THIS will be my last opinion piece on the Covid-19 virus (C19), and published possibly a day before the mandatory wearing of ‘face coverings’ in shops but not in pubs or the bars in the House of Commons.

I am not sure where ‘la-la land’ is but it seems to exist.

Just heard that Her Majesty’s Government has purchased 100 million doses of a vaccine produced as a sideline by Oxford Uni. And 90 million doses from three ‘pharmaceutical’ companies. The money for this has come from the Sunak Indicae tree I mentioned in ‘Money Tree’ two pieces ago.

But what of the ‘science’ regarding the Oxford vaccine? The zealots producing the magic needed humans with active infection, because monkeys won’t do.

So young people were infected supposedly with anti-viral agents at hand in case they became too ill. After this challenge they were injected with the vaccine intramuscularly.

I have to question this report; it is almost unbelievable even in these times. Anyway, about 1,000 volunteers have had the vaccine and success noted by the antibody levels in the subjects. One can presume tests showed, using antibody titres, than unlike many, they had not been exposed to C19 over the last eightmonths.

This was the hype on BBC ‘News’ last night at 10pm. Fergus Walsh then went on to say that there had been no peer review and the numbers were small. He also reiterated that vaccine development usually takes months and its testing in particular.

There were many firms searching for this potential bonanza which depends of course on National Health authorities being certain that vaccines are the bees knees.

So the National Institute for Health Research is setting up seven studies and is canvassing for volunteers. Quote : ‘A key ingredient in NIHR’s success has been working with partners from across the public sector, charities and industry. ‘We do this both to achieve our aims and to improve the UK research ecosystem, thus playing our part in supporting the UK’s world-leading life sciences sector.’ Note the misuse of ecosystem. One of the seven studies is on children aged five to 12 years, even though only a few dozen children at the most have died in this pandemic in the UK, and then because of special vulnerability.

But hang on! Children. They cannot give consent, and does the law allow parents to give supposed informed consent for an invasive procedure on their children?

It is forbidden in law. Informed consent requires proper information and the consent of a thinking and logical subject.

Think back to those ‘flu ‘jabs’ you might have had. Lined up in the surgery after you have been encouraged to do so by those banners outside and a good deal of propaganda via the broadcast media, you bare your upper arm.

Any information regarding side effects? Are you given the printed advice contained with each ampoule? Are you told, and I think it was in the 2015 winter, that the efficacy was minus three per cent!

About 10 years ago all staff in the NHS hospitals were told to be immunised against a current strain of influenza virus, even though the choice is a best guess given the constant mutation of Strain A and B.

About half refused. Pressure was brought to bear.

A surgeon whom I had helped train had his jab and quickly ended with a disease of his nervous system which left him with permanent deficits.

I did not hear and examine him but it could have been a condition called ‘neuralgic amyotrophy’.

I had seen it a few times after vaccines and recall a market gardener from Daccombe whose shoulder girdle was affected. He had received tetanus toxoid. The reader will see that pressure to produce vaccines against C19 is very great, along with a zeal for mass vaccination. Otherwise, why spend millions of disappearing taxes on vaccines on spec, and have in store 190 million doses?

The la-la land is ever enlarging. I wrote of £12 million being spent on ‘apps’ for contact tracing. This is small beer in Westminster.

I was sent a cutting from the Sunday Times from a fellow gardener who thinks like me as she is weeding out the ground elder. It is entitled ‘Dominic Cumming’s £400 million moonshot into space’.

A ‘rapper’ I have never heard of Will.i.am, Branson and an Enders from Airbus had a meeting five years ago to do with setting up a communications satellite system.

OneWeb was launched but it recently became a damp squib via a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

However, the report says that you the reader, via your VAT, National Insurance and income tax have come to the rescue with $500 million.

As people make or buy masks in order to shop to eat from this good Friday, there is an ever greater feeling of disconnection with reality.

As I said elsewhere, I wore a mask for a purpose. That was to prevent droplets from my lips reaching the wound when speaking to assistant, anaesthetist or ‘scrub’ nurse, and hence lessening the risk, with many other measures, of infection of the operative site.

Although ‘death WITH covid’ has been the most lax diagnosis in order to boost the figures and the fear, this paper reported no covid-related deaths during the week June 27 to July 3 in Devon, but were registered up until July11, by the Office of National Statistics.

I can say that the numbers ‘secreting’ this virus in the shops around Devon might be on the fingers of one well washed hand. Think on that as you queue, with a face covering, in a sunny street.

I have read two emails from people on the left who have called this the Black Death.

That was the lungs being infected by inspiration of bacillus anthracis anthrax. A stupid analogy.

And by the way, Public Health England owns a 100 per cent share in Porton Down Biopharm Ltd.

One of its major products is an anthrax vaccine for our armed forces against a germ which is internationally banned as a weapon!

This article was first published in the Mid Devon Advertiser, Thursday 23rd July 2020.