In the Herald today: BRITAIN could be on course to have the highest death rate from coronavirus in Europe. Michael Settle, UK [not Scotland] Political Editor, is not wrong. He might even be understating things. As it stands, counting only hospital death statistics as he has above, the UK is in third place behind Belgium and France: https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/1572472/?utm_source=showcase&utm_campaign=visualisation/1572472 However, if the FT/ONS prediction of 41 000 deaths, once out-of-hospital deaths are added, the UK would soar ahead of them. There is, of course, no good reason to lump Scotland’s death rate in with that of England in a UK figure as we … Continue reading ‘Scottish’ newspaper lumps us in with the worst

From NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, today: Accelerated development of antibody testing for coronavirus: Accurate and reliable testing is a key pillar of the COVID-19 response strategy around the world and a key component of the safe and managed easing of current lockdown restrictions.   NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is collaborating on the development of an accurate and reliable antibody test in the fight against COVID-19. Using a finger prick blood sample, the test will establish if a person has acquired antibodies to the COVID-19 virus. The presence of antibodies as markers of viral immunity is widely used in … Continue reading NHS Glasgow’s antibody testing development and 121 new doctors

Unable to lay a glove on NHS Scotland nor directly on the Scottish Government, BBC Scotland’s feckless Disclosure team wanders the streets and care home offices, morbidly gorging themselves on individual tales of personal tragedies and cliched soundbites that suggest a wider reality they provide no evidence for: ‘THIS is Scotland’s largest city in 2020!’ More accurately of course, it is just one of a thousand stories that night. ‘Tonight 101 people will be fed and clothed. THIS is the pandemic you don’t see! No one would excuse street poverty but 101 out of around 1 million in Greater Glasgow … Continue reading As Panorama lays the blame with evidence firmly at the door of No.10, BBC Scotland’s Disclosure team are hopeless again

In the Herald today: ONE of Scotland’s leading professors of microbiology believes environmental health officers should lead a “a fleet of contact tracers” as he calls on the Scottish Government to “ramp up capacity” for testing coronavirus patients. Professor Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University, will appear remotely before the Scottish Parliament’s health and sport committee today, to give his views on the Covid-19 pandemic….His expertise are [sic] currently being used by the Scottish Police Federation, which has called on Prof Pennington as an advisor on risks and safeguards for police staff during the coronavirus pandemic.  https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18409312.coronavirus-hugh-pennington-environmental-health-officers-train-contact-tracers/ Pennington is a bacteriologist. … Continue reading Long-retired BACTERIOLOGY prof infected with rabid Unionism preferred to FOUR top VIROLOGISTS by Committee Convenor, Lewis MacDonald (Labour)!

In the Herald today: ‘NICOLA Sturgeon has suggested the coronavirus lockdown in Scotland could end later than the one in England and that she might seek powers to close the Border.’ She said nothing of the sort. Imagine he said something of that level of fakery to the Donald? “You’re so disgraceful,” he said. “It’s so disgraceful the way you say that.” At the briefing yesterday she mentioned, smiling grimly, how much twisting was required to make it seem like she had said that. Now, I write as someone who would like to see the border closed. It makes a lot of … Continue reading Tom Gordon on Nicola Sturgeon and borders: He just makes it all up as he pleases

Not for the first time a Herald writer has used ‘soar’ in a headline when the number of new cases falls. There were 197 new cases in the previous 24 hours. In the 24 hours before that there had been 273 new cases so that’s a fall in the number of new cases, isn’t it? And the 13 ‘further’ deaths, is that good, bad, big, small? See this graph: That tell you anything of interest to your readers? Does the Herald need to go back to school? See these previous failures to add up or down: New coronavirus cases fall … Continue reading Coronavirus cases ‘soar’ DOWN in Heraldland

Thanks to nancy689 for alerting me to this. Lisa Summers last night: I’ve got a couple of graphs to show where we are in Scotland. The first one is hospital deaths across the four nations and you can see that while it is still rising it’s not as steeply as it was a couple of weeks ago. I don’t know where this graph comes from but, to be kind, it’s a bit sophisticated for a TV news broadcast and thus misleading. Summers doesn’t explain the left-hand axis with its logarithmic scale and, crucially, leaves it to misrepresent the differences in … Continue reading Reporting Scotland health correspondent uses misleading graph to obscure lower death rate in Scotland

A confidential 2019 Cabinet Office briefing, leaked to the Guardian, warned that the UK must have a robust plan to deal with a pandemic virus and to stockpile PPE: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/24/revealed-uk-ministers-were-warned-last-year-of-risks-of-coronavirus-pandemic It’s not clear when in 2019 the National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) document was presented to the UK Cabinet. Secretary of State for Scotland, David Mundell or Alister Jack (from 24th July), was the only Scottish representative, unless you count Michael Gove, in attendance at Cabinet meetings with, presumably, some sense of responsibility for the well-being of the Scottish people. The Cabinet clearly did not respond, distracted by the ongoing … Continue reading Did David Mundell or Alister Jack fail to warn Scotland of the pandemic risk and the urgent need to stockpile PPE last year?

At today’s briefing Jim Matthews asked: Boris Johnson hailed the effort and sacrifice of the British public. Is the sacrifice all the greater for decisions taken by him and this country’s political leaders?’ I see no mention, no suggestion, of the Scottish public, nor of the Scottish Government, nor of Scotland in all of that. Was he hoping the FM would say something like: ‘Aye! That bastard has killed my best pal’s grannie!’ She wasn’t, no surprise, going to be drawn on that and his question now looks like maybe he thinks Boris and his Eaton team made the sacrifice … Continue reading Did Sky’s Jim Matthews just blame the Johnson regime for mass coronavirus deaths?