"There is no way dropping self-isolation can be described as sensible public health policy,"

UK PM Johnson speeds up plan to end COVID self-isolation rule

LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - People in England with COVID-19 will from late February no longer be legally required to self-isolate to stem the spread of COVID-19, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday, proposing to speed up existing plans to live with the virus.

Johnson ended almost all COVID-19 restrictions in England last July, and last month lifted "Plan B" measures that had been temporarily imposed to slow the spread of the more recent Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

He has said he wishes to go further as part of the shift towards learning to live with COVID, and England is set to become the first major economy to replace legal requirements for people to self-isolate with guidance. read more

"It is my intention to return on the first day after the half-term recess to present our strategy for living with COVID," Johnson told lawmakers. Parliament returns on Feb. 21.

"There is no way dropping self-isolation can be described as sensible public health policy," said Aris Katzourakis, evolutionary virologist at the University of Oxford.

After 2 years Johnson will give up trying to end the coronavirus pandemic by ignoring it and imagining it has gone away.

Currently there are 2 and a quarter million active cases in the UK, 180,000 death certificates stating death by covid, 590 people died in the last 2 days. 20 million have been infected in the UK in the last 2 years.

Johnson says live with the virus, when people are still dying from the virus. A million plus are suffering from long covid as well, unable to go for walks without being severely short of breath. Coronavirus attacks the lungs and other organs in the body, it leads to loss of work, loss of wages and loss of education, absenteeism. It is highly contagious, multi variants hence the need for test and isolation to stop the spread of the disease.

In the last 2 years many of the 180,000 died alone face down in a coma on a ventilator, their loved ones unable to say goodbye.

For 2 years Johnson has mismanaged a failed and flawed public health strategy, wasted £billions. In fact the only beneficiaries were Tory chums who were awarded privatised NHS contracts, and most of those contracts failed to deliver. For 2 Years Boris Britain has been Plague Island one of the worse statistics in the world, after countries with higher populations.

Johnson ignored the findings of 2 rehearsal exercises for a future Pandemic in 2016, Alice and Cygnus.

He failed to turn up at the first 5 Cobra meetings when the Virus hit Feb 2020. In March 2020 he said he would beat the virus in 12 weeks.

We then had a series of indecisions, failure to follow the advice from the scientists, new variants imported by air travel, half hearted tardy restrictions, mounting death tolls in 3 waves, relaxed restrictions, Freedumb Day, and now Johnson wants to scrap all restrictions safeguarding the public from the 4th major killer in Britain.

Misconduct in public office is an offence at common law triable only on indictment. It carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

It is an offence confined to those who are public office holders and is committed when the office holder acts (or fails to act) in a way that constitutes a breach of the duties of that office.

The offence is committed when:

• a public officer acting as such;

• wilfully neglects to perform his duty and/or wilfully misconducts himself;

• to such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public's trust in the office holder;

•without reasonable excuse or justification.

In 20 months of a Coronavirus Pandemic Johnson was slow to act, never caught up, United Kingdom was ill prepared, ill equipped and had no testing capability, despite the contrary told to the House of Commons on 23rdJanuary2020by Health Sec Matt Hancock (Hansard) .

During those 20 months there has been the court hearings of the Good Law Project regarding failed service delivery of lucrative contracts handed out to VIP chums for PPE. There has been indecision, delay , 11th hour U turns for various local and national lockdowns, which proved too little too late, resulting in the death to date of more than 180,000 people, 20 million cases. The worse statistics in Europe, the 7th worse in the world of 200 nations. Therefore there have been many instances of acts or failure to act of wilful misconduct during a failed and flawed public health strategy. Many could be claimed without foresight, even though there were reports and the Cygnus exercise. However when mistakes are repeated in subsequent waves hindsight is ignored too. Wilful requires mens rea, guilty intent, actions or inactions taken regardless of the consequences.

Wilfully neglects to perform his duty

BUT , I submit, the greatest wilful misconduct neglect of his duty was the conduct of abdication of responsibility on July 19th despite the warnings of 122 scientists. Surely this was Freedumb day, and having no restrictions at all, unlike other countries facing the same global pandemic, more than 22,000 have died since in UK. Daily new cases are higher, much higher in 2022 than hitherto. It is the first duty and responsibility of government in a democratic society to protect and safeguard the lives of its citizens.

To such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public's trust in the office holder. Some scientists challenged the relaxation as an unprecedented public-health experiment that could result in large numbers of hospitalizations and deaths, and increase the chances of vaccine-resistant variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerging.

“There is absolutely no justification for relaxing restrictions now,” said Peter English, former chair of the British Medical Association’s Public Health Medicine Committee. “If anything, they should be tightened, at least until the increase in case rates has reversed.” But Johnson publicly announced that Britain had to live with the virus. Hitherto he had also been quoted by Dominic Cummings as shouting in a rage privately “let the bodies pile high”. Surely Prime Minister Johnson wilfully neglected to perform his duty to protect his citizens from coronavirus, before July 19th, but in scrapping all restrictions, most certainly, after, the 19th July. And this was without reasonable excuse or justification And, he has abused the trust of the families of the bereaved, the medical and scientific experts, those trades that were in and out of lockdowns, and those NHS staff trying to save lives during 20 months of chaos and confusion. In addition, prior to Freedumb day. Johnson let the Indian Variant into the country to become the main variant. 20,000 Indian citizens flew into the UK whilst he dithered for days in April 2020. Hitherto the Kent variant had become the world’s dominant strain, now Johnson was importing then exporting an even more deadly strain. A variant first discovered in India and closely related to the variant of concern, called B.1.617.1, s was designated under investigation on 1st April, weeks before travel from India was restricted. India was added to the red list on 23 April, but neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh had been on it since 9 April, with fewer cases than India.

Inaction is an act in itself. This critical delay and lack of decisiveness allowed the variant into Britain from 4,000 miles away via Air India. The inaction was also an act of neglect of duty , so abusing the trust of people and meeting criticism from the political opposition parties and the press.

Act or failure to act, Wilfully neglected to perform his duty of care, to such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public's trust in the office holder without reasonable excuse or justification.

Throughout his life and political career, Boris Johnson has believed the rules don't apply to him. Boris Johnson's two years as PM is a casual relationship with the truth and a disdain for the rules. Incompetence is misconduct. An incompetent Prime Minister more intent on making political decisions than saving lives is a Crime Minister.