Online emergency meeting of British scientists and politicians tomorrow

[JanFebAnyMonth]

www.johnsnowmemo.com/summitdeclaration.html?fbclid=IwAR1ip9v81nlZUTBIN46cKEOhvqmr3n2ISfEGYsUI8WKkb7ZEMnoM6jUEwPQ

JOHN SNOW MEMORANDUM
EMERGENCY SUMMIT AGAINST MASS INFECTION
THURSDAY 8th JULY, 10:00 am

We are holding an emergency summit to outline our concerns about the UK government’s current strategy to abandon most restrictions in England on the 19th July in the midst of a surging pandemic. We have outlined our concerns in a letter to The Lancet (embargoed until 23.30hrs UK time on Wednesday 7 July 2021), now signed by more than 120 of the world's leading scientists. At the summit we will outline our grave concerns about the UK government’s dangerous and reckless strategy, and the urgent steps we need to take to protect the public.

PROGRAMME

Statement from Scientists and Medical Doctors
Professor Trish Greenhalgh, Professor of Primary Care Health Sciences, Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford
Dr. Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet
Professor Kailash Chand, Honorary Vice President of the British Medical Association and former deputy chair of the BMA
Dr. Deepti Gurdasani, Clinical Epidemiologist and Senior Lecturer in Machine Learning, Queen Mary University of London

Q&A session
Panel will include all speakers and:
Dr. Rachel Clarke, NHS palliative care doctor and author
Sir David King, former Chief Scientific adviser and chair of Independent SAGE
Professor Susan Michie, Professor of Health Psychology, University College London and member of Independent SAGE
Caroline Lucas, MP, Former Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales
Richard Burgon, MP, Labour MP for Leeds East
Debbie Abrahams, MP, Labour MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth
Philippa Whitford, MP, Scottish National Party MP for Central Ayrshire
Barbara Keeley, MP, Labour MP for Worsley and Eccles South

This event will be livestreamed at: and on Twitter at @allthecitizens.

We will be taking questions from the press and public. Please contact us at [email protected] if you'd like to ask a question.

Please join us at 10am tomorrow

[quote TheReluctantPhoenix]@Bizawit,

How do you feel that the scientific advisers have exceeded their remit.

They advise, they do not decide. And I am sure that their advice to government contains all the usual scientific caveats and probability bands.[/quote]
It doesn’t contain all the usual scientific caveats though. The types of advice included in the sage reports that have been published, the stuff I hear them say on the radio all the time, it steps into areas of policy wayyy beyond what can be meaningfully answered by their disciplinary perspective/ mathematical modelling alone , and there is none of the humility or objectivity that you would wish to see from a really credible scientist. A lot of them have very clear political agendas that they have been pushing through the guise of “following the science”.

Why is everyone so angry about them having the ability to give their opinion. Seriously!!!! What has this country become

@WouldBeGood

I’m sick of living in this country with the fucking doom and terror about a virus with a huge survival rate and a very effective vaccine.

This country is the only one in the world suffering these horrid removals of freedoms?

It is the nature of life that we have to make decisions based on incomplete and unreliable data - no such thing as a perfect, complete noise-free data source.

And while it is not compulsory to engage in political discourse in a democracy, failure to do so makes it much more likely that decisions that adversely affect you happen if you don't have that information.
Don't underestimate the damage that tabloid journalism has done to discourse in this country - it is almost a fail if they cannot split people up into 'them and us'.

@SonnetForSpring

Why is everyone so angry about them having the ability to give their opinion. Seriously!!!! What has this country become

Before hearing a word of what they have to say

At least have a cursory glance when their manuscript is released (at half 11) which will outline their recommendations before typing angry posts on SM

@jumpybounce most of the US and Europe are mostly back to normal.

And not testing healthy people madly. Proper nuts here.

People should be happy vaccines work and so we’re getting freed.

Well, you are, I’m in Scotland 🙄

Don’t get the weeping and hand wringing.

If you’re worried, stay home.

If an expert engineer knows that the council drilling into one leg of a motorway bridge in order to construct a new playground will very likely cause the whole structure to collapse potentially killing scores of people, does she not have a duty to shout about it?
(Imperfect metaphor)

@WouldBeGood

People should be happy vaccines work and so we’re getting freed.

Well, you are, I’m in Scotland 🙄

Don’t get the weeping and hand wringing.

If you’re worried, stay home.

The virus is getting freed, not us.

@PrincessNutNuts really?

Get a grip

Well according to the Guardian, the big concern of these scientists is long Covid. Sorry- but that's not what all these restrictions on our lives were about supposedly - it was about protecting the NHS from being overwhelmed. There is now a never ending list of reasons why must live under restrictions and if these people get their way now, it will go on for years. We have injected almost 80 million Covid vaccines and everyone most at risk has been offered both. What are we waiting for now
?

And re long Covid - watch that get dismissed by the Govt and their scientific advisors when the post-pandemic disability benefit claims roll in. It will be found to by "psychosomatic" and hardly anyone will be entitled to disability benefits for it. Guaranteed.

@Bizawit

You are scientists. Not policy makers. You are not elected. Stick to your lane.

In order for policy makers to make informed decisions on anything in which their skills or knowledge are lacking, they sometimes need to consult experts in that field. Nothing wrong with that. Managing directors do it all the time. So do politicians.

The content of the webinar is in the BMJ letter but I can’t find it.

Thank you scientists!
These are leading, experienced and well-respected scientists, they know a heck of a lot more about public health, epidemiology and pandemics than Boris does, or than most of us do. So I'm very keen to hear what they have to say. We are bloody lucky to have them.

@SonnetForSpring

Why is everyone so angry about them having the ability to give their opinion. Seriously!!!! What has this country become

I think there are some rather thick people on this thread, who for some reason don’t like scientists/science. They’ll be burning books soon

Thanks :)

@ahoyshipmates - "In order for policy makers to make informed decisions on anything in which their skills or knowledge are lacking, they sometimes need to consult experts in that field"

These so-called 'experts', who are all making absolute fortunes while thousands of businesses go to the wall, homes are being repossessed, and children as young as 12 are killing themselves; will go on TV talking about so-called covid cases and interchange the word infection. Yet not ONE of them appears able to comprehend the most basic of scientific principles, that a primary school child could understand:

PCR testing "Does not provide evidence on the presence of infective virus." from the document 'Monitoring the presence and infection risk of SARS-CoV-2 in the environment: approaches, limitations and interpretation' published by SAGE

"RT-PCR detects presence of viral genetic material in a sample but is not able to distinguish whether infectious virus is present." from the document ''Understanding cycle threshold (Ct) in SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR A guide for health protection teams' published by the UK Government.

Urgh

Thank you to the British scientists and politicians that are making a stand. Nonsensical, dangerous approach must be stopped.

The scientists are the experts. The MPs aren’t and often have a lot of vested interests. I really hope the scientists will be listened to. Remember we have a PM who wanted to let the bodies “pile high”.

Do people think that the government haven't listened to scientists before making the decision. There is no scientific consensus. This is just on group of like-minded scientists. Lots disagree and ultimately, they are only giving opinions from a purely Covid basis. Not taking into account wider harms of restrictions.

I have no issue with it but it’s a very small group of MPs listening to some scientists, a couple who are quite well known for wanting to be more cautious than others