Until March 10 2023 the UK newspaper The Telegraph reported daily, several times a day about the chat messages between former health minister Hancock and various senior figures, MP's and ministers, including then prime minister Boris Johnson.
Nothing since then. Not a word. That's strange.
The House of Lords and Commons do not deem it necessary to launch a formal enquiry. Handcuffing Hancock and Johnson is completely out of the question.
The dust has fallen down as quickly as it has blown up.
Nonetheless the Telegraph's latest published article counts heavily.
That article does indeed confirm that Simon Case warned Boris Johnson, just days before he put the country completely on lock, of the terrible consequential damage of a lockdown.
Below is a transcript of the article :
" The cabinet secretary warned Boris Johnson that a lockdown is "terrible for other outcomes" - days before the then prime minister shut down the UK.
WhatsApp messages obtained by The Telegraph show how Simon Case, the country's top civil servant insisted that "we need to be very honest with people" and that he warned about the consequences of the lockdown - including the impact on "child health", mental health, education and employment.
The Lockdown Files - a cache of more than 100,000 messages circulated among senior politicians and officials - also show how ministers were concerned that non-Covid would cause excess deaths because the people were not monitored for "minor ailments" that could later become "acute" problems.
The files also reveal a "rapid review" of an alarming rise in "sad deaths of children" in psychiatric inpatient units across England, as well as fears of an "emerging epidemic" of childhood respiratory viruses caused by suppressing infections.
The serious concerns expressed in the WhatsApp messages show that senior ministers are concerned about the collateral damage caused by shutting down the UK to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Boris Johnson announced the third national lockdown in England to save lives and protect the NHS - but The Telegraph's Lockdown Files suggest the government was well aware of the knock-on effect on the future death toll and pressure on hospitals when the decisions were made.
In a message dated 29 October 2020 - two days before Johnson announced the lockdown - Mr Case said, "I think we need to be honest with people. Full lockdowns optimize our society/economy for tackling the Covid R rate - but they are terrible for other outcomes (non-Covid health, jobs, education, social cohesion, mental health, etc.)," he said.
The national closure came into force on 5 November and lasted a month, before England introduced a strict new tier system and then a second lockdown after Christmas.
All restrictions were finally lifted only in July 2021, after the mass vaccination program was well underway.
Mr Case's message was circulated in a WhatsApp group that included Matt Hancock, the then health minister, Professor Sir Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer of England, Sir Patrick Vallance, the Chief Scientific Adviser, and Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson's chief advisor.
Six months later, in May 2021, the NHS launched an official "rapid investigation" into the rising number of deaths in child psychiatric wards, where young people in particular are treated with "severe and/or complex mental disorders".
The Lockdown Files reveal how a senior official sent a message to Mr Hancock informing him of the rapid review "of the sad deaths of children in Tier 4 mental health units". Children treated in Tier 4 mental health units have the most severe mental health problems.
In the message, the official said: "The number of deaths in 2021/22 already stands at 4, where the annual total for 2020/21 was 6." Since the financial year starts in April, the message implies that there were four deaths in less than two months after the pandemic.
In another WhatsApp from three days later, on 17 May 2021, Nadine Dorries, the minister for mental health and suicide prevention, told Mr Hancock: "We have many more CYPs [children and young people] in T4 than before the pandemic."
She said "the pressure on paediatric beds was enormous" because of referrals by mental health professionals.
On the same day, a health official sent Mr Hancock a message on Public Health England "modelling relating to an upcoming epidemic in child respiratory syncytical virus (RSV) given winter suppression of infection due to COVID NPIs [Non pharmaceutical interventions]". The message, sent at a little after 10pm, was described as "urgent ".
NHS England said Friday that it had no record of the rapid review taking place and The Telegraph could find no evidence that an official report had been published.
In September 2020 - after the first lockdown and three months prior to the second lockdown - Lord Bethell, then health minister and also a close friend of Mr Hancock, expressed concern that there would be no public health campaign. "Are you sure you will not run the ads urging people to check minor symptoms?"
Lord Bethell asked the health minister, "It will lead to long-term capacity pressure if minor ailments turn into acute and more expensive problems." Lord Bethell suggested that "our net 'excess deaths' numbers could even slide upwards" if the NHS has increased capacity as winter approaches. It is unclear whether the health campaign has gone ahead or not. The Department of Health and Social Care declined to comment.
Mr Johnson continued with the second lockdown that began on 5 November and lasted until early December.
In a national speech, Mr Johnson said that "no responsible prime minister" at the time could ignore the rising Covid cases and that he had tried to oppose a national lockdown "because we know the cost of these restrictions, the damage they do, the impact on jobs, livelihoods and people's mental health".
The terrible consequences Simon Case warned of have materialized. Many old people have died lonely without any contact with their families. They have literally been locked up in their rooms for weeks. In the youth category, there were many suicides and, due to lack of social contact and compulsory distance learning, a lot of depression as well.
There was a non-negligible rise in the use of alcohol-drug- antidepressant-anxiety drugs and painkillers, more domestic violence, more child abuse and maltreatment, more divorces, more relationship breakdowns and a sharp rise in poverty that had already been mapped out in a report on 25 November 2020.
All governments have swept all this under the carpet.
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