In the Herald, yesterday: Tory leader Jackson Carlaw said the First Minister had to explain why the falling rate of infection, or R number, had apparently “stalled” in Scotland. He asked whether it was related to the “appalling rate of infection and loss of life in Scotland’s care homes”, the site of most recent fatalities. The R number is of course nothing to do with deaths though had it, Scotland’s far lower death rate than the UK average, by any measure, might have made his questioning of the First Minister more interesting. As for the infection rate, regardless of the mysteries of … Continue reading Carlaw can’t grasp coronavirus statistics as FT/Imperial estimate London’s infection rate 27 times greater than in Scotland

In the Herald yesterday we read: In a letter to Ms Sturgeon, Mr Carlaw demanded the First Minister produce daily evidence to justify her “slower approach” and convince the public it was the right one. On the same day, YouGov did a snap survey revealing that 60% of Scots oppose the UK Government’s plan to encourage people, who can’t work from home, to go into work and 72% support the Scottish Government’s view that only: “Stay home, Protect the NHS, Save lives” makes it clear what I am supposed to do. https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/h6nwhcsrrv/GMBResults_200511.pdf Readers may also remember the poll at the … Continue reading Carlaw gets it all wrong as poll shows Scots reject Tory plan to risk working-class workers’ lives

From Brian McGowan: A six year old has been bringing sunshine to a Glasgow hospital after painting rainbows and selling them to her local neighbours. Little Hallé Glass raised £1,830 from her paintings and has donated the money to support patients at Lightburn Hospital. Hallé and her nine year old brother Cooper presented a cheque to the staff at Lightburn as a thank you for caring for a relative at the hospital. Hallé’s mum Samantha said: “Hallé is six years old and decided she had a strategy up her sleeve. http://www.nhsggc.net But, in BBC Glasgow and Westworld this is you: Continue reading A wee Glasgow girl moves us more than VE Day but BBC Scotland have only murder on their minds

19 days ago, the FT based on extrapolated ONS figures, estimated the true total of coronavirus deaths in the UK to be ‘as many as 41 000. At that time the UK Government figure was 17 337 but did not include deaths outside of hospitals. On the 6th May SKWAKBOX applied the same reasoning to the current figure of 32 065 to estimate a true figure of more than 60 000. https://skwawkbox.org/2020/05/06/video-3-months-ago-johnson-mocked-public-c19-panic-today-his-delayed-lock-down-and-mad-decisions-have-seen-uk-lose-60000-lives-or-more/ The total deaths in Scotland including those outside of hospital is 1862. https://www.travellingtabby.com/scotland-coronavirus-tracker/ The UK population is 12.6 times greater than that of Scotland so, pro rata, the … Continue reading UK coronavirus deaths nearly THREE times higher than in Scotland

According to GlobalData Epidemiologist Bahram Hassanpourfard, the global recovery rate is 32%. Hassanpourfard drew attention to the ‘UK’ rate of only 0.46% but I suspect that is based on inadequate data coming from the ONS. As far as I can see, the ONS is not recording recovery rates at all. Why? https://www.citymetric.com/fabric/epidemiologist-update-uk-reports-notably-low-recovery-rate-5077 The Scottish recovery rate is known with 9 075 recovering from 13 486 cases and 1 857 deaths giving a rate of 67.3%. https://www.travellingtabby.com/scotland-coronavirus-tracker/ Given that Scotland’s population has the lowest life expectancy in the UK and one of the lowest in Europe, it seems reasonable to give … Continue reading Credit to NHS, Scotland’s coronavirus recovery rate is TWICE global average

Local Conservative Party sub-branch secretaries, from Dumfries to Buchan, have alerted local police after unexplained absences of leading figures, Jackson Carlaw, Alister Jack, Ruth Davidson and David Mundell. BBC Scotland’s Disclosure team were initially called in to look for the four, after rumours they had been kidnapped by angry SNP supporters witnessing them breaking the lock-down rules. However, the team got lost in the Galloway Hills trying to follow a man fitting the description of Alister Jack. TuSC’s cub-reporter, Chik (14) has managed to find the suspect and he is reportedly not chuffed at the suggestion he looks like Jack. … Continue reading BBC Scotland Disclosure team in failed search for lost Tories

From news.gov.scot today: New research has highlighted that people in Scotland are more likely to go to their GP practice or to hospital with an immediate medical concern not related to coronavirus (COVID-19) than they were two weeks earlier. The research, commissioned to support the recently launched NHS is Open campaign, shows just over half of those surveyed (51 per cent) stated they wouldn’t avoid going to their GP practice or a hospital at the moment, compared to 41 per cent a fortnight before – a shift that has been welcomed by the GP fronting the campaign, Dr Carey Lunan, … Continue reading 25% increase in Scots with non-coronavirus conditions responding to encouragement to attend NHS

In the new Boris guidelines yesterday: You can sit in the sun in your local park, you can drive to other destinations, you can even play sports but only with members of your own household. Note the omission? ‘In England?’ And ‘sports?’ Is this the USA? It’ll be ‘warm beers’ next. Like Boris, there are thousands, maybe millions, in England, who have no idea that Scotland or Wales are in any way not in their country or in any way not theirs to use as they please. We’ve already seen the arrests of a few misguided souls travelling north to … Continue reading ‘You can drive to OTHER destinations!’ Close the border Scotland!

You’ll see that Scotland’s 2nd worst health correspondent has found something she can balloon into a looming story of sorts. At risk of doing her an injustice, not much though, here are some facts, suggesting Arbroath will be OK, that I feel sure she might be missing out to make sure you get her message: Scotland has the highest number of GPs per head of population in the UK, research commissioned by the BBC shows. Analysis by the Nuffield Trust think tank shows there are 76 GPs per 100,000 people, compared to a national UK average of 60. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-48191210 In … Continue reading 6 500 Arbroath patients expected to benefit from Scotland’s extra GPs

Angus MacNeil MP has called for police to patrol the main routes into Scotland after it became clear that England will diverge from the Scottish lockdown policy. He said today: If England opens up too soon they are heading for another downturn because England, like Scotland, has no idea about the asymptomatic in their midst. If people move and mix more the virus is going to spread. On the Irish border the guards are there to make sure people are not moving and it may be the case that we have to do the same at the Scottish border. Policing … Continue reading Coronavirus tips the balance in the argument for a real border with England