotland and elsewhere in British isles was caused by the UK government’s failure to permit the quarantine of those arriving from abroad though that is what Scotland wished to do. The BBC won’t report that, of course

Nor did the BBC say anything at all about the likely significance of Johnson’s decision to raise the lockdown at this time and how this might affect Scotland’s ability to control covid 19. Here is the prediction of Professor Hunter of Oxford university.

“Those defending the government’s Covid-19 response have reasonably pointed out that policy mistakes are always clearer in retrospect. So let me make a prediction. If we take the prime minister’s advice and return to work in large numbers now – and without the ability to test, trace and isolate – then virus spread will increase, there will be super-spreader events and local or regional lockdowns will have to be reconsidered. The prime minister implied in his speech that relapse will somehow be our fault – we were not sufficiently “alert”. The responsibility will lie, however, with a government that has encouraged a premature return to work before the epidemiologic conditions and interventions were in place to make it safe to do so.”

There is a greater likelihood now that England’s path will diverge further from that of the other UK nations. The UK government has decided to encourage people to work with an R number that may be just under 1.The lockdown in Wuhan was not lifted until the R number was below 0.3.
Schools in England are to re-open based on modelling that has not been tested and when a new and dangerous syndrome among some children has emerged and is little understood. We shall see how much or little BBC Scotland reports of this